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 Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 9:27 am
As conversation about washing began, Raith waded into the lake and dunked briefly under the surface; damp skin lathered the soapsand up much better, and made the whole experience a lot more enjoyable. Once suitably soggy, she returned to the bank and looked down at Panata expectantly.
"Right," L'thor nodded, mentally running through his own habits so as to instruct the candidate. "Start at her head and work back," he said after a moment, "take a small hanful of soapsand and start scrubbing. You can work it in more firmly than you'd scrub your own skin, but not as hard as you would if you were scrubbing a floor. Basically if it hurts your hand, you're doing it too hard," he grinned at Panata, "so if its not hurting you it isn't hurting her. You can work up pretty close to the eyes, but the lids don't need scrubbing with soap, just a little oil afterwards."
There, he thought that was pretty much everything the lad needed to know... Oh! "She'll move around so that you can reach everywhere," he added, "lie down so you can get at her back and so on." There, that was pretty much everything now. The lad would probably end up with rather sore hand by the end of the scrubbing, he knew he had when he'd first started caring for the green, but the oil would sooth them, and as candidate jobs went he felt this was a pretty good one to get; who wouldn't like to pamper a lovely dragon like Raith?
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Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 9:55 am
Panata nodded at L'thor's instructions and proceeded to get a decent amount of soapsand, his face crinkling with childish delight over the feel of it against his palms. Soapsand was nothing new, he used it when he bathed on his own, but it still always made him happy to squished around. When Raith came over and got into a position where he could reach her the youth felt his stomach and heart seemingly switch places, nerves and excitement jumping hand and hand.
While he was so excited to be getting to bathe a dragon (bragging rights!) he was still slightly nervous, leaving himself to inwardly get a tongue lashing about needing to grow up and move on. This was a Green, and a dragon. She wasn't going to hurt him, couldn't hurt him, and what had happened before still should be placed in his memory like getting bitten by a small animal. Pass it off, push it away.
"Alright, thank you. I will do my best."
Panata hoped L'thor couldn't hear the faint tremble in his voice, but he was certain Meisir could feel it. The Brown flit crooned piteously for a moment before it dashed off towards the water, getting soaked for his own strange reasons. Perhaps he wanted to help bathe? That was a cute thought.
Panata started to rub a spot on Raith's hide, putting in pressure that he felt would work the best. Now and then he glanced up at the Green to make sure he was doing it right, not wanting to cause any discomfort.
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Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:14 am
Raith relaxed as the youth began to work the soapsand into her skin and closed her first set of eyelids, letting out a contented croon as she did so. "Okay," she said to L'thor with a mental smile as the colour of her eyes warmed to a laid back but very happy blue, "I feel better already." It wasn't quite as good as being fussed over by L'thor - partly because the candidate was inexperienced and party because he just wasn't Hers - but it was still very enjoyable.
L'thor chuckled softly and sat down in the grass. "Well, you've made a friend for life now," he told Panata. "She doesn't expect you to be perfect, and she's very grateful for the effort. She likes people who pamper her, and people who try hard, so since you're doing both you're definitely onto a winner." He hoped that was enough to relax the boy, at least he assumed from the flitt's response that he was somehow unsettled, he supposed it could just be the brown's own mood. Given its previous behavior however, he couldn't imagine the flitt getting worried for no reason, unless perhaps he thought he was going to miss out on hot female action.
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 9:51 am
The more he touched the dragon to clean her the more his nerves settled down, Panata's face gaining back some of the color that had drained from initial contact. He even managed to smile a bit again as he made his way from one spot to a spot slightly next to it, taking great care to ensure this dragon would be completely clean. Panata wouldn't accept a 'good job' at the end of this, he wanted to be told he'd done a great one, or at least a very fine job. How there was a difference only he could tell, but there was an important one.
"Do you think so? I just like helping out, and Raith is really pretty."
Panata wasn't sure how to properly say thanks other than the simple 'thank you', but if he'd just said that then their conversation would probably fall pretty flat quickly. While he didn't mind working in silence it made things awkward for him since someone else was watching.
"When I was little and heard stories about dragons, I used to believe they were all dark because they were dirty, and then got lighter when you washed them. I never realized that there were more than just four, I had always thought I was seeing the same ones just clean and dirty."
He'd been really young when he had those thoughts, probably around five or six Turns.
Above him Meisir seemed to be calming as well, the flitt dunking his body into the soapsand before moving over to fly against a spot near Panata. The way he rubbed against Raith's frame indicated he was trying to help, and the young man could only snort happily at the clear like of his Brown.
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 10:19 am
L'thor grinned at the compliment to his lifemate, and the dragon herself gave another croon. "Isn't she just? Most beautiful dragon ever, to me at any rate! She thanks you for the compliment too." There was still something niggling at the green, he could feel it, but she had put it to the back of her mind now in order to enjoy the moment. A very sensible idea, especially given neither of them really knew what the issue was so it couldn't be addressed. Best just to relax, and hope it was a passing mood. If not... well, they could deal with it as and when they needed to.
As the brown flitt started 'helping' L'thor chuckled and shook his head. "When I was little I used to think that whers and flitts were what came out of eggs alid by green dragons... I think I was about six or seven when I worked out I was wrong. Of course," he snorted, "my elder sister, who knew I thought that, wasn't kind enough to correct me, she just let me go on believing it until I gained enough sense to figure it out for myself." Still, even if she'd been a typical nasty older sibling sometimes he missed her and the rest of his family. He really ought to go and see them sometime... He kept thinking that and never quite got around to it. Oh well such was life, he supposed.
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 10:42 am
"I've got an older brother back at the hold, and a younger sister. They mostly left me to my own devices, since my brother said I was too much of a girl to be useful to him and my sister didn't want to play with her older brother. I suppose I spent a lot of time with my father, and he often says he wonders why I turned out so mousy. My mother thinks I was probably not meant to be too aggressive anyway."
Panata seemed to be rambling now that conversation had turned to the topic of siblings, the youth having almost forgotten he was indeed the middle child of tree. His older brother dominated him by about six Turns and was a brute of a fellow, enjoying making those around him suffer for various reasons. His younger sister followed a bit closer in terms of age, only two turns less, though she acted much older and had been content to boss her brother around whenever she felt is necessary. Still, Panata didn't view their actions as some sort of punishment or cruelty, he took most of it in to be typical. Other kids at the hold were in similar situations, some even worse off.
"Meisir, don't scrub too hard. What will I do if you rub the skin off both your hides, and I'm put to where I have to deal with an upset dragon and a crying flitt?"
His attention turned towards his brown who seemed to be snaking patterns across Raith's back. It was clear where he'd been, the suds clinging to the dark green like a vivid trail, and Panata frowned noticing Meisir had gotten to places he probably wouldn't be able to reach even if the dragon did do her best to accommodate to his height. He supposed she could always go take a dip in the water to rinse it off, but wouldn't he have to start all over again? It was complicated.
The brown seemed to ignore his protests and continued to scrub, humming a very content sound as his own eyes swirled blue.
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:05 am
He nearly started talking more about his own family, but then decided against it. He hardly knew this boy, no sense telling him too much personal information. "Siblings can be like that," he said instead with a snort of amusement, "never happier than when they're ignoring or tormenting you..." His eyes were now following the progress of the forward little flitt, causing him to quirk an eyebrow and chuckle softly.
"He really does love ladies, doesn't he?" he commented with a shake of his head. "Must be quite a handful... and entertaining handful though!" For a seemingly meek lad like Panata, having a firelizard that insisted on trying to hump any female flitt or dragon he caught sight of had to be pretty mortifying at times. Still, even when they were a pain you couldn't help loving them; they were just too adorable to stay angry with.
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:47 am
Panata placed the palm of his hand that wasn't too soapy against his face, sighing into it like the stress from his flitts actions were aging him rapidly over the course of the day. While Meisir was indeed rather amorous it wasn't normally this bad, and Panata had half a thought or two of grabbing the flitt and tossing it as far as he could go.
Meisir, for his better judgment, seemed to pick up on that thought of irritation. He paused for a moment or two in his actions, his eyes turning towards yellowed fear, but it quickly passed as the thought wiped itself clean from Panata's own mind. The brown let out a little creel as it went back to washing himself against Raith, the hum returning.
"I really don't mind when he acts out, it can be fun. . . but not a lot of people are as kind and forgiving about it as you seem to be. Meisir has gotten me into enough scrapes as it is, and I'm...getting a little tired of having to always say I'm sorry for his actions. I cannot control his heart, so why should I take responsibility?"
Panata sounded a little bitter, though his face didn't seem to move from its calm. He was still washing Raith gently so at least he wasn't distracted from that, but his thoughts were indeed bouncing.
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:44 pm
"Eh," L'thor snorted and shook his head, "the world is full of tailforks. I usually just ignore them, that or get into a verbal spar... Not worth worrying about their good opinion, if I were you I'd be tempted to egg Meisir on around people daft enough to get worked up over the antics of a flitt." And that was why he was trouble and Panata was a good boy, he really shouldn't try to lead him astray... But if he would be happier not listening to idiots, not caring when they got angry, surely that was a good thing? Even if it made him slightly less sweet and obliging, it might do him good.
"Maybe next time he acts like that and somebody gets snippy, you should just tell them to be grateful for the compliment to their flitt or dragon," L'thor suggested with a grin. "Some people will subside if you tell them their pet/lifemate is good looking." He knew it worked on him just about every time; as soon as somebody complimented Raith, his opinion of them moved up a notch. It showed they had god taste, after all, and one liked to associate with men and women of good taste!
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:04 pm
"I usually do compliment them and it does back them off, but usually I have to apologize first before they'll even listen to me. and it would be nice if I were as strong as you, able to goad others on, but I don't think I could handle anything that came afterward."
By no means did Panata mean he couldn't fight in a brawl. His strength was something gained from time at the bellows and at the grinders so scrapping, while frowned upon by the Candidatemaster for very many reasons, was not what he feared. Panata simply didn't want to be ganged up on, and then ostracized from groups for standing up for himself. Sure it was a cowardly feeling, but even he had limits to how much he wanted to be alone.
"But...I think I could try. There's no reason for me not to, right?"
His hands stopped on Raith's side, one moving to his chin in thought. Maybe just standing up for himself even once might make things better. Maybe.
"I don't have anyone here to worry about, so nothing to lose, right?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:13 pm
"Right," L'thor grinned. "I learned to be mouthy at a young age, but it's never too late to start... Not that I expect you to become as bad as me, but like you say, no reason not to become a little more forward. The world will walk all over you if it thinks it can get away with it." And who was he to go around spouting wisdom like that? Shesh, apparently his time with Veyes at Ista had given him a penchant for playing teacher! Still, no harm in it he supposed, and Panata really could benefit from teaching people not to push him around, anyone in the world could benefit from that.
"Most people are more bark than bite," L'thor added thoughtfully, stretching his legs out comfortably, "but there are the crazy ones who'll lash out if you say something they don't like. A bit of reconnaissance work wouldn't go amiss, make sure you know somebody doesn't have a reputation for violence before you mouth off to them." Ah, he gave very good advice, if only he followed it himself. Picking his fights well was not something he had ever been able to do, in fact the only ones he seemed to get into were ones against men much stronger and more skilled than he was. Still, where would be the fun in winning all the time. Ha. Yea. He really wished he could pick fights betteer.
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 3:03 pm
Panata nodded earnestly for a moment or two before he stopped and shook his head, knowing good and well he could never be outright mouthy. His mother and his time at the Crafthall had given him manners beyond any doubt. He couldn't really ever say anything rude while meaning to do so, but then again Panata had never been pushed into a corner that he couldn't back out of. When the time comes he'd have to see what he could do.
"I think because I'm a candidate I'm still rather lucky, as we can't get into fights. Doing anything violent would risk a chance of you getting sent away, and no one wants to be denied from the Sands."
That fact alone probably saved him a few times, had he known. Panata hadn't started his streak of doing pranks here and there, his body and all the chores limiting him, but that would soon end if he was left to his own devices.
Above him Meisir had stopped cleaning altogether and was resting on Raith's back, his small frame curled into a little ball with his tail tucked under his chin. He was emitting happy thoughts to Panata, mostly ones of Raith and comfort.
"I was wondering how long it would be before he gave in. Silly little creature."
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 6:45 am
That was very true. He'd wanted to start a fight once or twice as a candidate, but the thought of being denied the chance to Stand had held him back. Who would risk their chances of finding a lifemate over some passing slight? Not many, and certainly not him.
As Meisir curled up to rest, L'thor chuckled and shook his head. "Well, at least he's worn himself out for now, perhaps you'll get a little peace for a while." It had been a lot like that with River, though the blue's hyperactivity had been generalized rather than female centric. He wondered what the flitt was doing now... Probably still stealing small objects and buzzing around peoples' heads looking for attention, be it positive or negative. Crazy little thing.
"So tell me," L'thor shifted the subject and adjusted his sling; it really tickled his neck after a while in one position, "what are your hopes for Impression? Anything specific you're hoping for, or think you're likely to Impress?" He liked to toss this question at candidates so that if they said they wanted a large dragon he could either set them straight or just hate them for their snobbery. Panata didn't seem like on of those boys dead set on bronze, or brown at a stretch, but you never could tell; sometimes within a decent seeming person, a massive tailfork lurked.
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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 8:31 am
"He'll probably wake up ready to go and wondering where the pretty green has gone, if he manages to sleep through the rest of our activity today. He has pretty good stamina for something so small, being a Brown and all, but he really does enjoy sleeping just as much."
Panata went back to rubbing the soapsand on Raith, knowing his hands had stopped, and he increased his pace somewhat to try and cover the whole lot of dragon that spread before him. Raith was not huge, but she certainly wasn't small either, and he had a bit to go before he could even be considered halfway done. But that made him happy, to know his time could be spent like this instead of crammed in a hall with others who were unhappy about something all the time.
When questions came up about Impressions Panata's hand gingerly moved to his side, uncaring that he was getting more of his tunic wet, and a frown of nerves slowly flickered to his face. There would be more Impressions soon, he understood that and was excited for it, but that did not stop the nerves that pressed against his chest.
"Um....I would just like to Impress at all. I was searched out so I know I must have some kind of traits that any dragon would want, but when I actually started acting like myself a lot of people seemed disappointed. I get called coward or other things because I'm mousy, but I tend to think...that there are different ways to approach a situation instead of bullying ahead."
At best, if he ever did Impress, it would probably be a green. One that was really small, and pathetic to suit his moods.
"A dragon like a Bronze or Brown, even a Blue...that's beyond me. There's nothing wrong with Greens of course, they're the most useful dragon in my opinion since they're really small and go places, and -"
It sounded like he was pandering now to L'thor's tastes. Shameful.
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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 8:46 am
L'thor blinked. "Beyond you," he said blandly, "you think greens choose mousey people, that bigger dragons would be 'too good' for a shyer, quieter person? There are plenty of more restrained blues you know, browns too, though goodness knows most bronzes are totally full of their own self importance. Maybe that would even make one inclined to choose you, so that it could feel all the bolder in comparison." He had to admit to being more than a little disappointed, it seemed the only reason Panata wasn't hoping for a bronze was because he thought he wasn't good enough for one of the massive brutes. Nice little backtrack he'd tried to make though, you had to respect such a great effort to avoid giving offense.
"I'm glad you acknowledge there's nothing wrong with greens though," L'thor went on, unable to keep a hint of bitterness from his voice. "So amazing in flight, and kind enough to pick the dregs that other colours don't want." He was getting close to being rather angry now but Raith was too busy enjoying herself to have noticed Panata's words, and consequently she was still relaxed, and he didn't want to ruin that for her. Hold off for now, maybe the boy had just phrased it badly.
'A dragon like a Bronze or Brown, even a Blue...that's beyond me'
But not a green, a lowly little green might take pity on him. L'thor gritted his teeth and stared determinedly out over the lake. He would not rise to it, he would not!
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