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 Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 1:19 pm
It had been a couple of months and he had debated with himself a lot over this. In the end he'd said, or at least thought, 'shaff it' and taken a trip to Ista Hold.
How much the small egg had cost was not important - and he was well aware of how privileged that made him - but he was confident that he'd got a good deal. A quick check by candle flame had confirmed that it was viable and with that it was safely packed into a pot of hot sand for the trip back to High Reaches.
Bereck had kept it in his quarters for a sevenday or so under Aorta's care while he had a final little debate with himself, though this time more about 'how' rather than 'whether'. He wasn't very good at this sort of thing. Eventually however he had decided that it didn't much matter if he wasn't much good at it, placed the egg back in warmed sand, and set off to Qyprenna's room.
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 2:18 pm
Qyprenna and Catoth had bonded over the last two months. They spent as much time as they could together, chattering about this thing and that, often having long discussions on things that happened in the Weyr and outside of it. Although they would never be part of a combat wing, Qyp noticed that her brown had a fondness for the strategies of fighting and threadfall. He even liked to watch as the older dragons flew and practiced their maneuvers in the sky. Aside from bonding between the two of them, Qyprenna had also gotten used to her new living arrangements.
Her room was more settled in by this point. What few articles of clothing or belongings that the weyrling had were now placed about the room in strategic places, for easy access. Her cane, which she was still kind of getting used to, rested against the wall right next to her bed. One side of the bed was pushed as far up against the wall as it could go, to prevent any sort of falling out of it. Then her dresser was located a step away from her bed, flushed against the wall right next to it. Qyp had taken a lot of care to remember which articles of her uniform went where: the tunic in the top shelf, and her pants in the bottom, along with her socks.
On that particular day, Qyprenna and Catoth sat on her bed and were discussing what they had learned earlier during their lessons: basic ground drills. The brown had quite enjoyed them, even if he couldn't participate, and it showed in his voice as he spoke to his rider through her mind. 'And then, soon, we'll get to watch the advanced drills, and just imagine how fun that will be! He would get to watch, she wanted to correct, but instead she kept her mouth shut. If Catoth enjoyed watching the other weyrlings do their drills, she wasn't going to ruin that fun for him
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 2:28 pm
Bereck approached the door, hesitated for a few moments, and then gave a little series or raps with the head of his cane to let the occupants know it was him. Once given permission he pinned his cane under his arm to free up a hand, opened the door, stepped inside, and closed it behind him. "Good afternoon, how are you two doing today?" he asked as he settled his cane back into his hand and inspected the young pair thoughtfully. Sooner or later they were going to have to rethink living arrangements, probably more of the former than the letter and preferably before Catoth got too big to get in through the door. Ah well, a problem for another day.
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 2:36 pm
Qyprenna smiled when she heard Bereck's knock. Ever since her accident, the two of them had gotten to be quite close, she felt. Well, closer than she had been to a lot of other individuals in the Weyr. She looked forward to the times when he would stop over, as it allowed the two of them to just talk and catch up. Sometimes, he'd ask to see how her eye was, just to double-check. It was healed now, the swelling having disappeared completely. The scar from the ordeal she went through still remained, though, and would always be a reminder to her and others of what happened.
'We're good,' Catoth chittered in Qyp's mind, tail wagging happily upon the masterhealer's arrival. He trilled upon hearing the man's special knock, another signal to Qyp that Bereck was indeed coming to see them. 'Ground drills are fun to watch, though some of the other dragons were a bit bumbly, but that's neither here nor there!' As the brown continued on with his chatter about the drills, he seemed to forget one important detail: only his rider and other dragons could hear, not the person who the comments were actually directed to.
"Good," Qyprenna finally responded for him, waving for him to come inside and sit down in a chair that had been provided for her. "Catoth is just going on about the ground drills he watched today. He rather enjoyed them. How are you?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 2:42 pm
"Ahhh, I rather thought he might," Bereck responded with a hint of a smile, Catoth was a smart little fellow to be sure so it was no surprise that he would enjoy things of that nature.
"We're well enough thank you," the healer continued, referring of course to himself and Berath. "I believe... yes, she's still helping to move some timber out for repairs to the beast pens. I'm busy as ever but I have a bit of a break so I thought I would come and see you." Catoth of course could see the lidded earthenware pot that Bereck now had rested in his lap, the healer wondered vaguely if the brown would mention it before he decided how to broach the subject.
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 2:48 pm
'Bereck has a pot!'
'A pot?'
'A pot,' the brown repeated, jumping down off his rider's bed. Once he was down on the ground, he slowly made his way over to the masterhealer's side, and allowed himself to sniff at the pot. Blinking, he stared at Bereck, then the pot, then back to Bereck again. 'I think I know what it is.'
It was when he said this that a thought came to Qyprenna's mind, too. Lots of things could be in pots: food or other useful items, but not this sort of pot, she figured. Catoth's words had tipped her off, and only one thing was truly coming to the weyrling's mind: a firelizard egg.
"Is it a firelizard egg, truly?!"
Qyprenna took the time to stand up as she said this, reaching over to grab her cane. Once she had it, she then made her way over to Bereck, taking care with the cane to make sure she didn't run into him. If it was what she thought he was, she would be at a loss for words. Firelizard eggs were extremely expensive, and the notion that he might have purchased her one was...well, more than she could even grasp.
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 3:00 pm
Bereck blinked; he had just sorted words out in his mind but they had been rendered obsolete, it was rather like the feeling of trying to take one steps too many up at the end of a flight of stairs. "Ah, yes, well guessed," Bereck said, feeling that he was now floundering a little. How had she known? Perhaps Catoth had picked up the scent? "It's for you, I thought you might find one useful so.... Well, yes. Would you like to take it? I'm holding it up just a little in front of where you are now."
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 3:05 pm
"Of course!"
There was no hesitation in her voice and no need to think about it. Just excitement and glee at the notion of her very own firelizard. Beaming, the young woman extended her hands out, felt the smoothness of the pot against her hand, and then scooped it up carefully. She couldn't believe that Bereck was doing this for her. Her very own flitt -- wow!! Her parents had been saving money for her dowry for years, and upon her candidacy, switched the funds to be used for a firelizard. Now the two of them could put that money toward something else: an apprenticeship, perhaps!
'I'll keep it in line.'
She laughed when Catoth said this, relaying the message to Bereck.
"Catoth says he'll keep the firelizard in line, so it doesn't cause trouble!"
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 3:49 pm
Judging by the look on Qyprenna's face he was pretty sure he'd made the right decision, she was delighted and the little thing would be helpful to her. "Glad to hear it," Bereck responded with a brief chuckle. "Judging by the size of it I think it's probably a green or a blue, a lot more comfortable to have riding on you or landing on you or clambering over you than something larger." Aorta's size had its advantages too, she could fetch heavier things than Vena could and they could shift more still together, and it was useful to have a gold firelizard in the infirmary too as Aorta could restore order in the case of a spat between other flitts.
"Ah, yes, it's fully hardened," he continued, "I suspect it will hatch in a sevenday or two if the clutching date I was given was accurate." He never did entirely trust anyone who was trying to sell him something.
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 4:05 pm
'So soon! Excellent!'
A blue or a green -- how wonderful! To some individuals, the color of their dragon, wher or firelizard really mattered. Those were the individuals who prized bronzes or gold as the best of the best, but not Qyprenna. She was happy with any color. A firelizard was a firelizard; it was as simple as that. Bereck was right, though. A smaller flitt would be more advantageous for her to have, personally. It could sit on her shoulder or coil around her neck without any difficulty at all.
"I can't wait," she told him, wanting to peer inside the earthen pot. Despite wanting to look, the weyrling held herself back, wanting to keep the egg as safe and secure as possible. "Please come back when it does! I'd love for you to be here for it!"
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 4:23 pm
"Unless I'm up to my elbows in somebody I'll come," Bereck replied affably. He then wondered if this had been too much information, he did tend to make minor jests such as that with people he knew but he hadn't done it to Qyprenna so far. Hopefully it wouldn't make her feel queasy. "And I'll make sure there's meat for you to give it, to bond to it." And not meat out of anybody he'd been up to the elbows in. Mmh, fresh liver.
Berath told her bondmate in private with the feeling of a chuckle.
Bereck chose not to dignify that with a response but he did smirk a little bit.
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 4:31 pm
A week later, the day that Qyprenna and Catoth had been waiting for finally arrived.
The firelizard egg they had been given had started to hatch.
In order to prepare for the event, Qyprenna had made sure that she had taken the egg out of the pot it had been brought to her in. It didn't take long. About an hour or so after she took it out, the first little cracks started to appear on the shell of the egg. Catoth sat by the egg, guarding it with a watchful eye. He didn't seem just to be guarding it, however -- he was entranced by the fact that the firelizard inside was breaking free.
'The time has come, Berath,' the brown said excitedly, chirping outwardly to let his rider know that their newfound companion would, indeed, be there soon. 'Let Bereck know to come quick! We don't want him to miss it!'
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Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 10:55 am
Bereck paused in the action of washing the blood off his hands and raised his eyebrows. "Good timing."
A scant few minutes later he was outside Qyprenna's door, a small bowl of assorted offal in hand. He knocked briefly with his cane but didn't wait for a response before he stepped inside. "How's it doing?" he asked rhetorically as he crossed the room to where the egg was hatching in order to see for himself. "Doesn't seem to be having any problems," he continued, moving on to Qyprenna to press the bowl of meat into her hands. "Make sure it takes the food from you rather than from the bowl, alright?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 12:04 pm
As Qyprenna took the bowl of meat in her hands, she also nodded her head at Bereck's instructions. Feed the firelizard from her hands, not from the bowl. Hands -- not bowl. Oh, she hoped this would go well. What if she missed because she couldn't see? Then what would they do! As she thought about what could go wrong, the egg cracked a bit more, and her dragon could tell it was just about time.
'Don't worry, dear one,' came Catoth's reassuring voice, followed by a mental nuzzle, 'I will be your eyes, so you can see our new friend come into the world.'
The moment of truth finally arrived. With one rather large crack, the small egg split open, and out from it tumbled a little piebald green. She took a moment to stabilize herself. The tumble out of her egg had shaken her some, and she needed to get her bearings. Once she was settled, she then trotted over to the bowl of offal, twittering happily at the sight with her eyes a hungry red.
Qyprenna's glimpse of her newfound firelizard was a brief one. She saw her as she tumbled out of the egg and straightened herself up, and that was all she needed. The moment she started her way over to the bowl, the image flickered and faded. It was just as well, because she needed to do the actual feeding of the little green. With a piece of meat in hand, the weyrling extended it out to her newly hatched pet. The flitt snapped it up and gobbled it down without abandon. With one piece down, the young woman extended out another, and the flitt continued to eat like that for a good few minutes. So far, so good.
"She's perfect, Bereck. Thank you so much. She's beautiful and just the right size and everything."
'She needs a name.'
'I know.'
'How about Spot?'
'No.'
'Fair enough. Too boring, anyway. We need something more original.'
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Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 12:25 pm
Good, all seemed to be well. Bereck relaxed a little and gave Qyprenna a nod along with one of his little hints of a smile. "Good, and you're welcome. I'm glad she looks to be healthy, you never can really tell." He would have felt terrible if the egg hadn't hatched. He would also have felt furious have gone back to the trader to demand a refund on pain of something painful, nobody wanted a Master to be wrathful in their general direction.
"Have you thought of a name yet?" He had a theme with his pair so after Vena naming Aorta had been pretty easy, but it had taken him a while to settle on the green's name to begin with.
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