Chapter Two: The Runt’s Rider

Every night must end at dawn

As every truth will have its song

Come now,

Out of the dark, into the dawn

R’kel paced angrily along the sandy cove. He was supposed to be on Search with a few other members of the wing but if he had to listen to another one of M’dor’s jibes he was going to lose his mind. “Maybe I already have.” He stopped pacing and looked to Callanth. The runt brown dragon sat in the shallows watching his rider carefully.

R’kel cursed himself as he sat down on the sand. So what if his dragon was small! Who cared if they were next to useless! M’dor’s stupid taunts didn’t mean anything! Nothing!

Then why are you letting it bother you so much?

R’kel pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, “That really didn’t help, Callanth.”

What you thought before is true. The things that Taluth’s rider say don’t matter. You are mine and I’m yours. That’s what matters.

R’kel looked back up at his dragon, “Callanth…” He buried his face in his knees, “Thanks.”

You’re done brooding now? I want to swim. Callanth blew air threw his nose causing the water to bubble, And this goofy blue fire lizard keeps jumping off my head.

“Fire lizard?”

R’kel looked up at the same time that a bronze blur shot out of the water. He sat there, dumbstruck, staring blankly at the bronze fire lizard perched on his knees. The silly bronze cocked its head to one side and suddenly R’kel’s face was full of water. He spat water out of his mouth and the bronze disappeared but just after he was gone the blue that had been using Callanth as a swim platform dove at him.

Throwing his arm up to defend his face, R’kel tipped backward and barely managed to catch himself. He felt something hard brush up against his hand as he fell. He looked down. Eggs? Not just any eggs, fire lizard eggs. No sooner had R’kel realized this then a piercing shriek distracted him.

He leapt to his feet, only to fall right back down throwing his arms over his head in an attempt to protect his head and face from the queen fire lizard and the large fair that followed her.

R’kel eventually found himself knee deep in water trying to reach Callanth, whose progress toward his rider was also inhibited by a pair of fire lizards chattering in his face. “I won’t touch your eggs! Really! Promise!” R’kel pleaded with the unyielding queen, “Really! I won’t—” The plea was cut short as he tried to take another step back and found nothing to stand on.

He plummeted over the edge of the drop-off and into open water, his drenched wherhide jacket threatening to drag him down but he managed back to the surface and made a mental note to learn to swim better. “Callanth!” R’kel shouted for his dragon, disoriented by his underwater plunge.

I’m here! Callanth called. He snorted the fire lizards out of his face and finally reached his rider. Are you all right?

R’kel threw his armed over Callanth’s back and grabbed the riding straps, “Fine, just peachy.” The fire lizard queen still did not cease her attack, though it seemed a good number of the rest had dropped back some, and R’kel had to keep waving her off as climbed into Callanth’s saddle.

He continued attempting to wave off the fire lizards however the moment Callanth was in the air they all vanished. R’kel looked down over the cove to see the entire fair swarming over the egg cove as well as both adjacent coves.

We join Taluth and Aironth’s riders or return home?

“Back to the Weyr. I’ll seriously lose it if I have to deal with M’dor right now.”

Hallath says that his rider demands an explanation.

“What for?”

I told him that Taluth’s rider was teasing you again. He asks that we return immediately.

“Tell him—”

I told him that we could not go between because you’re all wet. He then said that this was an inefficient means of communication and that you will discuss this matter when we return.

“Alright, alright.” R’kel pulled off his jacket and shook it out once before tying it around his waist, “And let me guess, we are to return as so a possible.”

Yes, though I don’t see why it’s so important. It’s such a nice day for flying. After you speak with Hallath’s rider we swim and have fun and you forget about Taluth’s rider and all the others.

R’kel sigh and rubbed the back of Callanth’s neck, “If that’s what you want, buddy, if that’s what you want.”

Done brooding now?

“Done brooding now.” R’kel sighed heavily as Callanth angled his wings and adjusted his position so that he flew over the bluffs by the sea. R’kel gazed out across the sea. As he did he wondered, for not the first time, if there really was a place for him a Callanth at the Weyr. Just a worthless little boy and his runt dragon. Callanth suddenly folded his wings in and the pair dropped like a stone for two, normal sized, dragon-lengths, effectively scaring R’kel half to death. “Shards Callanth! You could’ve warned me!”

You said you were done brooding! Callanth climbed and dove back toward the ground.

“Callanth!”

No more brooding!

In spite of himself, R’kel laughed, “Alright, fine. No more brooding.” He rubbed his dragon’s neck affectionately, “Maybe when the Wingleader finishes chewing us out we can get A’ron and Mareth to come swimming with us and perhaps we’ll see this alleged dolphin pod they’ve been going on about.”

Mareth is pretty.

“She’s nearly twice your size!”

So? She’s still pretty. Callanth rumbled.

“Oh you.” R’kel gave the back of Callanth’s neck a half-hearted thump.

I like Mareth. You like her rider. I don’t see a problem.

“The way I like A’ron is different from the way that you like Mareth.” Callanth turned his head back toward his rider and tipped it to the side with a puzzled look that silently inquired after an explanation. However, they arrived back at Cove Weyr before R’kel could formulate an answer.

Cove Weyr was, as the name implied, built inside of a large cove. The living caverns were built into the bluff that formed the back of the crescent moon shape of the cove. The dragonriders made their weyrs either above the living caverns or, like R’kel, out in the arms of the cove over the water. Meleth stood protectively over her eggs, which were lain on the cove sands well above the high tide line, screeching out a challenge to any whom dared come near. Her mate, Loleth, perched on his ledge overlooking the Weyr while the Weyrleader oiled a patch of his hide.

R’kel and Callanth landed on the ledge of their high weyr on the short arm of the cove. The short arm was buffered on all sides by sandy beach and one could walk easily around to the next cove where as the long arm extended far out into the sea without even a buffer of sand around it. R’kel personally preferred to have some form of solid ground when he looked down from the ledge.

R’kel unhooked Callanth’s riding harness and spread it out in the sun to dry. He trudged back to his sleeping room and dragged a chair back out onto the ledge and threw his jacket over the back to dry. He muttered a few choice words directed at a certain queen fire lizard and her fair when he noticed several slits in the hide, very likely caused by fire lizard claws, that he would have to get mended. He shed the rest of his wet clothes, carefully examining each article for other tears, and returned to his sleeping chamber for another pair of trousers.

Hallath and rider come. There was amusement in Callanth’s voice as he reported, I’m coming inside. The ledge is too small. Hallath won’t fit with me here. He’s too big.

Buddy, no other dragon would fit well on that ledge. Callanth curled up on his couch and R’kel sat down next to him.

See, Being small has its advantages. I don’t think that Hallath could fit his head through the door.

Let’s not test that out. We’d have a bit of a problem if he got stuck.

“R’kel! Hey! You in here somewhere, kid?” Wingleader C’rin, rider of bronze Hallath, strode into the room with his riding helmet tucked under one arm and his jacket over his other shoulder. R’kel shrank back against Callanth’s hide and silently wished himself between.

Hallath says to tell you that his rider says to tell you that he’s not mad at you. Callanth nudged his rider with his nose, Nothing to worry about.

Just because there’s nothing to worry about doesn’t mean that I’m not going to worry.

You’re silly.

“Come on, kid, I know you’re here otherwise Callanth wouldn’t be. Haven’t eaten you yet, now, have I?” Reluctantly, R’kel stood keeping one hand on Callanth’s neck ridge. C’rin smiled with what appeared to be relief, “There you are, lad. Got worried when M’dor and F’ren came back without you.” C’rin’s expression changed when he gave R’kel a good look over and noticed the scratches on his arms and face. “Shards! What happened to you R’kel? You look like you were mobbed by fire lizards.”

“Inadvertently.” R’kel dropped his eyes to the ground.

C’rin stared blankly at the boy for a moment, “You mean you were mobbed by fire lizards?”

“Yes. I nearly fell on top of a queen’s clutch.”

The Wingleader grinned trying not to laugh, “I take it she wasn’t to happy about that.”

R’kel scowled, “I don’t find it at all funny, C’rin.”

C’rin did laugh now, “I’m not saying that it’s funny, lad. Go get some slave from Dia for those scratches and… try not to let M’dor bother you so much. I know the guy’s a jerk but unless he somehow gets transferred to another Weyr, we’re all stuck with him.” C’rin glanced toward the door, “I’ll talk to you more later, kid. Hallath’s itchy.” The tone change in C’rin’s voice was almost comical as he left the room talking aloud to his dragon as he left the room.

Callanth rose to his feet and butted R’kel in the back with his nose, Let’s go down and talk to the headwoman. She can fix your jacket and get you some salve.

“I don’t think we should bother Dia with something so trivial.”

So, talk to your sister. Anything that’s not brooding and will lead to swimming later with Mareth.

“Oh, you…” R’kel sighed and patted Callanth’s side, “Alright, but I need to grab some grub. Being chased by crazy fire lizards made me hungry.”

Salve.

“…and I’ll talk to someone about salve.”

Jacket.

“I was going wait for it to dry first.” R’kel rolled his eyes seeing the next statement coming, “Yes, we will then proceed to ask A’ron and Mareth about swimming.”

AN: I would like to take this time to warn anyone who has chosen to follow this story that it might be quite some time before my next update. My inspiration for jotting this down kinda went fwump. The story's still in my head and I still like it, it just might take a bit for me to get it on paper... or hard drive or whatever you'd call it.

I would like to thank everyone who took the time read this and I would also like to thank my reviewers for giving me the motivation to get this up.

Thank you all.

-Ebony