Cooling down and old thoughts (no visitors, please) -- Minerva Weyr: The Riders weyrs

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Subject: Cooling down and old thoughts (no visitors, please)

Author:
W'menel

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Date Posted: 18:38:57 03/26/02 Tue

After grabbing a goblet of water and a bowl of fruit ice, W'menel found his way back to his room and siliently shut the door. He could hear the murmurings of the Candidates as they looked down on the nest below from one of the empty rooms far down the hall.
He was dirty and smelled highly of sweat, dirt and garden-grade manure. It would be good to take a very long bath.
Earlier, he'd wanted to ask Mina if she would like to ride with him to Caffrena Beach to just swim and get out of the heat. The day and the gardens saw that it would not be today, though.

W'menel sat in a hide chair and slowly drank some water then spooned up some of the berry fruit ice, which was now slushy.

-Slowly or you will hurt.
Lerath referred to the colic his rider sometimes got from cold drinks or food well-iced.

'I know. Don't worry.'
W'menel went back to the thoughts about Frontier Weyr. In bringing it up to his Weyrwoman he also brought them back to himself.

~The day had been a gloriously sunny one. Spring. The air warm and balmy for the first real time that Turn.
There always had been minor tremors around Frontier. Some even shook down huts and cotholds but the Weyr had little more than shaken furniture and folks not used to quakes.
Lerath had been taking him in from a patrol flight with some new weyrling pairs when they saw the mountain that housed Frontier explode in a enormous cloud into the sky. Huge belches of black, thick smoke and fiery cinders.
The noise was deafening.
"BACK! EVERYONE BACK AWAY!"
The Weyrlingleader had roared but not soon enough to stop the lead pairs from getting pummeled down into the fiery abyss, once Frontier. Pairs falling from the sky as if in slow-motion. Too far away to be helped now. Too dead to be revived to life.
W'menel's eyes began to tear from the gasses and emotion.
They were all gone. Everyone at Frontier. He had some of the finest friends anyone could want there.
Lerath banked away steeply and flapped viciously as the shockwave came roaring at them- a huge rush of noise and air..~

W'menel wiped his eyes and sighed deeply. It was many minutes before he went over to the trunk and opened it.
After a little digging, he brought them out.
He'd worn out the leather flight coat long ago that they had been attached to.
One of the first things he'd done was cut them off. He'd wanted to throw them out but something had said 'Keep them'. So he did. It was after that Weyrlingleader, H'lorin, and his brown Festh, went 'Between' to suicide. The man couldn't take the pain and nightmares anymore and was tired of crashing out on fellis and numbweed cocktails.
The man was W'menel's best friend.

W'menel held the old braids in his hands.
Maybe now, they would be worn in a Weyr destined to survive far longer than poor Frontier had.
He wrapped them in a fine wherry-skin pouch and set them aside to take to Mina before dinner in the Great Hall tonight.

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Replies:

Subject	Author	Date
Re: Cooling down and old thoughts (no visitors, please)	W'menel & Anise	18:47:50 03/26/02 Tue