R'ydon was well known for his temper, or more appropriately, lack there of. He'd grown up ostracized from the rest of the children his age, a target for pranks and bullies, yet he'd never fought back. He was calm, cool, self-assured. He understood why some people would never like him, why some would be uncomfortable, and he could forgive them whatever torment they attempted to put him through for their own self-image. With quiet patience, he would accept taunts, insults and even fists. He'd almost died once. A bunch of boys had attacked, and he hadn't even raised his voice in self defence. Nu'lin had found him, broken and bleeding, almost freezing to death, and saved his life. The grey/bluerider had taken him away to a better life, a life where he was not in danger of being mauled by a pack of simpletons, a punching bag for the violent, or a scapegoat for the close-minded. Nu'lin had brought him to meet Sweeth, his lifemate, a gorgeous cream dragoness. Nu'lin loved him. And, as far as the supposed-to-be-gracious creamrider was concerned, Nu'lin could throw himself from the top of the Weyrbowl. Hell, he'd help him.
"Ray!" Nu'lin, able to appreciate the amount of trouble he was in by the degree of anger the normally mild-mannered creamrider was displaying, ran after his boyfriend, wishing firstly that he could go back in time and handle the incident better, and secondly that he knew what exactly he'd done wrong. "Ray! Please stop!"
The hours and hours spent in Weyrling classes and endurance training had obviously paid off. R'ydon, with about thirty seconds head start, was managing to hold his lead. If I can just get to my weyr then I won't have to talk to him. Won't have to look at him. I can just close my door and pretend he doesn't exist.
"Damn it all!" Nu'lin, who'd been attempting at least a feigned level of discretion, threw privacy to the wind and broke into a full run, apologizing as people were forced to throw themselves out of his way. "Ray!!"
R'ydon, still possessing some sense of dignity, refused to run, even as the grey/bluerider began to narrow the gap between them. He prepared himself to turn around quickly and tell Nu'lin to back off, or any hope of keeping this 'disagreement' secret was going out the window...with the grey/bluerider.
"AAWK!!!"
"Ack!" Nu'lin was forced to stop, held momentarily at bay by the temperamental alisgryph. R'ydon didn't know how the half-bird managed to get out of his room, but he was thankful. No one would think it odd to see Iyou attacking a rider. In fact, if Iyou was free and not attempting to blind or otherwise maim someone it would probably have drawn more attention. The odd creature had never developed a liking for anyone other than R'ydon, and over the turns since the creamrider had acquired it, it had grown down-right vicious. Nu'lin, even with his growing sense of urgency, was no match for the grumpy half-bird. "R'ydon!!" He made a desperate attempt to sneak around the enraged alisgryph, but fell back quickly, clutching bitten and quite possibly broken fingers. "OW!"
The creamrider sighed and slammed his door with great force. A quick, happy 'mew' greeted his arrival and he saw Lucky, Nu'lin's pet feline, sitting contentedly on a cushioned chair. Without waiting to see if the cat was visiting with Sweeth, the two had formed an rather unique friendship (especially considering the fact only one of them was sentient), R'ydon grabbed Lucky by the scruff of her neck. The feline was not exactly pleased with this treatment and growled low in her throat. She swung at the creamrider and was rewarded with the satisfying feel of her claws sticking in his upper arm. With an amazingly uncharacteristic burst of profanity, R'ydon resisted the urge to toss the cat off his dragonledge, and instead dropped it on the floor of the hallway outside his door. Clutching his arm, which was actually starting to bleed rather profusely, the creamrider threw himself into the chair Lucky had just involuntarily vacated. He looked around his room, wondering where his flit was.
Sweeth, who had been feeling rather sympathetic to her rider right up until he threw the cat out, snorted. Gnarl is trying to save your boyfriend from Iyou. The cream dragoness was reclining on her dragonledge, soaking up what was left of the midafternoon sun. The sight of her, despite her sarcastic tone, almost made R'ydon forget his anger. Starting out as a rather emotional hatchling and weyrling, everyone was surprised when she grew into a rather mellow adult. She could still get rather worked up about certain things, but for the most part she was as peaceful as could be expected. She had also, fulfilling Confondreth's prediction, grown to be much larger than the grey/blue. From nose to tail she was only slightly smaller than the average queen. However, her body was a little shorter, her legs weren't quite as long and her tail was much longer than a gold her size's would have been. She had an inborn grace in the air, easily outflying and outmanoeuvring the dragons she couldn't outdistance. And somewhere along the line, from some mysterious source, Sweeth had learned that her slow, deliberate movements on the ground were just as alluring as her speedy, showy actions in the air.
R'ydon, having witnessed many disagreements between the half-bird and the granite firelizard, could imagine the carnage...throw an upset Nu'lin in there as well...and a pissed Lucky wandering around somewhere. "Stupid flit." R'ydon sighed, anger finally evaporating, leaving behind only embarrassment and hurt feelings.
Sweeth's eyes whirled an amused shade of blue. Smart flit. He knows that you're just upset right now and would really be kicking yourself later if Iyou actually injured Nu'lin. You're the one who just stormed out of Nu'lin's weyr and started the fight. Stupid you.
R'ydon felt a twinge of anger returning. "Thanks. I thought you were supposed to be on my side."
Rider-mine, your side is wrong. The cream dragon contemplated getting up to comfort R'ydon, but realised that she only had three or four hours of sunlight left and wasn't going to waste them just because her rider was acting like a baby.
"I am not wrong!" R'ydon felt like throwing himself into a chair again, but he was, annoyingly, already sitting down. He pulled off his boots and threw them at the wall instead. It didn't have the same amount of satisfaction though.
Sweeth closed her eyes and fanned her wings, infuriatingly keeping her temper. It's your fault too.
"It is not!!" R'ydon threw himself out of the chair and stormed over to where the dragon was basking.
Is to. Sweeth snapped her eyes open to reveal their deep blue colour.
"Alright. How is it my fault?" R'ydon crossed his arms and waited patiently. He heard an avian shriek a moment before he received a quick mental picture from Gnarl. Nu'lin had managed to rescue Lucky and barricade himself in his weyr. Gnarl was patiently watching Iyou attempt to peck his way through the door.
You've always been too thin, had a quiet manner and expressive face and now you've decided to grow your hair long. You don't really have any right to be upset that someone mistook you for a girl, especially considering they found you in Nu'lin's bed. The second she finished saying it, Sweeth knew that she was wrong.
R'ydon sighed again, his temper returning to his control as it was replaced by pain. "I'm not mad that that stupid messenger thought I was a girl."
Sweeth looked up from her sunning spot, finally sympathetic. Oh. She finally understood. You're upset because Nu'lin didn't correct him.
"I'm upset because Nu'lin got embarrassed and quickly ushered the messenger out, making some stupid joke about women never knowing when to leave." R'ydon sat down beside his lifemate and leaned against her. It was comforting to feel her giant heart beating, feel her immense lungs expanding and contracting.
What if I made some stupid joke about the insensitivity of men? The cream dragon's attempt to lighten the mood failed horribly. She sighed, disturbing her rider's rest.
R'ydon pulled away from his lifemate and lay looking up at the intensely blue sky. "What am I supposed to do? It's weird. We've been seeing each other for almost six turns, but we haven't ever fought before, at least not about anything important." R'ydon put his hands over his face, obscuring his vision. "Is this important? Am I over-reacting? Am I the ass in this situation?"
Sweeth put her head down, not sure how to answer that question. I don't know. Maybe. A little. But he was definitely an ass as well.
R'ydon managed a half-smile, hidden beneath his palms. "Thanks... I think."
Look, Sweeth stood up and moved so that she towered over her reclining rider. She waited until he pulled his hands away from his face. I don't know who was wrong and who was right. I don't know if you're over-reacting or if he's under-reacting. I don't know if he even knows what you think is wrong! You want to know what I do know? I know he used to come and visit you at that blasted Hold ever chance he got, despite the hurtful, angry comment he used to receive from the people there. I know he rescued you out of a life you hated by begging Shard to search you. I know he brought you to me, and gave you to me. I know he managed to convince Weyrwoman Magika that we belonged here at Adanuk. That seems like an awful lot of effort for someone he's embarrassed to be seen with. The cream dragon snorted to emphasize her point. Now if you want to know what you should do, I say catch Iyou, feed him to a watchweyr, comfort Gnarl, apologize to Lucky, and give Nu'lin a chance to explain.
R'ydon rolled his eyes. "Sweeth..."
NOW! The cream dragon lowered her head and nudged her rider towards the door.
R'ydon quickly got up and headed back out into the hallway. He wasn't planning on going to see Nu'lin, but, as long as the cream dragon was in there, he did see the sense in abandoning his room. He meandered down to the Dining Hall. It was a little early for dinner, but there were still a significant amount of people hanging around snacking and chatting. He chose a bench as far as possible from any other living soul, and sat down to mope.
"Trouble in paradise?" Ateri, a whiterider in R'ydon's wing, sat down across from him. Her trio of flits were, mercifully, not present.
"Is it that obvious?" R'ydon wished the woman would just go away, but Aterri seemed to have some kind of purpose.
"Well, since Celeste is gone, off visiting her family, I had to put Nu'lin's fingers back on." R'ydon had completely forgot that his wingmate was a healer before impressing.
The creamrider felt an entirely unwanted and annoying twang of fear for his boyfriend. "Did Iyou really hurt him?"
Aterri shrugged, snagging a sweet bun from a passing tray. "Two broken fingers, four others sprained. Had to wrap both his hands. Looks like a mummy."
R'ydon sighed, feeling miserable. Then he remembered that he was angry at Nu'lin and decided to stop feeling miserable. This lasted all of ten seconds before he remembered that being mad at Nu'lin made him miserable. He sighed again.
Aterri was pretty good at reading people. Healers had to be able to recognize when people were in pain, and, if she had to go by the expression on R'ydon's face, her medical opinion would be that somebody'd just ripped his heart out. She changed her half-joking smile to a more sincere one. "It'll be fine you know."
R'ydon was lost in his own circle of despair and, for a moment, didn't follow Aterri's train of thought. "What?"
"This is your first major fight, right?" Aterri began to pick apart the sweet bun, offering half to her wingmate. "Don't worry. You'll be fine."
R'ydon dejectedly accepted the sticky treat. "How can you say that? How can you possibly know?"
"Easy." She grinned. "Because you guys really love each other. And that kind of love is stronger then whatever it is you're arguing about. Nu'lin wouldn't tell me." She smirked, losing some of her sincerity. "I don't think he knows."
R'ydon sighed and began to rip the sweet bun into various small pieces. "How do you know?"
Aterri looked around mischievously for a second before leaning in closer. "I'll tell you a secret. When Nu'lin first got you transferred here, and you were assigned to Seirei Wing with me, you had to spend a lot of time working with Almara, Serri, Sherry, Chris and I. That's three girls and one other guy that you were spending almost all of your time with. I thought you were pretty cute, and you were a creamrider, which is basically a whiterider like me. So I did a little flirting." The whiterider smirked, maximising R'ydon's discomfort. R'ydon had never been able to deal successfully with girls. "And Nu'lin was so jealous I thought his head would pop." She smirked and grabbed her wingmate's hand under the table. "When you got promoted to Wingsecond, and had to spend even more time with Almara and I, Nu'lin finally did pop. He came up to me and told me outright to lay off. You were spoken for."
"Really?" R'ydon hadn't known that. "He said that?"
Aterri nodded. "I believe the direct quote was 'I've never hit a girl, but if you make one move on my boyfriend, I'll make an exception.' It was rather romantic. And ever since then, he glares at me whenever he finds us working or talking together. Haven't you noticed?"
The question knocked the creamrider flat. Why hadn't he noticed? He was always good at explaining feelings, at reasoning through other people's emotions? How had he so blatantly missed this fact? "How?" All these tumultuous feelings could only be explained to the whiterider sitting across from him in that one word.
Luckily, Aterri understood. "Because you were too busy making googly eyes at him to pay attention to anything else." Aterri smirked annoyingly, rather pleased with her brief trip from medical doctor to mental doctor. "Now why don't you go talk to him?"
"Why is this so hard?" R'ydon was mildly annoyed that the whiterider had stumbled upon the same solution as Sweeth.
"Hey." Aterri stood up, dragging R'ydon with her. "That's love." She pushed him towards the door. "Go. Now!!"
R'ydon shook his head as he dragged his feet across the Weyrbowl towards his boyfriend's room, trying to draw as few similarities as possible between Sweeth and Aterri. Gnarl appeared out of nowhere with a chirp and landed on his master's shoulder.
R'ydon rubbed the tiny creatures head. "Women. They aren't worth it."
"Hey. Preaching to the choir." Nu'lin was, surprisingly, not still barricaded in his room. Instead he was standing about six feet in front of R'ydon with both of his hands wrapped with thick, white bandages. He was, thankfully, not smiling at his own joke. In fact, he looked about as miserable as R'ydon. With a gesture made almost comically awkward by the bandages, Nu'lin explained that he'd been about to feed Gnarl, seeing as R'ydon hadn't been around for the flit.
The creamrider was shocked enough to momentarily forget why he'd been looking for his boyfriend. "What did you do to Iyou?" A momentary pang of fear for the alisgryph knocked everything else out of his head. "If you hurt him..."
Nu'lin's eye brows shot up. "I hurt him?" He held out his hands. "I'll never play again."
"You never played in the first place, 'lin. Thank the first egg." R'ydon could think of absolutely nothing to say. "What did you do to the half-bird?"
Nu'lin smiled for a second. "Waited. Apparently working oneself into a rage is tiring business. He could only keep it up for an hour or two. Then he fell asleep."
"Sorry." Another awkward moment of silence. R'ydon hated this. He hated standing at twilight with the one person he loved more than anything in the world and feeling like it was torture. Something about this just wasn't right. But he had no idea what to say.
Nu'lin sighed, and stared at his mangled hands hanging at his sides. He obviously wasn't sure exactly what to say either. R'ydon remembered Aterri telling him that Nu'lin wasn't sure what was wrong. That just made the creamrider angrier. How could this man make him feel so horrible and not even know what he'd done? Some small voice inside of him that sounded annoyingly like Sweeth countered. If he doesn't know, is it possible you misunderstood? Is it possible you over-reacted? R'ydon told this little voice to shut up. Silence again.
"I'm sorry." The two words were barely audible, especially considering Nu'lin refused to look up from the ground.
R'ydon felt a brief flash of remembered anger. "For what?"
Nu'lin threw his arms up in defeat. "I haven't the foggiest! One second I'm talking and joking with this errand boy, the next you're storming across the Weyr, and sending that thread blasted bird after me!" Nu'lin covered the distance between the two, obviously just as angry as his partner was. "So you tell me. What the hell is the matter with you, and why is it my fault?"
"You're embarrassed by me!" R'ydon was glad Nu'lin was only a few inches away, it allowed him to keep his voice relatively quiet, but still ensure that the grey/bluerider heard every word.
"What?" Nu'lin tried to grab R'ydon, but his injured fingers forced him to let go.
R'ydon took a half a step back, just so Nu'lin couldn't touch him again. "You were embarrassed to be found with me!" R'ydon felt himself turning red. He wasn't easily embarrassed, but this hurt, a lot.
"Of course I was embarrassed to be found with you!" Nu'lin continued quickly before R'ydon did actually abandon his normal method of dealing with problems and hit him. "I was naked! You were too!"
"You said I was a girl!"
"He assumed you were a girl!"
"You didn't correct him!"
"I was wearing a towel! It didn't seem the appropriate time for a discussion!
Both the riders were forced to stop their argument, having run out of things to say. The awkward pause following this realization was filled by an angry sort of squawk. The blood drained from Nu'lin face as he leapt back, away from Iyou. "Hey! I apologized....sort of! Call off the bird!!" The grey/bluerider cringed as the alisgryph approached him menacingly.
"Iyou!!" R'ydon made a dive for the half-bird, but missed. Spreading his wings, Iyou leapt right at Nu'lin's chest, knocking the man flat. The alisgryph's long, thin beak snapped shut terrifying close to Nu'lin's face. R'ydon could imagine the angry half-bird going right for his boyfriend's eyes. "Iyou I swear!! You hurt him and I'll kill you!"
"Ray, look." Nu'lin's voice displayed obvious wonder. R'ydon looked up from his position on the ground to see the bird creature cooing softly and flicking his tail. Iyou was nipping at Nu'lin's ears, but that was definitely a playful gesture, not an actual attack.
R'ydon was shocked. "What did you do to my Iyou?"
Nu'lin grinned. "Guess my fingers taste good." He winked at the odd, now friendly creature.
R'ydon narrowed his eyes. "What did you really do?"
Nu'lin smirked and got up, carrying the softly purring Iyou. "Today has easily been the most miserable day of my life. Fighting with you hurts, literally and figuratively. I'd prefer not to repeat the experience."
R'ydon could read between the lines. "What did you do?"
As Nu'lin got closer to the near fuming creamrider, the alisgryph leaned over and pecked R'ydon gently on the cheek. Nu'lin grinned. "I told him how much you meant to me." The bird quickly leapt away from the blue/greyrider and ran towards R'ydon's room.
R'ydon tried not to be distracted by Nu'lin's pretty words, but he did let the other rider put his hand around his waist. "And?"
"And exactly what I'd do to him if he got in my way." Nu'lin smirked, as annoyingly mischievous as ever.
R'ydon rolled his eyes. "What would I do without you?"
Despite their recent fight, Nu'lin still had to push his luck. "Aterri." The blue/greyrider took off into the night, with the angry and embarrassed creamrider right on his heels.
* * *
Read R'ydon's weyrling story.
Read R'ydon's hatchling story.
Read R'ydon's candidate story.
R'ydon impressed Sweeth at Alabaster Weyrhold.
R'ydon impressed Gnarl at Falas Weyr.
If you want an alisgryph visit Caer Paniya.
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