Of Ch-ch-ch-changes: A pity party at the pool
Pool and Garden
10-14-05
Nolee, M'yr, later Cynara
The evening's red-golden gown blankets the landscape, and the fruit trees are bare at this time of winter. Various pairs wash or rest in the pool, and one of those waiting for an ample space in the water is Nolee, who passes the time rearranging the stones resting in a ring near the water's edge. Nalaieth is exploring some feet from her rider, and part of that seems to involve nibbling on empty tree branches to see if they might be at all tasty.
M'yr splits off from an assistant weyrlingmaster, chuckling at something known to him and Soldreth. The dragon waddles ahead, crooning to Nalaieth, then stops, pausing to lift his muzzle high, wings fanning out in a deep stretch. Another croon is sent to her, adding a flap of one wing. "Oh for sharding sake, Sol.." he mutters then waves to Nolee. "Don't mind him. He's just showing off. Again."
Nalaieth is pleased to see her sibling, leaving off her torturing of the barren fruit tree to spread her expansive, hazy yellowy sails in greeting, enough to reveal the dark smoky gold near their base. A step back is taken, the tail not quite trodden upon when she reverses, kindly offering him a spot at the tree-chewing if he should want it. Nolee is slower to notice her lifemate antics, or those of Soldreth, and it is M'yr's voice which draws her attention. "Hallo," she calls, bleary eyed, settling the stone back into the row. "Mind him?" A wan giggle. "Does he like to sing like that? Or is he just glad to be not cooped up or running laps?"
M'yr chuckles, motioning his Bad Boy toward the water. "G'wan, seems she has set a place for you at the table, hmm?" Then, in a mock stern voice, he adds, "Be good!", wobbling his finger at the dragon who could care less it seems. Snorting, Sol tidies himself up to plow into the water, dunk himself, then move toward Nalaieth's side. He tries to nudge her gently with his muzzle, then leans down to explore the tree branch. "He /hates/ to do anything that makes him do what someone else wants." M'yr grins, taking a seat to look at the rocks. "Making something special?"
Nolee raises her head to give M'ry a smile, inviting him near in similar fashion as had Nalaieth. "There's a good spot here to sit, and the mud's softer than the lumpy parts over there." Seems she's not too concerned about the dirt. "It's also better for soaking my nails, which are rough from chores." A momentary ugh face for the inescapable, then she rearranges the rocks, pushing them back into the pliable mud near the water's edge, "They remind me of an underground cave 'round here I used to--" She breaks off, chewing at her lip. "It was a nice place to get away from things." Nalaieth folds her wings, sinking back into the water, then lifting one playfully to splash at the young bronze.
M'yr takes the indicated seat, not seeming to mind if it's muddy or not. He looks to the rocks, Nolee's face, then back to the rocks. When he speaks, his voice is low, soothing. "Are you a little homesick? I was the other day, and to be honest, I was missing the docks. We're not even allowed down there now." Glancing toward Sol and Nalaieth brings no smile, just more thoughtfulness. Sol, however, is elated at the attention, offering yet another nudge against the golden hide. Gently of course.
Nolee's eyes are again downcast, the girl considering her next words as the last ones got away unbidden. "I am, a little. I'm more sick for how we used to be able to get away, go sunbathe on the beach, or slip off with some of the older littles." A frank sigh. "No more of that, now." She raises her head, her gaze seeking his. "You thought about just going anyway, consequences or no?" The question hangs in the air while Nalaieth responds positively, nudging back at the bronze: ooo, someone I can play with who is almost my size!
M'yr's arm rounds Nolee's shoulders, he's quiet for a good while, just sitting there with her. Finally, he speaks. "Know what? I hate that. There is no freedom, there is only rules. Before, it was hard enough having Lirit or Ellery get all over me about being obedient. At least that was just a few times. Not /always/." More quiet, then, "Yeah, I thought about leaving, but how could I leave him? And if I take him, he'd pine away for Nalaieth and the others. Maybe we should go away together - the four of us." Sol croons yet again, this time lowering his muzzle into the water very close to her side. He blows bubbles for her, each one rising against her hide to tickle, before *popping* on the surface.
Nolee is still, comforted by his contact. Her head inclines slightly toward the other weyrling, resting on his shoulder if he's still to allow it. "Yeh." Her agreement is quiet, out of steam for arguments brooked in the past. "I knew you'd understand how hard it is. Aiemera, well, it's so hard to talk to her without Arukath making a fuss, and I'ril's become so compliant..." A shake of her head against his shirt, then, "I don't mean for always. Just for a few hours? A few minutes? To forget about all the work." Nalaieth rolls in the water so the bubbles cross her great stomach, gurgling croons of delight. Dipping her head into the water, she exhales a fountain stream upward to rain down toward Soldreth.
M'yr's hand lifts to stroke Nolee's hair as he nods. "I.." he begins then falters. "I, uhm.." Once more he pauses, then looks down at her. "I feel so different than the others." is finally said in a low voice, then he clears his throat to look at the two dragons. Soldreth's head lifts, water cascading down his maw, fueled by Nalaieth's fountain. Shiny sleek from the dousing, he shakes his head, sending beads of pool water her way.
Nolee watches the rocks as the damp mud slucks around them, shifting their position slightly while the dragons splash and play. She lifts her head to try to read his expression, then follows the direction of his glance toward the dragons. "Different?" encourages him to speak further, while Nalaieth wriggles happily beneath the water's surface after splashes come her way. Leading playfully, she splashes deeper into the water, approaching the waterfall, and basks in its spray. "Not too far, Nala," Nolee warns, raising her voice.
M'yr shrugs, sucking in a long, slow breath. "I don't know. I can't go a sevenday without getting into something, making someone mad, doing something wrong. Everyone else seems to do what they're told. Me.. I get this knot inside and I can't seem to stop doing something. I try, I do. But.." Looking toward Sol, who's following after Nalaieth, he pokes a thumb his way. "And of course, he doesn't help. You don't feel different? I guess not. You get along with everyone."
Nolee looks toward M'yr's stomach, as though the knot would manifest itself on the exterior. "Like you ate something that made you want to argue? Pop used to say some foods made a person mean, though for him all it takes is drink." A regard of the other weyrling is somber, the lack of sleep lines on her face deeper due to the weather and fire-tending lines already present. "I just feel tired all the time. And restless, even though I'm too tired to have the energy to sneak out for a bit. Maybe that's different? But not like your different." Nalaieth ducks into the water, her tail splashing as it slaps, the female vanishing temporarily from sight.
M'yr looks to Nolee, more inspecting her face than a casual glance. "Hey now. Is this really getting to you so badly? I bet you're tired because you're worrying too much. It happens to me sometimes." Sol is quite puzzled as to where Nalaieth has gone. He pads about in the water then stops where he thought she disappeared. His croon has changed to concern. Where did she go?
Nolee, seated on the muddy ground near the water and by the ring of small stones and very near M'yr raises her head to watch the water for her lifemate to surface. When she does so, this time behind Soldreth having gone under or around him in a mischievous swimming maneuver, it is with a bold trumpeting and another water splashing his way. "I'm not as worried, I think. It's more all there is to do, and how tired my body is from all the working. I'm not used to this." She smiles brightly through her fatigue, trying to put on a brave front. "Is that where the knot in your stomach comes from? The tireds?"
M'yr ohs, nodding. "I think doing the fewmet shoveling and lugging 'stone sacks around for so long during Candidacy has made a few muscles I didn't have before. And you know, I don't know where it comes from. It's like.. boom. There it is. Sol knows all about it, he takes advanage of it and urges me on. Lirit said once that I had to learn how to control those urges. So far, nothing I do is working." Shaking his head, he turns to look at the waterfall where the dragons are playing. Sol bugles, surprised to find the dragon behind him, so surprised, he gets his legs tangled and goes *plop* right into the water! Surfacing, he paddles to her, giving her a poke on her side. Not hard, but with firmness.
With, of course, appropriate escort, Cynara is bringing her lifemate to the pool for a bath he clearly needs...somehow, the blue has become splattered with mud, all over, including his well-set wings. "Let's get you in the pool, handsome," she tells him out loud, and then realizes it's occupied by bronze and gold. Ah well. Plenty of room to add blue to the mix.
Nolee raises one muddy hand, frowns at it, wipes it on her pants, then blots the very corner of her eye where redness has rimmed it just slightly, her smile holding firm. "It did," she agrees, her bluntness in his muscle-appearance not flattery or flirtation, but fact. "I tried to get up with you then to watch the drills, but ugh, so early. I can't believe we're up so early now." A headshake brings Cynara into view, and she waves her mostly-clean hand while Nalaieth pokes back, equally firmly, at the instigator, dragon-chortling at his splashdown. "Sometimes I can control her, and sometimes, her me. Does he make it worse for you?"
M'yr nods emphatically to Nolee, "Oh yes, he's quite the handful. He knows everything, I know nothing, I should do what he says, it goes on and on. I know you wanted to go, but it's probably better you rested." He waves to Cynara, sending a smile. "Heya, there. If you don't mind mud, there's a seat near us if you like." Sol goes back to creating bubbles, then lifts his head to see the newest dragon arrive. He bugles a welcome, then shuffles to the side, closer to Nalaieth.
Cynara smiles. "I think I will, for a bit." Marsath, for his part, lumbers into the water, shaking himself a little to loosen the mud. "Talking about your lifemates? Marsath is...a bit of a handful in his own way." The blue, of course, snorts at her.
Nolee is unable to hold in a soft, mirthful laugh, a good release of the tension that's tightening her slim shoulders. "Wish we rested more now. He sounds like I'ril's, being all that bossy, or Eslyn's. And punishements don't work on him either?" Settling over to the side in the mud makes a better, more even spot for Cynara to sit. "It's not so bad. Warm mud feels kinda good on the sore places," is delivered as she slops some onto her own arms. "I already needed a bath, anyway." Nalaieth tries to imitate Soldreth's bubbles, but sucks water into her nose, then snorts it out messily, mucus clinging to her muzzle before she dips it, confused, into the water away from her clutchsiblings.
Cynara moves to sit down. "These are work clothes anyway, and I'm used to the mud at this point." Moving further into the water, Marsath approaches his siblings, and he too tries the bubble blowing thing, with a little more success than the queen, although, perhaps, not much. Hrm. Got to be a knack to this, somewhere.
Cynara moves to sit down. "These are work clothes anyway, and I'm used to the mud at this point." Moving further into the water, Marsath approaches his siblings, and he too tries the bubble blowing thing, with a little more success than the queen, although, perhaps, not much. Hrm. Got to be a knack to this, somewhere.
Nolee slathers mud up over her other arm, making the sleeves of her patchwork shirt match in brownness if in nothing else. Nalaieth extends her neck, paddling uselessly in the shallow water to strengthen her limbs, and watches Soldreth and Marsath raptly: if there is a trick, I must learn it.
Cynara laughs a bit. "Check out our babies...they're all...well, cute is the wrong word, but they haven't quite grown into magnificent yet. Got a good word, Nolee?" She watches the interaction between Marsath and the two metallics, with a fond smile.
Nalaieth continues her efforts, oblivious to the color of her hide or that of her companions. Nolee watches the female dragonet suck in and choke on another failed effort to make bubbles, and shakes her head. "Clumsy might be mine? But maybe not yours's so much. Um, what about," her head tilts, considering, "carefree? Strange, isn't it, when we have so much to worry about getting right."
Cynara hrms. "It's because they don't have longterm memories, so they don't worry about things the way we do. Marsath...it's like he's incredibly wise and so naive, all at the same time, and he loves me in a way I...couldn't have imagined before."
Nolee taps her forehead, thinking about this. "My memory isn't very good. I can't even remember people's names that I know well, and dragons are just out of the question." A look back toward the water, where Nalaieth has given up on bubbles and instead is swimming with long, clumsy strokes toward the waterfall's splashing. "Remember, not too close," lectures Nolee. "Wise and naive. That's a good way of putting it. And like, unconditionally, even if she gets mad." A blush tinges her cheeks at the admission.
Cynara hrms. "Oh, me and Marsath argue a little bit sometimes, but the love isn't going anywhere. It's...it really is an unbreakable bond." She looks over towards the blue, who's now trying to splash the gold with sweeps of his wings. "They're growing stronger every day. They'll fly soon."
Nolee nods her head. "We don't argue so much, but Nala's very ...steadfast? When she is convinced of something, even if she's wrong. Or I'm wrong." A goodnatured shrug, then she rubs her tired eyes. Nalaieth wriggles through the water like a water-beast or an watergoing tunnelsnake, her hide wrinkling when she crunches her body upward and outstretches again. "They will?" Marsath's spread wings draw her eyes, and she stares, amazed. "Will it be less work, or more?" Ah, the concerns of Nolee.
Cynara hrms. "I don't know, but I do know I'll probably have to hold Marsath back, or he'll strain a wing." She stands up. "I'm going to scrub the rest of that mud off him now he's rinsed off what he can...you be careful, goldrider." Does she envy Nolee? Not at /all/.
Nolee rises, mud coating her sides and arms and backside where she'd been sitting, M'yr left to rest where he'd sat. "I should do the same, and wash myself as well. Though the mud feels good. I never thought I'd say that about mud." She slinks into the water, beckoning the dragonet near and ahhing at the coolness of the pool. "Careful? I heard a rumor that Nala doesn't even get to chew firestone. That all of you do that. You're the ones who need to be more careful. That stuff's heavy, and stinky, and fire's dangerous."
Cynara nods as she moves into the water with her dragon. "Queens can't chew, it affects their fertility for some reason. But you'll be using a flamethrower, which has to be just as dangerous."
Nolee shrugs, dipping herself under the water to loosen the dirt on her arms and clothes, and a hand scrubber like a sponge comes out of her pocket, running quickly over the young queen, though she splashes her lifemate mightily as she shifts about, drawing Nolee's attention to the bright color of Marsath's wings. "Yes, he's pretty," she laughs. "Flamethrowers aren't that bad. Like a cookfire, only throwable. But eating that stuff? Sounds dangerous to me. How can you find good pieces so he won't get sick?" Worried, she adds, "Fertility?" A drawing together of her brows. "I don't have to make babies if she does, do I? No, that can't be, or whats-her-name would have babies."
Cynara shakes her head. "No...if you go between soon after having sex, you can avoid getting pregnant. Unless, of course, you want to and are trying real hard...going between a lot tends to affect /human/ fertility."
Nolee's eyes widen at Cynara's directness, this rumor not having made it to her ears as of yet. "Really?" Startled, she finishes washing her dragon in silence, then waves to Cynara and M'yr, still rather dazed. "Have a good night, Cynara. And dream of flying. But not of mating flying. Yet."