Perhaps it was only a bit past sunrise, but such was the life of a weyrling, apparently. The whines, nudges, and noisy bumbling around of an itchy, hungry, itchy, and mostly itchy dragonet didn't take long to wake even the soundest sleeper, and La was half-disoriented as she and Isonth made their way out of the weyrling barracks into the already-warming day. finding someplace in the path of the rising sun to settle, La sank tailor-style on the ground, and Isonth flopped down significantly less gracefully in front of her. Shaking her head with a slight smile, La unstoppered the small bottle of oil she had been given and got to work on Isonth's itchy hide.
Isonth was hungry, but the itching was certainly the first order of business, and as her rider began to work the oil into her skin, she flopped over on her side and crooned happily, limbs akimbo and making a general mess of her usually graceful body shape. Twisting to put her head in La's lap as she did this, La couldn't help but laugh. She had, on occasion, briefly tamed one of the Weyr's canines with a piece of jerky, and Isonth's behaviour reminded her of some of the friendlier ones.
Lanakirene, you are getting distracted and I am still itchy, Isonth informed, her twisting again and pushing her shoulders up into La's palm. Laughing softly, La continued oiling her dragon, paying the most particular attention to the itchiest spots but making certain Isonth's hide got the proper attention tip to tail. It was a lot of work, but it was relaxing and loosened muscles that were tense from two days of significantly less sleep than she was used to. Her elbows began to ache.
Isonth, on the other hand, luxuriated in the attention, humming her happiness and constantly shifting to bring some new body part into La's attention. Her pleasure was broadcast to the world, and La found it echoing back from her own head. Isonth, in turn, echoed it back, and soon the pair of them were mirroring and intensifying the happiness into something nearly trancelike, filling themselves with warm, happy feelings.
No matter what else La thought about life as a weyrling (and it was more grueling than she had predicted, though not by much), moments like these made it worth the effort.
