Benaret awoke from a very pleasant dream about Lirris to the horrible reality that she was gone. Dead probably. Firael and his wife and seen to his every comfort once they'd returned to the cothold, but nothing could comfort the loss of Lirris.
For a while before he'd gone to sleep that night, he'd lain awake, deciding what to do with his life now that Lirris was gone. He'd promised her to go on living, but now that did not seem such an easy thing to do. What could he do? He could probably stay with Firael, or maybe at Torlaize Minor Hold, the Hold which Firael's cothold was part of.
But it would never be able to come close to the life he would have had with Lirris. They would have had their whole lives ahead of them, and in one horrible instant it had all been ruined. The prospect of life didn't seem very inviting compared to that of death, where he could easily follow Lirris if he so chose.
Death. That was the first thought that greeted Benaret's newly awakened mind. There had been so much death lately. The chestnut had died, Lirris had died. He might have been dead too had the cart fallen a different way. What did life have to offer, really? Death, at the moment, seemed more inviting than life.
Someone knocked tentatively on the door to Benaret's guest quarters, breaking his morbid train of thought. "Come in," he said as cheerfully as he could manage. No need to depress the rest of the cothold's population.
The door opened slowly to reveal Firael's youngest daughter, eleven turn old Sullyn if he remembered correctly. She was carrying an odd assortment of things in her tiny arms: a bucket that appeared to be full of sand hung off of one arm and a bowl of meat was cradled in the other. "Papa said that you needed some cheering up," she explained, walking over and setting her load down on the table next to his bed. "We got these flit eggs from Falas Weyr about two sevendays ago. They were supposed to be for Mother and Father, but Mother is afraid of them and Father is giving his to you. And they should Hatch soon, so I brought them to you."
Benaret smiled, thinking of Lirris' fiesty little Talmur. "That's very generous of him, but I really don't think I deserve it. Wouldn't you like two?"
"Papa says that with so much death, you could use a bit of life for a change," Sullyn said in the most serious tone he'd ever heard an eleven-turn old use. She dug two creamy colored eggs out of the sand-filled bucket. "And two would be too much to take care of anyway."
Benaret was about to protest as one of the eggs then the other began to sway back and forth slowly. "They're Hatching!" Sullyn squealed and thrust some meat into his hands. "When the one closest to you hatches, feed it this and then it will Impress you!"
There wasn't time for him to disagree, for the eggs were rocking faster and faster and then the one closet to him began to crack. Within a few moments, a tiny green head poked through, followed by the a wing and then neck and body. The green creeled pitiously and stumbled around, searching for food.
Benaret shoved the food towards her and the young green snapped it up quickly and then scrambled in the direction of where the food had come from. Benaret grabbed another handful, this time feeding her smaller peices so that, eventually, she climbed onto his arm impatiently to get at the food. She gazed adoringly up at her feeder, and Impression took place.
Benaret was overcome with a wave of emotions. There were love, trust, ownership, dependance and many more emotions that were convyed from the flit to her human. But the thing most important to Benaret was the life. The green was so fully, vibrantly alive. She was full of energy and didn't have a sad thought in her mind, just happiness. Suddenly, life seemed much more inviting that it had a few minutes before.
"What're you gonna name her?" Sullyn asked from where she was stroking a big chocolate colored brown who was nibbling contetedly on the edge of her shirt.
Benaret gazed down adoringly at the green for a moment before it occured to him. He knew exactly what to call her. "Lirri, after my wife."
Over the next sevenday as he learned to live with his new companion Benaret began to find more and more of his beloved's characteristics in her namesake. Sometimes Lirri would look up at him and cock her head just like Lirris had done. Or she would seem to smile just the way Lirris had.
A sevenday after he Impressed Lirri...