Welcome to Gaia! ::

At the first sign of rain outside, Aeron was inside the Dining Hall like a shot. The aggressive Bronze liked to think of himself as the undisputed lord of this Weyr, despite all proof to the contrary. He owned the skies, but kindly allowed the larger dragons to rent them. They paid in Not Eating Him. It was clearly a very fair trade.

The firelizard himself relaxed on one of the perches along the Hall’s walls. It gave him a wonderful view of virtually everything, or at least everything he considered important. Among these things were: firelizards, female firelizards (being of some ranks more important than males, naturally), his human (slightly less important than female firelizards, but more important than males), and Kia (in a category all of her own at the very top). Needless to say, when a sodden ball of angry Brown firelizard tumbled through the air, Aeron’s curiosity was piqued. Or perhaps he was just bored.

The end result was just the same as he regally wandered over towards Mud. Or he tried to be regal; it was difficult to be truly impressive when his claws kept sliding on the stone and scrabbling for a foothold. “Skree!” he screeched a welcome, or as close to a welcome as Mud would get.

Kia had a bell. Kia had a bell, and it was a shiny bell. "Krrrrikrrrikrrriiikrrriiii Keeer?" she inquired, scuttling after the big Bronze Aeron, tail twitching like that of a curious feline. Jingle jingle, went the bell. "Queep!" Yes, it was all very exciting, and Kia was chasing the bell. She was chasing the bell, and still chasing it... and then she was falling. "Krriikrri?" The bell rolled right up underneath a table, and Kia (needless to say) did not. Sadly, the tiny Green flitter observed the bell that she, on her back-- legs milling in the air-- could not reach.

"Krrikrri Keeeeer?" Would Aeron get the bell before it got away? Bells were sneaky, tricksy things, and they were capable of making great escapes, not unlike trundlebugs. She frantically attempted to right herself before the bell got away, wings flapping up a storm. Unfortunately, all she managed to do was get a wing tangled in a hind leg. "Krrrrrikrrrrrikrrrrikrrrriiii!" Help! There was a problem, and it needed to be fixed, and Kia needed her bell because it was going to get away!

Numenor was fond of his younger companion most of the time, but every so often the bronze firelizard needed a break from him. Because his Firyal was working in the kitchen, where 'lizards weren't exactly welcome, Numenor thought it might be the perfect opportunity to have some time to himself, without Chance tagging along. Or that blue firelizard, Cobalt, who didn't even belong with Firyal, but tended to pal around with her firelizards when his human was busy. They were all right sorts, but they weren't really at his mental level, and he got tired of always having to be the one to come up with ideas and activities. Today he'd suggested to the younger chromatics that they play hide and seek. They could hide first. He reckoned it would be some time before either of them noticed he wasn't seeking.

Instead of seeking, Numenor took himself to the room where food was consumed. Numenor liked that cavern because it was large and tended to echo satisfyingly whenever he made a noise. Providing it was unoccupied, of course, which it ought to be. As soon as he arrived, it became obvious that he had unwittingly stumbled upon a firelizard convention, as there were a number of firelizards who had seemingly had the same idea. And some of them were female, which was always a demographic he found interesting. Unlike some, the bronze was not picky about greens versus golds when it came to mating.

Some of the flits seemed familiar to Numenor, but it had been nearly a turn or more since he'd seen some of them, and so when he made his entrance he didn't bother reacquainting himself. Surely they would come to him. He was, after all, a magnificent fellow. They'd probably been pining in his absence. Especially the females. His absence had undoubtedly had a depressing effect on the entire firelizard population at Ista.

There was power and then there was Power. Pyrite was no stranger to the second sort. In the weyr belonging to two grown men, several other firelizards, and two dragons, the gold firelizard was the undisputed queen of it all. She fully expected that treatment to spread to the rest of the Weyr and was always mildly annoyed when, in fact, people did not understand this. Or, more commonly, other firelizards. Especially other golds.

But the males? Well, she’d tolerate them, so long as they were polite, well-groomed and, above all else, treated her with proper respect. As the firelizards came pouring in from the… well… pouring of rain, she paid them polite attention, focusing on the occasional flash of Bronze among the flock. Well, she had to look her best, didn’t she?

~.~

Tribble had an entirely different idea. The shy Green did her best to hide back around the tables, staying very close to her person. Unfortunately, Cordel was insisting that she be social. In her little flit mind, however, her human was throwing her to the Felines, proverbially speaking. You know, if Felines were small, covered in hide, and had wings. Which, in all cases, really made things worse.

But, since her human was being completely impossible, Tribble had no choice but to remain in the Feline’s den, also known as the Dining Hall. Shivering again, she saw something that cheered her up just a tiny bit. There was the nice lady who gave her food whenever Cordel wasn’t watching! And the firelizard too! Hesitantly, Tribble let out a squeak. Then she swallowed and tried again, this time getting out a tiny, “Shreep?” to Laena.

~.~

Unfortunately, Mud’s polite response would be lost in Aeron. More Important Things were happening. Namely, Kia was happening to herself. Again.

“Krrria?” Aeron stopped at the sound of that pathetic ‘Keer’. Nothing was more important than Kia. Nothing. Clearly, a single male was nowhere nearly as important as the tiny green flit. At her first cry for help, Aeron immediately lost all interest in Mud and glided down towards the fallen green. “Krria?” he chirped again, hopping closer.

Unfortunately, the floor was a very bad place for a flit, being so small and easy to step on. Aeron had a treatment for that, namely hissing ant screeching at anyone who got too close while Kia tried to right herself. The bell was… well, it was a bell, so it was obviously important. It was shiny, round, and it made ding-a-ling noises when hit. This made it pretty much the top entertainment for Aeron and Kia. But… if he left Kia alone, Aeron just knew these great clumsy humans would step on her.

He nudged Kia hopefully, trying to get her on her feet. Honestly, no other firelizard in the world could tangle up herself, but Kia really was one in a million.

It was extremely unpleasant for Numenor to realize that his arrival had gone completely unnoticed. Clearly there were too many other firelizards around, attracting attention, and that simply should not be the case. He was one of the only bronzes, and the only sort of firelizard that warranted more attention than a bronze from the other colors was a gold. He would, of course, spare attention for greens usually, but in this instance, Numenor's attention had been riveted on the gold from the moment he saw a flash of her hide. He was a proud little creature, however, and not about to telegraph his interest for the world to see. Instead he glided low over the table, seemingly to investigate the food presented and the extremely tiny blue firelizard that sat there discontentedly. He thought its human seemed familiar.

After his initial flyby revealed nothing of interest in terms of food or company, Numenor went back to circling the room. There was some commotion involving the other bronze, a tiny green, and a bell, but he wasn't about to get confrontational, and something told him confrontation was a possibility with that bronze, who was larger than he, though probably younger. If the other bronze was distracted with the green, perhaps he, Numenor, could make himself known to the queen he'd noticed. He was probably the only fit company she would find in this crowd.

Puffing up his chest, Numenor fluttered over to the gold, who seemed very queenly despite the ruckus going on below. When he was close enough to be heard, he trilled a greeting and performed a quick, acrobatic flip, just to be sure he had her attention. Then he was struck with a brilliant idea and darted away to snatch a morsel of food to offer her. That was the right way to treat a lady. He just had to find the correct dainty, which would take some time and choosing.

Laena had almost immediately recognized the sound of her fellow green, perking up and poking her head up as high as it would go to look around for her...'sister' of sorts -- then again, everything and everyone was a 'sibling' in Laena's mind, based on how 'mom' treated them, so the quiet 'Shreep' earned a call in turn from the fussy firelizard.

"Chhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrp?"

Immediately, Laena's attention was off of Mele and off to find her POOR LITTLE EXPOSED TO THE BIG MEAN WORLD friend to be the great big (kinda, she was actually rather small) protector, carefully navigating around the bigflits's's's 'moms and dads' before finding a space to fly off of the table from and to take up a more suitable perch.

Once there, she chirped at her fellow green once again. LOOK, SHE WAS AWAY FROM ALL OF THE BIG SCARIES THAT BELONGED TO THE BIGFLITTS!

Mele, however, was less than pleased when the green left him, chirping after Laena before hissing and - Oh look, the brown was being apologetic, Kreeeeee!

The blue didn't seem TOO enthralled with the apology, but when 'Mom' reached out and pressed a finger against his nose with a gentle 'play nice', he receeded from trying to 'start a fight', folding his wings up before he turned his attention to the rest of the Flitts in the 'gather'.

So much potential socializing, he wasn't sure if he liked it or not..... but maybe he'd try it too.

Mud was nonplussed when the Bronze ignores him, but figured it was probably better then having to make nice with the other male. The same mentality, he decided, would also apply to the angry Blue. The Blue seemed eager for a fight, something Mud was eager to avoid.

The wobbling movements of a small flitt caught Mud’s eye and he turned to watch the little Blue with interest. He was so… little! Little flits were, well, little! Little things needed to be protected and fed. Food! Mud was good at getting food. Mind made up, Mud blinked between, appearing next to a bowl of unguarded food. He fished a chunk of meat out of it and then blinked between again, appearing next to the young Blue.

Setting down the meat, he nosed it towards the baby Flitt before giving a happy chirp in greeting.