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 Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 1:21 pm
Another end to another long hard day. He wasn't cut out for this. His hands were blistered from wielding shovels, pitchforks, and from heaving root vegetables out of the ground. His back ached. He had strained muscles that he hadn't previously been aware of possessing; he'd know they were there, and what they were called, but he had never been quite so... sharply aware of them as he was at the moment.
Still, it was the end of the day, and he was now free to do as he willed. As his favorite hobby was off the cards - he hadn't been able to get hold of anything to read here yet - that left his second favorite: dragon watching. Today, however, he was not trying to spot the large, strange dragons of Ghenza. He was looking for dragons from High Reaches, from home. The dragons of Ghenza might be impressive, but he could not feel as fond of them as he did of dragons he had seen hatch and watched grow. Many was the time he'd watched the riders caring for their lifemates, and wondering what it might have been like to be one of them. That clutch had probably been his second last chance, maybe the last of all if there wasn't a clutch here soon, or if he wasn't allowed to attend the hatching...
He preferred not to think about that though. Closing your eyes wouldn't make the Thread pass over you, but at least you didn't have to watch it approach. He had one more chance, believe it, and believe it would finally be his lucky day...
Speaking of luck, there was a gleam of gold. The dragons of Ghenza, including their guests from High Reaches, generally took their ease in fallow fields, and apparently he had managed to find the one Sharath was resting in. Rubbing his neck in an attempt to ease the tensed muscles, Fealty climbed over the fence and lent back against it gratefully as he gazed over at the young queen. Poor thing, she must feel quite tiny compared to the golds here.
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 2:40 pm
Feeling eyes on her, Sharath lifted her head and looked around, coming at last to settle on Fealty. A new face? A Ghenzan? The blue in her eyes grew streaked with orange as she rose and started towards the stranger. Her head was low, about even with Fealty's and the movement of the queen was aggressive, sleek and powerful, as she rumbled at him - obviously demanding an answer for his presence.
On the other side of the field, Amelia paused when she saw her dragon rise and frowned at the dip of her neck. That was never a good posture... hopefully she wouldn't scare whomever she'd set her sights on. Sharath? What're you doing?
There is a stranger here, Mine. A face I do not know. The gold replied, stopping about a green's length from the boy.
A stranger? Did someone actually come over? She sounded surprised and hastily finished filling her water skin then started back over.
I don't know, mine. The gold rumbled again, a little louder this time, obviously expecting an answer. This was their field, their one place of refuge in this hostile weyr. The stranger better have a good reason to interrupting that peace as far as Sharath was concerned.
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 4:00 pm
"Well... Hello there." He knew that dragons couldn't harm you, but that didn't make her presence any less... Now what was the word he wanted? She was not intimidating per se, because of that piece of logic that told him the most she could do was roar very loudly, and possibly knock him over carefully and hold him down. No. She didn't frighten him she... she was impressive, he supposed. She might be tiny next to Ghenza's golds, but to him she was still a massive, statuesque figure. A sleek, powerful, vibrant creature, almost awe inspiring... and any fool could tell she wanted him to say more.
"Queen Sharath," Fealty smiled faintly, not moving from his position against the fence. "I am certain you don't remember me, but I was at your hatching; one of those failures not chosen by one of your clutchmates. I suppose, umm, I suppose that's all you really need to know about me, but if you care to know more, I'm Fealty. Feel free to, err, to laugh at how pretentious my name is by the way, a lot of people do. Frankly I think naming a child something like Fealty should be a criminal offense, don't you?"
Was her rider nearby, he wondered? Well, if she was, maybe she would come over; right now he was far too busy taking in every detail of the lovely queen to trouble about the girl who had Impressed her.
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 4:58 pm
What does Fealty mean, Mine? The question was sudden, posed as soon as the stranger spoke his name. It didn't seem an odd name to her but he said many laughed at it.
Amelia blinked as she walked, downing some of the water, Fealty? Loyalty. You swear fealty to someone - you swear to serve and protect, basically. Why?
He says his name is Fealty. And that he was at my Hatching. Do you know a Fealty? Sharath lifted her head to look in Amelia's direction, rumbling her inquiry verbally.
Ah... no. I don't. Amelia replied, brows furrowing. A Candidate then? From the Hatching? She hadn't met very many of them, unfortunately, and the name did not ring a bell.
With a shrug, the gold relaxed and turned her attention back to the Candidate before her, speaking to him, And why would I laugh when you are named for loyalty? I do not think it is a criminal name. Whuffing, she watched him with curiosity. A name was a good thing to have, a strong thing. Every dragon knew theirs and humans, sadly, did not but... naming your child something of value did not strike her as wrong. Loyalty was a good thing. Unless... Or do you mean you are not loyal?
Amelia laughed when she heard that and patted Sharath's rump as she came around from behind the gold, "I hardly think that's what he meant, Sharath. Fealty, hm? I'm Amelia. Sorry but neither of us remembers you... it's been a busy half Turn." She smiled at him and offered the skin of water, "Thirsty?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 5:23 pm
She... she was speaking to him. Never before had a dragon spoken to him. For some moments, he was too shocked by the experience even to analyze what was happening. A voice in his mind, confident and imperious. Amazing.
"I... I suppose I mean it's a silly thing to call a baby, you don't know how it will come out... And, umm, I suppose I wasn't loyal, to my family at any rate. They wanted me to be something I didn't want to be. I wasn't loyal enough to bow to their wishes but then... then I was searched and..."
Ah, and here was the rider. He wished he wasn't making such a fool of himself. Why had he never been able to master suave? It would be so useful. Ah well, he supposed you couldn't have everything; given how muh brain he'd been blessed with he wasn't entitled to many other virtues.
"Amelia," Fealty gave another faint smile, trying to deal with one issue at a time. People were so complicated, more so than anything else in the world. "I am aware of who you are, I suppose you are used to that by now. Never fear, by now, umm, by now I am used to people not remembering me. I am not and never have been the most sociable person but here," he looked around and sighed, "the lack of books to read had driven me out into the real world, as it were... So here I am," he smiled a little wider, "thirsty, as you so shrewdly guess."
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 5:37 pm
The surprise on his face and the way he fumbled with his words made the queen rumble with amusement, pleased with his reaction and far more inclined to tolerate his presence. This one was in awe of her! And that suited her just fine! She sniffed him then, and sighed the air back out as she replied, You are loyal to yourself. And the only other thing you should be loyal to beyond that is your Gold. It was simple logic for her. What was past was past, you needed to look to the future.
She nodded at the first remark but frowned at the second, "The only reason I don't remember you is because I was never a Candidate. If I'd had a chance to train with everyone else, I'm sure I'd remember you. I definitely won't forget you now." Amelia chuckled, passing him the water, "Mm, yeah, I don't imagine there's many books that aren't records here. Have they put you in the fields, then, because of that? The Real World's not so bad - at least, when you're not breaking your back at the work they load on you." She smiled once more to show she didn't mind the work, though her physique spoke to that - she'd put on more muscle since she'd arrived, regaining some of what was lost and then some.
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 5:58 pm
Fealty smiled a little. Yes. He would respect his gold, so long as she provided eggs. That was their main function after all, to breed. No need to say that to the proud beast though, let her think he worshiped the ground she defecated on... though actually now he believed she was old enough to go between to take a dump. Well, the sentiment remained the same; unless her rider was a good leader, a gold was just an egg making machine... Speaking of riders though...
"Perhaps you would remember me," Fealty looked up at Amelia; the girl had four or so inches on him, but he was used to that, and he knew for a fact she was two turns younger than he. "I doubt it though. I kept myself to myself back at High Reaches. Unless you have an exceptional memory I am quite sure I would be but a face in the crowd... Thank you though," he took a drink of the water before passing it back, "it has been a long day. Pulling up tubers is... not quite what I feel I was designed for. My, umm, my talents are more... more... more cerebral. I am a thinker, not a fighter or a, umm, a puller up of vegetables." Wincing, Fealty rolled his tired shoulders and shook his head. "It will get worse before it gets better," he predicted, "but if we're here long enough, it will get better. My body will be forced to adapt or fall apart in the end, and I like to think that it is... that, umm, it is too practical to do the latter."
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 6:22 pm
Sharath would have been hard pressed to find a suitable answer to his thoughts if she could read them. As it was, though, he'd found himself met with a tolerant gold now, and she settled down into a resting position as the two people spoke. If they spoke something of interest, she would chime in, otherwise people were Hers to deal with.
She listened carefully as he spoke, taking the time to wait for him to find his words before she replied, "You give me too little credit. I remember faces well and I shan't forget yours. Or your unique name." Taking the water back, she drank deeply from it before popping the top back on, "I concur. However, there's not much need for blasting here, their mines are more physical then bound by the formulae of explosives. I just don't want to end up muscle-bound like their Weyrwoman... I believe in honest work but, ah, a drill sergeant I am not."
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 6:37 pm
Fealty sighed faintly and looked down at himself. Chubby was how he had always been, even in his earliest memories... It was his mother's build, but on her it was luscious curves that men had panted over. On him, it was just excess fat. Well, so be it.
"Perhaps I do underestimate your capacity to recall names," he looked Amelia up and down again, speculatively this time. "Perhaps it is a talent you possess. I can't remember the names of people I meet only once though maybe I would do better with 'special' names... everyone is different, believe me I am well aware of that... You were a miner, then? I've read a little about a lot, but I was searched at thirteen, I never had a craft of my own." His parents had wanted him to be a smith, to work heavy things in metal, not even to be an engineer... Their dreams were not for him. He could have been a healer, a harper, a baker, something like that. Something that didn't need strength, anyway. As it was, he was nobody from nowhere, working in a field... and if he didn't Impress, he had no idea what he would do.
"How do you two find this place?" he went on, looking about once more. "Ghenza fascinates me," he volunteered, "but it is, umm, it is surpassing strange. Not what I'm used to at all."
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Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 12:42 pm
"Mm, born and raised to a family of miners~" She sounded proud of her heritage as she spoke with enthusiasm, "My father is an excavator and my mother is a geologist. I ended up in Excavation because I loved to dig and chip at rocks so my father taught me his craft. Despite having held a shovel and pick from a young age, it hasn't meant much here..." Amelia puffed out her cheeks in a sigh and shrugged - it was an old complaint by now.
Sharath snorted at the comment about the Weyr being strange, It's more the surpassing strange.
"If I wasn't treated like a dimglow herdbeast, I'd be more inclined to enjoy our stay here. Otherwise... it is bizarre. I've never seen such huge dragons in my life and they apparently use some sort of memory-boosting feed for the dragons as well. I've been thinking of giving some to Sharath if I can purchase it... And the way they treat their golds is, well, harsh. They're the final authority for the dragons but they seem to be bound by invisible muzzles here." She frowned at that - she'd watched how the golds acted and reacted and hadn't been impressed and she'd be cursed before she let them try to 'reign in' Sharath.
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Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 12:17 pm
"Mmmh, yes, if you're not one of them it seems impossible to please them." Fealty shrugged slightly; it couldn't be helped, so for now he was just going to have to put up with it. "They don't seem to like how we think of riders," he added as an afterthought, "or whers come to that. Whers seem to be, umm, to be a big thing here, as important as dragons are."
There was an idea that he couldn't get his head around... Well, no, he supposed he could, he just didn't like to. These people valued work, and whers worked hard. More versatile than dragons, more relevant to most people's daily lives. Much though the dragons of this place seemed to be drilling day in day out, at the moment they didn't actually do anything for the community. Since arriving at to High Reaches all those turns ago all he had been told was how amazing dragons were... but without Thread, what use were they? An uncomfortable thought, to be sure.
...Still, he was in the middle of a conversation, high time he focused back on Amelia. "That feed... I'd like to know how they make it," Fealty nodded, "and if it can be used on dragons Sharath's age I think you should do all you can to get some. I don't know how it works though, perhaps it has to be fed to the dragon - or wher, apparently - when they're newly hatched... I wonder what it would do to a firelizard." If he ever got his hands on some, he was keeping hold of it and finding out the answer to that question. A flitt with half a brain, maybe with the intelligence he was used to attributing to a wher; now that would be interesting.
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Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 10:03 am
"Yeah... I never had anything against Whers, though, as I used to work with them in the tunnels. Temperamental creatures, sure, but not completely savage. I think it's interesting how Whers play such a huge role here, they almost seem more valuable then dragons." Amelia glanced around with a shrug.
Above her, Sharath scoffed and tossed her head dismissively. Whers were beneath her in every aspect. They were the brutes, the physical labourers... a dragon was so much more, especially golden dragons. For Whers to valued above them was preposterous. Her tail thumped against the ground at the thought and Amelia smoothed a calming hand over her shoulder and neck. It was all to easy to upset Sharath here.
"The family I'm housed with feeds it to their Wher on a regular basis," Amelia replied, "So maybe the benefits are strongest when it's ingested from an early age? And I don't know about flits, half the people I talk to, if they talk to me, either have never seen one or think they're useless."
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Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 3:38 pm
"Mmmh, if you don't work, you're no use... Of course flitts make useful messengers if you can train them right, but I suppose that wasn't enough to sway the people who founded this place. Not that they seemed to have a lot of foresight," Fealty scowled and shook his head, "you can't just expect to keep shut off from the rest of the world forever. Eventually, something will have to give... I wonder what it was." As Fealty sank into thought, his scowl deepened. What, after all this time, had made Ghenza reach out to the rest of the world, or if it was the world (High Reaches specifically) that had reached out to them, why reach back?
"From their point of view, I don't see the benefit of accepting us into their community," Fealty muttered, as much to himself as to Amelia. "It would seem, umm, seem to make little sense at the best of times with their ideology, so what did Luci offer them or threaten them with to make them accept us just after plague - their worst fear - was confirmed at High Reaches? I just... Mmh," he shook his head, pale eyes finally coming back to focus on the gold rider before him. "It just doesn't make sense. There must be a piece of the picture I'm missing. At it stands, the actions of Ghenza's leaders must be totally illogical in, err, in their own eyes. What's their motivation? What do they gain?" Phrasing his question in a multitude of different ways wasn't going to answer it, sadly, he wished it would because answers didn't seem to be forthcoming from anywhere else. Why let them in? In Ghenza's eyes, surely it was madness...
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Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 9:57 am
Amelia nodded at that, struck by his question. It wasn't something she'd really considered before, "Yeah... why did they agree to take us in? I doubt they would have allowed us entry unless there was some sort of effective pressure on them. I wonder what it is... I doubt it's gone away." Crossing her arms thoughtfully, the goldrider pursed her lips.
In the end, she knew very little about Ghenza and its roots, and about just as little when it came to Luci and D'astel. But... chances were that leverage went beyond Luci... and was probably not for her to know unless she took power. Puffing out her cheeks in irritation, Amelia let the breath out in a long sigh. "If I knew the answer, Fealty, I'd probably tell you. Luci was training me and I don't know. Something, though, was important enough to get them to accept us, if begrudgingly."
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Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 9:54 am
"Yes," Fealty sighed and shook his head slightly, "it must have been big... I couldn't begin to guess at it though. I suppose we'll just have to hope we find out eventually." He hated not knowing things, if you didn't know what was going on then you weren't in control of your situation and that was never good. Plus, of course, he was just naturally curious. He just hoped that this wouldn't end up as a case of curiosity killing the flitt; if it was a big enough secret and he discovered it he didn't put it past the leaders of Ghenza to have him got rid of. He didn't put it past Luci come to that, not because he thought she was a bad leader but because he thought she was a pretty good one. Sometime, leaders had to do things that weren't very nice for the greater good.
"I wonder if there will be a hatching while we're here," Fealty said as the thought struck him, pulling his attention away from his previous concerns. "It would be interesting to see if their eggs are bigger than we're used to or if dragons just grow larger once out of the shell... and I wonder how they handle hatchings, I've already gathered how they do Touchings. Everybody, with the potential to Impress or not, touches a clutch aged twelve, and never again after that. If the purpose of Touchings is to get the candidates used to the eggs and visa versa, how is that a bright, umm, idea? More Ghenza sense, I suppose." If you were going to let everyone aged twelve to twenty one stand, then a normal Touching wouldn't work, but they could easily do more than one.
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