Logs:The Grapes of... Cheerfulness
| |
|---|
| |
| RL Date: 3 September, 2014 |
| Who: C'stian, Jonas, Telavi |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: C'stian introduces the Healer Hall kids to Liesanth, and Telavi shamelessly bribes a boy. They meet. |
| Where: Healer Hall |
| When: Day 17, Month 9, Turn 35 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Calia/Mentions, E'lai/Mentions, Evanthe/Mentions |
 |
| It's the first time since Impression that C'stian has been back at Healer Hall for more than a brief stopover, and somehow things feel somehow different than they did all through his childhood. For one, his usual lounging spot beneath a tree where he would sit to study of an afternoon when he was an Apprentice Healer now seems somewhat more cramped by the addition of a bronze dragon who would really rather be flying, but will accept a nap as a consolation prize. The crowd of younger children who stare at the dragon from a safe distance is also new, though admittedly a bit amusing to the bronzerider. Not napping is Solith, who landed neatly in the road-- in the road, just long enough to drop off her rider and passengers-- not long ago. Telavi had looked all official then as she played escort, but now, after she's given a nod to the gatekeeper and walked back out with sandwich in hand, it's a different story with her gait more of an amble and her face turned up to the sunshine more often than not. It might be the children who attract her attention first, in a wary sort of way; dragons, they're part of the scenery. Which doesn't mean she doesn't drift in that direction even so. One of the children, perhaps nine or ten, takes several hesitant steps towards Liesanth, staring up with her eyes wide. It's not like they haven't seen dragons before, of course, but usually not quite so close up. And generally not when they're bonded to someone who they thought of as one of them until not long again. Perhaps that's why C'stian finally glances over with a grin. "You know, you can come here and say hello if you'd like, Marta," he offers. "His name is Liesanth, and he's friendly." Telavi's a foreigner, but a quiet one, by now on the outer reaches of that crowd-- it's that or wander, and more sky just looks like more sky-- and now she leans down to murmur to her neighbor, "He says that now." A moment or two of consideration later, "Do you believe him?" The kid Telavi speaks to, a young boy, turns to look up at her. "Nimah says that dragons eat you sometimes," he informs Telavi, in a hushed tone filled with that sort of gleefully terrified awe children have when they willingly frighten themselves. Liesanth, meanwhile, lifts his head to regard Marta, who scurries back a few steps shyly and stares up at the dragon. C'stian just watches this, though his attention does flick briefly to the adult among the crowd. "They do?" Tela casts a properly furtive look towards the dragon currently present, her Benden-inflected alto all tremulous with worry. "I'd better be more careful, then." Never mind her knot, though it is an assistant weyrlingmaster's and thus more complicated than the usual variety. After another bite of her meal, she asks, "What's he doing here?" This, with a lift of her chin towards both dragon and rider. "Castian used to be a Healer," the boy offers. "He grew up here and learned Healing and we all know him, but now he's got a dragon and lives in the Weyr." He pauses, as if realizing that doesn't really answer things, and adds, "He came to visit Healer Calia." "Did he. Was he any good?" Tela has to ask now. "I don't even know who Healer Calia is," and it's awful, implies her tone. "It's a good thing I ran into you!" Though she's finished off her sandwich, she delves into the netted sack swinging from her wrist and offers the kid a small cluster of grapes. They're small and bright, probably seedy but flavorful. Grapes! Bribery is always the ticket to a child's heart. "He wasn't bad. He was a Senior Apprentice before the dragons came and took him to the Weyr," the boy informs Telavi, before popping a fistful of grapes into his mouth. Around the fruit, he adds, "Heawwer Cawweha if hid muzzer." That might or more not be actually intelligible. Meanwhile, as it seems Marta has lost her nerve in terms of touching the bronze, C'stian has gotten to his feet. He dusts himself off as he moves towards the crowd of children. Telavi widens her eyes appropriately at this senior apprentice business, though the hard to understand part then has her repeating what she's hearing under her breath, as though that would help make sense of it all; "Is your... mother, is she a healer too?" she hazards now. If she's spotted C'stian's movement, it doesn't yet show. The boy swallows the grapes, and shakes his head. "My father," he tells Telavi, momentarily coherent. And then he regards her curiously. "You ask a lot of questions," he informs her gravely. "Why are you here?" C'stian, arriving behind the boy, offers a grin to Telavi. "Is Jonas here bothering you?" The boy shoots C'stian an irritated look. He doesn't bother anyone! "I do," Tela says with a sigh. "It's a failing of mine, except when it's not. Also, I'm--" looking at C'stian, now that he's turned up, though the rest of her mobile face turns reproving around still-laughing blue-green eyes. "Jonas is not. He's been very kind," and she offers the boy another small grape-cluster to underscore it. "By the way, Jonas, I'm Tela. Well met." "Fwhell mweft," Jonas replies, mouth quickly full of grapes again. C'stian cuffs him lightly on the back of the head at that. "Shards, I go away for like two years and you turn into a barbarian. You were better behaved when you were eight!" "But were you better-behaved when you were eight?" Telavi promptly asks the other rider, right after giving Jonas a sympathetic glance and right before popping a grape into her own mouth. Jonas sticks his (grape-stained) tongue out at the bronzerider, earning a grin in reply. "Keep acting like the Hall's kids don't have any table manners, and you won't get any of my turn-day sweets at dinner." To Telavi's query, he adds, "Do you want the diplomatic answer, or the real one? Because I'll say that of course I was perfectly behaved. Just, you know, don't go inside and actually ask anyone to back me up on that." A nod to the knot, and a curious, "What brings you to Healer Hall?" "He shares his turn-day sweets?" Telavi marvels, now eyeing the man as though he might have some on him right now, though she does peek again at Jonas as though for confirmation before it's her cue to answer. Cheerfully, "Does that mean you just gave me both? Because I like that best of all. Especially while playing delivery service. Is yours a reunion?" Perhaps he does have some of his sweets on him, because Jonas eyes the pouch at C'stian's side thoughtfully. The rider ignores this. "Yeah. I hadn't had a chance to come back and visit for more than a brief drop-off since I went to Fort as a Candidate. I had leave, it was almost my turn-day, and I hadn't seen my mother for a while." C'stian shrugs, grinning. "It's been nice, but we'll be heading back soon." "Well, congratulations," Tela says on cue, just a hint of dimple showing. "You don't still go by your first name, or do you? I have to say that 'cast'-ian seems singularly appropriate to a healer's son, and I'm counting on you both to assure me that it's on purpose." "I wouldn't put it past my mother," C'stian admits, rubbing the back of his head with a wry grin. "And close; I only misplaced one letter when I picked up a dragon. Bronze Liesanth's C'stian, out of Fort." "Mmm. Nicer than C'tan or C'tin," though Telavi asides to Jonas sotto voce, "Not that he needs me to approve his name or anything. Still!" As long as C'stian's given that formality, she offers her palm to cross, smiling upward. "Telavi with green Solith, from the 'Reaches. 'Liesanth,' hm?" as though it's somehow not unfamiliar. "If I had to change my name, it made sense to change it so that it barely sounded different; less to get used to. And Solith... why do I know that name," C'stian muses, crossing the palm as offered. Then it hits him. "Liesanth's green friend! The one he went flying with a while back, when we had a passenger to drop off at the 'Reaches." "Since it sounds like you liked it-- yes!" Tela's smile is brilliant now, even before she peeks again at the bronze, wings and what she might see of his spine and all. Back to C'stian, "'Liesanth the Strong and Fast,' isn't it? Or is it 'the Fast and Brave'? Maybe both, why not." "'The Strongest and the Fastest'," C'stian replies, in imitation of his dragon's tone, with a grin. "Though I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to tack 'the Bravest' on there someday as well. He's determined never to back down from a challenge, and that someday he'll excel at everything." Liesanth, meanwhile, does indeed have his wings folded across his back still to conceal whatever marks might be there, though he lifts his head at Telavi's regard, and stirs from his position. This, of course, earns a reaction from the children. (Namely, they take a few steps back.) "Oh, yes," Tela says with a laugh. "How could I let that slip. Is it a great deal of work, living with all that determination? Solith's--" but the movement, the shifting of the children and their scattered comments, these distract her into a more bemused sort of smile as she surveys the changing scene. Liesanth regards the children with bemusement. Finally, Marta steps forward. Okay, sure, he's BIG. But he's been here a week and he hasn't eaten ANYONE yet and she's going to show the boys that she isn't afraid. She takes a few more steps forward, holding her hand up to Liesanth. The bronze puts his head down and presses his nose against her hand. C'stian watches this with a grin. "It can be. Sometimes I rein him in, and sometimes I end up along for the ride. You started to say something about Solith?" Telavi's been watching, up on her toes for a better view-- but when Marta does make her move, when his dragon responds, she settles back down with a near-silent sigh of gratification. Good girl. "Hm? Oh, Solith's rarely difficult for me; we get along. There's something to be said for going along for the ride... Were you one of the boys who dreamed of dragon-riding? Jonas here had said you'd been a senior apprentice, even." "Actually, no. I had never really considered it," C'stian admits, watching Liesanth with a smile. "My mother was a Healer, I was raised in the Hall, I trained as a Healer... I figured the course of my life was set. It took a while to get used to being a rider, instead of a Healer who had a dragon in his head. But flying..." Perhaps, C'stian and his dragon are more alike than he'd admit, in some ways. "Flying," Telavi says in utter agreement, colored a touch wistful: why aren't they flying right now? But, more back to earth and curiously so, "Why did you say yes, then? If you don't mind my asking. Was it duty? And... do you miss it? Your Healing, I mean. It sounds as though you haven't been a full rider all that long," though there's a tentative quality here; she could be wrong. "Liesanth's not even two turns old, no," C'stian agrees. "I've been a full rider for maybe seven months. As for why I said yes? I suppose it was duty; to show respect from the Hall. And maybe a little bit of curiosity what it would be like; my father was a rider, though I never knew him." Liesanth, across the field, stretches his wings out for Marta. As he does so, the scarring across his back becomes evident to more distant observers, if perhaps not to the shorter girl in front of him. The confirmation has Tela considering his dragon once more; but, "Mmm. Funny how that works; my mother's a healer, but I've never known her," she says lightly yet without true humor. Her gaze returns to C'stian once more. With no particular weight, "He seems to protect his spine." "There was an accident on the hatching grounds," C'stian says, his tone somber now. "He and his sister Ziluyth got tangled up getting out of their eyes. She lost an eye -- moments after Impression, causing her bondmate to scream -- and his back was mangled. He was bleeding badly. He stumbled across the sands and collapsed in front of me. He'll have the scarring forever." Her own eyes have widened as she listens, darkening with the dilation of her pupils-- but Telavi still has them, both of them, and must count herself lucky for it. "That's awful," she says, no time to pretty up the language and make it more palatable, apology tingeing her expression afterward. "It doesn't... affect him, moving, does it? Solith didn't notice, but I'm not sure she would." "No... he was lucky," C'stian replies, shaking his head. "The scars ache sometimes, if the weather gets cold or wet. But they don't impair his movement at all. He's lucky, in that respect." And in the respect that he still has both eyes, rather more luckily than his sister. "It's hard when even something like that counts as lucky," Telavi admits. "One of our weyrlings from the older clutch hatched with problems in the egg, and he-- I'm sorry; here it is your Turnday or nearabouts," she says, one hand lifting as though to touch his arm. "What else is on your 'list to talk about with new people'?" "Do we really count as 'new people', when our dragons already know each other?" C'stian wonders, though he shakes his head. "It's fine. Honestly, I don't entirely know that I have a lot of topics for new people these days; between weyrling training and settling in to my wing, everything's been training or Weyr business. Unless you like to talk about art, or healing, anyway." That brings back Tela's smile, quick and true. "If we always counted that... well. Art, what kind of art do you like? I do remember those settling-in days," too well if her bit of a moue is any indication. But... is that her passenger, walking down the road behind her with a searching look and High Reaches' colors worn to denote the posting? C'stian's gaze is drawn to the passenger's approach, and he offers Telavi a smile. "Seems our conversation will be cut a bit short. But we'll have to speak again soon; if nothing else, I'm certain Liesanth would love a chance to fly with Solith again." Her brows lift in question, and then Telavi's turning-- to wave towards her passenger without her expression falling too much. "Let's do," she agrees, casting a glance back over her shoulder to C'stian. "If you come by the 'Reaches... let's just say that even the less-little ones can't keep up with her, yet. But!" They'll work out something. "Clear skies!" With that, she's secured what's left of her lunch and starts loping to meet her passenger partway. Nor does she look back another time, though Solith does later circle overhead before all three vanish into that blue, blue sky. |
Leave A Comment