Chasing the Night to Day (L'nik, Shahera and dragons)

[faesinger]

Hessianth! Come play! Let’s go running on the beach. We can chase the waves!

Shahera was leaning on the side of the barracks outside the boy’s section watching Therianth. Therianth had plopped herself down outside the doors expectantly. It had been four months since Therianth shelled, and it was as wondrous now as it had been then for both of them.

Neither Shahera nor Therianth cared that it was night time and they should be asleep. Night time was the best time to see the stars, according to Therianth. Shahera had tried to explain to the young dragon that the night time was the only time to see the stars but had lost the battle when she could not dispute Therianth’s statement that the stars were always in the sky and didn’t go away during the day. You just couldn’t see them as well.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

It's time to sleep. L'nik likely would have grumbled it out loud if it hadn't been late enough that others in the barrack were already dozing off. Hessianth had grown too large to sleep solely on the young man's cot, but that hadn't stopped the brown from sleeping with his front half over his bonded's torso. His face, almost invisible in the dark, was nestled up so his snout was pushed up against his chin, breathing hot, moist breath over L'nik's face. Therianth is going. I am going. It wasn't a plea, it was a statement. Ruffling a hand through dark hair, L'nik moved to sit up.

We're coming back before it gets too late. L'nik relented, barely pulling his boots on before Hessianth was out the door to greet his sister.

I have come! Do you think we must only chase the waves or should we race them as well? he suggested as he bumped his head against the green's, looking back only as L'nik, not really dressed for any sort of proper company, came out after him with a yawn.

"'vning, Shahera," he greeted before running a hand down his face to force some of the sleep out of his expression.

Faesinger

 

[faesinger]

Therianth bounced to her feet as Hessianth came out and head butted him back. You are here! We can chase the waves back into the sea! Yes. We can chase everything, even the night into the day! Here we goooooooo…. Therianth took off down towards the beach, tail waving in the air. Graciously including L’nik and Shahera she exclaimed, come on slow pokes!

Shahera was a bit more relaxed as she pushed off from the wall and began moving towards L’nik. “Hey there. How close to sleep were you?” Amusement was evident in her voice. As she moved past the man, Shahera grabbed his arm and began leading him onwards. “We probably want to get going before one of them gets the idea to help us go.”

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"Close enough that Hessianth felt I could get up," he answered with a smile, clearly unbothered by the two dragons leading the charge. A surge of delight came from the brown as his thoughts lingered on him, though Hessianth was on Therianth's heels, practically oozing thoughts of laughter. At least somebody was having a good time.

Speed up! Come! Hessianth urged his rider with delight, though he didn't need much urging. He'd go at his own speed, at least, and his (almost) perfect lifemate could wait for him to catch up. Hessianth clacked his jaws in disapproval. Where was the fun in that

"Hey, if one of them wants to carry us, that would be fine," he joked, picking up his pace when Shahera took his arm, "though I don't think even Hessianth is that big yet." Certainly, he'd nearly tripled in size since his birth. He'd still not be carrying both of them anytime soon, though.

If we get there first, we should hide and make them look for us!

Faesinger

 

[faesinger]

Therianth bounced around Hessianth as she had no hope of out running the much larger dragon. Where will you hide? You are getting so large! I am still small and I am not sure I can hide well on the great big open beach! Her voice implied that she had every faith that he would manage it.

Shahera, who was used to the much taller people’s moving paces, kept up with L’nik as he sped up. “We should find out when they can. Therianth is so excited for flying. She wants to share it with me and is disappointed that she can’t yet.” Shahera let go of L’nik’s arm and held her arms out like wings. “I have only been in the air a few times. It is an amazing feeling.” Letting her arms drop back to her side, she turned so she was hopping sideways next to L’nik and could see him.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

It is dark! I can be a rock! Hessianth suggested, as if he wasn't already built like one. He'd already begun to outsize Helsinth, despite the bronze's shining hide, and made no effort to be anything but proud of it. In turn, L'nik was exceedingly pleased by the development as well. And then you can hide behind me! It wouldn't be a good hiding spot, but if they had enough time, he'd make it work.Especially if they chose a good patch of shade. Even as night got darker, his head and neck seemed to fade into obscurity.

"I feel like they'll let us fly soonish. The Weyrlings do on the ground drills after a few months and flying on their own comes after that," it still felt like a long time away and the more he let his thoughts linger on it, the more impatient Hessianth seemed to be. "I've flown quite a bit since I was a kid on my mom's green, but I hear it's completely different when it's your own. So we'll find out!"

Faesinger

 

[faesinger]

Therianth was doubtful that Shahera would be that unobservant but kept her doubts to herself. I can be a shrub maybe? All be it a rather large one. She was also outpacing siblings in growth much to the amusement of Shahera. No one could call Therianth dainty. We better keep our eyes closed though.


“Therianth is pretty anxious to try this new game called flying.” Shahera was a little worried about crashing, remembering how often she fell before she got good at acrobatics. “Once she starts I am not sure I will be able to keep her on the ground.” Learning the limits of any game was hard for Therianth. “Soon we will also be senior weyrlings. Are you anxious to get your own weyr?”

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

You aren't going to be able to hide from me, L'nik was more than aware of the brow's thoughts. Hessianth pretended he hadn't just been informed that his slap dash plan was a horrible one. Oh, yes. No need to make it easy for them! Hessianth didn't even cast a look back towards the rider pair far off behind them and instead pressed forward at a dead run - clearly, if they wanted to hide any bit well, they needed to give themselves some time!

"I think if I don't will him to stay on the ground, Hessianth will be up in the air before I can even stop him," and really, he served as most of his bonded's self control. "I'll have to make both of us some leashes to strap onto their riding straps," which of course, they'd all been tasked with making their own. He felt like a cheater, however, after spending almost 15 turns working with leather and straps under a master tanner.

"Not really. A small place would be nice - I don't think I own enough stuff for one of the bigger ones. I'm more nervous about us finding out where we all fall into the ranks."

faesinger

 

[faesinger]

Therianth picked up her paces to as fast as she could but couldn’t keep up with the larger brown. Make sure you pick a good place! Scope out for any rocks we can be rocks among! It still seemed silly, but her rider was exceedingly silly at times so maybe it would work?

Shaking her head, Shahera laughed. “I think that Therianth would try to pick me up if I attached a leash to her. Oh, to not be the rational one for once.” She looked thoughtful and turned forward again. “I wonder what that would be like…”

“You’ll still need a larger weyr that us to accommodate your big brown dragon. Better to not have too many things that he could knock over?”

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

If he'd been honest, L'nik didn't see them giving him a large weyr just because Hessianth was becoming massive. Oh, he could see the fuss over it now, so he hadn't tried to think very hard about it. "Maybe. I mostly see that as a place of sleeping, so as long as it suits that, we should be fine," he insisted, "Besides, they'll both be able to fly by then and like you said, won't be staying on the ground for too long."

Hessianth didn't even give a glance back as he hit sand, fully aware to some degree of where Therianth was, and more than that - that L'nik and Shahera weren't quite on their tails yet. He'd been to the beach a clawful of times at least. Still, it didn't look quite so devoid as when one was trying to find a spot to hide.

Okay! Now we need to look for a place to hide! Or the thought of digging passed through his mind. Hmmmmm. Could they dig fast enough?

Faesinger

 

[faesinger]

Therianth ran past Hessianth onto the beach. Why did you stop? We can’t hide out in the open, silly. But as she looked around she couldn’t find anywhere to hide either. … We might be able to hide in the ocean! If we keep just our noses out of the water, would that work?

A Weyr was more than a place to sleep for Shahera but she wasn’t going to argue with L’nik about it. If that was all it was for him that was fine by her. “At least Therianth has stopped asking me if I can teach her to climb trees. But I worry about what new idea she will get in her head once she is flying. Maybe she will want to land on tree tops if she can’t climb up there…”

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

A fantastic idea! L'nik had been rather firm about his opinions about staying out of the water unless you had a buddy, but Hessianth foremost didn't have any of his rider's caution there. Besides! Therianth was there too! So he most definitely had a buddy!

Hessianth waded out into the water, not even throwing a cautious glance over his shoulder to make sure his rider couldn't see. Hmmm, how deep would they have to wade out....

"A tree-climbing dragon would most certainly be a sight to see, though!" L'nik was actually fairly amused at the mental image of Therianth scaling a tree. At least she would have been able to get down off of an easy glide, right? "Hessianth may just try to fly across the ocean before he's ready if I'm not careful..." which on the note of the ocean.....

Whatever you're doing, you need to stop it. while L'nik couldn't place an exact behavior, he could just tell Hessianth was up to something he shouldn't have been.

On the beach, Hessianth tucked down into the water with an amused thrum. I'm not doing anything.

faesinger

 

[faesinger]

Therianth happily waded out after Hessianth, proud of herself for coming up with such a good plan. It might even work, she thought to herself, as she hunkered down so only what was needed to breath was above the water. At least it wasn’t very cold?

“What is across the ocean that interests him so much?” It seemed an oddly specific direction for Hessianth to want to explore, but Shahera could be wrong. I could just be an example. “Be careful you don’t let Therianth know. She would want to join him most likely.”

They had reached the beach and Shahera was surprised to be missing a couple of dragons. She had foolishly been expecting to see then running around like goofballs howling at the moon. It seemed instead they were playing hide and seek. “I blame Hessianth for this one.” She said as she gestured out at the empty beach.

Giggles were heard in the back of Shahera’s mind.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"Oh, it's not about what's on the other side of the ocean. Rather, that sometimes I...barely hold him in place," L'nik tried to not think too hard about the tongue-lashing he'd gotten when Hessianth had tried to escape from the first day of their lesson. Or that he'd almost missed some of what they'd been told because...well, he was using all his mental energy to keep a disinterested Hessianth there. "He'd go just because we were told not to."

And why do they get to tell us what to do? Hessianth offered up helpfully as the pair of riders stepped out onto the sands, the young man furrowing his brow as he surveyed the scene. There definitely had been dragons here.

"Yeah, this does seem like a Hessianth thing," L'nik accepted fully. A slight harrumph echoed in his head. This was only half my idea! Therianth is a very smart dragon. He made sure both rider and Therianth knew this thought as well.

"Okay, guess I start figuring out where they went if this is Hess's fault..." But there weren't many places a brown that size could hide successfully.

Faesinger

 

[faesinger]

Shahera laughed. “That sounds like a fine reason to go. Clearly they are hiding something by saying we can’t.” She wandered out onto the empty beach. “It isn’t like he can’t come back.”

Turning in a circle before flopping onto the sand, Shahera just smiled up at the night sky. “Does it really matter if they aren’t here right now? Both of them are good dragons that aren’t about to…” She thought better of what she was saying and sat back up. “We should probably find them.”

A little louder, she continued, “Therianth is indeed a very smart dragon that can get into the biggest trouble with the least amount of effort.” Sort of like her rider.

Come find us!

demon_pachabel