#but keth is alive if left pretty fucked up by the accident that killed him in canon

[kariachi]

Some Pern-xover Everybody Lives AU. Specifically I wanted Eva’s Keth to be alive for a little while.

~~

No fighting pair came away from their duty unscarred. Goldpairs might, flying low below where most strands of Thread were burned away and spending a fair chunk of the year on the Sands, but no one else. Just within the first year a fighting pair could expect to be scored several times, more often the larger the dragon, and you either were left scarred or left Between, with various forms of retirement between them.

Though of course, some individuals decided to speedrun the matter and ended up bypassing the entire job.

And other, stupider, individuals refused to be simply outdone.

‘What did I say?’

‘Hush you.’ Eva hissed at the sting of the healer’s needle stitching her side, prompting a soothing pat to the leg from her and a stern look from her brother.

“Duels now,” R’old asked, arms crossed. “Really?” She shrugged on her uninjured side.

“He was an asshole, somebody had to deal with him.”

‘Anybody else could’ve.’

“And it had to be you?” Fuck but she hated it when they were on the same wavelength.

“I was there, and it was my old classmate he was hassling, so yes.” ‘You’d rather I leave Merenth’s to it alone?’

‘If it stops you getting stabbed, yes.’ Keth’s concern and aggravation radiated over their bond and Eva could practically see him back at the Weyr, strewn out in the soothing heat of the empty sands with the other dragons besieged by bonedeep aches, good eye swirling in reds and yellows. And R’old was like an echo of the image, face stoney like he couldn’t decide whether to clutch her to him or punch her himself. Much as she hated to admit it, it did hurt to see and to feel.

‘I’ll try to keep my temper.’

‘No, you won’t. You’ve been a terror from Between as long as I’ve lived and it won’t end until we do.’ She could almost hear her brown’s huffed breath as fond exasperation bled through between them. ‘Come home.’ It was an order, one she didn’t need. Between the pain of her wounds and Keth’s worry she was beginning to feel the distance from Hold to Weyr like a knife’s edge against her throat.

‘As soon as I can, beloved.’ R’old heaved a sigh of his own, shaking his head as he watched the healer work.

“The queens are going to want a word with you,” he said, “be a damn fine way to lose the Weyr’s harper, to a duel. Because you weren’t finding enough trouble.” He sighed again. “How you’ve lived this long…. Qinerith and I’ll look out for Keth until you can hitch a lift back to the Weyr.” Making a note to write him a song or something, Eva flashed a smile.

“I’d appreciate it.”