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 Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:50 pm
The fall had been a bad one. A very bad one. Not only had it threatened the Weyr itself, but the wings had had a difficult time. However what was worse for Hekate was hearing the worried bellow of Calanoth as the bronze betweened in the sky above and brought his injured rider down to be cared for and there was nothing Hekate could do.
She just had to keep pushing on bagging bag after bag of firestone and gritting her teeth as her emotions rolled. Finally the fall was over and and not wasting another minute Hekate fled running past the many hutts that all blurred together as she raced towards the one she knew Z'fer to be staying in.
Pausing at the door she stared at it. Calanoth was off resting to the side his injuries tended too so surely Z'fer was here? She doubted the bronze would have left his rider. Lifting a hand she tentatively knocked. "Z'fer?" She called out her throat tight with worry and firestone dust as she coughed.
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 9:07 pm
Numb. It was a good feeling. At least in the physical sense. A combination of numbweed and fellis had the Wingleader laying restlessly in his seldom used cot. It had been all they could do to knock the bronzerider out enough to prevent him from rejoining the Fall. His left shoulder and arm were bandaged tightly against his chest. The scoring had been deep but thankfully just missed the joint. The bleeding had been terrible, compounded by the strain of Fall and his dragon's injuries, it was sheer luck that kept him from further harm as Calanoth took them to safety. His arm would be next to useless for some time, but with care it should heal up fine.
Z'fer's reaction to the knock was delayed, a good half a minute passed before he realized that someone was even there. ~ Cal?... Is it G'drin? ~
~ Devith's. Follith's has not been by yet. ~ Calanoth cracked an eye and gave Hekate a warm whuff in greeting, tilting his head gingerly at the loose hut door.
~ He should have been here the moment Fall ended ~ The rider growled. Z'fer blinked through the fellis fog and dragged himself up into a sitting position. Freshly numbed as he was, the movement caused no pain. "Come in." He called.
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 9:27 pm
Hekate lifted a hand in greeting to Calanoth her eyes softening as she was hit with the gentle woof of hot air. Giving him a small smile she stood still and waited in silent worry until Z'fer finally called out. Opening the door she gently pushed it open to step inside quickly shutting it behind her. A bit of sun filtered through the window, but the hut itself was left illuminated by only dim light. This however didn't stop Hekate from spotting Z'fer's shadowed form laid out on his cot his arm stuck in a sling and looking worse then she'd ever seen him before.
For a moment Hekate was silent as her throat tightened beyond words with relief and emotion. Without a word she stepped forward her eyes bright with unshed tears and unsaid things as she sat on the edge of his cot reaching out to take his face in her hands and press her forehead against his. For a moment she just stayed like that staring into his eyes as she gently stroked his cheek a look of relief, love, fear, and so many other emotions warring for dominance in those molten gold eyes of hers. It was clear she hadn't wasted any time in coming to see him. I fact Hekate looked a wreck. Her face, hands, and body were smudged with firestone soot and the bandages on her hand would surely need changing. Her hair was a wild mess just barely restrained by the feline hair clip he had gifted her with and as she pressed against him mindful of his injuries her hands shook.
"I heard Calanoth bugle for the healers~" Hekate spoke trailing off as her voice broke under the thick strain of emotion. "For the love of little green flits you scared me Z'fer!" She finally gasped out pressing her lips hard against his in kiss as if to reassure herself that he was indeed still there and not lost to the cold unforgiving depths of between. Pulling back she sat up looking him over clearly distressed by his current state.
"I don't know what I'd have don if you'd~ Well you didn't, but still." She murmured lifting a hand to push a few stray stands of blood red hair from her face leaving a smudge of black dust across her forehead and glancing at the smudges she'd left on him she winced. "Let's see if I can get this stuff of of me and you. Just by all the Weyr's of Pern Z'fer you stupid wherry headed wingleader you scared me." Hekate continued shaking her head as she rose from the side of his cot grabbing one of the washing basins and pitchers to toss a clean rag into.
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 10:02 pm
As she entered the room Z'fer reclined back on the bed. He couldn't quite read her shifting expression but even in the dusty light he could see the tears shining in her eyes as she drew near. He lifted his good hand, resting it on her forearm as she bent to caress his face. Suddenly he wasn't near as upset over G'drin not being there. Better that he could have this time with Hekate.
She was frightened... the through drifted lazily through his mind, a bemused expression crossing his face as he tilted his chin upwards to catch her kiss. "You're filthy." He smiled as she wiped soot off her her hand and onto her face.
He sat back up when she left the bed, swinging his legs out over the side. He grunted and leaned forward, propping himself with one arm across his knees. "It's just a scratch... Calanoth's over reacting." His words were slow but coherent, the fellis just slowing his thinking process and reactions. Really it was his dragon who'd been seriously wounded. He'd insisted on staying and fighting and Z'fer let him. The moment Z'fer takes one scratch though the bronze drags them back to Pern screeching his bloody head off. "I could have stayed the full Fall."
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 10:11 pm
"You don't look all sweets and flowers yourself there Z'fer." She joked grinning wryly at his comment as she scrubbed at her face and hands in the basin trying to get the worst of the dirt off of herself. At his grunt though she spun a look of worry on her face. "What are you doing!" Hekate snapped grabbing the wet rag and storming over to him.
"Lay back down you're hurt! Just a scratch my a**! You're arm's almost off you silly thrice cracked deadglow!" She huffed taking the wet rag and ringing it to reach out and wipe the soot she had smeared on him off his face. Really what was the man thinking?
"Stay the full fall? For goodness sake do you really want to get away from me so badly you'd go between to do it?" Hekate joked trying to keep her voice light and the worry from her tone lest she upset him. It was obvious the healers had dosed him rather heavy. In fact it was amazing he was even still on his feet. She bet the reason his wingsecond wasn't at the door was because the poor man probably thought Z'fer'd be out for a good day or two with his injuries.
"Come on Z'fer? Please lay back down. Don't make Calanoth over react even more." She coaxed giving his chest a gentle push hoping to urge him back down.
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 11:00 pm
Z'fer flapped a hard at her and cringed away from her rag like a child. "We wouldn'ta betweened... well we would have but we would've come back." He grimaced, why did fellis juice have to make thinking so hard too? His limbs felt heavy but Z'fer stubbornly stayed sitting up. Hekate was over reacting too. His arm was still there after all. At least... he could see it there bound up against him, even if he couldn't feel it.
"Cal's.... Cal?"
~ Trying to sleep. ~
"Cal's sleeping." He turned that bemused smile back on her as she pushed against his chest. "My arm's not going anywhere." Wait, he'd already said that hadn't he? Z'fer shook his head, blinking hard again as if it would help. "Sharding fellis..." He muttered.
"How did the Wings do?" His mind jumped topics. The healer's hadn't told him who if anyone else was injured but he felt safe in assuming there were at least no deaths. Calanoth wasn't callous enough not to keen for one of his brethren, even if he didn't like them.
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 11:09 pm
His dodging and flapping didn't stop her from taking a wet rag to his face a cleaning off the soot she'd gotten all over it. Honestly for a Wingleader he could act like such a child sometimes! Chuckling she shook her head. "You better have or I'd have had to go in after you and drag you out." She joked sticking her tongue out at him as she put the rag aside.
"Of course he's sleeping. Like you should be. If you don't give your arm some rest I wouldn't be surprised if it just walked off on you." Hekate teased shaking her head as Z'fer stalwartly refused to lay back down. Instead she settled for taking a seat on the side of the cot with him and falling back amid the blankets to stare up at him with a smile.
"The wings from what I hear are fine and no thread made groundfall. I think you were the worst injury of the lot." She replied looking up at him from where she lay grinning at him. Reaching a hand up she snagged a strand of his dark hair giving it a gentle tug. "The rest had the common sense to come in and get their injuries properly tended too before going back to fight the fall and not scare their poor worried weyrling." She added giving him a rather amused look as she arched one delicate brow at him.
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Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 12:04 am
Z'fer opened his mouth to retaliate to her sass but nothing came out. He tilted his head at her, brows furrowed in confusion. "my arm'd...what?" Her words didn't make any sense to him. He twisted where he sat to watch her flop back onto his pillows.
Z'fer didn't realize he'd fallen for her ploy as he laid back down beside her, taking the given opportunity to be close to her. He groaned again not moments later. "Ugh." She could have at least told him that someone had been horribly disfigured or actually lost a limb, maybe save him a little humiliation.
"I would've been fine." He insisted still. Z'fer hated thinking of others seeing him as weak. He should have been there to lead his wing. He shouldn't have let Calanoth put G'drin in charge. Seeing as the lousy b*****d hadn't even checked in Z'fer was certain he wasn't ready for the position. "One little score won't kill me." He gestured to his neck before sliding his arm around Hekate. "You get used to them eventually." Maybe a lie, he wasn't sure. He certainly wasn't used to it yet. "You'll see once you get into a wing." He half mumbled. "It's not as bad as it looks. 'n with Devith's flaming you shouldn't get scored as bad. Cal's a big dragon... it's great for Flights but it means he's a bigger target too..." Z'fer rambled on. "Devith looks about right for a silver... once you're grown you'll join a wing and fly Thread." Once they were grown... that was if they finished their lessons. Mercy's request teased at his consciousness.
"Need to talk to you too." He leaned towards her, almost rolling to his side before he realized that it wouldn't work the way he wanted with his arm bound up the way it was.
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Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2012 8:28 am
Hekate's lips quirked into a grin at Z'fer's confusion. Shaking her head she simply let him slide and arm around her as she tucked herself against his side making sure not to press against any threadscore or injuries. "Oh yes the big bad bronze wingleader. I'm sure you could burn thread off the red star if you wanted too if only your dragon would let you." She teased him gently reaching a hand up to ruffle his hair as he explained about thread and fighting and wings or tried too. She was fairly certain he wanted to say more, but his fellis addled mind seemed to be slowing him down.
"I've been hurt, attacked and injured plenty of times. The only difference will be that I'll have Devith backing me up." Hekate replied with a small shrug.
"I'm sure I'll get used to threadscore eventually." She added giving him a small smile whether his assurance was truth or fiction.
Then suddenly it was like watching a glow activate in the dark as Z'fer looked down a her rolling a bit far prompting Hekate to lift a bracing hand as he mentioned he wanted to talk to her. "Well I'm here. I doubt Dizzian will come drag me back for a little while. What do you want to talk to me about."
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Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 11:38 am
Z'fer relaxed back down to the bed, setting for just tilting his head to look at her. He thought a moment, dredging up the memories of his conversation with Mercy. She hadn't really given him any good angles to use beyond 'you need to finish your lessons because that's what's done' and he figured that wouldn't go over well with Hekate. Maybe something about fighting Thread... he couldn't formulate it into a coherent thought. Thinking over it again this probably wasn't the best time to bring it up but too late now.
"About your lessons. Mercy came to talk to me." He grinned. "She's worried you hate her and won't return to her lessons." Z'fer almost laughed as it struck him how similar both girl's worries had been. Both thought the other hated them but didn't actually hate the other one. Had Hekate mentioned not going back to classes? He couldn't remember...she might have or it might have just come from Mercy.
"She doesn't hate you by the way."
~ Cal can you talk to Devith? ~
~ Later. ~ There was a curt feeling like a door being shut in Z'fer's face as Calanoth physically turned his head away from the hut and closed his mind as much as he could. The big bronze just wanted to sleep while he could without discomfort.
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Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 12:14 pm
Hekate arched a brow at Z'fer and shook her head, but remained laying where she was. So Mercy had come to speak with him about her had she? Apparently the woman couldn't bother to come talk to her face to face. Not that Hekate really cared that much what the Weyrlingmaster did.
"I don't hate her. In fact I feel absolutely nothing for her whatsoever. Devith is the one she should be more worried about. He's the one who hates her." Hekate replied with a shrug tilting her head back to stare up at the ceiling.
"He's the one who doesn't want to go back and really I can't blame him. Sure I could force him, but really I rather agree with him on this. She can call me irresponsible all she likes. I admit I should have reigned Devith in sooner, but I didn't. She however never bothered to tell us she wanted to inspect the saddles or that we were not to mount and begin until she had done so. She also never bothered to tell us we weren't allowed to run. She just told us that once we had constructed our riding gear we would be allowed to ride and that's what I did." Hekate explained her voice calm though there was a sharpness of anger to her words.
"I'm big enough to admit I made a mistake and even took her punishment without a word. Though I think banning us from flying because she feels we're not responsible enough or capable of following orders without asking questions seems ironically cruel when what got me in trouble in the first place was following her orders without asking questions." She continued with a snort of disgust though she kept up her poker face though in the back of her mind she could feel Devith's own rage edging her on and fueling the fire in her heart.
"Devith and I both see the lessons as pointless if she's only going to contradict with her actions everything she teaches. All I learned from that lessons is to never trust her, that your own mistakes can be ignored if you have rank and that none of my actions or work to prove that I can be a good member of this Weyr means anything in the light of one single slip up and that I'd probably be better off going rogue." Hekate added with an angry frown as she sat up rest her back against the wall as she crossed her arms staring over at the door as she tried to calm down the seething silver in the back of her mind.
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Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 1:07 pm
"Devith, she shouldn't have to worry about at all. YOU'RE the rider. You're supposed to be the one in control." He felt a dull ache in his arm. The fellis, while still clouding his mind, was beginning to wear off. He was thankful, as much as it dulled his pain he hated the drugged feeling.
"Do you think so little of Malvren that we would have someone untrustworthy teach our future wingriders?" He stayed where he was, only his head and eyes turning to watch as she curled into a pout against his wall. "She taught you to put a harness together but more importantly, she tried to teach you that you need to work together with your wing." He took a deep breath, feeling his chest expand against the bandages that bound his shoulder still. It hurt as they pressed into his wounds but that's what he wanted. He couldn't focus on a good counter argument if he was near falling asleep.
Z'fer didn't like hearing her talk of going rogue. She should realize how terrible that sounded after the revolution... and he didn't want to admit it but he could see her doing it too.
Z'fer didn't have the energy to tackle that topic just now, and rather prefered to forget she'd ever said it. "It's not about being a good member of the weyr. It's about being a good member of a Wing. In a wing you Can Not go racing off on your own like that, no matter what your wingleader says or doesn't say. You HAVE to work together with others." He sighed again. This wasn't going the way he'd wanted it too at all. If anything he was probably driving her away.
"Look, come with me to the next lesson. Just the one. It's not flying but you might see what I mean."
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Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 1:54 pm
"I am the one in control!" Hekate hissed narrowing her eyes at Z'fer in her anger as her fingers curled into fists at his comment. "If I wasn't then I wouldn't even be checking on you now and forgive me for actually caring about my dragon! Maybe you don't get along with him and yes he's a handful, but he's the only thing I have in life!" She snarled turning away from him to stare out the window. What did Z'fer know about being alone or an outcast? He'd impressed to the first bronze hatched his very first time standing to the cheers and well wishes of an entire Weyr! He was probably the first to be picked in everything with the size of Calanoth.
"Trine couldn't provide a Weyrlingmaster and neither could Benden so it's not like I had much of a choice and I put my harness together on my own! She didn't help me with it at all and if I hadn't of had her riding harness to compare my work to I'd have compared it to someone else's. She didn't give me any advice on it like she did Dizzian and I wasn't the only one to run off!" Hekate continued as she stared out the window wishing heartily she could just get on Devith and leave and never come back to this horrible place.
"And oh well forgive me for not knowing how some new Weyrlingmaster's lessons are supposed to work right off the bat or how a Wings supposed to work! Maybe if someone bothered to actually explain things to me rather then blindly leaving me to do everything myself I'd be a little more willing to work with others!" She spat practically seething with anger and resentment as she turned on him staring down at the injured wingleader with a look that could kill.
"No. They don't want me there and I have to want to be there. Since apparently one mistake of an excited Weyrling allowed to rider her dragon for the first time was enough to tell the Weyrlingmaster everything about me and how well I do or don't work with others." Hekate snarled turning away as she felt her nails biting into her palm hard enough to draw blood. She kept having to remind herself of her own injured hand and to not keep reinjuring it in her anger.
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Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 2:55 pm
"Hekate calm down. I never said you didn't care about Devith. Shells you make it perfectly clear that you care for him more than for your own sharding life. I get that. All riders do. Our dragons ARE our lives." He sat up and awkwardly maneuvered himself beside her again, placing his good hand on her knee. She could glare at him all she wanted. Any other day he might have gotten rilled up, and on second thought, maybe now when the fellis still had it's soporific effect was the best time to have this conversation. He couldn't exactly stop himself from saying the wrong thing but with how prickly she was about it he wouldn't be able to say the right thing at all if he had all of his senses about him.
"Please, Hekate. Come with me to the next lesson. Mercy does want you there. That's why she came to me. Not because I'm a Wingleader but because the whole weyr apparently knows about us." He tilted his head and gave her a beseeching half smile, trying his best to coax a happier expression from her. "She, and I, are worried about you. I'm going to be there anyways. She's asked all the Wingleader's together to talk about flying in wings."
"And here's something, bite the leather and play nice just a little bit longer and once Devith is off the ground you and I can slip off on our own to somewhere a little more private than the lakeshore or a shared weyr. I'm sure those jungles have plenty of interesting hidey holes we could explore." She liked the jungles. He remembered that much. He wasn't familiar with them himself, only knowing the nearby areas of Trine well enough to get there incase of Fall. "We could get away from the crowding and the gossip. Just us and our dragons."
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Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 3:22 pm
"You think they'd be too busy still gossiping about you and Kindra." Hekate growled, but seeing Z'fer fumble around with one arm still stuck in a sling reminded her to go easy on the poor man. He was hurt after all and she'd come over here to check on him not fight with him. Sighing she leaned into his uninjured shoulder and listened though the look on her face was one of pessimistic skepticism.
Finally however she sighed. "All right I'll go, but only because you asked. I don't like Mercy and I certainly don't trust her and if she's not clear on what she asks me to do then I won't do anything she asks of me at all. I'll behave, but I'm not going to roll over and just take another punishment because she can't be bothered to actually teach me." She snapped crossing her arms and leveling the door with a hard stare as if she could set it on fire in Mercy's place. While she had merely disliked the Weyrlingmaster before that dislike was growing steadily worse by the moment. The coward couldn't even come speak with her herself.
Slowly however Hekate forced herself to relax taking a few deep breaths before turning back to Z'fer. "You promise? I know plenty of interesting spots if your willing to get out of sight of the Weyr. The jungle is rather nice if you know what you're doing." She asked reaching down to take his hand and gently stroking the back of it with her thumb as she stared at the weather worn appendage comparing it's rather large size to her own more petite one.
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