Luin's original home.
Darkling Dawn Weyr
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Remarkes brushed the canine’s thick coat. The canine was shedding and getting ready for spring. He was lean and muscular, perfect for hunting. Remarkes started to pet the canine and play around with him. The two were the best of friends and closer to each other then Remarkes was with his brother and sisters and the canine with his litter mates.
“REMARKES!” Shouted his mother from inside their home. “Get in here and help me wash the dishes, stop playing with that blasted canine!”
Remarkes sighed and gave the dog one last pat before going inside. “Mother, why can’t one of the girls help you with the dishes, I need to work on fixing that window.”
His Mother turned to him a scowl set deep in the lines of her face. “Because, I don’t think you was really working on that window or planning to anytime soon. You were out playing with that canine again. You’re going to wash every dish in this sink and then you’re going to wash the floors, THEN you can fix your window.”
He sighed and looked at the heap of dishes in the sink. “Of course.” He said. She got upset every time he played with Luin. She’s just jealous that I spend time with the dog that’s all. She gets all upset when Lorrial plays with her dolls without her. He set about to cleaning the dishes, lost in thought. There was talk about there being search riders in the area and Remarkes had of course dreamed since he was a small child of being searched. But he knew his Mother would never allow it. She wanted to keep her children all to herself. She’d been like that ever since his Father had passed away a turn or so ago. He missed his Father dearly. Mother had fawned over Father so much that she’d never really paid that much attention to them. When he died though she became almost obsessed. Remarkes had been talking to the daughter of another cotholder and he felt like he was doing very well. Then his Mother had seen them talking and had a fit. She went on into a long involved speech about “Evil” women and so forth and how you can’t tell if their evil unless you talk to their Mother and know her well so you shouldn’t talk to their daughters unless you talk to them and know how they were raised.
Remarkes thought this thinking was a little skewed. If you weren’t supposed to talk to a woman unless you talked to their mothers how could he talk to any woman if he always had to talk to their Mothers? He didn’t see how he could go backwards in time. One time, he had jokingly brought this up to his Mother. He was rewarded with a slap in the face for that question. After that he’d never questioned her on anything that she’d asked. He didn’t like being hit. Whenever it happened his temper flared up and he was barely able to control hit.
He stayed away from fights and such. Claiming to be a pacifist and other things hoping to stay out of them. But there were still some people that wanted to push his buttons. Almost as if they could sense the temper that boiled just beneath the surface and wanted to make it bubble.
And one time some actually got him to fight, and that had almost landed the boy dead.
The boy happened to be a bully in town and wanted to make sure that he was the best the strongest of anyone there. The only one he hadn’t at the least threatened or thrown a punch at to scare was Remarkes. He’d tried everything but Remarkes was like stone, remaining unemotional even to the most horrific threats. Nothing about that boy scared him. So the boy, tried harder, he went after and beat up Remarkes youngest sister, only 7 turns old.
When Remarkes heard about this, he became enraged. Throwing off the cloaks of self defense and carefully forged coldness Remarkes stormed out of the house found his sister’s attacker and promptly beat the hell out of him. Afterwards however he was so remorseful that he hid in his home for weeks. He didn’t talk to anyone, when he finally did emerge from there he was quieter and even more unemotional then could have been imagined. The only time he showed any sign of anything was when he was around his canine Luin. That canine seemed to be the only thing attaching him to the world people. The only thing keeping him sane.
He heard a clatter behind him and was broken away from his thoughts. He looked behind him and saw his youngest sister now, 10 turns old smiling. She was caked in mud from head to foot. He raised his eyebrows and turned back to the dishes he was washing. “Why are you washing the dishes Remarkes? Isn’t that supposed to be my chore?” She was curious but not upset he was doing her work.
“I was playing with Luin when I should have been fixing the window. Mother has me washing the dishes and the floor and then fixing the windows as punishment. Go clean up.” He said without looking at her.
“Oh. Okay. I suppose that’s alright then.” She tramped off now to another part of the house.
“Thanks for your permission…..” He muttered.
“WHAT’S THAT!!! IT’S A MONSTER!!!!” Remarkes turned his head quickly. It was his little brother’s voice alright. What could that brat be yelling about…. He thought. Pursing his lips, he finished washing the last dish as fast as he could and placed it down to dry. He moved out into the sitting area and saw his little brother and three younger sisters staring with avid attention out the window. They were all gasping and talking in whispers.
“What’s going on?” He said curtly. They all had chores they were supposed to be doing.
Hark turned his head to get a better look at Remarkes. “There’s something really big outside! Be quiet, you might scare it away with your big mouth!” The little boy turned back to the window again. Remarkes curious now moved to the window and looked out.
It was a blue dragon.
He sighed with relief. He was beginning to think it was something scary. No wonder they were all so surprised and excited. It was a dragon; none of them had ever seen one before. How were they supposed to know what one was? This was another byproduct of their Mother’s over protectiveness. She made them all hide under beds and in closets when she knew dragon riders were about. He peered out a bit further and saw his Mother actually outside arguing with the rider. The rider looked confused and kept glancing at his dragon. He could see that the rider was clearly losing the argument with his Mother. Remarkes felt the need to “step in”. He moved to the door and stepped out into the cool soon to be spring air. “How are you master dragon?” He asked bowing quickly to the dragon. “How are you Dragon rider?” He said with another quick courteous bow. “I’m Remarkes, this woman’s son.” He said putting an arm around his Mother. “And those little things poking their heads through the curtains over there are my little siblings. They’ve never seen a dragon before. I hope you’ll excuse them.” He smiled. He didn’t know what was coming over him but this seemed like such a good idea to do he couldn’t help himself.
The rider looked at Remarkes mother and then at Remarkes himself then back at his Mother again. “You said you didn’t have any children? I told you my dragon said there was someone worthy of search here and you said there was no one living here but yourself.” The rider looked very confused. “You’re her son? Are you sure?”
Remarkes almost laughed. His mother had tried to put a stop to her children being searched so that she could keep them to herself. “Yes, I’m very sure. You see my mother here is a bit nervous and terrified of thread. She just wants to protect her children.”
His mother looked at him with burning eyes. She was very angry. He knew he was going to get hit when he went inside.
“Oh course she would want to protect her children. That’s very understandable.” The rider was smiling now. “I’m here on search Remarkes. How do you feel about dragons?”
Remarkes smiled himself. What luck…. “I like them very much.”
“How would you like to be searched for Darkling Dawn Weyr?”
“Well, I think I would like that too very much.” He said with a broad smile.
“I don’t think so! There is no way you’re taking my son so that he can impress one of those giant talking lizards!” His Mother started to throw a fit screaming and yelling. This went on for several minutes.
C’rin says we will pick you up tonight, after your Mother has gone to sleep. She can not stop you from being searched.
“Of course…” Remarkes muttered. She couldn’t stop him from being searched. Weyrs didn’t allow things to work like that. If you were searched, and you accepted it, there was nothing anyone else could do about it. He regained his wits after a moment and touched his Mother’s arm. “Mother, Mother, I won’t go, it’s alright, Mother, calm down.” He nodded at the dragon rider, hoping that the rider knew he had gotten the message.
“Good!! I’m not losing a son to the weyrs!” She stuck her nose up into the air and marched off. Remarkes clasped hands with the rider and shook it, he nodded again and the rider nodded back.
Remarkes followed his Mother back into the house. He could hear her yelling at the children and telling them to go to their rooms. She had told them it seemed, to hide in their rooms, from the dragons. But they had disobeyed and now they had to be punished. When they had all gone to their rooms. She turned to Remarkes and slapped him hard across the face and started to yell. Remarkes felt his temper rising. He could feel it bubble and pop but still he managed to control it. “HOW DARE YOU EMBARRASS ME IN FRONT OF THE RIDER??? DID YOU HONESTLY THINK I WOULD JUST LET YOU GET AWAY??” Remarkes was having a difficult time controlling himself. Finally after she was yelling at him for maybe 15 minutes or so and telling him how useless he was as a son and how his Father would be ashamed of him he lost his temper.
“I don’t know Mother! Maybe I thought for once you would do something for your child’s benefit and not yours! Something that would make someone else happy.” His upper lip curled and he stalked off.
“All of this is for your benefit! And you know that! Your place is here with your family. Taking your Father’s place.”
Remarkes then said something that he would regret for the rest of his life. “It was a good thing Father died, I think he would have killed himself if he had to live another day being fawned over by you!” He marched off to his own room. He could then hear his Mother crying in her room, the next room over. He was too angry to care anymore. As fast as he could he made a makeshift bag and piled clothing into it. Outside he could hear Luin whimpering outside. The canine knew something was up and he wanted to make Remarkes feel better. He desperately wanted him to feel better. Remarkes swung the bag over his shoulder and then hopped out of his broken window.
He waited outside with Luin for hours waiting for the dragon to come back. He was afraid that the rider had forgotten or maybe he had found someone better to take his spot. He gulped. There wasn’t anyway he would go back to living with that woman ever again though. She was insane. He didn’t ever want to see her again. Ever.
Just when he was beginning to lose hope that the rider and dragon were going to come back for him he heard the flapping of wings and looking up he saw blue form with luminescent eyes looking down at him and spiraling in to take a landing.