Welcome to Gaia! ::

Raith was being boring. She had decided that dozing up in the sun on her ledge was the thing to do, but just exactly what was he supposed to do with himself? He'd wanted to go for a fly, but she was having none of it as yet. So, he'd tried to find something else to do. This had proved rather difficult. His flying straps were in perfect repair, as were all his clothes, all of V'kain's clothes and in fact everything around the weyr he shared with his friend. The floor was spotless, the rugs were beaten, the hearth was swept and laid, he wasn't hungry so he couldn't go and eat and it was too early in the day to go an recruit friends for drinking.

The next logical step, or logical from his point of view anyway, was to go off and do something contrary. As such, he had spent the last couple of hours swimming up and down the lake. Now he was tired.

Muscles aching from cold and exertion, L'thor finally waded out of the water and half staggered up the bank. His shirt, boots and britches were lying pinned down by a rock where he'd left them, and he used the shirt to dry himself off briefly before hopping into his britches. Then he noticed the woman with the buckets. Well, she hadn't been looking at him when he'd emerged stark naked so perhaps she hadn't noticed. Female or not, that was a slightly disappointing notion; an appreciative look was always welcome.

"You're so vain," Raith chuckled sleepily inside his head.

Studiously ignoring his dragon's comment, he squeezed water out of his hair and picked up his boots before walking over to see what she was finding so fascinatingly disgusting. He had no idea of her name, but he did know that she rode a green.

"Hello there," he called amiably as he approached, "what on Pern have you got there?" Now he was closer he could just about see into the little pot. The contents reminded him rather too strongly of three day old porridge residue. Not pleasant in the least.

L'thor wrinkled his nose fastidiously once he sat down and got a wiff of the awful gunk. "Smells worse than a watch-wher," he commented with a shake of his head as he squeezed more water out of his hair, "never seen the like of it before in my life."

As a trader's son he knew all about persuading people to buy things that might be somewhat questionable. A good patter could make up for an awful lot; over the years he'd seen people pay insane amounts for mediocre goods, or things they didn't really need. His uncle, for example, had been second to none at make people feel the sudden need to own a fancy new sash or scarf, or to buy one for their pretty lady. No doubt the man was still at it somewhere, though it had to be said that he'd always taken as much pride in the quality of his merchandise as in his ability to sell it to anyone, and for rather more than it was truly worth.

"Yes though," he said after a moment, "green Raith. I'm L'thor; glad to meet you." Wrinkling his nose again, he peered closer that the pot of... stuff. "Can't say the same for the stinking slime of supposed stain-removing soapyness though," he added with a shake of his head. "For the way the stuff looks, smell and must feel it had better do a pretty stunning job of getting marks out." If the stuff did work no matter how nasty it was he might be tempted to get hold of some at the next opportunity. He had a couple of shirts sitting around at the back of his wardrobe with wine and or grass stains that wouldn't budge no matter what he or anyone else did to them.

L'thor chuckled and shook his head. "I fear I must disappoint her; I am quite the quintessential male green rider, and as such have no interest in females of any kind. I'd be much more likely to conspire with her than anything else." What could be more fun than flirting after all? Especially with bronze riders; it did unsettle some of them so, and he loved to antagonize. Chuckling again, L'thor pulled his shirt back on and stood up briefly to tuck it into his britches.

"You are a terrible tease" Raith informed him, "and very much like Mirdoth in some ways. You can't seem to get enough of men either."

L'thor smirked. "What can I say? I know how to have fun. I couldn't imagine living like you do and only getting a male a few times a turn." Shaking his head slightly as he rearranged his sleeves, they had been sticking uncomfortably to his damp arms, he turned back to Jevasi. "My dragon has just accused me of being like yours; I must say I find myself quite flattered... Is that stuff doing anything at all other than make your hands and shirt reek like a week-dead fish?"

As he finished speaking, a cheerful squeak cut through the air and a small blue flit landed on L'thor's shoulder before shaking itself free of water. L'thor grimaced at the sudden soggy presence but reached up to stroke the firelizard's head in any case. "This is River," he explained, "if you have any small objects on your person I advise you to watch them closely, especially if they're shiny. He's notorious for stealing things like that and then hiding them around my weyr. I'd swear by the first egg hardly a sevenday goes by that I don't have to return something he'd repossessed."

River, immune of the tone of amused rebuke in L'thor's voice, crooned happily at the attention he was receiving and turned interested green-blue eyes onto Jevasi.

River cheeped happily at the strange behavior and turned his head on one side to study the woman from a different angle. L'thor grinned and tickled the little flit, shaking his head at Jevasi. "You need to watch out for traders," he told her with a slightly evil chuckle, "they're a slippery bunch, and I should know; used to be one before I was Searched. Can't say we ever sold anything quite as malodorous as that gunk though. We did sucker people into spending more than they'd meant to and buying things they hadn't been looking for though. My uncle could sell water to a drowning man if he put his mind to it."

He'd really have to make and effort to meet them at a gather sometime soon. He'd sent notes to his family on and off over the turns but he hadn't actually seen any of them for more than four tuns now. There was only so much news you could pass on in the space you had on a slate that a flit could carry.

"Still," L'thor peered closer at the 'miracle soap' for a moment before grinning over at his companion again, "look on the bright side. You can sell it on to somebody else as... Oh, I don't know; call it a special insect repellent, or perhaps say that applied to the body in very small doses it makes you instantly ten times more sexually attractive. That last one might work well actually; some people will do anything to improve their chances of finding a bedmate."

L'thor took the pot with an evil grin, and a devious chuckle; this was going to be wonderful fun. "I'll wager I can get... maybe two marks for it if I really push it? Have to work on my patter of course, but when I do sell it on I'll let you know and pass on half of whatever I make; get you back some of what you spent on the awful stuff..."

Hold on. What it looks like? Err... L'thor looked around with a slight frown on his face. "Well, yes, you wouldn't want that wherry squawking on at you," he said as he tried to work out what she was talking about. The sun? He squinted up at it thoughtfully. Possibly the sun but... he wasn't going to make suggestions and look like a fool if she hadn't meant that. May as well just ask.

"Wondered what what looks like?" he asked of his companion eventually with a bemused tilt of his head.

L'thor shielded his eyes and continued to gaze upward. Thread. Humm. "Yes," he said with a slight shrug, "I've been told what other people have be told by other people who told them what it looks like but... Well, I imagine words passed down through the generations, or even words put down in the records don't really cover it. We'll find out soon enough what it's really like I suppose," he said Meridoth's shadow passed overhead. She was quite a lovely green, he considered as he watched the deep green shape carefully. She was nothing on his Raith of course, but everybody felt that way about their own dragon.

"Should I come down?" Raith asked him sleepily. "I can come down if you'd like."

L'thor smiled and gave a slight nod. "Yes, that would be nice, but don't rush yourself."

"I shall join you in a little while then," the green replied affably, and L'thor became aware of her rousing herself a little and beginning to stretch luxuriantly.