When Nobody Knew (Part One)
Title: When Nobody Knew
Fandom: RPS/Pern Fusion
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Summary: “I could be a dragon rider, Jared,” and the wonder of being searched had finally crept into his voice, like he was just waiting for Jared to tell him it was okay first. “I could really do it, not just tell stories about it. Me, a holdless nobody.”
“You, a Journeyman Harper,” Jared said softly. “You were never a nobody Jensen, even when nobody knew it yet.”
Author's Note: I began this ages ago and I decided it was time to pull it out. I'll post this story in installments. Just a little something to keep me writing regularly. I love Pern and haven't played in this world in ages. Forgive me if I'm a little rusty :P
He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Well, he could. It was all over the Hall and of course everyone was going crazy about it. It wasn’t like they’d never come before, but this was different.
This was a search. All of Pern knew that the weyr had 32 eggs on the sands plus a gold egg. It wouldn’t be long now before the hatching and the candidates would be presented to the dragonets. The lucky would impress a dragon and begin the rigorous training to become a dragonrider; the men and women who rode dragons in burst of flame to protect all of Pern.
Jared ran up the steps of the outer walls until he found himself staring up at the most magnificent thing he’d ever seen; dragons. Even with his harper training Jared couldn’t find words to describe it. His fingers itched though to write the melody in his head, the pulsing beat of the bloodline, the fluttering of wings, the strong all encompassing melody of a dragon’s story. If he could only manage to write something like that, he might actually earn the status of journeyman someday. By the shards, if he could write a song worthy of a dragon he would be the Master Harper of all Pern.
Five dragons in all looked about the courtyard, one bronze and one brown, their riders talking softly together with the Master Harper who was motioning them inside. Beside that were two blues and the green that Jared was staring at. The green and blue dragonriders were talking to one another and smiling jovially at the people who had come to witness them.
“Think you’ll ever get a chance to touch one?”
Jared turned around, gasping at the very idea. “Jensen! You know better than that! If one of the dragons hears you they’ll… they’ll stake you out for thread!”
Jensen laughed at his scowl. The apprentices of the hall used to look down on Jensen when he was just a drudge. He’d been holdless until his mother had come to the MasterHarper and begged him to take her ten year old boy in. The holdless were the lowest of low in Pern and she wanted more for her child. The Harper had taken Jensen in and Jared, four years younger and a drudge of the Hall by birth, had shown him the ropes along with all his favorite places to visit.
They’d become inseparable right up until the night the MasterHarper had caught Jared picking notes out of one of the string instruments he’d watched so closely as Jensen singing his mother’s lullaby out to the night sky. The Master Harper had taken them both straight out of their life of drudgery in the kitchens and into the Hall where they’d become apprentices.
Jensen had passed through to the rank of journeyman quicker than anyone in the Harper Hall’s history. What took others years had taken him months. Jared had never been prouder of anything, even if it did mean he got to spend less time with Jensen.
Jared did well himself but his inability to hold a tune had held him back until they’d come to see that his strength was in his dramatic readings and in his strong fingers on a string instrument. Given time, the Master Harper thought he’d be a composer to number among the greats.
It was far too great an aspiration for him, but he was happy. He had Jensen who still took the time to be with him even if he beneath his status and they had Dani, the girl from the kitchens who had been most likely to join in their escapades or cover for them when they were about to get caught.
“There’s a gold egg on the sands,” Dani whispered as she came up behind them, slipping a sweetroll into Jared’s hands. He saw the way Jensen shoved his own into his mouth and he followed his lead, making sure no one could catch them with the pilfered sweets. “S’why they got so many blues. They want to have a wide variety of candidates for the eggs when they hatch. They’re visiting every Hold and Hall in their territory.”
“Can you imagine it?” Jared asked through a mouthful.
Jensen laughed, but Dani gave a small sigh that seemed bigger than the whole of her. “Every night.”
“Girl?” One of the riders was calling over their way and they bowed respectfully while Dani fell into a startled but graceful curtsy. “We seem to have lost our wineskin. Can you fetch us a new one?”
She gasped slightly to be addressed by a dragonrider herself but scurried away quickly to see to their needs. Jared and Jensen stayed where they were, watching the dragons and riders but keeping a respectful distance.
When Dani came back she was carrying a tray with wine and some food for the riders to snack on. One of the blue dragon’s riders tried to get Dani to talk to him but she kept her eyes down, though she did smile a time or two.
“Should we rescue her?” Jensen asked Jared as they watched the blue riders engage her, trying to get her to smile and stop looking down at the floor.
Jared shrugged. “Least we can do is let her be close to a dragon. We’ll just … keep an eye out.”
Jensen didn’t seem happy about it but then he never was when someone else showed Dani any attention. There were far too many lords and holders that thought being a drudge meant they could take as they wanted. Dani was far too pretty for them not to keep an eye on. It wasn’t always easy but they did their best and they’d managed to keep her out of trouble so far. As much as she kept them out of it, anyway.
Dani’s eyes fell on Jensen twice as they talked and Jared didn’t like that anymore than Jensen liked the attention on Dani. Dani wasn’t the only one that caught a lord or lady’s eyes in the hold, though Jensen seemed far less away of it.
The Master Harper came out at that moment, the bronze and brown riders following in his wake to stand by the others. Dani carried her tray away and sat it on the stone wall beside Jared and stood next to her friends.
“Have you had time to find what we’re looking for?” The bronzerider asked the other riders.
“We’ve found three possible candidates.”
One of the drummers was pulled up and Jared shook his head. They’d be weak in that section now. He was the strongest drummer in the hall even if he was just a journeyman.
“We’ll take these two as well,” the blue rider said, pointing over at Dani and Jensen.
“What?” Jensen asked, his eyes wide with shock.
“Well no one can say the Harper Hall doesn’t send it’s best to the weyr. You’re taking the most talented Journeyman I’ve had all these long turns,” the Master Harper said, giving Jensen a fond smile.
“Let’s hope he learned your lessons well, Master Harper. Some say the weyr could use a finer breed these days,” the bronzerider said.
Dani and Jensen stood still for a moment but the bluerider came to them and pulled them over to the others. Jared was too stunned to do anything more than move closer to hear what was being said.
“We leave in a candlemark. You have that time to gather your possessions. The weyr will provide everything else you need.”
All three of the candidates took off then to get their stuff and Jared felt bereft. The Master Harper must have seen it because he approached Jared with a kind smile. “Off now Jared. Go to Jensen and make your good-byes.”
He didn’t wait for anything else, not even to give a good-bye to the dragonriders before storming down into the Hall to find Jensen at his bunk. He didn’t have much and it was already sitting on his bed. A few nice tunics and a pair of pants that would go with them. A writing case that Jared and Dani had saved for a whole turn to get him, and a simple set of throwing stones that they had collected over the turns together.
“They’ll probably just send me right back,” Jensen said, his voice slightly panicked as he looked over at Jared.
Jared let out a snort. “You’ll impress a bronze dragon and be the Weyrleader in no time. Everyone knows you’re an overachiever,” Jared said confidently. “Just don’t forget to write. I know you have a good hand so you can’t use that excuse.”
Jensen took a deep breath but before he could say anything Jared pulled out a small bag and dropped all of Jensen’s belongings into it. “There you are. All ready to go.”
“Jared,” Jensen’s voice was soft as he sat heavily on the bed. “I can’t do this without you.”
Jared sat beside him and sighed. “Always knew a day would come and you’d have to leave the nest.”
Jensen shouldered him playfully and they were both smiling and that was all Jared could want from the moment. “You’re gonna go to the weyr and be the best rider they’ve ever seen. You’ll do the Harper Hall proud, you and Dani.”
“I could be a dragon rider, Jared,” and the wonder of being searched had finally crept into his voice, like he was just waiting for Jared to tell him it was okay first. “I could really do it, not just tell stories about it. Me, a holdless nobody.”
“You, a Journeyman Harper,” Jared said softly. “You were never a nobody Jensen, even when nobody knew it yet.”
Jensen reached a hand out and pulled him close, letting their foreheads rest together for a moment.
When they rushed back out to the courtyard the riders were waiting to take them. Dani was already there and she gave him a tearful hug but promised to look after Jensen for him while they were gone.
The riders gave them instructions quickly about how to mount and about going between. Jared couldn’t even imagine between. Jensen and Dani would be at the weyr for their next meal, but it would take Jared a whole sevenday to travel the distance. Three seconds in the cold black of between, where only a dragon’s wings kept them safe, and they would travel that great distance. Again, Jared didn’t have the words for his awe of dragons.
When they finally mounted, Jensen looked like the little kid Jared had first met, his eyes wide and scared but a soft determination that so many people mistook. He’d give the weyr a good shaking, Jared just knew it.
Jensen was pulled up behind the brown rider and Dani and the other journeyman were pulled up on the back of the blue dragons. When the brown dragon rose to the sky, Jared screamed out his farewells. The Master Harper was standing at his side, staring out into the sky. They didn’t go back in until long after the dragons had gone between to the weyr but the MasterHarper didn’t begrudge him the time to celebrate his friends luck, and to mourn their departure.
Fandom: RPS/Pern Fusion
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Summary: “I could be a dragon rider, Jared,” and the wonder of being searched had finally crept into his voice, like he was just waiting for Jared to tell him it was okay first. “I could really do it, not just tell stories about it. Me, a holdless nobody.”
“You, a Journeyman Harper,” Jared said softly. “You were never a nobody Jensen, even when nobody knew it yet.”
Author's Note: I began this ages ago and I decided it was time to pull it out. I'll post this story in installments. Just a little something to keep me writing regularly. I love Pern and haven't played in this world in ages. Forgive me if I'm a little rusty :P
He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Well, he could. It was all over the Hall and of course everyone was going crazy about it. It wasn’t like they’d never come before, but this was different.
This was a search. All of Pern knew that the weyr had 32 eggs on the sands plus a gold egg. It wouldn’t be long now before the hatching and the candidates would be presented to the dragonets. The lucky would impress a dragon and begin the rigorous training to become a dragonrider; the men and women who rode dragons in burst of flame to protect all of Pern.
Jared ran up the steps of the outer walls until he found himself staring up at the most magnificent thing he’d ever seen; dragons. Even with his harper training Jared couldn’t find words to describe it. His fingers itched though to write the melody in his head, the pulsing beat of the bloodline, the fluttering of wings, the strong all encompassing melody of a dragon’s story. If he could only manage to write something like that, he might actually earn the status of journeyman someday. By the shards, if he could write a song worthy of a dragon he would be the Master Harper of all Pern.
Five dragons in all looked about the courtyard, one bronze and one brown, their riders talking softly together with the Master Harper who was motioning them inside. Beside that were two blues and the green that Jared was staring at. The green and blue dragonriders were talking to one another and smiling jovially at the people who had come to witness them.
“Think you’ll ever get a chance to touch one?”
Jared turned around, gasping at the very idea. “Jensen! You know better than that! If one of the dragons hears you they’ll… they’ll stake you out for thread!”
Jensen laughed at his scowl. The apprentices of the hall used to look down on Jensen when he was just a drudge. He’d been holdless until his mother had come to the MasterHarper and begged him to take her ten year old boy in. The holdless were the lowest of low in Pern and she wanted more for her child. The Harper had taken Jensen in and Jared, four years younger and a drudge of the Hall by birth, had shown him the ropes along with all his favorite places to visit.
They’d become inseparable right up until the night the MasterHarper had caught Jared picking notes out of one of the string instruments he’d watched so closely as Jensen singing his mother’s lullaby out to the night sky. The Master Harper had taken them both straight out of their life of drudgery in the kitchens and into the Hall where they’d become apprentices.
Jensen had passed through to the rank of journeyman quicker than anyone in the Harper Hall’s history. What took others years had taken him months. Jared had never been prouder of anything, even if it did mean he got to spend less time with Jensen.
Jared did well himself but his inability to hold a tune had held him back until they’d come to see that his strength was in his dramatic readings and in his strong fingers on a string instrument. Given time, the Master Harper thought he’d be a composer to number among the greats.
It was far too great an aspiration for him, but he was happy. He had Jensen who still took the time to be with him even if he beneath his status and they had Dani, the girl from the kitchens who had been most likely to join in their escapades or cover for them when they were about to get caught.
“There’s a gold egg on the sands,” Dani whispered as she came up behind them, slipping a sweetroll into Jared’s hands. He saw the way Jensen shoved his own into his mouth and he followed his lead, making sure no one could catch them with the pilfered sweets. “S’why they got so many blues. They want to have a wide variety of candidates for the eggs when they hatch. They’re visiting every Hold and Hall in their territory.”
“Can you imagine it?” Jared asked through a mouthful.
Jensen laughed, but Dani gave a small sigh that seemed bigger than the whole of her. “Every night.”
“Girl?” One of the riders was calling over their way and they bowed respectfully while Dani fell into a startled but graceful curtsy. “We seem to have lost our wineskin. Can you fetch us a new one?”
She gasped slightly to be addressed by a dragonrider herself but scurried away quickly to see to their needs. Jared and Jensen stayed where they were, watching the dragons and riders but keeping a respectful distance.
When Dani came back she was carrying a tray with wine and some food for the riders to snack on. One of the blue dragon’s riders tried to get Dani to talk to him but she kept her eyes down, though she did smile a time or two.
“Should we rescue her?” Jensen asked Jared as they watched the blue riders engage her, trying to get her to smile and stop looking down at the floor.
Jared shrugged. “Least we can do is let her be close to a dragon. We’ll just … keep an eye out.”
Jensen didn’t seem happy about it but then he never was when someone else showed Dani any attention. There were far too many lords and holders that thought being a drudge meant they could take as they wanted. Dani was far too pretty for them not to keep an eye on. It wasn’t always easy but they did their best and they’d managed to keep her out of trouble so far. As much as she kept them out of it, anyway.
Dani’s eyes fell on Jensen twice as they talked and Jared didn’t like that anymore than Jensen liked the attention on Dani. Dani wasn’t the only one that caught a lord or lady’s eyes in the hold, though Jensen seemed far less away of it.
The Master Harper came out at that moment, the bronze and brown riders following in his wake to stand by the others. Dani carried her tray away and sat it on the stone wall beside Jared and stood next to her friends.
“Have you had time to find what we’re looking for?” The bronzerider asked the other riders.
“We’ve found three possible candidates.”
One of the drummers was pulled up and Jared shook his head. They’d be weak in that section now. He was the strongest drummer in the hall even if he was just a journeyman.
“We’ll take these two as well,” the blue rider said, pointing over at Dani and Jensen.
“What?” Jensen asked, his eyes wide with shock.
“Well no one can say the Harper Hall doesn’t send it’s best to the weyr. You’re taking the most talented Journeyman I’ve had all these long turns,” the Master Harper said, giving Jensen a fond smile.
“Let’s hope he learned your lessons well, Master Harper. Some say the weyr could use a finer breed these days,” the bronzerider said.
Dani and Jensen stood still for a moment but the bluerider came to them and pulled them over to the others. Jared was too stunned to do anything more than move closer to hear what was being said.
“We leave in a candlemark. You have that time to gather your possessions. The weyr will provide everything else you need.”
All three of the candidates took off then to get their stuff and Jared felt bereft. The Master Harper must have seen it because he approached Jared with a kind smile. “Off now Jared. Go to Jensen and make your good-byes.”
He didn’t wait for anything else, not even to give a good-bye to the dragonriders before storming down into the Hall to find Jensen at his bunk. He didn’t have much and it was already sitting on his bed. A few nice tunics and a pair of pants that would go with them. A writing case that Jared and Dani had saved for a whole turn to get him, and a simple set of throwing stones that they had collected over the turns together.
“They’ll probably just send me right back,” Jensen said, his voice slightly panicked as he looked over at Jared.
Jared let out a snort. “You’ll impress a bronze dragon and be the Weyrleader in no time. Everyone knows you’re an overachiever,” Jared said confidently. “Just don’t forget to write. I know you have a good hand so you can’t use that excuse.”
Jensen took a deep breath but before he could say anything Jared pulled out a small bag and dropped all of Jensen’s belongings into it. “There you are. All ready to go.”
“Jared,” Jensen’s voice was soft as he sat heavily on the bed. “I can’t do this without you.”
Jared sat beside him and sighed. “Always knew a day would come and you’d have to leave the nest.”
Jensen shouldered him playfully and they were both smiling and that was all Jared could want from the moment. “You’re gonna go to the weyr and be the best rider they’ve ever seen. You’ll do the Harper Hall proud, you and Dani.”
“I could be a dragon rider, Jared,” and the wonder of being searched had finally crept into his voice, like he was just waiting for Jared to tell him it was okay first. “I could really do it, not just tell stories about it. Me, a holdless nobody.”
“You, a Journeyman Harper,” Jared said softly. “You were never a nobody Jensen, even when nobody knew it yet.”
Jensen reached a hand out and pulled him close, letting their foreheads rest together for a moment.
When they rushed back out to the courtyard the riders were waiting to take them. Dani was already there and she gave him a tearful hug but promised to look after Jensen for him while they were gone.
The riders gave them instructions quickly about how to mount and about going between. Jared couldn’t even imagine between. Jensen and Dani would be at the weyr for their next meal, but it would take Jared a whole sevenday to travel the distance. Three seconds in the cold black of between, where only a dragon’s wings kept them safe, and they would travel that great distance. Again, Jared didn’t have the words for his awe of dragons.
When they finally mounted, Jensen looked like the little kid Jared had first met, his eyes wide and scared but a soft determination that so many people mistook. He’d give the weyr a good shaking, Jared just knew it.
Jensen was pulled up behind the brown rider and Dani and the other journeyman were pulled up on the back of the blue dragons. When the brown dragon rose to the sky, Jared screamed out his farewells. The Master Harper was standing at his side, staring out into the sky. They didn’t go back in until long after the dragons had gone between to the weyr but the MasterHarper didn’t begrudge him the time to celebrate his friends luck, and to mourn their departure.