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 Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 8:53 am
Today was becoming another one of 'those' days.
As usual, the morning dawned hot and early, meeting the dragon and rider pair as they went through the motions of the now familiar morning feeding ritual. The rider, Gh'lan, was not smiling for once... though the brown weyrling at his side certainly was. Khunoth, after all, had known exactly where his teeth were going, and had moved his head to avoid being splattered with blood when he severed the thoracic artery of his prey. Though he had 'forgotten' to inform his rider of his intentions.
That was a good wherry.
The brown remarked cheerfully, shaking his head and grinning draconically at his rider. Since the easy-going tone was seldom used by the brown, Gh'lan took it as being a round-about apology, since he was quite certain Khunoth didn't have a genuinely cheerful bone in his body. Likewise, Gh'lan was loathe to accept such ingenuousness. He was covered in blood after all.
"I thought it was second rate myself." The former starsmith replied blithely, surveying the remains of the rather large wherry-buck. Were he being honest, it had been a rather nice animal, but he wasn't in the mood to play to his dragon's fancies.
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Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 9:45 am
E'rik had been woken, for once, by his dragon. Usually it was the other way around, but Daramulath was far too excited about being allowed to hunt today. The crowding in the Weyr had reached the point where dragons were not allowed to simply hunt whenever they were hungry. Weyrlings were allowed to hunt more frequently than full-grown dragons, but Daramulath had still been feeling hunger pangs for the last day or so. Thus, E'rik was required to be up early.
E'rik didn't particularly enjoy watching his dragon feed. The hunting part didn't particularly bother him. In fact, he liked to see Dara stretching his wings, growing stronger in flight every day, though he wasn't particularly good at it. It even made him proud to see the large brown taking down his quarry with fierce precision. That was his dragon, so powerful and mighty. It made him feel better about the long hours he forced his dragon to keep so that he could indulge his desire to continue practicing his music. When Dara was younger, especially, E'rik had worried that the dragonet's development would be harmed by the long hours, but the pair had been fortunate, and Dara was unaffected.
No. The difficulty for E'rik came in watching Daramulath go savagely at his captured prey, tearing it into bite-sized pieces and gulping them down with gusto. Blood speckled his muzzle and ran down his jaw as he cracked the wherry's bones to suck out the marrow. E'rik perched on a rock a safe distance away to avoid any arterial spray or bits of bone and brain matter that may have been flung through the air with his dragon's heedless enthusiasm. He looked through his dragon, making himself see things that were not there, rather than the brutality of his dragon's feeding.
When Daramulath had finished E'rik suggested the large brown might like to bathe in the lake. Dara always enjoyed playing in the water, and it meant E'rik wouldn't have to look at the crusted blood on his dragon's muzzle for too much longer. He knew and accepted that Dara was carnivorous, but that didn't mean he had to enjoy watching wherries being eviscerated.
I see Khunoth ahead. I would like to talk to him. Do you mind? Daramulath was already in the air, ready to fly awkwardly across the feeding grounds after receiving his bond's go-ahead. He was impatient for their lessons to cover flight.
E'rik nodded and watched the brown weyrling wobble toward Khunoth and Gh'lan. For his part, E'rik doubted Daramulath could sneak up on the pair, but he thought it might be polite to give some warning before the dragon descended on them, possibly startling his brown clutchmate. E'rik had no doubt that Khunoth would be displeased by a surprise like that, and he didn't want to be the cause of any altercation between the dragons.
"Gh'lan," he called. "Khunoth. Good morning."
He was not at a good angle to see the blood which splattered Gh'lan's clothing, but as he drew nearer it became apparent. He grimaced sympathetically.
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 10:57 am
Khunoth' acidic retort to the idea that his choice might have not be the best was cut off abruptly by the arrival and Daramulath and his rider. Despite having finished hunting, Khunoth had never been one to stand having other dragons around at feeding time, so he bristled and affected a defensive posture as the other brown approached. Knowing that anything he had to say on the matter would be pointless and redundant (given all of their talks as junior weyrlings when the food aggression had first started) Gh'lan just ignored the brown. One of these days, somebody bigger was going to tell Khunoth what was what and he would have to listen. Daramulath may be a brown, but he was certainly bigger then Khunoth, and if Khunoth didn't see how pointless his actions were by now, Gh'lan doubted he'd be able to teach him.
E'rik, however, was a welcome distraction. Gh'lan rarely forgot a face, and he remembered his arrival at Ista Weyr as if it had happened yesterday. Despite all of the trouble Khunoth caused him since, Impression was still the best day of his life purely because Khunoth had entered it, and in Gh'lans' mind, that meant anyone who helped him reach that point was a person to be remembered.
Realistically though, he greeted E'rik with his usual grin, tinged though it was with a bit of cheerful exasperation when it came to his current state f dress. Gh'lan had learned a long time ago that his life tended to be a bit easier if he kept his personal feelings about people to himself until the moment was right, and E'rik always had struck him as an introspective sort. Kind of like Florian, though the healer certainly hadn't seemed to take Gh'lans' general honesty and open friendship amiss.
"Good morning E'rik! And good day to you Daramulath." The former starsmith said, waving to the other brownrider before half turning to let his voice carry to the other brown. Behave yourself Khunoth, please. He added silently, fighting to keep his expression from betraying the silent plea. He always had worn his heart and his mind on his sleeve, but he would hate to have Khunoth behave poorly in front of this pair.
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 8:54 am
Tell him good day, please, Daramulath said to E'rik.
E'rik grinned. All right, but back off. Khunoth likes his space, remember.
"Daramulath bids you a good day, too."
It wouldn't take a genius to guess what had prompted the exasperation. Being covered in blood prompted many reactions, and if Gh'lan had gotten to the point where all it evoked in him was exasperation, more power to him. E'rik still found it kind of revolting to be covered in blood, which was why he waited at a distant for Dara to feed.
That was an impressive kill, Khunoth, Daramulath remarked politely. He didn't care to be involved in confrontations, and found it easier to be diplomatic than argumentative. E'rik always told him that was a good thing, since he'd have to work with these dragons in the future and it was better not to make enemies when your lives and safety depended on your ability to work together as a cohesive unit. Dara didn't understand all of what E'rik said when he talked like that, but his human approved of how he interacted with other dragons, and that was good enough. You're probably going to grow quite large.
"I'm glad we aren't responsible for doing our own washing," E'rik commented. "I would have no idea how to get stains like that out."
Somehow the workers in the Lower Caverns managed to remove bloodstains if they were reasonably fresh. E'rik had no idea how they did it, since he'd always heard blood was impossible to remove, but maybe it was the bloody nature of dragons and dragonriding that had forced them to develop the skill. After all, the Weyrs had had hundreds of years to perfect it, and clothing didn't just drop from the sky like Thread.
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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 3:03 pm
Thank you Daramulath. I thought the same. Khunoth replied, though he pointedly made his mindvoice carry so his rider heard him. Though I do wonder about the rest of this flock. The brown continued, pacified by being able to discuss one of his favorite topics. He wasn't a conversationalist by any stretch of the imagination, but even without his rider's warning the smaller brown found it quite easy to relax a bit in the presence of his easy-going sibling.
Gh'lan ignored the pointed jab from his brown and merely continued to grin ruefully at E'rik, picking halfheartedly at his destroyed garments. "Same, though y'know ... I kind of miss the simplicity of taking care of my own needs. Who'd have thought something that hatched so small would become such a tyrant before finally settling when they got big again!" He said, glancing back at Khunoth with a crooked smile. "By the way, have you heard any news about the lice epidemic? Everyone I have spoken with in the Lower Caverns is convinced we'll be stuck with them forever."
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Posted: Tue May 26, 2009 8:40 am
Dara cast an appraising gaze over the flock. His clutchmate was correct in implying that the beasts were not of any special quality. His tastes were not particularly selective, and he didn't mind too much that he had to eat beasts of a lesser caliber, but he knew it infuriated E'rik. E'rik complained that the holders were being stupid and short-sighted and muttered questions like, "How would they feel if we only fought Thread over portions of their holds?" Daramulath sometimes wondered if he meant it, so vehemently did he say it.
They don't look that appetizing, do they? Dara agreed with Khunoth. My human says the holders are being stingy because they don't believe Thread will return, and they think the Weyrs are a drain on their resources. He didn't know exactly what E'rik meant by that, but he understood enough of it to know it related to why the herds were so unimpressive.
"In my case, I think being made to take care of my needs would be anything but simple. I've never really had to cook or clean."
It made him sound so spoiled, but it wasn't really like that. E'rik actually couldn't remember a time when he'd had to do his own laundering, or his own cooking. Before he went to Harper Hall his mother had taken care of all of that with his sisters' help while E'rik - Ennrik then - spent his time with the Harper and his brothers got underfoot in their father's shop. At Harper Hall there had been drudges to do that work, and Ista Weyr had similarly occupied persons. Apprentices at the Hall only had to do chores as part of a duty roster or as punishment, and he hadn't been a Candidate all that long to be subjected to their litany of labor.
"Tyrannical is a good way to describe them," he agreed, chuckling as his glance followed Gh'lan's, though his came to rest on Daramulath. "But they're such benevolent tyrants most of the time." At least Dara was.
Reminded of the lice, E'rik ran one hand over his scalp. He'd shaved his head the first day he felt the parasitical monsters, and though the results hadn't been beautiful he'd never bothered to have anyone fix it. At this point his hair had grown out about an inch, so it varied in length from an inch to two inches in tufts over his head. Eventually he would see about getting someone in the kitchens or Lower Caverns to do something with it, but it was too short for him to bother about for the time being. He was lice-free now, and that was good enough.
"Your guess is as good as mine," he said ruefully. "With so many people and new Candidates being brought in so often, it's not as though the monsters lack for hosts. Did you manage to escape it?"
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