Despite the previous day's hunt not having gone too well, Crystal and Kleos were right back to search the following day and as a team once again. Per the crimsonrider's suggestion, they consulted a few maps and planned out where this morning's search would take place. Once everything was decided and in place the pair took off, leaving with Theirs right at sunrise. Now once again the four of them were on the ground, search for the elusive plant.
So far, they still weren't having much luck. There certainly are quite a lot of plant species, Argenth remarked to His while closely examining a group on the ground. None of which are what we're looking for though.
Yes, this will likely be a very very long day, the ebony-haired rider thought back. "How's your search going, Kleos? Moriath?" Probably not any better, or she would have heard about it by now. Still, attempted conversation might help keep them a bit more alert.
She hadn't slept very much last night, thanks both to a late start, and to a head spinning with stress. So far since joining up with Crystal again she had managed to avoid chewing on her nails, but the damage was already done; they were ragged, bitten almost to the quick. She hoped the silver rider didn't comment. She hoped they found some mystweed today. She had to help the Weyr, she had to!
"Nothing so far for me," she replied, shielding her eyes against the rising sun and scanning their dewy surroundings. "Moriath?"
"Nothing," the red dragon, who was skimming low over the ground some distance away, heaved a heavy sigh. "Nothing from the flitts either," she added, "though I still don't think they understand what they're supposed to be doing."
"Nothing from Moriath either," Kleos added to Crystal with a sigh of her own. "It's starting to feel as though we'll never find it," she went on with a shake of her head, "but we cannot give up hope. I swear I'll find a sample of mystweed to take back to Malvren if it's the last thing I ever do."
"I don't doubt you," Crystal replied with a smile, faintly amused by the other woman's determination. It was good that she was so inspired at the very least. The silverrider went back to work, searching through the plant life.
Only a few minutes later she paused, studying something intently. Argenth, sensing his rider's abrupt change in moods, swiftly lifted his head from where he was searching and looked toward his rider. You have found it?
"I believe I have..." she answered slowly, setting to carefully digging out the plant. Sure enough, it had the underground bulb with the roots hanging off. "I have found a sample of the plant," she announced, loud enough for Kleos to hear this time. "Unfortunately, however, it is not a living one." The leaves were brown and partially shriveled, making it difficult to recognize at first. The roots confirmed it though. "There may be more in the vicinity still." Even though it was dead, she still planned to bring this sample back to the Weyr with them and mark on a map where it had been located. A dead sample was better than nothing.
The momentary excitement she felt as Crystal began to speak died again as the other rider said that it was dead, but she jogged over to inspect the sample anyway. "Let us hope so," she sighed as she inspected the sad, limp plant, wondering if it might have been alive yesterday or the day before. It seemed that the world was mocking their efforts... but perhaps some good could come out of a dead sample. Maybe.
"I still do not see any," Moriath told Kleos and Argenth, "nor do the flitts. We shall keep looking, and we shall look for dead ones too now. If there is a great deal of it dead around here, we must wonder what killed it."
A very good point. If some blight took hold of the rare plant it would spell disaster for Pern. Shuddering, Kleos turned away from Crystal to continue her own search. There had to be some live mystweed somewhere.
After letting Kleos inspect what she had found, Crystal walked over to Argenth and placed it inside of the pouch she had attached to the leathers. There, now it won't be lost. She resumed searching near where she had been looking before.
Even if we fine nothing more today, I would recommend revisiting this place in the future. For there to have been one plant here means there had to have been a parent plant or two nearby somewhere, the Silver remarked.
As the pair of Malvren riders continued their search, some distance off Moriath slowed her pace a little in order to study a vaguely hopeful looking patch of ground in more detail.
Doing so probably saved her life.
The red dragon was hardly even aware of seeing the blue appear right in front of her before instinct kicked in and made her swerve to the left. Luckily the blue saw her too, and swerved in the opposite direction. Unluckily her sudden correction introduced Moriath's tail to a nearby tree with some force, causing the crimson to bellow in surprise and pain.
The moment she felt her dragon's panic, Kleos had taken off running. Of course, Moriath was so far away that she looked about the size of a flitt, but this hadn't occurred to the young rider; all she could think of was getting to her dragon.
Meanwhile, both dragons had managed to right themselves and land. Moriath's tail oozed green ichor from a graze the tree's bark had given her, and the stripe-marked blue was keeping his weight off his right foreleg from a none too graceful landing, but neither was seriously injured.
"Stupid male!" Moriath broadcasted loud enough for all dragons in the vicinity to hear, her eyes spinning brilliant orange. "You could have killed us both! Who are you, what are you doing in my lands?" He was not of Malvren. How dare any dragon do that to her, let alone a male, and doubly a male from outside her home Weyr!
On his back, the blue's rider was still recovering from the shock, and rubbing her neck with a grimace, apparently unable to take part in proccedings as yet. "Blue Opeth of Trine Weyr!" the smaller dragon hissed in response, flaring out his wings to make himself seem bigger, his eyes just as bright orange as Moriath's. "I came in at a height not normally flown at. We search for Mystweed, what were you doing so close to the ground?"
Moriath bellowed at the male's impertinence and drew herself up to her full size; she absolutely dwarfed him. "The self-same!" she snarled, "but unlike you, I have a right to be here!"
As she realized that her lifemate wasn't currently badly injured but that the situation was escalating, Kleos screeched to a halt and cast around for Crystal as her flitts appeared in the air beside her, chattering in panic. "Crystal!" Kleos yelled, "We need to get there now! Please, Argenth, grab me and get us to them!" Being picked up in a dragon's forepaw wasn't usually how she'd choose to travel, but right now time seemed to be of the essence; Alumath's death was still too fresh in her mind for her to feel comfortable watching her dragon face off against another.
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Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 3:58 pm
At the crimson's bellow both Crystal and Argenth immediately stopped their search and looked over, seeing the commotion starting with the blue. While Kleos took off running, Crystal sprinted back over to her dragon and leapt upon his back (with some practiced help from the silver) before they started off in that direction. Moriath and the foreign blue were much too far away to get to on foot.
Moriath, calm down! the silver urged, swooping down to pick up the crimsonrider in his forepaws before flying forward at full speed. He was no green, but he could still pull a decent pace. Let us not have any blood shed here. It was an accident, and our Weyrs are allied. Granted, the blue would most definitely be the one who got off worse for wear in any conflict, but nobody wanted it to get to that point.
Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 8:41 am
The other male's voice within her mind made Moriath give out a deep-throated growl, but after a moment she folded her wings smoothly back against her body. Argenth was right; she was only willing to admit that because she agreed. She hadn't had any intention of hurting the stupid blue even at the peak of her anger, but if the idiot wasn't aware of that he might make the first move.
Thank all shells ever cracked. As the silver set her down, Kleos hastened over to her dragon and reached up to lay a hand on one of her powerful shoulders. "Alright, love?"
"Annoyed with this stupid male," the crimson hissed to her rider, "but not badly hurt I think. So long as it's cleaned my tail should heal swiftly. I should have his head for causing me to crash like that, but although they are not Malvren, they are Trine; we do not harm allies. Not even stupid male ones."
"Good," Kleos said aloud, stroking her lifemate's smooth hide gently before rounding on the blue and his rider. "Why are you alone, if you truly are from Trine seeking mystweed?" she demanded. "We have all been sent out in pairs at the very least, and I would stake a heavy wager that the same goes for your people. Answer me, blue rider." Said rider was a fairly attractive lady, but even feminine curves wasn't enough to soften her ire today. Moriath could have been killed!
"Erg... Gimmie a minute on that," the blue rider mumbled, still grimacing and rubbing her neck, "forget changing course fast, I feel like Opeth just sat on my neck!"
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 11:47 pm
Argenth was very careful in setting down the crimson rider as they landed. Thankfully, the aggression between the other two dragons seemed to have settled down a bit, but Crystal remained atop of her partner's back for the time being. Much more calmly and diplomatically than her crimsonrider comrade, she asked, "Where is your partner, bluerider? Was there a specific reason that you appeared from Between so close to the ground?" Gaining proper altitude before jumping Between was a very basic safety precaution for many reasons-- this occasion being one of them.
The silver meanwhile was paying more attention to the unknown pair's current condition. Are you and Yours alright? he asked the blue, given that the dragon seemed to be favoring a leg and his rider recovering from whiplash.
Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 3:30 am
"Shut up silver," Opeth hissed, his eyes flaring up brighter orange again. Such nice friends, two of them, bigger than him, crowding him. Stupid Malvren dragons.
"Stupid blue wherry!" the black-haired rider growled, smacking her dragon firmly on the shoulder as she regained her grip on the situation. "You and your sharding temper..." Oh, right, the other riders. Wincing again, she turned her head to regard the atypial-bonded women. "Name's Xan," she began. "My partner is back where we're meant to be; near Trine," she grumbled, "but Opeth took offense at something he said, and decided to between off like a dumbass weyrling. You're lucky you didn't get us and the crimson killed, you idiot."
On being reprimanded by his rider, the blue's eyes dimmed to an almost contrite orange-grey. "He insulted us," Opeth mumbled, "I didn't want to stay near such an idiot."
"Yea, well, you know enough to know you should be sure of where you're going before you go," Xan snapped, her usual mellow nature thoroughly squashed. "I hope you're going to apologise," she added, folding her arms across her chest and glowering at her lifemate.
"...Sorry." The reluctantly muttered word reached both other dragons, and presumably his own rider too, for she gave a satisfied nod as she unstrapped herself at last and climbed to the ground.
"I'm sorry about this," she sighed, rubbing her beck again, "he's a dumbass, but I should have expected him to pull something stupid after what that brown called him... Still, let me make it up to you; perhaps can help you two look for your mystweed for a bit?"
Well... At least the rider was sorry, and according to Moriath the dragon had apologized, even if he had done so in a sullen manner. "Be more careful in future," Kleos admonished, but the fire and venom had faded from her voice, "next time, you may not be so lucky." Had Moriath and the blue not reacted so quickly, or had they both swerved in the same direction... It didn't bear thinking about.
"Well, I suppose at least the blue apologised," Moriath said to Hers and to Argenth, feeling rather more friendly towards the atypical Malvren male now that there was a typical non-Malvren male on the scene, who had caused her to hurt her tail to boot. "It's clearly a very stupid blue," she added, "letting its temper endanger it and myself like that. I hope it has at least learned a lesson today."
"I hope so too," Kleos confided in her dragon, repressing a shudder as her mind played through what might have been... "For my part," she turned back to Xan, "I wouldn't mind if you wish to remain and help us for a while, provided you make sure to control your dragon."
"Eheh, believe me," Xan shot Opeth a dark look, "I will... and you?... Err... What are your names?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 4:15 am
The silver's eyes whirled with mild irritation at the blue's less than polite answer to him, but otherwise kept his cool. This was rewarded a few seconds later by the Trine rider taking care of the reprimanding for them. And quite a good job of it she did. Argenth approved. After Opeth apologized, he gave a small nod and said, Apology accepted.
Crystal listened with interest at the half of the conversation that she could hear. So, it was the fault of the hot-headed blue, was it? Not entirely surprising.
Letting temper take control is never a good thing, he said in agreement to Moriath's comment. I am glad that you are both alright.
"I am silverrider Crystal, and this is my partner, Argenth," she replied formally when asked who they were. "This is crimsonrider Kleos and her partner, Moriath. We would be glad of your assistance in searching for Mystweed." An extra pair of hands never hurt after all, and it seemed good recompense for the near crash.
"Mmh. Quite... Still, we must get on with our search," Moriath flexed her wings, padding a little distance away from the others in order to take off. "I'm flying down to the shore first," she informed both dragons and her rider, "I should clean the injury on my tail in the sea; sea water is good for injuries." Well, that's what Kleos had just thought anyway, and she was happy to seem as though she'd known it herself; what was her rider's was her's, was it not?
Kleos nodded to her lifemate, calling; "Take care!" after her retreating shape before turning back to the other riders. "Well then; back to work." So saying, she let out a slow sigh, trying to send all of her tension with it. Relax. It was all alright now. Thinking that didn't totally calm her, but it calmed her enough to make Ice and Moss reappear from wherever they had vanished to in their panic. Crooning, the pair of flitts landed on her shoulders; play more later, for now they wanted to stick beside her.
"Right," Xan nodded, "let's get to it then." Honestly the area didn't look at that hopeful to her, but she'd said she would help, and so she'd given them at least a candlemark or two of her time. "And as for you," she addressed her dragon, "you'd better let Nenth know where we are and what we're doing."
"Fine," Opeth responded huffily, "but I'm leaving out the almost crashing part."
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Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 4:46 pm
Despite the additional help, hours later the search proved to be nearly as fruitless as it had been the previous day. The Trine rider had only stuck around for about two candlemarks before returning to her own Weyr and duties, and it wasn't until the a good while later that the two Malvren riders agreed to return to their Weyr and show what they had found. One dead plant was still better than nothing, right? Even if it was useless for planting. After getting a proper lunch they could continue their search elsewhere.
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