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 Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 1:25 pm
It's so early... Rhilira was creeping through the Weyr barefoot - greatly unadvised - with her knee high boots in hand, clutched tightly together so the hardened soles wouldn't knock together and wake anyone up. The first drudges were beginning to wake, but paid her no mind as she crept down the narrow staircases. It was too early to be interfering with any work, even. I'm glad I got to bed early last night. When she stepped out into the morning air, the sun hardly risen even, with the light scarce, she stopped to pull her boots on. Even if her feet were calloused and rough, it would be faster just to run in her boots.
The beasthold was her goal, wanting to get an early ride in before she would be called by the Candidate Master to take to her morning chores. Her runner looked up as she entered his pen, exhaling as she patted his face gently while moving around him to take his saddle from the fence. "I don't think anyone saw me - no one who would care, anyway," she whispered to him, and he almost seemed to understand in the way that he stomped a hoof impatiently as she rested the saddle on his back with a sharp exhale. "We should be able to slip out, no problem."
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Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 8:12 pm
"P-pardon me, but where are you going?"
A thin voice whispered out of the darkness towards the woman and the runnerbeast. Almost as if to accent the question a green flitter burst from between with a shriek, eyes whirling a shade of yellow and red as if to demand to know as well what was going on. She didn't move more than just her hover above this sneaking pair, though two shrill whistles moved her off into the darkness to the side of an unseen figure.
A hand actually did move out into the pale light, a second one joining in to form a cupping shape, and the green flitter landed before pulling her tail inward and folding her wings. The hands were soon followed by a very small body belong to a girl with very large eyes, her lips parted slightly as though she wished to speak.
"You're here t-t-too early if you're w-wwanting to go out properly."
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Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 9:59 pm
The sudden burst of noise made Rhilira jump and scream slightly, and the brown firelizard that was dozing on her shoulder - he blended in to her tunic and was easily unnoticed in the dim light - blinked between with a loud response screech. "Shards!" she yelled, turned on the girl who had startled her. She then realized how much noise the whole scene had created as her runner stamped and threw his head within the confines of the stall, neighing and snorting once the noise had died. As she worked to control him, she turned eyes of acid back to the girl. "What?" she said sharply her voice considerably lower now. It got even softer as she noticed the size of the girl - she seemed to just shrink into the building. "I'm going for a morning ride." Her tone still held an edge, though not as it had just words prior. "I'm not sure you can tell me that, either." She had gotten her runner under control, though he was still fidgeting and prancing slowly in place. The entire ordeal had jump-started his nerves.
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Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:06 pm
"No-no, I'm say-saying that the w-weather will be bad very shortly and it's not safe to go out r-r-riding. If you come later in the day you'd be o-o-okay."
The girl seemed to reach behind her and pulled out a small basket of glows, their pale light illuminating the area a far cry better than before. She was more visible now if that was her point, and from the look and smell of her she'd probably been sleeping out here with the animals or at least working with them for some time. Small patches of dirt and what probably was dung clung here and there about her frame, her bare feet and legs streaked up to mid-calf with a mixture of mud and grass.
The green flitter that was in her arms had slowly moved to her shoulder and was more vibrant in the light as well, such pretty shades. It was resting its head inside a small poof of the girl's hair, the ponytail she'd tried to make earlier in the day falling out and giving her a mushroom head.
"The...the herdbeasts are uneasy, so...I trust their judgment. It's not safe."
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Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:26 pm
Oh. She was just trying to be helpful... Rhilira felt instantly guilty about the tone she had taken with the girl, and peered outside, her eyes up to the sky. She had been so concentrated on not getting caught that she failed to realize that there were ominous looking clouds swirling above. "I see..." She looked back to the girl and quickly offered her hand, "I'm Rhilira. Sorry for yelling at you..." She glanced over her shoulder at her runner, who was still looking quite nervous. If he had just been scared from the noise, he would have been calmed by now. "I wasn't paying attention to the weather on my way over, I guess."
This fact embarrassed the trader a bit. She was raised on the various roads and seas of Pern, and had an eye for weather - you had to, to avoid getting your train stuck in a bad spot for a storm. The fact that she missed obvious signs of a storm annoyed her, and that she had been so inattentive.
Now that there was some extra light on them, Rhilira looked the girl over more closely. She looked dirty and unkempt, and by the looks of it, had stayed down in the pens. That would explain why she was down here this early, too. Maybe she had even worked down here the day before? I'd say she was a drudge, by the looks of it. But she's no where near the age to no longer eligible to Stand. What a state for a Candidate to be in!
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Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:43 pm
"N-nono, it's okay. I...I'm bad at expressing myself so people...they tend to, well. Like you did, but I'm o-o-okay with that. It's okay."
The girl gave a thin smile and moved the hand not holding the glow-basket up to her flitt's side, stroking the little beast with a single finger. The creature crooned happily before launching itself back into the air, swirling a dizzy pattern. She chirped a few more times before going between, leaving the two women alone.
"I...Tiepet. My name is Tiepet - we have seen one another before. Candidates, but I...d-don't talk much."
That was an exxageration. It would have been better to say 'I never talk at all, thanks' and it would have made just as much sense, but the girl seemed to be trying to be somewhat social. Tiepet was quite curious why this person had taken the time to come all the way up here just for a morning ride when it was pretty easy to take breaks during the day anyway. Okay, maybe it was easy for her because she often ran away and hid during lessons, taking refuge in the pens amongst the ovines. If found she always claimed it was her assigned chore for the day and eventually people stopped asking her.
"I...I'm a Herder, but-"
She stopped, unsure of what she was trying to say. Perhaps she was trying to explain the smell about her or her appearance, but either way it wasn't going well.
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Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 2:21 pm
I have to admit. For scaring the glow out of me, she's pretty cute. Reminds me of... She quickly brought her mind away from her family. Since she was used to always being around them, she was still getting used to never seeing them.
"I recognize you," she said cheerfully, leaning back against one of the pens, thankful that she had thought to put her boots on before coming in here. She hadn't planned on standing around, but she certainly didn't want to do it ankle-deep in dung now that she was.
"That explains why you're down here, then." Well. It sort of it did. Once you took up Candidacy, you tended to drop the duties of your other Craft, if Rhilira remembered correctly. She hadn't paid too much attention to that lecture, since it didn't remotely concern her. It had been clear as soon as she was on that dragon's back that she was going to be leaving the train until she failed to Impress enough to leave, or grew too old to Stand.
There was an odd hang in conversation that made Rhilira feel uneasy. She tended to be good at keeping up a conversation - traders had to be friendly with all sorts of people, keep them talking, and hopefully get a lower price. When they gave nothing back, though...
Well. She was a herder. And a Candidate. They had two things in common. Well, one, if you grouped dragons with beasts, though she was certain that they wouldn't appreciate such a comparison.
"Do you go out and ride often? Or do you stick more with burdenbeasts or herdbeasts?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 2:36 pm
"We - my family, we raise o-o-vines for the dragons and people of the Weyr t-t-o eat. I have n-n-ever ridden a runner before, there...wasn't a need. You can watch better on foot, with a flitt. Sky...Skybox helps me, she keeps an eye from the sky."
So apparently the name of the green flitter was Skybox. One would have thought that the little beast would have returned at the mere mention of her name yet she stayed away and left Tiepet alone to talk. This was for her own good!
When the other girl had mentioned recognizing Tiepet the smaller girl flushed, unsure of how to take that. She probably could have done something really deadglow and gotten herself remembered because of that, her mind wandering back to walking into the wall the day she met the weavers. Dreadful day.
"B-but you ride a lot? What are you?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 4:29 pm
"Ah, so that's how the Weyr always has fresh meat," she said, half to herself. She was quite used to hunting or purchasing and drying meat, so she always wondered how it was that the Weyr could supply for so many people so easily. "I guess that makes sense. I can't imagine that ovine move fast enough that you'd have to chase them?"
She gave her runner an affectionate pat from over her shoulder. "I come from a trader's train, so I spent a good portion of my time on a runnerbeast as soon as I was old enough to learn to ride one. I bought this one -" she gestured to the runner behind her "- as soon as I saved enough marks to afford my own." She shrugged. "I'm no professional. Just a tool of the trade."
Now she remembered where she had seen the girl before! The day all the new Candidates arrived. She was the girl she watched walk into the wall! Even now, that much later, she struggled to hide the smile that threatened to lead to an outward laugh. Sure, she had seen her in passing since then... But that was why she remembered her.
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Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 5:30 pm
"Yes - we help the Masterbeastherder and everyone else. My family has been here for generations on those cliffs, with the animals. I grew up amongst the animals."
It was easy enough for Tie to calm down and talk about ovines and the bovines - she adored them after all. She wasn't too fond of the goats, they liked to ram into her and some of them kicked, but that was beside the point.
When this stranger mentioned that the runnerbeast belonged to her the young Herder tilted her head slightly to the side, remembering the day the animal had been brought in. Everyone had remarked that it was odd to see someone so young bringing an animal to the Weyr with them, but she hadn't thought much on it. Her job was with the animals they raised for eating and other things, not the runners.
"I...I don't think I like runnerbeasts much. They are very large and can be dangerous. We have seen others get kicked and not get back up - not on their own anyway."
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Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 6:37 pm
Good, the girl seemed to be calming down. It was reassuring that it was at least possible. And a good thing I don't mind talk of livestock and the such. Business is business, no matter the craft. "Being able to trace a family back that far is always reassuring. It's nice to have grounding where you live." And she could do that same, she considered. Her family had been that of traders long before anyone of her bloodkin could remember. I'm sure I was told the story about whoever it was who started the train, though I certainly don't remember it.
As for runnerbeasts... Sure, they could be dangerous, but so could all animals of Pern. Even dragons, probably. Not that she had even seen a dragon attack a human, but she thought that it was probably possible, depending the temperament of the dragon and the rider.
"Sure, they can be dangerous... Getting thrown from one is no fun, either. But I wouldn't say they're any more dangerous than most of the wild animals out there. I wouldn't want to be caught in the path of an angry wild burdenbeast, that's for sure."
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Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 6:47 pm
"Burdenbeasts are generally more mild tempered and through they're prone to stampedes they can be easily watched and controlled. Runnerbeasts have odd temperaments that make them hard to trust. Salso, they're a lot bigger then ovines and bovines. It'd hurt to get trampled by one, but . . . well."
It certainly wouldn't kill anyone. No one would want to talk about it though, kinda embarrassing if you got trampled but an ovine. How silly was that? She'd been stepped on before by a few of them while she was napping and they decided to move, but that secret stayed between her and Skybox.
Speaking of Skybox, hadn't Tie seen this woman with a flitter? A brown, right?
"You...have a flitter, right?"
It seemed like a random topic change, but it made sense to the herder.
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Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 6:52 pm
Rhilira shrugged, "I guess that's a fair enough argument. Growing up around them has gotten me to ignore it, I guess." She laughed and shrugged again. "We've never had any accident on our train - nothing serious - so I never really think about it."
Her question about the firelizard that had previously adorned her shoulder made her wonder where exactly he went. "Oh, yeah, brown Prah," she said casually. "We scared him off with all the noisy... He's stubborn enough that he won't come back for awhile probably." His disappearance wasn't unusual. If something scared him or agitated him, he'd hold a grudge for quite some time, especially if it was against her. It wasn't unusual not to see him for a few days. When in a good temperament, though, she could always depend on him at least, making him worth all the moodiness and trouble he caused her the rest of the time.
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Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 6:55 pm
"Prah? That is an interesting name. I...I have green Skybox. You have seen her, she'll come if I call. She is my best helper."
Tiepet put her fingers to her mouth and gave the same two shrill whistles from before, bringing the Green from between and at her side. The beast had a tunnelsnake in her mouth, she'd probably been out hunting, but the moment she say Tie the firelizard dropped the creature and gave a happy chirp.
"She...doesn't understand words, I trained with whistles. She knows her name though, which helps. Does yours...know anything?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 7:05 pm
The trader was impressed by the obedience of the small creature. "That's pretty handy," she replied with a half smile. "When he's in a good mood, Prah's pretty useful - especially when we're traveling by land. I trained him to fly ahead and look for anything that can be tough for the train to pass over, and to go about other traders' carts to make sure their good are as they say." She shrugged. "He can also send messages, and fetch things for me, if I ask him." The thing that she had not been able to train him to do was come whenever she called. Granted, he tended to enjoy his spot on her shoulder, or in her company, be if it was in his mind not to be there, she could be certain that he would not be.
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