[Log] Maiden, Pt. 1
Who: A'son, Gr'din, I'daur, M'kin, N'thei, Olwyn, R'layn, Tegara, V'delin, X'ndar, Yronica, Z'lo (NPC)
When: Day 31, Month 4, Turn 13
Where: Bowl, Telgar Weyr
What: Aleith rises in her maiden flight. I'daur is one of those caught up in it.
Notes: Find Pt. 2 here.
Sareith was dozing, but as his rider comes sauntering out of the caverns he yawns and blinks his eyes open. The bronze darts a curious look 'round and then rumbles a query to his rider. Grae shrugs, "Don't look at me, I just got here. You fall asleep on watch duty again?"
The presence of yet another foreign dragon is not exactly unusual today, apparently. Talurith is just another male among the bronzes and browns that seem to have gathered from Telgar and further afield. The muddy-looking bronze is curled up lazily in the bowl's centre, though the twitching of his tail is a telltale sign of his pent up energy. He's waiting for something, and it may not be his rider, who's nowhere to be seen.
Wyaeth lands along with the other Reaches bronzes, Nikoth and Zunaeth, though with his own heavy lack of grace, pretty much just thumping from the air onto the ground hard enough to set his rider's teeth on edge. N'thei is quick to dismount afterward, a dubious look finding its way across unfamiliar terrain; "Get the feeling we're gate-crashing something?"
X'ndar having just arrived back from errands for the weyr, lands in a bowl fast filling with foreign dragons. Well at least foreign to the brown pair. Blue-green eyes narrow but shortly its manners that hold out as the riders arriving are offered greeting "Telgar's duties to-------all the weyrs of Pern?" amusement curls his mouth up enough to crease lines down the sides of it.
Z'lo is shivering as he makes his way across the bowl from where he's left his bronze Deluffath. "S..... Sorry Deluffath. I'll be back out soon for you...... just gotta..... deliver this package....." The young bronzerider chatters out. His teeth are almost rattling. "I'm going to stretch out in the sun and fry when I get back to Ista."
Nikoth bursts from between, just after another High Reaches bronze does. They do the standard circle and land to the ground. A'son gives a look of disgust when he turns his eyes up the sky, taking in full stock of the weather. When he dismounts he comments to N'thei, "Yeah. Awful lot of folks here. By the way, I think this is a terrible place for us to get in any practice. Flames are likely to just be... extinguished." His tone dry as he pulls out his usual knit hat from it's been stuffed into his pocket. The man pulls out over his head, protecting himself somewhat from the weather.
Storming. Just great. V'delin dangles from a strap along Imirath's stocky haunch, trying to reach the pack buffeted about by the rain. "Well, if it'd quit with the lightning already, I could better see what I'm doing," he grumbles, having a quick look about to see who might be seeing him flail, quirking a brow for the business of the bowl. Another attempt secures the pack, and he works at untying it.
Aleith hunkers down on the edge of her ledge, her usual lithe grace momentarily obscured by the queen's obvious bad mood. Sparks of red flicker in her blue-whirled eyes as the gold dragon glares at the storm. Her rain-drenched hide glows eerily in the flashes of distant lightening, the luminescence seeming to last through the moments between the electric light.
As soon as Zunaeth blinks from /between/ into the rain over Telgar Weyr, the old bronze's attention jerks groundward, the gathering below catching his interest and he glides downward to land with his two weyrlings, while I'daur sets his mouth into a frown as he starts to unbuckle himself, muttering a curse. "Faranth. Watchrider said--" A shake of his head, and he slides down himself from his dragon's neck. "That's a bad thing?" is his dry reply to A'son's words.
Gr'din remains under the overhang to the caverns, warily watching the unfamiliar dragons congregate. He offers loud enough to be heard over the pounding rain, "Telgar's duties - watch the lightning there - oh, hey X'ndar! Congratulations! I hear you've got babysitting for the next group of weyrlings." One of the caverns girls appears under the overhang with dry towels and the like. As Aleith hunkers down, Sarieth's head turns that direction, squinting through the rain. Apparently he's not at all put off by the storm, not when there's something shiny to watch.
The presence of -any- number of foreign dragons is cause enough for a girl to come a little bit out of her way to see what's happening in the bowl. Yronica pulls her shawl up a little higher, over her head, sheild from the rain, and stays back against the wall of the bowl for further protection from the weather. She blinks against the wet, the empty basket that held the towels just-delivered to somewhere or other tucked under her arm.
It's a brave card for N'thei to play; "Maybe you'll avoid roasting yourself this time then." He has to add a baleful look toward the clouds afterward, while Wyaeth seems right at home amid lightning crashes and what-not, already busy taking stock of the sizes of a considerable portion of Pern's bronze dragons.
Z'lo shivers, but his hearing is sharp enough as he passes to catch Gr'din's greetings, just in case they're meant for him he answers. "Th..... thanks...Istas..... to yours...." He chatters. "I have a..... a package.... for the headwoman..... soon's I'm...... done...... I could..... use some..... klah....."
Talurith blinks his eyes as yet more rain runs into them, and it's fairly obvious why the bronze's wings are open and tilted down, the tips resting on the ground - the rain's running down and off them. He's soaked but it just adds to his already wet, watery kind of look. Very nice. Only a few moments after Aleith hunkers down on her ledge does R'layn appear from the lower caverns, not venturing out into the weather for the moment, just staring at his dragon's form when it's illuminated by the lightning flashes.
A'son holds his hand out, letting the heavy rain hit it "Yeah, if you wanted us to flame stuff, sir?" He replies, eyes drifting around the bowl. N'thei's words cause an instant glare to be sent N'thei's way. "Someone ought to keep their mouth /shut/ about things like that." Without waiting for a response he turns from the other weyrling and sends his attention one more to checking the crowds, and checking his dragon.
"Or anybody standing around him," I'daur snaps back, more irritation behind the words than his usual wry amusement as he looks to N'thei. Zunaeth seems impervious to the rain himself, as much as his rider is. "Shut up, you two," he adds a moment later, when A'son gets in on the sniping--apparently, while he's allowed to do it, they aren't. "Wasn't supposed to be /raining/. Wasn't supposed to get caught up in this, either," a nod toward the gathered males. "You oughta get Nikoth and Wyaeth home, if you still can."
V'delin at last manages to free his delivery, though he's by now drenched over his heavy jacket, water droplets complicating his task. He gives the pack-ties a kick, loses his balance, and dangles again before sliding to the ground, right into a puddle. "Imirath, why didn't you take a step to the side, save me the bathing?" His words fall on deaf ears; the siren's luminescence flashes and burns the image onto lusty whirling dragon eyes, and his attention is riveted on the young queen's ledge.
X'ndar hunches deeper into his flight jacket as the rain starts to trickle its way down the back of his neck. Gr'din's congratulations are met with a wide grin "Aye, it be so. Though I'm hoping less of the baby side o' things?" Valketh's eyes fix on the young queen illuminated by the flashes of lightening, just his tail giving hint to his interest as the other males are ignored for the most part. The banter between what appears to be 'Reaches weyrlingmaster and weyrlings is overheard in snatches and draws a gruff chuckle with words going back to Gr'din "Gonna be old afore me time I think."
M'kin makes his way across the bowl... sure he didn't have a message, or any reason to be there other then the fact that he wanted to be for some odd reason, but there he was, just in time to look up and see the flashing of lightening, and the gold.
Gr'din nods politely to Z'lo. "Just inside. Grab a towel there, Istan," after a quick check of the other man's knot. "If you can't find the headwoman, Brijana's usually just around here. But you may want to clear out in a hurry. Leave the package. Unless you fancy a longer stay." The big man's eyes are on Rei, though he nods to X'ndar. "Looks like it won't be too long to wait, either." Icy blue eyes flick to where Aleith burns away the rain with a heat clearly felt by his bronze. "Anyone seen Wyn around?"
The girl by the wall of the bowl lifts a hand and uses the corner of her shawl to wipe rain off of her forehead, then backs up a step so as to be out of the way of the sheeting wet. She glances down into the basket and frowns to find it gathering water that drips through the weave and dampens the side of her skirt. She's had her fill of looking. A shake of her head at the strange choices dragonriders make for their social gatherings, and Yronica heads for the caverns.
Tegara slides from her dragon's neck, her shoulder having become a waters slide in the rain. "Good ol' Telgar weather," she mutters. "Now -- where's Breena -- I could use a little advice from her." The reason for this request is obvious from the AWLM knot that now adorns her shoulder. Then she spies the gold, gleaming in that special way that she is quite familiar with. "You have an ulterior motive girl? Wanna watch one of the big girls fly?"
Aleith suddenly sits back on her haunches, the red in her eyes blending with the blue until the facets gleam violet. She regards the gathering browns and bronzes imperiously, her gaze stabbing each before she looks back to the storm and snorts with obvious contempt. Finally, she spreads her golden pinions and leaps from the ledge, gliding northwards towards the feeding grounds. She trumpets her triumph, the cry echoed by that of a girl. Olwyn pounds out into the rain from the direction of the hot springs, a towel wrapped around her and a jacket hanging on her by the hood only as the goldrider hastily tries to reach her dragon, but too late. "Aleith! Now?" she gasps out the obvious.
N'thei gives the begged question voice while an eager smile comes to light on his very damp face. "Or what, A'son?" There needs no comparison in size to account for his mirth as he makes a good-tempered pseudo-challenge to the other weyrling, all mirth, though his smile is short-lived when he tunes back to I'daur, eyebrows pulled curiously upwards, hitched even higher when a towel-clad girl comes traipsing onto the scene. "See, now this is more like what I was always told to expect at a Weyr. How soon is too soon to request a transfer, sir?"
Valketh 's lazy observation of Aleith snaps into taught lines as the young queen suddenly launches herself upward and on to the feeding grounds. Anything X'ndar may have been about to say is cut short with muttered "Would appear this knot'll be weighing heavy sooner then I expected." his eyes tracking to the young goldrider that comes flying through the rain from the direction of the springs. Tegara's words of finding Breena are met with a hike of brow from the former Southerner "Look me up when this is over. I might be able to help. X'ndar, that lugs rider." the twitchy brown with the scarred flank pointed out.
R'layn's mouth drops open as his dragon's motives for coming here become, well, pretty sharding obvious. He barely has time to yell the dragon's name before Talurith has sprung into action, all that twitchy, contained energy suddenly released in a powerful jump and sweep of his wings. Off he goes in pursuit of Aleith! R'layn, still gaping, half steps, half stumbles out into the rain, clapping a hand to his forehead. "I /knew/ it as well, that ruddy...!" He spins on his heel at the arrival of the flustered gold rider, and he closes his eyes so that rain streams from his hair over his eyelids.
Kerinath was eager, and didn't take much encouragement to bound after the queen, in a half run, half glide, keeping low to the ground to adviod the bigger dragons. M'kin on the other hand groans softly.. "Ralla is going to kil me..."
V'delin splashes his way toward the Telgari riders, stomping his boots to try to get some of the wet out, to no avail. He shelters the bundle with his arm and one flap of his jacket, the other up at his temple to brush the raindrops from his eyes. "Fort's duties" mumbled as he approaches, this coinciding with Imirath's restless rumble as Aleith leaps. "While I as hoping to stay and warm up," he commiserates with the Istan messenger, shifting the package. "This wasn't quite what I had in mind--but that sight sure brightens up the afternoon."
A'son sends another clearly irritated look the way of the other man. "Or it doesn't matter how big you are." Is the somewhat bland reply before he snaps his mouth shut and goes to put his hand out onto Nikoth's snout. "If I still can? Why?" He asks to I'daur, tone sounding somewhat perplexed. It's then that the bronze shakes his head, pulling away from him as his attention fixes onto the gold. Nikoth's eyes go blue to violet in a matter of seconds. "Oh..." And then Nikoth is gone, into the sky and to the feeding grounds, apparently.
I'daur himself eyes Olwyn as she runs past, brows raised much as N'thei's are. "We'll talk to the Weyrleaders when we get back," is his answer to the weyrling's question, distracted at best as Zunaeth leaves him as well. "Y'catch on quick," the weyrlingmaster adds to A'son, tensely. "Don't figure you can drag 'em away now, though."
Zunaeth> Valketh springs into the air for a quick flight over the fence from the central bowl. He settles, terrifying the animals within.
Zunaeth> Sareith is quick off the mark, practically bouncing into the feeding grounds after Aleith, tail lashing in eager appreciation. Behind him Grae says, with considerable understatment, "Oh. There she is." Ice eyes shade a trifle paler as Rei's emotions start to take control and he makes his first kill, wasting no time. He doesn't posture or bellow. Instead the buck is tilted towards Aleith, a silent tribute, before he bends to suck greedily at the carcass.
Zunaeth> Valketh has talons already reaching for the fat young calf he'd been eyeing ever since Aleith's glowing hide had come to his notice. Landing square on its back, its neck is wrenched around and snapped, maw dropping immediately to its throat as wings mantle over his kill. The other dragons ignored, just the young queen warily eyed for any movements skyward.
Zunaeth> Zunaeth takes a moment to crouch himself, studying Aleith before, laboriously, he gets back airborne to glide the short distance to the feeding peds himself, and effectively crush a herdbeast in landing, one big paw pinning it while his mouth goes to blooding. His wings stay spread, effectively declaring his domain at the same time he tries to avoid aggravating the old injury to his left one--at least not more than what's coming will already.
Zunaeth> Deluffath springs lightly onto the back of a smaller herdbeast, snapping at the neck and cracking it, the creature dies instantly and he can drink, sipping the crimson liquid with much near illmannered gusto. A low growl, or soft croon of delight, can be heard as the petite little bronze eats messily from the carcass.
Zunaeth> Aleith circles the feeding grounds in a glide, panicking the already frightened herdbeasts even more, seeming to delight in the aura and aroma of fear rising from them. Finally, she drops like a stone on a wherry, shrieking triumph as she crushes it beneath her. She gracefully steps back off it and arches her long neck to take the dead beast inside it. As she starts to bite down, however, she stops, shaking her head as if trying to rid it of some annoying insect. She drops it, then goes for it again, getting so far as to rip a chunk from it this time before dropping it again.
"Was bound ta happen I reckon." X'ndar exhales in a resigned tone, when Valketh hits that first herdbeast, displaying his clear intent on chasing the young queen. Olwyn gains a brief mark of his attention, then hands get shoved into his pockets. An air of ease settling about the large frame as the other riders seem to draw longer study from the Telgari weyrlingmaster, their various reactions amusing him for some or other reason.
Olwyn blushes faintly and holds tighter to her towel as she notices the large number of people around, but her attention is quickly diverted by the events on the feeding grounds. She stomps her foot in the mud impatiently. "No, Aleith! Drop it! Blood only! I said blood!"
Zunaeth> Imirath springs, leaving V'delin behind with a dousing of water across his back, his lunge carrying him a good way across the bowl, the slight and sinuous queen kept within his hunter's view. The meal to come is disregarded as nothing other than show, and as such, he seizes on the moment to grasp a herdbeast by the neck and to fling it at a squat bronze from Igen, bellowing triumph as it strikes.
M'kin makes his way over to the other riders, the Istan brown rider making no attempt to hide his amusement at the queen's bad timing to get a good look at her rider, despite his protests that some girl was going to kill him.
"Yeah, I'daur. Any chance N'thei and I could get that flight lesson /now/?" Are A'son's words to the Weyrlingmaster. "Because it looks like we're going to get it the old fashioned hands on way /first/." His eyes are following the path of Nikoth as the dragon flies and then disappears. A brief expression of concern and worry flickers over the man's face as his eyes go blank. "No." He mutters, likely only loud enough for those right nearby to hear. Only now when his attention returns from Nikoth does he fully notice Olwyn. His eyebrows lift at her jacket and towel, then he glances a the two men he's with.
Zunaeth> Dragons to the left of them, dragons to the right of them. The herdbeasts are understandably in a panic, and Zunaeth takes advantage of the turmoil the other males are causing to snag with one set of claws a frightened beast that comes too close to him without ever having to leave the ground again. Only once he's dragged it over to him does he release the first, working quickly through them and not wasting time trying to get every drop of blood out--a good thirty turns of practice have made him quite efficient at this. The same procedure works for a third beast, and then he's pausing, slowing to eye Aleith calculatingly, no more fooling about with blood.
R'layn has got over his initial surprise and slight anger, especially with Olwyn nearby. The Istan pats at his wet hair, grumbles a little, and then glances around. "Who else is thinkin' that we need to get out of this weather?" He asks out loud, looking around, blinking away the rainwater.
Zunaeth> Deluffath roars, true, he's a little thing for a bronze, but he's working on it! The little bronze grabs another herdbeast and whirls it around like a child with a kite, squeezing until the neck breaks. He drops it to the ground in front of him with a thud and rakes his talons across its flank. Once disembowled, he drinks hungrily.
Zunaeth> Sareith hisses at an unfamiliar brown as it crowds his wingroom. Then the large bronze takes advantage of the chaos the rain ad the others are causing to snag another beast as it runs past, bawling in terror. A thunderclap punctuates Aleith's resistance, and Rei turns his attention back to the source of his desire, ready to encourage and support his queen, whatever her desires may be. Her rider? Yeah, sure, let her yell. His soul attention is fixed on Aleith, the buck sucked dry as an afterthought.
Zunaeth> Valketh sends a threatening rumble to a younger brown that lands so boldly near him, tail lashing from side to side in his agitation. A powerful leap, buckles another herdbeast under his weight as with a deft flick of talons it's turned over and the soft underbelly exposed to sharp ripping teeth. Entrails slither their way down his gullet as he makes short work of this, his second kill. Distracted just briefly, purple tainted eyes rake appreciatively over the golden form in the killing grounds.
Zunaeth> Kerinath swats down another herd beast that gets to close in his panic, and happily pounces and starts drainin that one as well... he seems to think he needs all the blood he can get to keep up with the big boys.
"Faranth," mutters I'daur. He agrees, "Ain't never going to learn to flame at this rate. Well. Least we probably won't win." Which is apparently some comfort to him, as he looks over the two younger bronzeriders with him. "Yeah. Here's the basics. They blood, they fly, somebody gets lucky and the rest get drunk and lucky. Oughta be right up you two's alley," is his sarcastic reply to the request.
N'thei, amusedly, "I've always preferred the learn-by-doing method myself anyway." So saying, he clearly stops listening to I'daur's words of wisdom at that point, taken up with surveying Olwyn in a downright lascivious way, though his words are utterly benign; "Miss, you might want to..." He suggests with a gesture rather than words the pulling up of the towel, pantomiming the holding closed of a towel at the front of his own chest.
Zunaeth> Talurith doesn't so much as bat an eyelid at Aleith's unusual tactic with the wherry. Nor does he do the big macho thing that most of the other males are doing. The large bronze is sating his desire for blood for the time being, and keeping a careful eye on the young gold. With the bovine drained, he lumbers without grace to swat at a wherry, drawing it in so that when he dips his head to blood his neck arches, showing off the glittering colour of his throat and ridges.
V'delin looks up, regarding the goldrider with even more interest as it seems she's the one battling with the dragon in the feeding grounds. The comments of the weyrlings from High Reaches nearby about the timeliness of flight lessons brings a smirk, and an expression of earnestness is shared with Z'lo. "Ways to handle that, the headache. Telgar brew's the right thing for it, if you can hold your liquor."
Aleith, for a few moments, ignores her suitors as she fights with her rider. The queen shakes her head again, reaching for wherry again, but after another hesitation, she complies, going for the neck and drinking deeply. The posturing of the males gets another contemptuous look and snort as she snags a herdbeast galloping past. This time, she goes straight for the throat, gulping down the hot blood greedily.
A'son's complaint of receiving his flights lessons firsthand draws a rumbling chuckle from X'ndar, the 'Reaches weyrlingmaster offered an almost sympathetic look. Z'lo's comment alters that chuckle into a strained laugh "Ista, you just got to let him be. The headache occurs when you lose and the wine becomes company for the night." in agreement with V'delin. Yup, flights are obviously not a point of distress for this brownrider.
Zunaeth> Aleith, for a few moments, ignores her suitors as she fights with her rider. The queen shakes her head again, reaching for wherry again, but after another hesitation, she complies, going for the neck and drinking deeply. The posturing of the males gets another contemptuous look and snort as she snags a herdbeast galloping past. This time, she goes straight for the throat, gulping down the hot blood greedily.
Gr'din glares at N'thei and moves away from the overhang and out into the pouring rain. A crash of thunder nearby doesn't phase him. Instead he works his way over towards Olwyn, pulling off his jacket with one hand. Looming over her, his movements are surprisingly gentle as he reaches out to try to grab her dangling sleeves to offer them to her, mumuring gruffly, "Don't give 'em any more reason to stare, Wyn." With the other hand, he offers out his own jacket to tie around her waist. Large as it is, it should cover her mostly to her ankles and then some. His expression is concerned, the human rider warring with Sareith's growing excitement and lust.
Zunaeth> Wyaeth hunkers back toward the fence when Aleith makes her belle-of-the-ball entrance, the rumble in his belly a hard read, maybe amused or hungry or threatening. By now, gunmetal talons have disembowelled two more herdbeasts, and buckshot splatters of blood sprinkle his chest and shoulders. He seems, for all the mayhem, to be having a fine ol' time of it, just lining 'em up and knocking 'em back one after another.
Zunaeth> Imirath suckles at the neck of a large beast, his talons having raked a tidy gash across its lifeline. After he's drunk deeply, he slits it clean open, exposing the innards, and drags it toward the conflicted queen Aleith, tempting her with the delicious scents of the fresh, inviting meal.
R'layn mumbles under his breath when nobody replies. His gaze alights on Olwyn as Gr'din approaches her, and for a moment his face flashes with jealousy; a hunger that is his dragon's and not his own. It's gone by the time he clears his throat, shivering in his sopping clothes. "We need to get her inside somewhere," he says, louder this time, with pointed looks to the other male riders. "She'll freeze out here in, er, just that."
Zunaeth> Nikoth discards the first beast, moving rapidly to the next. It's caught quickly and blood drained with some level of efficiency. Aleith's entrance is rewarded with another one his wing flaring, loud bugeling, look at me set of antics. Ignored or not, he'll be moving onto the next beast, his lust fueling his desire to blood once more.
Zunaeth> Deluffath looks up from his third herdbeast, tongue smacking the edges of his maw to get the last of the blood. He roars in appreciation of the drink, the company, and his good luck to have a shot with a lovely lady. His eyes glitter amathyst like gemstones just unleashed from a box of treasure.
Zunaeth> There's a dangerous sounding growl as some of the younger bronzes try to swat him around, and he digs his talons into the ground to hold him steady, Kerinath was not going to be moved from his place of being able to eye the beautiful lady.
Olwyn, most of her attention taken up by Aleith, automatically holds out her arms and lets Gr'ding make her a bit more presentable. She relaxes just a bit as the queen finally complies and a bit of sense comes back into her eyes. "Thanks, Grae," she murmurs and dreamily heads for and then up the stairs leading to the queens' weyrs.
Zunaeth> Rain dilutes the blood and gore splattered grounds, turning trampled areas to mud quickly. Sareith tilts his head up, letting the rain wash the stains from his maw after this third kill, dispatched and drunk while Aleith took her second. He snarls softly, hopping away from the pack and perching on an outcropping of rock, amethyst eyes never leaving Aleith. The splashing of the rain washes the mud from his as well, as though his bath were a tribute too to his clutchmate, tail twitching eagerly, wings half spread in anticipation.
M'kin licks his lips, and nods a bit to the other Istan rider.. "Yeah.. rain's not a good idea..." He's really not all that aware of much other then the fact the towel wrapped woman was getting covered and wandering away.
Zunaeth> Two herdbeasts down, but Talurith is still thirsty. With a hiss - the first noise he's made in a little while - he gives a little jump that lands him on a second bovine, this one fat and ungainly. Eyes more maroon than purple now, he drains the body of the creature swiftly, before lifting his head and opening his wings, neck arched again and his gaze steadfastedly on Aleith. Let the lady make the first move.
Zunaeth> Zunaeth, sated, watches Aleith now, not the other males and not the herdbeasts. He has a relaxed posture, but he's too still, almost motionless as he saves up energy and studies the queen, her telling little movements, in a last-minute cramming session to prepare for what's soon to come.
A'son rubs his hand along his jaw. "Yeah, well. I guess we can handle that alright, I'daur. Though if it's going to be so easy, why bother ever having a lesson on it?" Is his distracted response to the older man. When Olwyn begins to disappear, it seems as if he automatically begins to follow after her, sporting a blank expression for now.
Zunaeth> Valketh isn't nearly as showy in his feeding. Despatching the second 'beast, the third is efficiently nailed to the ground with a squish of paw, talons spearing it into immobility. Aleith's look of contempt is met with one of intent from the old southern brown. The younger dragons are starting to annoy him now, this evidenced in the continual rumbling coming from his chest.
Zunaeth> Aleith glares at Imirath and turns away from the pre-slain beast, pouncing instead on one of her own. She drinks deeply, letting some of the viscous fluid escape from her jaws and paint her hide briefly before the rain washes it away. The herdbeast drained, she suddenly opens her wings and leaps into the air again, this time heading straight up into the storm.
N'thei smiles at Gr'din's glare, the kind of stupidly confident smile that only a weyrling who's never known what it means to lose a flight could summon up on such an occasion. Or maybe it's the smile of a big guy who's never known much in the way of fear. Suffice it to say, he smiles, and he goes on smiling when Gr'din starts wrapping jackets around the eye-candy. Distracted; "Couldn't you say that about a fair few lessons, A'son?"
Zunaeth> I bespoke Aleith with << I welcome you to my offering, beautiful queen. >> Deferential is his tone, postulant is his burnt metal demeanor. << Your rider restricts you. Would it not please you to feed? >>
"'Cause it sounds easy," replies I'daur, brushing water from his face as he glances around once at Olwyn, keeping track of her distantly. "And it damn well isn't. Let's move." He's one of the first to turn, limping after Olwyn when she sets the destination.
R'layn's lips thin as he looks away from the other riders, nodding at M'kin's agreement. Olwyn's exit causes a brief flare of alarm to darken his face, but that clears and the man strides after the Telgari rider, placing his feet carefully on the wet steps when he reaches them.
X'ndar's jaws tighten as the young goldrider heads off, however Gr'din's actions in helping her cover up is met with a nod of approval for all that he himself had been trying very hard -not- to pay her oddly clad form too much attention. The rankling coming from N'thei swings the blonde-streaked head in his direction, an expressive brow creasing lines into his forehead as it lifts "Does this before bronzeling?" Without bothering to wait for an answer, long strides carry him in the direction that Olwyn had taken.
Z'lo heads after Olwyn, shivering. "I'll warm up a little there, then when I crash and burn I can get both warm and drunk in the living caverns." He reassures himself numbly. His eyes are vacent, the normal glitter dull.
Gr'din follows along after his jacket - uh, after Wyn - though his eyes are on the retreating goldrider's backside. With a little shake of his head to clear it, almost mimicing Aleith's earlier movement in the feeding grounds, he catches N'thei's smirk. Rolling his eyes a bit at the weyrling, he says to X'ndar as he falls in with the man, "Hopefully we won't get stuck with /that/ one for a while."
Zunaeth> Deluffath growls low as he shoots upwards after Aleith. Even though he's a bronze, his small size and narrow wings work against him in gaining altitude, his growling turning determined as the glittering bronze bravely heads into the storm after the shimmering golden treasure above.
Zunaeth> Sareith leaps a heartbeat after Aleith, unafraid of the storm, the bronze's hubris carrying him through the pouring rain and flashes of disorienting light. He quickly finds a thermal to carrying him up with the least amount of energy spent, casting after Aleith's glowing form hiding in that curtain of rain.
Zunaeth> Talurith has been waiting for this moment ever since he came to Telgar earlier in the day, and he is not about to let Aleith get away that easily. There's a scant second of delay between her leap and the Istan bronze's great jump, Talurith opening his mouth to bugle as his wings sweep down, pushing through the wet air. He is at one with his emotions and with the storm, water streaming down his sleek form as he arrows up after her.
Zunaeth> Valketh launches himself into the air with a sudden roar of warning to the younger dragons around him as Aleith takes flight. Eyes whirling in purple swirls, zone in on that shining tail, veins pumping with adrenaline for the chase, camouflaged body throbbing with the energy taken from his kills. Barreling past a few of the pack, the brown veers off to one side and seems to be heading off in the wrong direction until his cunning is displayed in the position he now takes up
Zunaeth> Wyaeth gets caught in the middle of guzzling. The way he swings his head and hunches his wings is a swipe short of wiping his mouth and throwing aside his herdbeast. The trigger-happy bronze is late off the mark! With water sheeting off of his dust-hued self, he barrels up after Aleith, shouldering his way toward the quicker dragons.
Zunaeth> And that's what Zunaeth's been waiting for; as soon as he sees the tell-tale signs of an impending take-off he's getting airborne himself--it's a struggle and the few seconds he saves by his study of the gold are likely the only things keeping him from ending up right at the very back. As is, he still wobbles of course as that stiff left wing betrays him, but as stubbornly as his rider he gets the motion under control and starts building up his altitude in pursuit: lacking in speed, but determinedly inexorable. At least for now.
Zunaeth> Imirath leaves the gutted beast behind, barreling over another with a turn of his blunt shoulder and snapping its neck with a twist of his jaw. His indulgence makes him miss her ascent into the storm, and his leap skyward is detained further as the rain obscures his vision, though he manages to toss his discarded meal into the path of another chaser, aiming to deter him. At last, he heavily takes wing.
Zunaeth> Kerinath takes his time getting up in the air, still giving the queen his pleading violet eyed gaze, keeping his flight below hers, crooning at her as he does. Why stress himself out when he could just let her pick on him
Zunaeth> Nikoth drops his half-drained buck before he launches himself up into the air. More extremely loud and probably annoying vocalizations are made on his part as he wings his way into the sky. Bronze wings are flung up and catch the air, getting him airborn with some ease. Any male dragon directly near him will recieve a thunderous and nasty growl on his part, violet eyes lived as he flies in pursuit of the gold.
V'delin nods asset to Z'lo's words. "Ale, ale, and more ale. Not as good as the --" his attention slips to where the queenrider has pulled the attention of all maleriders, and he falls silent, tipping his head quickly before starting after her along with the rest of the fray.