Vignette: Sanctuary
Who: Emilly, E'lan, Milani
When: 11/21/19?
Where: Milani's Quarters/Emilly and E'lan's Weyr, High Reaches Weyr
What: A threat has been levied against the Weyr and the powers that be have decided that Milani's a possible target. Mom and Dad do the parental thing and insist on bringing their daughter 'back home'.
I wrote this earlier in the week in response to K'del's log about the plans, but was waiting on the scene-finish. Now that there's been an agreement about the scene-end, I've pulled the lock on this. La la la.
"... but I'll be fine, they've got guards and even if someone tried, I'd scream really loudly and kick. And Puddle would fuss and --" Milani was protesting while her mother calmly and implacably took a shirt or two out of a drawer, put them in the bag, then turned to take down and fold up the nightgown that hung on a hook behind the door.
"Listen to your mother," E'lan said with uncharacteristically sober green eyes, both fixed on the headwoman. "If the Weyrleader and A'son and Leova are saying it's dangerous, then it probably is. It's just for a little while until we know someone's not going to try to snatch you in your sleep."
When had her father started to get old, Milani wondered randomly. His hair was touched with wings of silver these days and the wrinkles were deepening around his eyes and at the corners of his mouth. Not that he wasn't still a good-looking man, but he was really starting to /look/ like he was sixty.
"But, Papa I can just stay with K-- someone else. I have friends who're riders you know!" Milani exclaimed with some frustration. She loved her parents dearly but the idea that they were coming to pack her up again like she was twelve and still a little punk brat running around the caverns instead of over twenty and the Weyr's headwoman didn't sit right with her.
Stepping in close, E'lan wrapped his large arms around his daughter and gave her a squeeze that threatened to break ribs. "I know sweetheart. I wouldn't have wanted to still be living with my parents when I was your age. But it's temporary. Until they sort this whole mess out. Besides," and there his eyes narrowed a little and he bared his teeth in semi-feral grin, "they'd better not lay a finger on my little girl. They even try, they'll get what's coming to 'em!"
Emilly looked up from the neat folds she'd put into her daughter's things, tucked everything away neatly and tied the bag closed. "E'lan, there's no need to threaten violence," she said quietly and tucked back a stray curl, turning slowly pale from its formerly deep red shade. "Milani get your jacket and boots and we'll get you set up in your old alcove up in our weyr."
Though the greenrider never raised her voice and her expression seemed calm, Milani could spot the worried tightening at the corners of her mother's eyes a mile away and well, her tone brooked no argument. Millie's chin started to lift defiantly then she deflated all at once. "Fine," she said with a lift of both hands and stalked over to pick up her boots, tied the laces together in an easy knot to slip then grabbed her jacket. "I have everything I need for a few days to a seven or so."
E'lan took a deep breath and nodded. "All right then, one of us will bring you down and take you back up every day. And we'll be sticking close too. You just do what the Weyrleader tells you to do and you'll be fine, sweetie."
Emilly handed off the bag to her weyrmate, picked up the folded blanket from the foot of Milani's bed and tucked it under her arm. She didn't say anything just smiled a little at her daughter and something in the headwoman eased a little. She crossed to her mother swiftly and threw her arms around the older woman. "I love you, Mum," she murmured down low and took a deep, sighing breath. Emilly had made that blanket herself and Milani had kept it on her bed since she'd first moved out. It was a silent reassurance from the greenrider and maybe a promise too and she knew that her mother only meant well, only wanted to keep her safe as she always had done.
Without further argument, Milani released her mother and kissed the greenrider's slowly wrinkling cheek, then stepped into her father's waiting arm. Emilly quietly took up a post on her other side and together they walked out of the headwoman's quarters through the Weyr's corridors to waiting Lazryth and Sionath. It was a short ride up to the large, but homey space the weyrmates occupied. E'lan had lucked out turns ago when he pulled his personal weyr, low enough down to have plumbing, one of the few at the Reaches and spacious. There'd been walls knocked down too, over time, to expand the place into the smaller weyr next door, leading to a dual-ledged, multi-caverned system that had at one time, housed all four of Milani and her siblings as well as her parents and before she was born, an additional two weyrmates.
Now it was just E'lan and Emilly though and frequently the increasingly large brood of grandchildren that often came to stay with their grandparents. The little alcoves off of the main living area where Milani had grown up when not staying down in the caverns still held some of her brothers' and sister's things, but it was her own that still actually held most of the paraphernalia of her childhood: that old favorite doll, a collection of rocks, some drawings she'd done ages ago when her hands had been tiny and held the coloring sticks in an awkward overhand grip. The quilt on the bed was sunny-bright yellows, greens and pinks and a gauzy-winged vtol made of shimmering fabrics still decorated the wall where her mother had put it turns ago.
E'lan put her things at the foot of that cot, though Milani eyed it a little dubiously. She was too tall for it now, really and it was going to be interesting getting all folded up to sleep there. There was a reason after all, why she'd gotten a big bed for her quarters in spite of what some might giggle and titter about. Her parents left her to get settled and she sat down on the cot, breathing in the scents of home. Palia often stayed here now, she knew and delighted in that vtol just as she had at about the same age. For all that her niece was so often solemn, Milani was beginning to realize that maybe they had some things in common. Palia was an interesting blend of independence and thoughtful solemnity, though the little girl did also laugh a fair bit. She liked girlie skirts and making things, but also was getting to be a decent surfer and even at five had an uncanny knack for arguing her way into the things she wanted to do.
Milani smiled a little and flopped back onto the cot, looking up at the ceiling. There used to be glow-in-the-dark 'stars' up there. Glows that her brothers had stuck into the rock, replacing them at regular intervals to give their little sister an internal 'night sky'. She remembered Giremi, silent, lanky and sober had held the basket for their older brother, passing the glows up to him as they were popped into place. Paddy at fourteen, already tall and relatively well-built standing on her cot on a visit from his posting in Tillek, whistling while he pulled out a spent one and popped a new one in place. "There you go, sis, a bright light in the night to keep the scary crawly monsters away," he'd said and grinned at her fondly. She hadn't really been all that scared of the dark ever, but she'd wrapped her arms around his leg to hug him anyway and beamed a three-turn old's pleased smile up at him. It was one of her earliest good memories and it brightened her smile just thinking of that day.
She did feel safe here, as she always had, even as a small child. Milani had of course spent her fair share of nights down in the chidren's caverns too, but her parents had been a bit of an anomaly, keeping their children close, her especially, born so near to the end of the Pass and then raised mostly in the early turns of the Interval, free of Thread when they both had time to lavish love and attention on her that her older siblings hadn't been able to benefit from. The headwoman drew her old doll into her arms and rested her head down on the pillow, thoughts drifting now to more current things: the tithes, her staff, the workload on her desk, briefly and then to the friends who'd decided that keeping her under guard and safely sequestered with her parents was the way to go. K'del. A'son. Leova. Even the Weyrwoman had agreed, though they weren't exactly friends. So here she was. Their worried faces played through her mind again, K'del's as he'd broken the news to her when she'd come by that night. His expression had been so earnest, the concern and caring in his blue eyes so clear. It had made her want to pat his cheek fondly and tell him that everything was going to be all right.
A'son and Leova were both far more taciturn, neither really saying much at all. Leova's remarks had been of the quiet: "And we /will/ make sure you're all right," variety. The greenrider probably knew better than to try to explain and Millie knew where she was coming from. It was all cool.
A'son had only met her eyes briefly when she'd looked his way, his expression unreadable. She'd wanted to go to him, to press a kiss to his cheek, squeeze his hand but instead she stayed put, only cast him the faintest of smiles and continued on about her business. He'd been walking away when she looked up next, and her hands stilled, work forgotten for a moment as she watched the slope of his shoulders, the way his gait rolled as he left.
Her hands smoothed the doll's frizzy yarn hair down and Milani tucked her nose into the spot at the back of her head where she used to all those turns ago. There was a little worn patch there, where the fabric beneath the yarn was soft and thinning. The headwoman's eyes closed and she drifted off for a little while, no longer thinking about possible kidnappers lurking everywhere. She was vaguely aware of Puddle's arrival, the chubby brown bringing the cool of Between with him, then turning around and around on the pillow to flop down and go to sleep with a quiet croon and his roly poly body tucked in against the curve of her neck.
She realized of course that there was a risk and being careful was a good idea, but really, she just didn't think that it would happen, that anyone would try.
When: 11/21/19?
Where: Milani's Quarters/Emilly and E'lan's Weyr, High Reaches Weyr
What: A threat has been levied against the Weyr and the powers that be have decided that Milani's a possible target. Mom and Dad do the parental thing and insist on bringing their daughter 'back home'.
I wrote this earlier in the week in response to K'del's log about the plans, but was waiting on the scene-finish. Now that there's been an agreement about the scene-end, I've pulled the lock on this. La la la.
"... but I'll be fine, they've got guards and even if someone tried, I'd scream really loudly and kick. And Puddle would fuss and --" Milani was protesting while her mother calmly and implacably took a shirt or two out of a drawer, put them in the bag, then turned to take down and fold up the nightgown that hung on a hook behind the door.
"Listen to your mother," E'lan said with uncharacteristically sober green eyes, both fixed on the headwoman. "If the Weyrleader and A'son and Leova are saying it's dangerous, then it probably is. It's just for a little while until we know someone's not going to try to snatch you in your sleep."
When had her father started to get old, Milani wondered randomly. His hair was touched with wings of silver these days and the wrinkles were deepening around his eyes and at the corners of his mouth. Not that he wasn't still a good-looking man, but he was really starting to /look/ like he was sixty.
"But, Papa I can just stay with K-- someone else. I have friends who're riders you know!" Milani exclaimed with some frustration. She loved her parents dearly but the idea that they were coming to pack her up again like she was twelve and still a little punk brat running around the caverns instead of over twenty and the Weyr's headwoman didn't sit right with her.
Stepping in close, E'lan wrapped his large arms around his daughter and gave her a squeeze that threatened to break ribs. "I know sweetheart. I wouldn't have wanted to still be living with my parents when I was your age. But it's temporary. Until they sort this whole mess out. Besides," and there his eyes narrowed a little and he bared his teeth in semi-feral grin, "they'd better not lay a finger on my little girl. They even try, they'll get what's coming to 'em!"
Emilly looked up from the neat folds she'd put into her daughter's things, tucked everything away neatly and tied the bag closed. "E'lan, there's no need to threaten violence," she said quietly and tucked back a stray curl, turning slowly pale from its formerly deep red shade. "Milani get your jacket and boots and we'll get you set up in your old alcove up in our weyr."
Though the greenrider never raised her voice and her expression seemed calm, Milani could spot the worried tightening at the corners of her mother's eyes a mile away and well, her tone brooked no argument. Millie's chin started to lift defiantly then she deflated all at once. "Fine," she said with a lift of both hands and stalked over to pick up her boots, tied the laces together in an easy knot to slip then grabbed her jacket. "I have everything I need for a few days to a seven or so."
E'lan took a deep breath and nodded. "All right then, one of us will bring you down and take you back up every day. And we'll be sticking close too. You just do what the Weyrleader tells you to do and you'll be fine, sweetie."
Emilly handed off the bag to her weyrmate, picked up the folded blanket from the foot of Milani's bed and tucked it under her arm. She didn't say anything just smiled a little at her daughter and something in the headwoman eased a little. She crossed to her mother swiftly and threw her arms around the older woman. "I love you, Mum," she murmured down low and took a deep, sighing breath. Emilly had made that blanket herself and Milani had kept it on her bed since she'd first moved out. It was a silent reassurance from the greenrider and maybe a promise too and she knew that her mother only meant well, only wanted to keep her safe as she always had done.
Without further argument, Milani released her mother and kissed the greenrider's slowly wrinkling cheek, then stepped into her father's waiting arm. Emilly quietly took up a post on her other side and together they walked out of the headwoman's quarters through the Weyr's corridors to waiting Lazryth and Sionath. It was a short ride up to the large, but homey space the weyrmates occupied. E'lan had lucked out turns ago when he pulled his personal weyr, low enough down to have plumbing, one of the few at the Reaches and spacious. There'd been walls knocked down too, over time, to expand the place into the smaller weyr next door, leading to a dual-ledged, multi-caverned system that had at one time, housed all four of Milani and her siblings as well as her parents and before she was born, an additional two weyrmates.
Now it was just E'lan and Emilly though and frequently the increasingly large brood of grandchildren that often came to stay with their grandparents. The little alcoves off of the main living area where Milani had grown up when not staying down in the caverns still held some of her brothers' and sister's things, but it was her own that still actually held most of the paraphernalia of her childhood: that old favorite doll, a collection of rocks, some drawings she'd done ages ago when her hands had been tiny and held the coloring sticks in an awkward overhand grip. The quilt on the bed was sunny-bright yellows, greens and pinks and a gauzy-winged vtol made of shimmering fabrics still decorated the wall where her mother had put it turns ago.
E'lan put her things at the foot of that cot, though Milani eyed it a little dubiously. She was too tall for it now, really and it was going to be interesting getting all folded up to sleep there. There was a reason after all, why she'd gotten a big bed for her quarters in spite of what some might giggle and titter about. Her parents left her to get settled and she sat down on the cot, breathing in the scents of home. Palia often stayed here now, she knew and delighted in that vtol just as she had at about the same age. For all that her niece was so often solemn, Milani was beginning to realize that maybe they had some things in common. Palia was an interesting blend of independence and thoughtful solemnity, though the little girl did also laugh a fair bit. She liked girlie skirts and making things, but also was getting to be a decent surfer and even at five had an uncanny knack for arguing her way into the things she wanted to do.
Milani smiled a little and flopped back onto the cot, looking up at the ceiling. There used to be glow-in-the-dark 'stars' up there. Glows that her brothers had stuck into the rock, replacing them at regular intervals to give their little sister an internal 'night sky'. She remembered Giremi, silent, lanky and sober had held the basket for their older brother, passing the glows up to him as they were popped into place. Paddy at fourteen, already tall and relatively well-built standing on her cot on a visit from his posting in Tillek, whistling while he pulled out a spent one and popped a new one in place. "There you go, sis, a bright light in the night to keep the scary crawly monsters away," he'd said and grinned at her fondly. She hadn't really been all that scared of the dark ever, but she'd wrapped her arms around his leg to hug him anyway and beamed a three-turn old's pleased smile up at him. It was one of her earliest good memories and it brightened her smile just thinking of that day.
She did feel safe here, as she always had, even as a small child. Milani had of course spent her fair share of nights down in the chidren's caverns too, but her parents had been a bit of an anomaly, keeping their children close, her especially, born so near to the end of the Pass and then raised mostly in the early turns of the Interval, free of Thread when they both had time to lavish love and attention on her that her older siblings hadn't been able to benefit from. The headwoman drew her old doll into her arms and rested her head down on the pillow, thoughts drifting now to more current things: the tithes, her staff, the workload on her desk, briefly and then to the friends who'd decided that keeping her under guard and safely sequestered with her parents was the way to go. K'del. A'son. Leova. Even the Weyrwoman had agreed, though they weren't exactly friends. So here she was. Their worried faces played through her mind again, K'del's as he'd broken the news to her when she'd come by that night. His expression had been so earnest, the concern and caring in his blue eyes so clear. It had made her want to pat his cheek fondly and tell him that everything was going to be all right.
A'son and Leova were both far more taciturn, neither really saying much at all. Leova's remarks had been of the quiet: "And we /will/ make sure you're all right," variety. The greenrider probably knew better than to try to explain and Millie knew where she was coming from. It was all cool.
A'son had only met her eyes briefly when she'd looked his way, his expression unreadable. She'd wanted to go to him, to press a kiss to his cheek, squeeze his hand but instead she stayed put, only cast him the faintest of smiles and continued on about her business. He'd been walking away when she looked up next, and her hands stilled, work forgotten for a moment as she watched the slope of his shoulders, the way his gait rolled as he left.
Her hands smoothed the doll's frizzy yarn hair down and Milani tucked her nose into the spot at the back of her head where she used to all those turns ago. There was a little worn patch there, where the fabric beneath the yarn was soft and thinning. The headwoman's eyes closed and she drifted off for a little while, no longer thinking about possible kidnappers lurking everywhere. She was vaguely aware of Puddle's arrival, the chubby brown bringing the cool of Between with him, then turning around and around on the pillow to flop down and go to sleep with a quiet croon and his roly poly body tucked in against the curve of her neck.
She realized of course that there was a risk and being careful was a good idea, but really, she just didn't think that it would happen, that anyone would try.