Logs:Can We Not?
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| RL Date: 10 May, 2015 |
| Who: Hattie, Lilah, Elaruth, Eliyaveith |
| Involves: Fort Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Lilah pushes at a subject neither Hattie nor Elaruth really want to talk about. |
| Where: Galleries, Fort Weyr |
| When: Day 7, Month 10, Turn 37 (Interval 10) |
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| By mid-afternoon, the galleries have filled up significantly compared to much earlier in the morning, creating a quiet hum of chatter throughout the cavern. The noise is, as requested (expected), low, yet, even so, it seems to be nagging at Elaruth, who has woken from her post-clutching nap and curled possessively around her clutch, nose all but touching one of the smaller eggs at the edge of the group, the white-gold tip of her tail twitching in a low-key, agitated kind of way. It's the only sign of anything amiss, for otherwise she appears perfectly content to be where and as she is, her focus currently on her rider, who is just this moment stepping up from the Sands and into the first row of galleries seating. It is Eliyaveith's mind that brushes first against her dam's, her warmth infused with the brightness and happiness of the day. This day. It is obviously, in her mind, a great day. « May I see them? » she requests carefully, though she lingers on her ledge with her own twitchy anticipation, waiting for permission. « Are they lovely? I heard there are thirteen. That is a good number. » Elaruth's first instinct is to curl herself more securely around her eggs, a paw used to nudge one of them into a better, but barely perceptively different, spot than before. Weariness taints the usually gentle light of her touch to something a little more cloudy, shallow water reflecting pale clouds, but whether it's because she's too pleased with her eggs, or that it's Eliyaveith and not another queen, she agrees, « Yes, » her voice soft. « They are beautiful. » But then, she'd say so even if they weren't. They are to her. There's certainly a rush of the queen to push from her ledge, but by the time Eliyaveith wings into the hatching cavern, she has slowed perceptibly. She is careful in where she settles on the lowest ledges, crooning a greeting immediately to her dam and focused for a moment on her with happily whirling eyes before she finally gets about to studying those eggs that she came for. She offers Elaruth, « They will be just as beautiful when they hatch my brothers and sisters. » Whether summoned by her dragon's presence or taking it upon herself, it isn't long until Lilah joins Eliyaveith in that cavern, wrapped in her riding leathers with hair still bound up and smelling faintly of the infirmary. Her gaze slips over the gathering crowd, briefly observing who has decided to come see the eggs, before she sets herself in Hattie's direction. The eggs are that new that Elaruth can't help but tense as Eliyaveith lands, but when nothing tumbles down from those ledges, she eases mantling wings back and lifts her head, twisting her neck back to look up at her daughter and return her greeting in kind, though hers maintains the clattering quality that her voice always holds. « They will be perfect, » she claims with evident devotion, something unspoken there that implies that, being of the same blood, Eliyaveith must be too. When she settles back down, it's with her nose by that smaller egg once again, pale gold form curled almost nose to tail. In the galleries, Hattie lifts a skin of water and drinks, then covers her mouth to hide or try and suppress a yawn as she settles down into one of the nearby seats. Agreement is held so easily in Eliyaveith's thoughts for Elaruth's claims, a quiet brush of « Yes, » there against hers in assurance as well. Her own anticipation held to a stillness here for her dam's sake more than anything else, her attention turning back to those eggs with a low croon catching in her throat and a consideration that might be too intense for anyone's comfort. Lucky they are eggs. "Congratulations," is Lilah's greeting to her Weyrwoman, glancing briefly to the nearest spectator before she adds, "They look like a healthy clutch." Familiarity or a hefty dose of her rider's commonsense make the galleries and all those people (and their noise) a more pressing threat to watch for than the presence of another queen, despite what instinct may command, and so Elaruth keeps her focus primarily on the tiers of seating across the way, sleepy though she is. Politely, Hattie answers Lilah with, "Thank you," as she settles the skin of water on an empty seat, on top of her abandoned jacket. "There don't seem to be any that look... different. And she had an easy enough time of clutching them." "Good, good," Lilah murmurs in response, her lips flattening into a line and casting a glance towards the eggs to check for herself even as she claims a seat next to Hattie without waiting for an invitation. "I thought I should come to see for myself. Even if there had been, I doubt Eliyaveith would have thought they were anything but perfect," she explains for her own presence. "I'll be keeping watch, anyway," Hattie states, with an edge of distracted focus that suggests she's trying to keep that intent - or the reasons for it - from her queen. Or perhaps the tightness to her expression there is down to reading too much into Lilah's words. "I think I'll ask everyone to clear out for a bit later, or she's not going to get any proper sleep this evening and we'll both be out of sync with everyone else for days. Not that I suppose it matters so much, in her case, except for anything she asks of Bijedth." Lilah tips her chin in agreement, offering a simple, "I won't stay long," for her own part even where dark eyes slide to her Weyrwoman in a brief study of her. If she notes that tension and tightness, she says nothing of it. Instead, she questions, "She doesn't think there's a queen?" Though Hattie acknowledges her junior's response with the dip of her chin, she says, "There's no rush. It'll be hours yet." It's mention of a queen that draws her focus back towards Elaruth and the eggs that she's keeping sat close together and nestled against her, all without easy reach and easily veiled by a wing. "There are two or three that are bigger than the rest, but they're likely bronzes or browns," she hazards. "She's usually picked out a gold by now, and..." Her gesture is in the direction of the smaller egg that looks to be her queen's focus right now. "I wonder if they can sense whether another queen is needed. Or if Eliyaveith's presence in the Weyr--," considers Lilah quietly, her gaze drawn out towards that smaller egg at Hattie's gesture, a curious look for the way Elaruth interacts with it. "Is she talking to it?" "I've never been able to figure it out," Hattie confesses, shrugging one shoulder. "We've usually had two or three queens in residence at once during her lifemate, and she was the only junior before she was senior. There must be something to it, or I suppose we'd be overrun with queens, if the only instinct was to breed. Maybe it would be different if Eliyaveith wasn't hers." Her smile is soft as she murmurs, "She talks to all of them, though not often in proper words. I can never really tell if she gets answers. Intelligible ones, anyway." "What does she say?" Lilah questions on this easier topic, leaning forward slightly to watch Elaruth and her egg. "Encourages, bonds? Checks to make sure that it is ok?" "I've heard everything from stories to how much she loves them." Hattie tries to be matter of fact about it, but she can't prevent that faint, silly-edged smile from resurfacing. "...But..." She sobers and looks down into her lap. "Well, if she was able to get a clear sense of whether they're okay or not, I'm sure she would have noticed dud eggs before they simply don't hatch." "She rolled them away, last time," points out Lilah, though her words are kept carefully quiet as she brings this subject back up to the Weyrwoman. "She must get some sense from her conversations." "They weren't all dead eggs," Hattie insists through a clenched jaw, fingers curling into the fabric of her skirts. "And there were the outward signs that they weren't quite as right as the rest, besides." She tries to keep her voice even and calm, but what she suppresses finds another out in Elaruth, who emits a low, worried noise from the back of her throat. "Can we not?" the Weyrwoman utters rhetorically, as she abruptly gets to her feet. Lilah's dark gaze lifts as Hattie stands, her lips pressing into a soft line before she draws to her own feet a moment behind the Weyrwoman, rather than remaining below her. She points out firmly, "These are things that I will need to know one day, Hattie. I don't mean to upset her, but--. Nevermind." She even shakes her head, dismissively, before turning on a heel. When the answer comes, it's shouted, and seems to take even Hattie by surprise. "I can't tell you what I don't know, you unfeeling--!" She manages to bite back the rest of what she might have said, if only because people are staring and Elaruth has flung a wing out over her clutch, and stands there absolutely still for a moment or two, eyes wide and glassy as her cheeks darken with embarrassment or shame. Likewise, she turns away, to meet her lifemate and hide herself beneath that wing too. If the galleries shut early, maybe it's no surprise. |
Comments
Edyis (20:12, 11 May 2015 (EDT)) said...
Heartbreaking the way Elaruth hides her clutch.
Cass (22:59, 13 May 2015 (EDT)) said...
Elaruth speaking to the eggs is such a lovingly sweet image! Though, yowch, terribly sad in the topic broached!
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