November 25, 2002
R'hyn and Serriena talk about nothing at all on the hatching sands.

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Serriena steps onto the searing black Sands from the foyer.

Serriena whistles as she steps out on the sands, carrying a skin in her hands. She looks incredibly relaxed and happy, only being careful around the eggs but when she gets around them, she does a happy little jig.

R'hyn's more or less comfortable - well, as much as one can be, with the intense heat of the sands - perched, with a hide and stylus in hand, towards one side of the sands, a little bit away from the eggs. Serriena's jig draws a hesitant glance, and a lifted eyebrow, "Something, uh, go well, Serri?"

Serriena nods. She moves over to drop the skin next to R'hyn saying, "There's some water for you in there." She walks around behind R'hyn and attempts to drape herself around him, to link her arms around his neck and lean over him. "I guess you could say I got some very good news from the healers today."

R'hyn freezes -- no doubt he's simply unused to being touched like that, though he doesn't precisely object - at least, he doesn't pull away or anthing. "Oh? And, uh, thanks for the water."

"Mmhmm," Serriena doesn't seem to care that she's caused the Weyrleader to freeze, or that he might be the slightest bit uncomfortable with her familiarity. "Your quite welcome." She draws back and pats at R'hyn before slinking into a chair next to him. "Wouldn't you like to know this news?" Her dark blue eyes are sparkling with hidden secrets.

R'hyn reaches down for the waterskin, holding it carefully within his hand as he watches Serriena sit down. "Uhm," he says, quietly, putting down the stylus and hide so that he can hold the skin in both hands, "I suppose I must, by the way you're talking. What is it, Serriena?"

Serriena draws the silence out a moment longer, perhaps keeping some torturous silence before she says, "Llilian and Isyrath are healing better. The healers expect her recovery is going to take less than originally thought." She grins. "Isn't that completely wonderful?"

R'hyn hesitates, and then a beaming smile blossoms across his features. "That's wonderful news, Serriena!" he agrees, happily. "Absolutely. Such a relief." The waterskin is uncapped, and he lifts it to his lips, taking a sip.

Serriena leans back and nods. "I thought so." She takes a glance at the hides you were working on. "What's that R'hyn?" She points, "Do you need any help with it?" Niaryth is relaxed on the sands, wings spread around as she keeps an eye on her eggs.

R'hyn glances down at the hides, shaking his head. "Just, uh, threadfall reports and things. I wanted to see how different weyrleaders do things. I guess I'm still getting used to leading the wings-- it's a little hard, sometimes, to know what I'm doing." But injuries haven't risen too much, thankfully.

Serriena ahs and pours through some of the reports. "Do they seem to be helping you do you think?" She flicks through one hide and then grins. "This is one I wrote." She points down to the initial and the date, a small S and a date nearly nine turns ago. "This was before I found Niaryth," she sounds surprised.

"I don't know," admits R'hyn. "I hope so." He laughs, peering at the hide in question, remarking, "Feels odd, doesn't it? That there was life before them."

"Well how do you think those candidates will feel when they leave here with one of our babies?" Serri asks. She nods to Niaryth and Arisvath. "There is life for them right now, but I wonder how those who impress will feel a few turns from now?" She grins.

R'hyn glances back out over the sands, at both dam and sire, at the mottled eggs, and smiles. "That's true. It's kind of odd, that life will be beginning for them, before too long -- I mean, beginning again. Because you don't know what you're missing, until you have it."

"That is very true." Serriena admits. She stops and then changes subjects. "R'hyn, I meant to ask you how your mother was doing. Did Belena ever talk to her about talking to the weyrling classes? Do you know if she's started?" Serriena leans forward, putting an elbow on the table and tilting her head to him.

R'hyn takes another swig of water from the skin, wiping beaded droplets off of his face as he sets it back down on his knees. "She did," he affirms, with a half smile. "She's not incredibly enthusiastic, but I believe she's terrified at least one group of weyrlings by showing them what can happen. Apparently, it went quite well, though she refused to come out of her weyr for a full two days after that."

Serriena sighs. "Your mother R'hyn, holds on to that hurt." She puts her cheek into her palm and leans on the table. "At least your mother has her wits about her. Maybe I should introduce her to my mother so she could see what real problems could be." She blanches a bit, "I shouldn't say that.. My mother is not to be pitied."

"Your mother," begins R'hyn, but he swallows, and shakes his head. "No one deserves to be pitied. Sympathy, yes, but pity is demeaning, no matter the circumstances. My mother simply likes to dwell on things, and that's always been a fault of hers. It's what made her a bad Wingsecond, while she was one."

Serriena nods, "You can say it R'hyn. You were down at Southern, I'm sure you knew her or knew of her." She raises her finger and twirls it next to her head, "She was the one they said was the crazy kitchen drudge. I've heard her called that at Cove Hold many times. Not right in the head, stupid child woman, it's all been said." She suddenly chuckles. "I just realized, I've been up here at Ista with your mother and you were down at Southern with mine." Something about that seems amusing because it has her giggling as if it's ironic.

R'hyn nods once, though he says nothing more directly on the subject of Serriena's mother. "Oh, you're right. I hadn't thought of it that way. Amusing, really," he agrees, though he doesn't laugh. "It's funny how things change. I went to Southern to be away from my mother, because she and the rest of the family put pressure on me, and look what's happened now."

"Does she put any pressure on you now that you've obtained quite possibly the highest title on Pern?" Serriena chuckles. "I can't imagine a mother not being proud of her son for being Weyrleader. There's nothing more she could want is there?" She looks at you, sobering up in the face of seriousness.

R'hyn laughs, uneasily. "Oh, she's proud. Too proud. Wants me to be like Saera, though." He turns his gaze away, rolling his eyes. "One weyrmate, two kids, a family outing every restday. I think that's because it's what she always wanted, though; she never weyrmated, her kids were from different fathers, things didn't turn out how she wanted them to. But yeah, she's pretty proud of me. Her little boy, Weyrleader."

Serriena chuckles. "Does she have this perfect weyrmate picked out for you? What about the children? Two boys, two girls? Boy and Girl?" She seems to find this fascinating to know. "What about you R'hyn? Is there any particular girl you find yourself liking at this weyr?"

R'hyn shakes his head, though he admits, "She's always pointing out girls to me. Saying that they have a nice smile, good breeding hips, a sense of humour. But-- no, there's no one special for me. Two girls, to counteract Saera's two boys, I think. She likes balance."

"A girl," Serriena's eyes light up, "That would be wonderful. I love my boys mind you, but a precious baby girl would be so wonderful," she gazes off into a distant future where perhaps she's holding a baby girl in her arms. She snaps back into reality a moment later and says, "So how about you R'hyn? Do you have a girl in mind?"

R'hyn watches Serriena, almost thoughtfully, and shakes his head. "I'm not sure about a girl, myself. I mean - a baby girl. I find Janri bad enough, and the new baby isn't any better. But at least they're boys. I'm not good with girls. Baby or adult." Another shake of his head, with a wry smile, "No, not at all."

"So you prefer boys then?" Serriena turns the question around to the opposite. "You'd rather raise a boy child than a girl child?" She leans forward and says, "Done.. I have three boys! You can be their foster father!" She grins, teasing him well. "They're learning to be harpers."

R'hyn turns purple. "I, uh!" He grins. "I used to be a Harper, but I probably wouldn't be the best mentor. I never liked it."

Serriena can't help but laugh. "R'hyn your face is red! What on pern are you blushing about?" She can't stop giggling. Only when she calms down does she say, "Boy, talk about girls around you and you seem very shy. I'd have thought by now you'd be very familiar with females." She winks.

R'hyn flushes again, admitting, "Nothing, really. I just blush about everything. You know that." And, with a wrinkle of his nose, he adds, "Not that many. Only in flights, and that's not the same. And there's not many of them, really; Arisvath doesn't chase all that often, and doesn't win often, either."

"I'm not adverse to him chasing Niaryth's flights. Nor am I adverse to you," Serriena grins and sets back in her chair again peering at you. "In fact R'hyn you're handsome, charming, very polite and extremely nice. So how is it no girl has attached herself to your heart or even captured your attention?" She suddenly says, "Not that it's any of my business but were you inclined to men before Arisvath?"

"I think I rather he didn't-- though not because the thought of ending up with you is a bad one, of course. Just... all that comes with it," says R'hyn, wryly, before he blushes again. "I'm too shy. Most girls don't get to know me. And-- they expect me to make the first move. I'm not good at that." He pauses, then shakes his head, "I was still pretty young. And an apprentice. I didn't think much about it... you know?"

Serriena has to laugh at that, or she might cry, "I'll try to remember I'm not so bad to end up with." She has a slight smirking smile on her face. "Although perhaps that is why J'nah and I are no longer together." She does pose the question, "Do you think your mother wants you to have a child so that she could perhaps have something of you should something happen in threadfall? She wouldn't lose you completely then."

R'hyn frowns, lifting his eyebrow, "Because you're not so bad to end up with?" he queries. "Oh. Because he didn't like to share you, I suppose?" Hesitating, as he fiddles with his fingers in his lap, around the edge of the water skin, he nods. "I think so. I mean, probably. As well as it being, in her mind, the right thing to do. Have a family. Give her grandchildren to play with. I think she thinks I'm lonely."

"Are you lonely R'hyn?" Serriena asks the poignant question. "How do you feel about your life right now?" And then because she knows how he feels about his position she says, "Besides being Weyrleader. I know how you feel about that."

R'hyn takes another sip from the water skin, though the water is not so cold now. He carefully, deliberately, wipes it from his mouth, and then shrugs. "Not as such. I have Arisvath, there's Saera's kids, and Saera herself. There's you. A few others. No, I'm not really lonely. I'm happy."

Serriena opens her mouth but turns to look at Niaryth who has been listening the entire time. She stares at the gold, communicating with her. There's not much talk, just faces made as Serriena's face flashes surprise and then disbelief. "Oh no forget that." She turns back to R'hyn as if there wasn't an interrupt in the conversation says, "Sorry about that. I'm glad to hear you aren't lonely. Your life seems pretty full. Your family is really good for you. So are your friends." She smiles.

R'hyn turns his head towards Niaryth, lifts an eyebrow, and then turns back to Serriena, nodding. "I think so. Uh, what about you? I mean, you've got your boys, and Niaryth, and friends-- are you happy?"

Serriena gives that question some serious thought. "I think I am," she says honestly. "Niaryth takes most of my happiness. When she is happy I am too." She looks over to where Niaryth is curled around her eggs and Arisvath. "And with Arisvath she is very happy." She turns, "My boys are growing into young men. It makes me happy to look at them and see their smiling faces." She grins, "I can't get enough hugs from them." And then she puts a finger to her lip, tapping, "I'd suppose if I had a best friend it would be Llilian. She's been a great support for me as well as someone who understands me." She looks to you, "And now I like to think we've gotten to know each other better not only from working together, but through the affections our dragons have for each other." She uses a hand to indicate the pair. "I don't think I could want for much anything else." And then from serious, she turns ..sadistic, "Well except for maybe Priane's head on a stick, but as long as Maboth is alive, that won't happen."

R'hyn's face falls into a quiet smile, as he nods. "I'm glad. I think it's an important thing to be happier. And probably harder when you're an adult, and have to make all of your own happiness."

"That you do. Though sometimes it falls into your lap." Serriena contradicts. She's lost her train of thought so that only leads to another subject switch that she's famous for. "See that egg?" Serriena points to an egg that's striated with red-ochre coloring. "My sons think that's going to be a brown. What do you think it will be?"

"Some of it," agrees R'hyn, quietly. Glancing at the egg in question, he hesitates, and then decides, "Blue. Because dragons never come out of eggs that look like their colouring -- except for golds, of course."

Serriena starts to laugh, "You know that's what I said too, but only because the egg size seems a bit small for a brown." She grins, "You want to get out of this heat? Take a walk in the night air?"

R'hyn laughs, standing - that, evidently, is an indication that he's willing to go for that walk. "Sometimes they squish up really tight, though, and surprise everyone. A bronze out of the smallest egg, and all of that."

"That is true," Serriena admits. She stands too, leading the way out through the eggs. "I think the surprising one from Niaryth's last clutch was that huge green everyone swore would be a bronze egg from Orrath." She steps off the sands, escaping the heat.

Serriena steps off the blackened heat of the Sands to the entrance of the Hatching grounds.

You step off the blackened heat of the Sands to the cooler purchase of the foyer.

"Ah, yes," remembers R'hyn. "I do recall speculation on that one -- and surprise, in the galleries, when it hatched. Arisvath's-- no, well, I don't know which egg was Arisvath's. I like to guess I do, but I honestly don't, If it was the one I think it was, then I didn't think it was a bronze. I thought it would be blue." He follows after Serriena, leaving his hides, his stylus, and the water behind him.

"You said before that you were on your way to becoming a harper, but that you weren't very good at it," Serriena mentions. "Now why would you choose to go into the harper craft if you weren't good at it?" She pulls her shirt away from her sticky skin, heading out to the bowl.

Serriena heads back out of the heat toward the bowl.

You abandon the heat of the Hatching grounds through the arched exit to the bowl.

R'hyn shakes his head, correctly Serri: "I /was/ good at it. But I hated it. My mother pushed me into it, because it was an ambition that she never succeeded with when she was young. I blushed, and people watched me, and it was awful."

"Oh I see," Serriena chuckles. "I can only imagine the fright it gave you." She heads across the bowl, walking casually with no direction except towards the northern bowls. "So you've never really told your mother no have you R'hyn?" Is this a mindhealer probing with questions to try and determine a psyche?

"Um," says R'hyn, as he walks, digging his hands into his pockets, "Not really. I mean - I went to Southern, and she didn't want that, but other than that... I came home when she needed me. Because I had to. It didn't seem fair, for me to leave it all up to Saera."

Serriena nods. "You know I've never been to Southern Weyr." She admits. "Well .. I can't count the month I was there before I was taken to Cove Hold." Serriena grins. "Since I don't remember it." She turns her head to you, "I used to think about going there. I wonder if we would have met there as well." Her musings are interrupted as she looks up and gasps. "Oh look at the night sky!" Pointing up at the stars.

Serriena is walking through the bowl with R'hyn although it appears they've stopped a moment. Serriena is pointing up at something in the night sky, leaning close in to the Weyrleader and speaking to him.

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