I Will Try To Fix You. (Tigersilk)

[RhiaBlack]

{desc=Jyderin}Work had been rough the last several sevendays. Jyderin had no end to his roster of work orders, hide cleaning, and general Tannercrafting, the most important of which - in his eyes, at least - was the new riding gear for up-and-coming graduates. There were several rounds of new Riders and Wherhandlers due in as many months, and he wanted to be prepared. The last thing he needed was a sudden rush of work he couldn't keep up with.

Z'dyn had warned him that there would be more than he could handle, and his Ironrider son had offered to come down and help as much as he could in his off-time. It was an offer of aid that he had taken him up on several times already. Inadvertantly, he had mentioned that perhaps Z'dyn should take up Tannercraft as a potential Apprenticeship, but the former Drudge had no interest in his father's craft. He was too old, he had said. It was pointless to take up any measure of path as old as he was already, and Jyderin had pointed out that his son was by no means too old for anything. He was only what...almost twenty-seven turns by now. Still young enough for many things. Children, most of all - something that he hadn't precisely been pushing him on, so much as laying a seed of thought within Z'dyn's mind.

Bahujinth knew his bonded's take on children. Z'dyn had made it very clear, both to his father and to his weyrmate, that children were so far back on the radar the idea may as well have betweened. Still, the thought of being a father etched incessantly at the back of Z'dyn's psyche. There were no shortage of children here, if the mood ever struck him; he had retaliated by telling his father that fourty-four was still not too old for his own children. Jyderin claimed that unless he were to Impress a Wher and be forced, in some fashion, by chasing or being run, the prospect of him giving Z'dyn another sibling was slim to none.

Distracted, he sighed and shook the idea from his thoughts. Not something to think about at the moment; there was far too much work to finish.

Word had undoubtedly reached the rest of the Weyr by now about his presence - he had gotten visitors in increasing numbers the last few sevendays. People asking about boots, gloves, gear, and things for their Weyr. Z'dyn had found amusement in most of it; his father could potentially make a small fortune now, with all the work there was for him to do. Jyderin wasn't interested in fortune or fame, however. All the older man was interested in was helping the Weyr and its denizens.

Seated in a chair while he waited for several hides to dry, he made a meal of some meatrolls and Klah that Z'dyn had dropped off for him. Kee lingered on his shoulder, the small Pink Firelizard often times keeping Jyderin company while Z'dyn was out on patrols or flying Thread. There was comfort to be found in small things, he thought. Potentially he'd have one of his own, someday, but for now Kee was useful and easily amused. Not to mention quite amusing herself.

Tearing off a piece of meatroll to hand over to the Pink seated on his shoulder, he contemplated just what kind of visitors would see his door knocked upon today.

[Tigersilk]

Overall, Jasjitta's life was good right now. The 10-turn-old dusky girl was treated better by the people at the Weyr than she was back in her home Hold. At least here people didn't shoot her hateful looks whenever she appeared in public to do her chores, or talk trash about her and her older sisters right where they knew the girls could hear them. At least here if someone yelled at them, it was just over whatever mistake they just made, without the added slander about their alleged parentage thrown in for good measure.

But the old fears were starting to rear their head again as she lay down to sleep. Her oldest sister, Kahnasunita, had Impressed within a few days of their arrival at the Weyr, leaving Jas and their middle sister Annunziata on the sands. While the younger girls were happy their sibling had a partner, the emotional adjustment to their new seperation was hard. While Jas was used to sleeping in her big sister's bed whenever she felt afraid or lonely, now her big Sis was sleeping on the other side of the Weyr's lake, where Jas and Ziata were not allowed, until they got dragons of their own. Worse, the rules said that they could only have limited contact with Sunita until her dragon was grown, lest the demands the two younger girls made on the attentions of their sister drove her dragon between forever. So Jas and Ziata adjusted, visiting their sister and her Cyan whenever they had time free from their chores, and roomed together in the Candidates Barracks, where they now felt safest.

With the mating flight of a gray and a junior gold happening close together, Jas' fear of abandonment came back, full force. Within two months tops she and Ziata would be on the Sands in the Hatching Cavern again, waiting to see if their life's partner was there. And while ideally both girls would become Weyrlings then, it was always possible that Ziata would Impress.....and leave Jas behind. Again. Not willingly, of course, but it would still be the same thing emotionally.

For years, Jas' defense against her nightmares had been a stuffed red Wher she named Whirsk. Made of suede, Whirsk had been a gift from her late mother, bought for Jas when she was barely 5 turns old. Whirsk was a good Watchwher, keeping the nightmares of her mother's death at bay, keeping her safe from the hateful words of her father....until the night her father, madder than any of the girls had ever seen him before, destroyed what few things they had in front of of them, while beating them. He had taken one of his leather knives and cut Whirsk up, tearing off her limbs and slicing the toy's face in half. Afterwards, Jas had tearfully gathered the remains of her toy and put them in a small leather bag, hoping to one day find someone to repair her Whirsk, and make her whole again. Sunita had the most skill among them when it came to sewing leather, but Whirsk needed a MasterTanner's skill to repair her right, and Sunita was far from having even an apprentice's skill at such things.

Not long after that night, all three girls ran away from their home Hold, Jas making sure to take Whirsk's bag with her, keeping it safe. Arriving at Dalibor, Jas took some time to get to know the place first, to learn where the Crafters and herdsmen and things were at, to see if she could trust the people here enough to repair her toy without humiliating her for still having it to begin with. There was a MasterTanner down in the Lower Caverns, Jas heard; she even thought she knew which workshop was his. Maybe he could fix Whirsk. All Jas had to pay for the job was her time, but she figured there would always be some floor that would need sweeping, or things taken to the refuse pile, or food to fetch. She may have to see less of her big Sis for a bit, but if Jas could get Whirsk back....

She gathered Whirsk's sack from her room and approached the door of the workshop she thought was the MasterTanner's. Jas saw an older man with a pink firelizard on his shoulder, sitting at at a table and eating a snack. She waited a few moments for the man to notice her before speaking. "Are you the MasterTanner? I have a toy that needs fixing," Jas said almost shyly, holding the sack with Whirsk close to her chest. She wasn't sure the man wouldn't chase her out for interupting his meal. "All I have to pay with is time to do some chores for you. Is that all right?"

[RhiaBlack]

Lost in his own thoughts, as he tended to get at times, Jyderin had been contemplating the potential of having a firelizard of his own when a small voice and movement at the door to his workshop startled him out of his daydreaming.

Kee chirruped in greeting, but didn't move from her place on Jyderin's shoulders. She craned her little head curiously, as Jyderin pushed his plate back a small bit so that he wouldn't knock it from the ledge when he turned.

"That would be me, yes ma'am," his expression was as kindly as he could make it. Jyderin's heart was softened by children - he had adored his sons when he had them, and the loss of Zadarin had left a void in his soul that he didn't think would ever be filled. At least he still had Z'dyn. "Jyderin. You can call me that, much less of a mouthful I think. What would your name be, and what toy will I be fixing for you?"

He sized her up habitually. The way she stood, how she lingered at the doorway not unlike how Sora had, the first time he'd overheard her outside. Shy, but something else, too. His brow twitched slightly, before he decided it was probably better to stay seated. Obviously he was taller than her, and it was less threatening to remain where he was. Let her come to him, when she chose to.

Jyderin wiped his hands off, though he'd barely made a dent in his meatrolls; tossing the napkin to one side of his plate, he gestured her there with both hands.

"Nonsense, if it's simple enough there's no need. Most toys usually are. I get requests all the time to fix the ones I make for the Creche, so long as they're loved on I don't mind at all."

[Tigersilk]

The man seemed nice enough, Jasjitta decided. Though looks could always deceive, too.....

"Master Jyderin. I'm Jasjitta. My toy is in the sack." She approached the counter, noticing the pretty pink firelizard on his shoulder, and wondered if it was friendly. And noticed the plate of meatrolls. "Sorry to interrupt your meal, sir. I can come back later if you like." She was as polite as she could be at her age; she knew she didn't have the best manners, but people her didn't seem to think her boorish, at least so far.

Jas emptied her sack on the counter's surface, and arranged Whirsk's remains into some semblance of order. The red suede Teddy Wher had been a soft sculpture; she remembered being told that about Whirsk once Turns ago. A Master's hand had created her Whirsk; it would clearly take a Master to fix the dismembered and gutted toy now. At least all of Whirsk was there, Jas had made sure of that. The star sapphire eyes, the mother-of-pearl claws, the scraps of Whirsk's body, all ten inches of it (not counting tail length, though it was there, too).

"My dad got mad at us, and destroyed my toy," along with the other things her two sisters owned too. "We left him on the other side of the world to come here and be either Dragonriders or wherhandlers." Jas said it as flatly as she could manage; she hoped the remaing fear of her old family didn't show through too much.

[RhiaBlack]

Jyderin shook his head slightly, rather upset at seeing someone had maliciously destroyed something she was obviously quite fond of. It wasn't hard to tell that the stuffed Wher had been loved quite dearly before its demise, and it broke his heart to know there were people in this world who would do such a thing to a child's beloved plaything. Even Z'dyn had a stuffed bear, though it was no means as elaborate and pretty as this Wher was. Clearly, someone had cared enough about her to give her something worth as much as this had to have cost.

He resolved himself to make it as good as new as he could get it. It would need new stuffing, but he had plenty of that from shearing hides before he tanned them. Plenty of leather to underlay the suede, too, and maintain the integrity of that which it had originally been. With how she had carried it in, he wasn't about to ask her to leave it with him to fix it; he'd do so in front of her. If anything, it would give him a chance for social interactions that he so desperately enjoyed having. Small things that made his days that much more bearable.

"You aren't interrupting anything, don't you fret a single moment on it. They will be there when I'm done, and it's nothing to take a walk, stretch my legs, and reheat them when I've repaired this for you. I've hit a break point in my work anyway, so couldn't have come at a better time."

He gauged the way she had laid out Whirsk's remains - the original posture of the beast, how everything had fit together as it had been made. By Faranth, her father? He had done a serious number on the toy.

"You're very brave for having left him, especially after he did this to something of yours. I can't imagine how scary that had to be for you. Hopefully you're doing much better here than you were there - you said 'we'...there is another you came here with? Family of yours?"

Jyderin examined several pieces with a practiced eye. It would take considerable work, indeed. Suede was a tricky leather to work with - easily torn, even more easily ruined by poor positioning and stitches. Setting the piece carefully back down, he pushed himself to his feet; Keeidra hopped off his shoulder, and fluttered down to the edge of the table. She was about to put her little paws on one of Whirsk's claws, when Jyderin made a sound akin to a growl. Immediately, her paws crossed over one another, and she sat back on her haunches.

"No touching, Kee, or I'll send you back upstairs. Z'dyn has taught you better, I know for a fact. Those aren't your things."

The Pink crooned pitifully, more because she'd been grumped at than anything else. She sidled over towards Jas, and laid down with her paws tucked under her, wings flicking slightly before they were laid against her back. She craned her head up at the ten-turn-old, and chirped in greeting. Well hello!

Jyderin pulled a burlap bag out from a section of the wall, and dragged it over to where he had been sitting. It was put near his chair, and he ventured back over to his various shelves of already-tanned hides, finding some spare sections that hadn't been useful for armor or riding straps. They would suit fine. He tested their pliability, before grabbing his box of various threads and needle. Putting a stuffed piece of linen on a bracelet around his wrist, he stabbed the needle into it so that he wouldn't lose it, and started sorting what would be attached first. Eyes and claws to start, and he'd work on the rest after.

"So what's his or her name?"

[Tigersilk]

Jasjitta was somewhat reassured by Jyderin's comments that he wasn't busy right then. Then again, given the way he frowned at Whirsk's remains, maybe he was trying to mask how unhappy he was at all the extra work she just gave him right when he wanted to eat.

She concentrated on answering the MasterTanner's question instead. "My sisters and I lived in a small Hold by Fort until a couple months ago. My stupid half-brother pulled a stunt that got some of the plowbeasts killed, and Father blamed us for not stopping him. He had to pay for the new plowbeasts out of his own pocket, so he made us pay for the loss of marks by destroying our things." She tried not to touch her toy right then, since Jyderin was clearly gathering the materials needed to put Whirsk back together, and would need all the pieces together to make sure he got enough to do the job properly later.

"We ran away a few sevendays later, once we had enough supplies to survive in the wild for a few days. We only spent a night outside, though. A Fort rider spotted us while on patrol and brought us back to the Weyr. We could have Stood there, but we were afraid someone there would tell Father where we were and send us back. So the rider arranged to send us here, on the other side of the world, where he can't find us so easily. We arrived right before the last Hatching, and they put us on the Sands before we had a chance to really adjust to anything. We were all injured by that mean Brown wheret, though all I got was a puncture on my hip. Annunziata got bitten on the arm, and Kahnasunita got her shoulder mauled. But we could still walk away afterwards, though. Others were hurt worse than we were." She didn't mention the dead girl; Jas'd seen her around the Barracks but hadn't had a chance to even learn her name before the Candidate was killed. Jas could only mourn her in an abstract way.

"But Kahnasunita did well, though. She's got a Cyan now, Ibith, and she's the silliest thing! She loves to play, and always tries to get us to play too, whenever we're allowed over by the Weyrling Barracks. Sunita told us the Lord Weyrleader stopped by a few days ago to say hello to the Weyrlings, and Ibith spent the visit playing with her daddy, climbing on him and everything. It was funny, but I think she was afraid the Lord Weyrleader would yell at her for that." It was funny to think about, the little Cyan climbing a large Brown being an image that brought a smile to the little girl's face. Jas didn't see the event herself, but she'd heard about it later from the gossip the other Candidate's told.

Jas stopped her chattering when the pink firelizard stopped in front of her. Wasn't this the MasterTanner's flit? She put her hands in front of the pink, letting her sniff her fingers before trying to pet the flit. "She's pretty. What's her name, and can I pet her?"

Jas was startled to realize that Jyderin was going to start repairing her toy now instead of later. "This is Whirsk, Mother got her for me for my fifth birthday, a few months before she died". She suppressed a small shudder; though time had blunted the memory of her murder, she still couldn't talk about it without some of the horror she witnessed coming back up. "There was a regal wild Red Wher that lived several miles from our Hold, and I wanted go and look at her, she was so pretty. She was a deep red like Whirsk is. But Mother told me that wasn't a good idea, that the wild Queen wouldn't like visitors just showing up on her doorstep without an invitation, and wouldn't like the rules Hold life would put on her behavior. So when Fort Hold had the Spring Gather Mother took me by the Tanners Booth, and bought Whirsk for me in the wild Queen's place. Whirsk's been with me ever since."

[RhiaBlack]

Jyderin had stitched his fair share of toys for both personal families back at Western and Cove, as well as for the Creche here at the Weyr in the last several sevendays. He was no stranger to fixing things, let alone creating them in the first place, and he was well enough acquainted with a Wher's physiology to properly piece together the sections. The stuffing was removed from pieces that still had any - he set it to the side, to put it back in once he had double-stitched the sections to the longer-wearing hide underlay, and put them back together. It would be a process, but it would make the stuffed Wher far more sturdy. He listened to Jas silently as he started his work, removing the stuffing from one of Whirsk's forepaws to fix a severance in the suede, affix it to the hide underlay, and sew the red beast's claws back on.

"Children make mistakes. It is the sign of a very poor parent to destroy their children's things over a mistake, an accident, no matter what the result was. Let alone one you had no hand in. Your half-brother should have been the one to be punished, it was not and is never a sibling's job to stop their brother or sister from doing something foolish. Z'dyn did his share of silly things as a boy, before my other son - his brother - passed. I would never have thought to discipline Zadarin for something Zykeidyn did."

It had always been hard for Jyderin to call his son by his honorific. To him, Z'dyn would always be Zykeidyn, or Zeke. Shortening it was something he had always found troublesome. Almost as if it had significance in pushing him that much further away from his Ironrider son. While Jyderin was incredibly proud that his remaining child had not only grown into a proper man, but had Impressed an Iron, a Sub-King of all things, it filled him with pride. But at the same time, the influx of children seeking someone to talk to or needing help with one thing or another always seemed to put him in a mindset where he remembered him smaller.

He turned the paw and its attached forelimb, checking his work repeatedly and giving it a small tug to check that the stitching was true and strong. Satisfied, he laid it aside and set work on the other paw and foreleg.

"I would think that he could never take you back, now. Your sister's Impression to a Cyan, if I recall correctly, makes her word stronger than his, here. Especially if you are Standing for further clutches. I wouldn't worry much about it, I can't truthfully see anyone going against your desires and sending you back with him. If they require some sort of vouching, tell them to notify me. Any man who would do this sort of thing to a child's toy does not deserve the honor and the gift of being a father to any child. It's deplorable."

He looked up towards Kee, who had curiously sniffed Jas's fingers before rubbing her little snout and head against the girl's palm, settling in within reach for all the pettings. ALL OF THEMMM!

"She belongs to my son. Her name is Keeidra, Z'dyn named her after his mother. She answers to Kee, she comes down here when he's out running drills or doing patrols and what not. She's not fond of being left alone in his weyr, so she's taken to spending time down here with me when he's busy. I don't have one of my own yet, but I imagine eventually I will. Until then, she keeps me company. It's almost like having a daughter, sometimes. She won't bite you, she's very curious. You're welcome to pet her, if you like." He nodded towards his plate. "Tear a bit of that off and feed her, tends to make her a fast friend. She enjoys meatrolls. Much like her bonded."

He paused at the mention of the wild Red. A measured nod, before he continued stitching the foreleg together; much like the first, the suede was put on an underlay of hide, tears and rips and cuts were repaired, and then the claws were stitched on. He laid it aside with the first, then moved to the back legs. This had been one well-crafted stuffed Wher, he'd have to travel and talk to the one who had made it sometime.

"Your mother was a wise woman. Wild Whers are rather unpredictable. Most of them don't like anything being close to their lairs, and if she had eggs you were probably looking at a pretty dangerous situation. My Z'dyn was almost killed by a Black one, while we were traveling to found Cove from Western. He chased down a canine belonging to one of the little girls in the caravan, found himself in the Wher's cave. It wasn't overly pleased for him to be there, and it took several months of care for him to recover, and he still wears quite the set of scars from it. Probably the only thing that would make me adverse to having one, and they've been a fear for him ever since. He's gotten much better about it, but they still unnerve him, even now."

He examined a fray in one portion of the back legs' tears, setting the piece down and going to see if he had some suede laying around anywhere. Rummaging through various bins of scrap, he searched through it, but nevertheless continued their conversation.

"Are you Standing for both? Dragons and Whers? Or just one or the other?"

[Tigersilk]

Jasjitta listened to the words Jyderin offered her. It was reassuring that others thought their father had been in the wrong for how he treated her and her sisters over their stupid half-brother and his stupid tricks. But a small voice inside her kept yelling that if other people REALLY knew her and her siblings, REALLY knew what their mother had been like (even though no-one actually could say just what crime(s) Mother supposedly committed to deserve being shut out by the rest of the Hold, only that she did something to deserve it...), then they'd shun them too, send them out into the wilderness to be shunned by even the Holdless.....Jas ignored the voice as best she could. She really didn't want to go there right now. Or ever, to be honest.

Jas perked up at the thought that Sunita now had enough rank, even as a new Weryling, to be able to override anything her father might say, if ever he came to Dalibor. While the idea wasn't new to her, having someone else mention it, and be willing to back Sunita's word if needed, made the idea more likely to be true to her. "Father always bragged about all these connections he had with other people, Craftmasters and Dragonriders and Hold ministers and what not. Like he could always find us no matter where we went, and make our lives horrible if we ever left him. That's why the Fort rider sent us here instead of leaving us at Fort Weyr; the odds of Father having enough connections to reach halfway across the world with very little money to his name was small. He used to be a Candidate at Fort; we were afraid someone he knew would see us and tell him where we were, and send us back to him."

Jas petted the pink firelizard, who was quite greedy for her attentions. "Kee? That's a pretty name." She reached for a meatroll, breaking off a few pieces and tossing them up a little, to see if the pink could catch them before they hit the table. "I know that now about whers. There was a wherhandler at my old Hold that taught us kids when we were old enough about both wild and bonded whers to know how to approach one if we ever came face-to-face with one in the forests. I'm sorry that your son got hurt by one like that. I'm glad he got better."

"Right now my other sister and I are Standing for dragons only, since a Candidate has to be fifteen Turns old before they can Stand for whers. If either of us make it to fifteen without bonding to a dragon, then we'll start Standing for whers then. I'm not sure which I'd like. Sometimes I like the idea of a protector small enough to fit in my bed; sometimes I like the idea of having wings to fly away from my troubles anytime I need to. It changes from day to day. I guess that's normal, isn't it? I just have to wait and see which form my bonded-to-be chooses to become, I guess."