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 Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 10:08 pm
She was sitting on the ledge at the very top of the weyr, the point where the dragons launche off to fly. Beka had spent most of her afternoon here, and would probably spend the rest of it here as well. At least until they had called for dinner, or about that time.
Those green eyes of hers had already seen many dragons take off for the day. Carrying messages or whatnot all over the place. Every single time another dragon took off, her heart swelled with pride. She was proud of the dragon riders, and hoped to one day be one as well.
No, she didn't hope. Beka knew that one day she'd have her own dragon, and fly amongst the skies with him. Those green eyes closed as she took a deep breath and swung her legs into the air. Her hair was in it's normal sort of braid, and hung over her left shoulder.
She heard foot steps coming up behind her, and the girl turned to see who it was.
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 10:52 pm
It wasn't that Weylin hated heights, because he didn't. But he wasn't a huge fan of climbing to drastic elevations to see why everyone in the Lower Caverns was making a fuss about 'the person up on the ledge'. He was lucky, he supposed, that this person hadn't been 'out in the forest' or 'down by the Hatching Sands', but he was certainly extremely unlucky to have been the only one of the Lower Caverns staff on-hand who was brave (and manly) enough to scale to the ledge for one sharding person who apparently hadn't moved from the place all day.
Shard his fardling hypermasculinity complex.
He was beginning to wonder if it was a rider whose dragon was playing a rather nasty joke on them, or if it was because whoever-it-was had gotten themselves stuck. He was beginning to bet on the latter; after all, he wasn't entirely certain how he was going to get down. Though Speckle, riding with claws digging straight through Weylin's (perfectly good in spite of its total lack of fashion, thankyouverymuch) tunic and into his shoulders, did project a fair willingness to help him out however he could. So maybe he'd be able to figure something out. Or ask a dragonrider for help.
Finally pulling himself onto the ledge, panting quietly and scuffed up on the arms and stomach, where his tunic had briefly pulled up, he sat for a moment before standing up, crossing his arms over his chest, and walking over to the girl. She was a girl. His initial lecture stopped completely, and he frowned and re-composed himself before speaking to her.
"We have a bet going down at the bottom of the cliff. I have nearly a full mark riding on your dragon abandoning you as a cruel joke. What're you actually doing up here?" he asked, looking her over. Ah, yes. Another of Ista's boyish women. So that'd probably make her a Candidate, not a dragonrider, and the odds were good that she wasn't a lesbian. Because all that would just make too much sense.
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 11:06 pm
Beka turned to the voice, and lifted an eyebrow straight at the male who approached her. Those emerald orbs didn't move, though her feet kept on swinging. A smile appeared on her lips as she heard what he had to say and she chuckled.
"I'm sorry to have lost you a mark then, as I have no dragon. I merely... watching the dragons fly and leap from the heights, its a passion of mine. I like to study the muscles and see how different dragons take off."
She was being 100% honest with him. Those eyes became a little wide as she realized he may have been sent up to drag her down to do chores. The tall girl sat a little taller, perfect to be honest. The red head was not to be dragged down from her spot until she was perfectly ready to do so!
"I did my chores and helped out before I came up. I'm not supposed to help with dinner or dishes, or anything of the sort. I can be up here if I want... right?"
Her voice was carefree, and light. She enjoyed being up in the heights, enjoyed the sun light and the wind. It was here she felt closest to being dragon back, which had only happened to her a handful of times.
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Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 5:20 pm
The lifted eyebrow earned nothing but one lifted in return on Weylin's end, and he didn't move a muscle as he listened to her explanation. Speckle, no longer frightened of falling, loosened his death grip on Weylin's trapezius muscle and shifted to sit on just one of the boy's shoulders, regarding Beka with bright green eyes.
So this girl...climbed all the way up here...to look at dragons. Did it occur to her that she could see the same thing from the ground, where normal, sane people elected to stay and watch them? It wasn't technically a rule that the ledges were exclusively for dragons and riders, but it was one of those things that wasn't a rule because nobody assumed it needed to be. It was like "don't touch the eggs when they're soft" or "don't poke a sleeping Gold in the eye": common sense that oughtn't need to be spelled out.
...then again...she was extremely pale, and her voice was rather airy and...he frowned slightly. Perhaps she had climbed up here and gotten lightheaded and wasn't thinking clearly? Perhaps she was ill and had come up here in a fever-hallucination? It was possible; isolated cases of the flu that had knocked out Candidates last Hatching were still cropping up.
If she wasn't feeling well, it was his responsibility to ensure she got down safely. "...are you all right?" he asked, all traces of sarcasm gone from a voice that was surprisingly gentle.
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Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 12:38 am
He asked her if she was all right? Really? Beka threw her head back and laughed. That braid of hers bounced around for a moment, as it was clear she didn't have a fear of heights in the least bit from her movement. There was a slight blush on her pale face, but it was from his question and nothing else. A good natured grin had appeared on that pale face of hers.
"I am... perfectly alright. I love it up here."
Granted, she had never seen anyone come up here, but the urge to had been so random it had turned from a want to a need. There was a sparkle in those green eyes as she turned. Another dragon had come to launch himself from the drastic heights. This one was a blue, a decent size for it's color.
Her head turned left, and a hand reached down to grasp the rocks around her. The other was held out to where he was. They didn't have much time, and thus Beka didn't say anything. Besides the obvious need that he would have to hold on to something or someone when those wings went to work. They were well to the right of the dragon, but the wind would tunnel decently their way. The rock to her back blocked a decent amount, but there was always some.
Whether he chose to clutch at the rock around him, or grasp her hand was up to him. The female knew how much pressure would be coming their way and was prepared. If he grasped her hand, he would find it to be warm, reassuring, and strong for a girl. The blue would take off, and the wind would hit them, letting her red braid try to fly in the air as well.
The moment this happened, those green eyes were locked right on the dragon, watching the way the muscles and wings moved. She looked like a kid staring at an adoring parent, or a hero.
"This is the closest I can get to being dragon back. Sometimes if I close my eyes in the sun, up here where the wind feels the same as it does when you're flying. I may not have a dragon yet," There was no mistaking what she meant there. Yet. As in she would have a dragon one day," but I dream about the wind, the feeling, the view... and I had to get as close as possible."
At this point, the wind would have died down enough for her to let go of his hand, still smiling. The sparkle had never left her green eyes, and she had to wonder if he would understand now...
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Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 2:25 pm
When Beka threw her head back, Weylin watched her, expression still one of mild concern. He hadn't thought he had said anything to merit any sort of great laughter, and well...he was becoming more and more convinced that she was a late case of fever. He had noticed the Blue stirring long before the dragon made any move to take off, and was ready when he finally did leave. Bracing himself for the slight backdraft, Weylin leaned ever-so-slightly against the cliff wall, not bothering to take Beka's hand. Even ill, the wind of a pair of wings opening couldn't do much to anyone sitting down. And it wasn't like there would be more wind than that. Flapping was unnecessary for the dragon. Weylin knew dragons well enough to know they fell into flight from heights this great.
But then, taking a look around, his exact placement on the cliff wall hit him, and he frowned more than a little bit when he realized exactly where they were standing. They were on a weyr ledge, which he had been aware of, and they were...oh Faranth. Clearly this girl was ill...no sane human being would be fussing about on a ledge near the weyr of this particular pair of greenriders. "...you know..." he said thoughtfully, "it's a wonder you're still up here. The dragonriders in this particular weyr are..." he grimaced slightly. "Territorial."
"Are you sure you're all right?" he asked with a frown. Her eyes...he shook his head. They were bright, nearly unnaturally so...and she was so pale. Yes, clearly this girl needed to be taken to the healers as soon as possible. Preferably before either of the, er, 'charming' greenriders realized their weyr had acquired two Candidate trespassers.
Wait, what was that? Oh, babbling about her definite future as a dragonman...woman. Rider. Dragonrider. That one was excusable on the grounds that every straight female Candidate ever brought to the Weyr was convinced they would Impress the Queen in the first clutch at which they stood and become the greatest rider of them all. That wasn't sign of illness...if anything, it was a sign that she may not be as sick as he had thought.
In which case her behaviour was...just bizarre.
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Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 2:18 am
Beka dreamed of a Gold, just as any other girl did, but the thing was... she wanted a dragon. If fate gifted her with a green, then she would be more than happy. The color didn't matter, just having a dragon did. She would be a rider, and that was that.
"I know. I've lived here my entire life."
Yes, there were some interesting sorts of riders and what not. She hadn't interacted with them all, not all the young ones. Mostly Beka had been around the older pairs of dragons. She didn't know that she was one the ledge of a certain pair of dragons or what not. This was just a spot she liked, that she had been too a few times before. Beka was weird, she enjoyed odd things and took pleasure in it.
"If it'll make you feel better though, I'll come down."
Now she seemed slightly concerned. If she was troubling him by being up here? Well, Beka didn't like to make anyone upset. No, instead she loved to see them smile. Without another word she popped up, straight on her feet without a care about how she could have tumbled over the edge of the ledge.
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Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:01 pm
Her thought process would have bewildered Weylin, nothing moreso than the concept of 'gods'. After all, Pern's lack of religion would have made such thoughts difficult to manage. So perhaps it was a good thing Weylin couldn't read minds. And it was also a good thing that he couldn't read Beka's thoughts, because if he had known that she came up there frequently, his thoughts on the subject would have destroyed his pity for the girl entirely.
He would have thought that anyone willing to spend time frequently on C'ren and F'sey's weyr ledge wasn't sick, just stupid. "I don't honestly care what you do," he said, "except that I'd really prefer that I not get caught in the crossfire when C'ren or F'sey catches you out here." He gave a brief shrug and reached out to grab Beka when she jumped up. "Idiot!" he snapped in spite of himself, impeccable manners giving way to his inner thoughts in his surprise.
"Don't do, that!" he snapped, scowling at the girl. "If you wanna fall and break your neck when I'm not around, that's fine, but scorch it, I'm not getting hauled in front of the Weyrleaders under accusations of having pushed you."
Speckle, who had been sitting quietly, was beginning to catch his owner's feelings. Sticking his head out to better regard the girl, he chittered in an echo to Weylin's distress and flared his wings.
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:46 pm
((Ack, reading too many books at once @___@ <3 Got some stuff mixed up XDD <3 Sorry!))
She didn't know what to do or how to react to how he was speaking to her. It hurt her a bit, even though she barely knew him. It was just who she was. So she just laughed and rubbed the back of her head, a huge grin spread across her face.
"Sorry!! I'm sure they wouldn't, everyone knows I'm always running around in places like this. They'd just say I'd finally got what I was asking for!"
She said it in a teasing manner, but Beka was even hurting herself inside as she did so. The red head loved to make other people laugh, to the point where she would even make fun of herself if it came down to it. This was one of those times.
Beka began the slow climb down from where they were. It would involve scraping several spots on her arms, tummy, and legs. But they would get down safely none the less.
"So why did they send you to get me?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 9:30 pm
“…If C’ren and F’sey knew, you would not always be running around up here. F’sey is Weyrlingmaster. If you think you’re going to Impress and want a chance at all to be half-decent at what you do, you will avoid angering him or C’ren. I’m not telling you this to upset you. I’m telling you this because it’s one of those unspoken rules.” Weylin had managed to get himself under control again, but his expression suggested that any concern he might have had for the girl was gone. He was floored; there were a plethora of unspoken rules and protocol for Candidates, but in his experience anyone who’d been around for more than a few sevendays picked them up.
Perhaps some people were just slow learners. At least she was climbing down now, though. Grumbling, Weylin whistled at Speckle, who unwound from his shoulders and surveyed the cliff face. A quick chirping call and an image gave Weylin the bearings he needed, and he started down slowly and carefully. And it turned out to be exactly as he had feared. Yep, going down was definitely harder than coming up.
At Beka’s question, Weylin glanced at her only briefly before shrugging. “If you were stuck up there, someone needed to get you down. If you fell, well, we’d be one less Candidate, but it’d be sharding messy and nobody wants to have to deal with that.”
It wasn’t a joke, but the deadpan way in which he delivered the words meant it could be taken in either direction.
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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 11:20 pm
She wasn't going to get him to smile or laugh, was she? And no one had told her not to go up there. Others had seen her there from time to time; if it was so 'bad' why hadn't anyone told her? She had just wanted to see the dragons fly. Just wanted...
But that didn't matter did it? People had probably done it because they didn't care what happened to her. That was fine, they didn't have to care. She just smiled as they made their way down, not another word spoken from her lips. He was speaking as if it was all so troublesome, getting her down. Talking about the mess she would make if she fell, as if that was all he cared about. But why would he care about anything else?
When they reached the bottom, she just kept up the smile, acting like nothing was wrong. No one ever knew of anything other than smiling Beka anyway. She ran her hand through her bangs and relaxed her shoulders out of habit.
"Well thanks. Glad I didn't leave a mess for you to clean up and all!"
She truly was smiling at him, with all her heart. So nothing would be betrayed of the sting she felt inside. She tilted her head slightly to the side, those green eyes staring at him for a moment longer. Beka had to come up with a reason for her to be alone. Chores were always a good way to be alone. Behind a pile of dishes with a mountain of dishes in front of her was a very good way to be alone in a crowd.
"Did they say I had any more chores to do or something?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:27 am
At the moment, Weylin was not in a humourous mood. He wasn't outright angry, though he was perplexed about the entire situation. Oh well. It wasn't his job to understand people. Just to watch the children, who were oftentimes, in his experience, about a thousand times less obnoxious and bizarre to handle than the Candidates. But that was just how things went. People were occasionally odd and did odd things.
Stepping onto the ground and grimacing at the top of the cliff, he idly rubbed at one scratched forearm and looked over at Beka. "Nothing to thank me for, and I'm glad too," he answered, inclining his head and giving her the barest glimmer of a smile to indicate that he wasn't entirely furious with her. On the plus side, she hadn't mistaken him for a girl.
On the minus side...everything else.
"Just...let someone know before you go up there or something, people get nervous when they see things that aren't part of the routine and don't know why they're happening. 'S'always a good idea for someone in the Weyr to know where you are, anyways." Accidents happened, and Weylin wasn't above giving helpful advice. Sometimes.
"And...if you start feeling unwell, I'd seriously suggest you go to the Infirmary. Illness is still spreading. Enjoy the rest of your day."
He shrugged and then turned, heading off.
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