A Losing Battle [Nine]

[Fel]

What had he been thinking? But Ealar knew the answer. He hadn't been thinking. He'd heard the man saying terrible things about the Holdless, and had snapped. He hadn't seen the rider's knots, he'd only been seeing red. Now he wrestled only with his own thoughts, still shaky with adrenaline.

He prodded gingerly at what was sure to be a spectacular bruise around one eye, if it wasn't already. Ealar wasn't a fighter. He was small, scrawny, and inexperienced; his father had taught him to avoid fights, not to go starting them. And now... what if someone used this as an excuse to kick him out? To kick his entire family out? He hadn't meant to do anything wrong, but now he'd probably made things worse.

He all but slunk back into his quarters, trying to avoid unnecessary attention—what if someone was already looking for him to send him packing? He should have known Haron would be there. His brother had a habit of being there when Ealar wanted to get away with having done something wrong. Of course, he had a habit of being there when he was needed too. Ealar wasn't sure which of the two it was just then.

"Oh. Hey," Ealar said, letting his hair fall over his eyes. He could play it cool. He could avoid somehow turning this into a bigger deal than it already was.

[nineofswords]

Haron was wrestling with his letters, cursing under his breath, trying to bully his brain into remembering them. It really didn't help that half of them looked like each other, and every letter had more than one form. Everyone seemed to think that this made perfect sense, but it never failed to give Haron a headache. Why couldn't fancy hold and weyrbred folks just use one thing for one thing like normal people did?

As usual when he was trying to work on his reading and writing, he was desperate for any distraction, so when Ealar came in, Haron's entire attention snapped to his brother. He'd been scowling at his letters, and his scowl didn't lessen when he saw Ealar come in. "Hey," he said, taking the younger boy in. Something was off. He knew his brother well enough to know deep in his gut that something was off with him, but Haron couldn't figure out what. Probably because his brain was too clogged up trying to untangle the knot that was writing.

He heaved a sigh and set aside the practice slate he'd been working with, perhaps a touch more aggressively than he needed to. "S'up?" he asked, rubbing at his temples to try and will the headache away. "You good?"

[Fel]

Ealar froze at Haron's question. Did he suspect something? Had he done something wrong in the way he had come into the room to give himself away? He looked briefly up at his brother, and then away again just as quickly.

"Yeah. Yeah, I uh... That slate do something to you?" he asked in an attempt at deflection. He didn't envy Haron's status as a Candidate. They had lessons, required ones. Even if his father encouraged him to learn to read and write as well, he didn't technically have to. And, well, didn't often make much of an attempt. It just seemed like so much effort for so little gain.

[nineofswords]

Okay, yeah, his brother was acting suspiciously. "What happened?" Haron asked, narrowing his eyes. He was fully prepared to have to do some heavy duty groveling. His family wasn't so stable yet that they could afford to be thrown out of the Weyr. But if someone had done something to Ealar, he was going to march him straight to the infirmary and insist he got looked at, and he was going to do whatever he could to make sure that Ealar didn't have to deal with whoever the scumbag was that did something to him.

"Slate's fine," Haron said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "'s the letters that're pissin' me off. Now what. Happened." Haron was not going to be distracted. Not when it came to his brother and his safety.

[Fel]

"Nothing major!" Ealar said quickly, as it became clear that his brother could not be deterred in his questioning. Rats, he really needed to work on his acting skills. The problem was, he'd never needed to before. "I just maybe gotalittlebitofablackeye." The last was mumbled quickly, all in a rush as though doing so made it less important.

"I don't know why you put up with all those lessons though," he said almost immediately in an another attempt to deflect. "Unless you're gonna to be in charge of something, why's a wherhandler gotta read?"

[nineofswords]

Nothing major. Nothing major had happened. Haron pinched the bridge of his nose and took a very deep breath. Oh, this was going to piss him off even more than the letters had, wasn't it?

He glared at his younger brother as he tried to speed through what had happened and then change the subject. "They wanna give me a wher egg for free if I learn my letters, I'm learning my letters," he growled. If they thought that was a fair trade, he wasn't going to argue. He got off the bed and grabbed Ealar's chin, looking at his eyes. Now that he was looking for it, he could see where the beginning of a shiner was developing. "Who hit you?" he asked, releasing his brother. And then the second most important question, "You run water on that?" He gestured at Ealar's face so he'd know what Haron meant.