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 Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 8:09 am
'Panata, today your job is to go and assist one of our riders. It seems he's injured himself and can't do much of his daily routine without assistance, so we're sending you to aid him. Any questions?'
There had been no opportunity for Panata to even ask one, the person giving him the task ushering him outside with nothing more than a name and a note in his possession. It was hard for them to find things for him to do, many people thinking he was still a little affected from his wounds, not to mention many weren't sure what exactly he could do. Panata didn't seem like the macho type that could go and haul bag after bag of firestone for an hour, nor did he seem delicate/careful enough to hold a knife in the kitchens to help with meals.
But there was no time to object! He was given a task that he needed to carry out - to assist this 'L'thor of Green Raith' - until he was dismissed at the end of the day. He wasn't sure what would be coming his way, hopefully nothing too strenuous, but the parting words shared before he went out of sight made him feel a bit nervous.
'I think you should be okay, you're cute enough. Just don't do anything stupid.'
What was that supposed to mean? Did this L'thor hate ugly people? Should he be flattered that someone considered him cute?
Those thoughts rolled in his head as he started out towards the Bowl, looking at the note that indicated he would be meeting the rider and dragon there shortly after breakfast. Atop his head Meisir swayed his neck, sleepy eyes trying to take in the surroundings. A faint chirp of protest at being awake so early was dismissed with Panata reaching up to rub his spine, a purr coming over.
They were on the grounds finally, the morning sun nice and warm to bodies cold from the shade, and Panata let his eyes adjust before he tried to spot the person he should be assisting for the day. It wasn't very hard to do, considering at the moment there was only one Green dragon out there, and he swallowed deeply as his steps brought him in a path to meet L'thor.
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 8:19 am
"What are you?"
L'thor sighed slightly and shook his head. "An idiot, love." He wished she'd stop going on, it wasn't as if he'd meant to fall out of bed, could've happened to anyone. He still felt stupid though, and sore too; he'd acquired a bruise on his left temple, a badly sprained wrist, and the rudest awakening since River had bitten him on the nose trying to kill and insect on contact with the ground. The worst of it was, he couldn't wash Raith while his wrist healed. Apparently they were sending him some candidate who'd got himself mauled at the last hatching and needed to be put to good use... Speaking of - or thinking at any rate - that was probably him coming over now.
"He'd better be good," Raith said in uncharacteristically grumpy tones, "I'm not going to put up with him missing spots."
L'thor chose to ignore her, instead offering a smile to the approaching youth. Given a few more turns, this one would probably be quite a looker. L'thor made a mental note to keep an eye on him. "You must be Panata," he said cheerfully as the youth drew near. "I'd shake your hand, but I'm rather indisposed on the hands front," he nodded at his right arm in its sling. "Still, glad to meet you, if you weren't told, I'm L'thor and this is Raith."
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 8:46 am
Panata did his best to smile and nod as the man he assumed he'd be helping out for the day approached him, addressing Panata by his own name before giving out his own. The nodding motion made Meisir hiss at the action and take into the air, his claws scratching a bit at the young boy's scalp unintentionally. A frown crossed his face as Panata reached up to rub the sore spot, though Meisir was a bit too high for him to swat at as a returned warning about being more careful.
He would have continued this way should he not have remember that he was in the presence of another, his cheeks deeply turning red before he spoke. He probably looked like an idiot, but he doubted this rider expected much out of him anyway.
"I am Panata, pleased to meet you. I was told to assist both you and Raith in any way possible, so please let me know what I can do for you."
He bowed proper, his hands resting in front of his body. Meisir took this a sign to land and let his frame settled on the curve of Panata's back, the boy looking over his shoulder at the whirling green eyes of a quite happy Brown.
"This...is Meisir. If you think he'll be too much of a bother, I can send him away. He just seemed to have been drawn closer to me as of late."
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 8:57 am
"Not at all," L'thor smiled and dismissed the boy's worry with an airy wave of his good hand. "I know how flitts can be," he elaborated, "and I love the little beasts even at their most annoying. Right though, help, Raith needs a bath, and obviously I can't do that myself just now. Grab that bucket of soapsand if you would," he nodded to it, "I can manage the oil." As he spoke, the lithe rider stooped to pick up the second bucket. "Raith will meet us down by the lake," he went on as the green trotted far enough away to take off without blustering them too much. Once she was in the air and sailing towards the lake, L'thor turned back to his companion.
"So, tell me a bit about yourself," he said with what he hoped was a reassuring smile; the boy seemed a bit nervous and needed putting at his ease. "I know you're a candidate," he added encouragingly, "but that's about all." Some superficial information about him would be best, that way he could respond in kind. He wanted to be friendly, but he didn't want to tell too many personal details to a stranger.
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 9:08 am
When Raith took off Meisir did as well, following the massive Green as quickly as he could. Panata could only chuckle at the action, knowing his crazy flit probably thought he was giving chase or something. Meisir never ceased to amuse him, and he hoped it would stay that way. Having something to fret over also gave Panata something to think about when he was being idle and not assisting anyone.
"As you wish. I'm from the Smithcraft Hall, where I was an apprentice in Glasscraft. I got brought here shortly before the Hatching, and was unable to return back to the Hall afterward because of my injuries."
Panata easily lifted the bucket from the ground, only needing one hand to get it moving. He may have been feeling lazy from laying around, but he still was a Smithcraft apprentice - he was no weakling. He took care to make sure nothing would spill on him as they started to walk, not wanting to waste anything or give an impression he was trying to bite off more than he could chew.
"I was pretty sure everyone knew about me from the Sands, and how much of a deadglow I'd been out there. It's not something I'm rather proud of."
His cheeks had that flushed red look again, and his heart thumped a bit inside his chest. The hatching was still a good memory for the most part, up until the second mauling by that blue who would probably haunt his memory for a while, so he was more embarrassed at the fact he was rattling on and on.
"Is there anything else you'd like to know?"
He'd been vague in his own meaning, knowing well from lessons it wasn't polite to share all of one's history with others. It made you seem desperate for company or compliments, in any case.
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 9:16 am
Oh dear, he hadn't meant it to be an interrogation or anything. Still, maybe he was reading too much into that 'as you wish', maybe Panata was quite happy to talk. "I didn't think you were a deadglow," L'thor said eventually, "that hatching was rather... manic I suppose. You weren't the only one to get hurt." At least he hadn't been one of the unfortunate candidates who died out there on the sands.
"Anyway," L'thor smiled slightly and shrugged, "there wasn't anything specific I wanted to ask, I just wanted to get to know you a little... Oh, umm, how long have you had Meisir," this was fairly safe ground, he thought. "He seems to like Raith rather a lot," L'thor went on with a chuckle, peering after the retreating shape of his lifemate, and trying to make out the speck that would be her little follower. "She'll be pleased about that, she loves being admired." Perhaps it would even pull her out of her grumpy mood, he hoped it would, he didn't enjoy dealing with his lifemate when she was grumpy.
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 9:24 am
Panata could only mutter a weak 'thank you' to L'thor's comments about not finding him stupid as many others were oft to say, and he smiled gently as the topic turned to Meisir. He loved to talk about that little thing, if only because it was an easy topic.
"Meisir was a gift to me while I was at the Hall, so perhaps a little under two Turns? When he was born everything thought he was a dark Bronze because he's a little large, but I knew right away he was a Brown. He didn't have an attitude and he loved to be with me, so certainly not a Bronze."
It was his turn to chuckle, the memory of a mewling hatched flit fresh in his mind. Panata's lunch that day had not touched his stomach at all, instead going into the little beast with the hopes that filling him up would make Meisir forever belong to him. It had.
"I'll apologize for how he behaves though, Meisir loves to give Chase. Anything that's flying he acts as though he's bound to mate with them, always trying to hard to catch what he cannot. He's very fond of Greens and Golds, though I haven't seen him go after a Gold dragon before. I would that a little too awkward for me to try and explain."
He'd already had to explain himself plenty of times to other Riders or people who had flits, but talking to a Gold rider? Panata didn't think he could ever do that.
"How about you? How long ago did you Impress Raith, if I may ask?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 9:38 am
"Well, I'm sure Raith will be flattered," L'thor replied with a grin. "Attention is her favorite thing in the world, she's very sweet most of the time, but as vain as they come. Not that she doesn't have an excuse though." She was lovely, absolutely and totally lovely, like no other dragon in the world... Well to him at any rate, he believe that most other people would agree she was very pretty, but not the most beautiful in the world.
"I could ramble on about her all day," L'thor went on, shifting his grip on the bucket handle slightly. "I Impressed her... thriteen turns ago now, I was fifteen almost sixteen at the time. It was the second clutch I'd stood for, she was the third to hatch. Shook her way elegantly out of her shell, took one look around the sands, and then sauntered over to me insisting I feed her and wash all the egg-yuck off her." L'thor was now wearing the blissful smile that overcame many riders' faces when they thought back to the moment they met their lifemate. No other moment in life could match it, that first moment of connection. Truly sublime.
"That was back at Ista of course," L'thor added after a monetary pause. "I've probably not been here much longer than you; first arrived a couple of sevendays before the hatching, but only got fully settled in a couple after it." He still wasn't quite used to the weather, but that might just be because the year was tuning ever colder. When spring came around, he might find the temperature vaguely normal.
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 6:54 am
Panata smiled as he watched the expressions that came over L'thor's face, knowing them to be the same that all the riders seemed to get when talking about their dragons. He was lucky enough to have a similar gaze when it came to talking about Meisir, and he inwardly wondered if perhaps one day he'd be able to do the same while speaking over a dragon.
"At Ista? So you're not originally from here either?"
Of course, High Telgar Hold was still technically part of the Weyr since they sent tithes and what not, but Panata had never met a rider that was certainly not from anywhere in the area. Knowing that L'thor had been elsewhere made hundreds of questions start to spring themselves into his mind, wanting to know about the climate and the people and everything else, but he bit back the curious nature of his tongue in favor of keeping a somewhat cool relationship with this man. No one likes a deadglow who couldn't shut up.
"But your Raith sounds like she a lot of fun, even if you say she can be vain. Doesn't that mean she's just confident in herself and therefore knows her standing? I'd want a little bit of that feeling, even if to only be able to look people in the eye."
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:03 am
L'thor chuckled and shook his head. "No, I'm a transfer; I don't get enough free time that I'd have had time to pick up this tan living here. Ista was suffering from awful overcrowding, a lot of queens of breeding age, and eventually we got sick of it... I miss the place I suppose, but I was tired of watching Raith eat poor quality animals; she deserves the best." Of course, she was mostly just getting wherries rather than herbeasts, but at least they were fairly fat and there were a lot of them.
"She is good fun," he went on with a smile, "sweet and kind to pretty well everyone... She is confident in herself and her abilities, but she doesn't go on about it. She doesn't really go on about her appearance to anyone but me either, but yes she's vain about it, though is it vanity given she is so lovely? Humm, still," he chuckled and shrugged, "seen as she only talks about it to me and I don't find it obnoxious I suppose it doesn't really matter. The only vanity on display to most of the world is her insistence on being oiled so much. I probably go through as much as an average gold rider does, spend as much time over it too. I enjoy it though... well, when I can do it anyway." It would be a couple of sevendays before he would be fit for that again, and Raith would probably want at least four baths in that period of time. Still, maybe the novelty wouldn't wear off for Panata by the end of it, he hoped not, he didn't want the poor candidate bored out of his skull.
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:19 am
"I see."
He tucked all the information into the back of his head about Ista, tans and crowding and Queens and lack of good food for dragons. To that regard it must have meant that L'thor saw the sparse halls of High Reaches as something of a welcome paradise, a place for his dragon to do what she wanted to do and be the best at whatever it was. He could understand that. . . somewhat. Or at the very least he could pretend to do so.
As L'thor continued to talk about Raith Panata could only grin and nod his head, thinking this situation he found himself in wasn't as worrisome as he'd originally thought it would be. The warning given to him now seemed like it was a joke, or someone's attempt at a joke anyway, and he did his best to push it to the back of his mind. L'thor seemed decent to Panata, and not much else.
"Well for today I will help out as much as I can, so I am under your guidance. Please treat me well."
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:35 am
"Of course!" L'thor laughed lightly, shifting his grip on the oil bucket again as they drew near to the lake. "Believe me, I am very grateful for your help," he went on, "and more so for your attitude, I was worried I might end up with a surly candidate helping out; never any fun dealing with people who are all scowls and mutters about how they'd rather be shoveling dung than helping you! Oh, yes, a friend of mine will be dropping down lunch for us at some point. Meat rolls, some fruit, cheese, and bubbly pies I believe." Probably fruit juice to drink rather than wine, at least he hoped so, but he hadn't specified and he didn't yet know the other greenrider well enough to be sure what he thought was a suitable accompaniment to lunch.
Not too far ahead of them now, Raith touched down by the water's edge; she must have got there some time ago, but been circling until just now. Perhaps she was taking in the views and calming down from her funk. He could only hope so; while her eyes had remained a dull blue rather than flicking to orange she wasn't her usual relaxed self.
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:49 am
Behind the massive Green trailed the little Brown flit, his own eyes a bright blue-green of excitement and play. He was chattering something over and over, Panata having been getting weird images ( a dragon butt? Seriously? ) and mixed emotions, though all of it seemed to be in good spirits. It relieved the youth to know that his firelizard had managed to keep up and not go wandering after yet another dragon, and Panata inwardly thanked the small size of Meisir's brain.
"I'd...like to think myself friendly, or rather I find it incredibly rude to complain about an assigned task. A lot of people look down on me because I'm passive, or at least that's what someone else told me. I guess not having such a strong personality means I'm fair game for whatever comes my way, so it's easier to just take it all in with a smile and worry over it later."
So yes, Panata was admitting he was something of a wuss who didn't stand up for himself when insulted, but that didn't mean he would always take the abuse. He got angry on certain occasions, when the insults passed a level he would tolerate, but that was rare. Insulting Meisir also seemed to be a button issue, but many liked the flitt so that also fell into the rare category. Overall he was just...mellow.
Panata wasn't sure if he should say anything about the meal, not knowing if that meant he was invited to eat along, he merely nodded his head and mumbled that it sounded good to eat. He'd have to get over that.
"Does Raith have any spots she does not like to be touched?"
Topic change!
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 2:23 pm
L'thor chuckled softly; "Well, I suppose nice people like you make up for snappy people like me! Anyway, yes, she likes eyeridges like any dragon but she likes a nice neck rub as well." As they finally reached the green's side, L'thor set his bucket down and reached up to stoke her nose. "Be nice, eh love? What's wrong with you today anyway?"
"Well I can feel that you're sore which is nasty to start with," she began, though she lowered her head further to let him reach her eye-ridges, "and it's getting colder here and... I'm not sure," the draconic equivalent of a frown passed over her features, "there is something wrong somewhere close to me but not close to here... It's not an urgent feeling but it niggles."
Well, he had no idea what that could be about. "I'm sure it'll get better," he told her, feeling odd to be the one doing the placating for once, "just relax and let the nice lad wash you, eh?" To this she relented, and finally deigned to turn her head to Panata, and greet him with a gentle rumble. L'thor was probably right anyway, whatever was bothering her would go away, and in the meantime she should just do her best to ignore it.
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Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 8:37 am
He'd been quiet while it seemed the man and his dragon were conversing with one another, and it was during that silence that Meisir had come down and landed on his shoulder, the weight of the Brown a welcome comfort that would probably hamper him while he tried to scrub. He'd have to shoo the flitt off or get it to help wash the Green, should she not seem to mind. L'thor had said she liked compliments, and Panata figured a firelizard liking a dragon enough to want to help it could be considered flattering.
"Hello to you, Raith."
Panata balked slightly at the dragon turning towards him, his heart pounding in his chest, though he did his best to offer a bright smile and keep his mind clear of any worry. He still really liked dragons, in spite of everything, and as L'thor had said he could agree that Raith was quite beautiful. Inwardly he thanked the Egg that she was a Green and not Blue, but his mind tried to push that aside as something need not addressed.
"Where should we start today?"
He'd never bathed a dragon before, this was probably something he should mention. Candidates weren't often asked, as Riders seemed to like that duty all to themselves.
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