Damned if you do... (open)

[katgod]

Her overnight stay on the beach had cleared her head. She had not lost rank in coming to the New Weyr and she was, thus far the only Junior. That meant if anything happened to Neory or Sheluth, she would automatically take control. With this in the back of her mind, Elfreth landed as gracefully as the somewhat clumsy Gold, could manage. Everything looked and felt the same here in the Bowl but Laszreen knew things were now completely different.

"Back to being second best..." She sighed inwardly. If it was one thing she disliked, it was not being the best of the best. Not that riding a Gold dragon wasn't enough to alienate one from the rest of Pern. Only one percent of the dragons on Pern were Golds and with so few riders in comparison to the other populations on Pern it was easy enough to say that Goldriders were rare. Laszreen had wanted so badly to be in charge. She liked being the one in control of situations and the one to make final decisions. The small woman slid her leg to the same side as her other and slid down the side of her beautiful dragon.

Elfreth flew off to her ledge, where Laszreen would be meeting her as soon as she visited the kitchens. The Goldrider was trying to phase out any thought of what had happened the day before. She didn't want to know who won for two reasons. If J'var had won, he'd be Weyrleader but she wasn't sure she could take the fact that he had actually won another Gold. If he had lost it would mean two losses for Igen and that would be unacceptable for both of them.

She didn't want to ask anyone and yet, she would have to know eventually. Something told her that she was going to be very unhappy for a very long period of time. Thus the twenty eight turn old avoided speaking with anyone, her face stonily set and her eyes void of any emotion. Unfortunately in her efforts to avoid people she nearly walked into some of them.

[Adobe]

While Ionuth was triumphant, and even he was, there was the thing about talking to Laszreen. She'd probably know by now, and he knew she'd be livid. Of course being the man it was probably all his fault. He knew that if another man touched his woman, he'd ravage the other man before he'd even breath a word to her. But Ionuth won.

J'var was one of the joint rulers of Nova, though he could be replaced in less than a turn. It would have been better if Elfreth had flew first. Now how could Ionuth fly after Elfreth? J'var knew that Rodreth had flown both Saharth and the senior queen before her, Lyranth, but that would not be possible here. There was too much choice, too many bronzes to have one monopolize both queens. There would be riots, fights, arguments, but that was assuming Ionuth could keep Sheluth. Maybe he couldn't win again and Io could go back to Elfreth. Still, he wouldn't be able to fly Elfreth next, and maybe Laszreen wouldn't allow him.

Then he saw her.

He was owned by Laszreen if she wanted to put her will upon him, and now he shivered. She'd want to kill him, he knew he'd feel the same in her position. It still didn't help his rationale. J'var knew the more he let her sit, the worse it would be, so he approached her. She didn't seem to notice him until they nearly crashed into eachother.

"Laszreen. I won. We won. But it doesn't change that I love you." It was all he could say and it flowed out of his mouth before he could sensor anything.

[katgod]

The one person she nearly crashed into was J'var. He looked concerned and she wasn't entirely sure what about until he had some word vomit. She hadn't even gotten a chance to say hello. When he had spurted it all out she just stood there, staring blankly at him like a deer caught in the headlights. What was she supposed to say to that? Her mind caught up quickly but her tongue was slow to keep up with it.

She hated him. She hated Neory. She hated the Weyr. They had to take what was hers away. Even the things she took most pleasure in! Love her did he! HAH! Well she wasn't going to talk in public because all too likely what was going to come out of her mouth would be heard across the Weyr as it was. "I hate you." Laszreen said it as if she could mean it but her emotions had not quite gotten to that level yet. She brushed passed him completely and started to walk very quickly toward her weyr.

He was insane thinking she would be able to handle this. Why had she come here? Competing with Neory was horrible. All she did was lose, first Sheluth flew then she took her Bronze! If Laszreen wasn't the jealous type she might have forgiven her lover for his indiscretion considering it was a flight. However, Laszreen was a very jealous person; it went along with wanting to be great. Forget food, she wasn't even going to bother eating.

If their roles had been reversed he would be equally livid though perhaps more at the man. She could almost wish he had not flown Sheluth. Her heart was too sick to even think rationally, if she were thinking rationally she would know that J'var was doing what he had to for Igen and not intentionally hurting her because she was lesser than Neory.