DISCLAIMER: I have next to nothing in common with either Anne McCaffrey, or the members of CLAMP, save that I am female, and I was born near where Anne was.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is very much dedicated to crys_tenkari on lj, though it is really just a piece of self indulgence. I adore Robinton, utterly. But, gah, was this hard to write, I restructured the entire thing twice, rewrote parts, changed tenses…etc. etc. I'd appreciate if you let me know of any errors.
A Short Glossary of Terms Not Previously Defined:
Between: The void which dragons have the ability to enter, allowing them to travel instantly between places, or even times. Reputed to take 'no longer than it takes a man to cough thrice…'
Fire-lizards: Small cousins to dragons, they follow the same color patters, but are not nearly as intelligent.
Klah: Like coffee, a stimulant drunk by the Pernese. Made from the bark of the klah tree.
Thread: In the Pernese solar system, there is a wandering planet which has become trapped in the gravitation pull of Rukbat, the star around which Pern orbits. Called the Red Star, it has an erratic orbit, and is the home (more or less, I'm simplifying here) to creatures that look something like balls of ice, until they try and bridge the gap into Pern's inhabitable atmosphere. When they reach Pern, the ice melts and the creatures start to resemble clumps of spaghetti. If they reach the ground, they will destroy any plant or animal, eating them as food, then burrow into the soil and destroy all plant life from the root. The Red Star's orbit brings it close enough to Pern once every hundred years, and it stays close enough to Pern for fifty years (called a 'pass').
Watch-wher: Dragons did not occur naturally; rather they were genetically engineered by the first colonists who came to Pern to escape an overpopulated earth, and memories of the Nathi wars. When the threat of thread was discovered, dragons were made to fight it, bred from the Fire-lizards, who were themselves engineered from the indigenous Dragonettes. Most were happy with the dragons, however, not Wind-Blossom Ping, daughter of Kitti Ping Yung, the creator of the dragons. She attempted to improve on dragons, but failed due to her inferior grasp of genetic manipulation. Instead she created the ugly malformed Watch-whers, who could not stand sunlight and were very vicious to anyone they were unfamiliar with. On modern-day Pern, they are used as watch-dogs by holds.
Wherry: A six-limbed (two front legs, two back legs, two wings) avian creature, indigenous to Pern. They are used as a food source, and their skins are used to make leather.
After nearly fifteen minutes or so of waiting for Fai's return, K'rogane was beginning to get thoroughly annoyed. It clearly did not take so long to find wine at a gather, not with all the feasting and drinking that was taking place, and the numerous places to find a wine skine. He then grudgingly rose from his comfortable chair, to search for his weyrmate, lest he get himself lost, or into a brawl with some other drunken oaf.
You should not be so worried, if Fai were in trouble, Mokonath would know, Ginryuth said form the heights.
I'm not worried, K'rogane answered, keeping his mental tone slightly teasing so as not to upset the dragon with his remarks, now, stop making pointless comments.
Seething with anger, K'rogane wandered amid the gather guests, unable to find Fai anywhere among them. He spent another ten minutes, or thereabouts, searching, cursing the man all the while. He was about to call to Ginryuth and ask him to wake Mokonath and have her locate Fai, when he suddenly heard something that sounded very much like the green rider's voice amid the steady noise of conversation. He would not have been so fortunate, save that whatever group the green rider was with decided to break into a loud, slurred version of some northern holder song, and K'rogane recognized Fai's light tenor among the voices.
He followed the sound of the singing to Fai, who was seated with several others at one of the tables, exuberantly adding his voice to the song's chorus. His face was rosy and his eyes shinning, clearly the effects of the alcohol, as he and his tablemates ended the song on a surprisingly harmonic note, given the state they all appeared to be in. He was utterly drunk, and K'rogane was furious, with Fai and with himself for allowing him to wander away in such a state.
"Hello, Kuro-bronze! I want you to meet…" Fai began, noticing the bronze rider.
"Fai, we're leaving. Now," K'rogane growled, taking the back of the green rider's shirt collar. Just as he was about to drag Fai away from the gather, whatever it took, amid Fai's protest that he had to meet whoever it was, he was stopped when one of the table's other occupants threw back his head in a loud, baritone guffaw, apparently at the situation before him.
"Sit, sit, sit," the man said in rich, round tones, with a wave of his hand toward the single unoccupied seat at the table, "It's a gather after all, everyone indulges a bit. And Fai has been providing excellent company. I don't think I've heard that song since I was a journeyman." K'rogane sat, glaring at the man, whom he had instantly recognized. After all, anybody, from the most backward mountain cot-hold, or isolated sea-hold would know him, and even K'rogane, who saw no reason to respect a man simply for rank, knew better than to insult the Masterharper of Pern. One might as well insult the Werywoman. What, K'rogane wondered, were the odds that Fai would find this table to sit at, and that he would find himself welcome?
"This is Kuro…Kuro…I can't quite think of anything!" Fai giggled; trying it seemed to give some kind of introduction.
"Dragonrider Kuro-Kuro then!" the other table member said, raising his glass in an evident toast, though to what, K'rogane was unsure. Perhaps, he mused, to the disrespectful mutilation of his name?
"Is he the one you were singing that lovely song about before?" Robinton asked.
"Oh, yes!" a grin spread wide across Fai's face. "Did I sing you the song I wrote, Kuro?" Without waiting for an answer, Fai broke into an almost understandable song about 'Kuro-canine', laughing hysterically the entire time. K'rogane himself groaned, and poured himself a glass of Benden red from the wine skin, thinking that he'd need it in this situation. To make Fai leave now would be an insult to the Harper. To stay was an insult to himself, but he'd learned to bear such things in his year and a half long partnership with the green rider.
Ginryuth had taken that moment to chime in that K'rogane wouldn't make Fai go, because he did not want to upset him. This only fuelled the rider's irritation. He demanded of Fai once he was done with the chorus why he had come here, in his search for drink, the Harpers laughing raucously at the lyrics.
Fai immediately began to offer his explanation. From what K'rogane could understand of the only partially lucid ramblings, when Fai wandered away he had been just as drunk as K'rogane suspected. Perhaps more so, since he decided that instead of going to get wine from a vender, he would wander over to one of the tables, and ask them for a skin. Either by accident or design, that table had been one of the harpers' tables, occupied by the Benden hold Harper, and the Masterharper. He made himself and his search known to the occupants and they, being quite possibly drunk themselves, allowed him to join them. This was an unfortunate choice on the part of the harpers, which had only served to lead directly to the bronze rider's current, thoroughly embarrassing situation, and his severe aggravation toward Fai.
As the conversation progressed around him, K'rogane taking little part in it, he soon discovered Robinton to be just the sort of person he did not like. The man was loud, with a full laugh that came to him easily, likely aided by the wine. He could drink, and did, with many comments to the superiority of Benden wines over Tillek. Fai frequently and vehemently agreed, nodding his head with great fervor at such statements.
After about an hour of drinking, shouting, singing, and K'rogane trying as hard as he might to keep from getting a headache, Fai had gotten bad enough that K'rogane decided, Masterharper be damned, he was going home. He managed, just barely, to pull Fai away from the gather, insisting that it was the middle of the night, and any sensible people should be going home in any case. The harpers waved them off, agreeing that indeed it was late, and shouldn't Robinton be calling on transport soon, and wasn't there any more of that lovely wine?
Ginryuth? He reached out to touch the dragons mind, and found that he was sleeping, finally. No matter, he had to wake him, Ginryuth!
It is dark, and I am tired, the dragon complained at so suddenly being roused.
Well, we need to leave, now, K'rogane said, wake Mokonath up, will you?
Fai got over being forced to leave quickly, and now was singing something, very loudly; K'rogane couldn't quite place what it was. He was beginning to think it might be a strange, one-man rendition of the 'Ballad of Moreta's Ride', though he began to doubt that when the tune suddenly transformed into one that heavily resembled the 'Duty Song'. It really didn't matter what Fai was bellowing, however, what mattered was that he was very drunk, and need to be brought back to the weyr before he seriously embarrassed either himself or K'rogane. Any more than he already had.
"Hurry up," he said, as he all but dragged his weyrmate toward the waiting Ginryuth. Fai suddenly realized where he was being led, and began to struggle, trying to break free from K'rogane's hold on him.
"I ride Mokonath," he slurred, shaking his head, barely intelligible.
"No," K'rogane said flatly, still pulling Fai toward his own dragon, ignoring his inarticulate protests. "You can barely walk."
Fai broke into a generous fit of giggles at K'rogane's statement, his face flushed, a few flyaway strands of blond hair in front of his eyes. He'd need to get that cut soon, K'rogane thought, long hair was dangerous during threadfall.
"What's so funny?" K'rogane demanded, trying to remain patient with the intoxicated man, in spite of his growing annoyance.
"You don't need to stand to fly a dragon!" Fai declared loudly to the night, evidently proud of his drunken logic.
"You need to give clear reference, which I don't think you're capable of right now. So shut up." The blond man prattled something about ridding Mokonath again as K'rogane heaved his skinny form onto Ginryuth's back.
Mokonath is worried, Ginryuth said she wishes to know if Fai is sick. He will not answer her clearly.
Tell he isn't sick now…but he will be tomorrow.
There was a pause, before the dragon continued, You are worried about Fai?
Worried, K'rogane scoffed, why would I be worried about the idiot? He got himself drunk. Now take us back to Benden. I'm tired. And be sure to tell Mokonath to follow.
I have, and with that, the dragon launched into a take off, the sweep of his great bronze wings causing clouds of dust to form about them. When they were high enough, K'rogane gave the familiar reference to Benden Weyr, being careful to imagine the bowl clearly. He was not actually sober himself, but he never let himself get as far gone as Fai was when he was away from the weyr. Bad reference points could lose both dragon and rider in the void of between, and he was determined for his part not to become a casualty.
As the cold blackness of between engulfed them, K'rogane went back over the day's events, wondering when it had all gone so wrong. Why had he ever let Fai go off on his own like that? He knew such things never ended particularly well.
The bronze dragon blinked out of between over Bended Weyr, Mokonath appearing in the same moment. He flew lazily to the ledge, alighting, and stretching out his foreleg to allow his passengers to dismount. K'rogane jumped down first, Fai following after, half sliding, half falling down the dragon's side. He stumbled when he reached the ground, and if K'rogane had not been there to catch him, he would surely have fallen. He supported him as they began to make their way into their sleeping chambers.
"Kuro-bronze…"
"What," K'rogane demanded as he nearly carried him towards the bed.
"Kuro-bronze…" the man repeated.
"What!"
"I'm a green rider, you're a bronze rider…" he trailed off.
"So?" K'rogane wasn't going to let him make a comment like that without elaborating on it. Fai was insecure, however he came off to others, K'rogane knew as much. When he was intoxicated he just tended to be a bit more open. They reached the bed, and K'rogane helped Fai to pull of his boots and his riding gear, since the man seemed completely incapable of it on his own.
"Bronzes fly Queens," Fai answered, as if that explained his previous statement entirely. Though in this case, it did, as K'rogane had heard this particular statement from Fai enough times to know where it was leading. He sighed in exasperation as he pulled off his boots, trying to keep it in mind that Fai was drunk, and he could not be too hard on him. Though, honestly, if he were bringing this up again it meant he wasn't truly reconciled to the fact K'rogane wasn't going anywhere, it meant he still suffered from the same insecurities.
"Yes, some of them do, and what does that have to do with anything?" K'rogane growled, although, not too harshly.
"Kuro-canine deserves to be a queen's weyrmate" he left the rest of the sentence unsaid; thought K'rogane knew where it had been headed. You deserve better than me, Fai meant.
Hoping that Fai would understand how serious he was about this, and perhaps get thought to him past the fog of alcohol, K'rogane said, "Do you see any Queens in this weyr without mates, idiot?" He didn't receive any answer after a few moments. "Hey."
He looked at Fai, and found him already face down and fast asleep. He sighed, laying down and pulling the sleeping furs around both of them, then closing his own eyes.