The girls ran out to meet the green with hugs for C'bay and pettings for Mirrth, causing the dragon to positively glow with pleasure.
Shelt took his cup and topped it off, offering it to C'bay as the young man left his green to her admirers.
"Ah, many thanks, harper." C'bay said and drained the cup as he pulled a letter tube free from his belt pouch.
"Welcome and welmet." Gwedli greeted him with a smile, but she, like Shelt, had noticed Mirrth was off color.
"Thank you, a thousand times," C'bay replied, genuinely grateful and handed the thick packet to Gwedli. "Char sends her love, and of course Vaeth says he looks forward to me meeting the welcoming committee." The adults laughed at the dragonet's comment casting bemused glances at the girls who Mirrth very tolerantly let crawl all over her. The green must have said something, because all the girls giggled suddenly.
Gwedli opened the packet and scanned the contents as Reelon offered the rider some food. C'bay begged off, his smile slipping a little.
"Sorry, it'll be a little bit before I'm hungry. Harper...?" He turned to Shelt.
"Shelt." Shelt shook his hand, then grinned. "I know your lovely lady's name, but you are...?"
"Ach, where are my manners? C'bay, this is Harper Shelt, Shelt, this is C'bay of Mirrth." Gwedli introduced them. "C'bay's been kind enough to ferry letters between us and Charr- TIBITHA! Get your head out of there this instant!" The adults turned to see Tibitha with her head inside Mirrth's open maw, peering down her throat.
"But Ma~! I wanted to see if I could see her stomaches." Tibitha pouted, pulling her head back as Mirrth donned a guilty expression.
"Mirrth would never hurt her." C'bay said quickly. Gwedli flashed him the briefest of glances.
"Tisn't Mirrth I worry about, it's what Tibitha might do, accidently." She put the letter, really a series of vignettes, down. "How is she really, C'bay? Is she happy?"
C'bay blinked, then smiled, a truly heartfelt smile at her. "She's happy, Gwedli. She's made a Flight of friends, the women of the Lower Caverns are pleased to have a helper as polite as Char, and she and Vaeth are unquestionably the most attentive students. If she's not happy, then I don't know what happy is."
Vaeth says the only time she isn't happy is when she's worried that she left the holding short handed. Mirrth added, the softest whisper in the minds of the adults.
"Short handed? Nonsense!" Reelon clapped Shelt on the shoulder. "The harper almost makes up for the loss."
"Hey! I resemble that remark!" Shelt yelped as Reelon grinned and Gwedli chuckled. As the older men bantered Gwedli caught C'bay's gaze and asked softly "and you greenrider? Are you well?"
C'bay sighed and pulled his chair over next to her. "I'm not hiding it well am I?"
Gwedli pat him hand.
"Not to a trained healer. What troubles you?"
"We went to High Veiw this morning, with the Weyrhealer. It was bad. Cholera got into the well, and everyone except the wherhandler was stricken." C'bay recounted softly.
"How many people is that?"
"Originally?" C'bay grimaced. "Just over fifty. There were fourteen left alive when we arrived." He didn't add that he had held the wherhandler, a man his grandfather's age as he wept openly upon seeing them. Gwedli squeezed his hand, perhaps understanding what was not said. "T-the watchwher had been carrying the corpses to the lime quarry and kicking lime over them, " he continued with difficulty. "While the wherhandler tended to the rest. When Zandur asked why he hadn't flown the signal pendent, h-he-" C'bay choked and stopped, unable to finish.
The Holder had burned it, after learning his daughter was pregnant by a rider. Mirrth murmured softly in Gwedli's mind. Please help my rider, Healer. He is hurting.
"C'bay," Gwedli pulled the young man into a maternal hug. "It's not your fault. You did all you could."
"I-I wish there was some way I could go back in time and fix it." He whispered, almost sobbing.
"That's our burden though, isn't it?" She said, patting his head. "Healers and dragonriders, we both live to protect, taking on much more responsibility than is any other's burden. But you know what? Even what we can't prevent, we can learn from, and in the end, whether you ride a beautiful green dragon or you wear a tailored green tunic, you can save others with that hard fought knowledge. " She offered him a cloth napkin, and he blew his nose. Reelon and Shelt , he noted peripherally, had wandered over to Mirrth, who was holding out her foreclaw for the girls to look at.
"H-have you ever lost a patient?" He sniffed. Gwedli nodded solemnly.
"I only had to walk the tables for my Journymanship, when the call for volunteers went out. A weavery had caught fire, and a number of Hallfolk suffered burns. One girl died in my arms as I was giving her water." She whispered softly, "we lost three more when infection set into the burns." She shook her head. "One rider, a courageous youth with more guts than brains kept running back into the burning building, searching for survivors. We ended up tending his green for burns when he passed out from smoke inhalation and she went in to get him." Gwedli fixed him with a knowing look. "Sometimes, Dragonrider, no matter what we do, it is simply not enough."
C'bay nodded, the tightness in his chest easing a little.
"They really are endlessly curious." Gwedli remarked, and C'bay turned to see both Flit and Mirrth with one wing extended, as Reelon was explaining some function of its structure to his audience. C'bay chuckled wetly. "No less than I, the night I Impressed. I staid up late counting her toes and neck ridges." He smiled fondly at his green. Gwedli smiled at him.
"I did the same with all my children. Fingers and toes, all of them." Her gaze lingered on her family for a moment more. "Does Zandur need extra hands?" She asked.
C'bay shook his head. "No, he's got a Wing of women from the Lower Canverns, and the Masterhealer sent two additional healers. When I left they were talking about brining up a smith to build an aqueduct down from the spring the wherhandler was using."
"How did the wherhandler avoid catching cholera?"
"He said his watchwher wouldn't let him touch the well water. He tried to warn the Holder, but..." C'bay shrugged helplessly. Gwedli shook her head.
"If I have learned nothing else as a herdman's mate, it's not to drink water the animals won't. REELON! You're as bad as your daughter!" She chided him, as he peered inside Mirrth's mouth.
"It's okay, we're just counting her teeth." he replied cheerfully, and returned to counting as the girls crowded around.
"You'd think a grown man would have more common sense." Gwedli grumbled with an exasperated sigh.
"Maybe he should have been a Weyrherder." C'bay suggested, sipping a little more water.
"And leave his precious genetic studies? Hardly." Gwedli snorted, then turned, hearing the baby fuss until Gwedli lifted him up and gently rocked him. "I wish I could show Charrie her new brother." She sighed wistfully.
I could, if you'd like. Mirrth offered, the girls rubbing her eyeridge as Reelon described her three eyelids. Vaeth would like to see everyone actually.
Gwedli blushed faintly. "Yes, please." She rose and brought the one month old over to the green who peered down at him with slowly whirling eyes.
Vaeth says he doesn't look anything like a prune. Mirrth announced to the group, causing Gwedli and Reelon rock with laughter.
"No fair not sharing the joke." Shelt pouted.
"When we were discussing names the girls suggested 'Prune', because of how wrinkly Liree was when he was born." Reelon explained, grinning.
"Did you explain to them that they were all wrinkly when first born?" Shelt asked, shooting the girls a look of mock outrage. They giggled.
"Tiblet didn't." Druzi objected. "She was as red as a tom-fruit."
"And you two were peas in a pod." Gwedli told the twins.
"So you didn't birth children, but a garden?" Shelt asked, and the girls laughed.
Healer, Vaeth and Char both thank you. Mirrth reported to Gwedli. As do I. C'bay is still feeling sad, but he no longer blames himself.
It will take time, gracious Mirrth. But he will smile for you again.
Aireseneca, I apologize if Vaeth's role seems rather small at the point, and his bond weak. It was hinted in the original Dragonflight, but never expounded upon, that the mindbond is weak in the early days of a dragonpair, so I haven't done much with their bond. (Yet.) As for saying he sleeps for inordinate periods of time, I feel that is a little unfair. I took care of my niece when she was first born (my sister was bedridden for the first two months after birth due to difficulties from childbirth) and all that sweetpea did was nurse, poo and sleep. Forgive me if you think I have the dragonets sleeping too long, but they are actually awake and listening in on the Weyrling lessons. In fact, except for directly after eating their midday meals and getting oiled, the dragonets are tagging along with their riders-to-be, a fact I am sure makes some chores rather... troublesome. Good thing the Weyrs are designed to deal with clumsy young dragonkin and their klutzy riders.
And thank you for the correction on the difference between hay and straw. I shall attempt to fix that in the near future.
Thank you all for your patience, and please, let me know if you see any grammatical, spelling or information errors.