Difference between revisions of "Logs:Star Stones Secrets"

Bugles muted by the fog and clouds obscuring the High Reaches sky, dragons come and go in the morning bustle. Rielsath may be showing some signs of widening around the middle, but she's still perfectly able to fly up to the Star Stones for a turn at watch duty. Watching the moon fade away as the sun brightens behind the veil, her mind reaches out. « You should come, » She breathes warm life to Vysravth, the calling of dawn to a dark mind.

When Rielsath's call comes E'gin and Vysravth are just returning from sweeps. They seem set on flying back to their ledge, but the gold's warm calling makes the pair bank steeply. E'gin dismounts after the brown lands on the Star Stones. "The view is nice," Is E'gin's greeting, "How are you two?" Unbuckling his riding helmet he tucks it under his arm. "How long have you guys been at it?" Vysravth studies the queen, and noticing her widening belly with some curiosity, his aloofness seems to lift slightly, and he settles down closer to her than usual, « Howyoudoin? » His rough voice sluring the words together.

« It's early, » Rielsath's lines of light waver with a mental yawn, fading to a more comfortable twilight, stars taking their place in her night sky. « You tired? » Lujayn is casually arranged, less stiff than many a fresh watchrider. "Not that long. But long enough," She raises her hand in greeting, not quite surprised to see the brown pair touch down nearby. "Rielsath's been antsy, wanting to hare off after any old thing." Patting the gold neck fondly, gaze distant. "Vysravth's been good, she says.." A pause, but she doesn't hold back the pertinent question: "Did you ever talk to K'del?"

Vysravth seems more comfortable when the mental sky fades to twilight, he adds only a whispy fog, which allows the light of the stars to bleed through, « Yes, we have been taking as many sweeps as possible, drills, shadowing, and E'gin stays up later doing other things. » If what the dragon says is true, his rider shows no signs of being tired."Sorry, if we're intruding, Rielsath invited him..." The grin which crosses the boys face shows he's happy to be doing something other than work, pulling off his gloves a finger at a time. Half-way through plucking off his second glove he stops at her question. His face pulls into anger, frustration, or some other like emotion, but it is only a flicker before E'gin recovers. "Yes, didn't go so well. Strange too, he seemed...more on edge than usual." Of course, both normally rather laid back men were.

Lujayn shakes her head, "Rielsath's invitation is my invitation." She assures E'gin, listening with a concerned expression to his explanation of the meeting with K'del. "Weyrleader's a tough job. I'm sorry you didn't hear what you were hoping for." Lu doesn't press the issue; she hasn't spoken to the Weyrleader herself, unlike the situation with Giorda. "You guys are almost done, though. That has to be a good feeling." On the brighter side of the coin, she appeals to a bright horizon. Rielsath lets the fog wrap the starry sky, adding tints of blue and green to light it like a fading aurora. « I wouldn't have guessed. Your work has to pay off. Lujayn sees you do so much, and she feels guilty. »

"Yes, it is." E'gin's lips thin, "I am sure he has a lot to deal with." But it is clearly an issue he wants to deal with on his own and he lets it go as eaily as Lujayn. "Yes, we are!" There is excitement twinged with nervousness, a normal emotion for a senior weyrling. "We will all be split up then, do people and dragons generally stay close to their clutchmates?" Not that E'gin is particularly close to any of them. "When do they start pulling people, not till after graduation?"

"I'm close with most of my clutchmates still, and it's been over a decade," Lujayn is happy to offer her experience for E'gin to look forward to. "Even those who have moved on to other Weyrs. Mostly E'dre and Leova, but two out of fifteen or so isn't bad." She looks over the bowl below, letting the excitement wash over her much more easily than her earlier hesitation. "You could be earmarked for a wing if they really want you, but typically they won't tap graduating Weyrlings until a few days before - or after, sometimes - the thing is done." Her smile is knowing, and a tad impish. "Won't be a huge change. I mean, you already have your own weyrs. Moving out of the barracks was one of the hardest changes."

"E'dre..." E'gin ponders for a moment, "And Wroth right? They went to Fort?" The hand of his occupied arm taps a soft beat as he thinks, jamming the other hand and his gloves into a pocket, "I'm just tried of waiting, I want to /know/..I want...I'm just ready for what's next, whatever it is." He turns to Lujayn, allowing a little gleam of excitement to show through his normally hard to read face. "There's a future here, we're ready to take it." Vysravth, after some quiet basking in their night sky finally answers the gold, « She should not feel guilty. We work hard because we want to. We must be ready for anything - for everything. » Whatever the world throws at them.

Lujayn nods. "Yeah. We were just out there the other day, making the most of our free time. Right, Ri?" She earns a somewhat sleepy grumble from the distracted gold, whose neck is coiled around to face Vysravth instead of the departing wings flying sweeps. "It's good to prepare for the future," She agrees with some reservation, "But someone reminded me that living in the now is important, too. Because whatever's coming.. it'll always keep coming. Try taking the present. Maybe just today." « Anything and everything? There are too many possibilities. You could end up in Ista to fly ocean rescues, » Letting her imagination stretch, the starry twilight boundless, « Or to the east, preparing a new Weyr. Tilling fields with your claws for the farmers. There are too many things waiting in life to know them all. »

"We do enjoy the moment, sometimes, but we enjoy the planning it is where we find our...joy?" E'gin grin's easily again, "Yes, today, which is why I came with Vysravth. Let us get out of our heads for a while." He steps over towards the edge of the star stones, taking in the view of drills, and dragons coming and going on business, and even further down the dots of people scurrying around on business, before turning back to Lujayn with a smile, "What do you two do for fun?" Vysravth voice rumbles softly, perhaps with a bit of frustration, « Of course not everything... » Something causes Vysravth to darken the nights stars, the fog thickening between the two dragons' thoughts, but a look between dragon and rider and the whatever it is that was bothered him vanishes, « The more you are ready for the easy you can deal with surprises. »

Rielsath's mind comes along with Lujayn's words, sharing images and sensations with Vysravth as her rider speaks. "Flying. High, fast, far." Wind, sun, clouds. Blinding bright and blurry. The woman smiles at the thought and her dragon shifts uneasily underneath her, as if itching for that activity right now. "Going to new places." Images of jungles with ocean on the horizon, vast deserts, tall mountains and blizzards. "Exploring." But every memory has a common thread, and that is Together. Whether just dragon and rider or with other people, they are never completely alone. « True. Sometimes easy can be boring! » Rielsath reins in her bent for friendly argument, more and more belligerent with the days counting down. « Do you like difficult things better than exciting things? »

E'gin allows himself to share the view with the dragon, his eyes refocusing to nod at Lujayn, "High, fast and far is good." His eyes slide over the gold with a grin, "Clutches must be hard on you then." He address the gold directly with a touch of sympathy, before turning back to her rider, "Together," the boy confirms with a solemn nod. "We like to work through things, think about them - and do them." Vysravth's words echo is rider's, « We would rather work through a problem. How can we make higher, faster, better? What else needs to be done. » The brown allows a brief glimpse of the ancient machine, turning gears, which runs his mind, but it fades quickly beneath the blanket of the stars, « Sometimes we do like excitement too. »

Rielsath turns her slender face to look straight at E'gin, pleased to be addressed instead of talked over - as if she didn't have her own conversation going on with the rider's brown just now. « That does sound exciting. » Rielsath has to admit, mind stretching for another glimpse of the slowly turning machine, that patience she does not always possess, before it vanishes. Another time. « When you are a full rider, you can have exciting more easily. You'll like it. » Lujayn has to agree with her dragon, though she isn't eavesdropping fully. "Sounds like we could take a page from your book. I spend time in the present, but the future is different. The unknown. It's a little frightening."

"Frightening, perhaps, but exciting and full of potential. I know what is happening now, what is happening then..." E'gin, has almost forgotten that the other rider is there, perhaps that is why she has gotten in, "That is where excitement is, figuring out the future, and where we fit into it." Snapping back to reality, E'gin turns to the goldrider, "But this is nice too." A soft smile to one of the few people who is genuinely friendly to him. Vysravth's tail wraps around his haunches, « Really? It seems there will be less excitement, less to do... »

Lujayn listens quietly, letting E'gin string his thoughts out with an appreciative, quiet air. "It's a balance." She stretches a bit, beginning to gather her flight leathers from where they're draped over Rielsath's neck, outfitting herself with deft fingers as the line of another sunrise moves across the bowl. "Thanks for stopping. One thing's for sure, I won't miss this on the sands." She smiles before buckling the helmet tight, voice muffled in farewell. « I wanted to show you something. » It's time for them to go, and Lujayn isn't speaking up fast enough for the ice-patterned gold. So she does what she does best: show and tell. To Vysravth, she projects the alien sensation of something different, what eggs must feel like before they are laid, only different. Smaller. Tracing the source of the feeling back to Lujayn, she lets the images linger for a moment before they fade, Lujayn urging her into a favorite steep dive from the Star Stones in the direction of home. It's an escape, if only a temporary one. « There are many things we haven't done. »

The gold and rider leave so quickly that E'gin really only has time to wave after them. Then Vysravth share's the vision with his rider and the boy's hand drops to his side. Eyebrows pulling together, the male and his brown are left standing there, motionless, simply staring after the departed pair. "Huh...?" Belated, and unintelligible it is all that E'gin has to offer.