Practice is Good

Writers: Estelle, Miriah
Date Posted: 17th November 2020

Characters: R'fal, Aviday
Description: R'fal checks up on Aviday after Kobeth's flight
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 7, day 4 of Turn 10
Notes: Mentioned: Urlene, L'cor

Aviday

R'fal had left the Weyrhealer's quarters in a warm glow of contentment,
and anyone who'd seen him making his way back to his weyr would have
smiled to see the blissful expression on his face. He'd never felt quite
so wonderful in his life. There was so much he hadn't known. So much
more he wanted to know. And he was aware, through their bond, that
Marlath shared his happiness.

Somehow he floated through the rest of the day in a daze, and when the
evening came he went to sit with his wingmates at dinner. He laughed and
chatted with them with a new confidence, though out of respect, he only
smiled when one of the greenriders raised an eyebrow and remarked that
he was in a good mood. Afterwards he went for a drink with some of the
younger riders, enjoying the warmth of their company, not getting back
to his weyr until late and tiptoeing in so as not to disturb his father.

The next day, once drills were over, he remembered something else the
WeyrHealer had told him. He should check on Aviday, find out if she was
all right. Maybe he could persuade her to go to the healers.

It was always possible, he thought with a slight dampening of his
spirits, that she wouldn't ever want to see him again. But he could
always ask. Dragons did make that easier.

He asked Marlath to speak to her green. **Ask if I can speak to her...**
Somewhere she'd feel safe, he thought. The dining cavern? But with less
risk of being overheard. **By the Weyrlake? Or anywhere she'd prefer.**

There was a long moment of silence after Marlath's request, almost as
though the green either hadn't heard or was unwilling to respond. Then
a quiet, subdued mental voice answered. }: Mine will meet Yours by the
lake. She says in a quarter of a candlemark. She is scrubbing after her
drill. :{

**All right.** R'fal spent a nervous ten minutes pacing his weyr before
he headed down to the lake, leaving Marlath to rest. Though he'd not
heard the green's reply directly, he could detect something of her tone
in his dragon's own feelings, and the guilt he thought he'd banished
threatened to return in force.

He was the first there, so he waited by the water's edge, hands in his
pockets and shoulders slightly hunched, staring at the ground under his
boots. Though it could only have been a few minutes, it seemed an
eternity and he was on the point of losing his nerve and going back
inside when he saw her coming towards him.

Tentatively, he raised a hand in greeting. "Hello."

Aviday studied R'fal as she walked towards him; the sight of him and
memory of his face during the flight still made her stomach clench. As
he had covered her and hurt her, his expression had been one of
unthinking lust and purely carnal triumph. It scared her to remember
it, but that wasn't the face she saw now or the one that she had seen
after. Now his face was softer, remorseful. She rubbed her own arms as
she grew closer and stopped a few feet away. "Hello."

Suddenly, R'fal didn't know what to do. She didn't want to be here, he
could tell from the tension in her face, the way she stood, and he felt
the dull, leaden weight of guilt again at having brought her out here.
At least in daylight, he could tell she was older by a few Turns than
he'd thought after the flight.

**Say something,** he thought, and spoke, haltingly. "I wanted to see
you, to make sure that you were all right. That you weren't still..." He
bit his lip. "Did you go to the healers?"

Aviday looked at him and suddenly realized that he wasn't that much
older than her, despite his knots. Had she ever really seen him before
except in passing? If she felt badly, surely he did too. She relaxed a
little; he hadn't meant it and she'd been clear with her friends that
it hadn't been his fault. "I'm okay. I wasn't, not at first, but I'll
be okay." She took a breath then shook her head. "No. I'm not sore
anymore. It doesn't hurt now." It had the day after. She looked at his
face and what she saw pushed aside the image she'd carried of him
before. "Please stop looking like that. I don't blame you. You didn't
do anything wrong. You don't have to feel guilty about it because it
wasn't really you." She took a step closer. "I don't blame you. At
all. "

"You don't?" The downcast look in his eyes was replaced by sudden
surprise, and a tentative hope. R'fal didn't move, but he stood a little
straighter, as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "Even if
I couldn't control what happened... I'm sorry, all the same."

He hesitated, then went on, his voice halting. "I went. To the healers,
I mean. I didn't tell about you," he added, hastily. "I wanted to know
if there was anything I could have done, so it would have been better
for you. So I never hurt anyone that way again. And I...learned a lot.
They said it's not uncommon, with flights, but you can learn to control
it, a little."

"I don't. At all. If I'd done it before my flight, it probably would
have felt really good. But I didn't and it messed it up for both of us.
Thanks for not telling them." Aviday looked up at him as he talked,
then her brow furrowed then raised. "Yeah, I guess so. I heard my mama
talk about that stuff alot. Riders I mean. She moths a lot of fights.
Some riders are really rough and leave bruises, scratches, and bite
marks. Some don't." She chewed on her lower lip. "Guess you have to
practice to get that control. You're kinda cute and all, so I'm sure
that a lot of moths will start snatching you up."

R'fal blinked, surprised, as everything he'd planned to say went out of
his head. **Cute?**

"I suppose that would be a way. To practice." He'd seen the women, and
some men, who gathered when a green rose, but he'd been too shy to go
with any of them. "Marlath's chased before, but he never even got close.
The greens were too quick, so it was easier to walk away if he dropped
out early. I should have stayed, or practiced outside of a flight. But
I wanted you to know, so you don't think everyone's as bad at this as me."

"I already knew that not everyone's as bad as you. I've got friends who
are weyrmated or they're kinda active with other people. I know it's
supposed to feel good. " Aviday realized suddenly what she said and
looked up at him, eyes wide. "Not that you're bad. Or that you'll be
bad in the future. Or that maybe I would have liked it if I'd practiced
too. I'm mean, it was over pretty quick soooo.... " She winced.
"That's not really helping is it?"

"Uhm...no, it's okay." R'fal's mortified expression told a different
story, but he tried to put on a brave face. "I was bad at a lot of
things before I got to the Weyr, but I worked on them and got better.
This is just one more."

"Sorry, sometimes I just say what pops in my head! Yeah, practice is
good." Aviday began speaking quickly, trying to both reassure him and
gloss over her previous insults. "Everyone's telling me I have to
practice too or it'll be bad the next time Kobeth rises. So if you
just, you know, find someone good at it, you'll get good, right?
They'll teach you stuff. I mean, L'cor's offered to teach me the once
and it'll probably only be the once cause he's got a weyrmate and all,
but if it goes well, I'll practice more too, I'm sure." She barely
paused for breath. "Hey, maybe you know, we could practice together
after we know more stuff, then we can just forget about the first time
and never ever think about it again. And..." She inhaled to continue.

Distracted by memories of how he had, indeed, found someone good at it
to teach him, it took R'fal a moment to realize what she'd said, but
when he did, his eyes went wide in astonishment. "You - would want to -
with me? Really?"

Aviday stopped mid-ramble and blinked. Had she said that? Maybe she
did. "Uh.. well...um..."He wasn't bad looking and he was kind of cute,
especially now when he looked like he'd been hit in the belly with a
pole. "I mean sure after I kinda try with someone else who knows what
he's doing. And then maybe I can kinda make up for screwing up our
flight so bad and learn more cause my mama says every man is different,
so I'd learn stuff from you too. And..." She looked at his stunned
face. "What? What's wrong with practicing with me?" Her face took on a
scowl and she glared at him, taking it as though he was shocked that
she'd believe he'd think about her that way. Her hands "I may be skinny
and not that pretty and I may not have good boobs, but I am a girl! I
have all the parts!"

"What? No - I mean, I know you're a girl, obviously..." R'fal stumbled
over his words, looking more embarrassed than ever. He held up his hands
in a peacemaking gesture. "Sorry. I didn't mean that. I just thought...I
thought you'd never want to see me again. I even wondered if I should
ask for a transfer so you wouldn't have to, but I didn't think they'd
let me until I have more experience." His thoughts drifted back to the
flight, the flashes of memory that had stayed with him from the moment
Marlath had caught her dragon. "If you want to, then - I'd like that. A
lot. Really."

"Oh." She'd been expecting a harsh rejection again and his words took
her back. Aviday blinked at him and for once was lost for what to say.
She hasn't expected him to actually agree or even be interested. He was
_interested_ in her without a mating flight. Her cheeks flared with
embarrassed heat. "Oh. Uhm... yeah. Well, your Marlath might catch
Kobeth again cause some greens like certain kinds of males so, maybe we
should, you know practice. But later after I take care of my thing. "

"Right." R'fal scuffed a boot in the sandy ground, gathering his
courage. "If you wanted, maybe first, we could meet up some time and
just...talk. I mean, where I'm from, usually you'd start that way. Go
for a walk together or... You wouldn't go right to what we did in the
flight. I mean, not without courting and getting married. And not that I
did that a lot, there weren't that many girls my age on the farm..." He
realized he was probably sounding like an idiot. What if she only wanted
to practice, in case Marlath did catch her dragon again?

"Well this isn't a hold." She pointed out. "I've never even been to
one, so I really don't know how that works." Aviday tilted her head.
"You mean you do all that stuff but don't share a bed before you get
married? And then you're stuck with them? If two people don't practice
and stuff before then, how do they know what they're doing? That just
sounds silly." R'fal really wasn't so bad, she decided. He actually
seemed to be a little shy. What he'd done had hurt, sure, but she
finally inwardly accepted that even though she'd told people it wasn't
his fault, it actually really wasn't. He hadn't meant it. And maybe,
he needed friends. "You mean...be friends? Like spend time together
and stuff?" She looked at him further and then nodded. "I don't mind
having another friend. Or getting to know you. I think it might be
better than just thinking of you in a bad way. Just, don't start
thinking I'm like your little sister or something, okay? I get that a
lot."

"Oh no. I definitely do not think of you that way." R'fal said hastily.
"So...do you maybe want to go to the beach some time? And talk? We could
go on a restday, when you don't have training..." Was he actually asking
a girl to go out with him? He felt as though there were crawlies in his
belly.

Aviday stared at him. "You want to? I mean, really want to? I guess.
Yeah. We can do that. Get to know each other. Maybe that'll help when
we decide we want to practice. Less nervous, you know? You seem like a
really nice guy." She finally smiled and it was less nervous, more
open. He really was kind of sweet and no one had ever asked her to do
anything like that. "But you're going to get help too, right? Like I
have to? Before we start practicing?"

The look of half-dazed embarrassment returned to R'fal's face. "Um, yes.
Thank you. I will." He wondered whether to mention that he'd already
begun, and decided against it. "So...next restday? I could meet you at
the end of the weyrbowl, near the beach?"

"Okay. We can swim too, but I don't have a swimsuit that really looks
good on me." She paused, "Unless we swim naked or something. Lots of
people do." She shrugged. "And it's not like we don't see that in the
baths or we haven't seen each other naked anyway, so I guess just
bring a towel if you want to swim. Or we can just talk. "

R'fal had got used to the way people bathed here quickly enough - it was
hard not to - but the thought of being naked in the open air for all the
Weyr, and her, to see was more than he dared yet. "All right. I'll see
you then, after breakfast maybe." He started to turn, then stopped. "But
I think you'd look good. In a swimsuit. Not that you wouldn't, uh,
without one, but...I think you'd look good."

Aviday's cheeks pinkened and she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear as
she shifted from foot to foot and gave an embarrassed, but pleased, but
shy little grin. "Really? You really think that?"

"Yes. I really do." He grinned in sheer relief that she didn't hate him
and she hadn't turned him down. "So, uh, see you next restday?"

She nodded, her shy smile a little bit lighter. "Next restday. Bring a
towel. "

Last updated on the November 23rd 2020

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Practice is Good