"Ling, you are the most insane person ever born. Of course you can leave Dawnlight. It's for the best cause ever!" Wing, the older, more sedate one, leaned against the wall of their small business.
"Wing, what about the--"
Wing held up her yellow-tan hand. "Ap! Op! Not a word. Not one more word about shoes. They're my life too, sweet sister, but they're not my *LIFE*. Our lives could be so much ... more!"
Wing looked out the window, gazing at the sky. It was not her native sky, not the same quite, as she remembered. In fact, you could even see some different stars during the day time, here where Dawnlight rested today. Two years past, it would have been a huge red spore-bearing planet dragging its ugly carcass across the sky.
That was the one twinge that Wing felt: they'd have to work their way back, before they could truly reap the rewards of their new world.
Ling slumped in her tall-backed chair. It was her favorite chair, one which survived the transition from Pern to Alskyr nicely. And everyone who came to their shop certainly thought it looked good. She looked at the shelves around them, the stone walls with their metal fittings holding up wooden lengths of plank -- real wood! Not like the old 'hope you can get a little bit of wood here and there' wood, but real solid, hard wood. On the shelves sat rows of shoe molds. She'd shaped some of them herself, but Wing took care of that aspect more often than not.
It was a dream their mother and father had had, long before, to run a shop like this. Father had trained Ling in his master work of leather crafting, well enough that now upon Alskyr the leather guild was interested in Ling's work. Mother's whittling had always been cut somewhat short because of the supply of wood on Pern being stunted as it was. But Wing's artful bending and shaping of the wood here on Alskyr was something just short of miraculous.
The small business building also served as their home. Ling gazed at the doorway to their kitchen, and the hall beside it which led to their bedrooms and private chamber. Everything else in the place, from the tables and work benches, the tools and the heating tongs, the fire pit and everything... It was their life. The shoes they had made faithfully since they were children.
Everyone in Dawnlight had shoes. Clothing. Shelter. It was required that everyone work of course, and everyone's craft was usually determined by their parentage or the Holders before they were old enough to choose for themselves.
It had its benefits. It had its moments of shame. But everyone had their shoes. And everyone came to Wing and Ling Xa for them. They worked in trade, usually, but when the time came for new shoes for the Holders and the crafters children, it was a boon of money. They had to predict how many pairs, what sizes would be best to make and which ones to hold off from finishing... What colors were of course determined by the Holders whim.
Even the shoes were confined to certain colors, in Dawnlight. But on Alskyr... the presence of other more interesting patterns and color combinations that they had not enjoyed before was almost uncontrollably attractive.
Ling let her hand drape over to the stretching tools. She was so used to their feel, the smooth metal handles, the high-gloss of the wood pieces, the sharp screw lines where the sizes were changed... The tanning racks outside under their shelter could barely be seen out the window. Many colors of leather which would then be set onto patterns, cut with the sharp, hard knives...
Ling knew nothing but work. Nothing but shoes.
Yet here was her sister, sweet, quiet little Wing, woodworking Wing who inherited the deft skill of their mother with a grace and style that she made all her own. The woods she chose here were so much finer than those on Pern. She worked them as easily as anything. Her hands alone could determine a weakness in a shoe form, she knew just where to put the most stress and widen a too-narrow fit. She could tell a piece of wood in no uncertain terms where to go and what to do once it got there.
Wing wanted to ride dragons. And they had the perfect opportunity to do so, as well. Here on Alskyr, they would be welcomed. They would be trained, of course, in their new jobs as riders. But would the expectations of the world lay upon their shoulders the same way they had accepted the burden of their work for the feet of the world?
"Ryslen Weyr awaits, my sister..." Wing reminded Ling. "And besides, the clutches won't hatch until--"
"Wait, clutchES? There are more than one? What's happening here? I've heard whispers of Talor's clutches, and genetics, and frenzies, and now, Ryslen has more than one on its sands AGAIN?"
"You see, you do care about dragons." Wing said, nodding as if she'd provoked the comment on purpose. "And you seem to know enough about the other weyrs and such that you don't need to feign innocence."
"Welllll.... people talk you know. You don't usually fit and sell, sister. I do. I see so many feet in a day..." Ling waved her long fingers before her face, "and whew, I smell some of them too..." Ling's face turned to look at her sister's. "So they talk. And you know we've had some dragon riders among our customers. I think they like our boots best. It means they don't have to make them on their own. Can't see why they'd have to, anyway... That's what leather workers and shoemakers are for..."
"Yes I know that," Wing commented, sitting on the table beside Ling. "So... We can still make shoes. We can still do all of those things, but then... We could do more too. We could make it our hobby instead of our livelyhood."
Pondering that, Ling looked away. "There is that. Dragon riders still have to work for their keep, but it's not the same as this. I can't imagine how ... exciting it could be..."
"I think you can. I think you have." Wing leaned down, and whispered in her sister's ear, "I think you *are* imagining it..."
"Or we could use them to transport the wares!" Ling blurted out. "We would be coming back here, right? So we could... We could move our business to the Caer, and set up properly around people... And we could move between the guilds, too... It would make things so much easier!"
Wing only smiled lightly. Of course her sister would have come around some time, it just took a little convincing.
So when J'rin and Amitath came swooping down from the clear blue sky overhead, he was pleased to take two young women and their collection of clothing, craft items and money, back to Ryslen with him.