Home Away from Home (Open)

[phlysolo]

It was just after breakfast and the sun seemed unusually high in the sky, S'koin noted, frowning. Perhaps it came with living so close to water and made some kind of illusion that the horizon was lower...or something. Kirith had, of course, accompanied his rider down to the Weyr's training grounds this morning to inspect the place where they be spending most of their time when Lyeth's Clutch Hatched...if it indeed were ever to come...The golden dragon had yet to Rise, although she'd been shining rather brightly gold for the past day or two...

Looking around the dusty yard, S'koin was filled with a sense of depression. He stooped to pick up a rock and carefully knocked a resting trundlebug off of it. It felt so lonely and sad out on the deserted training area; how many of the Weyrlings had passed through here two Turns ago had died? How many from the Clutches before that? Before that? Would Lyeth be able to repopulate the entire planet herself? Well, certainly if she Clutched a queen, but...would she even Clutch at all?

The man sighed and tossed the rock up into the air and caught it again, scowling up at the sky. They were in for one hell of a Turn!

You really have doubts about Lyeth? I don't. I think she's going to have lots of bronzes to Chase her-the best Pern has to offer I think. Kirith said, pecking his talons into the dirt.

S'koin turned towards the huge brown, tossing the rock across the empty field. The man sighed and ran his fingers through his loose, straight brown hair.

"Oh, I don't know about that. Just because the bronzes going to give Chase survived the Plague doesn't mean they have anything special in them. Maybe they just got lucky," S'koin said quietly and unhappily.

The dragon shook his head, his eyes whirling with amusement. His claws dug deeply into the ground, but he made no effort to get off of the ground.

Don't be so melancholy. Be a little more hopeful, will you, S'koin. Lyeth will Clutch just as sure as Threads will Fall. And we will be here to ensure that they will be strong.

[Kisha-Ra]

The sun shone brightly on Ista this morning, V’rey basked in the early rays as he strolled idly around the weyrbowl, much to Esmeth’s disgust. V’rey listened to his green’s grumblings about gross mistreatment with an amused smile on his face. Brightlove, you think me doing anything but washing you, oiling you, and flirting with riders who have handsome dragons is gross mistreatment. I am almost certain you can survive without my help for a while. Or you could come down here… V’rey’s smile broadened at Esmeth’s response, then vanished entirely for a moment as he came to the training grounds.

It was upsetting and not a little disturbing to see the place so empty when he remembered endless lessons and drills under the eyes of the weyrlingmaster, and hides of all colours and shades that seemed to fill the yard to capacity. Now it was dead, empty. Well, almost empty, there did seem to be a dragon and rider there.

A flurry of wings behind him made V’rey look around. Esmeth landed daintily a short distance away and walked forward to join her rider with a mental sigh. I thought you weren’t coming brightlove. V’rey said raising an eyebrow at his dragon. I was teasing, you know that. Kirith is very handsome don’t you think?[/color] V’rey considered the massive brown for a moment. Not really my type. Esmeth snorted in a very expressive manner. V’rey turned his eyes back to Kirith and his rider, the man seemed unhappy while his dragon merely seemed amused. ‘Hello there.’ He called cheerfully, not really able to call out any other way. ‘Never tell me the emptiness out here gets to you too?’

[phlysolo]

It had been so quiet that S'koin had been allowed to lose himself in his thoughts and the man hadn't even realized that another dragon and her rider had found their way to the deserted training grounds. However, his dragon the ever observant one, had seen them immediately and had raised himself up to greet the pair. A draconic smile was etched across the large brown's face and his eyes whirled even faster than before, happy of the company. And it would do His's well, too, to interact with someone else here at Ista.

Hello there! I am Kirith and it is quite pleasant to meet you. My rider is S'koin. The brown said, rising all the way up to his feet and closing the distance between himself and this rather attractive green.

Only the great brown's movement alerted S'koin to the presence of others here. He turned and had to squint his eyes and glare at the sunlight, unable to discern either of the newcomers at all in the bright light. A few steps forward did him well and he was easily able to make out the mass of a green dragon and her human rider. Oh...A male greenrider. While he respected his male greenrider comrades, he was never very inclined to bed them after Flights. Women had always done more for him than males had, but still...

"Hey, there," S'koin yelled in return, striding towards the pair. Oh, it was a longer distance than he thought and had to stretch his short legs to close the gap between them. It wouldn't do well for them to scream an entire conversation at each other.

"I'm S'koin, nice to meet you! I haven't seen so many as ten riders here in the past couple of days that I've called Ista 'home,'" S'koin said, smiling brightly. "It feels downright lonely here!"

[Kisha-Ra]

Oh brightlove, it looks like someone’s noticed yoooou. V’rey’s thought was a teasing song as Kirith turned their way with, for a dragon, a happy face. I am not the one shouting.[/color] the green pointed out privately to her rider before turning her attention to Kirith. Good morning Kirith. I am Esmeth. My rider is V’rey, watch out, he has a strange sense of humour.[/color] Esmeth thought it fair that the relative newcomers were warned and genuinely didn’t realise her warning could be taken any other way than the one she meant it in.

V’rey took a few steps forward to show willing, it would be inconvenient to have to shout an entire conversation and all sarcasm lost effect at loud volumes. Besides, itseemed by the way the brownrider stretched his legs out for a longer stride that he was conscious of being less than average height, it would probably do him good to be close enough that V’rey had to look up at him. V’re wouldn’t mind, he was used to looking up at near everyone.

‘Good to meet you S’koin.’ V’rey replied once they came within speaking distance of each other. ‘I’m V’rey and the green who is no doubt trying to charm your lad is Esmeth. Don’t worry about me though, I have no charm so you’re quite safe.’ V’rey wriggled one eyebrow in a fairly ridiculous manner to show he was joking, for some reason he couldn’t quite comprehand some people failed to understand his jokes.

Abruptly V’rey returned to a more sober mood. ‘Yeah, it does seem that way sometimes, like it’s all grey and hope is dead. Especially out here. I Impressed Esmeth at the last hatching you see and I always expect to see dragons of all sizes and hear the weyrlingmaster bellowing at me for being late. Sorry, I’m blathering on a bit, I get that way sometimes, do feel free to interrupt at anytime.’ He managed a sort of self mocking half smile for his own silliness before the persistent bleak mood fell in again.

[phlysolo]

The brown peered quizzically at the green, but didn't immediately respond. What did that mean? Was her rider going to hit on His? That would not do well...S'koin didn't much prefer men, though he had made some exceptions over the Turns... I see...S'koin doesn't do much laughing... Kirith replied, seemingly nervous as he pecked at the ground with a talon. BUT! I do love to laugh, Esmeth! The dragon's outburst came almost suddenly and it was very easy to see that he had puffed himself up proudly, trying to show off to the pretty green.

S'koin chuckled and glanced at the dragon pair, noting that it was probably Kirith rather than Esmeth who was doing the charming. It wasn't fair that the brown usually had better luck with the ladies than S'koin himself did. If anything, he was stuck with male greenriders. All that meat was bad for his liver, after all...

"Got no charm, eh, V'rey? Well, you like I, must have had it all stolen by your dragon!" He said with a wiry grin. "I couldn't bag any girl I've ever met with out that lugging beast flirting her up."

Yes, he could jest with the man, but he hoped with a fervor that, against his better knowledge, that Kirith would pass Esmeth up in a Flight, but...eh...Luckily, the man changed the topic and S'koin, too, dropped his joking air and sighed.

"Yeah...I helped out with the Weyrling Training back...home after the Plague, but there were so few Weyrlings that, heh, well, it was disheartening," S'koin's response had been quiet and slow, although he seemed disinclined to say anything negative about the other man's babbling. Perhaps he was just polite. "I, too, came here with the hope of at least seeing more dragons and riders, but..."

[Kisha-Ra]

Esmeth dropped her head quizzically to one side. Kirith’s rider did not laugh much? Oh that was sad, everyone should laugh. Kirith’s abrupt statement and change of tack caught the green off guard, however and slight lift of her wings showed that before she dropped into a more relaxed stance. Is that so?[/color] She asked coyly.

V’rey shrugged, seemingly careless. Yes Esmeth was being charmed by the brown, but it seemed the brownrider was a little less than enthusiastic behind the jokes, and V’rey had not missed the reference to ‘girls’. So no flirting with this one, keep it professional, keep it serious. Well, try to keep it serious.

Fortunatly the topic lent itself to seriousness. ‘Actually there are more people around here than it seems; quite a few came here because of Lyeth I dare say. She’s our golden ray of hope.’ V’rey made the awful pun with a twist of a smile. ‘Especially now everyone’s discovered firestone has nothing to do with fertility and it turns out greens just can’t clutch. Mind you that was probably purposeful, they aren’t as silly as their little cousins so if they did lay we might be up to our ears in green dragons by now.’

[phlysolo]

And the brown was very pleased with himself. He noticed that her wings had dropped and she appeared much more at ease. She was a pretty thing, too! His eyes whirled happily as he settled down next to the green, puffing himself up into what he thought was what a female dragon would believe to be handsome and charming.

Indeed, Esmeth. And I bet you know a lot of good jokes. Kirith replied silkily. Any dragon, or human for that matter, with half a brain cell would realize that the great brown was doing his best to flirt with the green.

As for S'koin he was mentally withering from the fact that Kirith had already taken a liking to this green of V'rey's. Fortunately, the dragon was something of a flirt himself when he wanted to be, especially when the females would get proddy. Still, this was practically guaranteeing that Kirith would be up to Chasing Esmeth when she decided to take to the skies. Shards and Shells.

"Hah, that doesn't surprise me all that much. Kirith and I made the flight for much the same reasons as any of those," S'koin told V'rey briskly. "I came mostly to help out with the Weyrlings that Kirith and I are quite sure are to come."

The man's tone expressed complete hope and faith in the gold dragon, but inwardly his nagging doubts were getting the better of him. He didn't need to mention that to V'rey, however..

"I'm sure Kirith wouldn't mind that prospect at all. I don't think he'll ever have the ambition to Chase anything but greens," The brownrider laughed, amused by the thought of the entirety of Pern populated by greens. "No offense or anything, V'rey."