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 Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 5:28 pm
Rinfala had known Shim was going to rise eventually, of course. This did not mean she'd expected it, however. Rather unknowing of the fact that golds tended to become more vibrant the closer they were to rising, she'd watched in stunned shock as Shim had darted over to where the various wherries and herdbeasts were butchered to...practically dunk her head into one of the buckets set down to catch blood-drippings, screeching all the while.
The resulting uncomfortable feelings had sent Rinfala to her cot to curl up until it was all over. Now, she was scanning the dining hall, hoping to spot someone that might be searching for the bitey little bronze that had ensconced itself with her Shim.
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Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 5:48 pm
Oh Faranth, now that was awkward. One moment, he had been quietly talking with S’van and then the next moment… well, he didn’t even want to think what he was tempted to do. All he really knew for sure was that Aeron had seen something in the distance and went to chase it. Like really chase it. Needless to say, Mal had escaped from the conversation with his weyrling friend and went to go hide in a closet for a few hours.
The next morning was almost worse, in a way, since Aeron hadn’t come home all night. It was downright worrying! Mal kept thinking that maybe the Bronze had gotten himself hurt or something. All of the feelings of intense pride and contentment, however, pointed to something horribly different and somehow even worse. Aeron had actually caught something and… and… shards, Mal did not want to deal with more bitey firelizard babies again! Aeron had been bad enough! He looked around the dining hall, hoping to spot the Bronze before he got himself into even more trouble.
Aeron, as a matter of fact, was being quiet proud of himself. And rather protective of Shim, of course, the lovely little Gold he had made friends with. Currently, he was cooing at Shim, making sure she had everything she wanted. And there was Mal. It was about time his human got here. Aeron let out a loud screech of welcome which, quite coincidentally, sounded a lot like his screech of anger, screech of annoyance, screech of battle, etc…
At the familiar ‘dulcet’ tones, Mal looked up. Oh good. Aeron was alright… he scurried on over, feeling more than a little awkward when he realized that the Bronze wasn’t alone and was, in fact, accompanied by another person. “Err… hello. So…” he tried to find a good way to say this. But what could one really say? ‘Sorry my firelizard banged yours yesterday’?
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Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:08 pm
Rinfala winced at the bronze's screech, echoed by Shim's warble of greeting. Faranth, but he had a pair of lungs on him. The fellow Candidate who'd approached her looked less than thrilled, as well. Hrm. Maybe she could bribe him with an equal share of the profits, or something.
"Um." Oh yes, that was a great way to start a conversation. Classic. "I wouldn't...try to grab him right now." She eyed Aeron. "He almost got me."
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Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:27 pm
“Aeron is very rarely not bitey. I think he was not bitey when he was asleep once, but I think I probably dreamed that,” Mal sighed. It took great talent to fit all of those words in a single sigh, but he had practice. Most of all, he made no attempts to take Aeron away from Shim. “So. Um… I’m Mal. And that’s Aeron. I’m sorry about all of this. Well, him mostly.”
The Bronze in question resettled his wings and went back to quietly nuzzling Shim. It was his first clutch ever, and he would be Seared if he was going to leave her alone even for a second! For a moment, he was a bit worried about Mal… the boy got into the strangest things when he was left alone… but, right now, Shim needed him more. With another quiet purr-like noise, Aeron cuddled up close to the Gold, feeling absurdly proud of himself.
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Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:22 pm
With a soft croon, Shim spread a wing over her bronze. If another gold tried to take him she'd...she'd...she'd hiss at them. Yes. She would intimidate them with her mighty hiss, and they would flitter away. Because Aeron was hers. He fed her nice things and...oooh, was that a shiny? She liked shinies. Hmm...
"Great..." Rinfala groaned, rolling her eyes dramatically. "So we're going to have a little horde of bitey ones?" Eyeing the little bronze, she sighed. Maybe it was too much to hope for that they'd be as sweet to people as Shim. The gold was known to dislike females of her own species... "What do you want to do with them?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:44 pm
“Not necessarily. I mean, he’s calmed down a lot with age,” Mal attempted to defend Aeron, but it fell a little flat, primarily because he now had a fancy set of scars courtesy of the snappy little ‘lizard. It wasn’t Aeron’s fault, he told himself. Aeron was just a flit and couldn’t expected to be completely non-violent or anything. “I dunno. I don’t want another firelizard. I don’t think I could take care of another firelizard, not as a Candidate. Um. Do you know how many eggs they normally lay? This is Aeron’s first clutch, if that helps at all.”
Aeron let out a curious little croon when he noticed his golden Queen’s eyes wandering a little. Was she looking at other males?! No… wait. She was looking at a shiny spoon over there. The Bronze clucked for a moment before wriggling away from Shim. Well, if she wanted the shiny, he would get her a shiny! She deserved it, clearly, far more so than that person eating porridge. Taking a short hop, skip, and a flight, Aeron snatched the spoon from the table and returned to Shim with another croon.
Meanwhile, someone else found himself without a spoon for porridge and was considerably annoyed.
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Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 11:30 pm
"That's...reassuring. I think." Pursing her lips, Rinfala considered the happy pair. She didn't exactly want a second firelizard, but she didn't want to completely break Shim's heart. Weren't golds maternal like that? "I...think I might let her keep one, since there's probably going to be several. Golds have bigger clutches than the greens, and bronzes help that. She might let us have the rest more easily then...I hope. A profit would be nice, but I don't want to upset her more than I have to. "
Shim was far from upset at the moment. While she squeaked in protest as Aeron extracted himself, she soon saw the shiny clutched in his claws and squeaked again, this time much more happily. Shinyshinyshinyshiny...sitting up, she warbled before rustling her wings and settling down again.
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Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 11:47 pm
“That’s… probably a good idea. Aeron would probably appreciate that too. I dunno how he acts around eggs at all, but he’s got this firelizard hatchling he’s adopted, Kia? He’s really fond of her. Um. Basically, he tries to viciously attack anything that upsets her. And he screeches at it.”
Aeron offered a helpful demonstration. “Skree!” Then he went back to happily cuddling with Shim. Oh, she liked his present! That was nice. Putting his head across her neck, Aeron busily thought of other pretty shiny things the Gold might like. There were so many of them! As he recalled, those people who made the funny noises (funnier than usual, that is), had shiny things. They made jingly sounds.
“So… this means that there could be lots of eggs?” Mal asked in pained tones. “That’s basically a translation of what you said, isn’t it.” While he absolutely adored firelizards, there was no way he had time for any more, especially not lots of them. Well, we can sell them. Or just give them away. I have a few friends who might want one.”
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 12:06 am
"Stakes might make the usual clutch-betting more fun," Rinfala mused, tapping her fingers on the table. Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap. Hmm, that sounded kind of nice. Like hoofbeats, a little. Yes...that'd spice up the usual boring betting on whether there'd be a bronze or a brown, a blue or a green very nicely. "One or two could be sold so we'd have a little bit of spending marks, but I'm not too worried about how much. It's a little more fun to see their surprise when we tell them it's free, y'know?"
Oh, more shiny things! Keeping up a constant stream of tiny chitters and squeaks, Shim's eyes started to whirl into a very rapid blue. This bronze knew how to treat a queen! Jingly...oh, that sounded nice! Were jinglies as good as shinies?
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 12:17 am
“Every clutch, I run a sort of betting pool for egg colors,” Mal confessed, although it really wasn’t much of a confession. Everyone bet on egg colors. If the dragonriders did it, he figured it couldn’t be so bad, right? Besides, it wasn’t like anyone was harmed. “It’d be nice to offer these eggs as prizes this time around. That’ll make them more inclined to come for me for all their betting needs next time.” Yep. That was Mal, always thinking ahead, except when he was thinking behind. That normally happened when he thought someone was trying to kill him. “Or we could sort of raffle them off. A small fee, you get a ticket, and then we pick one at random? Then we would get a few marks out of it and they wouldn’t have to pay too much.”
The Bronze gave another affectionate croon before taking off again, eager to please the queen. After all, she would eventually Rise again. He wanted to make sure she knew him fondly. He blipped between for a second, reappearing in a room belonging to two Harpers. But they weren’t home. Excellent. Skittering across the floor, Aeron found what he was looking for in some garish-looking leather bags. Jingles! He fitted his mouth around the bell and gave it a shake. No… not that one. It didn’t sound right.
It took several jinglies before he found one he liked, with a clear and sweet tone. He betweened again and popped back into the Dining Hall, bearing his gift to Shim lovingly.
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 1:35 am
Rin's left eyebrow rose an inch or so at this.
"Oh really?" Hmm. On second thought, Mal had looked a little familiar. There were an awful lot of Candidates, but he'd been in the thick of the guesses last time around. ...Ugh, last time. That damn green... Absent-mindedly, Rinfala reached down to rub at the healing scar on her leg. She really hoped this Hatching wouldn't be a repeat as far as that went.
All the sick people collapsing hadn't helped, either. "Yeah. Maybe a few up for raffle like that for those that aren't up for the...obvious sort of gambling." People didn't seem to realize that raffles were just a different type of gambling, and happily participated in them while shunning 'real' games of chance.
Oh, oh, oh! It was a jingly AND a shiny! Drawing herself up with what she imagined was grand dignity, Shim bestowed an approving series of croons and chirps before shaking the gift soundly for everyone to hear.
Eyes sweeping towards the gold, Rinfala frowned. "...Do you remember a bell being there?"
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 1:50 am
Speaking of those who weren’t up for gambling… Mal thought guiltily of S’van and how quickly he had left the weyrling just standing there. There hadn’t even been a real ‘good-bye’. Just a ‘OHSHIT GOTTA GO NOW, BYE!’ and then running off madly before Mal did something that he would thoroughly enjoy and then even more thoroughly regret later. S’van wasn’t much of a gambler, as Mal had learned from previous clutches.
“I’d like to keep one, if I can, as a gift for a friend. There were some awkward circumstances.” Mal then developed an extreme interest in the floor, the tables, the ceiling… basically anything else other than Rinfala at the moment. “And you said you wanted to keep one. That means we can bet a few and raffle off the others then. Then we can split the profits from the raffle.” The bell caught his attention soon enough, but not for long. “Don’t worry about it. Aeron has this bell that he got somewhere. I think that’s it.”
The tone was a little off, but the Bronze had been playing with it forever. No bell could take an Aeron-brand punishment and stay in tune.
Aeron screeched his approval of all the noise. And he wouldn’t shut up with his series of trills and squawks either. One could imagine that the two flits were trying to create a sort of duet of their very own music. The diners nearby didn’t approve, however, and Mal and Rinfala were quickly finding themselves with a table all to themselves.
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 2:25 am
Rinfala flashed Mal a crooked grin. "Got caught up in the moment, eh? Can't say I blame you...I picked a nice place to hide, myself. I don't have any supplies handy, so I shouldn't have any...fun." Yeah, fun was a good word. Didn't give anyone listening too much to work with, if they could hear over the makeshift 'music' the duet of self-made Harper!lizards were producing. "Consider it a deal, then. Of course, there's how to...keep ourselves from getting shredded when we try to distribute them, but there's got to be some good wherhide gloves somewhere." After a pause, "...And goggles. Maybe a hat."
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 2:42 am
Maybe it was Rinfala’s words. Maybe it was her crooked grin. Or maybe it was the fact that she just stated what Mal had wanted to do. “What? NO. I do have some self-control, give me that at least. I just left him there. Without a good-bye. Or anything. I think it would be appropriate to give him a sort of apology for that and an explanation. A flit egg would do both.” No, he was not fardling blushing, shardit! Ok, maybe a little. Once again, he developed an extreme interest in everything else.
Luckily, the new flit band provided the perfect distraction, at least long enough for Mal to sort of try and forget that Rinfala had said anything at all. “More like a couple of gauntlets,” he muttered. “I’ve got wherhide gloves for when Aeron was younger and he had to have baths. But we can wait on that. I mean, we don’t even know how many there will be. Maybe there will only be two, so our problem will be solved.” Really, how fertile could two firelizards be? This thought cheered Mal up considerably.
Meanwhile, Aeron continued to try and think up new presents for the lovely Shim. She deserved only the best and he was determined to provide it.
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 11:26 am
A loud snicker greeted Mal's words. "You really don't have to try that hard to get a present for your sweetie," Rinfala winked. "You could have just said so to begin with. I'm not heartless!" Leaning back with a smirk, she shook her head. Really, men were easy to read. They tried much too hard to cover up anything they wanted to hide, so all you had to do was follow where the effort led.
"Two's closer to a green's clutch," she added, waving a hand towards the pair. "They're lucky to have any survive, since they're addlebrained compared to a gold." A long pause. "...Well, that's what I'm told. It could be merchant hype."
In the midst of her 'music,' a gleam caught Shim's eye. Turning her head with an abrupt, quizzical chirp, she stared at a human who had shiny things where its eyes should be. That wasn't right! Shinies did not go on faces!
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