All references to worlds and characters based on Anne McCaffrey's fiction are copyright © Anne McCaffrey 1967,2000, all rights reserved, and used by permission of the author. The Dragonriders of Pern(r) is registered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, by Anne McCaffrey, used here with permission. Use or reproduction without a license is strictly prohibited. For more information, visit the Worlds of Anne McCaffrey.

17-03-01: Dreams
You exit the really very nice women's abode for the jungle of the dormitory proper, the resulting hubbub at least...

You exit the really very nice women's abode for the jungle of the dormitory proper, the resulting hubbub at least somewhat lower in pitch.

Jena laughs gently, sitting down on one of the couches. "Shards, no. I just wanted to talk to someone. I'm bored. It gets lonely in my room, you know." So, she'll be the one who get blamed for Julen missing sleep.

Hanneke peeks her head about the edge of the door leading from the Women's Dorm, eyes blinking vacuously into the room. She's been to bed, therefore she needs not stay there? Her hair and atire are testiment to that; long, frilly nightgown, tossled curls.

Julen shuffles over to the same couch, perching himself on one of its arms. "Talk? About what? You're a journeyman now. I wouldn't know what to talk to you about." Not when he's barely able to memorize his first song in time for the winter festival.

Jena looks towards Hanneke, closely admiring the frills. She sighs gently. "Aren't you tired?" she says, a mock yawn coming into play. Julen is faced, a small smile. "Titles don't really change a person. Okay, they do. But you can still talk to me, like you always have before."

Julen now notices Hanneke and waves faintly, unsure if the girl is going to come out and join them since she's all prettied up in her nightgown. Enlander girls don't have nightgowns like that. "But you might be teaching us now," he tells Jena. "I don't talk to my teachers." He just listens and does his homework -- most of the time.

"Me?" squeeks Hanneke, whose face indicates startlement at actually being caught, for all her galumphing footsteps. "No." For a fifteen turn old, she has fine mastery over the word, and to assert it more firmly, steps into the room, hop-skipping her way towards the other two. "Hihi, Jena, Julen."

Jena looks towards Julen, a light sigh and exhale. "But I knew you since I was an apprentice. Which, my Journeyman-ship hasn't be a long time either, so I really wouldn't worry about it either. I want you to still be able to talk to me." She watches Hanneke, the Christina Aguilara of the Harpers as she comes out. "You need to go to bed." she's given up though, as she scoots over to make more room. "Sit down."

Julen is steadily confused by Jena's contradictory -- to him -- expectations. "So, uh, what do you wanna talk about?" He's clutching his scroll tightly, as if that would provide some source of inspiration.

Hanneke wrinkles her nose in confusion--"You said two different things, what'm I supposed to listen to?" Evidently, she's decided on the latter, and squashes herself onto the edge of the seat, carefully smoothing the folds of her nightgown about her knees and ankles. Peeking about, she eyes Julen, and then Jena, stating loudly, "Yeah, what can we talk about?" Butting in is her specialty.

Jena looks towards Julen, shrugging her shoulders. "I don't know." Jena is too busy confusing herself. Hanneke gets a keen eye. "Sush down, and be quiet. The apprentices are trying to -sleep-." she says, noting. "We can't decide what to talk about."

After a few moments, Julen ventures quietly, "We could talk 'bout what it was like to live in a tapestry for a few days." He's looking at his shoes as he says this, the better to duck and cover if Jena decides to take offence.

Hanneke's not very good at being quiet. "Okay!" she notes, just as loud as before. "We'll be quiet so that the babies can sleep." She pauses, nodding her head sagely. "It's hard to think of things to talk about, but I'm good at it." Wiggling back upon the seat, she adds, giving Julen a long glance, "Living in a -tapestry-? I didn't think that was possible."

"She did," Julen confirms for Hanneke, indicating the journeyman between them. "The drudges were bringing her food and stuff."

Jena looks towards Julen, only not taking offense, just this time perhaps. "It was nice, actually." Oh great, Jen is being a bad influence on the apprentices. She looks towards Hanneke, eyes dimming. "I said quiet. And the apprentices are the same rank as you, so you would be a baby also." Maybe it was just that dancing day.

"Why?" asks Hanneke petulantly, lowering her voice perhaps a little bit at Jena's admonishment. "Sorry," she adds, in her best stage whisper, not in the least repentant. "They're still babies."

Julen is used to being called a baby -- he's the baby in his family -- and doesn't even twitch at the ongoing discussion. "You found it nice? How did you sleep?" he asks Jena, still fascinated by the idea of living in a tapestry. There's a certain glamour to what she did, perhaps because she doesn't seem to have been punished for it.

Jena looks towards Hanneke, once again. It's so easy for Jen to be aggrivated. "Because, I wanted to. I needed to find my speciality. That is to say, when you make Journeyman - don't do what I did." she explains. Listening to them, she answers. "Listen, no one are babies - except the little kids in diapers." Ri-ight. "I don't know, actually. I just fell asleep."

Hanneke is easily confused, and now would be one of those occasions. "Oh," she says, almost timid. "What did you do?" She wrinkles her nose, pressing her skirt down further about her legs. "Still babies."

"Weren't you scared, sorta? 'Cause it's all dark, right, behind one of these tapestries. Or could you see lights from the bottom, or hear people talking, so it was all right?" Julen pushes on. Clearly, he's given this entirely too much thought.

In the distance, the drums announce the departure of Journeywoman Mariah.

Jena is subdued, now. Perhaps of the night. "I have chosen my speciality in lyric composition, and teaching on the side." It sounds like a plate of salad. Smiling at Julen, she nods. "It was pretty scary, that's why I don't suggest it."

"Ew," notes Hanneke, nose wrinkling in thought. "I won't do that, I promise." She nudges her head forward again, adding, "But why'd you do it, then? I don't understand. Scary is bad."

Julen hugs his knees, never mind that he's treading on the couch's arms and probably turning them a darker shade of gray than they already are. "Yeah, I wouldn't last one day behind a tapestry. Or even in a cupboard." And he's tried the latter.

Jena looks back and forth between the two, managing a small laugh. "No, it's really okay. I think I needed to learn a little about self-discovery." Such big words, for such a little brain.

Hanneke blinks, then blinks again. "Oh. It'd be boring, though. No people to talk to. Nothing to look at, or do." She straightens her posture, wiggling on the seat to make herself more comfortable, toes stretching into a point.

"Yeah, so what did you do?" Julen chimes. The other reason he let himself out of the cupboard that one time was because he got bored after the other kids stopped talking to him through the door.

In the distance, the drums announce the departure of Headwoman Siri.

Jena shakes her head. "I didn't really want to talk, I wanted to study." Daring words, too. "I needed to find something to do with my life. Ever feel that way?"

Julen hasn't thought enough about his life to feel that yet. "How did you see? Wasn't it dark?" Hence scary. It's the practical details that bother him, not the philosophical.

In the distance, the drums announce the arrival of Ista Weyrsecond S'era.

Hanneke shakes her head. "No." Not surprising. "What could you study? You wouldn't be able to see to read."

Jena answers the questions, they so poke at her. "It was dark, but enough light came through for me to peek at words." she stands up, with a light sigh. "I, need to get to bed. If you don't get enough sleep, it will be my head. So, try to get some sleep, okay?" she questions.

Is that an order? "Okay," Julen agrees, "but we'll talk some more tomorrow, maybe?" He's still interested in the logistics of the operation.

"I'm not going to go to sleep," decides Hanneke, crossing her arms in front of her, across her chest. "No way." Head tilts into a nod, and she notes sweetly, "Sleep well! And no more tapestries; that's just kooky."

Jena looks towards both of them, nodding. Hanneke gets the semi-evil eye. "Go. To. Bed." she says, pointing in the direction of the womens' dormitories. "If I have to tell you once, I have to tell you all the time." she says softly. "Yes, I'll be cautious. Thanks for the advice..." Right.

Jena pushes aside the southeast tapestries and enters the harper hall.

Hanneke sticks her tongue out after Jena, making a nasty face with the aid of her hands and a few odd muscular movements.

"Don't do that," Julen says, mildly irritated. "Jena's okay. She's a journeyman now, so sometimes she's gotta make us do stuff." He's remarkably level-headed that way.

Hanneke turns her face on Julen, and lets it relax into a far more reasonable expression. "She's not *that* much older than we are, why should she tell us what to do? Even if she is a Journeywoman."

Julen squints at the floor. "She ranks us. It doesn't matter how old you are. Just 'cause an apprentice joins the craft when he's real old," like the twentysomething-year-old he saw the other day, "doesn't mean he knows better when it comes to craft stuff." And bedtimes are, alas, craft stuff.

Hanneke relinquishes crossed arms, giving her bare, and therefore fairly blue, toes a long glance. "I s'pose. I never had a bedtime at home, and Mother is a Journeywoman. She didn't mind."

Julen is surprised at that. "You didn't have a bedtime? Even we had it, in the Clan. Mostly 'cause we had to be up early to help pack the wagons, if we were moving to a new place."

Hanneke nods with an exagerated movement. "No bedtime. Mother said that it was good for young people to learn to look after themselves." But when your parents go to bed just after the sun sets, it's rather boring to stay up further anyway. "I didn't have anything to do in the morning, except more lessons."

"I had t' work," Julen says with a glimmer of self-importance. "We all had chores and if we didn't do them in time, the wagons wouldn't be ready to move, or the stalls wouldn't be open in time, or something." The Clan would just collapse into chaos without the effort of the young'uns, as Creer called them.

Hanneke looks almost impressed a moment, giving Julen an admiring glance, "Really? I never did anything useful. That's why I'm a Harper; I'm going to become really useful. Mother says I'll be very important." She adds, after a pause, "Were chores hard? I mean, I don't like hard stuff."

Julen confirms, "They were hard, tiring. What we do now for chores -- like sweeping and cleaning the tables after meals and helping to wash up -- that's easy stuff. I had to pitch tents by myself by the time I was ten." And that can be nigh impossible if the ground is hard.

Hanneke nods her head again, pausing to note, "I don't like what we do now. Drudges could do that stuff." The gripe is made lightly, eyes turning towards the dusky room, as she adds, "But I s'pose we gotta. You can pitch tents? Wow. That's nifty."

Julen grins at his nightgowned companion. "Have you ever been camping?"

Persephone comes in, looking completely tired out. She waves hello, but drops her hand to cover her yawn.

Hanneke shakes her head. "No. Well. I have, sort of. I came here with traders!" She looks entirely too excited about it. "But Mother and I spent all the time in one of the wagons." She doesn't notice Persephone--it's after lights out, she's in her nightgown, and shouldn't be here at all.

"Wagons are different," Julen attests. He notices movement, but the silhouette isn't familiar, so he doesn't move from where he's perched on the arm of a couch. "Wagons are like a house, still, just with wheels. Tents are a lot more, uh, fragile?" It's not quite the word he's looking for, but he's never been very good with words.

Persephone blinks sleepily....and crawls blindly in the dark, searching for the privy.

Hanneke pauses, breathless. "No-o, I suppose not. Mother said that tents were 'open to the elements', and that wasn't right for people like her and me. I don't know if I'd like to sleep in a tent. There could be tunnelsnakes on the ground." There could not be, too.

Julen turns that idea over in his head for a while. "Never happened to me, but I only travelled with the Clan for a turn before coming here." He pauses, considering further. "My grandpa once had one, but that was when they were camped near Ista Hold. It's the Holds, you know -- tunnelsnakes live indoors mostly, I think." He's a little hazy on biology too.

Hanneke wrinkles her nose. "I thought you were a trader? How come you only spent a turn with them?" She's hazy on all things, and adds, "Oh. I didn't know that. I guess it'd be safe, in a tent, then."

Still not as safe as in a wagon. "I grew up at the Haven -- that's like the Enlanders' home base, y'know?" Julen tells Hanneke, never too tired to talk about what he still thinks of as home. "Not everybody goes around with the Clan, when they travel to sell stuff. I was too young to go till I was ten." And proved that he could pitch a tent.

Persephone disappears into the women's dormitory.

Hanneke's expression is momentarily dejected, murmuring. "That's romantic. All those traders, together, and kids like you proving yourself. Were there lots of relationships, and stuff? Sitting around the campfire, and--ah." She breaths out a sigh of pleasure.

Julen is a little young to be thinking of relationships, so he fudges, "Uh -- well, I had friends and stuff. But I was one of the youngest around there, so mostly I got bullied." He sounds very matter-of-fact about it all.

Hanneke shakes her head, eyes rolling, "Not *that* kind of relationships, doofus." Although that would have been a healthy increase on her own state of affairs. Even the bullying.

"Then what kind?" Julen is ingenuous, forgive him.

Patience is a virtue. "Love relationships! Girl meets guy and they dance, and stuff." The stuff doesn't include sex; that'd make babies, and that's not a good thing.

Julen hasn't quite graduated to a full understanding of baby-making, anyhow. "Oh -- that kind? Kissing and holding hands?" He's seen enough of that, even surreptitiously in the harper hall, to know precisely what Hanneke is talking about, even though it wasn't the first thing to occur to him.

Hanneke nods, eyes alight with romantic drivel, or appreciation thereof. "Yeah. So..wonderful. I want a dark, handsome guy to hold my hand, and stuff, too."

Julen glances down at his hands -- he's tan, but not dark, and he wouldn't know about the handsome. "When? At the winter festival?" Again, with the short-term planning.

Hanneke evidently doesn't notice Julen's look at himself. "Then. And later, too. For ever."

Julen struggles to keep up with her dreams. "Do you know who he is? Is he a harper?" He's conveniently forgotten the harper apprentice no-dating rule, but that's mostly because Hanneke's version doesn't sound too much like dating.

Hanneke pauses. Back to reality. "Well, no, but I'm sure I'll find him. He's got to be here somewhere." She's conveniently never even thought of the no-dating rule, see. "And then, we'll spend lots of time together."

"He'd better be a harper then," Julen says, logic supreme. "If you spend all your time with him, and if he's not a harper, you won't have time to do your harper work then." Somehow, that makes sense -- to him.

"Huh?" Hanneke looks entirely confused for a moment. Then: "I suppose. Maybe he's a smart harper, and could do all my work for me."

Julen nods, grinning. "That's a good idea. But would he take your tests for you too?" What a useful person this dark and handsome harper guy is turning out to be.

Julen considers what Jena's told him of her life at the harper hall and compares that with Hanneke's dream version. "You've got it all planned out, huh? Must be nice." He just lives from day to day.

Hanneke has a dream. She also has no sense of reality. "Yup! It's going to be cool. What do you think? What're you going to do when you're older?"

"Me?" Julen didn't figure on the conversation turning this way. "I dunno -- sing, be a harper, I guess." It's all very nebulous.

"Boring!" Hanneke has forgotten entirely about being quiet, and her voice rings out loudly. Fussing with the frills upon her nightgown, she adds, "You need to think about it properly. Are you gunna stay here, or hope for a posting? And what about a girlfriend?"

Julen shushes Hanneke, glancing furtively about. They aren't that far away from the journeymen's corridor, especially if the other apprentice maintains her volume. "I -- uh -- I dunno. I'm still getting used to being here, not being at Boll. Dunno when I'd be ready to move elsewhere." The girlfriend issue he skirts altogether.

Hanneke has the grace to blush, and lowers her voice a fraction. "Sorry! I know, why don't you go back to Boll and be a Harper there? Isn't that a nifty idea?"

"Maybe," Julen allows. "We don't have any Enlanders who are harpers back at the Haven yet. But I dunno if that's what my parents expect me to do."

Hanneke wrinkles her nose, asking, "And do you have to do what your parents expect?" Contradicting Hanneke's entire reason for being a Harper.

Julen doesn't notice. "I guess -- I mean, they sent me here." It's weak, but he hasn't given this too much thought.

Hanneke nods. "I suppose." She'll not go into that. It's not really Hanneke-like. She yawns, face nearly splitting with it's power.

Julen watches the yawn admiringly. "You must be tired. Jena said we're supposed to go to bed, right?"

Hanneke does everything dramatically. "I guess. I suppose we should then, huh?"

"Probably." Julen yawns too, but it's a baby yawn compared to Hanneke's. He hops off the couch and checks that his scroll is intact. "I'll help you keep an eye out for dark, handsome men at the winter festival," he promises as he heads back to his dorm.

Hanneke positively beams. "You're wonderful, Julen," she notes, as she trots off to her dorm, nightgown swaying about her ankles.

Julen enters the men's dormitory.