Infectious Moods ((Open))

[cynath]

S'frid sat at the edge of the lake, ankles crossed, a garment resting lazily in his lap, the needle with which he was sewing was still in his hand, paused in it's actions while the blue eyes flicked up as a small spray of water was splashed his way.

The small blue was tumbling with a smaller blue, barely past it's weyrling turns. A smile touched the rider's lips before he bent back to his task, Kerroth's genuinely playful mood infectious to its rider.

S'frid had two piles of clothing beside him, one that held things yet to be repaired, the other, things he'd already fixed. He shifted slightly, easing movement through his otherwise numb buttock muscles from sitting too long.

He looked up again at the larger bodies in the water... just in time to cover his eyes with an arm as a much larger, and much wetter spray landed on him.

Note to self, he mused, sit farther away.

At that thought, his blue paused to glance his way, not seeming the least bit embarrassed by his play.

You look like an unhappy drowned rat. the dragon crooned at his rider.

Yeah and I feel like one too... I didn't think I was in need of a shower just yet. But thank you anyways. The rider smiled again shifting the wet cloth in his lap a bit before he set back to his sewing with water dribbling down from wet strands of dark hair. He'd dry off soon enough in the warm weather, though he was secretly glad that it was warm and not freezing.

[FireThorne]

Raelwyn loved the lake. It was her favorite haunt in the whole of Telgar, though back at her home weyr of Ista it had been the beach. Perhaps that was the reason she so favored the water—it reminded her of home. Being raised in such a warm climate, Telgar almost seemed cold to her at times, though she was slowly adjusting to the radical change in temperature. Still, even though it was a fairly nice day, she wore a long blue skirt and a simple sweater. To her, it needed to warm up at least ten more degrees.

Her chores were done for the day, thankfully, although her fellow candidates were still picking through their herbs and trying to get them clean. Thanks to her nanny at Ista, Nye, the girl had enough experience with healing plants to have finished a good candlemark quicker than anyone else. The Headwoman had been pleased.

The Istan was a little bored, now, however, and since she had yet to forge any substantial relationships with anyone at Telgar except Amneris, Rael decided to spend her afternoon watching the riders bathe their dragons. At least until her duties called her away. Padding up quietly toward the waters, she noticed a boy seated alone with a pile of cloth, stitching. Raising a brow as he got drenched by a wave of water from two playing blues, she grinned.

“I’ve learned to sit farther away than that when dragons are playing.” The queen candidate said brightly, grinning as she came up beside the seated boy. No, man, she corrected herself, seeing the shoulder knots he wore. He was a rider, and so the girl inclined her head, still smiling. It was a little amusing, she had to admit, to be standing in front of a soaked rider whose had just gotten drenched by a dragon. “I’m Raelwyn, by the way, a candidate. Would you like some help, rider?” She indicated the pile of clothing at his side. He had a boyish face, she decided, but he still had that easy, self-assured presence of a dragonman.

[cynath]

S'frid noticed the girl's shadow long before she spoke, yet remained bent to his task until she addressed him. He slowly tilted his head up, an easy friendly smile on his face that reached the depths of his dark blue eyes.

"Well I was gonna save some for the Weyrlings...buuuuuut... since you offered...." he rummaged, producing a sewing kit and offered it to her. "Feel free, Raelwyn." Yep, the youthfulness was still in this rider. Boyish desires and ambitions not totally crushed out of him yet.

Kerroth, Don't get the girl wet, he shot at his blue.

The man patted the ground on the other side of the pile indicating that she should sit. A tad eager for some company. Though usually a loner, the rider did like company when it was offered.

"I'm S'frid." he introduced himself, extending his hand, the other still clutching the clothing in his lap, the needle having found itself barred between his teeth in that smile.

[FireThorne]

Raelywn liked the rider’s smile. It was a warm, genuine expression that reached his pretty eyes, giving him a remarkably youthful appearance to contest his rank. Grinning in turn, the girl quirked a brow and accepted the sewing kit, rather thinking he acted more like a weyrling than a rider himself. “Well, then you let the weyrlings know they owe me one.” The gold candidate said in jest, taking the proffered seat next to him.

As she sat, the Istan briefly wondered if she, too, would get a nice, healthy wave of lake water splashed on her, but quickly dismissed it. She did not really care, considering she had thankfully decided to wear warm clothes, and in the color of blue. White would have been a sorry, sorry choice considering.

When he introduced himself, the candidate took his hand with a smile, thinking he looked a little funny with the needle between his teeth. Rael could not help herself. “Well met, S’frid. Just don’t kiss my hand with that in your mouth.” Grinning to show she was only kidding, she slipped him a wink before turning her attention to the sewing kit he had given her. The girl took a garment and moved it to her lap, threading the needle with a matching color.

“So, S’frid, which dragon do you ride? Do you hail from Telgar or were you transferred? I myself was born in Ista Weyr, and transferred here recently.” Raelwyn was an open, outgoing personality, and she loved company more than anything. Well, most of the time. She, like everyone else, had her times where she just wanted to be alone. This afternoon, however, was not one of them.

[cynath]

S'frid's smile widened slightly at her request to not kiss her hand. Slipping his own from hers he removed the needle from his mouth before he spoke.
"I'll keep that in mind should I run into you elsewhere." he mused, glancing down at his task and shifting it slightly, doing a single stitch before she spoke again.

He glanced at her briefly before his eyes flicked to the two blues still playing. "Kerroth." he said indicating the larger blue, his hide a deep almost blueberry hue, mixed the faintest of purples, the limbs and tail darker, almost midnight in their color. To S'frid, Kerroth looked perfectly fine, but almost any other rider could pick up the slight deformity in the blue's wing. The dragon had learned his balance despite the slight twist in the bone.

The rider only smiled fondly when he spoke of his dragon, and it took him a moment of admiring his own dragon before he answered her second question. "I was born here, yes. Both of my brothers ride as well." Though the brothers were vastly different, all at various ranks, S'frid was certainly the oddball. Oh well. He didn't mind.

He offered Raelwyn another easy smile before he went back to his sewing, pausing only to patiently wipe a droplet of water that rolled down his nose from his dampened hair.

[FireThorne]

Raelwyn noticed his smile widen ever so slightly, and the candidate grinned in reply, watching as he removed the needle and turned his attention back on his task. Lifting a brow only slightly, the candidate smiled to herself, doing the same. “Keep it with you, do you?” She asked, rather thinking he would be very free to kiss her hand upon their next meeting. Chuckling softly, the Istan turned back to her garment, only to look up once more as he pointed out his dragon.

Looking at the blue, Rael smiled brightly, noting how he tumbled and played so freely with the younger dragon. “Kerroth? He is a beautiful color.” She said genuinely, an easily detected awe for dragonkind in her voice. The girl had always adored dragons, and never more so than after her brother Impressed to Ulrith. She was particularly fond of blues because of her brother’s dragon, and so spent a few silent moments admiring Kerroth’s pretty hide. Then, as her gaze swept over his wing, the candidate frowned slightly, detecting a deformity in the bone.

The girl had been through many classes, studied blues closely with her brother, and had even aided the dragonhealers before with their medicines. G’mir had courted a dragonhealer back at Ista, and Raelwyn had loved to visit the woman during her free hour and help her brew medicines and treat dragons. It was one of the hobbies she enjoyed. She wondered if she should mention the twist. Some riders took offence if you mentioned an imperfection their beloved partner, and some thought trying to ignore any deformity was a worse insult, as if it was so bad people tried to pretend it did not exist. Feelings were so easy to injure.

It was such a slight deformity, though. Hardly noticeable. “Born here? I still feel a bit out of place here, having transferred from Ista.” Raelywn looked a little out of place as well. Her dark tan contrasted with many candidates of Telgar. Upon learning of his siblings, the girl brightened. “You have two brothers that ride? As do I. My brother G’mir rides blue Ulrith at Ista, as does my brother K’dim of brown Zerith.” Finally breaking her eyes away from the two darling blues, Rael returned to stitching the clothing she held. “How long ago did you Impress Kerroth, S’frid?”

[kayla]

Neory had been one of the last ones to leave the kitchens for that shift, the headwoman and her assistant being the only one left when she finally was able to leave - and even then she had felt bad for leaving, but they had insisted they were fine.

So she made her way down to the lake - her favorite place to be after the heat of the kitchens! She had considered going for a swim, but seeing how the dragons were playing, she had decided against it.

She saw the pair and decided to join them if they did not mind. She knew S'frid, though since he was eight turns her senior, she did not know him very well. And she did not know the girl at all. It always amazed her how it was possible in a Weyr to not know everyone.

She smiled as she approached them, "Good day. Do you mind if I join the two of you?"

[cynath]

S'frid watched his work, but he did notice how she took in the blues playing and splashing in the water. He was proud of his dragon, deformed or not. A physical handicap did not make him less of a dragon to his rider. So any praise of Kerroth was taken in high regard and pulled another generous smile to the bluerider's lips.

He knew, however, that she saw what everyone else always saw. Anyone who knew dragons would pick it out easily. Oh well. He finished the tear in one garment, trying the thread off and breaking it with his teeth before folding it, and setting to the side with the finished -and wet- clothing.

S'frid looked at the girl when she spoke again, nodding and smiling. He wasn't much of a talker, but he did like to listen. When she had finished, he sat and actually had to think about that question.

How long ago....?

"Ten turns." he said, pleased with himself for remembering. It seemed so long ago. Time wasted? Hardly.

His smile faded slightly, distracted from the girl as Neory's voice broke through whatever memory he'd been recollecting.

"Not at all." he said the friendly smile reforming in an instant, recognizing the girl. My my, some of the boys were going to be jealous. S'frid being seen with not one, but TWO lovely young ladies. An oddity in itself. One that made the bluerider grin.

[FireThorne]

Raelwyn saw him smile again out of the corner of her eye, and could not stop herself from grinning a little to herself in turn. Riders always loved to hear compliments on their dragons, and she did not blame them. Complimenting a man’s dragon was even better than calling him handsome. S’frid’s smile was infectious, but why was that? Perhaps it was his silence, and any hint of amusement or pleasure on his part was taken that much more gratefully. The candidate smiled, turning her attention back on the clothing she held. Pulling through her last stitch, she began a pile of her own.

Pulling another piece of clothing to her lap, she quirked a brow as the rider replied, unable to stop herself from looking at him closely. “Ten turns?” The candidate asked, surprised. “How old were you when you Impressed?” Raelwyn had not thought him to be her elder by very far, but then again if she had Impressed when she was first Searched, she would have been riding ten turns at age 24. So perhaps he was not too far ahead of her sixteen turns after all. He just looked so young to her….But, surprises were the spice of life.

When his smile faded, his attention taken from her, the candidate looked up curiously at the same time as the bluerider. Raelwyn took in the girl’s appearance, noting that here was another she was not familiar with, but seeing as she wore no shoulder knots, she had to be a candidate or drudge. She smiled. “Of course not.” She replied, motioning for the girl to sit. “My name is Raelwyn. I’m a candidate. What about yourself?” She asked, always curious about new people and eager to make friends. The Istan was the social sort, after all, an odd combination with the quiet bluerider. Rael, glancing at S’frid, noticed the grin upon his features and wondered what was going through his mind. She lifted a brow slightly.

[kayla]

She smiled as she took a seat with them. "Thank you. I didn't want to interrupt if you were talking about anything private."

When the other girl asked her name she smiled over to her, "I'm Neory. I'm kind of a candidate too. At least until I'm too old not to be. Then I'll just be a boring ole drudge." She winked a bit to show that she was just kidding about the 'boring ole' part.

She would offer her her hand, "Its nice to meet you Raelwyn."

She then smiled over to S'frid, "How are you and the lovely Kerroth doing today?" There was no sign in her voice that she thought of Kerroth of being any less of a dragon, because she very much did not.

[cynath]

S'frid mused over Raelwyn's question of his age when he'd Impressed, and decided on answering with a question of his own. "How old are you? I'd guess I Impressed at your age. Though it was not my first time trying." He chuckled, allowing Neory to sit with them, offering the second girl another smile.

"Kerroth and I are well... and wet, as you can see." he chuckled again, waving a hand over at the tumbling blues in the water, S'frid's own clothing damp, slowly drying.

He looked from one girl to the other, then laughed. "I can only imagine what some of those boys over yonder must be thinking right now." He tilted his head to indicate a group of older Weyrlings, watching their dragons by the waters edge, but also watching the curious trio.

[FireThorne]

Raelwyn smiled a bit in turn at the bluerider’s question, noticing that her query had been answered by an inquiry of his own. Looking down at the clothing she held, the candidate grinned to herself as she replied. “Sixteen turns, and I have stood at many Impressions since I was searched at fourteen. Are you twenty-six, then?” She asked, curious about him. Stealing another glance at him from the corner of her eye, the Istan took in his youthful appearance and decided he was cute. Err, Handsome. Anyway, point being, he was attractive. Why did it always seem that riders were so striking? Did dragons just favor good-looking people? Or maybe it was just the alluring air that all dragonmen had, living the demanding, thrilling life they did.

“Well met, Neory.” Rael replied, taking the other’s proffered hand with a grin. “I guess we are in the same boat with Impression. My future is at the mercy of the dragons’ whims right now as well.” It was true. The girl had been let down many times, and she was almost tired of letting all of her hopes ride on the next Impression. Secretly, she was thinking about taking control of her own destiny and looking into some crafts to get started in. Dragonhealing, the craft practiced by her brother’s mate back at Ista, particularly interested her. Perhaps….

Green eyes darting to the side at S’frid’s statement, the Istan quirked a brow as she saw the weyrlings staring at the three of them. A small smile slowly curved the candidate’s lips, and she chuckled, shaking her head as she focused her gaze back upon the bluerider. “They must be wondering what the Fall your secret is.” She laughed, slipping a wink Neory’s way. “They might come up to you later asking advice. At the risk of being pestered, I suggest you do not sit alone during supper.” Raelwyn found it very funny. The girl was by no means arrogant or self-absorbed, but she did not consider herself unattractive, and in fact had been hit on several times. Truthfully, she was pretty, though she had not ever considered herself gorgeous, sexy or alluring in any way, she was pretty. Her fellow candidate was another lovely, as well, so she could see why S’frid was being stared at. Amusing, to say the least.

[kayla]

Neory chuckled at the statement at being at the mercy of the whims of the dragons. "Well, with any luck there will be a queen egg laid the next time there is a clutch. With the new Weyrwoman, it might be the only way any of us get to stand on the sands."

She then laughed warmly at S'frid's comment about the weyrlings and then Raelwyn's mention of not sitting alone. "I don't know about that not sitting alone part though. I would imagine that this might be the first meal you could eat at the Weyrling table without winding up wearing more food than you eat." Neory knew that because of Kerroth's difference S'frid spent a lot of his time babysitting the weyrlings.

She grinned a bit, "I won't speak for Raelwyn, since I just met her, but if you want to brag a bit, feel free to do so." She was weyr-bred, and not concerned with maintaining a spotless reputation. While she was picky who she was with, she did not think S'frid would hurt her reputation even if he did brag. "I know they give you a hard time, and if it saves you some difficult afternoons, I won't mind."

"So, Raelwyn, you have plenty of time before you're too old to stand. Have you thought about what you might do if you don't impress though?"

[cynath]

S'frid nodded to Rael's assumption of his age. He wasn't so old! YAY. The weyrlings kept him young, if anything. He sat silent while the girl's talked for a moment, the blue eyes scanning over the span of the lake, the tumbling and sunning dragons, riders and drudges going about their business.

He looked back to the two candidates when Neory suggested that he brag. A full out hot blush rosed his cheeks and he looked away. It was no secret in the Weyr of S'frid's lack of partners not only because Kerroth could never catch a green, but also that he lacked his brothers' charm. He focused on his piece of clothing for a moment, gathering himself and his subtle embarrassment before he looked back to them again.

"Plenty of time." he agreed with Neory, thankful for the change of topic.

[FireThorne]

The candidate chuckled a bit in reply. “True enough, Neory. Weyrwomen Elisha is very set against women standing for anything but gold. Shards, if Adeloth does not lay a gold soon, girls are going to get tired of waiting to stand at all.” It was true. Raelwyn herself was getting tired of waiting, but did not blame the queenrider. Elisha had the good of the weyr at heart.

“The weyrlings give you trouble, do they?” Rael asked, gathering that Neory must have known the bluerider rather well. Cutting her green eyes back towards the boys staring at them, she quirked a brow. “Then I would brag. At least a little.” The candidate thought it rather rude for them to give the rider a hard time, especially considering their positions. Even the weyrling bronzers had no place thinking themselves so high just yet. People picking on other people….well that was something that irritated the Istan to no end, and she had stuck her neck out for her friends more than once in the past. True, she had been swatted on the rear by several boys for her cheek, but that did not serve to leash her tongue in the slightest. Switching her gaze to S’frid, she was surprised to find a hot blush on his cheeks, and could not help but grin a little. The girl had not met many riders that blushed. She then looked to Neory, and wondered if the girls should really give those weyrlings something to be jealous about. Raelwyn was not too concerned with a meticulous reputation herself, just as long as everyone knew she was not to be toyed with, but did not know about S’frid.

“I have thought much upon what I would do if the dragons did not see fit to give me a partner.” The candidate replied, smiling at the two seated next to her and amused by the bluerider’s obvious relief at the change in topic. “I am only sixteen, though, so I have several turns to go before I may no longer stand.” Eyes traveling to the blues, Raelwyn watched the dragons, thinking about how she would like to help them, almost as much as she would like to Impress. “However, I have still dwelled upon it. My brother back at Ista courted a dragonhealer, and I liked to spend my free time helping her. I think I would like to be a dragonhealer as well, if I did not Impress.”