Story originally on many_o_me and paveh_hold/keenae, continues with Simon

But she continued in an even, if a little shy, tone. "I know there are others who do it too, but... I think I do it more often. There's T'shen, but I think he only speaks with his father. Odd man."

"Ah. Yes," the harper said, unsure of how to continue this conversation.

"The first time I spoke to someone who was dead, it was one of my grandfather's Healer associates. He'd been very old for a very long time, you see."

The harper decided that she was insane.

"He spoke to others, at the time," Keenae looked at the man. "Really. You can ask them."

"They... aren't here right now, are they?" He asked, looking around and hoping that she didn't suggest there were 'ghosts' or something in the weyr with them.

She furrowed her brows. "Of course not. Lady Holder Mirage was there, you could ask her."

"When... um, when was this?"

"I was three turns, it ... has stayed with me for a while, I guess. I'm sixteen turns now. Just turned." She gave him a haunting smile. "I am sorry. Have I disturbed you?" She shook her head, and pushed her long tan hair out of her face as it tumbled in front of her eyes. "It runs in the family, I assure you."

"You're a member of the Sengihr clan, aren't you?"

"We don't often call ourselves that, at least not while Kalkin insists on being called Kalkin. Sometimes, at gathers, he loosens up and lets Raanatani or Mirage call him by his right name. I was born after his... change. So I was named after his new name."

She grinned, showing too-big white teeth. "Anyway, I would rather discuss my Healer training, if you wouldn't mind. I've been a Senior Apprentice healer for more than a turn now."

"You became a senior at fifteen turns? That's fast!"

"Not for my family, you understand. Like many other things," she examined her long, hard dark nails, "it runs in the family. And I can always go visit Kalkin at Alabaster for pointers. I do not think he likes me terribly much. He said that I make him nervous. I've felt him in the between-places. He traveled between times too much, I think. That's why I feel his spirit around, even if he's not dead yet."

Privately, the Harper thought to himself: no wonder he doesn't feel comfortable around you... He sighed outwardly. "Well, do you plan on continuing into Journeyman ship?"

"I will try, but my ... my work with the between-dead is very important, and very misunderstood." Keenae looked at a tapestry on her weyr's dark wall. It portrayed the Protectorate, but had several small items dangling off it, and she stood to show them to the harper.

"These are places I've been, and these," she jangled a small silver chain, then a brass one, "are the places between where I felt the touch of the dead."

"You're quite serious?" Asked the harper, now wondering if all this girl ever thought about was...

"I'm absolutely serious. As I said," she proclaimed defensively, "go ask Mirage and she'll tell you about it. Master Healer Darmin was a very old, very kind man. But I'd never met him until his wake. I was only there because Kalkin invited me. He was very strange that day too..." She got a misty memory look to her eyes, and the harper decided to excuse himself... Perhaps to come back later.

*

The early morning air was stirring with excitement. The hatching at Rose Circle was due, and ... Keenae could hardly contain her excitement. Normally she wasn't so jumpy or giggly, but today was the day that the hatchlings would find their bonds! And hopefully, one of them would be hers.

More and more candidates came to the hatching grounds, and Keenae hoped that there were enough hatchlings to go around. A quick head-count led her to the unhappy thought that there would be spares.

But not for her! Though she was passed on by several pretty blues and greens, as well as the healthy but shy gold of the clutch, at last a big dark green girl finally came from her shell into Keenae's arms.

I am Wiredeth, she proclaimed. I can see those things in your mind... what are they?

They are my beloved dead, my friend. When we go between we'll be with them. But not until we've had enough of life first!

*

Did you hear about what that brown did?

I did. You could never hurt me that way, my dear. You're much too delicate!

Keenae laughed at the accident, she had half expected to lend a hand for the healing process, but the rigors of teaching her weyrling how to fly took command instead. Wiredeth wasn't as small as all that, either. She was as big as some of the blue weyrlings, but she probably wouldn't keep that size up forever.

Would she?

Keenae's life had changed so dramatically when she Impressed. The weyrling barracks and the shared ... everything! Everything was shared at the weyr! She longed for the day when she and Wiredeth would be in their own weyr, separate again.

To have a moment's peace usually meant they had to be down at the bathing area, or when Keenae could slip out while Wiredeth was asleep and read something in the healer's office -- with their permission of course. She desired a Journeyman's knot, in Healing. But that had to wait as the slow process of becoming a dragonrider took all of her time.

*

Rider mine?

Yes, sweet?

Come here into the sun with me. You are chilly in there.

I will come out when my thoughts are not so scattered.

Your thoughts are scattered because I want to mate, Keenae! you did not listen to me when I told you before...

"I'm listening now..." Keenae said, struggling out of her chair and moping about for a moment before exiting and standing on the brightly lit ledge.

"Wiredeth, who are you looking at?"

There are many fine males here, and there are more flying around everywhere between. Perhaps our flight will take us there too!

"Our flight? Wiredeth, you're not even glowing yet. How can you be thinking about that?"

And I wonder, I would hope that being between would not hurt anything... But I will rise and play. You do not have to be with anyone, you know... But you should be.

"You want to bring me together with someone I don't know, just so you can say you've done it, right?"

The dragon only seemed to gloat.