Back to the Light (open)

[HG]

Wake up. She heard the almost whispery voice in her head. Wake up Laure. You need to wake up. The young woman slowly felt one eye open a little at a time. The light blinded it so it shut again. Both eyes tried to flutter open. What happened to her? She wondered as she tried to lift a hand to her face and was greeted with excruciating pain. Why did that hurt so much? Why did her head hurt so much.

Laure tried to sit up but a gentle hand placed itself on her chest. "Best you lie down for now. We've done a lot to make you well enough to wake. The Healers were not sure you would make it. I would say your either lucky or a survivor." The woman had a caring, motherly tone to her voice. Laure was instantly calmed by it. She was safe, well, safe enough. She was at the Weyr. She had been mauled by the Queen dragon.

"I'll be back in a few moments." The Healer Assistant said, moving away from Laure to go find a Healer of some importance. Laure meanwhile wondered what was wrong with her that it hurt to move so much. She turned her head to the side enough that she could see Lyndel still sleeping. The rise and fall of the other woman's chest let her know that she was alive. How many girls were dead now?

Was the Queen vicious or had she been afraid and clumsy? Laure had a hard time consoling herself that the Gold was a baby and babies were never born evil. Her father would be lecturing her now about the evil of dragons. She could not bring herself to believe it. Even now, lying in a bed that a dragon had put her in. As the Healer Assistant had said, Laure was a survivor. She could easily have been killed by so big an animal falling on top of her but she wasn't.
Her dark eyes closed again a moment. It was bright in here. She turned her head away from the other girl. Would it be wrong to never want to Stand again. Laure was pretty certain she was not what the Gold had been looking for and she had never seen herself as much of a fighter. Course she was no healer either.

What was she really? She did not yet know and in this process of finding what and who she really was, she was getting hurt. Mostly physically but it would not define her one bit. She needed to make connections with people here. She needed to find a way to live here and love herself. Right now all she felt was physical pain. The emotions bottled up within her had yet to be released at all. In time she would crack and everything would come falling on her at one time.

[Ise]

Sorlen had been hoping he’d get a chance to go see the infirmary. Of course he had been hoping it would be a trip he’d make willingly, not one that he was forced to go to. The blue dragon that had attached itself to him had no sense of humor when it came to Sorlen trying to pawn him off on someone else. Fenrith had given him a good nip with his teeth, something that wouldn’t have hurt under normal circumstance but the dragon had gone after his injured hand, the one that Jarshan had peeled all the nails off of. His fingers had started to bleed and he had been sent to the infirmary to get his fingers washed with redwort and his bandages changed.

He slipped into the infirmary, glancing around and noticing that many of the healers were gathered together and talking with each other. They must have had their hands full after the hatching. That was fine with him, he hoped they stayed busy for a while. He walked silently through the infirmary, a grin splitting his lips when he saw the form of his sister and the blond girl that had been crushed by the gold dragon. Both of them looked terrible but his sister seemed to be awake.

He crept up close to her, taking note of what seemed to be broken before speaking in a low and soft voice.
“Hello Laure.”
He watched her reaction and walked slowly around the bed she was resting in.
“I came all the way out here, just looking for you. You don’t look to happy to see me though.”
He gave her a fake pout before reaching out and a hand on her leg. It looked like a sympathetic gesture, until he started to squeeze it, clearly trying to cause her pain. Really, she was lucky that he wasn’t trying to kill her. At least not here.
“Poor poor girl. You must have really wanted one of those dragons, and instead it tried to kill you. Good thing it didn’t. I would have been very upset about that.”
Sorlen continued to walk around her, poking and prodding here and there to see what places hurt the most.
“If anyone is going to kill you it’s going to be me.”

[HG]

The voice was what she first noticed about him, then his tone. Her brother, Sorlen err, S'len. How any dragon would have wanted him was beyond her. "Hello S'len." She said, her voice a whispery version of its former self. Laure tried to keep her emotions in check, much like she had to do at home. The stone mask that she had always worn at home was back up. He would not get a rise out of her that way. The young woman found herself wishing the Healer would come over to double check on her.

"I'm sure you came here for other reasons." Laure added, with a gleam of courage rising from her. She was afraid of him. She was afraid of what he would do to her. The young woman had grown up worrying about when the next blow either physically or mentally would come. Sorlen being here meant she was going to have to deal with all the things she had left behind. This included being treated like she was nothing. "How perceptive of you." She said as she tried to see what he was about to do. Too late.

Sorlen had her leg and the pain was excruciating. She did not cry out but her eyes watered with it. Helplessness was one of the worst feelings she had ever experienced. It was even worse than the pain coming from her leg. Lying there unable to get up. Not even able to sit up, she was the easiest of targets and that made her even more uneasy. "I did not come for a dragon. I came to get away from the likes of you." She returned stubbornly.

" Looks like you are stuck here now though aren't you S'len. Do you think the Holdless care if you still believe what they do? They would kill you as soon as they saw you and in turn kill your blue dragon. I would think very hard on where your allegiance lies now. That blue dragon saved you from imprisonment for a reason. I only hope its a good one." Laure's voice grew a little stronger as she spoke. She cringed a little when he touched her sides and anywhere near her chest. She had broken a couple of ribs, that was certain. Her ankle was sprained on the leg he had tugged on. Her arms were painful but it was mostly from bruising.

"Death is better than living a life you don't want."

[Ise]

He leaned against her bed, looking over at the healers to see what they were up to. Still chatting away mindlessly. His attention went back to his sister. He had seen the way she had cringed when he gave a hard poke to her ribs, of course he wasn’t surprised that she had broken or bruised a couple of them. He scowled a little at her and grabbed her arm, his fingers pressing into her hard enough to leave bruises there, as if she needed more.
“Did you think you could just leave and that no one would come after you? Do you have any idea how much shame you brought us by doing that? Or what would happen if they knew that you had gone to the Weyr and tried to Impress?!”
Sorlen’s voice came out in an angry hiss. Stupid girl, she had always been so selfish, thinking only about herself and never about the rest of the family and what her actions did to them.

He only got angrier when she called him S’len, that stupid blue called him that too. He wasn’t some rider.
“Don’t call me that. I’ve already tried giving the thing away and doing anything else I can to get rid of that dragon. I didn’t want it, even if it gets the Shield off my back for a little I still don’t want it.”
Sorlen gave her a hard jab to the ribs with two of his fingers, clenching his jaw tightly as he looked back at the healers.
“I’ve already been thinking of what I’m going to when the Holdless attack. If I kill the dragon before they find me then they never even have to know that the stupid thing impressed to me. Maybe I’ll even get lucky and be able to kill a few others as well, just to show them that I’m still loyal.”

He looked down at his bandaged hand. Yes, he’d be able to show the Holdless that he was still loyal to them. They’d have to believe him then. The others were traitors but he was still one of them. Even after being here he was still one of them. He laughed softly at Laure and shook his head.
“If you really believed that death was better then you would have died already. Of course, if you really do believe that, then I can help end things for you a little faster. Just think sweet sister, I could end all your pain in just a few minutes.”

[HG]

The look in his eyes made her want to cringe too. How had he become so cruel? Nevermind that, she knew how. She closed her dark eyes and took in as deep a breath as she could without feeling excruciating pain. “I left not knowing where the Weyr was. When I was found by a dragonrider he assumed I was a missing Candidate. Rather than be killed or imprisoned for being what I was, I let the weyrfolk believe I was a Candidate. I had no intention upon arriving of Impressing a dragon.” He was being a complete jerk but what did she really expect. He had fallen for all the bull shit they had been fed as children, had eaten up every word like a starving little canine and now the joke was on him.

“And what were you doing at the Hatching brother? Impressing a dragon. S’len of blue whatever your dragon’s name is. The Holdless will kill you when they find out. Nothing you do or say to me will change that.” He eyes fluttered back open. “You know S’len, it does not have to be this way between us.” Why couldn’t he accept the change that had happened in his life? He must hate himself if he still hated dragons. That poor blue was probably being verbally abused past the point of a knife. She would prefer him to make amends with her. Was she really so horrible to be around?

Laure wanted the life here at the Weyr but having to go back to the Holdless would mean torture and then death. She would rather die here then go back to that. Anyone who knew Riverton would. She grimaced at the poke in her ribs but did not cry out. She was stronger than S’len knew even if she seemed a bit small and breakable. There was more to a person than what they appeared to be. She reached for his hand and held it tightly in her own. “How can you believe they would take you back? How is your faith more strongly in their belief than in your own?” there was concern in her voice. A concern perhaps she had never shown to anyone before. She was tired of being strong all the time. If he wanted to kill her, he probably would.

“Death. Life. I care about the same for each at the moment. Death would free me from my pain. Life would free me from my past.” She wanted to move on and create a life for herself at the Weyr. “Although neither would free you of me. If you kill me you will think of me every day of your life. I promise you that.”

[Ise]

Sorlen listened to his sister and wanted to laugh. Oh shards, the Weyr had no idea that they had willingly let some Holdless scum in. If only Laure was more like him, then they could have turned their mistake into their undoing. If his sister wasn’t so gutless and weak they could have killed that new gold when she was stumbling around killing others.

He was far less happy when she asked what he had been doing there. His injured hand clenched and a look of shame crossed his face for a moment before he shrugged and tried to pass it off.
“It wasn’t my fault that they decided to bring Geoff and I to the hatching to try and make us see how wrong the Holdless are. They were just as surprised as we were about the dragons even noticing us. And stop calling me S’len. I refuse to go by that name. I’m not one of their stupid dragon riders. And the Holdless won’t even know that I Impressed. Not if I kill Fenrith first.”

His gaze darkened as she told him things could be different between them. Of course she had to use that stupid rider name. No. She was just mocking him. The Holdless would kill her when they attacked, she was just trying to make sure they would see him as a traitor as well. A scowl crossed his face as his sister took his hand in hers. Her grip was tighter then he had expected though and he didn’t pull his hand away.
“Why wouldn’t they take me back? If they never know I Impressed they have no reason not to take me back when we tear though this place. The dragon that Impressed to be is stupid, that’s the only reason why it picked me. Killing it will be a mercy. And why would I want to stay here anyways. How could you want to stay here? As soon as they find out what you are they’re going to torture you.”

Sorlen pulled his hand away from her and put both of them behind his back. He was curious to know what they would do to his sister if they knew who she was. It was tempting to go and tell them but he didn’t feel like giving the Dragon Shield a new person to play with just yet. Let them sulk about the fact that they couldn’t touch him or Geoff yet. And letting Laure run around right under their noses would just make it even sweeter when they did find out.
“If I kill you of course I’ll think of you every day. You’d have the honor of being my first kill. I’d take pride in that. Get rid of one annoying sibling, regain my place with the Holdless. But don’t worry, I won’t do that just yet. You look like you’re in a enough pain right now.”

[HG]

Faranth he was a pain in the ass. “Oh I’m sure dragons are dumb and don’t put much thought into whom they impress to.” She said with a hint of sarcasm. “You think it will be easy to kill part of your soul do you?” What made him think he was so special? Not for the first time she felt bad for the dragon who had chosen him. There were good qualities in her brother if one looked very very very hard for them. At the moment none of them were coming to mind.

His continued support of the Holdless made her slightly angry. No doubt he was brainwashed into believing that everything that came out of their parent’s mouths was the truth and so anything that went against what they said must be false. Even if he thought they would take him back with open arms Laure knew differently. Firstly he got caught and was tortured by one woman; which to anyone of importance would make him seem weak. Then there was this matter of being a dragonrider. She highly doubted the Holdless would stay oblivious to the fact that he had been a dragonrider for long. Riverton was smarter than that and her brother should know it. There were spies everywhere, even at the Weyr.

“I’m sure you’ll be rewarded well when you return. Having been tortured by some woman, letting your younger, weaker partner get captured and then allowing him and yourself to have dragons… and lets not even mention that you were helpless to kill the Gold dragonet despite being in contact with her almost daily. I shudder to think what Riverton will really do when he meets you. Dead sister and dragon included. Your mistakes will outshine your achievements.” Her eyes closed as she took a deep breath. Why wasn’t he aware of this? Why was he so closed off to the fact that from where he was there could be no returning to his old life.

She opened her eyes when he said he wanted her to be his first kill. “I’m sure everyone wants their first to be some weak young woman with no way to defend herself.” She rolled her eyes. In many ways she pitied him. He had a dragon and if he defended it as he should, that dragon could be his biggest supporter and most beloved friend. Laure could only dream of having someone care that much for her well-being.

[Ise]

Sorlen scowled at his sister and some how restrained himself from poking and prodding at her again. While watching her squirm in pain was amusing, he needed to show her that all the lies she spouted meant nothing to him. The Holdless would take him back. They had to. Yes, mistakes had been made but they weren’t his fault. The single woman who had caught and tortured him was one of the Dragon Shield, even their seasoned warriors had a healthy respect and fear for the Dragon Shield. He clenched his fist, digging his nail-less fingers into his palm until it hurt. The pain kept him from doing or saying anything too rash. Yelling at his sister would only get the healers to finally realize he was there.

“I’ll take care of that gold too if I get the chance. Hard to do anything though when the whole Weyr is watching almost every move I make.”
He wondered if he could find some way to poison the gold. Or maybe just her rider. It was a cowardly way to do things but it might be easier to put something in the meat then trying to go up to the gold with a knife. Of course he didn’t have any poison. Or a knife. He wasn’t even allowed to cut meat for his own dragon. The closest thing he had to a weapon was the bandages wrapped around his hand. He was pretty sure some stripes of cloth weren’t going to do much against a dragon.

Sorlen’s eyebrow went up slightly. He had never thought of his sister as being helpless. She wasn’t the strongest fighter but she was crafty and smarter then most of the other Holdless. No, when he finally got the chance to kill her he wanted it to be a fair fight. Well as fair as anything involving Holdless got. He wouldn’t kill her while she was stuck here healing. Torturing her a little was fine, it made him feel a little better.
“Fear not sweet sister, so long as you’re broken like this you’re safe from me. If you’re still stuck in this bed when we attack, then I’ll just drag you out to Riverton. I would like you to be able to move when I come after you. What fun is a hunt if there’s no chase?”