Eden and Alasyth

Did I just miss the last exit to Eden? Did I just miss my only way out of here? - Amanda Marshall
* * *

You look beautiful. Trust me. Alasyth tried to remain patient with her rider. After all, I’ve only told you it about a hundred times.

Eden was too nervous to even glare at her lifemate like she normally would. The goldrider simply panicked as she looked in the mirror. "Something’s going to go wrong."

Alasyth sighed. Nothing is going to go wrong. You’ve planned this all out. The fully grown dragon lowered her head so she was level with her rider’s. You’ll do fine. It’s going to be fine.

"It won’t!" Eden was fully into a panic attack. "Something will go wrong and it’ll end wrong and he’ll hate me forever!" She flopped down onto her bed as a new terror hit her. "What if I forget what I’m supposed to say!!"

The gold dragon was running out of patience. Have you, or have you not been waiting for this moment for the last turn?

Eden looked sadly at her dragon. "I have?"

Alasyth bugled. Of course you have rider-mine! It’s your dream. What you’ve wanted. For heaven sakes, when you first found out it would happen you couldn’t stop talking about it. You’ll be fine and you’ll live happily ever after. Trust me.

"Promise?" Eden stared at her reflection in the mirror.

Promise. The dragon sighed and for heaven’s sake try to look happy. You’re going to marry the man you love, not your execution.

"Whoa. Deja-vu." The familiar Harper leaned in the doorway to the reception hall that had been beautifully decorated by the ladies of Adanuk Weyr in honour of this event.

Eden had not been facing the door, but she smiled recognizing the voice. "Gars!" She whirled and ran into his embrace, long, white wedding dress flowing behind her. "You made it!"

"Of course I made it. Do you think I’d miss the marriage of my favourite sister?" He twirled her around once before setting her safely back on the ground. He looked at her and smirked. "I made it to your last wedding too."

Eden glared at him. "It’s the same wedding...basically. Well it’s the same groom anyways." She smiled remembering how unwilling she’d been to even think of marrying R’arian. Now she was ecstatic...she thought. If only the damn butterflies could find a better place to fly than her stomach.

"It’s a totally different wedding. Much nicer dress." Gars leaned against one of the tables and picked through some of the snacks.

Eden was tempted, but knew that if she accidentally spilt anything on the beautiful white dress that the Master Weaver had made for her she’d be dead. She grinned remembering Alasyth’s comment when the man gave it to her. Something along the lines of ‘It’s the only piece of clothing you own that you had no part of the making.’

She could feel her lifemate smile. Do you have any idea how hard it was for that poor man to keep that dress a secret from you?

It was a lovely gift. She smirked and turned back to Gars who had waited patiently when he saw her begin to communicate with her lifemate. "A dress does not a wedding make."

He smirked. "Alright then, it’s a totally different wedding because: 1) Mom had no part in the arrangement of it. 2) The groom was not chosen for you. And 3) You actually want to get married."

She smiled and hugged him again, trying desperately to repress her nature. "I love you dearly Gars, but tell me please...you’re not really wearing that are you?"

Gars laughed.

"Eden!" The goldrider winced as she heard another familiar voice, this one a little less welcome. "What are you doing wandering around like that?"

She calmed herself before turning to face the couple behind her. "Mother, father. I’m glad you could make it."

"I’m surprised Ronarian doesn’t tie you up, make sure that you don’t run off on him again." Her father snorted.

"It’s R’arian now, father." Eden continued to tell herself that this man was an esteemed Lord Holder and her father. She shouldn’t hit him.

Aw, go ahead. It’s your wedding day, indulge yourself. Alasyth approached the trio and Eden’s parent’s couldn’t help taking a few steps back. Alasyth was, after all, a rather large gold.

"What’s that beast’s name again?" Her father was as rude as ever.

"Alasyth, father. And she doesn’t enjoy being called a beast." Somehow Eden wondered why she’d ever wanted desperately to please this man. He seemed rather small and petty after all she’d been through at Adanuk and at Taylor Cliff.

Vienna smiled. She’d learned her lesson at Eden’s last ‘wedding’. "Don’t worry about him dear, he’s just upset."

"About what?"

"That you didn’t fall in love with Ronarian...R’arian when he still was heir to Kysim Hold." Vienna smiled and unconsciously went to fix Eden’s hair. The goldrider tensed and Vienna realized what she was doing. The Lady Holder smiled. "You look beautiful dear."

Eden smiled. "Thanks mom."

"Hey. You look exactly like you did last time we saw you." Devo made a wise crack.

Eden tensed again as her trio of younger brothers made their appearance. She forced a smile. "Hey." How sure are you dragons don’t eat people?

Pretty sure. The gold yawned and admired her hide. She’d been washed, oiled and spiffed up in honour of today.

"If she’s getting married again, do we get more flits?" Drowen laughed at his own joke and Devo and Damian joined in.

Vienna gave Eden a half-smile, asking her to be patient with her brothers. Eden smiled back. "We’d better get you into the waiting room. We can’t let the groom see you." The Lady Holder whisked her daughter out of the Weyrbowl and towards the Dining Hall.

"Thanks mom." Eden squeezed her mother’s hand.

Vienna squeezed back. "Sometimes they don’t know when to keep their mouths shut. I’ve tried for the life of me to teach them manners, but they never learned. I figured I must have taught you manners right so I thought they would too." She smiled. "Little did I know that you were just special."

Eden sat on one of the benches and sighed. "Were you this nervous when you were going to marry dad?"

"Honey, I was worse off than you. You love R’arian, I didn’t even know your father." She sat down beside her daughter and both of them wished that they’d sorted out their differences a lot earlier. They both wished it hadn’t taken an almost wedding and a searching to get them to talk. "I have a gift for you."

"What?" Eden’s nervousness was temporarily forgotten in the excitement of a present. "You didn’t have to do that..."

"Yes I did." The Lady Holder walked out to where her luggage had been set, leaning against the wall of the Weyrbowl, waiting for someone to take it to her room. She returned with an earthen jar. "I remembered the last time I knew you were getting married and I thought of what a horrible surprise that must have been. So I thought back to what you said was a good surprise, and I believe this was on the list."

Eden curiously opened the jar and saw...sand. But she knew it was more than sand. Buried in that sand was a firelizard egg. She smiled. "Thanks mom."

"I wish I’d given you this back then instead of a whole bunch of heartache."

Eden leaned against her mother in the largest show of affection either of them had ever given each other. "I don’t mom. I would never have met R’arian if you didn’t." She let her mother hug her. "Although I’m sure I would have liked this surprise a lot better."

Vienna laughed.

This is it. Alasyth was easily as excited as her rider. Are you ready?

Ready as I’ll ever be. She took a deep breath and straightened her veil one last time. She shut her eyes and listened for her cue.

Weyrwoman Magika’s voice carried clear across the Weyrbowl and into the room where Eden was waiting. "And who is it you seek to marry, Bronzerider R’arian?"

"Eden." He spoke her name clearly, but softly. She smiled.

"Where is Eden?" Magika continued.

"I am here." Eden stepped into the Weyrbowl. Her voice carried well in the warm summer air. She always had been good at making herself heard.

Magika smiled. "Come forward." Eden didn’t think she’d ever heard the Weyrwoman so solemn.

Eden began walking down the aisle of people to where R’arian was already waiting for her. He smiled and winked, betraying how nervous he actually was. Somehow, knowing that he was nervous made Eden feel better.

"Before we begin, does anyone have a good reason why these two should not be married?" It was a traditional question, no body ever said anything...usually.

"Thread!" The whole gathered crowd couldn’t believe their ears, but Starcrafter Nabir continued to run. "Thread!" He got about halfway through the assembly when he realized that no one was moving. "Hello? You guys normally get on the dragons and go fight it. You’re a Weyr, remember?"

Magika gave Eden and R’arian an apologetic half-smile. "You heard the man. Everybody scramble."

Eden sighed. I told you something was going to go wrong. She began running towards her lifemate.

"No you don’t!!" The Master Weaver made a grab for her. "You’re not fighting Thread in my dress."

Eden glanced at where the rest of her wing was gathering, then up to her weyr, then down at the dress. Eden...hurry! The goldrider shrugged. "If you insist." She quickly undid the buttons down the back and slipped out of the gown. She handed the beautiful creation back to the Master Weaver and ran to join her wing dressed in nothing but her underwear.

You can’t fight Thread in that! Alasyth had let another rider partly saddle her to save Eden some time.

"I’ll have my riding leathers on over it." She smiled as she began to slip into her leathers. "Besides, I couldn’t have ruined that dress."

Hours later, everyone was re-gathered in the kitchens, only this time, the dragonriders were getting their missed supper. Eden, still dressed half in her underwear and half in her riding leathers. Everyone was tired, sweaty, but generally in a good mood. Once again they’d saved the planet.

Magika walked over to where Eden was leaning against R’arian. "Now where were we?"

Everyone looked at her like she was crazy. They were all dirty and disgusting and most of them had wrecked their best clothes scrabbling directly from the wedding to their wings. Magika herself had ruined the one and only dress the Weyrwoman owned. The beautiful midnight blue velvet gown had been cut all the way up the side to allow her freedom of movement, and it was torn and stained in many places. Eden looked at her and realized that she must look worse. And yet somehow she didn’t care. "You were at, ‘Does anyone have a reason why we shouldn’t be married.’"

R’arian smiled at her and they stood up on the table with Magika. "Well," The Weyrwoman’s voice boomed. "Does anyone?"

The room was silent. Magika smiled and turned to R’arian. "Do you?"

He grinned. "I do."

She turned to Eden. "Do you?"

Eden leaned against her soon-to-be husband. "I do."

"Than that’s that!" The Weyrwoman smiled. "Let’s open the wine."

A cheer went up as Eden and R’arian took that as ‘You may now kiss each other.’"

"Eden..." R’arian called softly to her, needing to wake her, but feeling bad about it. "Eden?"

"Mmm?" She smiled happily up at him from her spot beside him. This was the eighth day of their honeymoon, after the seventh night of their honeymoon. Needless to say she was in an amazing mood.

"Your egg’s rocking." For a moment Eden thought that R’arian was speaking another language before she finally remembered the firelizard egg her mother had given her. With the slowness that all half-asleep people have, Eden finally made the connection that rocking egg meant hatching egg.

"Gah!" She leapt from the bed and ran to the egg. Sure enough it was rocking for all it was worth. "Gah!" She headed for the door.

"Eden!!" R’arian called her back quickly. She turned around before she turned the door handle. "Aren’t you forgetting something?"

She looked blankly at him, still foggy from being recently awakened.

"Clothes?" He decided to give her the answer. She blushed and went to quickly throw on a robe before running to get some meat.

R’arian ran his fingers through Eden’s hair as she cradled her new sleeping firelizard. "So what are you going to call it?"

Eden smiled and leaned back against the bed. She was sitting on the floor in front of her husband. She grinned again. She loved thinking that word. "Soshina."

"Pretty name." He continued to stroke her hair. This just felt so right.

Ren leaned over and nosed the white/silvery flitter. He appeared unimpressed. Eden laughed. "I guess Ren doesn’t appreciate company."

He’s just jealous. Soshina is a cute little doll. Alasyth seemed to like her new friend. The way you’re holding her like a little baby...it’s very adorable.

Are you sure you’re feeling okay? Eden found it slightly hard to believe that Alasyth was being this...co-operative.

I can’t help it...what with you sending me all these motherly emotions...I don’t know what you’ll be like when your real baby comes... The dragon rolled her eyes.

Eden was stunned for a moment. She actually turned to face the dragoncouch where her gold was sleeping. Real baby?

The gold’s eyes whirled blue with amusement. Shards...what will I be like?

Real baby? Eden noticed that Soshina was nibbling on her fingers, but Alasyth’s news seemed more important.

"Baby?" R’arian turned to stare at his bronze, obviously Xinleoath had informed him of the news.

The two looked at each other in shock for a moment, the implications of this sinking in. They both smiled, Eden actually squealed and ran into each others arms. This would most definitely make for some interesting news to send home to their parents.