Logs:Damsel in Distress
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| RL Date: 1 April, 2015 |
| Who: Ghena, Laine, Rafevan |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Ghena and Knioth take Laine for a ride; Rafe's swept up in their wake. |
| Where: Lake Shore, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 2, Month 6, Turn 37 (Interval 10) |
| Weather: Warm sunshine and cloudless skies make for a beautiful day. |
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>---< Lake Shore, High Reaches Weyr(#276RJs) >-------------------------------<
The rest of the bowl may be barren, grass barely surviving at best, but
here by the lake, it's brilliantly green in the warmer months: thickening
and thriving in the silty, boulder-dotted soil just before it transitions
to soft sand and thence to the cool, clear water itself.
A large freshwater lake fed by a low waterfall, it not only provides
warm-weather bathing space for humans and dragons, but has one end fenced
off as a watering hole for the livestock in the feeding grounds. The water
there is often muddier than the rest of the clear lake, whose shallows
drop off abruptly several yards out into deep water, and whose edge
undulates against the coarse-hewn bowl wall: here close enough to just be
bramble-covered rocks, there far enough away that a narrow land bridge
divides the main lake from a smallish pond. Between are several rocky
outcroppings that form excellent makeshift diving points, though only one
-- across the bridge -- has a set of narrow, slippery, quite possibly
tempting stairs.
Warm sunshine and cloudless skies make for a beautiful day and pleasantly
warm evening. A breeze tempers the heat with no humidity lingering in the
air.
-----------------------------< Active Players >-----------------------------
Laine F 17 5'4" trim, dark hair, grey eyes 0s
----------------------------------< Exits >---------------------------------
Diving Cliff Lake Bowl Far End of Lake
>--------------------------------------< 2D 6M 37T I10, summer afternoon >---< It's a warm, breezy afternoon-turning-to-evening, with the sun shifting overhead and threatening to sink below the bowl rim, casting long shadows. But the air is warm yet and the rock wall of the bowl has been baking in the daylight, and with those spring rains seemingly past, there's lots of activity in the bowl. The lake--muddy as yet, green grass struggling to encroach through a brown and marshy shoreline--is especially busy, with dragons and people alike enjoying the warmer weather. And then there's Laine: standing some distance from the lake, her hands balled on her hips, staring intently at an outcropping jutting from the bowl wall, some five meters higher. For an unreasonably long time, she doesn't move. The pale blue tunic Ghena wears is almost unbuttoned to indecency, but summer has finally settled in and she has a dragon to wash, judging from the bucket of scrubbing implements, and the silvery blue who whooshes between Lane and that outcropping at a dangerously low altitude, to land in the lake with a massive splash, much to the displeasure of bathers and dragons. "Oy. Knioth, no trick flying you damn show off." She's only wearing a well-fitted sport's bra and looser pants with ties at the calf, herself, so Laine's not really one to comment on indecency. In any case, the trimly-built woman had already begun moving toward the wall, concentration furrowing her brow, when that blue suddenly shears between her and the rock, and with a shout of displeasure of her own, she raises an arm to shield her eyes and stumbles back. Concentration's broken. When Laine turns, it's with a soured downward turn of her mouth, and after she tracks that blue to the water her gaze seeks out the source of that voice. "Could you not?" The blue rumbles brassily, fanning his wings in her direction. Ghena's attention is now drawn to the woman and the wall, running a hand through dishwater brown hair. "Sorry, he's... all the greens lately, make him think he's Faranth's gift to dragon kind." She tilts her head looking at the wall. "What are you doing?" On closer inspection, Laine's revealed to be flushed, sweat dotting her forehead, and her short damp hair (standing stark upright) barely budges even for the blue's breezy attention. "I'm trying--" She begins curtly, then pauses. Her hands flex, stretching fingers wide then clenching, and the girl inhales. Exhales. When she speaks again, it's with a degree of composure. "I'm trying to get from here," a foot comes down on the hard-packed earth, "To there." That lumpy stone outcropping some distance up the wall. "You gonna grow wings to do it?" The bluerider smirks, playfully, looking between rock and woman. The blue slogging his way back on shore to inspect this momentous feat. "And what will you do when you get from here to there? Climb up to a ledge and peek inside?" Laine eyes the water-shedding blue as he approaches, and maybe it's an excuse to edge nearer to the rock wall, but the candidate does so anyway. There's almost an eyeroll in response to Ghena's sassy remark, but Laine bites her lip, tosses her head. "Come back down," she shrugs. There's even a thick, reed-packed mattress (probably dragged all the way out here from storage) at the foot of the wall. Conceivably, Laine could just jump off. "Why? One of those ledges up there yours?" That silver blue muzzle pokes in Laine's direction. "He thinks jumping back down might... hurt." Obviously edited to be understandable. "It might be, why, do you want to see inside?" Ghena laughs, thumping her lifemate hard on his shoulder. "You ever been flying?" "There's a trick to it," Laine replies tartly to Knioth with a finger-wag at that mattress. "A big part of the trick is to make sure you land on the cushy pad and not the ouchy ground. Anyway, if I was really practising today, I'd downclimb it anyway." Tipping her chin back, Laine considers the wall face, shading her eyes with one hand. She side-eyes Ghena. "No. And--yes." But that yes is a reluctant one, drawled out. Ghena laughs, "Oh come on I don't bite. At least not unless it's a flight." She tilts her head looking at the rock and the girl again. "You don't have gear, to help with the ouchy ground and falling? Some of the search and rescue groups use these harneses." She frowns, as the blue eyes her. "I doubt she wants to Knioth, just look at her you scared her to death." "Sure, I've got a harness. Can't use it solo, though, unless I wanted to rig up an elaborate ropes system." Those grey eyes flash with impish amusement. "Which is not as much fun as it sounds. Bouldering?" Laine motions: apparently that's what she's doing, "Can do that by myself." The candidate considers first Ghena, then Knioth, tugging at the nail on her index finger with her teeth. "What are you implying?" Ghena waves a hand, "It's nothing, he just suggested that if you wanted to see the world from a higher point, we should take you. But you probably aren't interested." She taps the bucket against her thigh, slapping the dragon's shoulder. "Come on you scoundrel, into the water with you." Ghena grunts, "Gotta get you clean before drills." "Ho-o-o-old on, hold on." Clipping off her fingernail, Laine spits it on the ground next to her (gross) then wags two fingers at Ghena. "I've seen the Weyr from a vantage, thanks. Be surprised how high you can climb this old wall." The candidate lays her hand, finger splayed, on the rock. "But I don't think it's up to you to decide if I'm interested or not." There's a grey-eyed, appraising look landed on Knioth. "'Less he'd rather a wash." Her dry tone says it all: wash? Boring. Ghena shrugs looking at her lifemate, then back at the tanner. "What do you think mate? Think she can handle it?" The blue just tosses his head, and noses at the bucket, which might be indicated as a desire for a wash, but his straps are there. So Ghena sets the bucket against the wall pulling out the straps and the blue settles so he can be fitted with them. "Isn't too late to back down, if your scared." Laine circles around Knioth as Ghena begins the intricate process of harnessing him with straps, observing. She stops near Knioth's head, a certain tenseness bringing her shoulder down and back, and tentatively she reaches out her hand toward his muzzle. "Ain't scared," she grunts, somewhat petulantly, although she's belied by those knit brows and slightly downturned mouth. The shimmery knight in shining armor blue wuffs a soft breath at her hand, gently pushing the warm soft hide of his nose into her hand, eyes whirling contentedly. Ghena grins. "Good. Ain't nothing like it, being in the air. We were born to it, me an him. He's all precision and speed and just... amazing. His sister though, you ever seen a dragon fly backward? She does it. Damnedest thing you ever saw." She finishes checking the straps and tossing a belt to the tanner as she afixes her own, using lanky limbs to pull herself up between the blue's neck ridges. She offers a hand, but the tanner can probably manage the climb on her own. Weight shifting in response to Knioth's muzzle in her hand, Laine rocks backward, but doesn't break contact with the blue. A peculiar mix of marvel and reverence infuses her voice as she says, a suddenly candid admission: "Been here two years. Can count on one hand the times I've been this close to a dragon." She turns her eyes up to Ghena. When she's caught the belt, the candidate ignores that tendered hand, and clambers up onto the blue with no small amount of agility--although she does exclaim a quiet, "Oh," as she braces herself with one foot against his bent hindleg. "That didn't hurt him, did it?" Rafevan heads in from the bowl. Rafevan has arrived. Knioth rumbles, as though to say it does not, but Ghena nods. "He's fine. He's survived this long with me climbing all over him. Just be glad you are spared the sonnets." It's between afternoon and dusk. Showing her the straps and checking them to make sure they are tight before fastening her own. Triple-checking. The bluerider seems to have tricked one of the candidates into trying out what dragon riding is like first hand. The silvery blue holding steady and patient, nosing about while he waits. Laine echoes, "Sonnets?" and cocks her head as though she might hear one. Despite Ghena's reassurances, the candidate is ginger in her grasp around the neckridge she's straddling, and happy to lift her arms or turn to accomodate while the bluerider tightens cinches and double-checks. Only once she's really strapped in does the apprentice tanner appear like she might be having second thoughts--but she captures her lower lip in her teeth and says nothing. They're not the only ones out on the lakeshore today, enjoying something a little warmer than the winter they've survived. Rafevan wanders down along the shore with hands in the pockets of his jacket. The blue and his present rider earn his attention for the moment: he recognizes one of the pair, after all, and lifts a brow slightly as he surveys Laine with curiosity. Knioth's attention falls onto the onlooker and the blue lurches forward, moving in that direction. "Too late now, you are already strapped in. You ready?" Ghena almost cackles at Laine, though seems caught off guard by the blue's sudden detour. When the dragon moves, Laine grips harder, her body swaying in response and her legs clamping tigher around the blue's bulk. The candidate latches on to the distraction and leans toward Rafevan, freeing a hand to wave eagerly in his direction. "Rafe--Rafevan! Come ride this dragon with me!" It's a pleading enjoinder, that might have a hint of alarm colouring the edges of it. Rafevan, in return, just stares at Laine. And the dragon, too. "I've ridden them before!" he calls back up at her, pitching his voice to carry. He doesn't seem in any hurry to rescue her, though whether that's amusement at her predicament or his own unwillingness to get aboard is debateable. "Why do I need to now?" "It is the gentlemanly thing to do, saving damsels in distress." Ghena offers, reaching for the other belt tied to Knioth's straps. "But then again, if you don't want to come along, I sure as shit ain't gonna force you." She smirks. "You probably haven't ridden this one!" Laine's exclaimed justification is... a stretch at best. Even so, that outstretched hand makes grabby motions at the smith. She wriggles in place, as though testing the strength and tautness of the straps. Dangling it out like an enticement, she calls, "We're going, uh--" Abruptly trailing off, Laine asks of Ghena in a lower voice, "Where are we going?" Louder, again, to Rafevan: "Just ride the dragon, Rafe!" Point to Laine, though: he hasn't ridden that dragon. Still, he tells Ghena dryly, "I don't think I agree with any of those words: 'gentlemanly' or 'damsel' or 'in distress'." But for Laine, he sighs, dips his head in concession. "Fine, fine." And then he's stepping forward to climb aboard, too. At least he knows what he's doing there. Knioth rumbles his approval, even as the young man clambers aboard and Ghena loosens the extra belt from the straps. "I trust you know how to check the straps. If you splat, I will have to fill out a lot of paperwork." Not something the bluerider cares for. "I am not in distress," Laine objects. "I just want to... share this experience. With my fellow crafters." Having a third victi--er, party aboard Knioth somehow seems to ease Laine's discomfort, even if that third party is Rafevan. Laine swivels to watch him climb up, without offering any assistance, then turns grey, narrowed eyes on Ghena. "No splat," Laine orders with a poke at the bluerider's back. Rafevan settles into place behind Laine, steadying himself with one hand against her back for a moment, until he's settled properly. He buckles himself in securely, double-checks the straps before he's satisfied. "Your fellow crafter, hm?" he says, slanting a look at the candidate in front of him; his tone at least is more curious than judgmental. "Why do you think I triple checked your straps." She grins over her shoulder at Laine. "Oh that looks like distress -" Her words cut off as the blue lurches, launching into the air without warning, and with each beat of his wings lifting higher and higher. There's a gleeful giggle out of the rider as she glances back to check her charges. Through gritted teeth, Laine's halfway through her response, ("Distress my as--") when Knioth heaves forward and upward, and the tanner gasps, screwing her eyes tight shut. She clutches blindly at the blue's neckridge, gripping with a climber's strength at his smooth hide. When Ghena turns, though, Laine's already cracking one eye to peek. "Shells," she manages to wheeze, "Like a punch in your gut." Rafevan is maybe a little better prepared, bracing his hands in the straps a half-instant before Knioth takes off. But only just. He doesn't even manage a reply out loud, his attention focused on just holding on, teeth gritted for the time being. Laine is going to owe him for this one. Ghena grins as they continue to climb, higher and higher. "Well, It helps when he gives you a warning." Like the rider probably should have. Still She seems to be having fun as the lake beneath them shrinks, Knioth adjusting his wings to catch an updraft. "Told you, nothing in the world like it." Poor Rafe. When they hit the high point, and can see the entire bowl and the mountains around, there is a brief instant of weightlessness, before flying becomes falling with style. "Hold on to your lunch." That peeking turns into glancing turns into staring as the water below them falls away and Laine leans out, trusting those snug straps to hold her, and she cranes her head to peer around the steady-beating wings. That peak at the top of Knioth's ascention earns another sharp intake of air from the tanner, and she's loosing a hand, reaching out to point at something in the distance, opens her mouth--and whatever she's going to say is lost in that weightless drop. There's a string of curses that would make a grizzled sailor blush. Up they go--and then down down down. Rafe is holding on to the straps still, white-knuckled, as Knioth dives. And then Laine is cursing up a storm, and Rafe? Rafe actually laughs, only half at her, though there's a little nigh-hysterical edge to it. The blue levels out, soaring out and away from the bowl, air sending them int a glide rather than a free fall. Ghena checks back again, grinning at the pair of them, something utterly approving in every aspect of her expression. Knioth catches another updraft spiraling up slowly this time, giving them room to breathe. "Told you it was better than rock climbing," Ghena shouts, as they glide back in the direction of the bowl. Rafe's laugh cuts through Laine's string of profanity, and when Knioth straightens and sails forward, the candidate gasps for air against the blue's neckridge, which conveniently brings that cussing to an end. Her fingers are creeping gingerly around the straps, belts, and harnesses holding her in, tracing their shape (perhaps out of a professional interest), one hand making its way behind her and potentially bumping Rafe's knee. The tanner, laughing, calls forward into the whipping wind, "Didn't say it was! It's something, though!" Only when Knioth levels out does Rafevan seem to get his breath back, loosening his grip a little. Just enough to lean forward to Laine, and inform her, "You owe me." The path takes them back, losing altitude as they sail over the bowl, of course... someone may have miscalculated, as they seem to be moving too fast to stop at the lake shore. "Knoith!" The bluerider growls before the blue is landing in the lake, sending water everywhere. Mostly on his rider. "Really?" She grumbles at the blue as he moves to where people can disembark. Laine turns her head when Rafevan speaks, the better to catch his words in the wind. She grins; it's likely only half-visible from where he's seated, but her chuckle must be audible, at least. So she's not looking when Knioth drops into the lake--the cold water takes her by surprise, and she squeals. "Pardon you!" She's swift to unbuckle, once they're moved somewhat out of the lake. Rafevan valiantly tries to--well, hide, really. Ducking down doesn't work so well when the person immediately in front of you is most of a foot shorter than you are. He still ends up good and damp, wiping his face on his sleeve before he starts unbuckling too. "Well. That was certainly interesting," he notes then. "What brought this on?" Ghena slips down eyeing all the wet leather with a venomous glare for the blue. "You've never done something just to see the looks on folk's faces?" She enquires of Rafe, grinning as she quickly removes the leather hopefully salvaging it before its ruined. "Sorry I didn't have much control over the landing, and he's got a flair for the dramatic." Is offered to Laine. "She was casting aspersions on my mettle," Laine says with a self-satisfied tone as she slithers down from Knioth and plants her feet (gratefully) in the soft lakeside sand. The tanner apprentice sniffs. "Interrupted a perfectly good rock climbing session to do it, too." Grey eyes sweep up and down Rafe's length. "Thanks for the... moral support. --your leathers gonna be okay?" "Well. It was--very exciting," Rafe notes when he slides down, reaching up to awkwardly give Knioth a pat on the shoulder. Good dragon? He shakes his head, mostly at himself, for that move. "Well, we can't have that," he tells Laine then, turning to her with a bemused expression. "I hope you've defended your honor now." Ghena laughs, watching that pat. Once freed the blue slinks off to the deeper end of the lake. "I made no aspersions; you did that all on your own." The bluerider winks. "Sorry about the landing, he's been throwing me in the drink all his life. I have to admit though, I'm impressed." The candidate watches Knioth go with a thoughtful tilt of her head, stepping back to avoid having her shoes lapped by the resulting waves. "I feel suitably redeemed, yeah." Laine sparkles a smile at Rafevan. "That was--exhilarating. And terrifying." Air fills her cheeks and she exhales it all at once, fanning her face. "I think I need to go lay down for a bit," she jokes. "I'll walk you in," volunteers Rafevan to Laine, brushing at his clothes. "I should get changed myself. It's still a little too cold to be walking around half-soaked. --Thank you, though." That, to Ghena herself. More formally, "And my regards to your lifemate." |
Comments
Roz (14:26, 2 April 2015 (EDT)) said...
This was hilarious. I literally laughed through the whole thing. Oh, Laine. Oh, Rafe. Oh, Ghena. You guise. Well done!
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