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 Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 7:22 pm
E'rik gritted his teeth. Her habit of apologizing was as bad as her habit of speaking ill of herself. He didn't know why she did it, and he was already beginning not to care. He wanted to shake her and tell her to have some self-respect. He'd seen flashes to indicate she was made of more interesting stuff, and that was what had intrigued him in the first place. He didn't understand why she buried that under layers of self-doubt, but it frustrated him to only see glimpses of it. That was what he wanted from her. Not this socially awkward person who seemed to want to crawl out of her skin or cut off her arm to disassociate herself from contact with him.
"Asking if Dara's friendly is a bit like asking if water's wet," E'rik said dryly. Daramulath was very open-minded and didn't like to make enemies. To E'rik's knowledge the brown had none. Everywhere he went and everyone he dealt with found the polite, consciencious brown charming. E'rik knew he was capable of being charming, too, but Daramulath was an excellent ambassador.
He frowned slightly as he noticed Firyal's gait change. He couldn't figure what she was doing, but her weight shifted forward so that it was mostly on the balls of her feet and her heels didn't touch the ground at all. It was an unusual way to walk. At least he thought so until he realized she was trying to walk silently for whatever reason. He wasn't even conscious of his silent tread. He'd developed it when he was fifteen or so for sneaking around the Hall to play pranks on deserving people with Mal.
When they emerged into the dim light of the Records Hall E'rik, too, found himself blinking like a watchwher forced into the sun. The Weyr was really ridiculously dark without glows. The ancients must have been very brave to explore the volcanic caves originally. Or very bored. Or very adventurous. Or very foolhardy. It all depended on how one chose to tell it and how it came out in the end, though even that could be twisted to be good or evil.
"I don't know where he is at the moment. I'll ask."
I'm in our weyr. Our roommates are elsewhere, and I am enjoying being able to stretch out. Daramulath had overheard.
"He's in our weyr," E'rik said. "But I can ask him to go somewhere else if you're not comfortable going there."
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 8:59 am
Firyal, not consciously aware of E'rik's irritation, but not so dense as to be unable to pick up on it unconsciously, wondered what she'd done wrong. Her questions had been simple, and probably the sort of things he was asked all the time, but was that really so bad? Unoriginal, maybe, but even someone with a talent for making up stories was entitled to some unoriginal thoughts, too. Besides, the conversational equivalent of making up stories was lying, and everyone she knew hated being lied to. She didn't like it either, but it seemed to bother her less than most because it didn't come as a surprise to her when others lied.
"Forgive me for ruining your simile, but is water actually wet?" she asked, grinning a little. "I mean, water makes things wet, but is water itself wet, or is it just a carrier of wetness?"
She almost winced. What kind of stupid question was that to ask? Did it matter whether water was wet? She knew what E'rik had been trying to say about Daramulath, and she could have just accepted that. She didn't really think her question about water was anything clever or original, though she had wanted to say something to redeem herself in E'rik's eyes. She probably should have just stayed silent. Next time she would. In the unlikely event that there was a next time. The way things were going that seemed unlikely. Which was why she had made the attempt to say or do something interesting.
While these thoughts were going through her mind, E'rik presumably asked Daramulath where he was. Like the pair's conversation, her thoughts passed through her mind very quickly. This wasn't one of her stories. She wasn't one of her heroines, and while E'rik might've had the potential to be a hero, he wasn't her hero. People like Firyal had to save themselves. Her grandmother said it would make her a stronger person, the fact that no one stepped in to defend her when she got herself into trouble. Her grandmother had also been born to a family of farmers and become a Healer. She believed in hard work, and Firyal preferred to avoid hard work if she could.
"Your weyr." She hesitated. She didn't think for a moment he'd actually been serious about taking advantage of her, and one of the few advantages to being a nonentity was that there was no need to worry about sullying a reputation. Not that E'rik could do anything anyway, by Weyr rules, because Daramulath was a Weyrling.
"I don't know where your weyr is, so you'll have to lead the way," she said. She would come away from this with favorable impressions if it killed her.
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 9:18 am
Firyal's question about water's wetness caught E'rik off-guard. Contrary to what she might have thought, he found the idea interesting. He'd never really considered whether wetness was a property of water or just something water produced when combined with something else. A grin quirked his lips and he replied to her question.
"I'd never thought about it that way. And now you make me wonder, if the simile carries, whether Dara's really friendly or just tends not to make enemies." Because, as far as that went, he'd never noticed whether Dara went out of his way to make friends with people he met or whether it just ended up that everyone generally liked the brown because he was non-offensive and easy to get along with. It wasn't quite the same as being friendly.
I don't know why you're worrying about that, Dara said, injecting his opinion. It isn't important whether I'm friendly or whether people just happen to like me. Do you know what's important?
That I bring Firyal to you quickly? E'rik guessed in a dry tone.
Yes. Why would she mind being brought to our weyr?
Remember me telling you about sex?
You want to have sex with her?
Certainly not. But there's a stigma, a certain label, that young women who visit the quarters of young men get where people assume she has sex with anyone. It's not a flattering reputation to have. But Firyal doesn't seem too concerned about it.
It was actually kind of amusing that she didn't seem concerned, too, until he remembered that he couldn't have taken advantage of her in the corridor - or in his weyr - even if he'd been so inclined. Weyrlings were forbidden to have sex or even get too hot and bothered for fear it would send their dragons into an early flight. The restriction had been maddening for the better part of the year, though there were no rules about self-stimulation and E'rik had occasionally fallen back on that. Thinking about it, it made much more sense that women were comfortable flirting with Weyrlings, knowing nothing more than kisses would come out of it for a good while. That was mildly insulting, actually.
"Follow me, then," he said. He took pity on her and released her elbow finally as he set off with long strides for his weyr. It would have been a faster trip from the kitchens, but he was familiar with the passages between the Records Hall and his weyr, since he spent time there reading past accounts of Threadfall and Wing tactics.
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 9:58 am
If E'rik had been taken aback by her perspective, Firyal was just as taken aback that he hadn't dismissed her notion out of hand. That happend to her a lot when she gave voice to stupid thoughts like that one. She was fascinated, however, that he'd not only grasped what she meant, but applied it to his situation. She knew the ability to make that sort of connection was indicative of high intelligence. Not that she'd ever doubted E'rik's intelligent. There weren't too many stupid Harpers or Dragonriders. More of the latter than the former, based on personal experience and speculation.
"Either way, he's pleasant, I assume," Firyal said, a little embarrassed as well as pleased by E'rik's reaction.
Firyal was relieved that he had let go of her before setting off for his weyr. She would have had the feeling of being dragged otherwise. She followed E'rik through the Weyr, walking with awkwardly long strides to keep up without actually breaking into a jog. Suddenly he seemed to be in a great hurry. Maybe Daramulath had gotten more insistent, or threatened to make a mess of the weyr if E'rik didn't stop talking and do as his dragon wished, though that seemed out of character for a dragon touted as friendly. Or at least not unfriendly. And she didn't know of too many dragons that would be vindictive when it came to their riders. E'rik probably just wanted to get this encounter over with.
When they reached what she assumed was E'rik's weyr Firyal mentally commanded Numenor to Behave. She didn't want the curious bronze firelizard to get into any trouble, making a mess of things or bothering Daramulath or anything to that effect. She wanted to leave E'rik with a favorable impression of her, even if they never became friends. Nothing had changed since the beginning of their encounter in that respect. She couldn't say why, exactly, but she wanted to have a relationship of some sort with E'rik. Even if it was only friendship.
"I appreciate that you're willing to introduce me to Daramulath. I don't often have opportunities to meet dragons. It's an honor." She didn't add what she was thinking: It's an honor for someone like me. That was morbid and depressing and she'd done enough of that around E'rik for one lifetime.
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Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 7:57 pm
E'rik hesitated before letting Firyal into his weyr, but only for the barest second. He had to mentally review the state of the weyr. He wasn't the neatest person in the world, but he had few enough possessions, even after a year at the Weyr, and that helped keep his part of the area from becoming a wreck. His roommate was more of a slob, but that wasn't really his problem. He didn't think there was anything lying out that Firyal shouldn't see. His roommate and his dragon were out. It was safe to let her in.
He opened the door and ushered her into the room. Daramulath's bulk toward the outer entrance cast an enormous shadow over the room, and so he turned a few eye-level glows. The illumination made it very obvious that his roommate had not cleaned up as he'd indicated he might when E'rik saw him two days ago. That was something of a disappointment, but not a surprise. He'd given up expecting anything from his roommate, except that their separate messes stay separate.
As soon as E'rik and Firyal entered the room Daramulath's head snaked around and he turned in a careful circle so that he could look at the pair. His eyes whirled an exuberant blue.
Is this her? he asked excitedly, to which E'rik replied with a nod from behind Firyal.
E'rik smiled at his dragon and made it include their guest. "Firyal, this is Daramulath. Or Dara, if you prefer. And, Dara, this is Firyal."
Are you satisfied? he asked the dragon.
She could come closer, Daramulath suggested. I can't come any farther into the weyr to meet her.
E'rik had to stifle a laugh at his dragon's politely phrased demands. It was already obvious that Dara was feeling smug at getting his way, and just seeing how far he could push his human before E'rik refused. E'rik would go along with it for now.
"Dara invites you to come closer. I don't think he means to eat you, though it's been a few days since he last fed."
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Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 6:51 am
Firyal looked unashamedly around E'rik's weyr. The disaster zone-like appearance of the weyr reminded her of how her room would look if she was left to her own devices. With E'rik standing behind her, he couldn't see her smile. Secretly she hoped it was E'rik who was the messy one, but she doubted that was the case. The slightly annoyed look the brownrider gave the mess indicated it was definitely not his. She wondered who he roomed with. She enjoyed meeting people whose standards of order matched her own. They were so few in this clean-obsessed Weyr.
"It's an honor to meet you, Daramulath," she said formally.
Even knowing that Daramulath had a working set of hearing organs, she couldn't help whispering to E'rik, "I didn't know he would be so large. Or so handsome."
Momentarily she wondered if E'rik would interpret that as a compliment directed at him, and worried for that moment that E'rik would read more into it than she meant him to. But she dismissed the thought. He probably heard that Daramulath was handsome all the time. The brown was undeniably a handsome specimen, and large for his age, edging in on the size of a small bronze.
"May I really call you Dara?" she asked the dragon directly. She knew he could understand her, even if he would answer her through his rider. The idea of being allowed to call a dragon by a nickname was enough to make her want to giggle. "It isn't too informal?"
When E'rik told her that Daramulath - Dara! - wanted her to come closer and joked that she might be eaten she grinned, possibly like a fool. This was a rare treat for her. Numenor, too, was fascinated by Daramulath, but he was considerably less awed than his human. He flitted from Firyal's shoulder to circle Daramulath and inspect him from every angle. He also pinged a message of fearlessness at the brown, letting him know that he, Numenor, a bronze, was not afraid of Daramulath, who was only a brown. The dragon versus firelizard consideration never entered his mind.
"If I'm to be eaten by a dragon, at least it will be a handsome one who does the eating," she replied, more at ease than she had been since E'rik turned a glow and left them in the dark. She moved close enough that she could reach out and touch him.
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Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 7:36 am
Dara watched Numenor with an amusement that E'rik could feel through their bond. The little bronze's arrogance astounded him, but he wasn't insulted by it. He had learned that firelizards were inherently inferior to dragons, and felt unthreatened by any boasts on Numenor's part. For one thing, he was a more polite creature, as he demonstrated when he nodded in response to Firyal's question. To be safe, since humans didn't always realize when he was mimicking their mannerisims, he also told E'rik, Tell her that she may call me Dara. I like her. She called me handsome. Twice!
E'rik grinned, sharing in his dragon's happiness. "He says it's fine, and he likes you. I'm not saying he has bad taste, but I don't know what you've done to elicit such a response from him - possibly all that flattery. I can be a little stingy with the...I'm sorry, he's being insistent again."
What? he asked.
E'rik, Daramulath said, just a little bit urgently. It's not the flattery. There is something about her. She is different. She belongs here.
Here, here? E'rik asked, meaning their weyr. Or at Ista, here?
At Ista, here.
And she is, E'rik replied, glancing at Firyal apologetically for excluding her from the conversation. This sounded like it was turning into a Search. And that was very strange, he felt.
"Were you ever officially Searched?"
His way with words was failing him with the oddness of the situation. He was fairly certain a dragon Dara's age couldn't perform a Search. Maybe Dara was just playing a game. If so, it wasn't a very amusing game.
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Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 8:25 am
Firyal glanced back at E'rik over her shoulder. He seemed unsettled by her being there. Or more accurately he seemed unsettled by how Daramulath was reacting to her. She didn't think she had done anything wrong, but she didn't have a lot of experience meeting dragons. Her gift for befriending Candidates who didn't Impress and went home after that meant she didn't know too many who did Impress who could introduce her to their dragons.
"I'm glad you're not questioning his taste. That could do serious damage to my ego," she teased. She felt more comfortable with E'rik with Daramulath present. It might just be the way E'rik translated Daramulath's words, but the dragon sounded endearing and charming. E'rik, she was sure, could be charming, but she didn't think he would ever manage to be endearing.
She decided to take the initiative and extended her arm to touch the brown dragon's hide. She could feel the heat he exuded, and she wondered if he was so warm to the touch. With her palm flat against Dara's side she could also feel him breathing. She was so amazed to just be doing this, which was so odd and pathetic of her. She'd lived at the Weyr for six years and she'd thought she was fairly jaded, but apparently she wasn't. Not if simply touching a dragon could make her feel so elated. She almost didn't hear E'rik's question.
"I wasn't. I was allowed to stand originally as a sort of a favor and no one ever told me after that I wasn't allowed to. Sort of like what weyrbrats do." She stroked Dara's soft hide and didn't look at E'rik. It wasn't something she liked to relate to people. Like her family problems, it wasn't really something she was proud of, or that she wanted to talk about with someone she just met. Even if he did have a beautiful voice. "Why do you ask?"
Numenor perched on Dara's shoulder, having decided there was nothing to fear from the large brown dragon. He crooned happily. The dragon was warm and nice to Numenor's human. And the dragon's human had a lovely voice. Almost as nice as a firelizard's.
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Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:24 pm
"I would hate to damage your ego," E'rik replied chivalrously as he dropped onto his furs. As was usually the case, his guest was too enthralled with Dara to pay him much mind, which meant he could relax a bit. He didn't know why he'd even been concerned about the state of his weyr. Firyal clearly wasn't going to notice the mess as long as there was a dragon. "And as you say, questioning his taste would be calling my Impression into question, and I don't like the ramifications there."
He watched with his chin propped on his fist as Firyal went though the usual non-rider-touching-dragon ritual. He actually enjoyed watching how people reacted to Dara and vice versa, even if the reactions all tended to be the same. Firyal's firelizard amused him most of all. Maybe it was something about bronze firelizards, that they felt they could take on dragons, or perhaps just Dara. Or maybe Dara was good with firelizards. Or maybe he was just thinking too much about it. He wanted a firelizard.
For once Dara didn't act as if E'rik's desire for a firelizard diminished their relationship. He was making that deep rumbling sound that was indicative of contentment. He asked plaintively, E'rik, can we have a firelizard?
E'rik cocked one eyebrow. I thought you said I don't need a firelizard because I have you.
You don't need a firelizard. But we do. The little bronze is so amusing. And I like Firyal, too. Not just because she has the firelizard, either. The brown shifted slightly so that he could be more comfortable, though he didn't want to startle Firyal, so he was careful.
"I only asked because Dara really has taken an extreme liking to you. Extreme even for a dragon as easy-going and affectionate as he is. If he were older I'd say he was Searching you, but I'm not sure if he knows how to do that." He kept his tone casual and light. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable.
Is that what I'm doing? Searching? Isn't that how Candidates are chosen? Numenor and firelizards were temporarily forgotten.
"I don't know," E'rik said aloud, since it applied reasonably well to his conversation with Firyal as well. "I don't even know if he's allowed to do that. Or able. Lessons haven't covered it yet."
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Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 9:07 am
"I wouldn't worry about it. Teenage girls have notoriously fragile egos," Firyal replied distractedly as she stroked the brown dragon's smooth hide. He was evidently well-oiled, for she could find no cracks, even where the riding harnesses must rub and chafe him.
She wanted a dragon as badly as E'rik wanted a firelizard. More so, probably. She would never Impress a brown like Daramulath, and she was just as glad, for though she was taken with him, the social implications of someone female Impressing a brown would be more than she could handle. After all, a brown could fly a gold in theory. A brown Dara's size might be able to fly a gold. Absently she wondered how long it would be until Dara was old enough to rise in flight. His size could be deceptive, and she had not been present at the Hatching where E'rik had Impressed, and she could not remember exactly how long ago that was. Anyway, if a brown did fly a gold and the brown's rider was female that would be extremely inconvenient and uncomfortable for everyone. Definitely a time for stand-ins.
When Dara shifted Firyal was not intimidated or concerned. She knew dragons could be accidentally dangerous, but she got the feeling Dara was an extremely careful dragon when it came to his human companions. Surely a behemoth like him had to be accustomed to watching his surroundings to avoid mistakenly trampling people. Numenor didn't seem concerned by Dara's shift, either, which was good enough for her. The bronze was quite clever, after all, and good at avoiding trouble. Firyal wondered why E'rik would ever bother sleeping on a proper bed when he could drag his furs over and curl up with Dara. The dragon was delightfully warm, which was an important factor to Firyal, who was always cold.
"Searching me?" she replied. That was hard to hear, and a part of her wondered if he was playing a cruel trick with her. She'd heard it said that he could be sharp-tongued and enjoyed playing jokes on people. Was he setting her up to be the butt of a joke? Despite his casual tone, he didn't seem too sure of what he was saying, so maybe he was being forthright, but... "Are you serious?"
She hadn't quite finished her question when a bell rang, signalling the end of the work period. She was supposed to report to the laundry room. Shards. That was far from her present location.
"I'm sorry. I have to go. I'm going to be late for my next rotation, and I'm still in a position where I really mustn't be late or deficient in any way. Thank you." With that hurried farewell she slunk out of the room and then set off down the hall at a brisk pace, conscious of Numenor flying behind her in the way the light glinted on his bronze hide.
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