[PRP] A Hole in Armor (Etansi & Astriana)

[Dea and #Teddy#]

Astriana could tell Etansi was in her own head, so she stayed quiet for the time being, let her words sink in. Her own mind wandered for a moment, thinking about what it would feel like when she finally impressed. She had always been told what it was like to share everything with a dragon. She had her firelizards and Daimon, which was a taste, but she felt it was not the whole picture. She also knew she could be told what it was like in detail, but still not understand until it happened. Hopefully it would not be long before her soulmate and she met one another. She tried to picture it, but knew she didn't know color or what they would be like. Would they be confident or would they be shy, needing her to comfort them? She didn't know, but the dragon would be perfect.

"Hey, your special dragon will want you, I know. And you just proved that you can let another in when you said you wouldn't say no. That means you would not close off to them, which is a big step. And you can be strong, while letting down your guard a little. Honestly, the dragons and firelizards are the best to start with,"she replied. Seeing the tear, she looked around again, before hugging the other.

Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

Every hair on her body nearly stood on end when she was hugged, it took quite a bit to struggle against her instincts and not react. A growl started in her throat and she cleared it roughly to cover for it. Kindness was still new to her and physical kindness had happened to her not once but three times in the last week and it was making her feel even weaker. Weaker because, and she hated it a bit, she actually liked it even if it was just a little bit. It felt nice to be hugged for some reason.

Her words felt a little wrong though, fire lizards?

"I hope you Impress.. you remind me of Erastan." Etansi offered up, not moving her arms to hug the girl back even if she didn't leap up to run away. "If brother can Impress you can too. What... what is a fire... lizard? Are they strong too?"

Dea and #Teddy#

 

[Dea and #Teddy#]

Astriana caught the way the other cleared her throat, knowing the other was probably not used to hugs. She let her go after a moment, so that she didn't take the other out of her comfort zone too much. It was at least progress that the other had not pushed her away, like she had been worried she might have done. No, she hadn't hugged her back, but sometimes that took time to get used to doing. When the other spoke about hoping she impressed, another smile came to her eyes. She had never spoken to Erastan, she wondered how much she was like the other. However, if his twin thought she could impress like her brother could, she would take it.

"Thank you, I hope I impress someday soon. Though, I do hope you get to impress as well. Your partner would be able to break through your defenses. As for firelizards, they are small things that are incredibly useful. Think of them as little dragons, if you will. Though they do not speak, they send their thoughts in pictures and feelings,"she explained.

Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

That was precisely what Etansi was concerned about, something breaking through her carefully placed defenses so that she was left vulnerable. It had happened once with that gold, who had pressed in the correct spot with her kindness that had caught the small teen off guard. No dragon other than Killakeeth had spoken to her before that and since that more and more dragons had spoken to her. How did riders put up with handling that sort of communication all the time? Even the conversation that she was having now was quite longer than any she'd had previous, at least in a very very long time.

But this girl seemed happy to continue talking to her and her explanations were spot on at least.

"You should first, you have the same heart." Etansi offered, for she was used to those that softened up instantly when they were among those they felt they could trust. Erastan had really only done that with her, but now it seemed that the small blue was privy to his softer side as well. "Fire lizards are like... baby dragons? But smaller."

She'd seen them, she'd seen the wild fairs of lizards that floated all around the weyr. If one could figure out how to catch one, then maybe they could keep one, the thought pondered through her brain and then fizzled out. It would be hard to catch something that could pop between at it's own willpower. Not to mention how hard it would be to convince it not to do so once it was released.

Dea and #Teddy#

 

[Dea and #Teddy#]

Astriana thought about what the other said to begin with, assuming she meant same heart as her brother. She would certainly have to meet Erastan one of these days, just so she could see for herself. Granted, that was if she could get through the boy's defenses to do so. If Etansi was right and he was like she herself was, then it might take some work or something they could relate to. She would just have to wait and see, for now, the other was asking about fire lizards that she had mentioned. Now that was a topic she never did get tired of talking about, assuming it wasn't to someone who was a dimglow.

"Yes, I think that is a good way to describe them, like little dragons. It is believed they came first, having been used to create the dragons we know. However, the bond between humans and firelizards can be strong, but it only a little taste of the dragon/rider bond,"she replied.

Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

Little creatures that came before dragons but were somehow not as strongly bonded? That made sense to her, she'd seen some writings in her classes that spoke to that, though she'd paid very little attention to them despite what she should have been doing. Now it seemed foolish that she'd not paid as much attention in any of those classes and Etansi, understanding her new lot in life within the Weyr, silently committed herself to learning more simply because they hadn't thrown her out when she'd disgraced herself and their teachings so thoroughly. It couldn't hurt either, surely Ma Loa would have been quite thrilled that she was learning anything new without her even if it was in an environment that was a little more rigid than what she would expect.

Fire lizards though, they could certainly come in handy. Etansi flexed her memory for a moment and tried to bring some sort of semblance of an idea together for the lizards, for how dragons impressed, for how the bonding worked. It all came back to eggs in her head.

"They hatch from eggs, must bond from eggs... just like dragons? So, can't grab one and bond with it from a wild fair." the teen posited, her mind racing as she tried to remember teachings from classes she had only just barely paid any attention to. "They wouldn't Impress like a dragon and rip open barriers... right?" Etansi's eyes glanced up to Astriana's face and in them was something like hope. She had seen wild eggs before, but it never occurred to her...

Dea and #Teddy#

 

[Dea and #Teddy#]

Astriana could tell all of this information was settling in Etansi, was this all new to her? She knew the Etansi and Eranstan did not grow up in Western, were even newer than she and her brothers were. So maybe she still had a lot to learn about everything around the Weyr, she didn't know. Well, if she was helping her, then that was all that mattered to her. She would let her think through it, maybe she could ask someone to give her a flit egg, she mused to herself. That is when she heard the other ask questions and she realized some things from before went through.

"Fire lizards do come out of eggs, yes. They do impress in a way, but not in the same way dragons do. Dragons know who their other half is, fire lizards bond to who feeds them first after they hatch. So when you are around fire lizard eggs, you should have some tasty food with you,"she explained.

Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

It was common sense of course, if dragons hatched from an egg then surely the smaller versions of them must come from the same sort of thing, but it actually was hard for her to believe that dragons came from eggs too given how large they got. She'd seen canines give birth, once even a smaller feline, but never seen a dragon lay any eggs and likely would never witness the actual laying process. Impressing straight from the egg offered up an entire slew of options for her though, especially with hearing how they communicated.

Could they communicate with a dragon though? Etansi's head tilted a bit as she thought of all the options she might have to keep in contact with her twin as the months and turns wore on with them separated as they were. Fifteen years of standing would be long to be away from him when she was still rather certain that she would never meet her partner, if one such could even exist on Pern, for who could even her out? Not even Erastan fully melded up to her. Having a fire lizard to communicate with him and not feel alone might be smart.

"Sound just like wild canines, you give them food and they're friendlier, won't try to bite anymore." Etansi's gears were spinning rapidly in her head.

Dea and #Teddy#

 

[Dea and #Teddy#]

"Yes, it is like canines in the way that food is the way to get on their good side. The difference here is that fire lizards can express themselves more, even if not in words, like a dragon. I have found mine are useful in getting messages to others, once I trained them. Also, my younger brother uses them for being able to help him get around. I am always trying to figure out new ways to get them to be useful for the Weyr. Why, are you thinking of getting one yourself?"she asked.

Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

"You have some?" Now that had Etansi's full attention, someone that knew how these little things worked and was very knowledgeable about them. She had promised her master that she would work on getting better, on trying harder, on focusing. Well, she might not have said that much but in the back of her mind that was how one got better and if she could learn something here, from this girl that was so very much like Erastan that she could almost smell the kindness she kept hidden, then she would be one step closer.

"If fire lizards are useful to a Weyr... it might be possible to stay around even if you don't Impress... later." She waved a hand as if to dismiss the later part, not as concerned with it in the current moment as she was with a backup plan that might work for her to stay near her brother when she didn't find her match on the hatching sands. Though she would say 'if' out loud for others. "But I don't know how I would get one myself. Check the beaches maybe?"

It was a thought, but there was no way that she would have the time to fish around through the beaches looking for a wayward nest of very tiny eggs. Or... at least she assumed that they would be really tiny. Could one buy an egg from another with marks? Now those she had, ferreted away throughout the entire Weyr in hiding places and holes that only she or her twin brother could find. It would likely become a bit of a communication system if she could figure out which ones he would be able to gain access to given his new schedule and life.

Dea and #Teddy#

 

[Dea and #Teddy#]

"I do indeed have fire lizards, I enjoy their company. Some are my own, that I have had since I was younger. Others are ones I work with, training them to do various things. You see, I am an Apprentice Beastcrafter, who specializes in fire lizards. As for where you can get some, I know some people recently had some of their tamed flits have babies. So maybe we could ask one of them for one of their eggs. And yes, I suppose that is a way to stay around,"Astri replied.

Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

Over the course of her life, short though it was, Etansi had met many beastcrafters before, but never an apprentice and never one that had stood on the same ground as her. Generally they were in charge of runnerbeasts and canines, never had she seen one with a fire lizard before and certainly not one that specialized in them. It interested her to know how they all worked, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to pry into Astriana's past to ask her how she'd come about becoming an apprentice in that particular practice. Surely there had to be a course of events that lead to her being pulled into it, though she had heard that sometimes children of Pern just chose to do something and were allowed to do so.

Nothing in her life reflected that of course, but then she and Erastan had hardly been normal children. There were things that she could read up on when she was in class surely, about all the different crafts, but beastcraft intrigued her as she had grown up with such things. If she could get her hands on one or even two, the second for her brother...

"People probably won't just give them away when they could make marks." Etansi posited evenly, "Especially if they are so trainable... could use them for many things and useful is always marked high."

She would need to talk to her brother about this, see if his train of thought ran similar to her own.

Dea and #Teddy#

 

[Dea and #Teddy#]

"Well, if you have saved up enough marks, then maybe someone will sell one to you. Though, doesn't hurt to ask if someone might have a spare egg either. Maybe it will give you a small idea of what it is like to be bonded with something similar to a dragon. Plus, great for keeping in contact with those you don't get to see regularly. I send messages to my brothers and uncle a lot using some of mine,"Astri spoke.

Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

Marks she had saved, some that she had hidden away all across the Weyr in places that no one would even look twice at that wasn't cleaning it. She knew exactly where people cleaned too, usually Candidates or drudges, and had slowly been searching out different places to move things as they went to new areas, it was ever changing. Erastan was much better at it than she was, but the learning curve was slowly moving.

It wasn't marks that she thought to use in order to get her hands on a pair of eggs though.

"It would be nice to send brother messages... check to make sure he was okay. But if they just use pictures, maybe not as much mentally other than maybe passing on written notes." she offered, scratching at her elbow in contemplation for all the new information that was coming to her. "Plus, finding something to relate to Erastan's new bond with his dragon... might help me understand. Thank you..."

Dea and #Teddy#

 

[Dea and #Teddy#]

"Yes, written notes are probably better, for your fire lizard to carry to your brother from time to time. Course, in the case of my younger brother, I have to use images to get things across. Though it should definitely give you some better understanding with your twin brother, on a smaller scale. Not only that, good practice for yourself, whether you believe you will impress or not. Anything is possible out on the sands. Oh though do remember, no fire lizards on the sands, when the time come..just to remind you now. You are very welcome, glad to help,"Astri nodded.

Hattaki