Disclaimer: Anne McCaffrey owns the rights and privileges to the Dragonriders of Pern. I just play with them.
A/n: I'm honorably naming this chapter 'Elided and Proud!', paraphrasing eminempern's 'Green and Proud'. Thanks to eminempern for beta-ing this chapter!
Chapter 18
Previously:
"Well…back to the firestone for you!" K'vic gave her a one armed hug and an infectious grin.
"Yes…back to the firestone for us! Finally."
About time.
The day dawned bright and early, and the cool morning's light found the dragons of Halcyon Weyr hovering in formation and ready to meet the silvery haze of Thread on the horizon.
K'dra and Terranth flew the first half of Fall, tired, exhausted, but happy to have flown Thread Fall again. They were both proud and almost deliriously happy that they had performed better this time around with no repeats of their first and disastrous Fall.
It was with great relief that they entered the bathing area and K'dra stripped the gear off her lifemate in preparation to scrub the firestone stink out of the sweating emerald hide.
"You, boy, I'm sorry I don't know you're name but could you please assist?" K'dra asked one of the many weyr brats who at that moment didn't have anything to do.
"Yes, dragonrider! What do you need?"
"I need you to go to the supply room and get me enough oil for after Terranth's bath and a paddle. And if you're quick enough, you may help bathe Terranth."
"Yes, dragonrider! What's you're name?"
"K'dra."
"Yes, K'dra! I'm going!"
The little lad ran off, excited at the prospect of being so up close and personal with one of Pern's great defenders.
"That's not your name," a disapproving voice reproached her.
K'dra didn't pause in her attentions to her dragon's cleansing, listening with half her mind to Terranth's running commentary on those still fighting, and the second wave of blues and greens who'd replaced those at the beginning. So it wasn't any surprise that she didn't hear the comment.
The boy came back, lugging a massive bucket and paddle behind him, both nearly as large as he was. There was a determined look on his face that did nothing to detract from his excitement.
"I got it Dragonrider K'dra!" he announced, causing several blue and green riders to chuckle at his enthusiasm. They themselves were surrounded by helpful weyrfolk who weren't busy attending to the wounded or organizing flame crews.
"Thanks," K'dra grinned, hands already full of suds, one hand carrying the unfoamed soapsand. "What's your name, boy, so I don't have to keep saying 'hey you'."
"Willzander, my lady dragonrider."
"Well, Willzander, you don't mind if I call you Zan? Well, Zan, grab some sand and start sudding!"
The pair worked in companionable silence, though it was broken from time to time with Zan interjecting some comment or other. K'dra also told him what Terranth was telling her about Thread fall, telling positions, riders, and dragons and their actions.
"Thank you for letting me help you bathe Terranth!" Zan enthused and K'dra smiled tiredly.
"You're welcome, Willzander. Thank you for being such a good help. Lucky for us Terranth's not that big, eh?" she winked even as she shared the boy's laughter.
K'dra took the large paddle, and proceeded to slick it on her dragon's hide, chuckling as he called back, "Bye, K'dra!"
Terranth hummed in pleasure as she was 'prettied up', enjoying the feel as the thick liquid was slathered on. She was indolent for the next hour and a half as K'dra worked on her, and then she rose as K'dra finished the job.
"There ya go, dragon love. Go on ahead to the weyr, I'll meet you there," K'dra smiled fondly at her dragon beauty, passing the bucket with the ample remains of oil onto one of her passing dragonrider brethren.
I will see you later.
"What's your name?"
The hostile tone caught K'dra by surprise, turning from picking up hers and Terranth's gear, and she saw a weyrman, one whom had been pointed out as a stickler for tradition, and to be careful with her name around him. This was K'dra's first meeting with him but the other fighting female dragonriders warned her about him. She couldn't think of his name at the moment and Terranth was bristling at the edge of her mind.
"My name is K'dra, pronounced, kid-ruh, a hard 'c' sound at the beginning. I used to be Kendra Ulric, but that stopped the moment I Impressed Terranth."
K'dra gave an annoyed look at the man in front of her, feeling resigned and frustrated at the tone he'd used and what she'd overheard, having to go over this same run down issue over and over and over again with others. The weyrman in front of her looked just as resigned, his jaw clenched, lips in a thin line, with a disapproving scowl at her words cast in her direction. His chin was jutted out and his eyes flashed righteous fire.
"It's not traditional!" he ground out, just as annoyed as she, and K'dra found herself fighting the overwhelming urge to roll her eyes and sigh.
"Females dragonriders do not shorten their names…period!"
"No…" K'dra drew the word out slowly; taking a deep breath and mentally shoring up her defenses. "Queen riders do not shorten their names. I am not a queen rider. I ride green Terranth, a fighting dragon. And fighting dragonriders, male or female, elide their name with the honorific. You follow me?"
"It has no grounding in tradition! You have no right to the honorific!"
That was the last insult and K'dra drew herself up to her full height and gave the man a glare worthy of any dragon in mating rut.
"No right? No right? I earned the right, the privilege, the day my Terranth broke her shell and chose me for her rider. And for your information, my being female and eliding my name has it's grounding since the First Pass when Benden's First Weyrwoman Torene, who could bespeak and hear any dragon, heard the dragon's shortening their rider's names during Fall. Male and female riders were shortened, so I have every tradition to back my decision. You don't get much more traditional than that! Good day, sir!"
K'dra whirled around and stomped off, fuming all the while. Had she been her dragon she was sure her eyes would be quickly whirling the orangey-red and white of anger and frustration, her back stiffened and head held high.
The nerve of that man! The nerve of all those…those traditionalists, who continually hound her with their self righteous indignation that she would dare to break hundreds of Turns of a male dominated world and take one of the inherent rights of a fighting dragonrider. She had every right! What, just because female dragonriders had become almost all but nonexistent meant that they shouldn't receive the same courtesies and honors due?
What rot! Like she had told that obnoxious weyrman, she had been granted that right, that privilege, the moment a little green dragonet gazed upon her with roiling, rainbow eyes.
You are angry. That man has made you mad!
Terranth gave an angry trumpeting as she gleaned from her rider's mind the reason she was distressed.
"Yeah, he did. Him and all those others on a self righteous kick who don't understand," K'dra had tears in her eyes. The situation that had gradually been building since she elided her name at Terranth's hatching now just reached that point where all she could do to relieve all this stress was to let a few tears loose.
Why does it matter that you are called K'dra or Kendra? You are my rider and it should not matter.
"No, it shouldn't but it does. By the First Egg, I'm tired of it! No one comes down on a guy if he shortens his name. Noooo…they expect it and try out various shortenings beforehand! But a female…oh, no. 'Female dragonriders do not elide their names…period,'" K'dra mimicked in a sickening falsetto.
"Oh! It makes me so mad!" K'dra screeched, allowing herself to give in to her emotions having reached the privacy and safety of hers and Terranth's weyr to vent.
She whipped off her gloves from the top of the bundle she still held and tossed them against the wall. Staring briefly at the spot on the wall where the pair of leathers had hit, her jacket soon followed, then her helmet, and finally her goggles. Terranth's equipment was dropped in heap just as her bulk blocked the light from the weyr entrance as she came in, eyes whirling a myriad of colors, too fast to distinguish individually in response to her rider's mood.
"Gah!" K'dra howled, hands gripping the side of her head and yanking on her cap of ebony curls, glaring at a distant spot on the partition dividing K'dra's sleeping area from Terranth's groove, panting slightly.
K'dra! Terranth creeled in shared empathy, having never experienced her rider's mood so violent, so extreme before.
As K'dra eventually tried to control her breathing, which had sped up in her agitation, she finally heard a gentle thrum that was oddly soothing and helped to calm her frazzled nerves. She turned a tear-streaked face to her lifemate, finally realizing how her actions were affecting her green beauty, and was instantly contrite.
"Ah, Terri, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Terri, I'm sorry."
K'dra gave in to her tears as she embraced Terranth's muzzle, knowing it was better not to fight the crying, and she released the last of her dismay against incredibly soft dragon hide. Terranth continued to thrum softly and nuzzled her rider against herself, curling her thick neck around K'dra, sheltering her.
She was sniffling and swiping at her nose when both females detected movement outside. K'dra turned her head slightly toward the entrance as a familiar voice called out, "Hello!"
K'dra's eyes widened and her head snapped up to look at Terranth.
"You didn't call for help did you?" K'dra addressed her dragon love, voice faint.
You were crying and very upset. I didn't know what to do!
Terranth's eyes swirled faster and her mind voice both conveyed her worry and concern.
"It's okay, Terri, it's okay," K'dra whispered fondly, stroking the beloved emerald muzzle and breathing deep of firestone, oil, and dragon.
"Hello! K'dra!" the voice called again, closer this time, and K'dra turned in the safety of Terranth's neck and answered back.
"In here!" she winced at how her voice cracked, and swiped again at her nose, knowing she probably looked like something the canines dragged in.
"Hey!" the voice answered as its owner rounded the last corner of Terranth's body to enter the weyr proper, eyes flickering concern similar to Terranth.
"What are you doing, here?"
"Terranth bespoke Tilanth and Tilanth urged me to hurry and I came as fast as I could."
Et'an stood there in the weyr and K'dra ran until she was once again in the embrace of the one she needed at that moment. How Terranth knew that it was Et'an she needed, Et'an whose arms she needed around her and not say, K'vic or R'ahvin she didn't know, but she was glad her little girl was so clever.
"Oh, Et'an."
K'dra started to cry anew.
Fifteen minutes later found the pair entwined about each other, still fully clothed, upon K'dra's sleeping fur. Et'an was stroking her hair, and they had pulled the divider to one side so Terranth could stretch her neck and keep an eye on her calming rider.
Tilanth, the dark brown was partially inside the weyr, his chin resting upon Terranth's glistening hindquarters in a move reminiscent of weyrlinghood, eyes whirling soft soothing blue and green. He hummed quietly deep in his throat, the action helping to calm the emerald dragon as much as her rider, in much the same way Et'an was doing to K'dra.
"Your hair's grown longer," Et'an smiled, keeping things small and inconsequential, knowing his friend would talk when she was ready.
K'dra laughed at the random comment. Fifteen minutes of her sobbing all over his riding gear and under tunic, fifteen minutes of neither of them speaking, and that was what he came up with as an opener. By Faranth she loved this man.
"You should have seen it before I came to Thread's End. It was past my rear, and almost to my knees."
She returned Et'an's smile.
Et'an reached a hand up and moved a strand of hair out her face, not caring that it was wet with tears and sticking to his fingers, or that her normally tanned face was now splotchy and her nose red and snotty from crying. To him she was the most beautiful in these real moments, and besides, what was a little salt and snot between friends?
"Beautiful," he sighed, content to hold her and cuddle her close.
K'dra obviously felt the same way, burrowing deeper in his arms, one cheek pressed against his chest. She needed a friend and not a lover desperately at this moment, someone who could understand and yet tell her what she needed to hear without fear. Et'an rested his cheek back against the pillow and the top of her head, ever patient. If there was one thing he'd learned being best friends with two females, it was patience.
They were silent for several minutes longer, the silence comfortable and unstrained, not a hint of awkwardness. K'dra finally pulled in a deep breath and let it out, pulling herself together.
"One of the weyrmen made me mad today," she began quietly, idly running a hand up and down his bare arm, jacket and overtunic having been discarded sometime ago.
"Hmm," he encouraged, and the 'grunt speak' elicited another smile from the girl in his arms.
"He told me that it was arrogant and assuming for me to elide my name. That it wasn't traditional for a female dragonrider to have the honorific, and that I didn't deserve it."
Et'an gave a snort and an irritated growl to show his disdain about that, something that his dark dragon half echoed in a far deeper and more menacing octave from his position guarding the weyr entrance. Terranth gave an answering grumble, hissing slightly, as her head rose above the ground and weaved slightly side to side.
"I got angry and I snapped off at him," K'dra continued, slightly sheepish at this confession.
"Well, good!"
"I told him that having Impressed a fighting dragon gave me that privilege, that it was actually traditional for both men and women dragonriders to have their names shortened as per the Benden's First Weyrwoman's Records during the First Pass, and that it didn't matter what he or anyone else thought, Terranth liked it and he could like it or not, I didn't care. Then I told him to have a good day and I stalked off."
Et'an had kept a steady rhythm stroking her hair and K'dra wasn't surprised to find herself more relaxed than she had this morning.
"It wasn't just that one man," she continued, staring past Et'an's shoulder at some distant visual only she could see. "There's been several, some weyrfolk, some Craft folk, Holder folk, even dragonriders…men and women both. It's so sharding annoying, I'm tired of having to defend my decision to other people and myself. I'm sick of it!"
"I don't blame you," he agreed quietly, letting her get this out of her system before she really went nuts.
"But it wasn't just that that's been bothering me. It's a whole bunch of stuff! First off, there's being in a whole different Weyr. Granted, as long as I have Terranth I'll never be alone, but I miss being around people who know me, who actually give a tunnel snake's rear end about me other than the fact I somehow Impressed a green. Then, my family, my parents mostly, reaction to Terranth's rising and the little pre-flight loving I had with K'vic. Ugh, can't they understand I'm a grown woman and I am free to choose for myself who I want to be with, when I want?"
"Not very understanding, eh?" Et'an grinned, chuckling, and K'dra relaxed back against that rumbling chest.
"Hello, I'm a dragonrider! We can't be bound by the same restrictions out of necessity for our dragon partners without serious consequences, why can't they see that? Do they think I'm really so vapid or desperate or…sluttish that I'd just throw myself at any and every man? Do they really think I wanted to bed more than one man my entire lifetime? Because don't get me wrong, both were great, but I never thought I'd ever have more than one partner, but Terranth changed all that, she has needs that I can't ignore, and if it means that three to four times a Turn that I have to sleep with a different rider every time she rises, then so be it!"
K'dra had tensed up again as she became impassioned with all the built up affronts she hadn't let out and Et'an just let her go, knowing this was for the best. He was also trying not to laugh, because quiet K'dra was amusing to observe when she was riled. Her eyes flashed dark brown with hints of gold coming to the fore when she really got into the swing of things and her chin rose with all the haughtiness of a Lady Holder.
"And let's not get into that today was the first day Terranth and I flew Fall since the accident, and that despite countless hours of drill, practice, and several sevendays worth of flying sweep that it was still tiring and nerve wracking and I'd been so anxious about something happening to me or Terranth this time. Or that I had just finished bathing Terri and was headed to get myself something to eat and looking forward to sleeping the rest of the day away when that arrogant prick grabbed me to argue with me! And last night R'ahvin decided for a full gear inspection, so that took forever, and I don't think K'vic and R'ahvin really like each other."
K'dra paused in her rant to frown, her brow wrinkling in thought, head cocking to one side and some hair falling back in her face in a way Et'an thought adorable.
"R'ahvin seems to think he has some sort of claim on me," K'dra frowned harder, "and he's always been so overprotective. He really didn't like K'vic pairing up with me…"
"Not that I blame him," Et'an cut in quickly, and laughed at K'dra's wide-eyed look of surprise, grinning down as his eyes caught hers.
"Ha, ha," she rolled her eyes at his teasing; she was glad to be able to express herself so freely with someone who understood.
"I do," Et'an defended himself, hugging her closer and kissing the top of her head, smiling. "I also get why R'ahvin would be so irked at this K'vic. He thinks you're his girl."
"His girl? What, he sees and lusts after me first and so he thinks he has first claim on me? Who does he think he is?" she demanded, frowning mightily, crossing her arms in a huff.
It was Et'an's turn to roll his eyes and K'dra pouted as she caught his expression.
"What? Don't give me that look K'dra, formerly Kendra of the Ulric merchant clan. I reserve the right to roll my eyes at anything I want that you and S'na say. It's in the Best Friend's Charter."
He nodded his head to emphasize this point and K'dra found herself giggling.
The pair laughed harder when at that moment their stomachs each gave a loud rumble, echoing and answering, eyes dancing with mirth.
"See, even our stomachs are agreeing! What does this Weyr have to offer a hungry rider to eat?"
"I don't know offhand, but we can go see what's offered," a laughing K'dra spoke as she offered her best friend a helping hand to get up.
"You know I love you, K'dra," Et'an gazed at her tenderly as they stood and enfolded her in another embrace.
"I love you, too, Et'an," she hugged him back, burying her face in the crook of his shoulder.
We are here for you, too, a pleasant double echo, male and female, came from their dragon halves, and K'dra felt so much better than she had all day.
"But we're going to clean this mess you made before we eat."
The pair waltzed in the eating room sometime later after K'dra made sure she was presentable. There was really nothing she could do to hide the fact that she had been crying but at least it didn't look so bad.
K'dra headed immediately for the food set out buffet style, Et'an following, and needing no encouragement. Being there emotionally was tiring work for all involved, and he'd had Fall at his own Weyr almost a day ago. That little fact made K'dra feel even guiltier, but he just smiled and stroked her arm, telling her all was well.
Plates piled high and balancing drinks in one hand, she led him to her wing's table and they set their meal down gratefully. Et'an gave a sigh of pleasure, inhaling the hot, simmering smell of cooked meat, wonderful stew, and all the fixings. He took an eager draught of his wine, allowing the cool liquid to wet his tongue and satiate his thirst, before digging in.
They had fallen silent, focusing in on the business of eating, and every once in a while their legs and feet brushed against one another in reassurance. That's where some of her wing found them as they wandered on in, the exhaustion and strain of Threadfall apparent on everyone's faces.
"Who's your friend, K'dra?" Y'riack, blue Hagarth's rider, asked as he plunked his food and drink down on the table beside the pair.
K'dra exchanged amused glances with Et'an at the special emphasis the blue rider placed on 'friend' and they shrugged, grinning.
"Y'riack, this is my very good friend," her lips twitched in a smile, "Et'an, brown Tilanth's rider, of Thread's End Weyr. This is Y'riack, rider of blue Hagarth and one of my wing."
"Hello," Et'an greeted the blue rider, eyes sparkling with mirth at K'dra's joke.
"Hey, welcome to Halcyon,' Y'riack spoke amiably enough. He was soon tearing heartily in his meal as the few wingmates who decided to enter the kitchens assembled with their own meals and refreshment.
The sight of an unknown dragonrider at their table didn't warrant more than a curious brow raised in inquiry, but they let it pass as he seemed okay enough, K'dra seemed more relaxed and unaffected by his presence so they figured she knew him somehow.
"Hey, Et'an!" I'ra greeted the brown rider, grinning in merriment.
"I'ra," Et'an acknowledged the green rider who had Impressed in the same clutch with Tilanth and Terranth. "Good to see you."
"Good to see you too," the green rider cast a sly, knowing look the brown rider's way. Et'an arched an eyebrow, but he grinned anyway.
"I like you but not that much," was all he said, causing a bout of laughter among the gathered wing.
"No, you save that for K'dra over here," I'ra jerked his thumb in the other green rider's direction.
"Some would say you were jealous, I'ra," K'dra interjected sweetly, all innocence and laughed the hardest as both the boys flushed with embarrassment.
"It's not like that," they chorused, turning redder.
"Oh…these are some of that infamous weyrling wing," D'rik grinned, winking at the pair.
"You do realize this is two thirds of the scariest team ever Impressed we have here, eh?" I'ra laughed as he smiled away his embarrassment to the few of his wing grouped together.
His reaction made K'dra wonder if I'ra had ever thought of Et'an in that way. It was food for thought.
"Has K'dra been telling stories again?" Et'an gave a mock sigh causing K'dra to giggle and nudge his leg under the table with her own.
"No, that's I'ra's job, you know what a big mouth he is," she sassed, chuckling.
Then she tilted her head and really looked over those around her and Et'an.
"Say, I'ra, you being here means K'vic is back, yes?"
The entire wing flew Threadfall in shifts, as the smaller dragons didn't have the stamina to fly the entire fall like the big browns and bronzes. B'yin's little detail, including K'dra herself, were part of the first wave, then K'vic's detail, and finally, R'ahvin and his detail would finish as they had the most browns and bronzes in the wing. I'ra was in K'vic's detail, so that meant that there was only a matter of time before R'ahvin and K'vic came in.
For some reason, seeing either of 'her boys' wasn't a pleasant thought. Et'an obviously knew how she felt for his leg came up to rub against hers reassuringly.
"Yup, that's right. He was giving Shimrath a bath last I saw, so he'll be here shortly."
"She can hardly wait," B'tolme snickered, and K'dra gave a weak smile, suddenly not hungry anymore but not for the reason her wing thought.
"Having your Wingleader and junior Wingsecond in your bed and grappling at each other's throats not enough for you so you get another rider?"
K'dra looked up and met Gr'fin's eyes, wondering where this sudden bout of surliness had come from. She wasn't the only one who thought so, it seemed.
"Shut up, Gr'fin, you're just jealous cause the Cavern girls are onto your womanizing ways and won't accept you into their beds unless you settle with one," a masculine voice interrupted mildly, and they all looked up to see B'yin come to the table.
He nodded to those members of his wing and grinned as he saw Et'an.
"Well, Et'an, Tilanth's rider, of Thread's End Weyr, weyrmate to Bria, green Jynth's rider. How you doing?"
"I'm doing fine sir," Et'an rose from his seat to salute and greet the senior Wingsecond who outranked everyone at the table.
"How's your weyrmate?"
B'yin's knowing smile goaded the younger brown rider to blush, and there were several chuckles from the wing as they recalled their former wingmate's certain proclivities. Et'an arched an eyebrow, and there was a rueful look on his face that told more eloquently than words the situation.
"Weyrmate is perhaps too strong of a word for what we had," he admitted, sitting down only when B'yin had done so. "A seven-day's worth of post-mating bliss might be more accurate."
"She does seem to like the more…female of the species does she not?" B'yin laughed outright.
K'dra canted her head to the left, silently inquiring from her friend, surprised that she had not heard of this. Of course she'd heard rumors as she'd settled in with her new wing, but she was kind of hurt that her friends hadn't told her more. Et'an gave her a reassuring smile and she cocked an eyebrow of her own.
Terri, tell Tilanth that Et'an is going to get it for not telling me sooner. She smiled back at him, but it wasn't nearly as friendly or reassuring.
Tilanth has done so. He is amused, Terranth disclosed, voicing her own amusement. Hers and Tilanth's rider's penchant for bickering was a source of great entertainment to the young dragons, even though it was commonplace growing up. Even more so when S'na got involved.
'What?' Et'an mouthed at her, giving her an innocent expression similar to her earlier one.
'You know,' she told him, but couldn't stop the soft smile that spread over her features.
She just couldn't stay mad, or even pretend to stay mad, at the loveable imp for too long. It was so unfair and Et'an smirked, as he knew all about her inability to hold a grudge, at least toward him and S'na.
"Brownrider of Thread's End, what are you doing here?"
"I was invited, Wingleader," was the brown rider's cool rejoinder, void of inflection.
K'dra looked up in some surprise as she saw R'ahvin standing there with goblet in hand, glaring at her friend. K'vic was flanking him, a curiously unreadable expression on his usually mobile face.
This cannot be good, K'dra thought faintly.
So what do you all think?