Ista Weyr - Main Beach(#3773RJa$)
The famous black sands of Ista spread out about the great cove upon which the weyr has been built, gleaming under the rays of both sun and moon, like diamonds in their own pristine beauty. Caught between the brilliance of the deep, verdant greens of the forest, and the crystalline blues of the shallows, gradually deepening their colour deeper into the great ocean, the beach is no less striking, truly beautiful in its own way.
The hot, heavy rays of the sun reach deep into these sands, forever blazing underfoot, although the water remains cool and refreshing even upon the hottest of days, never quite reaching the point of being tepid. Off to one side, coming from the plateau, a small, thin waterfall, empties into a catching pool that runs off into the water through dark sand and pebbles.
Sometimes that training field pond just isn't enough fun. And indeed Lorena seems quite in contrast with the mood she featured not long ago as she leads a couple weyrlings out to the beach for some bathing and socializing time. Wearing a conservative navy blue bikini top and shorts he sits between Loyauth's ridges as he lumbers along. Once they all reach a nice open expanse on the dark warm sands she turns herself about to face the weyrlings. "Everyone here? Okay… into the water!" Loyauth proceeds forward. "Ack! Loy… hang on. Quit being a bad example!" Rumble. "Oh hush!" She turns about, facing forwards once more and he proceeds. As they submerge very very slowly (Loyauth is still rather large) she calls back. "Stay in the shallows… no one goes past Loyauth." The brown is up to his wingjoints, giving plenty of room for moving about under the water even for young golds and bronzes.
Miraneith scuttles along in that sideways swinging trot, the gold dragging her tail every now and then, before a cheery reminder from her lifemate reminds her to heft it higher. After all, rocks can scratch dragonhide, and prolonged abrasion can cause sores. The gold's short neck is craned forwards, a faint warble of anticipation given as she scurries onto the warm sand. And in her wake comes Enka, her small faire of firelizards skirling above her head before they shoot off to splash and romp in the shallows. Enka's dressed in her bathing outfit, with a towel draped over her shoulder. Once the pair is given the go-ahead, they make a dash for the water, the girl following her dragon as Miraneith waddles out into the shallows. "It's a grand day, 'aint it, Weyrlingmaster?" the girl calls out, waving a hand in Lorena's direction as her dragon flops into her belly in the shallow water, and wallows cheerfully.
Lorena wiggles her feet in the water, submerged up to her mid-thigh. She watches the weyrlings plunge into the water with a content but otherwise unexpressive face. After all, she's not a natural smiler. As Miraneith plows on in she does infact smile. Happy golds are always refreshing. There are so many that are primadonnas or moody. "That it is, Enka." Lorena responds. "How's Miraneith doing? She looks like she likes the water." Loyauth rumbles agreeably to Miraneith, dipping his head ans neck down to float it on the surface of the water. After a moment he's blowing bubbles infront of himself. "Loy, you goof ball." Warble!
Enka dashes through the water at the very place where the breakers meet the shore, romping cheerfully through the swash zone with the abandon of a weyrbrat on holiday. And yet, her gaze is turned towards that mustard-and-ivory form of her lifemate as she skids to a stop in a spray of sun-dappled seafoam. "Aye, ma'am." she answers Lorena with a wry grin, the girl wading out into the deeper water to make her way towards her dragon; the young gold poking her blunt muzzle into the waves and snorting each time she gets water up her nose. But Miraneith is happy, no doubt about it, moreso as her rider reaches her side, and she warbles softly to Enka. "She's lovin' it," comes the girl's answer. "She's always liked hidin' a bit in water, but more now that she's gotten too big to hide in the lil nooks and crannies." The gold blinks sleepily for a moment, watching the older brown before she dips her muzzle in the water, and bloop bloop bloop, she too has a fine little bubble curtain.
Lorena chuckles a bit at the brown and gold now bubble blowing the lapping water. "Water certainly has those benefits. Imagine her body would lend well to floating along in the water too… big tail act like a paddle, hehe." She pats Loyauth. "It took Loyauth a bit to get into the water. He was more content to stay on land or in the sky… took some convincing… for the dragon of a sailor." Loyauth raises his head and turn his big glittering eye towards Lorena and croons. "Hehe, yeah I know Loy. He says he doesn't like how slow he has to go in it. And most of it's reather cold down in Xanadu, too, I expect?" The brown bobs his head once and returns it to the water, bubble blowing once more. "It's nice here though."
Miraneith scuttles that plump tail of hers through the water at the Weyrlingmaster's words, craning her head to watch as it swishes back and forth. Clinging to her dragon's side, Enka trails her legs through the water, kicking infrequently as the occasional swell of a wave passes by, but for the most part remaining afloat by her grip on the golden shoulder. About her, her three 'lizards cavort, occasionally flashing to the surface before diving again. "It's always nice at Ista," she can't help but remark, beaming up at Lorena. "Telgar was just cold most of the time, so nobody ever really tried to go wadin' out in the lake too often. But it's sunny and warm here. I can see why people'd take vacations here."
Lorena nods in agreement. "Yeah. I used to visit Ista with my brother, T'eo… Western's Weyrsecond. He had me on voyages with him as his coxswain before I impressed Loyauth. It was one of my favorites… but T'eo doesn't like Ista. Old Xanadu prejudice." She makes a face. "Didn't help my first sorta boyfriend was an Istan." She chuckles. "And a bronzer. I suppose for a big brother that's gotta make some negative points. But Ista also accused Xanadu of conspiring to kill their Weyrleader… -and- boycotted them a while ago. Both of which really involved T'eo so…" She shrugs. "I always liked it here though. Always had a sort of glamour with the vacation spot aspect." Loyauth watches Miraneith swish her tail and rumbles in curiosity. He swishes his, but it's slow and takes a while as his tail is much longer. He accidently sends a wave of water towards not only Miraneith and Enka, but it manages to hit him in the face aswell and side swipes Lorena. "Blergh!" Moutheful of saltwater. Ew.
The wave of water hits gold and weyrling at once — and Enka comes up spluttering as Miraneith lets out a sort of girlish giggle of a warble; at least, the sound seems happy, even if her rider's just been swamped. "Oi!" the girl yelps. "Bein' in the water with dragons aint nothing like firelizards." But there's no heat or rancor in her tone, but rather quite obvious amusement as she clambers up a little higher onto the golden shoulder of her lifemate, but remains mostly in the water. "I dunno why Xanadu and Ista haveta have their differences," the gold weyrling remarks, frowning as she uses her hand to scrape most of her now-wet ash-brown hair out of her eyes. "It's not somethin' I understand that well." But whether or not she does, it will be something that Enka's going to have to deal with in the future. She looks like she's about to say more, but then Miraneith spots a fish moving around in the water, and her head darts forwards, the gold freezing into a motionless stare as she watches the movement in front of her — studying and watching intently while hardly seeming to breathe.
Lorena wipes the water off the side of her face and grimaces as she tries to spit as much flavor out as possible. "Good going Lo. No splashing games please." But Loyauth gives a rumbling reproach which causes Lor to chuckle at whatever he'd expressed. After a moment she continues to Enka. "You'll find some older riders from Xanadu, like my brother, will be particularly curt and gruff with Istans. He's gotten better since I moved here and with Ysa and X'hil as leaders… but Ysa and Niva never saw eye to eye so he still has a thing or two to say on her if you get him started." She shakes her head but stops as Miraneith goes very still, watching the fish. A smirk starts to spread over her face but she's quiet. Even Loyauth has gone still watching the gold with whirling bemusement in his eyes.
Miraneith's continued stare is relentless; the young gold's attention the fish moving through the water —lulled into a sense of false security by that big still golden form. She's just another rock, surely? And then she moves, an itty bitty twitch of the very end of her tail; once, twice, and then down goes the gold's head, spearing into the water and coming up with … a mouth of seaweed? Blech! The young gold's mouth moves, working, as she hurks up the last of the seaweed in her jaws, and looks decidedly sullen for a moment. "You'll have better luck next time, Mir," Enka informs her dragon with a brief giggle before she glances at Lorena. "I don't think I know very many people from Xanadu," she remarks, "'Ceptin S'gam, I actually don't know /anyone/ from Xanadu. But if I ever meet your brother, I guess I'll just have to cope, right?" After all, she will be Ista's newest junior in a not too-far-off future. "I've got some loyalty to Ista bein' as I was born here, but I'm Telgar-raised, so maybe it won't be too bad?"
Lorena chuckles sympathetically at the goldling. Loyauth echo's Enka in his weatern way. « Water dun gone an' slowed ya down, lil'miss. » Who is actually a big miss. A Loyauth sized miss. « But it takes sum learnin' and sum practicin'… let the water go an' settle an' we'll get us another one comin' in likely'nuff. » Lorena rolls her eyes to Enka, but with a grin. « Her generally keeps himself civil. Just try to stay away from any weyr relations sort of questions. Or the subject of bronzeriders… that gets him a bit fired up too. You might well meet him at some point as he's Weyrsecond… But leadership has been pretty bouncey in most areas these days where 'Leaders are concerned so he might not stay there. I know he's missing the sea… and I don't blame him." She kicks her feet in the water and sighs. "But I like working with you guys too… and Loyauth loves it." Rumble-croon! "He feels important and influential without too much pressure. Which is good for both of us. It's kind of interesting how folks end up with their right matches… like Lo and I. I suppose I like watching that happen. Like you and Miraneith. You'll find over time that things, even hard moments, end up being the best moments. I only knew one weyrling ever who really had a hard time with his match… and he worked it out." She pauses a moment, her face looking curious. A sort of nostalgic sad despite her words of having worked things out.
"I'm thinkin' I'm gonna stay as far away from weyr relations as I can," Enka remarks, clinging tightly to Miraneith's shoulder for a moment, a frown on her face. "I'll leave that t'my Weyrleaders." Ah, but what happens when Enka herself is counted among those leaders? "Long as nobody's a right mean bully, I think I can get along with 'em fine." But then again, the only right mean bullies Enka has run into thus far has been Veski — and only Veski, even if she'd had her moments of opinion with Chaton. "D'ya think I could get a lil higher?" the weyrling asks of Lorena. "Might be kinda nice to get out of the water a bit more, would it hurt Mir if I just sat on her a bit?" Of course, the gold's half-submerged, and Enka's a lightweight, so it might not be as much of a burden in the water for the gold. "She's been practicin' her exercises, and mebbe be easier for her in the water." Miraneith ignores her rider's question — focused and intent is she on the comment of the older brown. « Perhaps I should put my head in the water? » she offers the suggestion — and follows it up with the image of a dragon with her head submerged, seasoned with the very physical taste of fish.
Lorena conciders this, looking her over. "Probably would be fine, just have her move over here more… Loy… move out a bit deeper. That way she can be lower in the water so there's less joint stress. I'm sure she'd be fine, but she's not used to carrying weight just yet." Loyauth slowly shifts into deeper water, Lorena now submerged to her hips with Loyauth's stocky neck craning over the water like a great arch. "Just be careful of her wingsails. You'll start to kinda develop a radar for wings… if you haven't already." She smirks. Loyauth settles in the deeper water and conciders with a head tilt. « Now that ain't a bad idea, lil'miss. But you'll hafta take yerself one deep breath fer it… or maybe ease yer head in all slowlike as ya see one milling about. Like… » Loyauth demostrates slowly and gradually lowering his head so as to make almost no ripple. Or none not easily mistaken as part of the unbroken swells.
Miraneith lets out a soft warble of a sound, waddling farther into the deeper waters nearer to Loyauth, and craning her head around to watch Enka clamber a little higher up her side. "Wouldn't wanna hurt her," Enka remarks, carefully making her way up to a point along the gold's back when she's mostly floating in the water, but at least she's not swimming against the tide either — rather able to use the gold as a way of staying afloat. The wingsails are carefully avoided, Enka settling down along her dragon's neckridges, slightly-more than half submerged — but at least she's not getting slapped in the face by waves all the time. "Maybe all weyrlings ought to do this," Enka suggests, "build up to having someone on their back in the water where the rider can swim free or stay buoyant." Well, it is a thought, and leaning forward, the girl gives the gold's neck a fond pat. Miraneith lets out another soft croon and then tilts her head to study Loyauth as he demonstrates putting his head under the water. « I understand. » she remarks. « It is like a hiding game. Sort of. » And Miraneith loves hiding games — especially ones where she seeks. Carefully, she eases her head under the water, the glimmer of her eyes seen beneath the waves as she spies another fish, and freezes again.
Lorena watches as Enka climbs up onto the gold's back and nods approvingly. "Well, we usually do that closer to the first manned flight. But your lifemate is big enough that it's not as big of a worry as for, for example, the greens and blues." She nods towards the smaller dragons. Two of which are chasing each other out of the water and up the beach, their lifemates watching from the water and laughing. Speaking of lifemates, Lorena looks to their dragons dunking thier heads slowly in the water. "Are you guys still fish hunting?" She asks Loyauth. Though still to offer Miraneith support, he must have responded because Lorena murmurs quietly. "Ooh, I see, yes." She smirks and returns to talking to Enka. "Well you guys'll be flying real soon and then she can start hunting practice in the grounds. So this is good practice… though the tactics are a bit different." She remarks, amused as she looks back down at their ostrich-like dragons. "And that'll mean no more butchering for you guys."
Enka nods briefly, settling into place along her dragon's neckridges. "Seems like she's growin' by leaps and bounds," the weyrling comments proudly. "She's bigger than some blues and greens," and maybe even some browns. "Although i can see why we wouldn't want to rush the smaller dragons. Tavissath and Aurath are smaller than Mir. Little over half her size." the girl frowns, glancing up the beach to watch those same two dragons that Lorena was watching cavort out of the water and up onto the beach. "Wouldn't want to hurt 'em. Wouldn't want to hurt Mir either." But the young gold seems to be taking it in stride, especially since she and her rider are buoyed by the water which lessens the strain that might be there were they on dry land. At the mention of flying and hunting practice, Enka lets out a giggle. "Oh I've been lookin' forward to that. Seems like I chop more meat than anyone, mainly because Mir prefers her meals in small portions. I just gotta make sure she eats more often because of it." the girl tilts her head, considering. "Though I still think she's gonna go for the wherries over the herdbeasts. She likes /small/ things. S'everything I can do to keep her from pouncin' the canines when we see 'em." There's a sudden movement in the water from where the gold dragon has her head stuck downwards into the waves, the very tip of the gold's tail twitching again, and then the golden head is erupting from the water in a spray of droplets — half of a fish, the tail end to be exact stuck in her jaws. "Well, half's better than nothin'," Enka observes, leaning over her lifemate's shoulder to watch the other half of the fish drift downwards towards the bottom.
Lorena wrinkles her nose sympathetically. "Yeah… little bites for a big gold is tough fare with the size to account for. But at least you didn't have to worry about her choking when she was smaller. With blooding for flights, though, you'll want to make sure she goes for herdbeast so she can get enough in her before she wants to fly. So when you start with hunting you'll want to try influencing her every now and then to do that so she doesn't just kick into habit come your first flight. That's a load of confusion for all involved." She jumps just a little as Miraneith plunges for the fish, having not expected it. Loyauth trumpets triumphantly at the half a dangling fish. « Thassa girl! Good on ya, lil miss! Now it'll be jus' about speed… which'll get better and better with some good ole fashion practicin'! » Lorena peers down at the other half as well. "Well, cutting them in half sure makes them easier to catch." She muses with a chuckle. But suddenly Loyauth snaps his head around as the distressed mindvoice of one of the blue weyrlings, Drewth, comes into the minds of those surrounding. It would appear his human partner, Baldri, has been stung by something in the water and the blue is beside himself with panic, urging his lifemate up the beach at a hobble. Very soon there could be an accidental trampling going on. "Wha? Oh… Alright. Lo, you stay and watch everyone." Lorena stands up and dives off Loyauth, swimming for the shore as Loyauth projects to the blue a calm command to stay where he is. After a moment of Lorena's inspection, Drewth follows worriedly as she helps Baldri hobble inland for the infirmary.
Enka's nod is a fervent one, the girl's chin bobbing up and down with a great deal of enthusiasm. "Oh yes," she agrees whole-heartedly. "Definitely is worth havin' her prefer little things. It was more of a chore makin' sure she was eatin' enough rather than havin' her bite off more than she could chew." the girl looks thoughtful for a long moment. "Shards, didn't even think about her first flight." That event is happily many many many months away, and after a brief consideration of this and Lorena's advice, Enka files it away mentally for another day. Leaning forward, the girl claps the gold on the neck, even as Miraneith swallows down the tail-end of the fish with a satisfied gulp. « I did it! » she reports triumphantly to Loyauth, and the young gold might have then said more, but with the distressed sound of her blue clutchbrother, the gold's little-girl enthusiasm quickly turns to sober grown-upness. "I'm thinkin' maybe we ought to head for shore ourselves," Enka remarks, wiggling off her dragon, swimming free so as not to burden Miraneith with lumbering from the water with her still perched up there on the neckridges. "Sure hate to get hurt too," the girl cranes her neck from where she's bobbing in the surf, and with her dragon following, they make for the beach. There, the gold flops out, resting and soaking up the warmth of the sun, while her rider shakes out her towel, and flops down as well.
