Ralto, Mei and Maira

It was ages before Ralto would get used to the wood on Alskyr. There was so much of it, it was pretty impressive to see. Vistas of it. Forests. So unlike their Old World, where there might be a quickly growing wood or a jungle that teemed with sounds - but less than one hundred years later those woods would be taken down by the thread that consumed every bit of organic life in its path.

To see a hardwood, old growth forest for the first time, Ralto cried openly. His wife Mei smiled and put her hand on his shoulder. "It's beautiful," she said.

"It's th-" Ralto grinned, his wide, full lips pulling back away from his big teeth, "it's the second most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"The first is me!" Screeched a young Maira - only eight years old, at the time. Her parents laughed and held her tightly.

***

"That girl, what's her name?" Mei asked her daughter.

"That's Penina," Maira stated, "she's... I think her parents just died. She's an orphan." The seriousness in the ten year old's voice drew attention from her mother. Though Mei was only around 26 years old, she knew from experience that a young girl like Penina would not benefit from living alone.

"We've got enough room in our house," Mei said softly. "Let me talk this over with your father, and perhaps she could come live with us."

Maira's eyes brightened, but she knew better than to just rush off to check if Penina wanted to join their family. Things might not work out. Any number of things might happen.

What did happen, however, was that Ralto decided that it would be for the best.

"It's all right if you share your room?" He asked of Maira, "we don't have an extra room just yet," the wood-cutter glanced at his large axe and the tools that he used every day to trim back the forest and provide firewood for the nearby villagers.

"I totally don't mind," Maira asserted, "we'll get to be sisters!" She was very happy with this arrangement.

Penina sat sulking near the stream, when Maira approached her and sat down.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," Penina said glumly. She added nothing more. But Maira had been her friend for years, since they arrived and before, when they were quite young on the old world. Though their parents hadn't known each other beyond names and crafts, the girls had always shared a lot of time, playing together.

"If you want to," Maira said carefully, "you can come live with me and my folks. My mom wanted to know if you like pancakes for breakfast."

Maira saw Penina's eyes grow wide, and then shut. The pain of having lost her parents to the cave-in some weeks before obviously had not worn off. Several other people lost their lives in the cavern, while they were trying to excavate ores and stones for building.

"It's all right," Maira said, putting her hand over her friend's shoulder. "We've got room, and my mom makes great pancakes."

With tears in her eyes, Penina laughed and said, "thank you - do you have syrup?"

***

The girls were inseparable from the moment Penina entered the house. They did everything together. They began to finish one another's sentances, they were so alike. So totally dissimilar in appearance, yet when one of them would call to Mei or Ralto from the house for them to come in or see something, neither adult could tell who was speaking until they saw the bright white-grey mop of Penina's hair, or their blood-daughter's dark curls.

Equally proud of their foster daughter and their own, Ralto and Mei made certain that once they could afford it, the girls were tutored in math, literacy and crafts. They'd always been good at both Ralto's woodworking, and Mei's pattern making. Penina was better at colors and style than Maira, while the dark skinned girl was stronger and more physically adept.

Within two years, by their 12th birthday (which they celebrated together, since Penina was within weeks of the same day as Maira anyway) they had passed the typical exams that would allow them to enter a higher school.

But something would change all their plans to go to Dawnlight or Tsan Nu for further training. That thing was a dragon that swooped overhead and landed in the village square.

People came out from their homes and the three small shops (there was a general store, a cloth seller who worked directly with Mei, and a butcher who handled everyone's livestock needs) to see. It was a lovely dragon, large and pale blue. Muscular, dramatic. He spread his great wings and fanned the ground, which blew up debris and dust. His rider was a woman, wearing a snug pants-suit the same color as her dragon.

"We've come on search," announced the woman. "My dragon's birth-weyr on the Old World needs good folk to stand." She had a strong voice, obviously used to singing or speaking to groups. "Kaprath?" She said to the dragon, who swung his head around.

The group of villagers stood about 24 strong - they would have been 30 had the group not died in the cave-in two years before. Most were middle aged, some younger like Ralto and Mei, and there were precious few children Penina and Maira's age.

They had been looking forward to going to a bigger school, since that would allow them to have more contact with people their age. However, when Kaprath turned his whirling gaze at the strange family, he snorted and stepped carefully closer to them.

These are good candidates. The man. Strong man like him. Interesting daughters. Very fine woman. They should all go. I think the man, perhaps the woman, will stand on Talis sands.

The dragon broadcast his thoughts to his rider, but also to the foursome. No one else heard - but they certainly knew that the reactions that the family gave off meant something very important had transpired.

"What do you mean, and the woman?" Asked Mei. "I'm hardly young enough to stand! And Ralto?" Mei smacked the muscular man on the stomach, "he's positively ancient! How could -"

"You'll stand just fine," Columbia, the blue's rider said. She left no room for doubt in her tone, the statement silenced Mei. But it got everyone else talking.

Columbia introduced herself, thanked the others in the village for their time, and suggested that anyone who wanted to get close to a dragon should pester Kaprath - he was quite used to having people oogle him. He snorted, rolled his head, and permitted endless touching and questions.

"You should come soon. The clutch needs good people to approach the eggs. You know they like that sort of thing." Columbia said. "And you two," she tilted her head. "I wonder - there are already quite a few female candidates. There may be a gold, in the works. But," she let her gaze stray back to Kaprath and her eyes unfocused as she spoke to him privately.

"What?" Penina said, bouncing slightly. Though she and her foster-sister Maira were rather well-advanced and mature looking for their age, they did act like 12 year olds on occasion.

"Well, Kaprath thinks that there is another weyr on the old world which would also suit you. Perhaps we should take you all to Talis, where you will learn what will happen first." Columbia leaned in, "I think your father will bond well. He's quite strong, and bronzes and browns seem to like that in a man. As do golds." She winked, caught Mei's eye and they shared a giggle that told the girls it was one of those 'grown up girlie' things.

Mei continued laughing, but inside she wondered... How could she stand? She knew that a girl like Maira would be able to bond - especially to an Old World dragon. But she herself? Mei had stood twice before she was injured. That she was injured on the sands at a weyr came back and turned her smile a bit sour.

The village entertained Columbia and Kaprath in the time they were there. The dragon and rider would return in a week's time to collect the family and bring them off to the Old World. They would doubtless need another dragon to transport everyone, Kaprath was big, but he wasn't as large as a brown and even a brown wouldn't have been able to carry five.

While the village sounds carried through the air, Mei fixed what she thought of as one of her last meals here in her comfortable home. She had gotten very quiet, turning the thick omlettes they were to eat that night with an introspective look on her handsome face.

***

Those times she had stood on sands... One was when she was far too young - only nine. There were dozens of greens in a large Queen's cluch, and one of them might have come to her if it hadn't been for a cruel-minded young boy who pushed her aside in the chaos of the hatching. With her face buried in her hands and sand kicking up all around her, Mei hadn't even seen half the hatchings. When she raised her head again, it was to watch a nearby girl bond to a lovely olive-green hatchling. No other dragons even came close to her, and she ran from the sands in tears along with half a dozen other children and teens. Most of them, she reflected, had their chance again not half a year later - and many of them impressed.

But she had to go off with her parents to a Hold where she was to be instructed in proper tailoring and sewing. She'd always loved to do the work, and had a good eye for details. She could size up a person and give a very close estimate of their measurements, and the on the fly make a pattern to suit their personality. When she was given open reign at a fabric-filled room, Mei practically didn't come out for days. She'd gained her senior apprentice badge when she was 14, just before meeting Ralto.

It was right after her 14th birthday when she stood again, at a small green's clutch (how they had arranged this was beyond Mei, at the time practically no one allowed greens to clutch). The sire was a fine brown, who stood watch over his small clutch and bugled loudly when the first to break shell was a burly brown just like him. The rest of the nest was green and a pair of blues - one of whom came too close to Mei.

She wasn't panicky, Mei had always been a fairly stable minded young woman. Even when faced with Thread for the first time (as a very young child) she hadn't panicked, she merely pointed at it and informed an adult. Her fascination for things tended to get in the way of any worry.

But this blue wasn't interested in Mei. It was intent on a boy who stood just beyond her, a field hand who had come to watch the hatching. Mei couldn't get out of the flopping hatchling quickly enough and even though a blue hatchling isn't much compared to their adult size... It was more than enough to deeply wound Mei's knee. The claws the dragon had were big and sharp - never having been dulled by stone or sand.

The healers said that Mei's knee had been cut so badly that they couldn't reattach the tendons. She'd lost the ability to easily move her leg side to side - pulling her leg away into a shoulder-wide stance hurt her greatly even now. Her foot would gently bend this way and that, and she watched the control she had over her own body vanish.

For weeks she spent her time sullenly crying or staring angrily at the useless knee joint. She noticed that people remained somewhat silent toward her, too. It wasn't enough that she hadn't impressed? Twice? Now she was a cripple and they didn't want anything to do with her? That made her cry even harder. But eventually, the weyr healer insisted that she was as healed as she could get, and would have to head home.

It was while heading home - painfully on a caravan that was headed in that direction - that she met Ralto. She was trying to climb aboard the carriage's step, and his strong, steady hand caught hers while she flailed about.

"Your eyes are the color of a spring leaf," he had told her. The pain in her knee seemed to vanish when he helped her up.

He never commented on her wound. He had asked how she'd been injured, and she merely told him, "at the hatching." Beyond that, he seemed to know that it was a bad subject for her.

She never quite went home. A rider from her home cothold had informed her along the way that the small hold's tithes had not been up to par, and half the village was expected to work it off in the more major Hold lord's fields - she was not to come home, to avoid this fate.

Ralto again came to her rescue. He was already tall and he'd always be handsome in her eyes. Though he was gangly at the time and had a quirky smile with his big soft lips (how she'd always wanted to touch them - when would she get the chance?) he was certainly a finer example of humanity than anyone else she'd come across.

They became closer when they reached his own cothold. It was a rough carved place, there were five or six shelters cut into a narrow cliff wall with jutting slate-stone rooftops. There was a dark, somewhat twisty looking forest close by. The Weyr that Mei had tried to impress at was the one responsible for protecting this small cothold - they tithed directly to the Weyr, rather than through another Holder like Mei's home did.

Within just a few months, Mei had reestablished herself as a good clothmaker and seamstress. The local elderly woman who did such things had failing eyesight and her hands shook - she gladly allowed Mei to take over the duties.

Ralto came to Mei one summer afternoon, halfway through Mei's fourteenth year, with a gift. She looked up from her sewing and saw that he had something behind his back.

"What's that?" Mei asked, putting a needle gently into a cushion nearby and tilting her head. Her red curls were held back with a strap of extra material.

Ralto's smile brought Mei's eyebrow up, he was certainly being suave. "It's something I made. Usually we keep the big pieces for use in the Hold or Weyr as a tithe."

This gave Mei a bit of a start.

"Well, I've been working on it since we got back. I knew it'd make a great piece, but I want your opinion. It's yours if you want it," Ralto offered Mei the long lumpy package. It was wrapped in cow leather, typical for the region since there was no paper to speak of and even wherhide was rare.

She placed her sewing to the side and picked it up. This was a heavy piece of wood, she thought, but it was balanced. She began to unwrap it and her eyes glazed over. The knobby end was just the right size to put her hand over, and it tapered down to a thick point on the other, with wavering knots smoothed over all the way down its length.

"It should be the right length," Ralto said, "I mean, I didn't get to measure you but..."

Mei laughed, and stood with it in her hand. She carefully put her left foot on the floor, and then balanced herself with the cane. The pain in her knee receeded a bit, and she stepped toward Ralto.

"How can I thank you!?" She said, a whisper with tears streaming from her big green eyes.

"I'm sure we'll think of something," Ralto had said.

***

The omlettes were quite tasty, as usual. Ralto noticed that his wife was being a bit quiet, especially since she was usually talkative at dinner. She'd made their meal in almost complete silence, commenting only that someone should set the table.

"You know, we'll be able to come right back here," Ralto said. "To Alskyr. We don't have to stay on the old world."

"I..." Mei said, but he waved his fork at her gently.

"You. Yes you, and I, are going to stand. That dragon said so."

The girls had finished up their meal, and were so giddy from having been Searched that they took their plates back into the kitchen and rushed back into their room to pack and talk. That left the dining area rather silent, with Ralto watching his uneasy wife.

"I've stood before," Mei said. "I didn't impress then. What makes him think I'll do so now? I'm too old for it. And my leg, Ralto, I can't even ride with my leg this way."

"You'll learn," he said. "I can't see how it's interrupted anything else you do. You're just looking for an excuse not to go."

Mei put her own fork down, and looked at the half-finished meal on her plate. "... I'm afraid, Ralto, it's bringing up such memories."

"Some of them can't be all that bad," Ralto said with a grin.

"Welllll," she said, and dug back into her food.

Later on, in the evening when the girls could still be heard in their room excitedly chatting still about what rank they would bond (and they were including all kinds of other colors than the Old World would usually offer - they were both too used to Alskyran dragons, weren't they?) Ralto and Mei slipped away into their large bathing room and bolted the door behind them.

The big bath had been made by Ralto and his friends, everyone wanted one. It was round and made of heavy wood, smoothed insides made from the marble which was fit by the local mason. Water came through the house's pipe and they had the luxury of their own furnace - it was hot, it was a tub. It was indeed, a hot tub.

Ralto watched Mei as she got into the water. Ever since she was a teenager she'd been the object of his desire the way that no other woman could be. It was mere chance that he'd been on the tithe caravan up to the Weyr, when he met her on the way back.

"Do you want me to massage your leg? You remember you're supposed to have been doing those exersizes your healer recommended," Ralto scolded her gently, knowing that she had been doing no such thing.

"Please do," Mei said, and after their deliciously warm bath and a good scrubbing, Ralto put down a thick towel on the bench beside the tub. His wife's tan skin looked reddened by the heat of the water. The scar over her knee was visible as a pale gouging triangle. It was still so hard to look at - but not because it was unattractive, it was because Ralto knew how painful it must be. It puckered with the water in her skin.

He pressed his deft hands onto her muscles, starting on her shoulders and working all the way down to her toes. He pulled her leg a bit, watching her wince.

"That's why you're supposed to do the exersizes," Ralto muttered.

***

As a young boy, Ralto always wanted to impress a dragon. They lived quite close to a weyr, and so he hoped beyond hope every time a dragon flight would go over head that one of them would look down at him and call him out.

None ever did. Riders were quite friendly to him, and often commented that he might make a good rider, what with his strong hands and straight back. But he was cut out for his craft, hefting an axe or a large saw was more his speed. At least that was what he'd reply when they said something.

Inside, seething, Ralto put his mind to his work, and imagined himself tightening down the leather straps of a riding harness instead of bringing the saw back and forth...

There was not all that much wood in the world, but this part of it certainly had a good share. Directly below the Weyr, of course, was one place on the planet that wouldn't be easily ravaged by thread fall. Thread had only fallen nearby once or twice that he could recall, and both times he knew he would have rather been outside watching the dragons than being chastised and put in a room where he couldn't even see the sky.

Ralto had gained the attention of the woodcrafters in the weyr. One of them had commented that his cuts were sure, he obviously knew how to handle an axe or saw. He had small carvings that he worked on in his spare time, they were artistically mediocre, but technically well-advanced of most apprentice crafters. Soon enough he was put in charge of the wood harvesting and cutting in his cothold. He was but thirteen, so such an honor didn't go unnoticed.

Especially by the local Lordling boys. "That's one hard worker," one of them said, "it's all he's good for, of course. He's far to coarse to even find himself a nice girl for a dance."

Ralto glowered at them, but he'd been brought up not to insult Lordlings no matter how annoying they got.

"Maybe he's just daft, he obviously can't think too well, or he'd be in school like us." Said another.

When Ralto stood with a 10 inch piece of wood in one hand, his axe in the other, it looked to the boys as though he'd be wanting to throw one or the other at them. Their bullying leader stood his ground, at least until Ralto tossed the piece of wood at him.

"See what you can do with it, then, if you're so vastly superior to me?" Ralto said. His voice had already dropped far lower than the other boys. The Lordling caught the wood in two hands - Ralto thought he caught like a prissy boy indeed.

"I know just what to do with this," the boy sneered. "Have it back, loser." He threw it hard, an overhand toss.

Ralto swung his axe and sliced it neatly into two five inch pieces, one of which he caught with his free hand - yes, he'd swung one-handed. He glared at the boy, and then smirked when they turned tail and ran. No matter how much book learning they might have, Ralto thought to himself, they didn't have what it took to actually survive in the real world.

Their world was of laces and parties, hunting already-weak prey in the fields, and picking on those less rich than themselves. He'd far rather be out there, in the wilderness, where he could breathe and see the sky.

The caravan trip from the Weyr when he was slightly older had been fun, the Weyr always gave him a good bonus for his trouble, if not in coin then in praise.

So he was in quite the good mood when he saw the red-headed young woman staggering out onto the caravan's dusty end. She had been in the weyr, he knew that much, because where else would one find a nice looking and well-kept looking girl like her otherwise? But she didn't seem the weyr type, and he certainly didn't remember her being there any time before.

She limped along, painfully clutching her left leg now and again, and holding on to whatever stable or unmoving object she could, to balance herself. There was a bandage still on her knee, he could see the bulky bunch of it - or at least that was his conjecture when all he could see was a big lumpy mass under her skirt. Without even blinking an eye, he went to her side.

She was obviously having trouble, the step up to the carriage's seat was high for an adult or even a rider. He put his hand out and steadied her, without really asking if she needed help. When she was up in the seat, she turned her widely spaced eyes to his, and she smiled.

He fell in love with her eyes, they were, as he said, the color of a spring leaf. A fascinating color, and one he loved to look at indeed. As they traveled, they encountered the messenger that told Mei to remain away from her home cothold - and though she kept her tears to herself, Ralto knew that she was desperate to see her family one more time.

She never did get the chance, though. She fit right in at his own village, while Ralto picked up where he'd left off the season before. He planted seedlings on ground where the sun would reach them - eventually the whole forest would be planted by his own hands, he fancied.

One trip into the woods yeilded a particular tree. Ralto had seen this one before, but he'd left it because it was gnarled and mostly useless for the Weyr or anyone else to use.

However... He hadn't seen the one side of it, before. He circled it, and his eye told him that he'd been missing a nice chunk of wood entirely! Clearing away a bit of the overgrowth, Ralto saw just what he thought he'd been looking for: a 4 foot long piece of straight wood among the twisted gnarled branches. This tree was more like a bush or shrub, it grew close to the ground. But one piece was growing horizontally, almost flat against the ground, and had the starts of several knots in it, none of them really going anywhere. It was hardly the thickness of his burly wrist, but in places where the knots grew it was as wide around as his fist.

He knew just exactly what he wanted to do with it, now. For several weeks he would go out and actually work on the wood while it still grew on the tree. There was no reason to bring it back - someone would surely see it and demand it be put in their tithe cart. So while he was out collecting other pieces of wood, Ralto smoothed out the bark and at last cut the piece down to the right size.

We all know what happened next.

***

The kink in Mei's back was one of those 'sewing knots' that she complained about, and Ralto's trip down memory lane lasted as long as it took to work it out. Even though his hands were hard with work and time, he usually wore heavy gloves when he handled the woods, so his fingers could caress his wife's skin and still feel properly.

"Let's start working on your leg," he suggested. Mei grunted. She was obviously so relaxed that she didn't even care when he began to tug on her foot again. He knew that she could feel it, and to a small extent move it, but she'd taken to wearing a kind of brace around it so that it didn't accidentally trip her up when it turned the wrong way.

Ralto remembered what their healer had suggested - when Maira was born they were both quite young and the healer suggested that to avoid any more pain like Mei had when giving birth (since her legs were rather important to be functional) she'd stretch and strengthen them.

Ralto gently pushed her foot flat and bent it again, then slowly moved her leg to bend. He felt her tense up, so he stopped.

"It'll take some work," Mei said. "But keep going. I guess if I'm going to stand, I might as well be ready to ride when the time might come..."

***

What about the girls?

***

In the mean time - Talis' sands grew colder as the months progressed. No one said a thing - but no one could bear the thought that the eggs had all died. Maybe? Maybe there would be a chance? But like so many places in the past, Talis weyr's sands would not be fruitful. Not this time.

So with their heads hung low, the pair (along with a trio of boys from Dawnlight, they noticed) arranged to come home.

"I don't think you want to go home just yet," said their rider, S'nam on blue Zharth. "He's still a search rider you know, and ... well, what with this place apparently out of comission, maybe you two should come back with me. Starburst is still alive and kicking. Not for lack of trying..." He had a faintly haunted look, and Mei recalled having seen something about a plague - those things were horrid. People should guard against diseases.

"If you think we're going to pair off," Ralto said, interrupting any dismal thoughts that Mei might have, "then let's go! I don't want to be late for the hatching. Not this time!"

He beamed at his wife, who gulped back a bit of a sob. This was so expected. How else would her life go? She just didn't know what to want any more. They were so sure that they'd bond - yet... dead eggs haunted her dreams.

Their daughters of course had a bit more luck, but that's their own story!

What happens to Ralto and Mei?