[Log] Just Wait Until It's You
Who: Claret, R'dur
When: Day 31, Month 9, Turn 3
Where: Lakeshore, Telgar Weyr
What: R'dur and Claret run into each other after Avrieth's flight.
Telgar Weyr Lake Shore
The vegetation thickens near the lake, becoming a meadow that runs along the edge of a narrow, sandy beach. The sands spill down into a crystal lake to the north, lapping against the crater walls to the north and east. A fence runs northwest-southeast, blocking off the lake from the feeding grounds. The grass is thick with autumn, and the long strands are beginning to seed. The few trees that stand on the banks of the lake are in their full splendor with leaves of red, gold, and brown. There are dark green water lilies on the lake, but they are no longer blossoming. In one corner of the meadow, Telgar's herb garden makes the air thick with the smell of mint and thyme, and the chives are in full bloom. Around it, a few fall flowers are blossoming. The red shades of sunset cast the meadow into deep, but peaceful shadows.
Contents:
PLAYERS: R'dur
Obvious Exits:
Bowl Lake
"All done with this," R'dur tells Alidaeth, folding a hide and pocketing it. He pulls his jacket tighter around him against the chilly air of Telgar's late afternoon. "Now, what was it you wanted me to do? I can't recall." Alidaeth eyes his rider and snorts, not amused. "Yes, yes. I'm working on it. You didn't move the stuff, did you? You did." The young man peers around the ground and finally finds what he's looking for: a bit of oil and a paddle to apply it with. He heads around Alidaeth and begins to smooth the oil into the base of Alidaeth's tail, taking great care as he rids the dragon of his pesky itch.
In a light flurry of wings, Avrieth touches down to the sandy shore, the pace of her descent as moderate and measured as usual. As much could not be said of Claret, for it's with a jerky motion that she swings off Avrieth's neck and slithers to the ground, landing with a little thump and an attempt at a hug for the much larger creature. She hums a little tune under her breath as she pivots gracelessly, intent on locating the shore's inhabitants from this vantage point. R'dur and Alidaeth spotted, she sends over a cheerful wave. "Hullo!"
R'dur's first instinct is to glance up at Avrieth and Claret; his second is to edge toward Alidaeth's other side like he hasn't seen her. Of course, her greeting negates any hope of pulling that off, and it's with some trepidation that R'dur pokes his head back around the brown. "Er, hi, ma'am," he greets her, back to his old tricks. Alidaeth adds a rumbling greeting of his own to the green and her rider.
Even more cheery than usual, Claret is also doubly candid, and she tilts her head to the side, her brows quirking momentarily. "What's the matter with you? Assuming there is anything the matter, of course, which there's probably not, because what would I know, but even..." And as abruptly as she started her quick stream of words it's finished, and she gives the brownrider a bright grin. Avrieth, too, has a croon of greeting, which turns into a more plaintive sound, reminding Claret to turn back to her and take off her straps, which the rider promptly does.
R'dur slides back around Alidaeth, though he sticks close to the brown's side as he watches Claret. "Oh, I'm fine," he assures her hastily. "Just... fine." Pause. He manages a small smile for the greenrider. "How are you and Avrienth, ma'am?" He tilts his head slightly and fidgets with the bottom of his jacket, perhaps not so fine as he declares.
Claret unfastens Avrieth's straps with relative efficiency: an idea that's probably foreign to her in most aspects of her life. And so it's short minutes later that she's holding the bundle in her arms, and Avrieth launches into a low flight, settling down gently in the middle of the lake to float. "Me and Avrieth are just lovely," Claret replies, finding an out of the way place to dump her straps. "I'm not going to eat you," she observes, noting how close R'dur is sticking to his brown. "Besides the fact that I really don't think Avrieth or Alidaeth would approve, and that I'm not hungry anyway... I'm harmless. Honest."
"Alidaeth might," R'dur notes in a loud mutter, shooting the brown a look. Indeed, the dragon rumbles his agreement and nudges R'dur away from him, over toward Claret. "Er. That's--that's good. Need any--" He breaks off as she handles her straps with the ease of practice. R'dur relaxes somewhat as he watches her.
Claret flashes Alidaeth a surprised look, catching R'dur's mutter. "He might? Uh-oh, that can't be a good sign." Not that she sounds anything less than merry as she acknowledges that fact. "Thanks anyway." Straps disposed of, she does take a few more steps in R'dur's direction, clasping her hands behind her back. "Say, R'dur, are you sure you're all right? I mean, I guess if you say so you are, but..." She trails off, offering him a rueful shrug.
R'dur adopts a genuine smile at that. "Well, sometimes I think I exasperate him. Him and most everyone else," he admits with a self-conscious shrug. He glances back at the brown and finally takes a seat on the sand, hugging his knees to his chest as he glances up at Claret. "I'm... I'm okay. Really. You, er, don't have to worry about me or anything," he affirms, blushing slightly. Hesitating, as though something's on his mind, he finally notes, "I, uh, saw you the other day, briefly. In the living cavern. Before... Well." His eyes stray back to Avrieth, out in the water, and he shrugs.
Claret can't help a light chuckle. "Don't we all? Exasperate our dragons, I mean. I can't vouch for others, but I know I annoy her sometimes. She deserves it, though, she's a pain and a half, too." Claret, too, drops to a seat on the sand, close enough to be within easy talking distance. The smile that was disarming twists into a slight grimace at R'dur's last observation. "Ohhhh..." she draws out. "I was a bit of trouble, wasn't I?" Is that a faint blush dusting her cheeks? Probably.
R'dur takes his time getting to the latter part of Claret's comments, choosing instead to focus on her first statements. "I suppose so. It's hard to be that close to someone without having some... differences. In a way, he's like one of my younger brothers." Then, though, he pauses, glancing sideways at Claret. "I--I didn't really stay long enough to see. Alidaeth said--and, well." He blushes as well, and doesn't meet her eyes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have mentioned it."
"Sure," Claret agrees readily. "Especially when you know each other's minds, inside and out. Makes it a lot easier to find flaws and annoyances. Plus good things, besides. Lots of those." Any discomfort on Claret's part seems to last quite a short time, because the grimace twists back into a strained smile, and then a cheerful one. "Well, I can assure you that I was a bit of trouble. Just a bit. But it comes out well in the end. Came," she amends, before her eyebrows rise in curiosity. "Why? What'd Alidaeth say?"
R'dur blushes moreso, managing a nod in answer to Claret. "Er. Oh. Just... what was going on," he answers slowly, adding a shrug to the end of his words. Pause. "Anyway. Yes, that does make it easier--and at least you can avoid family. You're, well, kind of unable to escape a dragon," he changes the subject, speaking just a bit too loudly.
The glance that rests on R'dur is quizzical for a moment, but then Claret flashes him a smile. "Yes, well, I suppose that can be somewhat disconcerting, can't it? Just wait until it's you. Then it's even -more- disconcerting." Way to diffuse embarrassment, Claret. "You can kind of avoid siblings," Claret allows, ready enough now to follow the weyrling in his change of topic. "More than dragons, certainly. I used to run off and avoid my older brother all the time. What a pain."
R'dur still hasn't looked at Claret, but he nods again nevertheless. "Yeah, I--I guess. I mean, I know. I mean, that's what they deal us, anyway," he says, trailing off in a mutter. He hesitates, then latches onto the topic of siblings again. "I used to hide from mine sometimes, too," he admits, "when I just didn't want to deal with them. Alidaeth is actually better than them most of the time."
"It's not so bad, really," Claret concludes. And it seems, for a moment, that that's all she has to say, but a moment later, another thought occurs to her. Apparently she doesn't know how to let go of a topic. "Say, is that why you were hiding behind Alidaeth?" But now she'll go back to the more innocuous. "Well, I think Avrieth's better, of course, because I think she's the most wonderful creature out there. Which goes without saying. But in truth, she's more than a match for my brother is bossiness, which is why I'd run away from him in the first place."
"My youngest brother talked a lot, which is like Alidaeth," R'dur starts an embarrassed ramble, "and my other younger brother likes to play tricks on people--which is like Alidaeth. My oldest brother--well, Alidaeth is like a nice version of him." He stops, takes a breath. Then, answering her earlier question at last, he blushes brighter than ever and admits, "Er, well. Kinda. I mean... Yeah. Yes? I'm sorry."
Claret raises fingers to tug her ears while she listens, a slight smile curving her lips. "I was the troublemaker, when me and my brother were little. Playing tricks and getting into mischief and so forth. And he always thought he knew best and told me what to do. Just like Avri. Guess you don't have sisters, then?" The rider eyes R'dur's blush, observing jovially, "Gosh, you must spend a lot of time fluctuating between shades of pink and red. Don't you ever get tired of it? But that's all right," she allows kindly. "You can hide from me all you like, it's utterly your prerogative. Only it's quite curious, that's all. Why?"
R'dur hesitates. "Three of those, actually, but I managed to stop myself before I got into them," he says with a feeble laugh. Still red-faced, he shrugs, answering, "I'm not sure being tired has anything to do with it, actually. It--it seemed like a good idea at the time? I don't know."
Claret squints one eye, regarding R'dur for a long moment. "You're probably right. That's too bad. But as long as you're happy! D'you know, I had the..." And then breaks off abruptly, distracted as Avrieth's dripping form wades out of the lake, sloshing a veritable amount of it along with her. "Mmm, she's nice to me in the fall. Doesn't make me get wet. Yet." Claret's expression is slightly foreboding as the small green rumbles her way over. And now she seems to think it's time to return to her earlier cheerfulness, because she levels a bright smile at R'dur. "Bet you
"Getting there--slowly," R'dur admits as most of his blush fades with the innocuous query. "I'm working up to it, anyway." He pauses, then can't resist prompting, "You had... what? Not to, er, pry or anything, of course, so." A shrug.
"I had what?" Claret echoes, her brows snapping together in confusion. "Oh! I had... Gosh. I think I was going to say, I had the oddest thing happen to me. But it wasn't anything particularly enlightening, you know. Prying's not much to think of; I barely ever have anything to bother keeping quiet about. Just when you think you're settled, things can go all funny, can't they? Guess it'll be hard for you to leave your wingmates, won't it? Maybe you won't even see some of your friends much, any more." The greenrider doesn't even seem to notice that she's just strung two or three completely different nonsensical thoughts together in a potentially incoherent statement.
R'dur blinks, brows knitting as he studies Claret. "Oh," he says, sounding unenlightened himself. "I'm... trying not to think about that. I mean, I'm sure all the other wings are nice, but I don't want to, I don't know, fall out of touch with everybody else." He shrugs again, then frowns. "Uh... Oddest thing?" he finally wonders. "I don't quite... follow."
Claret shrugs up her shoulders lightly, scooting back a few paces in the sand to be closer to Avrieth, who has come to curl up behind her, digging into the sand. "Mostly I don't see people from my class very much any more, unless they're in my wing. Except for... Well, anyway, not the oddest thing, of course. I just try to figure, sometimes, what it's like to be the way other people are. Like you are! It's very interesting."
"Not that interesting," R'dur says dubiously, shrugging his shoulders. "I've never really tried that myself. I guess I have enough trouble just being myself." He cracks a small smile, and though he tilts his head curiously, he doesn't prod her any more about things.
"I don't -try-," Claret specifies. "It'd be much too difficult. But sure it's interesting. Most things are interesting." She heaves a gusty sigh, leaning back against her damp green. "I'm absolute rot at explaining things, you know. I practically don't even remember where I began. But I know where I'm supposed to end up! I was going to be apologetic about turning you into a redfruit because sometimes that's good."
Again, R'dur blushes. "Oh, don't, please. Don't apologize," he urges her, frowning. "I mean, it's not you. I mean, it /is/ you, but it's not just you, so, er. Shard it." He sighs and offers a small smile to the greenrider. "I think I'm bad at explaining things, too," he decides.
Claret's response is a laugh, and an adjoining smile. "Well, I shan't if you don't like, but honest, it's terribly easy to do, even if I'm generally quite an unrepentant sort. About some things." She gives her shoulders a lazy shrug, quirking a grin at R'dur. "Explanations are overrated. They're -awfully- hard to give when people want them most."
"They are," agrees R'dur with a nod, running a hand through his hair and taking a couple of deep breaths. "They really are. But, er, I should--we should, rather--get going. We have lessons stil," he notes after a moment, frowning up at Alidaeth. The young man gets to his feet, brushing himself off and glancing back at Claret. "So, er, it was nice--nice talking to you. I'll... see you... around, I guess. Good night," he offers. Before he completes another nice flush, he turns and starts for the barracks. Rumbling with bemusement, Alidaeth offers his own goodbyes and trails after his rider.