Keeps You Up at Night [Thorn/Jisene]

[Kitsuneko]

It was well after supper and the halls of the Weyr were mostly empty. Mostly, that is, except for Laila. The sixteen-turn-old candidate paced up and down the long hallway by the candidate barracks, passing from one end to the other, though she tried to remain quiet in deference to her fellow candidates, who might well be asleep by now. Ever since Majorith's flight, she had felt jittery and nervous, and now she was completely incapable of sleep.

It had only been a few days ago that the Junior Queen rose. Laila had initially responded to the news with joy, anticipating the clutch that was sure to come--but then she had heard the dragons keening for one of their own. A garnet, one of the chasers, had killed another dragon? She had not imagined that garnets could be that aggressive, but if they were capable of murder like that, shouldn't the Weyr be doing something to keep them in check?

That alone would not have been enough to keep her awake, but perhaps an hour ago, her mind had been struck by a terrible possibility she had not previously considered, and now she couldn't sleep. Majorith had been caught by a brown, but that didn't mean she couldn't lay a garnet egg, and in fact the chances were fairly good that she would. What if a garnet came from her clutch, and it attacked its clutchsiblings? What if it attacked the candidates? Even worse--what if it Impressed to her?

Laila had thought she did not mind at all what color she might Impress, but in that case...maybe she would prefer to be left standing. How did the garnet riders deal with their dragons? As lost in her worries as she was, Laila did not pay much attention to what was going on around her; she just continued to pace.

[Thorn]

Jisene yawned expansively as the blonde haired girl continued to pace. She'd roused from her sleep a while ago, wanting to get a glass of water, but had stopped when she saw how wound up this girl had seemed.

She had hoped that the girl would calm down, but instead, she had gotten worse, her pacing picking up speed with the contents of her thoughts. It was clear that she wasn't paying attention to the world around her, and Jisene was beginning to feel a bit worried. Deciding to act, she stepped forward, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

'Are you all right...? Did something wake you, or were you not able to sleep...?' Her blue eyes, usually stubborn, were soft with kindness that she rarely showed to others. This girl, however, was just slightly younger than her, and as far as Jisene was concerned, that meant she should at least try to help her.

[Kitsuneko]

Laila's thoughts were abruptly brought to a halt by a voice addressing her. She stopped in her tracks and stood straight out of habit. It was one of the other candidates, a young woman not much older than herself. Laila recognized her from around the Weyr, but only vaguely.

Realizing that she had been caught, Laila flushed. "Oh, no...I hope I didn't wake you. I did try to stay quiet. I just couldn't get to sleep quite yet. That whole terrible business with the gold's flight got to me more than I thought, I guess." She gave the other candidate a polite nod. "I'm Laila, by the way." Okay, so it was late, and she certainly wasn't at her best--she wasn't usually so easily upset--but that was no reason for her to be anything less than friendly.

[Thorn]

Jisene smiled at her. "No, you didn't wake me. I was just going to get a glass of water. Perhaps you'd like to come with me...? Ah, and my name's Jisene."

She walked over to Laila, her braid swinging back and forth in the scant light from the torch. "Everyone's worked up about what happened, Laila. Even J'lan has stopped joking around, and that..." she paused a moment before continuing "that says more than anything, really. To me at least, anyway."

[Kitsuneko]

"Oh, that's good." Laila sighed in relief. She shrugged in response to Jisene's invitation and gave a nod. "Sure, why not? Nice to meet you." It wasn't like she was doing anything else, nor likely to sleep any time soon. Might as well put the time to some use meeting new people, something she rarely minded anyway.

It didn't surprise her to hear that she wasn't the only one that was upset, but it made her relax a little all the same. Perhaps she had needed to hear someone say so anyway. She gave a grateful nod. "I suppose so...I just can't stop thinking about the hatching--there could very easily be a garnet in the clutch. I guess I'm worried it could cause more problems, after what the other one did," she explained.

It seemed like a few moments passed before the full meaning of Jisene's words hit her, and Laila blinked. "Oh! You know J'lan? He was very nice to me when I met him after arriving at Trelis."

[Thorn]

Jisene grinned. "That sounds like J'lan, all right. It was him and Granzth that found me on Search. My parents were so shocked when it happened, too. The last thing they had been expecting was for me to be a possible Candidate."

She lead the way towards the kitchens, matching her pace to the other girl's without even noticing that she had. "And as for the Garnets... well, they mostly prefer men anyway, Laila. If they cause problems, then it can be in part because the facts aren't explained to them properly or they aren't trained properly. Even a dog will bite if it hasn't been trained not to."

She smiled at Laila, trying to help her feel better about the upcoming event.

[Kitsuneko]

Feeling more at ease, Laila could relax a little. She returned Jisene's grin. "The whole thing took your family by surprise, too? My parents weren't exactly happy about me being here, but not enough to keep me from coming. They were quite set on my getting married, actually. After trying to decide between suitors for a turn, I was just happy to not have to make that decision."

She followed the other girl's strides as they made their way to the kitchen, not having any trouble keeping up with her. As they walked, her mind went back to the garnets. She decided Jisene did have a point; hopefully with the leaders of the Weyr meeting to discuss it, they would figure out a way to keep the other garnets under control. At least she could hope. "It wouldn't be the first time one had chosen a woman, though," she pointed out. "But I'm not just concerned for myself. Virtually every time a garnet has hatched, someone has gotten hurt, whether they were the one to Impress it or not. I'd rather not see that happen."

She had seen people get hurt before, and even seen animals be slaughtered at her home Hold, but that didn't mean it didn't bother her. She wasn't the type to freeze or panic at violence, but she'd still prefer to avoid it entirely when possible. She shook her head and tried to focus on a happier topic. "Despite that, I'm still looking forward to the hatching, though. I'm sure Impressing a dragon would make up for that experience. I guess my parents were disappointed at my being Searched, but I certainly wasn't."

[Thorn]

The mere mention of marriage and suitors made Jisene burst into laughter. After all, she knew perfectly well what Laila meant! Her grin even wider now, she wiped at her eyes before speaking.

"I know exactly what you mean! My parents wanted me to marry, but they gave up about a Turn ago after I showed up all my suitors at the meeting when I was meant to pick one. A few tried to keep coming round after that, but I set the bull on them." She snorted derisively at the memory.

"I wouldn't do something like that normally, but..." she sighed, and shoved a strand of hair back from her face. "It wasn't me they were interested in in the first place. Their wandering hands and eyes were for my father's lands, not me."

[Kitsuneko]

Jisene's burst of laughter initially startled Laila. Not that it was unwelcome, but she wasn't aware she had said anything all that funny, either. She blinked in bewilderment, and it wasn't until Jisene wiped her own eyes and began to explain that it became clear to Laila what was so funny.

Laila's eyes widened. "You...set a bull on them?" She tried to cover her mouth, but there was no stopping it. She started giggling madly. It wasn't something she would have done, and she felt a bit bad for the suitors, but she had to admit--it was still pretty funny imagining that! "Umm, I hope nobody was badly hurt," she said, once she had calmed down a bit. "Fortunately, I only had to deal with two. They weren't that bad, really, either--except I think a lot of times they were more interested in showing up each other than either were interested in me, really."

[Thorn]

Jisene shuddered at the thought of some of the men that had tried to get her to marry them. "Some of mine were... shall we say unsavory...?" She rolled her eyes.

"No, none of them were hurt. They had to run at full speed for a couple of miles, but at least they helped us exercise the bull. We try to let him out of his shed every now and then if we can." She smiled at the memories of her father leading the thoroughly exhausted bull back to the Hold.

"Most of the time, when my parents started talking about it, I just left. Went and stayed in a little place I'd built for myself out in the jungle around our Hold. When I got back, they would just leave it-at least, until a couple of seven days had gone by."

[Kitsuneko]

"Oh, wow..." Laila was beginning to think she had been lucky with the two suitors she had attracted. At least, she didn't envy Jisene's situation. She started chuckling again as she thought about the poor bull. "Well, at least something good came out of it. The bull probably got to burn a good deal of energy chasing them off."

The idea of simply going off by herself for days at a time was completely new to Laila. Jisene was clearly a lot tougher than she looked if she could handle being on her own for so long. "I don't blame you for running off for a bit, but I'm surprised you could do all that by yourself. Or that anyone could, really." A professional hunter or woodsman was one thing, but normal people weren't meant to live out in the woods alone. That's why they had Holds and Weyrs. And that was to say nothing of the dangers of Thread. "Your parents just let you do that, without trying to stop you?"

[Thorn]

Jisene sighed. "I didn't give them a choice in the matter. Father taught me about the jungles when I was little, so I knew how to stay save in them. And I had a little cave out there, one that I turned into a second home of sorts. That's where I kept most of my supplies, at least."

She smiled at the memory as she stepped into the kitchens and began gathering a couple of glasses for their drinks. "As for my bow and quiver of arrows... well, not even Mother tried to take those from me. At least, not until I was Searched, that is. She made me leave them behind, but I'm already making new ones."

Passing a full glass to Laila, she leaned back against one of the preparation tables, smiling as she sipped at the cool liquid.

[Kitsuneko]

Laila couldn't even imagine herself in that sort of situation. Not that she envied Jisene, exactly--despite some of the arguments they'd had, she did love her parents and wanted to make them proud, so she would hate to have such a serious disagreement with them--but she was impressed at the other girl's independence.

She continued to listen as they arrived in the kitchens, and Laila took the drink Jisene offered her with a quiet "thank you". She took a sip before speaking. "How long have you been using a bow and arrows?" she asked curiously. Neither Laila nor any of her siblings had ever been real outdoors types, so she had little experience with that sort of thing.

[Thorn]

Jisene smiled at her. "Since I was very young. Father wanted me to have the independence and confidence to run the Hold when I was older, but Mother wanted me to leave it to whichever man I married. They came to an agreement that it would be a bit of both, in the end, but then I made it clear I didn't want to be married."

She frowned a moment as she tried to think when her father had first taught her to hold a bow. "Now that I think about it... I must have just started walking and talking. I've always had a bow and arrows, even when I was doing my chores around the Hold..."

[Kitsuneko]

Laila blinked. Wow, that seemed quite young. Or maybe that was normal for the serious bow-users. It wasn't like she had any real experience with it herself. "Using a bow and arrows sounds interesting. I've never met anyone who was experienced with it before. At least, not anyone around my own age."

Laila gave a good-humored, if slightly self-deprecating, smile. "I'm afraid I don't have anything quite as interesting as that in my past. Too much to do on the farm to go wandering very far or very long, I think. I've never been too fond of the wilderness anyway. When I was younger, I would go out occasionally to look for fire lizard eggs, but I never had any luck. There seem to be a lot of people around the Weyr who have flitters, though." She tilted her head to one side thoughtfully. "Do you think fire lizards are attracted to the dragons, maybe?"