Something Special

Writers: Francesca
Date Posted: 8th March 2019

Characters: Arrilon, Kamalia
Description: Arrilon and Kamalia celebrate his birthingday a bit early.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 9, day 28 of Turn 9

Arrilon sat at their normal meeting spot, at the edge of the Weyrbowl
right by the sea. He was beginning to feel uncomfortably warm, and he
hadn't even put on his outer layers. But soon he would be glad for
every layer. It was tradition every birthingday for his sister to pick
him up and for them to visit their parents and other siblings at Amber
Hills Hold. This time, due to busy schedules, they were meeting two
sevendays prior to his birthingday. He was expecting candlemarks of
too much food and intrusive questions about his personal life, but it
was always nice to spend time with family.

Several minutes later, a small green dragon popped out of /between/
overhead and circled down to land near where he was sitting. Kamalia
waved happily to her brother and dismounted, while he stood and
approached them. "Hi Ari," she said, giving him a hug.

"Hey Kam," he replied, returning the hug. He also greeted Alaudath by
scratching an eyeridge.

"Ready for this?" she asked him with a knowing look. She knew he found
these visits, and all the attention, draining.

"At least there are two of us. Mom can only ask one of us questions at
a time." His tone was light, but he knew she understood the gratitude
behind it. Even though he probably could catch a ride every once and
awhile with friends, he found it best to only visit with Kamalia.
While he loved his family, and enjoyed seeing them, his life was so
different from theirs. It made it difficult to have a conversation
that wasn't just rehashing old memories or listening to gossip.

"Unfortunately for you, Mom decided after I Impressed that I'm a lost
cause. You, however, are supposed to be on the lookout for a nice,
holdbred wife." Then, imitating their mother's voice, "Why don't you
come back to the Hold? I know just the woman for you...."

Arrilon rolled his eyes at the phrase he heard every time they
visited. He was considering finding a way to leave the Weyr after
walking the tables, but the thought of going back to Amber Hills Hold
was not very appealing. "I'm surprised she hasn't named every woman in
the Hold yet." Turning to the green dragon, "Alaudath, your job is to
be beautiful and distract all of them for as long as possible."

"Alaudath says she'll be happy to help," Kamalia relayed. "Ok, I'm
sweating. Let's get this over with." Her smile showed she was largely
kidding. While her parents would always be a bit uncomfortable with
the idea of having a greenrider as a daughter, they were proud of
having a dragonrider in the family. She knew there was more pressure
on her brother, who could find a way to move back to the Hold if he
wanted to.

Arrilon quickly donned his winter clothes and mounted the green,
settling in behind Kamalia.

Before Alaudath took off, Kamalia turned towards him. "I hope you're
ready for socks!" Then, before he could reply, they were in the air.

~*Candlemarks Later*~

"Five pairs of winter socks," Arrilon said with a sigh when they
arrived back at the Weyr. Even after Turns, his mother refused to
understand that he lived in a tropical location.

Kamalia wordlessly opened her bag and he added all but one pair of
socks to the ones she had received, as they did every time. They would
be added to the storerooms at Dragonsfall Weyr, where someone would
hopefully make good use of them. They were of high quality. Then she
took his hand and walked him over to a quiet spot on the beach, where
she sat and gestured for him to join her.

"I know we normally don't exchange birthingday gifts, and I don't want
this to be the start of anything," she said, her voice more serious
than usual. "I also know you've had a difficult few Turns, and I think
I'm partially to blame. No," she stopped him from interrupting her.
"Let me finish."

Arrilon wasn't sure where the conversation was going, but knew how
stubborn she was, so he just nodded.

"When we were both Candidates together, I assumed that, if we didn't
Impress at the same time, that you'd Impress first, since you're
older. And then, when Alaudath found me, I assumed you'd Impress at
some point. I'm sorry if anything I said put more pressure on you than
you put on yourself. I'm so proud of you for the past few Turns and
how hard you've been working on your craft; and you'd better invite me
to the ceremony when you walk the tables." Her smile returned and her
voice got more excited. "For your birthingday, I wanted to get you
something special. And you're not allowed to say, 'You shouldn't
have,' or, 'I can't accept this,' because you deserve it and more."

Arrilon had listened, touched and a bit bewildered, at her monologue.
While he would always wonder why she had Impressed and he hadn't, she
had nothing to do with the difficult transition from Candidate to
full-time harper he had experienced. And she certainly didn't owe him
anything. "Kam, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I've been looking for awhile, and was hoping ideally to find someone
here, but I asked around in other places too. And then, I heard about
a beastcrafter here, which was perfect. And, it's a bit before your
birthingday, but these things can't be timed perfectly." Realizing she
was rambling, she stopped and, looking her brother in the eyes said,
"I got you a firelizard egg."

Arrilon stared back at her, the information not sinking in.

"There's a clutch here and one of the eggs is yours. You can go
tomorrow to claim one. It should hatch in about a sevenday."

After another pause, Arrilon finally understood, and he immediately
felt a wave of love for his bubbly younger sister, who after Turns of
living at a different Weyr, still came to visit every month. And who
had just taken on who knows how much extra work in order to earn the
marks to get him a firelizard egg. When they were younger, Kamalia had
always been a bit spoiled and selfish, and now he was the selfish one,
for never considering what she must have gone through these past
Turns.

He grabbed her in a hug, tears coming to his eyes. "Thank you," was
all he could manage to say, too overcome with emotion to put those
feelings into more eloquent words. "Thank you."

Last updated on the March 11th 2019

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Something Special