|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu May 10, 2012 3:29 pm
It was a rather dreary day, a very very dreary, pouring down rain kind of day. While some of the other candidates muttered and cursed at the rain, all of them coming back in soaked and most anxious for the downpour to be over. It instead found Niyx whom had hurried to finish her own chores curled up on her bunk working on a new sketch. A much nicer done copy of Scarath, the bronze she had met the other day for his rider.
In fact the entire wall by her bunk was covered in sketches and pictures, all reasonably good. None of them professionally quality, but still possessing a sort of rustic charm. Niyx after all preferred to keep her formula's put away and her former profession an unasked secret. After all the only person who had bothered to ask where she was from had been the old Weyr scribe whom she helped in her free time in exchange for some old unused hides and some intellectual company.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 6:56 pm
Ailin stood at the entrance of the barracks, his curly hair matted to his forehead and the shoulders of his tunic dark with rain. He held himself oddly, a bulky satchel clutched to his chest with one arm while the other was tucked behind it against an odd shaped lump under his tunic.
The young harper lad paid no real attention to the milling candidates driven indoors as he made his careful way to the bunk assigned to him. He felt a pang realizing this was where he was going to be sleeping until the clutch hatched. At the Harper hall he'd shared a small room with just a couple other boys his own age. Here gender didn't seem to matter, boys and girls milled about with no semblance of order. Even his assigned bunk had a female occupant. Her relative stillness drew his attention to her just by it's marked difference to the rest of the candidates. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as he assumed.
Ailin took note of the drawings tacked to the wall. The quality was impressive enough even if he'd seen better at the harper hall. They were pleasant to look at. Ailin stood beside her and carefully so as not to get her papers wet, set his satchel on the ground and withdrew the package from his shirt. It was a long and thin wooden box with a leather handle bolted on. He didn't set it down but held it almost reverently, checking to make sure the polished wood hadn't gotten damp or taken any damage. He turned to face Niyx. "Forgive my interuption please, I've been assigned to share your bunk. Where may I put my belongings?" His voice had already settled for the most part into a quiet but high tenor, betraying his harper training. Not that it wasn't obvious by the amount of harper blue he wore.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 7:06 pm
Niyx paused in her drawing lifting her head slowly with a few owlish blinks to level a pair of storm gray eyes on the boy. For a moment she was silent her dark eyes seeming to take him in mentally picking him apart with a look of sharp intelligence in their colored depths. Then as if some spell was broken her lips twitched into a smile and she gave a low, flawless seated bow. "Ah welcome. Don't mind the others they're a bit. . .rambunctious." She apologized setting her drawing aside to stand.
"I wasn't sure if I'd be getting a bunkmate or not, but I left half the area beneath the bed open." She replied motioning beneath her. "I lack a trunk as well so if you wish to put your things at the foot of the bunks you're more then welcome too." In fact had it not been for the fact there was not a speck of harper blue anywhere on the girl, in fact she was wreathed in probably the richest red many had ever seen, one might mistake her for a fellow harper. After all she did seem to possess a sort of. . .theatrical flare as she rose from the bed, unfolding her long acrobatic limbs like a runner would rise from sleep and offered him a hand. "I'm Niyx. Whom might you be my fair wet friend?" Niyx asked with a welcoming smile turning up the charm in favor of making the best impression possible with the person she was being forced to share her personal space with.
And Niyx was very acutely aware of her personal space. But perhaps this boy would not be like the other. "Hmmm? Do you play?" She asked glancing at the box in his hands.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 8:54 am
Ailin met her level gaze with one of his own, apparently he had passed her test though. Ailin stepped aside, giving her room to stand with a hint of surprise. For all her long limbs and obvious grace, she was quite a bit shorter than him. He shifted the box to one arm and shook her hand. "Ailin, of Atlini Hold. Recently of the Harper Hall." Three turns with the Harpers had certainly left their mark on the young lad. One of a harpers greatest talents was noticing detail and with this girl there was plenty to notice. He already felt he could safely assume she wasn't weyrbred but her previous location and profession eluded him.
Ailin's hand subconsciously clenched on the box. "You knew what it was?" Maybe she was a harper as well? "I do, It's what they were training me for at the Hall." He stepped aside and laid the box gently on top of her bed, releasing the metal clasps. It was his prized possession, gifted to him as a going away gift by the one teacher he'd truly enjoyed at the Hall. He almost didn't accept it, the worth of the peice was obvious even before seeing it. The wooden box was made of a warm red wood with a decorative grain. It was polished to an almost glass-like lustre. The clasps were of a 'newer' design, being slid to the sides to unlock rather than lifted straight up. Inside the case was lined in a very soft blue wherhide with indentations made custom to cradle the instrument inside.
The metal flute looked as if it hadn't been touched. Ailin had yet to get a chance to play it. Ailin lifted out the two halves and fitted them together. Aside from the material, it was obviously different from the normal flutes one usually saw. This one was based off of an old AVIAS design, with hinges and paddles were a wooden one would only have holes. Ailin wet his lips and raised the instrument into position, tapping the finger levers to limber it up. He gave a quick trill and ran through a couple bars of Dragonman Dragonman, feeling it appropriate to the location. When he finished it was with a smile of pleasure. "Do you play?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 6:07 pm
"Well then well met Ailin." Niyx replied with a bright smile along with the hand shake practically beaming at the other boy. So she'd been right on guessing his craft, not that a half-blind wher couldn't, but there were those who liked to wear harper blue as a fashion statement. Not her mind, but in her younger years she had been decked in it by her father before she'd discovered the troupes costume stash.
The look of startled surprise on Ailin's face as she asked about the clearly beautifully made box and it's possible occupant drew a chuckle from the girl's lips. What else after all would a Harper cherish in such a way, but his beloved instrument. That and such nicely made cases rarely held anything else. She'd seen her father's and his companion's ones enough to recognize the make. "An educated guess I assure you." She replied in answer and leaned over to peer at the box and it's treasure with marked interest. Her interest soon turned to a look of pure pleasure at the first sight of the instrument within.
An AVIAS design! By the oldtimers! She'd only seen a few prototypes, her hall having not had many musically inclined crafters besides herself. "By all the Weyrs here and between. What beautiful music shall take such wing." She whispered eyes wide in awe as she watched the hinges shift and open with each note the boy played, the delicate metal working to produce such pure untainted sound. It wasn't until he asked if she herself played that Niyx was struck from her revere. "Do I play?" Niyx repeated with a few blinks and an almost shy smile, her blustering abundance of emotion she'd used to greet him with seeming to fade away for a moment into a more suitable quiet and scholarly calm that seemed far more natural for the odd girl. "Yes actually. I do." She added with a nod bending to search for something beneath her bed pulling out a far more battered looking dark brown case. Setting it beside Ailin's she undid the hinges and opened it to reveal a traditional violin. The wood was a sleek red color, the knobs well worn by careful fingers and a sleek bow. Lifting it from it's case she set it against her chin and drew a few high sorrowfully haunting notes from the string with her bow. He'd recognize it as the first notes of the riddle song. Then removing it from her chin she set it back in place before turning to Ailin. "Would you mind if I held your flute? I've never seen one of it's kind before." She half lied with a warm curious smile.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 9:48 am
Ailin was surprised and pleased that of all the people in this room the one he was assigned to had such an excellent grasp of music and prose. Her reaction to his question concerned him for a moment as she almost became a different person. still, knowing that she wasn't always bubbly and excited didn't bother him in the least. It hadn't seemed to match the quiet artist he'd walked up on anyways. Ailin leaned and peered over her shoulder as she withdrew the case from beneath the bed. A violin! He listened silently with trained ears as she began to play, recognizing the enigmatic Riddle Song. It was a curious choice but one suited well to her instrument. As she had admired his flute, he too was entranced by her violin. Stringed instruments always sounded better the older they got and this one was beautiful to his eyes and ears. "Are you as harper as well?" He asked when she'd finished. He looked down at his flute and worked the levers a couple times before gingerly handing it over. "It's not a common piece...You may If I may look at your violin?" Another musician would know to be careful with it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 3:55 pm
At his question she chuckled and shook her head. "Oh no. My father is a harper, but I decided not to go to the hall. He plays with a traveling troupe the moves with my mothers caravan." Niyx explained with a smile and at his conditions somewhat tentatively held out her violin and bow to the bow to inspect in return for having the shining metal flute in her own grasp. "Of course." She replied, but at the trade her words soon died within her throat as she looked the musical and technological marvel over.
Careful fingers inspected the plugs and hinges, a gentle tap with her finger drawing a light musical tink revealing at least in theory and sound the thickness of metal. Would a instrument such as this allow for a wider range of notes? Niyx wondered how it would compare to a regular wooden one. At least air wise it was probably far more efficient most likely not wasting a single note of it's players breath.
The violin in turn was an older piece, not a true classic, but it was obvious it was either a hand-me-down or had been bought previously used for the young woman. Flipping the warm red wooden body over would reveal the journeymen's mark of the harper hall, it was probably her fathers old instrument by the looks of it. A strum across the strings would reveal the instrument tended to produce rich almost keening notes that held tune fairly well despite the worn tuning knobs.
"This is quite the piece you've got here Ailin. Perhaps at a later time we can play together." Niyx finally replied carefully returning the beautiful flute with a sad, but satisfied smile, her curiosity temporarily sated. "Oh. I'm not the oldest of the candidates, but if you want to know anything about the Weyr I'll do my best to answer your questions." She added as a helpful after thought, after all no sense in making the boys transition to the Weyr any more difficult then it had to be. Besides with him bunking with her it was less likely one of the more noisy or clumsy of the other candidates would come over to bother her and she'd be left to her work.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 12:58 pm
"A Trader then? How did you come to be searched for Trine?" He accepted her silence as she looked over his flute. The wooden violin whatever she may think was gorgeous in it's own way. He ran his hands over every inch of it, gently brushing the strings and listening to it's mournful sound. A few dozen songs ran though his head that this instrument would be perfect for. He had a folio of music with him, he wondered if she would want to borrow it. He may just leave it out for her to peruse if she wished in private.
He plucked out a few notes before flipping it over to check the makers mark. It was certainly an older instrument. The mark wasn't the most recent one used by the Hall. For being a Journeyman's make it was a very fine instrument. His inner romantic imagined her father being entranced by a lovely young trader into leaving his Hall to follow her on the road, playing her melodies every night by the fireside.
Ailin's little day dream faded away as she spoke again. "I think I would like that Niyx." He carefully separated the two halved of his flute and laid them back in their case. He would probably carry it around with him. He didn't trust leaving it in the barracks, even hidden under the bed. Ailin pondered her offer. "I would appreciate what help you could give. I do have a question. Are we allowed to continue our studies in our respective classes while we wait for the clutch to hatch?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 1:32 pm
"How did I come to Trine?" She repeated the question a thoughtful look on her face at the memory. "I was searched at Aquor Hold a couple of months ago by V'al of blue Lerath when I helped them with their market purchases." Niyx answered with a smile taking her violin back when it was offered to her and carefully putting the piece away. For all she touted it as lesser work a careful eye would note her gentleness in it's handling as she settled it back into it's case and did up the latches.
"Oh good! I've been lacking anyone to practice with for some time." She replied at his answer, a slim smile playing along her lips. To have someone to join her solo and turn it into a duet. Now that was something to look forward too! "I mean we do have a few other harpers turned candidate from the hall running around, but most of them are so~" And Niyx paused hand tucked beneath her chin chewing on her lower lip in thought as she grasped for the proper words. "Well I suppose the closest description that currently comes to mind is Loud. They tend to spend all their time near the dining hall where as I personally am not as fond of crowds so I rarely run into any of them unless on chore duty." She explained then paused to ponder his question. She personally had striven to continue practicing her craft on her own in her free time, since there wasn't an ancientcrafter currently at the Weyr beyond herself. She knew the harpers could keep up their craft in a way since some of them might choose to become dragonharpers.
"Well for the most part you won't have time to continue your craft, at least not directly in most crafter's cases. The best I've managed to do is practice in my free time. You're a Harper though!" And Niyx put heavy emphasis on the word 'Harper' tapping Ailin's chest with a smile. "Which opens up some doors for you! You see there's this rank called a Dragonharper. So basically by doing our candidate lessons and learning the Weyr's history you can supplement your regular harper lessons. Also the Weyr hosts a few harpers whom you can probably learn from though I doubt any of us will have time should we impress to devout to our crafts until after, if we're lucky enough to impress, our dragons are grown." She replied then gave a shrug and glancing almost wistfully at the small bundle of worn hides she had tucked into the corner of her bed.
"So I suppose the simple answer is that for now No. Still we can strive not to let our skills get dull which is what I'm doing. They say practice makes perfect after all."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 4:03 pm
Ailin felt himself enjoying her company for all he'd only just met her. While her clothing was loud and accessories odd, she seemed like someone with similar tastes and characteristics to his. His pleasant mood drooped though as she assessed their status as crafters in the weyr. He didn't want to give up being a Harper to Impress a dragon but this is where they'd taken him. He didn't particularly like the idea of risking his life during Threadfall. If she was right though and he could still be a harper as well as a Rider....that would be ok he supposed. Not that he had much of a choice in the matter. It wasn't like he could just walk back to the Harper Hall. He sighed.
"If you don't Impress do they send you home?" Something about her wasn't quite adding up in his mind but he'd yet to pinpoint it. Just little pieces of her puzzle didn't quite seem to fit.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 4:19 pm
"Oh no not at all!" She quickly assured him with a slightly softer smile then the scholarly distant ones she usually gave. Poor boy was probably worried he'd be sent back as a disgrace. "If you don't impress you're given the option to stay here and stand for another clutch as long as you're still young enough to do so or work at the Weyr. You can choose to go home or back to your hall though, I hear they're very nice about it and all." Niyx explained turning to glance at Ailin's things. "Would you like some help unpacking? We'll be called away for the evening meal soon and you'll probably want those put away before then." She added then motioned him close with a low whisper.
"Look if you're worried about your flute I think I know a place where you can hide it. Either that or I'm sure the headwoman wouldn't mind keeping it for you if you're worried about thieves." Said Niyx with a knowing look. Most of the other candidates couldn't play and her beat up case usually dissuaded them from taking her violin, but a flute that nice they might try to steal to sell.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 6:31 pm
Not at All wasn't exactly what he wanted to hear. He was hoping that the common procedure would be to send them home. He knew asking to leave would create a big fuss because who didn't want to be a dragonrider?
"I don't have much. I can just put this under the bed and be fine...I think I'll keep it with me for the time being." He didn't know this Headwoman and who knew if she might be one of those interested in selling his prized possession? Better to just keep it on him.
"I am hungry though..."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 6:45 pm
Niyx smiled understanding the boy's distrust. "All right here I'll help you put it under there, but before you do let me show you something." She replied lowering her voice as she laid down as if she was reaching for something in her bag under the bed. Only to quietly motion Ailin down to show him she'd pried up one of the floor panels to show a small hollowed out area underneath she'd dug out that was filled with a couple of carefully bound hide journal.
"If you ever need to hide it, you're welcome to use my hiding place." She whispered then got up with a smile raising her voice slightly. "There you go! Plenty of space for your stuff now! Ah and there's the Dining bell!" And sure enough the dining bell began to sound as the other candidates filtered out of the barracks.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 2:04 am
Ailin knelt down beside her, peering under the bunk as she revealed the hidden door. He saw the notebooks hidden within as well as those tucked into the mattress and for a moment wondered what she kept so secret. It was no place for him to be prying. What she wanted to keep secret was her business. "Thank you Niyx. I'll follow you if you don't mind. I don't know my way around yet." He tucked his flute case beneath his still damp tunic. No point in putting on a dry one after all.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 7:24 pm
"Of course." Niyx added with a look of understanding as she stood and headed for the door, they were one of the last ones to filter out and she paused at the threshold. "By the stars it's really pouring out there." She said glancing at the near solid sheet of rain between them and the glimmering dining hall door that acted like a beacon in the dark downpour.
"All right then." And Niyx lowered herself into a runners crouch pointing out the gleaming spot in the dark. "That's the door we want and here we go!" She called out and bolted out the door taking up a long loping pace, but making it a point to go slow enough to make sure Ailin could keep up as the two were soaked by the luke warm down pour before they hit the other door.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
