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Second floor common room [evening]

Ben was tired of staring at the four walls of his room, and had already spent a fairly unhealthy amount of time in the salle and in the gym working out some aggravation, so...common room.

He was flipping channels, looking for something that was exploding. He was currently cruising through the public access channels, so it could be a while.

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"I'm the first girl Harper," she admitted. "And Masterharper Robinton took me as his Journeyman, but not everyone is - comfortable with the idea. So he sent me here to learn about this culture and see how ours has changed." Menolly grinned at him. "And television. Of course."

"Are women kept in different professions?" he asked, eyebrows furrowing. "Why would...harping? Is that even close? be only for men?"

"Women run holds and sometimes weyrs, manage kitchens and have babies," Menolly said with more than a trace of bitterness. "Singing and playing twiddles aren't fit occupation for a girl. Girls aren't supposed to be heard."

She rubbed the barely healed scar across her left palm unconsciously, too wrapped up in remembering the unfairness that had led to her own mother allowing to heal badly so she couldn't play.

"Well, that's totally stupid," Ben said.

Ben's diplomacy could use some fine tuning.

Menolly looked over at him with a brilliant smile. "Yeah, it is. And I'm a Harper now so it doesn't matter. They can rot in their hidebound Holds if they won't change."

"Good," Ben said, smiling back. "Now what's a weyr?"

"Where a dragon lives," she answered immediately. She let the answer hang for a moment, trying not to smile. "The dragons and their riders live in the craters of extinct volcanoes. The rider of the senior queen is the Weyrwoman and in charge of running the weyr."

"Ooooooh," Ben said, looking excited. "Do you ride too?"

"I have," Menolly said, proud of that. "But I'm not a dragonrider. I Impressed my firelizards-" she coaxed Beauty, her small golden firelizard down onto her arm for Ben to see "-and they're more than enough."

"Hello," Ben said, greeting the firelizard gravely. "What's your name?"

She sat up on her hindquarters, leaning forward to inspect Ben, her eyes blue and whirling slowly.

"She's Beauty," Menolly said, reaching up to stroke her neck and sending waves of reassurance to the little queen. "She likes her headknob ~~IDEK~~ rubbed if you'd like to make a friend for life."

Ben blinked, then reached his hand out for what he hoped was the headknob ~~IDEK~~. "Hello, Beauty."

The little lizard crooned, leaning into the touch. "See? She likes it," Menolly encouraged. "Firelizards are the cousins of dragons, but she's probably as big as she'll get."

"If it's not, I imagine that would be a bit of a surprise for your roommate," Ben commented, smiling.

"I have nine fire lizards,' Menolly admitted wryly. "Mulan's been very accepting so far."

"Nine?" Ben said, eyes going wide. "Are they noisy?"

"They're not usually all with me at once," she said hastily, wanting her friends to be accepted. "And - they can be, but only when they're hungry or very excited. It's why I only let Beauty stay with me. She's the calmest."

Ben picked up the slight uptick in anxiety. "Oh, it's fine," he said with a reassuring smile. "I think every third student has a cat or something by now. Your friends are much more interesting. Are they all from the same hatching?"

She nodded, relaxing a little more. "They would've died if they'd gone out of the cave," she explained. "So I fed them and they stayed with me. It's - we call it Impression."

"Does it only work on animals?" Ben asked.

"It only works on dragons and fire lizards," she said after a moment, finding it hard to put into words what always just had Been. "I guess it's part of them? It's stronger for dragons. They says it's like finding another part of yourself."

Ben nodded. "I've heard of something similar where I'm from. On the planet of Dathomir, the women there bond with rancors."

"What's a rancor?" she asked curiously.

"Three meter tall reptile," Ben said, "which has a nasty habit of trying to eat people."

Just ask Ender.

"Eat people," Menolly repeated. "Even after Impression?"

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momslilassassin - 2010-01-08 04:45 (UTC) - Expand

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