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Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2018 4:51 am
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Such a nightmare, such a horrifically bloody nightmare. One child dead, dozens or more mangled beyond just a simple scratch or two, a dragon that had hopped Between, and so many children that looked so frightened. It had been no small wonder that her beloved Kinyegele had all but ran into her arms when it had ended. Even D'ast had been watching with concern, his hand tightening just ever so slightly around her own every time a hatchling had gotten violent. It was almost too much for a mother to watch, even through the slowly reddening eye of her large green dragon who's stress she could feel through their bond so deeply that Alythrae had all but become a jittery mess.
Things had calmed though, dragons were bonded and children that had once been Candidates were now Weyrlings with strong dragons that would go on to make High Reaches proud. Still, there was a stab of pain in her heart for her children, still left on those sands waiting and wanting this time around, still in danger. Her arms had tightened so strongly around Kinye when she came to her, so tight as if she could keep her safe from everything from that moment on, this sweet child that had survived the dangers of the hatching sands with help from a young woman she would need to find later and thank from the bottom of her heart. Whether that woman wanted it or not, it was as a mother that she couldn't help but do so.
Sweet child that she was, strong and now safely off those sands, Kinye had still needed to go about her Candidate duties, so it was that Alythrae was left looking for her much later in the day. There had already been word spread to her about the consequences of what had happened earlier that morning, between the actions on the sands before two golden queens and the bronze from Western that had so insulted their Senior Queen, it came as no surprise to her at all. Many faces had shifted from positions of power since the woman had Impressed on those same sands so long ago and likely they would change again within a decade or so. All things did with time and in a world with Thread, things were always uncertain. Just the markings all over her giant green had taught her that much and she'd been fighting it for turns now. That wasn't important though, her daughters were important. Her youngest who would get a new master and her elder sister who's position wavered in the uncertain future ahead of them. Only one could she see at a time and Aly gently reached a hand out towards the little blonde girl who's innocent eyes had seen too much that day. Demanthra was a grown dragonrider now, she would talk to her shortly and help her process.
"Sweet one, can I have a word?" Aly said gently as Kinyegele exited from what looked like the last lecture one man might give her before another took his place. That alone was pain enough for her, she wasn't blind to his plight in her heart. But it wasn't her place to reach out to Gr'del when her children were what she needed to focus on then. "Kinye!"
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Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2018 9:47 am
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Hugging mom was supposed to make everything better. Safe and leaned into Alythrae, it should have been. She'd managed not to cry, she hadn't even been scratched by one of the rampaging babies, she'd even got to see a few browns up so very close! But perhaps she had just given herself too freely to every baby dragon on the sands - even the ones clearly not meant for a little thing like her. Even little ones that never gave a glance to any of them, instead curling up into the last moment a man had on Pern before leaping into the nothingness to find him elsewhere. But the comfort was palpable and Kinye soaked it up readily.
But Candidacy meant stepping away from such comfort and when Siriath called for them all, she hesitantly went, the weight of so many thoughts still on her mind. Gr'del's lecture wouldn't lift any of those from her either. Instead, she looked over the other candidates, attention sharply on those who she could have laid the blame for this all on - who she wanted to lay the blame for this all on. But blame didn't fix things - and it wouldn't make her feel better. So she left Gr'del with well wishes and more apologies than could fix everything.
That Alythrae was waiting for her after it all was both a surprise - had she checked on the others, yet? - and a relief that Kinye again ached to soak up as she again leaned into her mother with a tired sigh. "You can have all the words, Mom. I don't know if I have any after today," she murmured as she buried her face into her mother's chest.
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Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2018 11:04 am
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Oh, how she would have loved to spend hours just leaning into her mother's embrace, where everything was right and safe. Kinye could still hear those mourning cries that had filled the sands, and she didn't expect they would leave her anytime soon. It had been a wonderful day, it had been an awful day, and which of those she would walk away from it all with was still up in the air. It was hard to pull away from Alythrae's embrace, but the day would have to go on and surely such sadness would eventually fade.
"Ok," she relented mutely, following along as they made their way outside and to the very familiar dragon who was settled in waiting. For any fright others may have seen in Tarmath, Kinye only saw safe familiarity and she was quick to leave her mother's side to seek similar comfort in the green.
"It was wonderful....and awful....and so much more," Kinye murmured into the green's hide as she buried her face, certain such muddled words were enough to convey all of her feelings. Perhaps, even knowing Tarmath would find all of the others in the bubbling mess of her mind. Why had such cruelty been needed? Who had it served to upset the hatchlings, to cause such pain?
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Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2018 5:26 am
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From a place deep within her dual hearts Tarmath wished to cry for this small child that spoke so softly against her hide with such pain in her. The moment she had walked out from within the deep halls of the Weyr she had gotten to check her over and was finally eased that Kinye seemed to be perfectly fine... physically. She might have been a large green that wanted nothing more than to fight thread in her life on the surface but beneath it all she was just as much a mother as the wonderful rider she had chosen so many decades before and she couldn't stand to see one of the little ones she saw as her own be sad. One tattered wing reached around and blocked the small girl from other's view as she gently placed her nose against Kinye's head and blew out through her hair softly. Two clutches with different and similar dragons at once, two clutches that brought immense joy and horrible pain. It has been a long time since there has been a double clutch and there were strong personalities.
It was blunt, it was honest and having been nearby and having felt the feelings coming off Kinye at the time she knew that the girl had done everything correctly. Gently she conveyed the thought to her rider even if she didn't move to ease up from the embrace any more than to press her cheek against that same gentle head. Aly didn't need her to do much more though, with one hand the woman gently rubbed at her daughters back and with the other she scratched Tarmath's nose. Her parenting had never been solo, she'd always had D'ast, she'd always had Tarmath and Zetigeth and that was the way that it had worked because as a rider her dragon would always be foremost in her heart but her children were vastly important. In fact it made sense that it worked this way, that the other half to her soul, the other two hearts that beat strongly in another chest, would love each of her children as much as she did.
"Before Thread returned that was the scariest of places to be, the only one that you had to really face as a candidate. Once you were a weyrling it was the risk of Between the first few times. But now..." Aly trailed off and pressed a kiss to Kinye's head as well. "You hung your heart out for them all, every dragon on those sands you sent love to and that's the most beautiful thing about you, sweet one. That's the most beautiful thing about a hatching all around, the deep amounts of love out there... but you have to know pain and loss to understand just how beautiful that love can be. We lost what could have been a wonderful pair today, but we gained so much more in the process." Her voice was quiet as she spoke, not wanting to misread what she was seeing, not wanting to assume anything that her daughter might have been feeling, but it was also what she was feeling. So proud and honored to call this little girl her daughter, a girl who had faced down violence and was still standing even if she was saddened. Kinye had been so small when she'd been born and now she was a growing woman right in front of her and she didn't want to fail her by saying the wrong thing or making it worse.
After what you've seen today, do you think you can still love them? All the dragons that fly to protect Pern? Even knowing that more than just that one bronze have killed on the hatching sands? That more than just those greens have maimed others in confusion and fear. Tarmath asked curiously, not sugar coating her words even as she pushed love outward into the young girl. Inwardly she felt a hiss, but she pushed back against her rider just a bit, for she knew it was right to gauge it now while it was raw. She had no doubts herself.
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Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2018 5:33 pm
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Surrounded by such love, Kinye's stiff facade of adulthood relaxed - and everything she'd held in began to pour out. There would be no judgment for her crying so, exposing her aching heart so that those who knew it for what it was and would care for it, all the same, could do so.
Of course, her mother was right in why her sensitive heart hurt so after such a morning. She'd never assume that all others had not loved each and every baby on the sands so, though it was easy to suspect based on how some of the hatchlings had behaved that was not the case. But she was not a dragon and reading the heart or mind of another was a skill she would never possess for what it was worth. "It's hard....to think that anybody would not want that for them," she admitted with a sniffle, soaking in all of that love like a sponge that would lather wring it all out for another person, another dragon, another moment. In that, she absolutely could not falter, at this moment there was no other decision.
Tarmath's question was answered without a flinch, and without any doubt: "If I don't, who will? My kindness will never be conditional and I will give it to them all," and though her lower lip quivered and tears threatened to take her again, she meant it to her very core. She would allow the rest to question, doubt, fear, and hate. There was no place for it in her garden.
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Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 8:04 pm
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There were certainly those who would think a heart as big as Kinye's would not suit dragonriding. Soft, sensitive, she was too many gentle things and perhaps not enough of the ones that offered security and strength like others expected to see. That her goodness was a weakness - and others like her would be frowned upon, especially after such softness had been so pivotal in the events of the day. "It won't be hard if I give my best," and really, when had Kinyegele done anything but that?
It was more of a boost than she'd been expecting, but it all felt so very needed at the end of the day. The validation brightened that gloomy little spot in her heart, trod upon by all of the stress and change that would come to all of them soon. She'd not been wrong to know her mother could make everything feel well again - cozy and right, and this only proved that running for her and Tarmath was the right decision. Even without the praise that warmed up all of her feelings, drying away the tears she'd held in as long as she did.
Tarmath's frank threat caused her to laugh along with her mother, Kinye reaching out with both hands in the same way she'd always done when asking for the green's head. "You won't need to, Tarmath. I'll make it all right again. Somehow."
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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2018 8:30 pm
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Snorting a bit at the laughter in response to her utterly unveiled threat, Tarmath lowered her head into Kinye's hands without a moment's hesitation. All any of Aly's children needed do was express a desire and she would always be there for them, the second part to their mother's soul that cared for them just as deeply as any dragon that could lay eggs on the sands. For the smallest of them she was even more attentive, always had been as her gentle heart was something that the thread hardened dragon wished to protect with all her being. Lightly she tilted her head so it pressed against Kinye's own, the facets of her eye glowing purple with adoration and care.
You are already the best, to give any more of yourself would be impossible. Now it is the duty of others to see you safely trained and ready to find yours on the sands. Time will come, Small One, when you look back and understand that all the things you saw are all the reasons your dragon chose you. There wasn't a shred of doubt in Tarmath, or in her rider who's inner thoughts she was voicing, that Kinyegele would work her hardest and someday find her dragon on the same sands upon which they had met so many turns ago themselves.
A hand pressed against her daughter's back, Alythrae simply smiled at the thought of her on her dragon. And that was enough.
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Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2019 7:49 pm
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