|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:26 am
It is a good day to visit the beach, Daramulath remarked innocently. And we do not have to drill today, do we?
"No. To both," E'rik replied, glowering at his gitar. It had broken its second string the night before as he was practicing. He had a painful mark that stung from where the end of the E string had snapped his wrist. Missing both the E and G strings made it incredibly difficult for E'rik, who had been a vocalist and not an instrumentalist at any rate, to use alternate fingerings, and it had put him in a foul mood that had lingered throughout breakfast.
But, E'rik, you like the beach. It would put you in a better mood. Dara's mental tone bordered on wheedling.
Considering the brown's personality, E'rik guessed he must be making those around him fairly miserable with his frustration and let out a very long sigh. The brown had mentioned the beach, and E'rik's blue firelizard, Cobalt, had picked up on it. Cobalt loved the beach, as long as he was allowed to sleep on Daramulath and stay warm and dry. Cobalt chimed in with the sweetest noises he could make, sending E'rik images of beaches accompanied by feelings of contentment and sleepiness.
"Fine," E'rik grumbled. "We can go to the beach. But first I need to get strings for my gitar. I think there's a journeyman Harper about somewhere who can at least put me in contact with the right person for getting more, if he can't provide them himself."
Yes, yes, Daramulath agreed quickly. Tell me where he is and I will fly you to him so that you can get your strings and we can be on our way.
The brown dragon's eagerness to go to the beach mystified his rider, but E'rik acquiesced, as he usually did, to his dragon's demands and soon he was as close as Dara could get to Journeyman Harper Marko's rooms. Because it was a free day for him, E'rik had not bothered to don the shoulder knots that would indicate his status as a brown wingrider, which he wore as comfortably as he had worn those indicating he was an apprentice Harper, back when he'd been one of those. He hoped that this Marko would prove someone worth spending time with. Maybe someone he could talk to about music. There weren't too many people like that around Ista, despite the large number of ex-Harper candidates.
Leaving Cobalt with Dara on purpose and his gitar with Dara by accident, E'rik knocked at the entrance to Marko's rooms, calling out simultaneously, "Journeyman Harper Marko? Do you have a moment?"
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:53 am
The knock was answered by a shrill whistle, a muffled curse, and then some more whistling and cursing. "Shells. Shards and shells! SHELLS!" Something was dropped with a heavy thump, and then finally there were footsteps to the doorway, accompanied by more cursing and a few more whistles before it finally fell quiet. Marko opened the door, looking frazzled and with one hand over the muzzle of the green firelizard that sat on his shoulder, glowering at the door.
"Shells, he knocked, for Faranth's sake," Marko snapped, glaring at the 'lizard until she ducked her head and peeped softly. Marko shook his head, took a deep breath, and then looked down at the boy. Exactly what he had been doing previous to E'rik's knocking wasn't clear, but there were ink stains on his hands and the cuffs of his shirt, and a faint smudge of charcoal across one cheekbone. The flitt was likewise speckled with ink, and as she calmed down and trilled curiously at E'rik, Marko regained enough composure to speak.
"...Sorry about that, she's...a bit territorial." He glared again at the bony little green, who had the presence of mind to look briefly ashamed of herself. "Now then," he said, getting himself into a mode that was as close to businesslike as he could manage. "What can I help you with?"
The boy (anyone under the age of twenty-five was a boy to Marko now, oh SHARDS when had he gotten this old?) looked vaguely familiar, and as Marko looked at him expectantly, he realized that this might be one of those old Harper apprentices he was supposed to be bringing back. He could almost recall the name, perhaps....he had never been particularly good with names, and this boy had probably been one of the myriad generic apprentices he had never been assigned to look after. But the face was familiar nonetheless.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 11:11 am
E'rik bit his lower lip as he listed to the ruckus on the other side of the door and took a half step backward, just in case whatever was going on decided to explode out the door. That would put a very quick end to his beach trip, which would undoubtedly disappoint Daramulath and Cobalt a great deal. He hated to disappoint those two, and so he hoped that a visit to the infirmary would not be in order. When the door finally opened, E'rik did his best to hide his startled reaction to Marko's appearance. It took him a moment to realize that the reason the man was holding one arm oddly was because he was keeping a green firelizard's mouth shut.
"Thank you," E'rik said politely, nodding toward the green. "I understand about territorial, and I'm just as happy not to have lost any fingers, eyeballs, or blood to your firelizard."
He wished he'd thought to bring some of the bits of dried meat he usually carried for Cobalt. Maybe he could have offered some to the green firelizard, who was currently forcing him to divide his attention between the Harper and herself. He wasn't particularly concerned about coming under attack, but he was always fascinated by firelizards. There was just something about the little creatures that tickled his fancy, though he would never have phrased it that way.
"She's very pretty," E'rik remarked. "And evidently very fond of you."
Complimenting a person's pets was a very quick way to ingratiate oneself, E'rik had learned. Particularly with pets like firelizards, who were empathically connected to their humans, and the closest to dragons most people would ever have. E'rik was telling the truth, however, when he complimented the little green, though it probably shouldn't count, considering he had a weak spot for firelizards. Since he first came to the Weyr he had wanted one, and even after Impressing Daramulath he'd still been thrilled to be gifted with an egg.
"I was wondering if you knew where I could get ahold of a G string and an E string for a gitar. I've been babying mine, but it's been a few turns since I came to Ista, and I've run out of alternate fingerings." He grinned ruefully.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:56 pm
"She's being silly," Marko said, though there was some mild fondness in his voice for the small, shrill animal who had started to climb down his arm and was now investigating E'rik with the intense studiousness of someone who is about to thoroughly disapprove of everything you're doing. "Silly in an obnoxious way," Marko added darkly, as a sort of disclaimer. "But she won't bite. Just whistle at you if she decides you're too close or some other nonsense."
Honestly, he wasn't sure what Shells thought she was doing when she 'defended' him from intruders. She decided after a moment that E'rik wasn't particularly threatening, and proceeded to give him the firelizard equivalent of a scowl. He had a sneaking suspicion, since she tended to direct it at males more than females, that she was going to make his social life a living hell in the future. But he wasn't going to think about that, and instead focused on figuring out who the boy was.
Complimenting the firelizard wasn't going to work on the basis that Marko was fully aware that anyone who would comment on the, well, fairly plain, slightly ugly little green on his shoulder was trying to ingratiate themself to him. So that comment went ignored, and Marko honed in on the comment about gitar strings. Well. That was a new one.
"You don't have extras?" he asked. It was unlike a Harper to not have at least a few of the required spare parts to make certain his instrument was in proper working condition. "I've been to a few of the Gathers here. I know that some of the locals vend them." The weather was bad on instruments, particularly wood-bodied ones like gitars, but honestly, the strings shouldn't be breaking themselves all that often, and if the boy had spares....
If not, for whatever reason, he'd send him to Vera. She'd probably have what he was looking for. Though Marko still thought the boy should have spares. "If you need help, for whatever reason, I'd say go to Journeyman Harper Vera. She specializes in instrument repair. If she hasn't the parts, she can likely get them for you. It'd be best to bring the gitar, anyway. This weather is wrong for wooden-bodied instruments and Faranth knows what bits of a gitar will have warped over turns of use."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 6:22 am
E'rik forced himself to ignore Marko's firelizard. There were still no guarantees that she wouldn't bite, despite what her human said, but E'rik decided he'd take that risk and ignore her. If the worst she was going to do was shoot him dirty looks, he could handle that. It briefly crossed his mind to call to Cobalt and see how she would react to the lazy blue, but he decided she would probably terrorize him. Cobalt never really knew how to act around greens. He was courteous to golds and chummy with other males, but greens seemed to confuse him. It would be better to leave firelizards out of this.
"I had extras," E'rik replied with a shrug. "But as I've said, I've been here a few turns, and there's not much opportunity for someone in my position to earn marks to pay for new strings with. Still, I can look into purchasing supplies at Gathers."
That was true enough. No one paid candidates for the work they did, although he'd spent a brief enough time as a candidate. Weyrlings similarly received no salary, and riders weren't typically salaried either. The marks E'rik had stashed with him when he first came to Ista were nearly depleted. At some point he would have to ask one of the older dragonriders how they got by at Gathers. He doubted he could just go about saying "I'm might be fighting Thread one day in the future" and expect people to hand him wares for free.
"Vera," E'rik repeated, cementing the name in his memory. She sounded familiar, but he wasn't sure. "I'll talk to her sometime soon, then."
He grinned at Marko's assessment of the weather at Ista, and agreed, "No arguments here about the weather being wrong for gitars. I do what I can to protect mine, but salt air is insidious. Do you specialize in an instrument of some sort?"
E'rik, Dara interjected, could you not ask him these things some other time? The beach is waiting. You could bring him with us.
Be patient. I can hardly segue from 'do you specialize in any instrument?' to 'would you like to come to the beach?' you know.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
