Garden Patio Ledge, High Reaches Weyr
Partly sheltered by the curving stone overhang, partly exposed to the weather, the wide stone patio serves as a balcony for socializing or just plain drinking on a sizable scale. The repurposed ledge might once have let two large dragons land, but now there's too much furniture for that: two rustic tables with attendant chairs, plus a couple more in particularly good weather, and a wrought iron bench situated to make the most of the view of the western bowl and the lake beyond.
Other changes include rough little niches carved out of the stone walls to hold glows in colored bottles at night, the climbing plant that's being trained to grow up along the overhang, and the blue ceramic pots of flowers that dot the edge of the ledge as a colorful reminder not to fall off.
An archway leads to the Snowasis itself, housed in the ledge's former weyr, while a few wide steps descend along the wall to the bowl.
The patio ledge isn't terribly busy with the on and off rain, the gray skies and mud, but there's a few people taking advantage of the 'off' status that's current, though one of them, tall, dark and lurking under the archway, isn't about to brave the actual outdoors just yet. Aishani might get her hair wet. Instead, she leans against the wall, looking out at the bowl, long fingers warming around a mug steaming in the chill weather.
Mud indeed - but the young man coming up alongside the tall, dark woman is at least trying to minimise the effects of that same on the garden as he makes his way, barefoot and with muddy boots held out before him, onto the ledge. Aukiri is still wide-eyed, looking at much of everything like its his first time seeing it. And Aishani is given just such a look. "Pardon me," comes with an bow of his head, a bit too deep to be purely polite, and tagged with a telling little smile.
Bemused. That's what Aishani is by the young man coming upon the wet, cold, certainly muddy ledge barefoot -- she doesn't give any of the other people standing around a look, but certainly a few of the others are glancing between themselves at Aukiri's lack of boots. On his feet anyway. The wide-eyed look is common enough at least, and the goldrider seems to expect people to know who she is, regardless of her level of activity. With a nod in return, she shifts slightly as if to let him pass, but must note, "You'll catch cold like that."
Aukiri proceeds a bit past the woman, glancing up to check the skies for longer than may be strictly necessary to determine only cloud and rainfall, and then moves right on out onto the ledge. "Oh, naw, don't worry about me." The easy wave of a hand is made slightly clunkier by the boot on the end of it, and he grimaces, and scuttles sidelong for a near chair. "There's warm baths after this."
With a sip of the mug she's holding, Aishani must note, "I wonder if the Healers think one cancels the other out." Taking up her lean again, arms folding, "You're new." It must show. "I don't know that it's necessary to take your boots off. No one else will, and then the inside and outside of your boots will just be equally filthy." A girlish wrinkle of her nose. "And if you wear socks, well."
"Well," Aukiri considers, as cheeks meet the edge of a hair, "my belly still feels good and warm." A boot is put down, so that he can pat a hand across his core. "That's the important part, isn't it?" He pulls one of his feet up, inspects it, and shrugs. "And bare feet are better than wet socks, aren't they? And boots scrape off better when you can turn them." In demonstration, one boot is taken again, and flipped handily, leaving it sole-side up.
Arching fine brows, Aishani regards Aukiri for a moment, then shrugs. "Don't say I didn't warn you." She tried, but if he's intent on finding reasons to catch his death, far be it for her to stop him, though she does ask, "Why are you walking around in bare feet in the first place?" She gives a flicker of a glance around the patio, in case she's missed some important trend.
Aukiri raises a hand and does his best to make his face look solemn, though there's some amused angle at the corners of his eyes that won't be banished no matter his efforts. "I promise not to hold you responsible for any sickness I might wind up with." That hand then goes to the boot, and he digs in his pocket for an old knife. Butter knife, by the looks of it. "After enough puddles, bare feet prove dryer - or quicker drying - than even the best boots."
Smirking, "Oh, trust me. I do my very best to ensure I'm not held responsible for anything around here." Aishani straightens off the wall slowly, glancing down into the steam rising off her mug. Grimacing, "That's one way of looking at it, I suppose. I'd think it'd make it easier to catch a chill, or something worse. But I don't tend to go without footwear. Or..." A pause. "Haven't in some time." She doesn't sound like she ever did, but she apparently was a trader. Once.
Something in the woman's grimace gets a laugh out of Aukiri, though it's hardly unkind. "Well, it's not a thing to do all the time. But my socks were wet and it's a new place. Nothing wrong with feeling out a new place, is there? Especially once you're in out of the rain." Which only makes him look back up to the sky overhead, and give a little chuckle. And that knife gets wedged into a wet matte of mud against the overturned bootheel. Pry.
"It's one way to go about it, as well." Aishani doesn't seem to understand, but she can allow that there might be something to it. Glancing over her shoulder into the bar behind her, "There's never a little there's not much rain or snow or something wet here. Best to find something to proof your boots some. Wax works well enough, sometimes." Looking back to watch Aukiri pry some mud from his boot, "Will you be staying, do you think."
"Sometimes," Aukiri allows. "But I'll need a new pair of boots before I go doing anything to them anyway. Not much point in putting the effort into these." His toes wiggle, as if to prove something. The first boot is set down, the other, picked up, and the freckled young man gives a shrug. "Don't know. Way I hear it, there's not much to go around here right now. Better luck sticking with Fayraz, you know what I mean?" And he pats his belly, in case she doesn't.
"Do you have to be contrary about everything?" Aishani asks, brows coming together in something between confusion and consternation. "And good thing that I'm not still in charge. If you saw better luck sticking with your family, I'd send you on home to them rather than have you use up our limited resources." She offers a flash of a smile, wide with lots of teeth. "As it is, I think I'll be on my way. Enjoy your cleaning." Nodding to the knife and boot, she turns to start inside.
"I'm not being contrary," Kiri protests. There's a lag, this time, before it dawns on him, and he gives another laugh. "And we're not using up your resources here. Brought our own. Better for business, Perun says. Anyway," and he shrugs, "my family's not anywhere near here." It starts out conversationally enough, though when she turns, it ends all abrupt, replaced instead with an almost-dismayed little, "Oh." If she'll even catch that bit.
There's her own little laugh for the negation, and Aishani shakes her head. "That's what dragons are good for," she just says lightly, flashing a quick grin over her shoulder. "But good to hear." As she heads in, she calls, "I have a meeting!" Despite her rumored lack of activity... but who knows?
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