LOG: Brave and Handsome K'del and The Dread Beast Of Reaches' Lake
Date: Day 14, Month 5, Turn 20
Location: Living Cavern/Bowl/Lake, High Reaches Weyr
Synopsis: Milani and K'del mostly keep topics light when they run into each other in the Living Cavern, and end up taking a walk together.
Living Cavern, High Reaches Weyr(#350RJs)
Stalactites hang high above this enormous cavern like a jagged chandelier or an inversion of the Spires themselves, but shadows cling to them instead of light. Below lie great tables arranged in rows, each large enough to serve a fighting wing, while in the nooks and alcoves around the cavern's edge sit more sensibly-sized tables, from six- and eight-seaters down to intimate spots for just a couple of diners. The only really open space is around the kitchen entrance, smelling of food and rarely quiet, and by the nearby serving tables with their long buffet of the day's offerings.
Tapestries on the smooth walls -- some faded and others newly woven -- only slightly mute the sea of sound when a meal is in full swing, but they add cheerfulness augmented by the glowlight from wall sconces and the centerpieces of each table. Still, shadows always creep along the ceiling and into the mouths of the exits -- the myriad small hallways at one end of the cavern and, at the other, the twisting tunnel to the bowl near an array of coathooks and and hatracks -- and late at night, when the glows are allowed to dim, the chamber can seem very dark indeed.
Contents:
Milani
It's a misty, moisty spring afternoon, the bowl outside still fending off the fog. Despite being between mealtimes, the caverns are busy enough, and made moreso by a group of Avalanche wingriders, trooping in from the bowl. K'del's at the back of the group, pausing near the doorway to take off his damp coat and sling it over his arm, and then run an idle hand through his curls. The rest of the wing seem intent upon cutting through the caverns to the Snowasis, by their words, but the Weyrleader waves them on, instead heading for the hearth, and the klah pot warming there.
Not eating. Milani isn't really here for the food, she's sitting with work around her and a small group of people taking instructions. "So, there we go!" she's saying though. "Go ahead and get some supper and we should be all set for this evening," the headwoman adds and sits back a little, smiling as the group breaks apart. He pencil taps lightly at the sheet atop her clipboard and her gaze idly roams the cavern, alights on K'del and she lifts a hand to wave, just a small little wave.
K'del catches that wave just before he reaches the klah pot, and he returns it with a warm smile. Once his mug is filled, he weaves his way through the tables towards her, lingering with one hand on the back of a chair, rather than moving to sit. "Afternoon," he greets, lightly, with that smile still in place. He pauses to take a sip from his klah, swallowing it before, "How's things, Millie? All good in the caverns, this afternoon?"
Milani answers that smile with one of her own and starts to gesture to invite the Weyrleader to take a seat. "Good afternoon, Kas, busy of course, it being spring and everything coming back to life, but not so busy that anyone is losing half brain," she says with a laugh. "And you?"
There's a moment of hesitation before K'del moves to take the seat he's invited to, but it's only a moment, and then he sinks into it, dropping his coat on a spare chair, and then placing his mug directly between his hands, and wrapping both around it. "The good kind of busy, then," he concludes. "Busy, too. Miserable day for drills, but they're done, now. Not too long before summer, I suppose, and then people'll complain about it being too warm for it."
"Yes, the good kind of busy," Milani agrees, head bobbing. "Just the usual industry, keeping on top of things. No particular worrying things. For now." Deep breat. "It's the Reaches. You never know when the other shoe is going to drop," wry. Laughter. "Summers here are /nice/ though."
K'del uses both hands to lift his klah to his mouth, and sips while Milani talks, though his gaze remains focused upon her. "Good," he says of 'worrying things'. "Hope it stays that way. Nice, quiet spring and summer. And beyond. No shoes. No dropping. Mm, they are nice. Nicer than Tillek's. Not too hot, not cold. Just right."
"Too humid in your part of Tillek?" Milani inquires, propping her chin up on her hand, eyes on K'del's face, her own expression, body language are all relaxed. "And I'll hope for quiet too. A normal turn would be ... really nice."
K'del turns his mug on the table, idly, without really looking at it. "Mm," he agrees, of his part of Tillek. "Just doesn't quite hit the sweet spot, I guess. But here..." Lazily, lightly, he adds, "It would be. Reckon we could all use it. Time to... just be, I guess."
"You would put it that way," Milani teases the Weyrleader a little and ghosts a light touch over towards one of his arms. "Time to just be. That sounds ... good. Really good," the headwoman says thoughtfully and she closes her eyes for a moment then starts to neatly stack papers together, readying a tidy up.
As Milani reaches to touch his arm, K'del reaches to put his hand on top of hers, just for a moment, though as he does so, he's laughing. "You know me!" His nod after that is slower, then. "Does, doesn't it." Beat. He's watching her tidy up, his eyes trained closely on her. "Things're going to get better. Millie. Sorted out. Easier. /Better/."
The weight of K'del's hand atop hers earns the Weyrleader a little smile, fond. "Very well, one might say," she quips further and winks over at him. "Yes," while stacking. "It does. You know, even keel and all." Stack, stack, stack and then blue-green eyes lift to his. "Just because they will ... or is that the Weyrleader with a plan?" Light.
"One might say," agrees K'del, grinning at her wink as his hand returns to his mug. "And in saying so, one might note that it is something I'm exceptionally glad of: having a friend like you." His eyes are on her stacking hands, but as hers lift, his meet hers. Less light is his, "Wish I did. Sure of it, all the same. People deserve it."
"So am I," Milani answers readily and she sets down the stack, gives it a little pat, lays the clipboard atop that. "So. No big plan, just going to roll with it and hope for the best." She nods once. "That's not really a bad way to be. I'm a planner though, especially now." The headwoman laughs and gives a little knock of knuckles to clipboard.
K'del's smile in response to that first comment is a fond one, and pleased. "Guess so. Though when you put it like that... makes me feel less organised than I should be." Not that he's stopped smiling as he says that. "Planning is good. Helpful. Nice to know that /someone/ around here has a plan, right?"
"Different ways for different leaders," Milani points out. "Caverns, you have to plan really," she continues and gives those piled up things a little nudge aside. "And /I'd/ like to think it's nice, but not everyone agrees." Beat. "Anyway. Tell me how you are?" There's a certain wistfulness to her expression as she asks that question.
"Point taken," allows K'del, smiling. "Often not too much you can plan for, in my job. Though... Still really need to work out longer term plans for the wings. But. Some people are wrong, Millie. Planning, particularly in your position, is really important. And I'm... I'm good, mostly. Another of my brothers is about to get married, so I've been rescuing Kash from the mayhem as much as I can. It's been nice, spending time with her." Pause. Then, in a lower voice, "What about you?"
"Wing plans, mm. Good to have them if they're needed. Things are going to change more aren't they? In the interval," Milani muses thoughtfully. Her fingers drum lightly on the table and she focuses on the Weyrleader again, listening. "Congratulations to him," is wished sincerely. "And I'll bet she wants to escape all that craziness." Beat. "Do you -- think she's next?" His own question earns a little smile and a nod. "Better."
K'del tips his head into a nod. "Going to have to. Already... well. Can't blame wings for feeling like there's no point, you know? They're bored. Of course they are. So." Though he sounds musing as he says this, he slides easily into a more lazy tone as he continues, "He's happy. It's nice to see. Kash... still isn't convinced. She's only sixteen, though. More interested in dancing than any of that." Beat. "Glad to hear it. Truly."
"Right. Boredom. Can lead to you know, bad behavior," Milani says with a wry look. "Makes me wonder a little what the /usual/ thing is to do in an interval for Weyrs," the headwoman says musingly in turn. Shaking that off she laughs. "Right, but I hear all the time about how that's the usual age for things to get arranged. Isn't it?"
"Dragonriders carousing through the holds, causing problems for their weyrleaders to fix... not good. Yes. Mm, been looking at that a bit. There's various options." K'del says all of this whilst glancing at his mug, which, eventually, gets drawn back up towards his mouth. "Can be the usual age. The youngest, anyway. My other sister was eighteen, though, and some of my brothers married girls even older. So it all depends, I guess, and Kash is the baby, so... Still. They're going to want her to start thinking about it more seriously. Probably start on her after the wedding."
"Has there been much of that so far? I haven't really heard," Milani says lightly, head tilted to the side. "Maybe that's the hard part of leading in an interval, coming up with ways to keep people busy," she continues wryly. Serious though, she nods about his sister. "Do you think she'll want ... something different from life?"
K'del shakes his head. "Not... a lot. There's fighting, there's drinking, but mostly it's contained in the weyr, and mostly nothing /too/ serious. But. Feels like it's only a matter of time, you know? Especially if things generally, otherwise, stay quiet." He lets out a breath, and laughs, "Reckon you're probably right. All about busy work. Or-- making it not busy work, I guess. Meaningful work, somehow." Eyes on his mug, he hesitates before answering her last. "Maybe. Maybe she'd be okay, with the right kind of husband. Don't know. Just can't see her as happy wife and mother, is all."
"That's ... good, mostly. Though you know, fights in the Weyr ..." Milani trails off, sighs and rubs at the side of her face. "Meaningful work. Yes." Her lips purse for a moment as he shifts back to talking about his sister. "I hope ... that that all works out, Kas. I really do. She's so lively." Millie breaks off there, pushes to her feet and collects her things. "Would you like to take a walk with me? I just need to put these things away."
K'del's nod is rueful, followed by a sigh. "It'd help if some of the options from previous intervals sounded at all interesting to me, you know? But. Working on it, at least." He pushes his mug away, more as something to do with his hands, apparently, than anything else, and nods. "Thanks. Me, too. Don't want to see her... lose that, I guess." His head tips up to follow her movement as she stands, and he smiles; "Sure. That'd be good." He, too, draws himself up, reclaiming that mug as he goes.
"None of them do?" Milani inquires as she hugs papers and clipboard to her chest. "No, I get how you wouldn't want that," Millie says lightly enough then smiles again. "Meet you in the bowl?"
"Not in the sense of... wow, I want to be doing that," says K'del. "But. We'll see." His head tips towards her just slightly, then he concludes, "Right. See you out there shortly. Still pretty foggy out - make sure you've a coat or something." His coat he gathers back up, before he wanders off to dump his mug, and head for the bowl himself.
"I kind of like the fog," Milani claims, with a thoughtful look to her, then she nods once, moves away with her things. When she surfaces again in the bowl, she's less one pile of papers and so on and she's changed into casual off-duty clothes, topped with a large red cardigan. "Kas?" Because, you know, fog. Has to make sure.
K'del, fondly; "Weirdo." By the time she joins him outside, he's pulled his jacket back on, and is leaning up against the cold stone wall just outside the caverns. "Here," he says, as she says his name, straightening. "Where shall we wander, then?"
Milani follows the sound of his voice to the Weyrleader and she smiles up at him, then leans over to slide an arm around his waist. "/This/ is why I like fog," she notes with a wink. "Lake? Or just around the Bowl?"
At that comment, and the arm that slides around him, K'del laughs - not that it stops him from echoing the movement with his own arm. "May be persuaded to your point of view," he teases. "And lake. Always likes kind of eerie and cool, when the weather's like that."
"May be?" Milani teases back and bumps her hip lightly against his. "Mm, it does get that way on foggy evenings. Sort of quiet, even if there's fish jumping or water dripping into it," she agrees and leans in companionably to start that walk across the bowl to the lake.
"/May/," agrees K'del, still teasing, and bumping his hip back at hers, whilst beginning on that walk through the bowl. "Does, yeah. Like the entire place could be deserted, or like something creepy is about to climb out of the water." Beat. "Now I sound like Uanth. Used to terrify Cadejoth about things under the ice, when they were little."
"I don't usually think that," Milani answers laughingly. "No creepies under the water, just that sense of the world kind of holding its breath for a little while," the headwoman continues and snugs her arm a little more tightly around him. "If something does come up out of the water though, you'll be the big damn hero right?"
Laughing in return, K'del says, "Just call me mister overactive imagination, I guess. /Your/ idea sounds distinctly nicer than mine. Poetic, almost." His arm squeezes about her waist in response. "Promise. Beat it off with my own hands, I will. And if I die doing that, know you'll tell everyone that I died bravely, and for a good cause."
"Absolutely, the tale of K'del and the Dread Beast of Reaches' Lake," Milani intones as their footsteps crunch onwards towards the water and the fog swirls before them and closes in behind them. "I guess I do have a poetic bone in my body then. Not all numbers and figures!"
"Can we make it brave K'del? Or maybe... The tale of Brave and Handsome K'del and the Dread Beast of Reaches' Lake? If I'm going to die... might as well get remembered romantically." K'del's laughing as he says this, peering ahead of them across what remains of the bowl. "Lots more than numbers and figures. You like books too much to be /just/ that."
Milani can't help but lose it to giggles in the wake of that request. "The Very Brave and Most Handsome K'del, Illustrious Weyrleader," she says in exaggeratedly serious tones. "That romantic enough for you?" More laughter follows and Millie shrugs. "Liking stories doesn't mean I'm good at words."
Despite Milani's giggles, K'del struggles - not entirely successfully - to keep a straight face. Lips twitching, he notes, in a tone that was probably intended to be more serious than it actually comes out as, "I think it /might/ do. It just... wouldn't do to under-exaggerate, you know?" A beat later, he adds, "No, course not. But I figure reading helps. More exposure to words the better, you know?"
"Mm. It's a serious thing. Under-exaggeration," Milani says and then breaks out laughing all the more. Deep breath. "Sure, learned more words that way," Millie says contentedly enough. "But I don't know if that's enough for poetic." Her arm squeezes around his waist lightly and she turns to press a kiss lightly to is cheek. "Thank you though, for the compliment."
K'del can't keep himself from laughing, this time, and simply gives in to it. "Very serious," he agrees, in between breaths, followed by a deep breath that inadvertantly echoes hers. "Perhaps." His head turns, after that kiss, to look at her, and he smiles. "You're welcome, Millie. Meant it."
Milani ducks her head down to K'del's shoulder then and continues to walk around the lake with steady steps. "I know," she answers simply and turns the chatter even lighter as the continue to walk around the lake, late afternoon eventually deepening to night before there's a need to turn back because Millie's tummy is growling.
Location: Living Cavern/Bowl/Lake, High Reaches Weyr
Synopsis: Milani and K'del mostly keep topics light when they run into each other in the Living Cavern, and end up taking a walk together.
Living Cavern, High Reaches Weyr(#350RJs)
Stalactites hang high above this enormous cavern like a jagged chandelier or an inversion of the Spires themselves, but shadows cling to them instead of light. Below lie great tables arranged in rows, each large enough to serve a fighting wing, while in the nooks and alcoves around the cavern's edge sit more sensibly-sized tables, from six- and eight-seaters down to intimate spots for just a couple of diners. The only really open space is around the kitchen entrance, smelling of food and rarely quiet, and by the nearby serving tables with their long buffet of the day's offerings.
Tapestries on the smooth walls -- some faded and others newly woven -- only slightly mute the sea of sound when a meal is in full swing, but they add cheerfulness augmented by the glowlight from wall sconces and the centerpieces of each table. Still, shadows always creep along the ceiling and into the mouths of the exits -- the myriad small hallways at one end of the cavern and, at the other, the twisting tunnel to the bowl near an array of coathooks and and hatracks -- and late at night, when the glows are allowed to dim, the chamber can seem very dark indeed.
Contents:
Milani
It's a misty, moisty spring afternoon, the bowl outside still fending off the fog. Despite being between mealtimes, the caverns are busy enough, and made moreso by a group of Avalanche wingriders, trooping in from the bowl. K'del's at the back of the group, pausing near the doorway to take off his damp coat and sling it over his arm, and then run an idle hand through his curls. The rest of the wing seem intent upon cutting through the caverns to the Snowasis, by their words, but the Weyrleader waves them on, instead heading for the hearth, and the klah pot warming there.
Not eating. Milani isn't really here for the food, she's sitting with work around her and a small group of people taking instructions. "So, there we go!" she's saying though. "Go ahead and get some supper and we should be all set for this evening," the headwoman adds and sits back a little, smiling as the group breaks apart. He pencil taps lightly at the sheet atop her clipboard and her gaze idly roams the cavern, alights on K'del and she lifts a hand to wave, just a small little wave.
K'del catches that wave just before he reaches the klah pot, and he returns it with a warm smile. Once his mug is filled, he weaves his way through the tables towards her, lingering with one hand on the back of a chair, rather than moving to sit. "Afternoon," he greets, lightly, with that smile still in place. He pauses to take a sip from his klah, swallowing it before, "How's things, Millie? All good in the caverns, this afternoon?"
Milani answers that smile with one of her own and starts to gesture to invite the Weyrleader to take a seat. "Good afternoon, Kas, busy of course, it being spring and everything coming back to life, but not so busy that anyone is losing half brain," she says with a laugh. "And you?"
There's a moment of hesitation before K'del moves to take the seat he's invited to, but it's only a moment, and then he sinks into it, dropping his coat on a spare chair, and then placing his mug directly between his hands, and wrapping both around it. "The good kind of busy, then," he concludes. "Busy, too. Miserable day for drills, but they're done, now. Not too long before summer, I suppose, and then people'll complain about it being too warm for it."
"Yes, the good kind of busy," Milani agrees, head bobbing. "Just the usual industry, keeping on top of things. No particular worrying things. For now." Deep breat. "It's the Reaches. You never know when the other shoe is going to drop," wry. Laughter. "Summers here are /nice/ though."
K'del uses both hands to lift his klah to his mouth, and sips while Milani talks, though his gaze remains focused upon her. "Good," he says of 'worrying things'. "Hope it stays that way. Nice, quiet spring and summer. And beyond. No shoes. No dropping. Mm, they are nice. Nicer than Tillek's. Not too hot, not cold. Just right."
"Too humid in your part of Tillek?" Milani inquires, propping her chin up on her hand, eyes on K'del's face, her own expression, body language are all relaxed. "And I'll hope for quiet too. A normal turn would be ... really nice."
K'del turns his mug on the table, idly, without really looking at it. "Mm," he agrees, of his part of Tillek. "Just doesn't quite hit the sweet spot, I guess. But here..." Lazily, lightly, he adds, "It would be. Reckon we could all use it. Time to... just be, I guess."
"You would put it that way," Milani teases the Weyrleader a little and ghosts a light touch over towards one of his arms. "Time to just be. That sounds ... good. Really good," the headwoman says thoughtfully and she closes her eyes for a moment then starts to neatly stack papers together, readying a tidy up.
As Milani reaches to touch his arm, K'del reaches to put his hand on top of hers, just for a moment, though as he does so, he's laughing. "You know me!" His nod after that is slower, then. "Does, doesn't it." Beat. He's watching her tidy up, his eyes trained closely on her. "Things're going to get better. Millie. Sorted out. Easier. /Better/."
The weight of K'del's hand atop hers earns the Weyrleader a little smile, fond. "Very well, one might say," she quips further and winks over at him. "Yes," while stacking. "It does. You know, even keel and all." Stack, stack, stack and then blue-green eyes lift to his. "Just because they will ... or is that the Weyrleader with a plan?" Light.
"One might say," agrees K'del, grinning at her wink as his hand returns to his mug. "And in saying so, one might note that it is something I'm exceptionally glad of: having a friend like you." His eyes are on her stacking hands, but as hers lift, his meet hers. Less light is his, "Wish I did. Sure of it, all the same. People deserve it."
"So am I," Milani answers readily and she sets down the stack, gives it a little pat, lays the clipboard atop that. "So. No big plan, just going to roll with it and hope for the best." She nods once. "That's not really a bad way to be. I'm a planner though, especially now." The headwoman laughs and gives a little knock of knuckles to clipboard.
K'del's smile in response to that first comment is a fond one, and pleased. "Guess so. Though when you put it like that... makes me feel less organised than I should be." Not that he's stopped smiling as he says that. "Planning is good. Helpful. Nice to know that /someone/ around here has a plan, right?"
"Different ways for different leaders," Milani points out. "Caverns, you have to plan really," she continues and gives those piled up things a little nudge aside. "And /I'd/ like to think it's nice, but not everyone agrees." Beat. "Anyway. Tell me how you are?" There's a certain wistfulness to her expression as she asks that question.
"Point taken," allows K'del, smiling. "Often not too much you can plan for, in my job. Though... Still really need to work out longer term plans for the wings. But. Some people are wrong, Millie. Planning, particularly in your position, is really important. And I'm... I'm good, mostly. Another of my brothers is about to get married, so I've been rescuing Kash from the mayhem as much as I can. It's been nice, spending time with her." Pause. Then, in a lower voice, "What about you?"
"Wing plans, mm. Good to have them if they're needed. Things are going to change more aren't they? In the interval," Milani muses thoughtfully. Her fingers drum lightly on the table and she focuses on the Weyrleader again, listening. "Congratulations to him," is wished sincerely. "And I'll bet she wants to escape all that craziness." Beat. "Do you -- think she's next?" His own question earns a little smile and a nod. "Better."
K'del tips his head into a nod. "Going to have to. Already... well. Can't blame wings for feeling like there's no point, you know? They're bored. Of course they are. So." Though he sounds musing as he says this, he slides easily into a more lazy tone as he continues, "He's happy. It's nice to see. Kash... still isn't convinced. She's only sixteen, though. More interested in dancing than any of that." Beat. "Glad to hear it. Truly."
"Right. Boredom. Can lead to you know, bad behavior," Milani says with a wry look. "Makes me wonder a little what the /usual/ thing is to do in an interval for Weyrs," the headwoman says musingly in turn. Shaking that off she laughs. "Right, but I hear all the time about how that's the usual age for things to get arranged. Isn't it?"
"Dragonriders carousing through the holds, causing problems for their weyrleaders to fix... not good. Yes. Mm, been looking at that a bit. There's various options." K'del says all of this whilst glancing at his mug, which, eventually, gets drawn back up towards his mouth. "Can be the usual age. The youngest, anyway. My other sister was eighteen, though, and some of my brothers married girls even older. So it all depends, I guess, and Kash is the baby, so... Still. They're going to want her to start thinking about it more seriously. Probably start on her after the wedding."
"Has there been much of that so far? I haven't really heard," Milani says lightly, head tilted to the side. "Maybe that's the hard part of leading in an interval, coming up with ways to keep people busy," she continues wryly. Serious though, she nods about his sister. "Do you think she'll want ... something different from life?"
K'del shakes his head. "Not... a lot. There's fighting, there's drinking, but mostly it's contained in the weyr, and mostly nothing /too/ serious. But. Feels like it's only a matter of time, you know? Especially if things generally, otherwise, stay quiet." He lets out a breath, and laughs, "Reckon you're probably right. All about busy work. Or-- making it not busy work, I guess. Meaningful work, somehow." Eyes on his mug, he hesitates before answering her last. "Maybe. Maybe she'd be okay, with the right kind of husband. Don't know. Just can't see her as happy wife and mother, is all."
"That's ... good, mostly. Though you know, fights in the Weyr ..." Milani trails off, sighs and rubs at the side of her face. "Meaningful work. Yes." Her lips purse for a moment as he shifts back to talking about his sister. "I hope ... that that all works out, Kas. I really do. She's so lively." Millie breaks off there, pushes to her feet and collects her things. "Would you like to take a walk with me? I just need to put these things away."
K'del's nod is rueful, followed by a sigh. "It'd help if some of the options from previous intervals sounded at all interesting to me, you know? But. Working on it, at least." He pushes his mug away, more as something to do with his hands, apparently, than anything else, and nods. "Thanks. Me, too. Don't want to see her... lose that, I guess." His head tips up to follow her movement as she stands, and he smiles; "Sure. That'd be good." He, too, draws himself up, reclaiming that mug as he goes.
"None of them do?" Milani inquires as she hugs papers and clipboard to her chest. "No, I get how you wouldn't want that," Millie says lightly enough then smiles again. "Meet you in the bowl?"
"Not in the sense of... wow, I want to be doing that," says K'del. "But. We'll see." His head tips towards her just slightly, then he concludes, "Right. See you out there shortly. Still pretty foggy out - make sure you've a coat or something." His coat he gathers back up, before he wanders off to dump his mug, and head for the bowl himself.
"I kind of like the fog," Milani claims, with a thoughtful look to her, then she nods once, moves away with her things. When she surfaces again in the bowl, she's less one pile of papers and so on and she's changed into casual off-duty clothes, topped with a large red cardigan. "Kas?" Because, you know, fog. Has to make sure.
K'del, fondly; "Weirdo." By the time she joins him outside, he's pulled his jacket back on, and is leaning up against the cold stone wall just outside the caverns. "Here," he says, as she says his name, straightening. "Where shall we wander, then?"
Milani follows the sound of his voice to the Weyrleader and she smiles up at him, then leans over to slide an arm around his waist. "/This/ is why I like fog," she notes with a wink. "Lake? Or just around the Bowl?"
At that comment, and the arm that slides around him, K'del laughs - not that it stops him from echoing the movement with his own arm. "May be persuaded to your point of view," he teases. "And lake. Always likes kind of eerie and cool, when the weather's like that."
"May be?" Milani teases back and bumps her hip lightly against his. "Mm, it does get that way on foggy evenings. Sort of quiet, even if there's fish jumping or water dripping into it," she agrees and leans in companionably to start that walk across the bowl to the lake.
"/May/," agrees K'del, still teasing, and bumping his hip back at hers, whilst beginning on that walk through the bowl. "Does, yeah. Like the entire place could be deserted, or like something creepy is about to climb out of the water." Beat. "Now I sound like Uanth. Used to terrify Cadejoth about things under the ice, when they were little."
"I don't usually think that," Milani answers laughingly. "No creepies under the water, just that sense of the world kind of holding its breath for a little while," the headwoman continues and snugs her arm a little more tightly around him. "If something does come up out of the water though, you'll be the big damn hero right?"
Laughing in return, K'del says, "Just call me mister overactive imagination, I guess. /Your/ idea sounds distinctly nicer than mine. Poetic, almost." His arm squeezes about her waist in response. "Promise. Beat it off with my own hands, I will. And if I die doing that, know you'll tell everyone that I died bravely, and for a good cause."
"Absolutely, the tale of K'del and the Dread Beast of Reaches' Lake," Milani intones as their footsteps crunch onwards towards the water and the fog swirls before them and closes in behind them. "I guess I do have a poetic bone in my body then. Not all numbers and figures!"
"Can we make it brave K'del? Or maybe... The tale of Brave and Handsome K'del and the Dread Beast of Reaches' Lake? If I'm going to die... might as well get remembered romantically." K'del's laughing as he says this, peering ahead of them across what remains of the bowl. "Lots more than numbers and figures. You like books too much to be /just/ that."
Milani can't help but lose it to giggles in the wake of that request. "The Very Brave and Most Handsome K'del, Illustrious Weyrleader," she says in exaggeratedly serious tones. "That romantic enough for you?" More laughter follows and Millie shrugs. "Liking stories doesn't mean I'm good at words."
Despite Milani's giggles, K'del struggles - not entirely successfully - to keep a straight face. Lips twitching, he notes, in a tone that was probably intended to be more serious than it actually comes out as, "I think it /might/ do. It just... wouldn't do to under-exaggerate, you know?" A beat later, he adds, "No, course not. But I figure reading helps. More exposure to words the better, you know?"
"Mm. It's a serious thing. Under-exaggeration," Milani says and then breaks out laughing all the more. Deep breath. "Sure, learned more words that way," Millie says contentedly enough. "But I don't know if that's enough for poetic." Her arm squeezes around his waist lightly and she turns to press a kiss lightly to is cheek. "Thank you though, for the compliment."
K'del can't keep himself from laughing, this time, and simply gives in to it. "Very serious," he agrees, in between breaths, followed by a deep breath that inadvertantly echoes hers. "Perhaps." His head turns, after that kiss, to look at her, and he smiles. "You're welcome, Millie. Meant it."
Milani ducks her head down to K'del's shoulder then and continues to walk around the lake with steady steps. "I know," she answers simply and turns the chatter even lighter as the continue to walk around the lake, late afternoon eventually deepening to night before there's a need to turn back because Millie's tummy is growling.