[FINISHED] over my head [ soui + l'nik&hessianth

[demon_pachabel]

Of course, being from outside of the Weyr, L'nik knew that dragonriders were received.....very formally. And those who had come to Western from High Reaches were also.....very formal. "The riders of Western believe that we earn our merit by our duty, not by our dragon," he grabbed one of Hessianth's headknobs and pulled the brown's head into his side before roughing rubbing his hand along the side of his face. The brown practically melted at the affection. "I've not yet to fly or do anything besides impress a dragon to be worthy of too much formality, so please - don't worry about it."

Hessianth leaned his shoulder into his rider. You only have the best dragon of them all! That's worthy of some respect! he puffed his chest out boldly, as if to emphasize this. Then you'll have no problem backing that up to prove when we're not both bound to the ground, L'nik challenged. Hessianth chewed on the thought while L'nik continued.

"Nobody will fault you for being polite, just...dragon hide heirarchy is very nonexistent here." Except for poor Sheyoth, or as she sometimes saw herself; the golden mouthpiece of the Weyr.

Hessianth had returned to splashing in the waves - or rather following after some crab-like creature found in the shallows, nudging it with a foot and then quickly retracting it with a honk of indignation when it clacked it's pincers at him.

"Yeah, he's almost ready to fly already. We're supposedly going to have those lessons on this beach here in a few weeks."

houllow

 

[houllow]

"Wait, there's a hierarchy based on the color of your dragon?" Soui scrunched her face up in thought, as if just saying the words left a bitter taste in her mouth. "Why? They all fly the same and aside from golds, they can do the same things." She shook her head. "They also all bleed the same color, and you riders are all the same level of human. We healers treat everyone and everything with the same level of respect, so I don't really get why riders can't."

The teen watched the brown dragonet scuttle around in the waves, entertained by his reactions. "Be careful not to get pinched - I'm not trained in dragonhealing." Her teasing was meant well, and she turned back to L'nik. "Are you excited for flying? I've flown many times as a passenger so I was never really afraid, but I bet it's going to be amazing when you take to the skies on your own. You'll have to tell me what it's like." Soui paused, and then shook her head. "Er, that's if I'm still here when that happens. I don't know if and when I'll be sent back to the Hall, or even if we'll meet one another again and talk."

The Weyr was huge and Soui felt like she would never see half these people she met ever again.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Oh. Oh dear.

"There was a time when it was believed that only Bronzes could fly a Gold. There was also a time when Pern was down to a single Gold and her esteem was...deserved in such a sense." L'nik had never thought too hard about the thought that dragons had been that close to extinction. "That has since been disproven, but many of the world still believe the rarer Metallics deserve more of our respect."

Hessianth continued to snap after the crustacean, seemingly because Soui had just told him not to. It wasn't appreciating it.

"You know, the first time I flew I was so little, but having a dragon of my own has been nothing like even interacting the way I did with my mother's bonded my whole life, so I know it's going to be different." Was he excited? Well, Hessianth certainly was.

houllow

 

[houllow]

"Huh. For all that people say the Weyrs are more relaxed, there are still things they cling to that should be let go." Soui shrugged at L'nik's explanation of things, taking it both seriously and at face value. It wasn't like how people treated dragons based on their color directly affected her, she wasn't a rider after all, and as a healer she was afforded a massive amount of non-bias. "Still, I like your dragon. Though he's going to get himself snapped sooner or later." She motioned with her head towards the creature with pinchers.

At the mention of riding someone else's dragon, Soui nodded her head to that. "My cousin, Tsuyat, would always let me ride Yudu...eth when he came to visit. Do you know them? Yudueth is a Bronze, and I think...he'll actually be smaller than your Hessianth when he's fully grown."

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"I wouldn't know how we stand compared to other places. I've lived in Western my entire life," L'nik explained, looking away from Soui to watch Hessianth as he swatted at the pincered critter he'd found in the sand. If it pinches your face, I have to have a healer look at it, he reminded, making the dragon's eyes whirl yellow and orange as he lifted his head and snorted, shaking out his bulk and moving to run through the tide instead.

It hadn't been that interesting anyways.

"I don't think I've met either of them. I'll admit despite living here for 20 turns I uh...don't know every face," a lot came and went, others transferred, and then there was the small epidemic that had taken several almost 8 turns before. But that wasn't his business to talk about that.

houllow

 

[houllow]

"That's okay. I mean, this Weyr is huge and people come and go all the time. It was a bit silly of me to suddenly spring that on you, sorry." The healer sounded awfully sheepish, and she mentally chided herself to remember that there were nearly three or four times the number of people here than back at the hall. She couldn't think in small numbers, she had to just expect everyone to be strangers despite living so close together for so long. Didn't they get lonely?

There wasn't any more reason to put thought into it if it was only going to make her sadder, and so the teen moved into the water after the dragon. There was the rule of being in pairs after all, and she toed away at a few shells that were slowly being moved in with the tides. They looked pretty, and she bent down to grab one -

- only to have something violently snap at and make contact with her finger. A shriek escaped her lips as the crab-like thing that the dragonet had been bothering before decided to get its revenge on the next best thing, and Soui tumbled backwards to the sand, cradling her hand. "Fffff." A thin hiss escaped her mouth, followed by her kicking away at the creature that came for her toes. "Shove off!"

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Soui's startled cry caused Hessianth to suddenly reel around in alarm, honking as he came bounding back, eyes whirling with orange and red as he looked down upon the offensive little creature that he'd been so curious about a moment before. He bellowed loudly at it before swiping it with one clawed foot to send it flying into deeper waters. For good measure, the brown trumpetted in the same direction before snorting.

He seemed content after that, nudging his head up against Soui's chest with a comforting rumble.

You're going to get your head stroked that way, L'nik pointed out, causing the brown to pull his neck back like someone who had just had cold fingers touch the back of it. There's no need for that, he let his rider know as he stepped back. L'nik grabbed the brown's head for his own rub-down instead. "He won't let you touch his head, but he wouldn't mind if you wanted to pat his back or something."

Houllow

 

[houllow]

The dragon need not worry about being touched, as Soui was too busy keeping her hand close to her body to consider stroking. She did greatly appreciate Hessianth driving the crab-thing away and so he got a mumble of thanks, and slowly she rose to her feet. "Looks like I should heave headed my own warning." Releasing her hand to inspect it, Soui noticed her middle finger was rapidly turning two shades of red and blue. She'd have a very nice bruise come the morning, but thankfully it didn't look like any skin was broken.

"Thank you, Hessianth, for knocking that away for me." Moving so that she would pat his shoulder and not anywhere else, Soui gave her appreciation through a good rub and a soft scratch. She'd known her uncle's firelizards to enjoy that type of affectionate touch, so hopefully the brown dragon wouldn't mind it too much. "You're my hero."

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Hessianth seemed content with the state of affairs, now that the offending sea-crawler was out of arm's reach. It would be better off scuttling about where it didn't pinch people, anyways! Still, the shoulder pat was nice, the brown leaning into it just enough to show appreciation without toppling the girl over.

"Do you need to get that looked at? That's a pretty ugly color," L'nik asked, looking at Soui's finger with a frown. Maybe it would just be a bruise, but he wasn't a healer. For all he knew, that could be the color of a finger that was going to fall off immediately. He doubted it, but...

houllow

 

[houllow]

Soui was seriously tempted to pretend everything was okay, but the throbbing in her finger couldn't be ignored even as she happily tapped away at the kind and wonderful brown dragonet. Inwardly she was whimpering with the need of numbweed or something of the sort - with her luck, the sea-creature had likely snapped hard enough it'd dislocated her knuckles. A simple fix but she'd be down a finger and in quite a lot of pain for a while; Pem was not going to be pleased.

"I....I think I had best get it looked at, yes." The apprentice healer was loathe to admit and loathe to leave, but it wasn't like they'd made plans and she was here specifically for them. If anything Soui needed to be thankful for L'nik and Hessianth and their warnings, even if her own had resulted in personal injury. She wanted to apologize for having to leave, she knew it had to be rude, but the rider was the one who'd suggested it after all. "Th..then, by your leave." She bowed to the pair before turning to retrieve her shoes from....wherever she'd managed to toss them. This was certainly awkward, she couldn't walk back to the healer hut barefoot.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

L'nik looked at Hessianth, who seemed to huff slightly, but agree to whatever silent exchange was had before the young man scooped up Soui to lift her up onto the brown's neck. Hessianth had leaned down compliantly, straightening up once the young healer was settled and turned to start the walk back himself as his rider retrieved her shoes.

"We'll at least walk you there," L'nik said once he'd caught up and Hessianth, seemingly amused by watching his rider run, also jogged a few steps to leave him behind - though the amount of love surging through their bond left no question that the brown would never actually abandon his rider.

houllow

 

[houllow]

Soui faintly squeaked as she was suddenly lifted, though it was more out of surprise and not terror at being deposited on the neck of a dragon. Almost instantly her face broke out into a huge smile and she was careful to stay steady and not make any movements that could touch the brown's head. It was such an honor to be escorted like this, and she hoped the smile on her face would explain that much more than her stunned silence.

"....thank you, so much." They were certainly her heroes, and she'd remember this day for as long as she lived.

demon_pachabel

and we'll call this done! thanks so much, let's have them meet again! (soui + hess 5ever)