Difference between revisions of "Logs:Leisath Wants Your Mountains"

Main Beach, Ista Weyr

The coastline of black sand stretches out in either direction, tropical waters lapping ceaselessly against the subtle decline of the main beach that rests at the base of the plateau cliff. To the northeast, water from the upper pool cascades over the plateau's edge, its destination shrouded in the lush fronts of the jungle's edge and a hint of blue-tinged mist. The Sandbar, Ista's seaside tavern, stands to the south beside the long branching structure of the docks.

The dry winter season relieves Ista Island of its humidity, replacing it with light, buoyant air. Tonight, clouds interrupt the dark, star-strewn sky and a nice, light breeze carries the scent of sea air.

Avey and Leisath are on the beach, well above the high-tide line, a few lengths away from the ramp that leads intothe sandbar. Avey is performing a task most riders would find singularly odd, but she's going at it with gusto: she's got a great big soft fuzzy towel in her hands, and is drying Leisath's hide vigorously.

High above the beach, a pale bronze pops in from Between, circling downwards - and then landing in the water with an almighty /splash/. There's laughter from the bronze's rider, who extricates himself - and his lifemate's straps - noting, "You'd better be careful. Leather isn't all that fond of salt water." But he pats the bronze's side, and then wades in towards land, heaving the straps onto the sand as he leans to begin to unlace sodden shoes.

Avey hears that splash and looks around, her eyes widening slightly when she sees an unfamiliar bronze. But she greets him and his rider with a broad smile and a friendly wave. "Hullo!" she calls out. Leisath warbles politely and then nudges Avey to get back to the toweling, which she does, with a roll of her eyes. Once her rider's gotten back to worth, Leisath reaches out with a light mental touch to the strange bronze, a burst of identity-greeting tinged with curiosity and faint distaste at his manner of landing. She flashes an image of the beach from the air, with emphasis on the dry-land part. « Most of us land on the sand » she tells him, intending to be helpful.

K'del has just gotten his first shoe off when Avey calls out, and is holding it in one hand, upturned, to let the water drip out. "Hello," he returns, all dimples, as he sets the shoe down and starts on the other. "High Reaches' duties to Ista." Cadejoth drops lower into the water, though he's not far enough out to properly cover himself, sending up a spout of water with his tail. His response to the green is tinged with a metallic green, the sliver of chain against chain. « But landing in the water is more fun! What's your rider doing? Don't you like drying in the sun? That's my favourite part. Except the splashing. »

Avey's eyes widen and she gazes at K'del and his dimples with open admiration, forgetting her task completely. About the time Leisath nudges her again, she remembers to answer. "Ista's duties to High reaches," she replies. "Uh. Welcome! ...nice day, isn't it?" She walks back down to Leisath's rump, gives in a brief swipe, and then says, "Your tail can dry on its own. It's not as big. Yes, it /will too/ dry, Leisath, how many times do I have to tell you? And I'm /not/ spending all afternoon drying you. I'm not. Besides, the towel is wet. See?" She stalks back toward Leisath's head and holds it up to show her. The green snorts, expelling air forcefully enough for the towel to thwack Avey in the face. She throws it down, irritated. "Just... just let yourself dry, okay? Sheesh." She looks back to K'del, with an apologetic expression for him having to hear that one-sided conversation. « No, I do not like it, » Leisath answers Cadejoth firmly. « I do not like water. I wish my Avey would finish wiping it off. My tail is still quite damp. But look, your rider has wet his feet! That is unkind, of you, is it not? » She feels a certain sympathy with K'del, apparently, in her own state of undesired wetness.

It's a reaction that, without question, pleases the young bronzerider; his head tilts, smile broadening. He's sixteen: he can be forgiven, right? Without time to respond before that one-sided conversation, he waits, putting aside his other shoe, as well as his socks, then rolling up his trouser legs to avoid the wet fabric touching his legs. As Avey turns back, he laughs, head shaking. "It is a beautiful day," he concludes, picking up the thread of conversation again. "Though from what I've seen, most are at Ista. Name's K'del - and that's Cadejoth." Out there, frolicking. « ... Don't like water? » Cadejoth finds this utterly fascinating. « Gosh! You must miss out, then. Nah, K'del doesn't mind. He's used to it. And better doing it here than at home. Though, of course, it's all nice at the moment, not water. Do you hate ice, too? »

Avey kicks off her own sandals and leaves them near the towel, then trots toward the water to converse with K'del at a closer distance, smiling brightly. "That's Leisath. She has a /thing/ about water," she explains, rolling her eyes and grinning. "And I'm Avey. It's... ah... nice to meet you." There's a sudden bashfulness to her smile, and she shifts her feet on the sand. "Did you come on business? Or just to see the beach?" Leisath, still in contact with Cadejoth, is rock-solid in her preference, and convinced that she does not in fact miss out. As for 'ice', she has to reach in a little deeper to pluck out a proper definition, which she considers thoughtfully. « We do not have ice here at Ista. » Which might be just as well; she's deeply unsure that she'd like it.

K'del tidies his abandoned clothes - he adds his jacket to it, now - into a pile, running his hand through his dampened hair as Avey approaches. "Pleased to meet you, too, Avey - and Leisath. She doesn't like /water/?" His gaze slips back towards the green, one part fascinated, the other perplexed. "That's weird." Returning his attention to the other girl, he smiles encouragingly. "Mm, pleasure mostly. We were running messages, earlier, but they were mostly up north where it's cold, so I figured we might stop by somewhere warm before heading home. Nice change, and all." Cadejoth is dubious of Leisath's preferences, but willing enough to accept then, except that he notes, « Ice is fun. It's cold, but you can slide all over it. Only I guess I'm a bit big, now, but I still slide my paws, sometimes. What do you like, if not water? »

Avey straightens her shoulders, prickling at the slightest hint of possible criticism of her dragon. "It's not weird," she says firmly. "Everyone has something about them that's a little different. You should see her in the air, she turns on a tailtip. Best in our class," she boasts. Leisath replies to Cadejoth's question « I like lots of things! » and then playfully flips through a rapid series of images: she likes flying, and trees, mountains - that's definitely the Red Butte - juice, fat wherries, there's a rainforest, big bonfires at night, oh, and of course curling up in the warm sun with Avey resting beneath her paws after a hard day's work. « That could be fun » she agrees, cautiously, about the ice. « What else do you have at your place? » After all, it must be very strange and different from Ista, if there's ice. A hint of pink wherries and flying humans crosses her mind before she erases that.

K'del raises both hands in a silent apology: not intended that way, truthfully! "Does she? Better watch out, Cadejoth sees that he'll probably want to try and learn how; not that he's any good at that kind of thing, but he loves figuring out how people do things better than him, anyway. You're one of the weyrlings," he adds, not as a question. "So you must be getting close to graduation, right? Saw some of your classmates the other night." Beat. "Flight. So I didn't really meet any of them." Cadejoth considers each of these images in return, with growing satisfaction: yes, they'll do, all of them. « There's loads of snow at the moment, » he explains, and brings back the pink wherries and flying humans with amusement, giving the humans purple spots just for emphasis. « But none of those. » Sadly. Because that would be fun. « And /loads/ of mountains. » He shares an image of these: snow-capped, beautiful, almost blue against the sky.

Avey is, fortunately, easily mollified; she nods and moves on, eyeing the figure K'del cuts unsubtly now that he's taken off his jacket. "Oh, I heard about that. They said that green is really nuts. Or maybe it was her rider... it was kind of vague." She grins. "But yeah. It won't be too much longer until we graduate. Which will be good. I want to be able to do whatever I want! It's going to be great. We're going to do a lot of exploring, I think, Leisath and me." Leisath recognizes the snow Cadejoth shows her. « Oh yes, snow! There was snow at Fort Weyr when we visited there. It was fun, but it was cold... and then it turned into *wet*. I did not like that. » Her response to the mountains is instant and enthusiastic; she makes the image sizzle. And Avey squinches up her eyes as she's suddenly and emphatically bespoken, and laughs. "Well, apparently we're going to have to visit High Reaches. Leisath wants to see your mountains, like, really bad," she tells K'del.

"Nuts? Mm, that'd be both of them," says K'del, rolling up his sleeves against the warmth of the sun, then untucking his shirt. Better airflow; definitely nothing to do with impressing the other girl. "Yyth--" he breaks off, looks awkward. Close up, there are faint traces of bruises and scratch marks along his face, and across what's visible of his chest. "Mm, felt that way, too, about graduation. Only a couple of months ago, for me. Some people say it isn't that much of a change, in the end, but it feels like it is. More freedom. It's great." Cadejoth sparks with pleasure at her reaction to the mountains, his own enthusiasm mounting as he projects an image of himself, and Leisath, flying amidst those high peaks. "Well," laughs K'del. "They're pretty good mountains. /Different/ from what you've got."

It's a date, then, as far as Leisath is concerned: flying in a pair is always more fun than solo. « We will come soon and visit you and your mountains » she promises Cadejoth. Avey watches the shirt-untucking, and then her eyes widen again. "Oh wow, what happened to you? Did you..." she pauses, and frowns. "You didn't get into a fight after that flight, did you?" she asks, taking a step back, suddenly wary of him.

Cadejoth agrees (and really, does it hurt that one of the pair is a pretty green? Certainly not). Definitely, determinately. « I shall look forward to it! » he enthuses, sparks flying delightedly. K'del's hands freeze as Avey remarks on his bruises, and he hesitates before glancing up. "Cadejoth won," he explains, in a low voice, shaking his head. "P'ax was-- Yyth's a violent dragon. It just worked that way." He looks embarrassed, and adds, "It's okay, really."

Avey's mouth falls open. "So you /won/, and...? Wait, you said she's a /violent/ dragon? I never heard of a violent dragon. Seriously? Is that a High Reaches thing? Gosh, that's... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you, I know it's really nosy, it's just." She flashes a brief look at Leisath. "She's never risen, and. Are the /males/ violent too, up there? Nobody at Ista is - they don't beat each other up." She's deeply unsettled. Leisath, on the other hand, is prepared to propose more trips. « And after that we will show you our forest » she offers, showing a rather spectacular rainforest canopy from a comfortable height. Her eyes speed their whirling in reaction to Avey's unsettledness, though, and she croons lowly at her rider, who looks back again with a weak smile for the green.

K'del's embarrassment finally gives way to amusement, in the wake of Avey's reaction. "It's-- just a Yyth thing, I think. I'm not sure, I'm not exactly really experienced in the whole flights thing, either." His head shakes quickly; he adds, "Leisath doesn't seem like she'd do that kind of thing. So you're probably safe. You... nervous about it?" « I should like to see that! » Cadejoth tells her, inspecting the rainforest with great interest. « We'll have to see all kinds of things. There's heaps of beautiful places around Pern. We've seen a lot - but not everything! » He's briefly silent, given her rider's unhappiness, then adds, « She shouldn't worry. »

"Well, /I/ don't want to get beat up," Avey says pointedly, and extends her wary look from K'del to Cadejoth. After another croon from Leisath, though, most of the tension goes out of her. "So, um." This would be the part where she should change the subject, but she stands there dumbly, her face heating. « Many beautiful places » Leisath agrees with Cadejoth. « We have seen some of them. But we would like to see more. » Of Avey, Leisath says very gently and warmly « She will be alright. She does not like things that are new, things which she does not know everything about. But she gets used to them quickly. » There's a great deal of pride in her rider. « She likes yours, » she adds with a naughty playfulness at confiding something Avey probably wouldn't authorize her to.

"You won't be," promises K'del - a promise he certainly can't keep, but he looks earnest about it. "I don't think it happens, most of the time. You'll be fine." There's a pause, then he takes up the quest for a new topic, saying brightly, "So! Ista. Want to show me around? I haven't seen much of the place, except your bar, and the beach, here. You a native?" « I understand, » says Cadejoth, of Avey and her reaction. « Bet she does! K'del takes a while, sometimes, but he gets there, too. /Does/ she? » There's smugness from the bronze. « I won't tell him! But I think he tends to think everyone likes him, so it probably wouldn't surprise him. » His rider's ego seems to amuse the bronze.

"Yeah!" Avey says, seizing eagerly on the change of topic. "Sure, I can do that. I was born here. It's a great place. If you wanted to walk inside from here, you'd go up thataway," she points up toward the plateau. "I could show you the jungle. It's kind of neat in there, very different. And the mosquitoes aren't as bad this time of year. Or um.. I don't know what you want to see. The living cavern and stuff? That's mostly the same as anywhere," she says dismissively. "And the beach goes a long way, but it's mostly the same the whole way." Leisath is also amused by Cadejoth's confidence. « I am sure he is very nice. Probably most people do like him. » Then there's a brief image of K'del stolen from Avey: he's tingly. That amuses Leisath. But the affairs of her rider only hold so much interest, for she changes the subject. « Which are your favorite dragons to sun with at Reaches? »

K'del follows her gaze towards the plateau, nodding with apparently genuine interest, and tells her, "Love to see the jungle. You're right: the living caverns are probably pretty similar to what I've seen before, but I haven't seen a lot of jungle. Tillek's where I'm from - no jungle there, you know?" /Tingly/. Cadejoth accentuates this with his sparks, and the metallic edge of his mental chains, which sweep and glide, carrying things in, pulling them away. He's quite smug about the tingle, actually. « To sun with? Well. There's Embracath, and Tieizith... But I really prefer flying to sunning. Yyth's fun, and so's Vrianth. » All greens.

Avey looks delighted at the chance to show off 'her' jungle, and perhaps at getting K'del all to herself, too. "Just this way," she says, going to collect her sandals. "You'll want your boots," she warns him. "Can't walk around in there barefoot. There's a path ... and if you go a ways in, there's a little creek. And you should /see/ all the different plants. And we can flip over a log or something and look at the bugs. I know it sounds like kid stuff, but... you'll see."

K'del turns back to retrieve his boots, reluctantly putting on damp - and now sandy - socks, then the boots themselves. He looks quite pleased at how delighted she is, and beams in return, nodding enthusiastically for all she has to say. "Sounds fascinating," he declares. "No, not at all. Or, if it is... well. We're not /that/ old, are we? Must be nice and shady and private, too." Boots laced up and ready to go, he offers his arm to the weyrling, dimples on display again. "Shall we?"

It's like a beaming feedback loop, and Avey even giggles as she takes his arm. "Yes, let's!" she says happily. "It /is/ nice. And shady. And well, the path isn't necessarily private but. You don't /have/ to stay on the path, if you know your way around." Which, she clearly means to imply, she does.

Cadejoth's amusement at their riders must be obvious to Leisath; it's a quiet thrum of delight, as he splashes amidst the waves. "Lead on," says K'del, indicating with his free arm. "I'll have to trust you not to abandon me in the middle of the jungle somewhere, then," he laughs, as they wander off in that direction. "But you don't /seem/ to have taken against me, so I'll assume I'm pretty safe."

"Cadejoth would find you," Avey points out, playfully adding, "...eventually," as she tugs him off toward that shady privacy. Leisath shares Cadejoth's amusement with a trill that approaches a laugh, and then pesters him with more questions about his draconic friends, sharing names and images of her own as well.

"He might!" laughs K'del. "But he might not, just to spite me." Away they go. Cadejoth is more than happy to continue answering - and asking - questions, for as long as it takes for their riders to tire of the outdoors. And a good time is had by all.