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 Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 11:27 am
“Serves Master Emoll right for not giving everyone a better chance of memorizing music.” Honestly, you don’t just give students some music, take it away, and then give it back and expect them to know it by heart. “Gotta admit. He never did that again. I think you taught him a little lesson with that. Actually, three lessons: never set unrealistic expectations for your students, always lock the cabinets where sheet music is kept, and everything is funnier with boners. Although I notice he never took advantage of that last lesson. Such a pity.”
Hmm… love, redemption, and farts… Mal rubbed his chin in a way that meant he was thinking. Judging by the smirk, he liked this idea. Either that, or he was still thinking about boners. It could go either way at this point. “Of course the redemption part is necessary! Have you ever heard of a decent love song that doesn’t mention redemption?” Not that many love songs mentioned farts either, but Mal was willing to ignore that because farts were always funny. “Redemption. Maybe the liar feels guilty about lying and comes clean. Course, that would only happen the morning after. So he wants a fresh start and comes clean. She’ll probably slap him. Either that or say, ‘Oh, I know. You fart in your sleep too’. End scene.” Course it left the other guy without a girlfriend, but life couldn’t always be fair, now could it?
Yep. Mal could come up with these stories in his sleep. Although, admittedly, his dreams generally involved less women and more men, but that wasn’t particularly important to mention at this point. It would only serve to make things awkward, right?
“Aeron wakes me up too. Usually just because he’s hungry. I know they’ve got two stomachs, but I can’t help but wonder if one of his stomachs empties into between. It would explain how he’s always got room for more food.” He watched Daramulath in silence for a moment, trying to imagine him as a big grown-up dragon. It didn’t go particularly well, since the little dragon was… well… little. And sleeping in someone’s lap. That was so sharding cute. “What’s he like?”
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 11:52 am
E'rik rolled his eyes. In retrospect, the effects of their trick had been positive, but he would never have claimed that he'd pulled the prank with the intention of teaching Emoll any lessons.
"How do you know he never took advantage of the last lesson? Other than the fact that he was a miserable, morose, melancholy person who lacked a sense of humor, and therefore could never appreciate that boners are comedic classics? He couldn't have been born that way. There might have been a younger, more agreeable Emoll at some point."
Not that Emoll had been that old, now that E'rik thought about it. He'd seemed older because E'rik had been younger, but when he'd been dealing with the depressing Master, Emoll had been only a year or two older than E'rik was presently. It was probably his pessimism that had made him seem so much older, because his overall behavior had been more like that of a spoiled child. Lots of times he'd stomped off muttering that no one understood him.
"I've heard loads of decent love songs that make no mention of redemption, but what you've got there sounds workable. I don't think I could pull it off, of course, but since you're channeling Emoll, I'm sure you could probably get the lyrics down easily enough."
Mal's theory that one of Aeron's stomachs emptied into between sounded viable. It probably applied to all draconic creatures. He wished he'd thought of it for himself, because it would be something he could say to lighten the mood during one of the dragonets' early morning feedings, when none of the Weyrlings wanted to be awake. Fortunately, the dragonets didn't need to be fed early so often anymore, but there was usually at least one bonded pair consisting of a voracious dragonet and an enervated human in the kitchens on any given morning.
Mal's question prompted E'rik to look down at Daramulath, despite the fact that he already felt so closely connected to the young dragon that he sometimes imagined he could recognize any portion of the brown, no matter how brief the glimpse might be. Daramulath really did feel like an extension of himself. But that wasn't a very helpful answer.
"He's...a great deal like a human being sometimes. Mostly he's fairly easy going and practical. More so than I am, anyway. And I know everyone likes to think their dragon's the smartest little thing in the world, but he does seem to remember things for longer than his clutchmates." He shrugged helplessly: it was actually fairly difficult to describe Daramulath objectively, and without slipping into doting parent mode.
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 5:50 pm
Oh! That reminded Mal of his newest little trick. Compared to some of the things he and E’rik had pulled back at the Hall, it wasn’t anything much. It was barely more than a blip in the scheme of things, primarily because Mal was at least trying to behave. But it was something to keep his mind busy. He scoffed at the idea of Master Emoll ever taking advantage of that invaluable last lesson. “Did you ever hear any of his songs mention boners? I don’t recall any. Clearly he never made use of the lesson.” Because, obviously, every song ought to mention boners. It certainly would make teaching songs more interesting and memorable.
“By the way… I’m gonna need a small favor. It’s nothing onerous! I’m not actually asking you to break any rules. See, I’m running a social experiment.” Right. A ‘social experiment’. Mal certainly had a way with euphemisms… “You see, soon after I came here, I learned about these two girls. Nan and Ella or something like that? Anyway, they fancy themselves to be the gossip center of the Weyr. I’ve been avoiding them both completely for no apparent reason. I figure that’ll get their curiosity all riled up. And then I’m going to feed them both completely separate lines of information. Conflicting facts and the like. It ought to be interesting to see how much the rumors shift and change…” that and he thought it would be amusing to watch the girls try to figure out the truth. “I only ask that you not, you know… ruin my fun by actually telling them anything if they should ask you.”
And it seemed like it would happen eventually. E’rik had been a Harper. Mal had been a Harper (that was one fact he hadn’t been able to suppress fully). Eventually, Miss Information and The Nose would come sniffing along. “And, before you ask, I’m not just doing this to see if I can make people’s heads explode. This is a legitimate social experiment, designed to see how rumors change and how fast they travel.” See? With the right twist, it was no longer a shameless attempt to mess up Nan and Elae’s pretty little rumor mill; it was a scientific adventure!
He listened closely to E’rik’s words, feeling slightly envious of the bond that existed between the pair. All he had was a firelizard who ate his weight in food every day and sampled fingers too. Still, listening to the other boy talk about his dragon was nice. It was soothing, in a way. “How long do dragons normally remember things? You said that he has trouble recognizing people…”
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 7:35 pm
"I don't think I've ever heard any of his songs mentioning boners," E'rik was forced to concede. "But maybe he saved those songs for his paramours. I would consider myself fortunate, in that case, not to have been privy to them." That would have been an extremely awkward situation, for a number of reasons. First of all, E'rik was definitely uninterested in members of his own sex, as far as romantic and sexual preferences went. Secondly, he was amused by Emoll's standard lyrics, and a deviation relating to boners probably would have caused him to laugh aloud. Finally it would simply have been awkward because he was someone with silly, romantic notions who did not want his serenades to make use of words like 'boner'.
As soon as Mal finished speaking the word favor, E'rik was intrigued. He was aware that most people who were as well-acquainted with the ex-Harper as he was would have been suspicious if Mal asked for a "small" favor, but he wasn't terribly concerned at being misused. Besides, a very large part of him firmly believed that if Mal hadn't helped him at the Hatching, he wouldn't have remained conscious long enough to Impress Daramulath, and it was hard for him, now, to imagine what his life would be like without the dragon. Not hard in that he was incapable of imagining it, but hard in that he didn't want to try.
Anyway, he owed Mal, as far as he was concerned. So it was almost disappointing that Mal didn't plan to ask him to break any rules or do anything interesting. Not that he had much time or energy for interesting things, but he'd feel that he had paid Mal back somewhat if he could at least attempt some sort of outrageous feat. Nevertheless, social experiments sounded promising. He listened with interest as Mal outlined his plot.
"I've heard of both of them, though I've managed to avoid them, I think. Elae, by the way."
He nodded with the rest, privately agreeing that it would be an interesting social experiment. Even if it sounded less like a social experiment than like an amusing trick. And there was nothing wrong, in E'rik's mind, with making people's heads explode. As long as he didn't get brain matter or skull bits on him. Butchering wherries made feel a little sick to his stomach, but he did it because it was needful. It was never needful to explode a person's head.
"So am I to say nothing at all to the pair and their minions, or should I just answer their questions with whatever comes to mind that's not the truth?" Either option was appealing, really.
"I don't know. I think there's a really steep drop off after three days, but that's for adult dragons. The dragonets seem to have difficulty holding onto things even that long unless they're reminded of them. And with the recognizing people, he can recognize them well enough, but he's not very good at matching names to faces. Not in human beings, anyway. He says we all look basically the same." He grinned. Perhaps, to a dragon, they did.
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 5:11 pm
For a moment, Mal just looked confused; E’rik had been using unfamiliar terms again, leading the other boy to wonder what, exactly, a ‘paramour’ was. When confronted with unfamiliar words, the result was predictable: he always tried to break the word down. Pair… well, that meant two of something and ‘more’ was obvious. Which didn’t really help him understand the phrase at all. Pair of more? Clearly, there was something he wasn’t understanding here, and that confusion was fairly obvious in his eyes. “His what?” he eventually asked, deciding that his usual method of looking pathetic until someone told him something wouldn’t work. Or maybe it just wasn’t working fast enough for him.
At least he was back to normal when the plotting was back on. Now this was something he was comfortable with: playing around with someone’s minds. As far as he was concerned, the girls deserved it. They, apparently, stuck their noses into everyone’s business. Well, fine; they could make the attempt to learn more about him but, by Faranth, he wasn’t going to make it easy! He was going to make them work for it.
“Hmm…” his hand went to his chin to stroke the invisible beard that he always insisted he had. Actually, that was a bit of annoyance to the boy; with his height, he was occasionally mistaken for someone far younger. A beard, he had decided, would certainly help that. The downside was that he seemed incapable of growing anything more than a few scattered hairs, and that looked even worse. But one day… “Oh, I would never limit your creativity, E’rik. One day, avoid them completely. And then answer their questions. Then go back to avoiding them again… try to keep them on their toes. I know that’s my plan. Oh, and don’t worry about keeping the truth out of things; I think it would be interesting to mix truth with lies. Just because that’ll get them really busy, trying to sieve everything.”
That was, of course, assuming that the girls would be interested in some Candidate. By all accounts, they were interested in everyone. It was almost frightening, that.
“Ha. At his age, I imagine all humans look like walls with noses near the top of them,” he pointed out, thinking about things from a small dragon’s point of view. Hm. Wonder what Aeron saw… he glanced over at the firelizard then, just to make sure he wasn’t getting into trouble. Aeron wasn’t in trouble, but he was currently chasing a bit of invisible nothing. Apparently, it was quite a fight.
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 7:33 pm
Without giving it much thought, E'rik clarified at Mal's prompting, "His love interest."
Then he went back to the far more diverting activity that was plotting with Mal. Not that he had much plotting to do. Mal came up with this one all on his own. He would just be an accessory. Which was fine with him. He didn't have the energy to be a brilliant strategist anymore. Someday, he dreamed, he would be able to sleep through a night and Daramulath would reach that mythic stage where he only needed to eat once in a sevenday. It seemed that day would never come.
His gaze followed Mal's hand as it went to his chin. The action would have looked a great deal more sinister if he'd had some sort of facial hair to stroke. He guessed, though, that Mal was rather like he was, and had difficulty growing any sort of well-ordered hair on his face. He tended to e lazy about shaving ecause his hair was light enough that no one really noticed the few hairs that adorned his chin and because no amount of coaxing or cajoling or pleading (all of which had taken place when he was years younger) had done a thing to change the fact that his "beard" was incredibly sparse.
"I might, then, choose to exercise my artistic license, then. If it ever occurs to them to talk to me. It might not, you know." He doubted that. From what he'd observed of the pair, they were dedicated gossips, and even if they weren't subtle, they were good at getting information. He would be more than happy to do anything he could to send them chasing the wrong path. Just for his own amusement.
"Something like that," E'rik agreed. It hadn't occurred to him to experiment with Daramulath to see if the dragon could show him what he saw, as he saw it. He knew that riders gave their dragons visual aids for points reached via between, but he didn't know if the transfer went both ways. Probably. Firelizards, he'd heard, could do so. Maybe sometime he'd ask his dragon how he saw him. Maybe he didn't really want to know. "Or maybe we're just supremely ugly, fleshy things with hair in odd places."
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Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:13 pm
“Oh.” Mal was quiet for a moment, trying to figure out how the words were even remotely similar. These thoughts soon segued into an idle curiosity about who could possibly put up with Master Dismal. Sure, he wasn’t that old but the man was so… well… dismal! He vaguely recalled overhearing a few giggling girls talk about how cute he was and how he just needed to fall in luuuurve to solve everything. Because, clearly, everything could be solved by the magical boobs or p***s. Maybe it was just a girl thing to have some sort of nurturing instinct or something.
It was almost like the old days: Mal and E’rik just sitting around, idly chatting about whatever came to mind and coming up with a pointless scheme. There were a few significant differences. Daramulath for one. Aeron for another. Also, their pranks of old had usually focused on broad audiences, not specific people. Not that this was a particularly ‘evil’ trick or anything. It was hardly even a blip in the scheme of things.
“I think it will occur to them eventually. ‘S not as if we haven’t been seen together.” He considered pointing out the Hatching, but decided not to mention the fact that everyone had been looking at E’rik when he Impressed Daramulath. “The biggest problem is just getting their attention. I figured that avoiding them as much as possible was a good start.” Unless they had really short attention spans or something.
“Have you ever asked him what he sees?” Mal asked eventually, suddenly interested in how dragons saw the world. “Aeron’ll tell me things like that sometime. ‘S normally not very interesting. Or even complicated. He’ll prance into the Candidates barracks, looking as proud as can be, and he’ll send me an image of a dead thing. He’s very proud of that sort of thing.”
As if on cue, Aeron came trundling back, head held high and dead trundlebug clamped between his jaws. A few muffled noises emerged from his throat, but they were blocked by his kill. The thing was dropped, unceremoniously, in Mal’s lap and Aeron let out more squawks again, apparently extremely pleased with himself.
“…good boy, Aer. Good boy.” Mal scratched the firelizard’s eyeridges, which seemed to do the trick.
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Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 2:05 pm
Unconsciously, E'rik hummed through a tune he'd heard earlier that day in the kitchens, tapping out the beat lightly on Daramulath's headknobs while he thought about Mal's proposition. He liked it. And it was good to have company he could talk to. Daramulath felt like his other half, and with E'rik felt completed, but the brown dragonet did not seem to feel any urges to play tricks or demonstrate his brilliance as E'rik did, and, frankly, did not fully understand why E'rik felt the need to do so. He went along with his bondmate, but he did not feel that he had anything to prove. E'rik found that he still needed the kind of mental stimulation and creative outlet that Mal's idea offered.
"That's true. And, quite frankly, if Daramulath hadn't turned out to be a brown, I'm sure all sorts of rumors would have sprung up about our relationship, based on my behavior at the Touching and the Hatching." He grinned.
He'd not had an opportunity to experiment to see if he was still plagued with stage fright, having Impressed. He hoped he wouldn't be. A brownrider who couldn't bear to face Thread at the beginning of a Pass would be such a colossal waste of the Weyr's resources. Not that he really thought Thread would constitute an audience. It was an enemy. A menace. He was fairly good with those. He came up with his best snarks then.
"Avoiding them seems like a good way to attract their attention, yes. Makes it seem like you've got something to hide from their eager ears." At least, if he was someone who was inclined to gossip, he would be more interested in the person who studiously avoided him than the person who was constantly in his face, volunteering information. There was no pride in being the first to uncover a choice piece of gossip if everyone knew the person would admit it willingly, after all.
"I haven't, actually. It's occurred to me once or twice, but I've never actually asked him. Mostly he talks to me in words that are...colored? with emotions. I've heard that when dragons are upset or in a hurry they'll resort to communicating with pictures and concepts, but, thankfully, Daramulath's never had to do it."
With the additional information about the sort of things Aeron saw fit to inform Mal of, E'rik added, "I'm glad he doesn't tend to tell me about those sorts of things." It wasn't that he was afraid of bugs. He could stomp them with the best of them. He just didn't like them.
"Congratulations, Mal. Your boy's a hunter." It amazed E'rik that Daramulath would eventually catch his own prey. He couldn't imagine that the dragonet would make the association between the chopped pieces of meat he ate with the live herdbeast it came from. Well. If he knew it, he supposed Daramulath would know it, too. But still.
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Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 3:09 pm
Mal let out a bark of a laugh as E’rik mentioned their behavior and how it could be perceived as something more than ‘just friends’. In all honesty, he’d never had a crush on his old friend. E’rik was a good friend, someone he could rely on totally and completely, but not someone he’d want to jump into bed with. Especially since the Brownrider was straight and all that. The fact that E’rik didn’t seem overly distressed over the probable rumors that would spring from their bromance here was heartening. At some point in his life, Mal assumed he’d eventually get himself a boyfriend and he could hardly hide an entire boyfriend from his best friend.
Not without a really big closet, anyway. Or a really good explanation of, ‘…oh. We were… uhh… his clothes fell off. And then mine did. And then we ran into each other. Naked. With our crotches. And other parts.’
Somehow he doubted that E’rik would honestly believe such an explanation. Ah well. A life that held romance of any sort was far off. This life was good enough for him. Listening to E’rik hum a little was nice, bringing him back to Harper Hall for a short time. Time to wax nostalgic, yeah?
“That’s exactly my thought, really. So long as I avoid them, they’ll think I have some huge dramatic secret to hide. It’ll be interesting to see what sort of secret they concoct. Hopefully something exciting. I’m sick of not having any dramatic secrets to reveal. I feel so left out because of my complete lack of them.” Well, maybe a few… he just didn’t think they were all that interesting or even anyone else’s business besides his own.
Colored words? Now that got Mal’s attention. He tilted his head to one side and simply listened, rolling the idea around in his mind for a little while. Huh. Colors… he was acutely aware that he didn’t----couldn’t---see things quite like other people. But what about dragons? Could they allow him to see the full range of colors? He’d never asked Aeron to do anything that specific, mostly because the little firelizard wouldn’t really understand. They were intelligent creatures, but not capable of handling abstract thought after all. But dragons… now they were capable of it. “Remember Master Nera? She used to say that she thought in colors and stuff while writing her music. Is it like that? Where each emotion and word has its own color? And what sorts of colors?”
“Having a hunter is all fine and good, but I’m getting damned sick of waking up and finding something dead in my bedfurs,” he confided in E’rik as he made to brush the trundlebug away. Aeron didn’t like his gift being so easily dismissed however, and hissed in anger. Once again those wings were flared and his eyes whirled with red-orange.
Mal looked unimpressed. “Yeah, yeah… you’re very tough. I’m very impressed… Come on. Eat your sharding bug already then.” Back to E’rik, he commented, “I think he’s trying to feed me or something. You better hope that Daramulath never tries to feed you. He’ll haul over entire herdbeasts for you.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 3:59 pm
"Great minds think alike. Remind me never to get into any sort of battle of wits with you. It would be much too difficult, and resemble work too closely for my tastes," E'rik replied. "I get enough work of the menial sort here. Mental exertion may just be beyond me."
"Mal, I don't think everyone here has a dark past or dramatic secrets. It's simply not possible. Remember those odds you quoted to me earlier? I would say the chances are slimmer than that. But there's nothing wrong with confusing the rumour mill a little."
Privately, E'rik imagined Mal had a great many secrets, both dramatic and mundane, but he'd not seen fit to share them, and E'rik wasn't going to pry. He had too much respect for others' privacy. It was one of the reasons people like Nandeli and Elae irritated him so much. There was no reason for people to take so much interest in others' lives. They had lives of their own, and if they'd do something with them, they wouldn't be bored enough to have to seek amusement by prying into others' affairs. He was guilty of taking some interest in some people's business, but not to the extent that pair did.
Mal's next question caught E'rik by surprise. He hadn't thought of Master Nera since before he left the Hall. Which was odd, because he'd spent several sevendays working with her, learning the basics of composition. She'd been incredibly patient with him, but they had both been forced to admit that he was immature as a composer. With time and practice he would improve, and he had a good feel for it, but he'd not pursued it with any vigor until after the spectacular failure that had been his debut.
He dimly remembered that Nera had mentioned that she tended to visualize her pieces in the form of colors, and he'd tried it for a while as an experiment, but it had not helped him much. His compositions either looked like someone vomited colorfully on a piece of hide or sounded like someone gargling. Depending on whether he tried to compose by ear or color. The colors he assigned each note never worked well together in chords. Nera had been amused by his attempts, and kept the only copy of the one piece he'd completed which looked and sounded all right. She also said his coloring didn't resemble what she saw at all when he played the piece.
"It's...not like that. I think. I mean...It's not exactly colors. It's more...I don't know." Well. He was lucid this evening. Try again. "It's not something that I see with my eyes. It's all in my head, and even there it's not exactly color so much as the suggestion of a color. You know how their eyes change colors with their mood? It's a little like that, I guess."
He shrugged and held his hands out palms up. He couldn't explain it any better. He had a well-developed vocabulary and he was clever, but he found himself lacking. No wonder there were so few songs that were explicit about what it was like to be bonded to a dragon. He couldn't even put it into prose. Trying to put it into verse and set it to music sounded like an impossible task.
"That is a drawback, but at least you could interpret that as a sign that he's concerned for your welfare. Or he thinks you're utterly incompetent and can't provide for yourself. Or a combination of the two. But let's go with the first, shall we?"
The idea of Daramulath dragging a herdbeast to share with him was amusing enough to produce a chuckle that began deepin E'rik's chest. He could also see himself making use of his newly-learned animal-butchering skills and cutting himself a small portion of the meat so that he could share and be sociable. Eating raw meat had its hazards, but probably only if the meat was given time to spoil, which a fresh kill wouldn't have.
"That would be something to see."
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Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 5:01 pm
“Aw, E’rik… of course I’d never get into a battle of wits with you. It would be dishonorable to go against an unarmed man.” Mal couldn’t stop himself for a thousand Marks, especially since E’rik had set himself up so nicely for that one. Besides, they were friends; he knew that the Brownrider wouldn’t take the remark seriously, especially not while Mal was wearing that smarmy smirk of his, the one that said he was clearly joking around. “Anyway, for all we know, maybe everyone does have a dark dramatic secret past. But we just don’t know because it’s a secret! Maybe there’s a Healer girl here who is really the ultra-super-secret daughter of a Lord Holder. Maybe we have someone who is actually the son of a Goldrider, but, since everyone wants him dead, he must hide his identity.”
Yeah. It was pretty easy to see what Mal had been best at as a Harper: composing. Whether it was music or a story, he could come up with these absurd ideas with just a moment of thought. Sure, his voice was decent enough, but his real genius was with the word and song. Unfortunately, not the written word. This created difficulty… Master Nera had been his main tutor at Harper Hall, so it wasn’t so surprising that Mal had been the one to bring her up. Her descriptions of seeing---and hearing---colors was just absolutely fascinating to a boy who couldn’t see some shades. In a way, his condition had been equally fascinating to Nera. If anyone could put up with a young man like Mal, it had been Master Nera.
E’rik’s explanation was somewhat disappointing for Mal, who had hoped for something more… well… colorful. “Huh… it still sounds interesting. And the mental voice wasn’t what I had expected. I thought it would just be a voice, something I hear. But it wasn’t. It was more like something I just… knew, sort of…” although that didn’t even come close to describing it. It wasn’t just a voice in his mind. Ah shards. E’rik knew what he was talking about; if anyone understood it, it was Dara’s rider himself. “Well, I’ll try and experiment with Aeron, and see if I can understand.”
Aw, now there was the chuckle he knew and loved in a completely non-sexual sort of way! “Well, I can’t deny that I would, on occasion, attempt to look pathetic in order to get an extra meal or three out of people… but I haven’t tried that on Aeron, so I assume he brings me dead things because he’s trying to impress me. Again.” Ha! Bad pun! “So, yeah. Let’s go with the first option and assume that he kills stuff because he wants to show off how tough he is.”
Actually, Aeron killed things because he did indeed think Mal was too useless to take care of himself. The firelizard looked from person to person and clacked his jaws a little, annoyed that his human hadn’t eaten his present. That was a good trundlebug, that! It wasn’t exactly fondness that made Aeron give up his kill; it was more of a crude animalistic thought that ran thus: Mal gave him food. It was good food. No one else gave him food. So, therefore, he had to keep Mal alive and healthy to give him more good food.
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Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 5:33 pm
"Ouch," was all E'rik said as he tipped his head back, closing his eyes against the grim acceptance that he had walked right into that one. It appeared he was not only unarmed, but he had managed to get lost on the way to the battlefield. He was so out of practice. There had to be more people at the Weyr upon whom he could sharpen his wits. Weren't dragonriders also supposed to be intelligent, as well as brave and loyal?
"I guess it's a possibility. But must they all be forbidden offspring? Maybe some of them are murderers. Or they're fugitives because they've married fifteen people in different Holds. Although I'm intrigued. Why does everyone want the Goldrider's son dead?"
E'rik could tell that his explanation had been lacking and that he'd lost Mal's interest. Fair enough. Mal had a firelizard, and that had to be similar. He'd said that Aeron showed him images, albeit of dead things most of the time. Maybe those appeared to Mal as Aeron saw them, or maybe his brain somehow converted them into a form that was recognizable, understanding the firelizard's intent. He didn't know much about telepathic or empathic bonds. Yet another thing his extensive education with the Harpers had left out.
"Well. You spoke with Daramulath a bit, before he conked out. Didn't you pick up on anything?" Or maybe that had been what Mal had meant when he was talking about mental voices and whatnot. E'rik wasn't quite clear on that.
"Do you think Aeron will understand what you're asking him to do?" E'rik asked, interested. People said firelizards weren't particularly intelligent, but he'd observed that many had personalities and could be taught to obey commands, and so they couldn't be as dim as people said.
After his renewed laughter from Mal's pun faded, E'rik asked, "Are you sure you haven't been secretly craving trundlebugs? Aeron might've picked up on that."
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Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 5:58 pm
“Secret murderers,” Mal corrected. “Trained up by a bunch of secret Holdless clans far across the oceans in secret. Secretly, of course. Perhaps they are even masters of secretly murdering people, because otherwise they’d be Holdless too. As for the Goldrider’s son, why wouldn’t someone want him dead? Maybe his father is actually a Lord Holder and his oldest son doesn’t want the competition. Or maybe others are just plain evil and determined to get rid of this little spark of goodness in the world. Or they hate him because he’s too pretty. He’s so damn pretty that it’s a curse and everyone wants him, regardless of whether they like guys or girls.”
Maybe one day Mal would find out what it was like to find that other half. He didn’t count on it, though. Sure, E’rik said it was possible, but he was probably just saying that to be nice. That was what friends were for, after all. Or kicking you in the pants when you were being a complete moron about something.
He shook his head, making his dark hair sway. “No. Not any colors, anyway. Just the words from Dara. Or feelings, I guess. When Aeron gives me images, they’re generally really quick. Just a few flashes. Before I even have time to really comprehend them, they’re gone.”
“I dunno if he really understands things or not, to be honest. I suspect that he’s simply too young to really understand right now, you know?” Aha! The perfect excuse: Aeron wasn’t dumb. He was just young. Right! Every pet owner could easily stand behind that sort of thing, claiming that their brilliant little baby puppy wasn’t being a moron when they got tangled up in some plastic bags. They were just being babies. “Sometimes he’ll get me things, but I think it’s mostly by accident. Like, in the morning, I’ll find him attacking my socks right about when I need to put them on.”
Mal actually laughed out loud at the trundlebug craving comment. “You never know. You said that dragons are the other half of our soul, yeah? Maybe firelizards are more like… I dunno…. A sixteenth of our minds. Apparently, my mind likes killing things. A lot.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 6:34 pm
"Oh, of course," E'rik agreed. "That's much more likely. And I can certainly get behind the killing of the Goldrider's son. I mean, if he's really that pretty, it'd be a mercy. The poor thing probably has to check his sleeping furs every night to make sure no one's in them. And I bet the dogs in the Hold are awfully friendly, too. Lucky we're not cursed with such good looks, right?"
In reality, E'rik found the idea of killing a person repugnant in nearly every way. No matter how much he might hate a person - and there was a very small group of people who fell into that category - he didn't wish them dead. Exile was sufficient, and in some ways more satisfying. He liked the idea of those he hated being completely forgotten, so that it would be as if they had never existed.
"Hm," E'rik said intelligently. He was out of his depth discussing draconic abilities. The lessons he received at the Weyr were illuminating, but they were more about the what than the why and how of things. He couldn't feel his legs.
"What was it you called him? Dara? I wonder how he'd feel about a shortening of his name." Not that Daramulath wasn't a fine name, but it was a mouthful, and he liked the idea of having a more familiar form of the name to call his dragon by.
"If Aeron's around the same age as Dara," he began, testing how the name felt and sounded, "he probably is too young to understand much. That he attacks your socks before you need them clearly indicates that he's got genius potential. Which speaks well for your own potential, if you're sixteen times smarter than he is."
The side of his mouth which Mal couldn't see, since he was still presenting his friend with his profile, curved upward. Of course the firelizard was a genius. Just like every baby born on Pern was gifted and talented and if anything happened to indicate otherwise, it was because they were misunderstood.
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Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 6:55 pm
“Yeah. And he probably can ever drink anything offered to him for fear it might be laced with fellis or something that’ll knock him out. Poor sod. We ought to keep him from living his life in fear. Must be horrible, being that beautiful. Pfft… speak for yourself, E’rik. I happen to be pretty.” Sticking his nose up in the air, Mal attempted to flick his hair behind his shoulders but, alas, it was not long enough for such a maneuver. And it never would be either, since he wanted to avoid such girly things as much as possible. He just didn’t have the right face for long hair.
Mal always preferred humiliation over death. Death was so final, so… simple. Humiliation, however, lasted forever. And, best of all, stories got bigger and bigger each time they were re-told, making them ever more embarrassing. Some part of him worried about this plan to spread rumors about himself, but he wasn’t overly concerned. He didn’t have shame, after all, and, besides: he knew the truth and that was enough for him.
He dropped the ‘oh-so-pretty’ act soon enough, looking a bit more concerned. “Oh. I guess I should’ve asked him or you before shortening his name, right? But Daramulath seems really long and sorta regal for someone his size…” come on. He was so tiny and cute! And sleeping! “I hope you don’t mind that. And I hope he doesn’t mind either.” It was just that he liked to be able to spell his friends’ names, providing that Dara actually was indeed a friend now.
Aha! Of course Aeron was a genius! He was barely even flying yet and he already was able to connect Mal’s need for socks with the things themselves! “Yeah, I’m sixteen times smarter than a genius firelizard. That’ll sound good. Now if only he was less focused on attacking things… hopefully that doesn’t mean I’m sixteen times more likely to kill something. I’d rather dislike that. Unless it’s Mr. Pretty-boy-son-of-a-Goldrider. But that’s more of a mercy than anything else.”
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