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 Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 6:47 pm
Constant vigilance! That was the only answer here. It had been bad enough on the road, but Vera required even more supervision. On the road, Xeran was able to keep unsuitable suitors away with a bright smile and by conspicuously sharpening his dagger. Course, that wouldn’t work in a Weyr…
He’d had to drop off his dagger at the smithy. It needed a new blade. Now he just had to depend on saying things like, ‘Whoops, sorry. Was I looming? I do apologize. It can often happen suddenly. You know what else can happen suddenly? Horrible bloody death’. And then smile. It didn’t work quite as well, since dragonriders were used to confronting horrible bloody death. At least they hadn’t gotten used to confronting Xeran yet. The Harper was actually quite non-violent, but they didn’t know this.
Currently, the broad-shouldered Harper was trying to restring one of his harps. The sharding damp! It ruined the strings, it really did. And never mind the tuning! Xeran used to be able to get his harps to hold their tuning for at least an hour! These days, it lasted approximately five minutes or until someone opened the door. Grumbling under his breath, Xeran carefully tied the new string. It was strange to see such a large man doing fussing about with such a delicate task, but he was surprisingly good at it. But not good enough for the thinnest strings.
“Vera! Vera, where are you? Come out here! I need your hand for a moment!” he bellowed, confident that she would come over to him eventually. She never could resist a chance for fixing an instrument. Besides, if she didn’t wander over, he’d just keep yelling and ruin whatever she was doing.
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Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 7:18 pm
Oh Xeran! He was forever keeping tabs on her, making sure that she didn't wander too far-- and just now she had been in the process of chatting up an especially attractive young rider. Pity, that. Vera never really had the chance to meet men, not with her own personal watchwher-in-Harper-blue. Making her apologies, the journeyman harper meandered back to her companion's side. "Yes, Xer? What was it that you needed my hand for?" Anyone listening might get the wrong idea, and really when she thought about it, if she hadn't known Xeran so well she might have gotten the wrong idea about them! "You can't be that lonesome, can you?"
That, of course, was all in teasing. There was nothing remotely romantic about their relationship, and there never had been. When Vera had arrived at the Harper Hall at the budding age of twelve, Xeran had been twenty three turns. A decade and a turn older than she, and two turns shy of his journeymanship (he had walked the tables at twenty five). For a brief time they had been apprentices together, and hadn't that been an adventure? "Working on your Lady, are you?" It was what she called his harp, her harp, and about every harp that she had ever encountered. They were beautiful instruments, really. Absolutely beautiful.
Humming lazily, she settled herself beside her mentor, and raised an eyebrow again. "Hmm... I'd probably better take a look at mine, hadn't I?" Her hands itched to tinker with the harp; it was a lovely instrument, with fine workmanship, and it would be a true shame if the weather did it in. The tuning knobs could use a bit of seeing to, couldn't they? Never mind that, if he didn't ask for it she really oughtn't to rush to provide it. Still... still, there it was... sitting there. Waiting. She blinked, distracted by the sound of jingling. Had she somehow knocked over a tambourine, or perhaps spilled some of the bells that Xer liked to keep?
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Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 7:39 pm
Xeran snorted and, without an ounce of shame, responded, “Why, yes. I need your hand to reach over here and into this spot right here…” to anyone listening, it would indeed sound very odd. But, if they were watching, they’d see that he was referring to the harp, specifically at the small strings near the end of it. It was a much narrower space, too narrow for his hands. Besides, he could sense that Vera was doing something she oughtn’t be doing. It was a knack. After years of being her personal watchwher, it had become a habit.
“Yep. Lady Fessi here needs a new string. See that one right there? Way at the end? The only way I could tie it, is if I untie the others. There’s just not enough room.” Once again, if someone had been walking by, all this talk of stringing up ladies would sound extremely odd, now wouldn’t it? That was Xeran’s intention, anyway. “They just don’t last any time any mo…”
He tilted his head to one side, suddenly hearing the sound of bells. Like little bells, the sort that might be tied to leather straps and attached to a runnerbeast. That was odd. Xeran had a set of them himself, because they added a nice bright tone to things. But he knew he had them carefully placed awa…
One tiny silver bell rolled through the room, chased by a large Bronze firelizard. The firelizard’s claws scrabbled on the ground. He himself was followed by a very small and delicate-looking Green. While the Bronze looked as if he could take flight if he flapped hard enough, the Green’s wings appeared far too soft. She was trailed by a small string of bells, although it didn’t look intentional; something had gotten her tangled up in them. In a chorus of jingles and noise, the pair ran into the hall.
Xeran blinked.
“…Did a pair of firelizards just run through here with some of my bells?”
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Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 7:59 pm
Vera opened her mouth to reply to any number of Xeran's sassy statements. She closed it, stopped, and stared. "... Why yes, I do believe that was a pair of firelizards running off with your bells." Musical flitters? What a strange thought! "They must think that they're toys. The smaller one looked like she was just out of the egg, too." Briefly, she wondered who had let a tiny flit that size go wandering. Could she even fly yet? Probably. She'd heard that they could fly as soon as their wings dried, but... probably not with that string of bells attached to her.
"Should we be trying to retrieve your bells, Xer?" Just then, she heard a piteous creeling sound. It was soft, and somewhat distant, and probably belonging to the little Green. A slight smile touched her lips. Strangely, the pair of 'lizards reminded her of herself and Xeran. She, the young journeyman, and he the elder. The genders were even appropriate. "Someone hasn't been paying attention to their bells," she teased, reaching over to tie the string deftly into place. It wasn't much of a hassle really. She had small hands, though they were long fingered.
As usual Xeran had picked precisely the moment that he thought she was misbehaving to call her attention to him. "Your knob here could do with a bit of polishing, I think... and oh, is that a stain there?" Frowning, the black haired young woman leaned over, taking a clean cloth out of a pocket somewhere, and delicately began to clean the offending spot. "I had better polish the whole length... wouldn't do for one part to be more polished than the rest." She was talking about the harp, of course, but to an outsider their conversation was far from innocent.
Jingle jingle jingle. Pausing once again, she glanced toward the door, and caught a glimpse of bronze and green. "Have you been giving her a good rub? Poor thing could use the attention! Do you see how she's so limp looking?" No good for a harp, no good at all! Directing her attention back onto the instrument, Vera rubbed away, exceedingly careful with the finish. "She'll get all wet, and then what will you do?" Sharding men, always forgetting what the climate did to their lady friends! Tutting disapprovingly, she gave the harp an affectionate pat, and put her cloth away.
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Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 8:27 pm
“Crackdust. I was just rendered belless by a couple of ‘lizards.” Well, people always said that flitts were musically inclined. They weren’t in Xeran’s experience, but, clearly, he was wrong. Now he just had to wonder what sort of irresponsible people let their firelizards run amok like that. Huh. Marko had gotten one thing right about Weyrs. Everyone there was insane. No wonder so many Harpers turned into Candidates. Harpers in general tended to be a little insane. You had to be, in order to hear the music that others couldn’t.
He could only hope that the bells weren’t hopelessly bashed out of tune. Still, the firelizards looked so cute when playing with them, he didn’t have the heart to take the toys away. Also, they had some sharp teeth on them. For all he knew, the Green might be the Bronze’s daughter. Many of the metallic ‘lizards took great offense at anyone handling their young.
Sigh. Whenever he asked Vera for help, she always did this. “You never were one to leave a job halfway done, Vera,” he commented, keeping up the general tune of ‘Haha, we’re saying naughty things while not actually saying them’. “Always the best at knob-polishing, I’ve always said. Never known one for polishing a length quite like you either, Ver. Thank you. The Lady needed that. Pretty badly, actually…” Now that the harp was all clean, it was a marvel the difference it made. Strange how things worked like that sometimes.
“Well, I think she’s perked right up, don’t you? And I wouldn’t dare do any of that. You’ve got the magic touch. It’s all in the fingers,” he added solemnly.
Again, the ‘lizards ran down the hall, with a soft jingle and a crash as one or possibly both ran into a wall of some sort. One of them squawked and then the jingling continued.
Xeran simply sighed again and continued to tune the harp carefully. If he didn’t start tuning soon, it would never hold anything.
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Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 9:07 pm
"It's all in the wrist you mean." Well, the fingers and the wrist, but who was counting? Hmmn, his harp did seem to be in decent shape now, didn't it? "She looks lovely, of course. She's a fine thing, all smooth curves and elegant lines to her." Vera definitely approved of the harp, for all that Lady Fessi was not of her own making. Pursing her lips she examined the tuning knobs as Xeran fussed with them. All of the jingling was making it difficult to concentrate on anything but the pair of flitters. She glanced toward the door, shaking her head slightly. "Xer, what will you do now that you're belless? How will you ever manage to get by on long rides?" Oh that definitely sounded dirty.
"My magical fingers are in need of something to play with. I'm dead bored," she bemoaned, reaching around for her kit. "Maybe I'll make another set of pipes or something. I've been developing a good lip, and I may as well put it to good use." Blowing. There was a lot of blowing involved with making sure that panpipes were properly in tune. If you didn't cut the holes quite right or cut the reeds crookedly you could positively ruin the instrument! She'd learned that the hard way as a young apprentice, and she was now all but sure that she had perfected the method for making the multiple pipes that she preferred. Flutes were all well and good, but there was something to be said for an instrument that you could really grip in your hands.
Pushing at her hair impatiently, she finally braided it up to coil around her head as usual, not bothering with the plaits that most young women wore. "If I leave it half done then I'll just have to do it later, and it will be such a fuss over something I could easily have just done now." Putting things off didn't make them go away. "Besides, you're right. Your knobs could use my special touch." It never failed to amuse her that they could keep up such banter and still be perfectly platonic. On more than one occasion they had actually caused small accidents with their antics. There had been that one kitchen boy who had been so flustered over Xeran... and Vera hadn't been able to resist 'helping' things along.
Bam! Jingle, jingle. "By the egg, what can they be getting up to?" she wondered aloud, getting up to go check on the errant firelizards.
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Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 9:23 pm
Lady Fessi was indeed a gorgeous harp, made out of a burnished deep red wood. There weren’t many carvings on her, but what was there was rather… simple and elegant. No complexities for this girl! None of that ‘harp shaped like a dragon with the wings unfurling to hold the strings’ stuff! Xeran liked his Ladies to be very… elegant. Once you got into that fancy stuff, he knew there was no going back. People would pay more attention to the appearance instead of the music. “I’m more worried about long winter nights, honestly. That’s when I really need my bells.” When combined with a leery wink, Xeran could make just about anything sound dirty.
Not that he needed to work hard here. “Oh, yes. You’ve got a good lip technique. But you need to work on your blowing. You’ve been working on your fingering too much and not your blowing,” he said helpfully. He had, for one short Turn, been one of her tutors. Technically, he wasn’t after she had become a Journeyman like him, but he offered advice anyway. About everything, actually.
Yes, yes. He knew there was no stopping Vera when she set her mind to something. He had long ago given up on stopping her from anything, except for courting. That, at least, was one thing he could ‘help’ out with. Mostly, he just scared all of the weaker ones away. If a suitor didn’t stand up to him, then he didn’t have a chance against Vera!
“Get my bells back if you can!” he called out to her as he continued to tune Lady Fessi.
The Bronze firelizard had a name. Neither Harper had a way of knowing this, but that name was Aeron. And he had just slipped into a wall. Aeron stood up and shook his head out carefully to clear it of cobwebs. As is usual for cases like these, he quickly attempted to take out his anger on something smaller than him. In this case, it happened to be the innocent jingle bell, which continued to tinkle merrily as he tried to destroy it. This, he felt instinctively, was not the right noise for prey to make while he attempted to disembowel it.
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Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 9:56 pm
"You always were so good with technique," Vera said breezily, patting Xeran's shoulder affectionately. "I'll see what I can do. The one flit looks a bit dangerous..." But the other one looked very much like a small child who had gotten tangled up in her blankets and was dragging them wherever she went. "You know, if you'd only let Marko help you practice, those long winter nights wouldn't be so long. He's got enough experience to make up for a lack of bells." Wicked, wicked girl. She padded softly over near the firelizards, and peered between them. Hmm. Definitely not a good idea to go after the one attacking the single bell. However, the other one, the little Green...
Carefully, she reached out and took a hold of the string of bells. Then, reeling the tiny creature in with the care she would bestow upon a well tuned instrument, she disentangled her from the bells. When set free, the Green made a pathetic mewl of a sound, flopping her clumsy way over to the Bronze. Once she had reached him, she pawed wistfully at his bell, making a plaintive churr. The firelizard's green hide wasn't quite as bright as it had been, and her eyes were a sort of pale yellow-- a shade that Vera did not recognize, but which she supposed must signify disappointment or sadness. The sounds that she was making definitely seemed to imply that.
Vera couldn't help but be slightly captivated by the sad little scene, though she recognized the necessity to get back into the room before the Bronze decided that she had in some way attacked 'his' hatchling. Taking careful backwards steps, she returned to the doorway, trying to avoid jingling the bells overly much. "Expressive little things aren't they? Almost as expressive as you can be when you're complaining about how hard you are being worked." The jab was meant in all friendliness, of course. She was far too fond of the journeyman to have meant it with any sort of seriousness.
"I've retrieved your missing bells, Xer. All except for the one that he is chewing on. It's not really a good idea to get between a man and his bells, you know." And the Bronze seemed quite adamant about his claim of the bell.
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Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 10:50 pm
“I’ve had practice,” Xeran said, without even a flicker of a grin. Of course, Vera would see the smile that, technically, wasn’t there. Almost done tuni… oh, balls! The peg slipped, ruining all of the hard work Xeran had just done. With a snort, he patiently began once more, off-handedly adding, “I think he has more belless experience. I’d have to teach him everything I know about manipulating bells to get the right sounds.”
Speaking of sounds… once Vera had left the room, Xeran very quietly put the harp down and moved over to the doorway so he could watch. You know, just in case. After all, he was supposed to be her proverbial watchwher. If some flit decided to attack her, he’d quickly regret it… not that Xeran could harm anything. But he’d certainly threaten to harm it! In a very loud voice! So there! Ha! He could scare things!
As Vera made her way over to Kia, the green flit, Aeron stopped playing with his bell. His eyes narrowed and whirled with an angry red-orange. All he saw was someone messing around with ‘his’ hatchling! Technically, Kia was not even his. He was barely old enough to breed. But, that didn’t change the fact that he looked after her! Very slowly, he started to stalk closer to the woman. Luckily for her, she released Kia soon enough.
He still screeched at Vera anyway, on the basis that she had upset poor little Kia. Covering her with one wing protectively, he offered the little green hatchling the bell he had triumphantly destroyed. Or he pretended to, certainly.
“They’re almost as cute as me too. Perhaps nearly as charming,” Xeran commented from the doorway. “Very adorable. And… uhh… I think he can keep it. He’s probably dented it by now. Besides, I’d rather keep my fingers where they are, and not inside of a firelizard’s stomach. “After all, I still have to finish tuning Lady Fessi over here. How is your Lady doing, by the way? Is he affected by the damp at all yet?”
Ha! If the harp was affected at all, Vera would see to it soon enough. Mold was lucky that it had evolved before she did; it wouldn’t have stood a chance otherwise.
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Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 11:40 pm
"Oh great teacher Xeran, please show me how to be as charming as you are!" Bat bat. "Pleeeaase? Since you're so intent in seeing me mate-less, it's the least you could do. If you do finally find someone you approve of, I'll never know how to win him!" Granted, Vera had absolutely no intention of allowing Xeran to make the choice for her, but she might let him look him over... maybe. Perhaps. ... If he was well behaved. "I've got hardly any experience with bells," she bemoaned, keeping well out of reach of the Bronze. It was truly adorable the way that he was sheltering the small Green. Tugged at her heart strings, truly it did!
Glancing at her former teacher with a wicked, wicked grin, she said lightly,"Oh, Lady Jayne is doing well enough... I could check for you, if you wanted? You're always so concerned about Ladies in need. It's truly gallant of you, Xer." Lady Jayne had been lovingly crafted by Vera herself, and as it happened, the harp was the very piece that the journeyman prided herself as being the reason that she had walked the tables in the first place. Well, maybe not, but she could dream! It was a beautiful instrument, the pride of her career. Granted, she was incredibly biased. There was not much call for harp making on journeys like the one she had just finished with Xeran.
A cheep brought her attention back to the firelizards, and she had to restrain an 'aawww'. The Green flit was huddled up to the Bronze, and batting tentatively at the bell. "They sure like your bell, don't they?" Not that that was any sort of surprise. Flits loved shiny things, things that made noises. Things... perhaps... like Xeran? Idly, she glanced at her mentor, lips pursed. Now that was a funny idea. Did firelizard play with human beings the way human beings played with human beings? "Shardit, stop playing with those pegs! Here, let me." Oh she had no respect for his personal space. None at all. Reaching over, she 'helped' with the tuning, oblivious to any concerns he might have.
After all... she was the one whose speciality was instrument making, wasn't she? That had to count something. "Lady Jayne is in his case over there, see?" She 'pointed' with her chin, busily working at his knobs.
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 12:20 am
Time to up the drama! Xeran languished quite nicely in a chair, legs all sprawled out and one arm thrown dramatically over his eyes. “It’s not a skill that can be taught, I’m afraid. You are either charming, or not.” Pfft… as if Xeran would ever stay out of Vera’s romantic life! It was his duty to make sure she ended up with a nice guy. After all, someone had to give her dates a creepy-a** ‘if you don’t bring her home on time, I’ll kill you’ speeches. Her father wasn’t really there and Xeran was creative enough. All he had to do was sit there and grin and talk very, very pleasantly about his days in the mines.
Very pleasantly. And she never got to stay out late either.
The firelizards briefly caught his attention once more as the Bronze proudly stood to attention nearby the little Green. It was a rather charming scene, although he still had to wonder if he would ever get that bell back. Sure, it was only one bell, but it would’ve been nice to at least be compensated for it. Although, he had gotten a lot of bell jokes out of it. Maybe that was worth it. “My bells are indeed marvelous,” he said, in a very solemn voice, as dark and deep as death itself. In other words, he thought this was a most hilarious joke.
Heh. Bells.
“You always try to play with my pegs, Vera.” He rolled his eyes and ceded the harp to Vera before getting up to investigate Lady Jayne. The harp was very, very nearly perfect. The joins were perfectly matched, the sound was marvelous… oh, there were one or two things that were off about it, but only a master eye could see those. All in all, Vera’s harp was just one step short of a masterpiece. Yeah. Xeran had been very proud of her when she had walked the tables.
“He’s holding up pretty well. Looks like some of the strings are going slack, but that’ll be easy enough to fix with a bit of tuning,” he reported back, absentmindedly plucking on one of the strings. Good sound, that. Very good sound, although he was admittedly biased.
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 12:55 am
"Are you trying to say that I am not charming?" Ohhh here came the pouts! Vera crossed her arms over her chest, managing to make her lower lip quiver slightly, just like a small, petulant child. A moment later she dropped the pose, distracted by something else that he had said. "Ha! Marvelous! Oh Xer, only you would say that you had marvelous bells. Everyone else knows that they are simply noisy. You have very loud bells, Xeran," she said very matter-of-factly. Her expression was one of sheer, pure innocence as she slid her hand lovingly along the harp's frame. "And your wood really is so well polished." That was all her doing, of course. She was terribly proud of the job she had done on Lady Fessi.
She transferred her attention to her own harp, and the sight of Xeran plucking its strings brought a smile to her lips. "Good. I'd better get to tuning him... wouldn't want his strings to go slack. I like to keep him in top shape, you know." He did know. In fact, Xer knew practically everything about her. She had learned the harp under him, and they had played duets quite a bit after that point. True, they didn't share the same focus, but that hardly mattered in the long run. When she had set out on her journey, he had come along for the ride. ... Typical, that. He really wouldn't leave her alone long enough for her to make the acquaintance of anyone interesting.
The last time he'd done that, though, was rather recent. During the Gather, she'd been able to sneak around and learn what she could of the Traders that had started an altercation with the young man that she presumed to be her cousin's childhood friend. There had been a great deal of intrigue there. Alas, she had had to scatter soon enough when a bronzerider had shown up and put them in their place. That was really only a figure of speech, as the traders hadn't for a moment believed themselves to be bested. Not for a moment. "... Xer? Is she trying to swallow that bell?" Her attention had shifted once more to the pair of flits, and she shook her head, smothering a laugh. Oh, to be that young! But was it safe for tiny greens to attempt to devour bells?
"Shells, your bell must be tasty."
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 9:04 pm
Ha! Yes, he knew those pouts. They had stopped affecting him the moment she turned fourteen, thank Faranth! Otherwise, he probably would have been wrapped around her little finger. But someone had to set some boundaries down for the poor girl; that had been around the time when her father had passed away. And right about the time when Xeran had walked the tables, becoming little Vera’s tutor. Very important to set boundaries. And then, all at once, he became a weird hybrid of father-brother-friend-and-mentor. He wore many hats. Or he would have if he actually wore hats. “Hey, my bells only create beautiful noises if manipulated correctly. Everyone knows that.”
Back to Lady Fessi again! Although he would never do such a thing while Vera was watching, Xeran double-checked her work. It was usually pretty good, but he always checked away, just to be sure. But there was no sense in hurting Vera’s pride.
“She’s trying to eat it?” he asked, suddenly concerned. Bells were not, he was fairly certain, digestible. Even by firelizards. “My bells are pretty big, so I don’t think she can eat it…” besides, the Bronze would stop her if she looked like she was in trouble, right?
He sighed again. Honestly, one of these days, he ought to try and take a drink for every time he sighed. He’d be drunk within an hour. “My bells are indeed wonderful. I have heard it from many reliable sources,” he said, once again in his very best completely deadpan voice. “But it looks like I’ll need some new ones after this. Have you practiced making any recently?”
Technically, he wasn’t her teacher any more. But that didn’t stop him from giving her little assignments to keep her busy! The longer she was busy with something she loved----such as instrument-making----the less she would do things that Xeran hated-----like meeting unsuitable men. Very sneaky. Vera was, in his experience, quite a lot like the flits: throw something shiny that made noise, and she would run right after it. Only, in her case, it would be to attempt to fix it and not chew it up.
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 11:21 pm
Shardit. The pouting had not worked. Ah well... it seemed that Vera was too old to pull off effective pouting. Hmm... that might make Xeran a worthy adversary! Well, maybe. There were still other tricks to be pulled. Oh, she would find a way to get back at her mentor, she surely would. Tapping her chin contemplatively, she eyed Xer, noting his apparent fascination with his harp. That, of course, could be easily chalked away to a harper's natural love of his instrument, but Vera suspected that there was a more sinister reason.
"... What are you planning, oh shiner of bells?" she inquired, narrowing her steel-gray eyes. They could be truly intimidating when she wished them to be. Sadly, such tactics did not seem all too effective on him, so she rarely made the attempt. Now, however, was an exception to that rule. "You're not going to lurk nearby every time I meet a particularly nice fellow, are you?"
Fortunately Vera was barking up the wrong tree. It was not an unreasonable assumption, of course. He did tend to linger whenever she happened to discover someone suitably appealing, reading to pounce at any moment. "How can you possibly fit in time to dog my steps when you're also trying to make Marko spontaneously catch a fire with lust?" The two things ought to cancel each other out, oughtn't they? Sadly, it did seem like Marko to find Xeran's looming to be entirely attractive.
Drat the man. Chewing on her lip, she furrowed her brow, thinking over the problem of the baby firelizard. ... Was that a coughing sound? Suspiciously, Vera darted a glance over to the tiny green figure and, sure enough, the firelizard was chocking on a bit of leather that had apparently been attached to the bell. "That... can't be healthy." By the First Egg, what on Pern was one to do with such a creature? The flitter in question made a rather choked, unhappy noise, the yellow in her eyes whirling back into prominence as she struggled with the piece.
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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 12:31 am
Oh, yes. Doubtless, Vera would indeed find a way to get back at Xeran. In an inventive and unique fashion that the older Harper would never see coming.
“Oh, you say that as if I don’t already do that,” he teased, going as far as to ruffle Vera’s hair. Alright, so he didn’t literally lurk behind a conveniently placed wall every time Vera had a date or something. That would venture from the land of ‘overprotective’ and into Creepy Land. But, he did make an effort to screen her dates. Just to make sure! You never could tell with these Weyrfolk. They did things differently.
And more often.
“Anyway, if the guy was particularly nice, he’d be perfectly alright with me meeting him beforehand,” Xeran continued, completely ignoring the facts. Namely that there were now rumors going around that flirting with a certain lady Harper would result in very long and very long intimidating talks from a certain male Harper who never seemed to be too far from her. “I can do both, Vera. I’m a multitasker.”
The coughing soon got his attention and he couldn’t help but take another glance at the firelizards. His uncle had had a wher down in the mines, so he vaguely recognized yellow as a ‘bad color’. “Umm… something’s wrong…” he muttered, doing a fantastic job of stating the obvious. “That’s what color Kelirsk’s eyes always went when there was gas in the tunnels.” Kelirsk being the name of the ‘charming’ little Green wher his uncle had Impressed. If by ‘charming’ you meant she would bite off anyone’s face if they didn’t happen to be Kelir.
The Bronze didn’t look too happy either. At first he hadn’t been too concerned about the noise because Kia made a lot of noises. But this was different, he sensed. His own eyes whirling with yellow, he bounded forward to grab the bell in his jaws and tug. In a stupid animal way, he was certain this was the problem. Scrabbling on the stone, he pulled as hard as he could.
Xeran found himself waiting for the inevitable pop and the rolling of firelizards.
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