Post by Zen on Feb 4, 2020 17:10:50 GMT -5
Since coming to Mavros, Yvinka had spent all her time on the Weyr side of the weyrhold and was still trying to make sense of the maze of caverns that seemed to go everywhere. So to take a break from getting herself turned around and lost, she decided to make a trek along the beach to the harbor cave on the other side of the bay. She took her time, there were no chores to do as today was a rest day for the candidates, and walked barefoot through the waves lapping at the sand. It would be nice to be around ships for a bit. Living in a cave was so different to what she was used to. She wondered if there would be anything more than fishing vessels.
Eventually she reached the massive harbor cave, stopped to marvel at just how large it was for a moment. Several ships could pass through it abreast with room to spare, she figured. Plenty of light reflected inside, off the water, as she passed into the shadow of the gaping cavern entrance. Light danced all around the stoney walls and ceiling. She was somewhat mesmerized by them, her head tilted upward as she walked forward slowly, watching them, until she ran into someone for her lack of watching where she was going, “Oof!”
“Watch it, girl!” The man growled at her, moving on without much more consideration for her as she made a face at his back. Looking around at the people bustling around, she wondered if any of them ever stopped to watch the lights dance, if they even noticed it. Probably not. She paid more attention to where she was going then, turning her gaze to the docks where several ships were moored. To her surprise there were indeed a few ships that were clearly more than fishing boats. She made her way through the crowds to get closer to them.
The Sea Dragon was rather large, definitely the biggest ship in the cavern. There was no way it could be anything but a trading vessel, from the looks of her specializing in transporting live product. They had a ship specialized for herdbeast transport in her grandfathers’ trading fleet that looked similar. She’d been on it once, and that had been enough. It had smelled something awful. She wrinkled her nose at the memory and moved farther down the docks, her gaze shifting over the next two ships. She thought it was strange to see three trading ships moored together, at Mavros of all places. She’d never been to Mavros before, her grandfathers’ ships shunned the Weyrhold, and she supposed she had thought most other traders did too. Maybe it was just them.
She passed the Bright Wing and thought the name had a nice sound to it. If she ever named a ship, it would probably be something like that. Not that she ever would. At the next ship she stopped in her tracks as the name at her prow came into view. That was… impossible. Her feet moved on their own, along the docks, toward the gangplank, pushing through people that got in her way without a second thought until she was on her way up to the deck. She stepped onto weathered wooden boards, her wide gaze slowly taking everything in. Vague memories returned to her. Her uncle had let her climb on that rigging and pretend to steer the ship up there at the helm.
“Hey! What’re you doin’ here?” the sharp question jolted her back to the present to see a man heading her way, “You lost, girl?”
“I…,” she didn’t recognize the man, but that didn’t mean anything. This was her uncle’s ship. “Is… is the… the captain here?” She tried not to get her hopes up. What if something had happened to him, what if the Storm’s Eye had come under some other man’s possession?
“Why, y’have business with him?” the man eyed her skeptically, “Y’seem a bit young for him.”
Yvinka’s face contorted in confusion. What the shell did that mean? “Is he here or not?” she demanded.
After a moment’s hesitation, the man nodded, “Aye. Y’stay right here. I’ll fetch him for you.”
She watched the man head below decks, itching to follow him. As she waited she edged closer and closer, and had made it nearly half way across the deck when he finally appeared.
He looked… rather exactly how she remembered him. “This one?” he asked the man at his side.
“Aye, captain. She asked after you,” he confirmed.
Treyjen took a step toward her, but Yvinka was already rushing toward him, and before he’d gone much farther she had thrown her arms around his neck, “Treyjen! You’re alive!”
Treyjen stumbled back, unprepared, “Ah… so I am. Do I… know you?”
She pulled back, offended, “You forgot me!?” Her hands settled on her hips as she glared up at him, “You’re the worst uncle ever.”
It took another moment before recognition crossed over his features, his voice a shocked sort of whisper when he spoke, “Yva…?”
Her glare disappeared as a grin spread over her face and she threw her arms around him again, “I’ve missed you!”
Treyjen stiffened, glancing around quickly, “How… why are you here?”
Yvinka pulled back from him again, “You’re not even gonna hug me back?” She prodded at his shoulder unhappily, “You really are a horrible uncle.”
“Yva!” the sharpness in his tone got her attention as he grabbed her shoulders, a serious, dangerous sort of look on his face, “Are you here with the fleet?”
“Pffft, no,” she replied, slapping his hands away, apparently unconcerned by his sudden seriousness, “They’d never come here. I ran away. Well, flew away. I got Searched! I never imagined I’d find you here…. Is this where you’ve been all these turns? No wonder we’ve never run into you.”
He seemed to relax then, and then realized what all she’d said, “You ran away? Wait, Searched? As in… to be a dragonrider?”
“Mmhm! A rider approached me at Southern when I was exploring. Father was busy doing something or another and wasn’t on the ship, so I got some of my stuff and flew away with her before he could know anything about it!” She grinned up at him, quite proud of herself. Treyjen laughed and pulled her into a hug then, which she returned, “Finally.”
His hands came to her shoulders again, pushing her gently away, “Hold on, let me get a good look at you. You sure have grown, haven’t you? How’s your mother? Has she wisened up and left my ass of a brother yet?”
Yvinka rolled her eyes, “No. I don’t know why not. All they ever do is argue. But she’s fine, otherwise. She actually… she was there, when I was getting my things. She told me to go.”
“I always did like her,” Treyjen grinned down at her, “You look a lot like her, you know.”
She made a noise, “That’s what everyone always tells me. But where have you been? What have you been doing? Why did you leave?”
The grin slipped off his lips at that line of questioning, and he glanced over at the man that had gone to fetch him, who had thus far been watching the proceedings with confused curiosity, “You can go now, Levek.”
“Ah… aye, captain,” he turned and hurried away as Treyjen guided Yvinka toward his quarters.
“No one ever… told you why I left?”
She shook her head, “Father wouldn’t talk about it and grandmother always gets sad whenever you come up in conversation, and I wasn’t about to ask grandfather. No one else seemed to know, not even mother, though she didn’t seem very surprised when it happened.”
Treyjen shut the door behind them, running one hand over his face and through his hair as he considered what all to tell her. “Nalyra was due to be married. She didn’t want to be,” he turned back to the girl, “So we left.”
Yvinka’s brow furrowed slightly, and then the realization hit, “Is Nalyra here too!?”
Treyjen laughed lightly, “Aye. Not on the Storm’s Eye. Couldn’t tell you just where she is at the moment. Might be back on her ship, might not.”
Yvinka’s eyes went wide, “She has her own ship?” Since when did women captain ships? There were enough men who would follow her?
Treyjen grinned, “Aye. The Bright Wing. She’s more likely to be about the harbor caverns about now, though.”
“I can’t wait to see her again. She was always so fun!” Yvinka couldn’t help but to just stare at him for a moment, still hardly believing he was here, “You look just like I remember….” She hesitated, glancing around briefly, “I heard some of the men talking about you sometimes… they said the Storm’s Eye had turned pirate.” There was a question there, one she wasn’t really sure she wanted to know the answer to.
And one Treyjen didn’t particularly want to answer either. His gaze never left hers, an eyebrow raising nonchalantly, “Did they? I can imagine a certain little girl’s imagination running away with that tale.”
Yvinka laughed, “Yeah, I did. I thought it sounded exciting… at the time, anyway.” The realities of piracy had become known to her as she got older, after all. It was not all some fanciful adventure doing as you pleased out at sea. Pirates killed people. But she couldn’t imagine her uncle doing such a thing. Surely the rumors about the Storm’s Eye turning pirate hadn’t been true. Why would he be here at Mavros? Dragonriders wouldn’t let known pirates take shelter here.
Treyjen was quite aware of his niece’s short attention span, at least, he was counting on the fact that she hadn’t grown out of it. And she hadn’t.
“Oh! If I don’t Impress a dragon I was thinking I would find another ship to join. I could join yours! Or Nalyra’s!” she suddenly changed the subject of her own volition as the idea occurred to her.
Treyjen was careful not to let his easy smile falter at that concept. He couldn’t very well keep her in the dark if she joined them, and neither did he want to allow her into this life. There was no going back from it. While he wasn’t anymore certain about seeing her become a dragonrider, he had a moment to hope she did Impress so she would never be able to join his crew and he would never need to make up any excuse as to why she couldn’t. “I would be glad to have you, love. But focus on first things first, eh? Didn’t you come to Mavros because you were Searched?”
“Well yeah, sort of. I mostly just used it as an excuse to get away. I’m honestly not really sure if I wanna be a rider or not but I thought it would be fun to be a candidate for a little while at least and see what happens,” she explained in a rush, “But I don’t think I’ll be terribly disappointed if I don’t Impress either. Then I’d get to sail with you!” Although she was already leaning toward trying to join her aunt’s crew. Maybe she could be a captain too one day. Before Treyjen was forced to respond to that, however, a new thought occurred to her, “Oh, is the Sea Dragon part of your fleet too?”
Treyjen was quick to latch onto that topic, “Aye, she is. Karosh captains her. You remember him?”
She giggled and clasped her hands behind her back, “Oh, Faranth, I haven’t thought about Karosh in forever…. I had a big crush on him when I was a little girl. I think he was probably my first crush.” She giggled again, pushing her dark hair back behind her ear absently.
Treyjen snorted derisively, “What, that wherface?”
“He is NOT a wherface!” she insisted, “As if you’d know a good looking man if you saw one.”
“Oh, love… there’s so much you don’t know about me,” he grinned.
She blinked at him in surprise, then her gaze narrowed slightly, her voice dropping as if afraid someone might overhear them, “You… you’re attracted to… other men?”
“Mm, I don’t place limits on myself when it comes to whose company I enjoy. So you see, I do in fact know an attractive man when I see one. Karosh, love, is a wherface.”
Yvinka snorted a laugh, “He is NOT. He must just not be your type.” She stuck out her tongue at him. It was a strange admission for her uncle to make, but the easy way in which he made it in turn made her feel a bit better about her own inclinations. She sometimes found herself admiring other girls in a similar way to how she admired an attractive young man. She’d never told anyone about it of course. She wasn’t sure if even her mother would understand.
“Suppose the fact he’s like a brother to me doesn’t help,” Treyjen admitted with a casual shrug.
Yvinka laughed, “Probably not.” She glanced around the room. There was so much for them to catch up on, she didn’t even know where to start. “Oh. Don’t you want to know how Gildrey’s doing?”
Her uncle’s easy smile faltered, his entire demeanor shifted, “Ah, actually I’ve… some work I need to get back to. But you and I, we’ll… we’ll catch up more later, aye, love?”
She frowned. She didn’t want to leave him already. She wanted to stay and talk about all the things they’d both missed in each other’s lives while he’d been gone. She sighed. Oh well, he’d said they’d talk more later after all. She shrugged, “Sure! Maybe I’ll try to find Nalyra.”
“Good luck with that,” Treyjen’s words were more of a caution, and he stepped forward to pull her into another embrace, his strange somber mood seemingly gone as soon as it had come.
She hugged him tightly in return, “I really missed you. You always made me feel like I could do anything, no matter what anyone else said.”
His hold tightened on her in the slightest, “You can, love, if you’re willing to fight for it. You can do, or be, anything you want.” He let her go then, opened the door that led back out onto the deck and stepped out ahead of her, “You’re welcome on my ship anytime, Yva. Just make sure you knock before you enter my quarters, or you might walk in on something you’d rather not see.” He winked at her and strode away as she made a face at the warning.
“Gross,” she muttered, heading out herself. She stood there on the deck for a moment, taking it all in again - still barely daring to believe she wasn’t dreaming it all up - and hummed happily to herself as she headed back for the docks, determined to track down her aunt. And maybe see if Karosh was still as handsome as she remembered.
