Too nice for being inside [Open]

[catnip]

It was the perfect afternoon for just sitting outside, and since Echlerov had already finished his chores for the day, he didn't see any reason why he shouldn't. He was leaning up against a wall, slightly out of the way, working on repairing one of his more comfortable pairs of pants. They had only gotten a minor tear on the side, but he wanted to get it fixed before it turned into a major one.

His bronze firelizard cheeped at him, and then tugged on the hyena boy's tail. "Hold on a second, Charm. I'm almost done, and then I'll pay attention to you." He had been hoping to get all the things he was repairing done, not that there was much, just the one pair of pants, and a shirt, but it was obvious that he wouldn't get anything else done until he paid attention to his bronze. He was just glad that his green was off doing whatever she was off doing or else he would have had a pair of firelizards begging for attention.

He tied the thread off, and then sat the pants down on the ground, on top of the shirt he hadn't gotten to yet. "Alright." The firelizard hopped into his lap and nudged his hand. Echlerov chuckled, and caressed the bronze. "You're so demanding."

[Coal]

Garienne was not a big outdoorsy person, in fact it was rare to find her anywhere other than the lower caverns unless she happened to be cooking. She disliked being out in the open, for she often felt vulnerable and uncomfortably visible. There were times, however, when even she needed to venture out and get some sunlight for whatever reason, and today that reason was Meerus.

The bronze firelizard often became restless if cooped up indoors all day, a problem that should have been easily resolved by opening a door and letting him flap about by himself. Unfortunately Meerus was a clingy and rather over-protective creature, and the only time he willingly left Garienne’s side was if he was chasing a female. Encouraging him to go and enjoy himself alone for a bit was a rather hopeless endeavour. There was also the fact that Meerus, when alone, had a habit of getting into mischief. A territorial and rather prickly creature, he seemed to take pleasure in starting fights with other male flits, especially browns and other bronzes, and so it was best if Garienne stayed with him. That would have worked very well, had the warm sun not made her drowsy to the point where she fell asleep leaning against a tree.

For a while Meerus stayed quietly by her, but when half a candlemark had gone by and she still hadn’t stirred, he took off and began to fly around in a lazy circle, always keeping her in sight. He hunted a little at first, snapping VTOLs, but he soon tired of that game. It was then that he spotted a familiar looking Tailed, and in his lap was another firelizard, another bronze. More bored than angry he swooped down and hovered above the pair, shrieking a loud challenge at the other flit. Woken by the emotion in her flit’s mind, Garienne snapped her eyes open and got to her feet, jogging to the scene heedless of her dishevelled state. She arrived panting before the boy, who she now recognised as fellow candidate Echlerov, and snatched Meerus out of the air before he could cause any more trouble. She blinked down at the hyena boy in embarrassment for a moment before offering an awkward “Uh, sorry; he didn’t mean it.”

[catnip]

He really didn't do this often enough, and he noticed a few rough spots on the lizards hide. He would have to oil him later, and probably Vine too, to prevent the hide from cracking.

His ears twitched when another firelizard shrieked a challenge, and then again when Charm responded with a querying trill. He had no objections to other males, but he wasn't about to let the bronze get away with anything.

Thankfully, before anything could start, a rather familiar wolf girl showed up, snatching the bronze out of the air. "It's alright, " he responded, grinning at her, "these two hadn't gotten past the introduction stage yet."

[Coal]

Garienne was rather relieved that Echlerov had not been annoyed by Meerus’ antics. Usually she couldn’t care less what people thought of her or her firelizard because she could simply vanish off and never see them again, at least not close enough for them to recognise her, but seeing as Echlerov was a fellow candidate she would likely have to see a fair bit of him in the coming sevendays, and she really didn’t want to be making enemies; the last thing she needed was the hyena tailed spreading rumours about her so that her classmates started picking on her.

Thus she gave a thin, rather awkward smile in response to his pardon, gently scratching Meerus’ hide to quiet him as the bronze continued to glower irritably at the other bronze as well as its owner who, as far as the little flit could tell, had been the cause of his girl’s current state of mild distress.

Ordinarily Garienne would have then gone on her way; quite aside from the fact that she was hardly a talkative person, she would be needed back at the kitchens soon for one thing, although admittedly that wasn’t a very tempting idea. Still, she hesitated for a moment. The hyena guy seemed generally nice, unlike a lot of the people she knew that were close to her own age, and she guessed it couldn’t hurt to know someone at least a little, if only for the purpose of having some back up when people inevitably began using her to test their jibes and jokes. What to say though? She had never been good at smalltalk. She was quiet for a moment, then her light brown eyes returned to the boy’s pet and she said, ”I didn’t know you had a firelizard…” Her tone making the statement sound rather like a question.

[catnip]

Echlerov's bronze had settled back down once the girl had arrived, nudging his boy's hand so that he would continue petting him. He smiled down at the flit, and continued running his hand over the firelizard's hide.

For a minute there, he had thought the girl was going to run off after apologizing, but when she stayed, and commented on not knowing that he had a firelizard, he was pleasantly surprised.

"I've actually got two," the boy admitted. "Lucky Charm here, and then my green, Vine. I try not to take them to dinner with me cause they're both beggers." He chuckled. "Pains, the both of them, but I have to say I love them dearly. Do you just have the one?"

He wasn't sure if she had any others, and since that seemed like a topic that she was comfortable with, he figured that he could stick to it for a moment at least. Maybe that would help her become comfortable around him.

[Coal]

”Oh,” Was all Garienne could think to say when Echlerov told her that the bronze wasn’t the only firelizard he had, though fortunately the boy was continuing to talk so that she wasn’t left standing there not knowing what to say. She was still a little wary it had to be said, though Echlerov’s happy, easy conversation was at least encouraging. Perhaps, Garienne thought to herself, she should have tried to make friends with boys all along; it had always been girls that treated her the most unkindly.

At his question, she frowned for a moment before answering, gazing down at the flit rather than looking at the boy. ”Uh, yeah, just… just Meerus.” And she rubbed a hand down the flit’s back. For a moment she was quiet, then she added, ”My father bought his egg for me.” If she sounded oddly defensive it was because numerous people had insinuated, if not downright said, that she, being a poor kitchen girl, would never have been able to afford an egg big enough to hold a bronze and so she must have stolen it. She didn’t really think Echlerov was trying to imply that, but it never hurt to be sure.

At any rate, she changed the subject. ”How long have you been a candidate?” She asked after a moment, thinking that a safe topic.

[catnip]

She was oddly defensive when she responded about just having the one firelizard, and Echlerov knew that he shouldn't push. Not now. "That was nice of him." In fact it was slightly amusing that she had gotten her bronze the same way that he had, from an egg that was bought by a father. "That's how I ended up with Charm here too. Vine was from a wild clutch, green I think, since her egg was the only one to hatch."

When she changed the subject, he went along with it, answering her question happily, his tail wagging. "I've not been a candidate for very long," he said. "This'll be my first hatching." He was really excited for it, hoping that his dragon would be there. He had to be. "How many hatchings have you stood for? Are you weyrbred?"

[Coal]

Still looking down at her flit, Garienne gave a momentary frown at Echlerov’s first response to her words, suspicious that his ‘that was nice of him’ was intended as subtle mockery, though when he told her that his bronze had also been gifted him by his father, she realised that he was actually just making conversation. For the first time she looked directly at him, face still as quiet and expressionless as ever, though her eyes had a certain gleam to them, a wary curiosity. “Oh.” Was all she said when he told her about finding his green’s egg, but at least it wasn’t as forced as her previous comments had been.

She wasn’t surprised to learn that he hadn’t been a candidate for long; she didn’t think she’d recognised the hyena boy from previous hatchings. She saw his excitement; apparently hyena taileds waved their tales when they were excited as much as wolf tailed did. Meerus climbed out of her grip to curl on her shoulder and she began subconsciously wringing her hands together, blunt black claws running over skin; she’d been as excited as that about her first hatching as well, even if she hadn’t been as keen to show it. Now she wondered whether he’d be disappointed if he didn’t Impress. He seemed to be about her age, give or take a Turn, and yet he seemed to act a lot younger; he might take such disappointment hard.

She shrugged when he asked her how many hatchings she’d Stood for, giving a blunt ”Two”. Garienne did not like to be reminded that she’d failed to Impress so far, as she was now fairly certain she was never going to. She nodded at his last question; ”Yeah, I’m from here.”

[catnip]

The girl wasn't very talkative, something that the boy found slightly unusual for a girl, but he certainly didn't mind that. He could talk more than enough for the both of them.

She seemed uncomfortable talking about how many times she had stood, and with a bit of thought, decided that he would work on changing the conversation. Maybe she'd be more comfortable with him if she knew a bit more about him. It really kind of bothered him that she was so uneasy around him, and the boy really wanted to do what he could to change that.

"Me too. That is, from here. I just haven't lived here since I was about 6 or so." He didn't really remember much from his time here at the weyr, but his parents, as much as they might not pay much attention to him, were riders, and that made him weyrbred as much as the next.

"My foster mom thought that I 'needed' something to do to keep me out of trouble." He grinned at her. "Can't say that she wasn't wrong about that."

[Coal]

Garienne was rather glad that Echlerov decided to change the topic from how many times she’d Stood before. It wasn’t that she was ashamed of it, exactly, in fact she’d become rather apathetic, assuming that she was never going to Impress, but she did feel rather awkward reminding Echlerov that he might not succeed when he was clearly so excited for the upcoming hatching. There was also the fact that, subconsciously, the wolf-tailed felt that people would think less of her because of her failure, even if she knew full well that it was not uncommon for people to Impress on their third or fourth attempt.

She raised her eyebrows in slight surprise when he told her he had been raised outside of the Weyr; one usually heard of children being brought into it not sent out. ”Oh.” She said in her usual way, ”Where did you stay then? With your foster mom?” Garienne did not know a great deal about how fostering worked. She’d lost her mother when she was six, and had been raised by the crèche workers thereafter until she was old enough to be useful in the kitchens. Well educated, she was not.

She gave a momentary frown when Echlerov implied that he often got into trouble. She didn’t like troublemakers; in her world, troublemakers were the ones that would poor cold water over you while you slept or tip over a pot of stew you’d spent candlemarks working on. Still, she got the impression that what Echlerov meant was rather more benign, and so she chose not to comment.

[catnip]

"Off at a little cothold about an hour ride away from the weyr," he answered. "My foster mom had a brother living there, and sent me to live with him." It had been the ideal location to send a young energetic child, with plenty of things for him to get into, and really, looking back, probably had been better for him.

He did regret not getting to grow up with the current batch of candidates though, the ones that hadn't been searched. Oh well. Too late for regrets now.

"He's a Journeyman Vinter, and was working at the cothold's vineyard. They supply a fairly decent portion of the wine for us." He was babbling a bit, and he grinned sheepishly. "It was a great place for an energetic kid."