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 Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2010 2:20 pm
Tasha brushed back some of the loose strands of her braid as she struggled to withhold a yawn, she had been up most of the previous night with two heardbeast who were near birthing time and had been brought within the safety of the barn for reasons of concern, Not only had both went into labor at the same time but there had been complications with both. In otherwords a long night, and it hadn't ended there, most of the day she had been assisting in building wherry proof fencing along the edge of the outer most fields resulting in a very put out Tashsk as they had been working around some of the dragons out there that hadn't minded putting in their assistance which had rendered his skills secondary.
However she had overdone it when assuring him that he was just as good as any dragon leading him to feel the need to fill in the gaps and explain just why that was. "...And another thing, their to big to even come into the village houses how can they even help with day to day tasks? Even in the farmers fields they squash all the crops. i don't even know why we have dragons, they aren't good for anything." he snorted before Tasha interrupted "They are here to fight thread you know that. Father says that he's sure it will come back soon and we can't rely on any of the other Weyrs around here to support us. Not with the way they pamper their dragons. " It was strange but as she said it the comment didn't cross her mind as an insult just the truth. It was how she was raised after all. Riders at other weyr's had it easy, impressing a dragon seemed to be a license to do nothing but demand food and tithe from the holds yet she knew some Riders at Ghanza and they all struck her as good and honest working folk. She had every Confidence that they would protect them from thread when the time came.
What did worry her, as it had been concerning other people in the community was that the new dragons from High reachers would pollute their dragons, less intelligent and smaller they said although she had not had a chance to see this for herself. Seems Tashsk it seemed had been listening in on the open channel as it were and cut in on her thoughts with a snort "I'm certainty better than them!" He told her holding his head high.
Tasha smiled and curled her arms round his neck and kissed his eyeridge. "Yes you are, so stop bothering about it. And don't listen in on my thoughts!" she added scoldingly, leaving Tashsk hovering between a strut of pride and a hang dog look of displeasure at being told off. The beast crafter simply smiled and shook her head. For once she was walking rather than riding him since it was getting towards the end of the day and they were at last heading home so were in no particular hurry, and sometimes it was just nice to walk. The gathering of houses seemed quite empty as well.
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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 7:16 am
It had been another long day. Up early to finish and order of good tough clothes for a farmer's rapidly growing twin sons, and then off to buy in more cloth, thread and so on from the weavers. It was quite a step still to his own house, but for once Alexius wasn't hurrying back with the intention of doing more work. At the moment, he had a lot to think about.
Outsiders.
Whose bright idea had that been? Why the sudden contact with the soft, lazy, and probably tainted people of High Reaches Weyr? More to the point, why let their weak little riders with their weak little dragons come here after the plague had been confirmed at their Weyr? It seemed that none of the riders, or other hangers on who had come, were ill but it had been a big risk to take. They could yet prove to be tainted. There must have been a reason, but Alexius was not privy to it, and as such finding it hard to wrap his head around the situation.
"Who cares?" Alexisk demanded inside his mind. "We'll just keep away from them, and in the end they'll be made to go away again. Just keep away from them and they can't give you their sickness."
"Mmmh, yes," Alexius sighed and glanced up to where his hyperactive partner was turning loops in the sky, "I'm not planning to go up and hug any of them you know." He'd passed some of them working in one of the fields; they didn't look ill, but they did look pathetic next to the workers of Ghenza. Of course, he would look pathetic next to them as well, but he was useful in other ways, he was a crafter. Those weaklings in the fields were there because they had no craft, because they had no other way of earning their keep. Pathetic.
"Oooh! LexMine look over there, is that Tasha and Tashsk?" It was still bright so she had her first two sets of eyelids closed, making her vision poor, but the shapes were right to be them and... She sniffed at the wind; yes! "Yes, it's them, can we go and say hello please? Pleeease?"
Alexius snorted and nodded to the plea. "Alright, where are they then?... Ah, yes, I see." Two shapes, still quite distant, too distant for him to be sure of their identity but he trusted Ali's nose. "Go on ahead then," he instructed, "I'll catch you up."
"Yay!" Giving a cheerful bugle, the green wher shot forward towards the brown and his handler. "Hello Tashsk, and hello to your Tasha!" she called as she drew near and angled her wings downward. "LexMine is just coming as well, how are both of you today? Isn't it a pretty evening?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 7:44 am
Of course Tashsk caught the scent of the green wher before Tasha caught sight of her, of course that might have something to do with the fact that she generally didn't walk along with her eyes pointed skyward. The browns nose was more trustworthy than her brown eyes at any distance anyway. Her version had never been anything special after all. "Tash, we have a visitor." He warned her with a dismissive snort. He clearly did not approve of the hyperactive green in the slightest. She was far to carefree in his option.
"Oh?" His handler quickly looked around trying to spot the aforementioned Wher, only looking up after Tashsk prodded his snout skyward. Leading Tasha to look up just in time to see the green plummeting towards them, reaching up and offering a reserved smile and a wave. "good Evening Alexisk." she greeted the green warmly, after all she had a certain affection for all Whers, not just her own.
Which did not impressed the large brown who made a point of placing himself between Alexisk and his handler as she landed. His greeting coming out as they did most of the time, as a scathing comment. "What's this Alexisk, your an assistant wher yet your not even walking next to your handler?" he snorted and lifted his head, what a poor show, he was clearly far more loyal and well trained, he would never come barreling over like a new hatchling to greet anyone apart from his handler. He would tell her how ashamed she should be of herself, but what did he expect from other whers?
Tasha rolled her eyes and stepped forward to give the green a friendly scratch across her crest which got a grumbled sound of displeasure from Tashsk, although he would never presume to stop her. "Looks like you and Lex have finished your work for the day as well" she commented looking up to see the older Tailor approaching. Bobbing her head in a small visual greeting. "Good Evening Lex." she paused taking in the mans expression and the way he walked which seemed to suggest that his muscles were a little tighter than usual. "Are you okay?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 7:58 am
Egh! Tashsk could be so grumpy! Silly thing, he really needed to cheer up a bit! "I know Mine well enough to know when he needs me beside him, and when he doesn't," the green responded cheerfully, sharing her words with the brown, his handler, and her own. "After eighteen turns, I know my job well enough!" She'd die of boredom if she had to plod along at human walking pace all the time. Where was the fun in just walking when you could run or fly?
He hadn't caught the brown's comment to Ali, but her response made it clear enough that the other wher thought he shouldn't be allowed to so much as scratch his arse without Ali's intervention. And then Tasha had to ask him if he was alright. Egh. What, did the whole world think he was an invalid today?... Though he had to admit to being tense of the whole situation with the outsiders, maybe that was what she'd noticed. As a beastcrafter, she was good at body language.
"I'm fine," he responded eventually with a slight shrug, "just... Mmmh, I'm just not too pleased about these people come in from High Reaches. What about you, been made to take any of them in?" He had managed to avoid that so far, but some of the people who had taken on 'guests' were looking to shift them out as soon as possible. He might not be able to dodge it forever.
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Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 5:52 am
Sighed, it could be claimed she merely reaped what she sowed when it came to Tashsk's attitude, after all she had still been in the first stages of her training when she had received his egg and from the moment of his hatching she had been hard on him. Misbehaviour was not something to be tolerated. In hindsight a little more freedom would have been no bad thing, so now as he had grown older and she had learned to allow him more headway he didn't really want it. "Tashsk." She warned softly as the brown was once again subtly trying to curl around her front and block the other pair from getting to close. "One of a hundred years with an attitude like that she's bound to let down her handler." he muttered for all to hear. Although this time at least his voice was more subdued due to the scolding.
Tasha considered making him apologise but when there would never be even a hint of sincerity in it was there even any point? Instead she lay a hand flat across his head, a signal that he should keep his thoughts to himself for now and turned her attention back to Lex. Tashsk seeming content to keep fairly quiet for now since he was in a spot he could glare menacingly at the green while protecting his handler.
"No, luckily we haven't so far, it takes some craft knowledge, even if it isn't much to deal with beasts. They can be too unpredictable and since my family's farms are all animal farms we've managed to avoid it. But all the grain farmers I heard have been forced to take some. " she shook her head woefully "I Can't help but worry, my father is sick and yet this bring in people from somewhere there has been a reported case of another possible outbreak! Even if it isn't the plague someone was certainty sick and now they want tp come and spread it to everyone here? And have you seen the size of their dragons? I thought they were hatchling.But so arrogant they don't even speak to anyone outside their group, not even to thank them" She shook her head. "I have no idea what is going through the heads of the people that let them in here. It's just creating more worry and anxiety than needed." At last pausing to take a breath, well that had come out more violently than she had intended. "sorry to dump all that on you suddenly lex." she told him "I gues its been building up in my mind ever since I heard about it."
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Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 6:22 am
Alexius shrugged slightly as Ali padded over to him and bumped her head affectionately against his hip. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure we're all on edge at the minute." He sort of wanted somebody to moan with, petty though that might be, so for once he would listen to another person's woes without giving them the brush off... So long as the problems she spoke of remained mostly focused around the outsiders in any case, if she was going to start wailing about her lovelife or anything else utterly unconnected he really didn't want to hear it.
"Little brats," he scoffed, "and the size of their queen especially. Just looking at her size I'd have taken her for a little bronze frankly. I can't understand why their Weyr allows dragons to be that way... Although," he sneered very slightly, "maybe their terrible memories have something to do with it. Give them a sevenday away from something, and they forget it exists, quite sad really. Their riders are sharding lazy as well, I hear they arrived expecting to be waited on hand and foot. I wouldn't like to live at High Reaches, and not just for their taint; seems if you're not a rider there, you're not worth anything at all. Especially if you're a wher," he added, his usually cool voice acquiring the faintest hint of a growl. How dare they look down on his partner, how dare they think their puny, small-minded, lazy, weak dragons were better than she was?
"Anyway, as for their sickness," he shrugged, "I'll try to avoid it, and I suggest you try the same." It was probably best for all concerned that he didn't address the matter of Tasha's father, he'd just come off as uncaring and thus lose the chance to talk. "I'm just going to keep away from them as much as I can. If they've a tailor who's looking for a place to stay, they can look somewhere else. I'll not have a tainted lazy stranger living under my roof."
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Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 7:01 am
Nodded in agreement to all that Lex was saying, really part of mind new that it was wrong and maybe even unfair to gossip like this about others. But she was also part of Ghenza and the rest of her shouted over it, these were outsiders, the usual rules of consideration need not apply. After all they certainty seemed to have none when it came to the community they had so rudely thrust themselves upon. Frankly she was surprised by Lex as well. They had not usually exchanged more than few words in the past and that had been about work. Since he held a work ethic she admired and understood it was the easiest talking point.
Whoa. Suddenly her mind slammed on the breaks and reversed, what had he just said? They looked down on Whers? Her dark eyes narrowed dangerously at the very thought. "What? I....well thats just ridiculous, some of the dragons here might be a bit uppity now and then but all the Riders respect us Handlers, as we respect them. Our whers help us in our jobs and have important duties. How can they say that when their dragons do nothing but even outsider whers have jobs they preform every day." she let out a huff surprisingly similar to a whers huff and cross her arms repeating the phrase "that's ridiculous."
Tashsk had also been roused by his handlers ire let out a long hiss, he didn't like dragons really in the first place, so to hear that dragons had come in (the smallest no bigger than him) had come in and were looking down on him was really to much, suddenly his view on Alexisk was greatly improved with new affection when looking at outsiders. At least she was useful. Less empty headed and forgetful than these dragons.
Tasha had also gone silent for a few moments as she considered this, really it was the last straw. "I have no intention of going anywhere near them but I will speak to the wher union and see if we can get a meeting with Nalina. She might be able to explain why they are here to us." She pointed out. If anyone should know the gold rider that brought them here would. She took in a deep breath and forced herself to relax a little, letting her shoulders drop. "Lex, on something more pleasant would you like to come back with me for some Klah? If you wouldn't mind I would like to speak to you about a more pleasant subject as well. My brothers lifemate is expecting and we need to get a few repairs on on my old baby clothes, mother would do it but her hands aren't steady enough anymore and of course she doesn't have your skill."
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Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 7:41 am
Alexius made a small disapproving noise in the back of his throat and nodded. "Yes, Alexisk heard a couple of them talking in the fields earlier on. They were wondering why we had so many whers around, given that they're just ugly, stupid, malformed dragons." If he were a less restrained man, he would have hunted them down and kicked the crap out of them or at least given them a severe dressing down. It had taken nearly a candlemark to persuade Ali that she wasn't any of those things.
"Still though, they're idiots," he shrugged slightly, "can't expect them to know anything about anything. Some of them spend turns and turns just sitting around hoping that a dragon will pick them, not bothering to even learn any useful skills at the same time. Probably best that we ignore what they have to say about us and ours, a little while watching how things work around here will show them what fools they've been to talk about whers like that." If it was his choice, he'd have them all packed off back where they came from right away. Cretins. "It would be nice to know why they're being tolerated, if you can find out." He hoped it was a really sharding good reason.
"Still, klah," he nodded, "that sounds appealing, and I'd be happy to do any repairs you need." A nice simple repair job or two to keep his hands busy but that didn't tax his tired brain too heavily sounded very good indeed.
"Oooh, yes!" Alexisk gave a happy rumble. "I like it when we go to other people's houses," she explained, "I like seeing how things are different to our house, and other houses always smell so interesting too!" And plus it meant more company! Lex would always be her number one of course, but she loved being around other people too!
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Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 9:45 am
"ahhh well that settles it then" Tasha said simply and smiled. Of course she thought that Lex knew the way to most homes in the area as his job often relied on pick up and delivery of goods but never the less she took the lead. It wasn't far now and she was happy to conduct the rest of the trip in comfortable silence. A hand placed gently on Tashsk's elegant neck as he walked beside her, so close he would brush against her hip regularly and risked tripping her over on several occasions. Luckily Tasha was used to his constant prsense by now and was able to avoid it was no small amount of skill.
At last they reached her home, it was one of the larger ones in the area built for a good sized family to inhabit and resting on the outskirts of the huddled buildings the light that spread from the slim windows was warm and inviting and the smell of Klah hung heavy by the door and windows where a draft was able to steal its scent beyond the walls. Purshing open the door she held out a hand to invite Lex within. "Mother I'm home." she called, knowing that her parents would most likly be occupying the bedroom, as her father was finding it harder to stay awake for long periods and his mother rarely left his side. Sure enough a well rounded women with slim hands and a tired smiled walked out from the bedroom. "oh, you brought company you should have told me." she scolded her daughter who nodded "Yes, yes, but Lex is here to fix those baby clothes you wanted." she informed her, resulting in a brighter look from her mother "Ahhh well then, good evening Lex, I'll go and get the box." she told them and vaished from sight.
Tasha sighed and motioned to the table that centered the room. "please take a seat." she told the tailor, the room they were currently in acted as kitchen, dinning room and seating area and took up the majority of the houses space, althrough at first glance the furniture seemed to be laid out rather oddly, bunched to one side of the space and away from the wall the reason soon became obvious as Tashsk slipped himself into the gap. Tasha meanwhile walking to the pot over the glowing fire emebers and pouring Klah into a pair of mugs, still hot and perfect for the cool evening. She set them both down on the table before seating herself and smiled. "well now, sorry about that, I havn't managed to get away from under my mothers skirts quite yet as you can see." she told him but she wasn't really ashamed of that, they needed her now more than she needed them.
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Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 3:17 am
Alexius nodded to the older woman as she appeared out of the bedroom, no other response seemed to be needed of him right away. It was a nice enough place, large and more... more lived in than his home? Mmmh, not quite the phrase he wanted, but something like that. Warmer, maybe, not physically though. It was full of people, that was the thing.
"I like it here," Alexisk crooned, looking around with happy blue eyes. "You have a very nice home Tashsk," she added to the other wher, "it's lots bigger than mine, but I suppose that's because more people live here." Part of her quite liked the idea of having lots of other people around all the time... but they would demand Lex's attention, she liked having him to herself in the evening.
"Thank you," Alexius smiled faintly at Tasha and sank into the indicated seat, accepting the hot klah gratefully, "just what I needed, and don't concern yourself," he shrugged slightly, "however you choose to live is fine. I like privacy myself... but I can see the appeal of having family around." He did go and see his parents of course, they ate together at least once a sevenday, but he couldn't imagine living with them anymore.
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