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"Hu?" C'tis had been sprawled on his bunk, scribbling the draft of an assignment they had been given. He was quick enough to drop it when he identified the speaker; work could be put off for now on a lovely day. The only thing was-

The door opened and C'tis looked down at Rochelle with a frown. "Make good on what deal?" Paper? What was she doing with paper?

On his dragon bed Malcarreth stirred, sat up, yawned and sent Kibeth a feeling of sleepy greeting; his brain wasn't quite up to words yet.

"Oh." C'tis blinked, looking puzzled for a moment before reaching out to take the pendant. It was lovely.... She'd made it for him. He'd forgotten that she'd said she would but even if he had remembered this still would have been a surprise. A slow smile spread across the bluerider's scarred face and he stroked his thumb over the glass bauble.

"It's lovely," he said eventually, looking back at Rochelle. "I'd forgotten we had that conversation. Still got that pebble though... and sure," he nodded, still smiling a bit. "Art lessons; let me grab a few things and we can go."

At C'tis ducked back inside to grab said things Malcarreth stepped out of the room and stretched. he greeted properly, dipping his nose to give her a nudge.

A few moments later C'tis reappeared with a cloth bag slung over his shoulder. "Where do you want to go then?" Anywhere was fine by him. The pendant was now in his pocket, and the slight weight of it was... it was just nice, nice that somebody had put so much effort into something for him. Not many people had thought he was worth as much as a fart before the frantic days of the revolution.

Malcarreth said mildly with a draconic smirk to Kibeth. Having stretched out the small blue flapped his narrow little wings to loosen them up too and then set off towards the water at an easy trot.

"Mine too," C'tis replied with a hint of a smile on his naturally scowly face. It was now at any rate, especially the colour of Malcarreth's spots. Blue was better than bronze any day, after all who would want a great ponderous lump to fly on that took half your life to wash? Much better to be swift as lightning and twice as deadly. They didn't need size to become great.

"Looks like Malcarreth approves of going to the lake anyway," C'tis added with a little shrug, smile softening a bit as his gaze settled on the blue. Setting off after his dragon he slid his hand into his pocket, catching the glass bauble up in his fingers and running his thumb rhythmically over the smooth surface. "This place is almost starting to feel like home," he commented, apropos of nothing.

C'tis looked up at the beautiful azure sky, walking on in silence for some moments as he thought. When he looked back down at Rochelle he said; "Ambivalent," with the precision of an archer shooting a redfruit at a hundred paces.

Malcarreth said dryly, retaliating to the light n** and headbutt with a gentle swat of his tail. He was not quite so keen as Kibeth for Berath to come along and join them. It wasn't that he disliked her, not at all, he liked her very much... but he got the very uncomfortable feeling that she loved him a lot more than he loved her. He felt no real need for a mother figure, but she seemed to desperately need Bel, Kibeth and himself. It was awkward to say the least, or it was for him. He hadn't told anyone else how he felt. Instead he reached for the green and the crimson and said;

came Berath's excited voice.

C'tis looked down at the draping woman, trying to work out how to say 'I really wish I had joined the revolution but I won't now because I'm not about to leave all of you.' What he came out with in the end was; "It's fine, but Malvren was home. This is almost home but... I still miss Malvren. I suppose I'll get over that though." Maybe he could persuade the others to leave... but Rochelle could already have everything she wanted and Aleck wouldn't go back to Malvren because of the whole near parental death thing.

No.

No matter what he said he wouldn't be able to persuade them. He was stuck here, and stuck limited while Rochelle became a wingleader and Aleck became a master. Their dreams lay here and his did not. Striving to become a Warden was a bitter consolation prize in the face of Rochelle working to claim the post he really wanted. He hated himself for thinking about this so often but he couldn't help his bitterness, and he couldn't express his bitterness either. It wasn't Rochelle's fault that she could have the world and would be widely respected reasonably well just for the colour of her dragon while he fought for crumbs.

...Trine always felt most like home when he didn't think about it too much. He wanted to go back to Malvren.

Malcarreth sensed his rider's spinning thoughts, and shards but he shared them. This was not the right place for them, and yet here they remained. the blue agreed after a pause.

"...Yeah. It does suck." Now he felt like a bad person for wishing he'd joined them rather than thinking about what they'd done to people. Change never came easily to the world though, sometimes things couldn't be done peacefully. They hadn't had to kill civilians though.

"Yes though, I heard," C'tis nodded, trying to shake away twisting unhappy feelings. "Good for her I suppose... half a mind to take off myself once we can fly. It's not like the Weyr would miss one blue. You could come too, though they would miss a crimson." Aleck wouldn't come though.

He wasn't doing very well at not thinking about unhappy things.

Art though, art was good.

C'tis sat down beside Rochelle, legs stretched out in front of him.

"I like doing living things, animals mainly," the blue rider continued with small shrug. "Never been a massive fan of doing landscapes and buildings and things. Humans though and dragons and other animals, they're interesting. Challenging too, getting joints and everything right. Oh, and hands," he snorted, "shaff hands, took me a long time to work out how to do them properly."

Malcarreth replied with a yawn, flopping down next to Kibeth. Swimming was very good exercise, Berth always did say so. A good way to strengthen wings, to tone legs and build up stamina without any stress on joints.

"Other people would disagree," C'tis replied simply; voice quite, wide shoulders lifting in a brief shrug.

"Anyway though, I can draw your hand yes." This time he looked at Rochelle and smiled a little again. "I can't say I've ever taught anyone so I'm shaffed if I know how to start. Might as well begin with a quick sketch demo though, I can show you how I build up from basic shapes to something that look hand-like. I won't bother cleaning it up though, that'd take time we could be using on looking at other examples." At least she valued him and Mal. It didn't matter what other idiots thought... except it did because it affected their lives. Hugely.

Making a noise of agreement Malcarreth allowed his first two sets of eyelids to close. he reasoned lazily,