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 Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 8:29 pm
Completely mortified by the entire experience, Berjint kept his mouth firmly closed and applied himself to his attempt to follow her to the rocks she'd indicated previously. He felt certain his face was the color of a sunset before a storm. He still thought the girl was quite attractive, despite her helterskelter hair from the ocean's motion and her pawing it out of her face. Some small part of him mourned her lack of a tail, but he mentally shoved it to the side as being silly and childish.
It took him quite a bit of time and effort, but they did finally make it to shore and out of the water. Predictably, he sagged onto the first flattish surface they came upon and laid there, sucking in breaths and savoring the feel of solid earth beneath him once more. Letting out his breath in a gust, he groaned, "I think I'm done with swimming for the next year or so." With a mental kick, he realized he'd done it again. He cracked open his eyes and tipped his head up to peer at his rescuer. "Um... I mean...," he stammered, almost too tired to try and think up how to rectify his flub. Giving a great sigh, he closed his eyes again. "I'm just not used to this. We don't have oceans near by Hold." Just his luck, his idiotic lack of manners was going to make her not want to speak to him again.
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Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 6:33 pm
Firyal heaved herself gracelessly out of the water and dropped panting onto a reasonably flat rock, gasping like a fish out of water. It always took an embarrassing amount of effort for her to get out of the water. Her arms were not strong enough under ordinary circumstances to lift her body weight, and it was only with the extra bouyancy added by water that she was able to do it at all. Wet and grounded, she did not move with anything like the ease and grace she possessed in the water.
Her clothes stuck to the roundness of her body, making both her good and bad curves very obvious. Over her breasts the clinging was flattering, but clinging wetly to her heavy thighs and soft belly it did no favors. The saltwater's effect on her hair had been likewise unflattering. Like her clothing, it had floated around her in flowing, whimsical swirls in the water, but on land it obeyed different natural laws and hung in dark, stringy rattails all around her face and long down her back. In short, she looked like something that washed up on the beach after floating in the water for a little too long.
She made an effort to push her sopping hair out of her face and arrange her sodden clothing so that it was less revealing. It wasn't a particularly effective attempt, and that brought a dark red flush spreading across her cheeks to the tips of her ears.
Numenor didn't mind that his human was clammy and dripping, and nestled happily on her shoulder. He didn't even mind that her clothes were mildly obscene. His wings tangled in her hair, making it into a wherry's nest. She'd have a wretched time combing it out later on. But Numenor was making soft crooning noises in her ear, and she could never resist when he did that. She smiled indulgently at Numenor and said to Berjint, "It's not usually that bad. The water. I grew up near a dock, and learned to swim there when I was very young. My parents were adament about it."
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Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 6:59 pm
He peeked at her again, still feeling at a loss, only to spot her trying to rearrange her clothing. He quickly closed his eyes again and flung an arm across his eyes, taking a deep and water-free breath. He hoped it'd give her time and a clear chance to feel more comfy, with proof that he wasn't looking. "If you say so. I can see why they insisted, but I'm just a farm boy." Another great heave of breath, let out in a gust. "I don't think I'm cut out for being a merman." He could have groaned as that slipped out. His mind was playing tricks on him, sneaking things like that out before he could stop them! Gah!
For the truth was, mermaid tail or no, Berjint wasn't the sort of boy who preferred slender slips of girls. He was a farm boy to the core, and thin females weren't worth much when hard work and good food were called for. His mother was round as the rising sun, and his father had always adored her. So the precedent was set for him, though whehter he realized it yet or not was debatable. Regardless, her various curves did not lessen her prettiness in his eyes, not one bit. Even with clinging clothing in all the wrong (and right) places, he didn't find her weight a bad thing. And his mind knew it, thus the mental slip equating himself to what he'd originally seen her as.
However, any speculative thoughts he might have had were being driven away by a rising protest from his stomach. He ignored it at first, but it grew steadily more demanding. He suddenly sat blot upright, gave a gasping exclaimation, then lurched to one side onto his hands and knees, and promptly retched up what felt like a gallon of seawater.
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Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2009 7:01 pm
After a few more moments of fussing, Firyal gave up on trying to make her clothes decent. They were dark colors, and so nothing was showing through in terms of aureoles or anything, but the cloth still clung to her in an unseemly manner. Rather than deal with that, Firyal fixed Berjint with an amused look.
"'Just a farm boy'?" she repeated. "Surely not. You're also a Candidate to Impress a dragon and a would-be rescuer of drowning maidens. Although, to be perfectly honest, I was not in need of rescuing. I'm sorry Numenor overreacted and forced you into this predicament. What's a merman?"
She was about to introduce herself because she couldn't recall whether or not she had done so when Berjint doubled over and retched. She scrambled backward to avoid the splatter, though it was only seawater. It had been inside another human being's digestive system. She'd spent her share of time in the infirmary and had plenty of blood and vomit splatter on her, but she didn't like the work or the human byproducts. Nevertheless, she winced sympathetically, remembering times when she had taken in too much seawater and come to expell it in the same way.
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Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:13 am
He sat back on his haunches, trying to unobtrusively wipe his mouth. Put another log on the fire, now he'd grossed her out. He did, however, feel much better. He cast her a profusely apologetic look and rather ruefully said, "Uh, sorry." He rubbed the back of his neeck awkwardly and tried to think of what she had been saying just before he'd... well, you know.
She had had a point about being a Candidate, really, and it had been nice of her to point it out. But what was that about rescuing? "Erm... who is Num..a..," he fumbled to a halt, only half-remembering the name she'd said, and not quite connecting it to his mad rush into the sea. In fact, the more the thought about it, the more confused he was as to how he did end up in the water.
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Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:30 am
"It happens," Firyal said, waving her hand dismissively. She still was careful to make sure she was not likely to come into contact with the puddle of mostly-seawater.
"Numenor," she said, filling in the name for him. It was a strange name, she had to admit, and didn't come readily to the tongue if a person was unused to haering it, but to her it seemed natural, since she'd been calling the bronze firelizard thus for the past two turns. It had been the only combination of letters and syllables and sounds that seemed to fit him, and he had since grown into the noble-sounding name. More or less.
"Numenor is the bronze fellow perched on my shoulder. He can be a tad excitable." Actually, Numenor wasn't all that excitable. He only got that way because of perceived threats to himself or his human, but saying so would have sounded prideful, and Firyal couldn't bring herself to do it. "From what I can tell - his mind's a bit difficult to make sense of - he thought I was in trouble and went for help. You. I don't know what he did to make you come into the water, though I have my suspicions."
Numenor cheeped innocently, his eyes a peaceful shade of blue. He knew he was being spoken of, and he could tell from the tone of Firyal's voice that she wasn't angry at him. That was good enough for him. He wasn't terribly interested in the details of what was being said. No mention of food had been made, after all, and it didn't seem like the humans would be doing anything interesting in the near future. The vomiting had been mildly interesting, but not sufficient to bestir him from his favorite perch on Firyal's shoulder.
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 8:47 pm
He settled his rump on the ground a safe distance from the puddle, listening to her explination. He gave a puzzled frown and rubbed his head, fingers raking his dark curls into chaos, flinging water everywhere. He tried to remember how he'd gone from the beach to the water, but for the life of him he couldn't recall! There was some sense of urgency, and a confused sense of direction, but other than that, he has no other memory of his plunge into the sea.
He cocked a brow at the now peaceful flit. "That's one powerful distress call, I'd have to say," he spoke to the firelizard as if he could understand him before returning his conversation to the girl. "I don't know what he did either, but I'm sorry for all this." His apologetic expression was sincere, if still slightly baffled. He was well-aware that much of the actual danger had been his own fault, whether for his lack of knowledge how to swim, or succeptibility to flit distress calls.
Hand still buried in his curls, he gave a great sigh, taking stock of his situation. Sitting on rocks, having puked his guts after being rescued by an illusionary mermaid with a hysterical pet that'd sent him to rescue her. And he didn't even know her name!
He cleared his throat and smiled a somewhat cheesy smile. "I'm Berjint by the way. May I know the name of the fair maiden that rescued me?" His tone was light-hearted, with no rancor whatsoever in it. His mother would have beat him black and blue if she'd ever thought he'd be riled by being beat or outdone or otherwise shown up by a female. "And do you really think I have to learn to swim?" This last was asked in an almost begging tone, clearly hopeful she hadn't been serious.
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Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 7:35 am
Numenor was the only one who seemed to have any forewarning of the wave that struck just below their ledge, spraying them thoroughly. He had taken to the air moments before the wave splashed and squeaked as though he was laughing at the newly drenched humans. When the water subsided he returned to the ledge and inspected the small puddles of saltwater it left behind. It had washed away Berjint's ralph.
Numenor snubbed Berjint, ignoring the fact that the young man had spoken to him. He couldn't understand the humans when they spoke anyway, but he could tell when a person was speaking to him and he could recognize from their tone of voice whether they were angry or pleased or conciliatory. He wasn't interested in anything Berjint had to say in any tone of voice. It wasn't anything personal, though. He just didn't like people who weren't Firyal, and now that there was no danger to his human and he had no need of Berjint, he didn't feel any need to feign pleasantness.
"I didn't know he would do anything like that," Firyal said. She blushed a little as she confessed, "We were playing a game."
That probably sounded stupid. Most people treated firelizards like they were cute but dumb animals that could occasionally deliver messages if they were particularly intelligent. Firyal tended to treat hers more like a small child. Only not really, since she didn't like small children. So it could more accurately be said that she treated her firelizard like most people treated small children. Most people thought she was overly indulgent and unrealistic. But she also had one of the better-trained firelizards in the Weyr. She decided it would be better to change the subject before Berjint had the opportunity to criticise her.
"You don't have to be sorry. I think we can safely say no one's at fault. Except maybe Numenor. And I'm Firyal." She had no idea what to say to the fair maiden bit, and so she chose to ignore it.
"I suppose it's your choice about the swimming. But you're living on an island now. Lots of water."
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Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 10:10 am
He glanced ruefully around at the water as far as the eye could see. "I suppose you are right," he sighed, though it was clear he didn't want her to be right. Swimming was not something he wanted to do again. Not for a long while, anyway. However, gazing at the water made him register the angle of the sun. After blinking at it for a moment dazedly, it suddenly registered.
With a yelp he shot straight up to his feet. "I'm late! They are gonna have my hide!" He started to dart off, but came to a screeching halt to look back at Firyal. "It's very nice to meet you, but I'm sorry, I've got to run... I've got latrine duty this time around, and you know they'll only give you more of it if you are late!" With an apologetic wave and a slightly panicked look, he was gone, charging across the rocks and up the beach, heading for the Weyr as fast as his short legs would take him.
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Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 5:45 pm
Firyal could understand his reluctance, particularly if this had been his first experience with swimming. Her own first experience had come when she was so young she couldn't remember it. Her mother used to say that she'd taken to water like a fish right from the first, and since both her parents had been strong swimmers they'd both wanted to claim her skill as their influence. Again, Firyal had no memories of it, and she couldn't even remember how she'd learned to swim initially. It was one of those skills that came to her like walking and breathing. If she hadn't been sent to the Weyr to foster with her cousin, she would have asked to be apprenticed to the Dolphineers, but dragons had a stronger pull than dolphins.
"Like I said, it's up to you with the swimming thing. I'm sure you can manage to never have to be in or around water" Remembering something else she added as an afterthought, "That is, as long as you don't Impress. Most dragons do need bathed and eventually reach a size where rider immersion becomes unavoidable. Not that I'm saying I don't want you to Impress. Just...never mind."
She was a bit relieved when Berjint realized he had chores to do. It saved her from having to salvage the conversation before she completely ruined it. She watched Berjint take off and stood up slowly to work the kinks out of her body. Numenor took to the air as she rose and hovered just above her head.
"It was interesting meeting you, Berjint. Best luck. With the chores and the dragons. And the swimming, I suppose."
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