Untitled Joust Fanfic by shinchansgirl
Fandom: Joust
Pairings: None. Possible Baken/Vetch pre-slash
Rating: PG
Summary: Things go a bit differently when Avatre took off with Vetch on
her back. Now back at the Jouster compound, Vetch has to figure out a
way to keep both himself and Avatre alive without giving himself away.
features a healthy helping of crying!Vetch. The beginning follows along
with the book, with a few changes.
AN: I haven't got any plans to
continue this, so what you see is what you get unless you want it put on
the list, and I don't know that there are enough Joust fans out there
for that. ^^;
Then he deliberately overbalanced, and let go.
It was horrible.
He screamed in utter terror as he fell, tumbling over and over in a macabre parody of an acrobat. The screaming just burst out of his mouth without any thought. He waited for the scream and the horror to end in a terrible blow, and blackness.
Something hard struck him in the stomach instead, knocking what was left of his breath out of him and ending his scream in a gasp for air. He slid down something hard and smooth and hot - then impacted a second time, and felt a strong arm grab him around the waist.
He did not scream this time, even as the outrage and heartbreak struck him - as he realized that Ari and Kashet had plucked him out of the sky, as they had Raken. Only he hadn't wanted to be saved - but he hadn't wanted to die, either.
He didn't fight as Ari tightened his grip - he clung to the saddle and what he could reach of Ari's legs even tighter, anguished tears sliding down his face as he did his best to stay in place. Surely, this time, he would be sent back to Kefti-the-Fat, he thought sadly, or put into captivity - killed, even -
He felt Kashet sideslipping, losing height quickly; his stomach lurched with the renewed sense of falling, and he held back the urge to lose the food in his stomach. This 'fall', he knew, would not end in blessed blackness, but in something worse.
He heard Avatre cry out above him - he'd never heard her cry before, it sounded like a hawk - and he cursed her for following them. He saw the compound below them, and clutched to the saddle tighter. He felt the tears fall down his face to be lost in the smooth leather, and choked on a sob, blinded by tears and sand as they landed in the pen.
Ari slid down first, carefully removing Vetch's hands from his legs, and then gave a few tugs around the boy's waist until Vetch loosened his grip and allowed himself to be pulled to the ground -
- only to be caught by Ari, who held him as his tears and sobs seemed to multiply now that his feet were firmly on the ground.
He heard talking, but couldn't make it out over his own sobs. He knew that there was movement around him, and he could almost feel Kashet's wing shielding them from the sun and the immediate presence of the others. Ari was shouting, and he heard Avatre call out for him, but he couldn't bring himself to answer in anything more than heaving sobs.
And then Ari shook him, rattling his head and knocking back his sobs for a brief moment.
That moment was all Ari needed. "Stop it," the jouster commanded in the hot silence. Vetch hadn't realized until then that all others had stopped as well - stopped talking, stopped moving...stopped everything. "You're scaring the dragons, little one."
Vetch turned his head to look - and, indeed, he did see the faces of both Kashet and Avatre looking at him in wonder, heard the curious calls of some of the others.
He knew he'd have to find some way to explain, but he didn't know how - he didn't want to lie, but he didn't want to lose his beloved dragon, either. "I'm sorry," he whispered.
Vetch had been speaking to the dragons, but Ari took it as if he had been the one spoken to. "It's all right - it was just an accident, right?"
Vetch turned to look at him, wiping at the tear tracks on his face.
"What happened, Vetch?" Ari asked, gently.
Vetch shook his head as if to clear it. "I...I was training her," he answered truthfully, but nervously. He didn't want to lie. Not to Ari. "I know I wasn't supposed to, but no one else seemed to be doing it, and I didn't think extra would hurt her. And...she liked me." It was all true, it just wasn't the whole truth. No one had to know that Avatre liked him because he raised her. That would be his secret. "The...the dragon boy came by, and I know I wasn't supposed to, but I didn't think it'd hurt her..."
"What happened next, Vetch?" Ari asked. "After the dragon boy came by?"
Vetch hiccuped, and clutched at his stomach. He didn't feel well at all. "He...he called for Haraket. It was the shouting - it scared her. She...she just took off...I didn't know what to do..." They would still question him about her, though. When she came, when they stopped feeding her, when he started training her, how, why...questions he didn't know how to answer, and he choked back another sob. He couldn't truthfully answer those - not if he wanted to stay with Ari and Baken. Not if he wanted to keep his life the way it was. "I'm sorry," he said again, and this time it was for Ari - for he hadn't meant to hurt the jouster in any way. He liked Ari - probably more than he should.
"Sorry?" Ari asked. "What for? You were making up for another dragon boy's neglect, and as a result this lovely lady is well cared for, as well as seems to have become quite taken with you. You should have mentioned that she wasn't be cared for by anyone else, but even I cannot say that I have seen her in there for quite some time without questioning her presence."
"Vetch, why didn't you tell me one of the young ones was being neglected?" Baken's voice came from nearby. Vetch couldn't see him for the crowd of others standing around.
"I thought you knew about her. I...I thought everyone knew she was there. I was afraid someone would find out and say I was spoiling her, but she seemed so hungry - and I didn't want to give her extra tala...I thought it might make her sick."
"She's never been given tala?" Haraket snapped.
Vetch shook his head. "Not from me, at least."
"Enough with this, Vetch needs his rest; it's been a trying day," Ari interrupted.
"Ari..." Haraket protested.
"You and I will discuss this, along with Baken, but I believe the others have work to do - and I don't think feeding the rumor mill is going to do anything for their work ethic."
There were grumbles in the crowd, but the other jousters and dragon boys cleared off as Haraket shouted for them to get to work - startling Avatre once more into beating her wings and nearly taking flight again. It took some minutes for her to settle down, curling up with Kashet in the pen to watch the humans, getting sand all in their saddles.
Ari passed Vetch to Baken as he went to remove both the saddle and the training saddle, and the older boy sat down in the sand with Vetch, letting him bury his face in Baken's shoulder.
"It would have been a perfect excuse to try for freedom, and we know he wants it," Haraket stated, not bothering to try and lower his voice as he worked to remove Avatre's saddle. She simply stared at him, not moving an inch to help.
"Flying out on a fledgling when he's afraid of flying - and when a much more experienced dragon would have willingly carried him? Kashet or Coresan would have been a much better choice for escape, would have been more likely to succeed, if that was what he was aiming for," Ari protested. "I know he wants freedom, but he does seem to be at home here."
"It would have been easy to flee in the confusion. He could have been planning it for months."
"Does he look like he's packed to leave, Haraket? He was crying before we hit the ground - dammit, I think I'll have bruises he was holding on so tight - why be so determined to come back to the place you wanted so desperately to leave you took off on a fledgling? Not even the funerary shrine was moved and you know he wouldn't have left without it - not willingly."
Haraket snorted, tossing the training saddle on the ground next to Kashet's saddle, apparently finding it too full of sand to bother with. He looked worn, and sad. Vetch immediately felt sorry for him.
"No one here wants to think badly of you, boy, so don't look at me like that," Haraket snapped, sitting down on the edge of the pit. Vetch never remembered him sitting down - never remembered him resting at all - and the sight disturbed him enough to bury his face in Baken's collar again. "Ari's right, it doesn't fit with you. You've always been hard-working, and haven't made a move to escape. Everyone here knows you want freedom - but who in your position doesn't? This complicates things immensely."
"Please..." Vetch whispered, lowering his head so that he was staring at the sand that buried his feet where he sat next to Baken. "Please don't send me back to Kefti-the-Fat. I'll do anything."
"Of course you're not going back there," Ari huffed. "That pig doesn't deserve you. Speaking of which...Baken, this wasn't another one of your experiments, was it? You truly didn't know?"
Baken shook his head. "No sir - I had no idea that there was even a dragonet in this area of the compound."
"Vetch..."
"She was lonely. I...I thought if I told you he wanted me to watch her, there wouldn't be problems. He would have wanted...if he knew," Vetch answered, fresh tears beginning to swell in his eyes. He bravely blinked them away. "I didn't want to tell you he didn't know...I didn't want him to get in trouble."
Baken's arms tightened around him. "I would have never asked you to do something so dangerous as train that fledgling by yourself," Baken answered, harshly. "What if you'd gotten hurt?"
Vetch shrugged. "It's not like it hasn't happened before."
"We are not your former master!" Ari snapped. "Have you ever had problems while you were here, Vetch?"
He turned his head away, silent.
"Answer me!"
Vetch shook his head, but he couldn't stop the tears. He knew that no one here had openly caused him harm, but Ari could never understand how much it hurt to watch slaves come in and work their way to freedom while he, Vetch, an Altan serf, could never achieve the same no matter how hard he tried. Avatre was supposed to be his hope for freedom, and he�d already lost that.
"No," he whispered. "No one has."
"Have we ever worked you like that fat slug?"
Vetch shook his head.
"So why did you think we would?"
Vetch looked over at Kashet with watery eyes, and watched Avatre snuggling up to him, both too engrossed with examining each other to pay too much attention to what they could not fix. Kashet was keeping a wary eye on an obviously upset Ari, but seemed more focused on the smaller dragon. "It hurts to hope," he whispered. "It hurts to realize that one day, all you have to do is fly off and never come back...and then I'll be left with even less than what I have."
"I'm not going to just run off and desert this place..." Ari protested.
"But you might die. Or be too badly injured to fly."
Ari shifted, unable to deny the possibility.
"We aren't just going to toss you back to the wolves, Vetch," Haraket put in. "There are other dragons you could care for - you were able to care for Coresan at her worst; I'd trust you with any of the others."
Vetch ducked his head, and didn't say anything.
Haraket sighed. "I know this is going to be tough, but I need to do something. Vetch, you'll be confined to Ari's quarters for the time being. Only the healer, Baken, Ari, and myself are allowed to visit him - make sure every one else stays clear if you are around. I will need to investigate where this dragon came from, and why she was not cared for, but I think it is safe to say that what happened today was nothing more than an accident. Ari, I want you to make sure Vetch recovers from this as quickly as possible. I'll put another dragon boy on Kashet until then, but they tend to get bored with him quickly. The little one will need to be kept off tala for now - she seems to be handling well without it, so I don't think it will be a problem. I don't want to introduce it to her with Kashet in the pen, though.
"Baken, I want you to check each and every pen and make sure we don't have any other strays. If we could lose one, we could lose more, and that is not an option. Any questions?"
No one said anything.
"All right then, Vetch to Ari's quarters, and Baken back to work. I'll see what I can do about having another pallet moved to your rooms - it's probably best to give Vetch some options until things settle down. Remember what I said, though, boy - any problems and you come to me straight away. We don't tolerate anything of the sort around here."
"Yes sir," Vetch answered meekly, comforted by the warm squeeze of Baken's arm as he replied.
He very nearly gave a sigh of relief as Haraket left; he was
only too glad to have avoided going back to Kefti-the-Fat, and was overjoyed
that Avatre was going to be safe.
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