With No Shoulder {Boo!}

It was certainly darker now and there seemed to be a sleepy sort of feeling settling on the Weyr. Even the handlers didn’t seem to be as energetic. Certainly, following the hatching people were eager to congratulate those who had Impressed and comfort those who were perhaps disappointed not to. Kire was one of those who preferred to mostly stay out of everything. Still, she could not resist returning to the sands just to take a peek at them. Perhaps she would see some of the pretty shell colours…

Kisk bounded along behind her, pouncing happily on nothing every now and again. She could hear his happy gurgling and shuffling movements that indicated he was waggling his whole body. Kire knew that he would have been waggling even more had he been born a dragon. As it happened, the knobbly parts on his back prevented him and he merely managed a strange, skipping shuffle.

They walked their way onto the sands and Kisk bugled excitedly at the interesting smells. He ran a tight circle with excitement. It was rather like being back on the sands and looking for his Best Kire except there were only two people now.

… Two people! Kisk trumpeted again and tried to follow the smell, running towards the edge of the sands and rearing up on his hind legs to look around. He’d not been in the other area all that much! Kire ran after the black wher.
“What is it?”
Kisk am smell person! Look!
The wher charged for the person in excitement and then bugled again.
Kisk am Kisk!!! BestKire be BestKire! You be you!?

He waggled his whole body, looking up at the woman as Kire made her hurried way over to join them both.
“Sorry, he likes meeting new people.”

”He’s supposed to be fierce…”

The black wherling looked worriedly down at her wher. Kisk was now looking up at Aylina with a rather dopey sort of expression on his face, tongue still lolling out of the side of his mouth. There was no doubt about it, Kire loved Kisk and would probably do anything for him but she couldn’t help but worry about him. When they were actually performing their patrols he would be just as likely to run up to an intruder and lick them as he was to alert the Weyr to the intrusion.

“Oh, yeah I’m Kire. He just… Well, I’m apparently the best according to Kisk.”
She beamed in spite of herself. Kisk had chosen her and proclaimed her to be the best. In fact, the black wher called her the best almost every other second of the day. It worked wonders on a girl’s ego.
Nice meet, nice meet! Kisk am happy see!
Kire stepped out of the way as Kisk ran another tight figure eight around the two females.

“Umm… Did you stay here after the hatching? That’s rather a long time to be sitting in the cold! Do you need a jacket or something? Perhaps some klah. Oh, yes, klah would warm you up right away!”

Kire grinned happily, she would be perfectly happy to take Kisk to find some warm clothes and food for Aylina. It was sort of a cool night after all. Plus, if she had been out here since the hatching Kire could only imagine how cold she could have been. Oh, she was in the stands too so she was probably a rider. Maybe her dragon was asleep. Maybe this was one of the Jr Weyrwomen! Wait, was she supposed to bow or something!? Well, it was too late now…
Kisk am hatch here once! Run around. More people at time. All stand. KISK AM HATCH FIRST!!!

The black wher puffed himself up proudly and looked between the two females.

((Haha XD))

Kire rather hoped that Aylina was right. He had stood up for her against a firelizard once! Maybe he would be able to stand up for her against other foes too! Kisk would probably protect her but would he protect the Weyr? Well, time would tell. With Kalesk leading them maybe he’d follow her and listen but Kire had her doubts. Kisk tended to forget a lot of things. Well, perhaps he would simply grow out of that as time passed. He was, after all, only one turn old. Would she expect such responsibility out of a human the same age?

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Kire brightened almost immediately.

Oh well, at least she hadn’t offended their Weyrwoman or something similar. Aylina must have been a candidate and had obviously not impressed at the hatching. Kire knew how that felt, to see those people she had done chores with impress and move on with their lives and their partners. It had been rather a lonely time.
“Oh, well it shouldn’t be long until another one… Maybe?”

She didn’t honestly know how often dragon hatchings were but she knew they came around far more often than the wher hatchings. Even with a new Gold they would be waiting at least another turn for hatching. Well, at least she had Kisk. She knew there were a couple of candidates whom had not impressed at the red and gold hatching…

Yes! Kisk am best! Choose best! Oldest, watch sister and brother. Teach how be smart!
Kisk giggle gurgled and waggled his whole body, watching the other female with some interest.
You hatch first?

Maybe she had hatched first too! BestKire had hatched second with another. He knew that because he was an Amazing Investigator! Plus, his BestKire had told him. He wished there was something here to play with. Ooh there was! On the sands he could run around and dig holes! That would be fun. He would wait for a moment though.

Ah well, she wasn’t as best as him but then being the bestest wasn’t possible. Kisk was already the best there was. Well, aside from Kire. She had hatched equal second so that was sort of third. Perhaps the first and third to hatch were always the best. Could whers and people be equal best? Kisk rather hoped they could… Well, maybe there were some whers who were best and then some people who were best. Either way, Kisk was rather happy that he was with best people.

That good still. BestKire hatch second with sister. Kisk am play now!
Kisk bugled excitedly and then charged down the sands with much waggling of his body and onto the sands where he proceeded to run about in a circle and then perform a flying leap to land in the hot sands and roll about.

With Kisk’s sudden departure, Kire looked back at her companion with a confused expression, which she swiftly masked with a smile.
“It always feels like forever until the next hatching but it’s always worth it.”
Well, perhaps not for Dragons but definitely for whers considering that there was no age limit. Kire always tried to do the same thing Qosis had done for her. Give everyone some hope that they would Impress, it made them rather more confident for the next hatching.

“Well, we all have patrols to be doing but I thought Kisk and I might practice. We’re doing a good job having found you!” She exclaimed happily.
Except they hadn’t done anything once they’d found Aylina… Should she have…?

Ooh that was true too. Kire could hardly even imagine impressing when she knew very little about whers or dragons. She had never been a candidate for dragons but she knew that there were a couple that had been dragon candidates and, when they had aged out, they had become candidates for whers. She supposed there would be some who impressed to dragons very young and could hardly imagine how tough it would be to care for a ginormous dragon when only thirteen turns!

“Yeah, I see what you mean! It wouldn’t be easy to come into a Weyr and be thrown right into caring for a dragon. I guess it’s really important to have a couple of lessons too!”
Kire nodded seriously at the thought. Well, hopefully there would be another dragon rising soon! That would be wonderful if there was another hatching on the way. Then again, it had only been a short while since all the Queens had Clutched. Kire couldn’t really remember much before she had bonded to Kisk. Everything before that seemed to be a haze.

“Oh, we’re practicing being watches! We’re supposed to be starting patrols soon enough but I thought we should go for walks sometimes and take a look at what we could see.”
Yes! Kisk am amazing investigator!

Kisk scrabbled around on the sands, eventually rolling himself in them, gurgling as he tried to dig some holes. Kisk rather thought that if he dug enough holes in the sands maybe he would dig all the way through to a new place! Where would he go if he just kept digging and digging!?

”Oh no, it’s quite wonderful really. Once you get used to staying up all night it gets a lot easier. I know it was difficult at first and I always felt the need to perform chores during the day but eventually it became a lot easier.”
Kire nodded seriously.
She enjoyed her job even if she had yet to become a fully-fledged wherhandler. She could only assume that it would get easier with time. Sometimes Kisk was a handful and really tough to keep an eye on but he was mostly just a lot of fun to be around. She loved him more than she’d ever loved anything else.

Kisk kept digging into the sands with more concentration than Kire had ever really seen. His rolling made her giggle, reminding her of how he had hatched and eventually impressed to her. He’d done the same thing on the sands, performing similar antics.
“I don’t know, I think he just does most things for fun.”

There was a doubtful tone to her statement. Kisk seemed to do everything for the ‘play’ aspect of it, rarely did he do something because he thought it practical to do so. At the hushed tone of the candidate Kire looked down at Kisk again with wonderment.
“Maybe, perhaps we should go see.”

Excitement welled inside her, whether from Kisk or her own emotions, she did not know. She started down to the sands.
DIGDIGDIGDIGDIGDIGDIGKISKAMDIG!
The calls continued in her mind for a short while, causing the wherling to giggle. Maybe he had found something but he wasn’t concentration on it, rather concentrating on the ‘digging’ part.
“Perhaps we can all continue our patrol together and walk around the hatching grounds.”

Yes, Kire supposed it was difficult! Kisk was pretty clever then for being able to stay awake at night. Although she knew that they had just grown accustomed to the schedule, and Kisk had to be awake only at night, it didn’t stop Kire feeling better about herself and, indeed, prouder of Kisk. In the short time he had been alive, he had already learned so much. She had Brisk to thank for trying to help Kisk and being so patient with the wher. Not to mention Kalesk, their new gold.

Still, she rather thought that night was some of the best moments. Most people were asleep but they were still out and about. One never saw the whole of a place until they had wandered around it at nighttime. Everything looked different so anything she’d learned during the day she had to learn doubly hard at night! Aylina was so nice for saying she was smart. No one had ever called them that before. In Kire’s mind, things that were difficult equated with intelligence.

“Yes, I guess that is true. If he enjoys his job enough to have fun then we’ll do brilliantly.”
Aylina was doing so much to boost Kire’s confidence. The older female was right, she just needed to push Kisk towards the right things. As they reached the sands, Kisk came bounding over to them through the darkness with another bugle.
“Did you find anything?”

Kisk cocked his head to the side and then turned on the spot to take a look back at the holes he had dug.
No remember! Kisk am find!
“Well, that’s all right, we’re going to continue our watch! Aylina’s going to join us.”
He wandered back over to the holes and dug again, eventually managing to find a piece of eggshell. He nosed it back to the females and then waggled at the thought of someone else coming on his watch.
Kisk am like that much! Find something! Big! Not wher, else.

It had some faint colours, probably missed by people clearing the sands of the shards from Couineth’s hatching. It was about the size of her hand.

Now that her confidence had been built up Kire had no doubts that Kisk was one of the best whers in the whole Weyr. He was, by far, one of the smartest creatures and it was partly this reason that she often deferred her judgement to him. Well, she certainly took a lot of his advice into account and tried her hardest to do what he asked. Kisk was still waggling his body proudly watching his handler and their new friend.

“Oh it’s always so exciting when you’re on the sands but I think the excitement sometimes stops people from seeing all the beautiful shells. I guess it’s what’s on the inside that counts.”
Kire petted Kisk on the head resulting in more waggles as the wher’s pride escalated even more. It was strange to think that how simple it was to make Kisk feel proud of himself.

Kisk am once in one! It not broke. Then Kisk break! First!
Kisk had forgotten he had already explained his hatching to Aylina once. He had a very poor memory for such things but even if he had remembered the wher thought it important for everyone to know he was the first to hatch. He was even the first to hatch out of the Gold’s clutch too even. First from his own clutch and first from the OtherMummy's clutch! Out of all of them he was first and best!

“Umm…” Kire had heard of it once, “I remember when I was in the Weyr as a child someone telling me that there were firelizards specially assigned to moving every piece of shell. Then they made beautiful necklaces out of them and gave them to the clutchmother! I can definitely see Vesta, my firelizard, doing that. She loves everything to be neat and tidy!”

There it was. Kire’s penchance for believing everything she had ever been told. For she believed even this with all her heart, smiling happily at her explanation. Kire was utterly convinced she was correct in her story.

Kire couldn’t really imagine Couineth wearing any necklaces made for her by firelizards now that she really thought about that idea. Well, maybe Couineth would sell it to someone if she thought it would get her some sort of attention. She knew little of the gold dragon but did at least know that she was renowned for wanting all the attention everyone had to offer and basically being a little childish. Nothing wrong with that in Kire’s opinion, so long as the dragon wasn’t scary…
“Yep! First is always best, especially in a clutch.”

Kisk waggled at the confirmation of his awesomeness and put his nose to the ground again, following a trail of smells from the hatching. Humans, dragons, some new smell… He’d smelled that particular one down at the lake and raised his head to sniff at it a little more. He didn’t think that smell should be here when they were in such a strange place. There was no water here so it didn’t make any sense at all. Oh well, perhaps there was water nearby.

“Hmm…” She’d never thought to ask that question, “I think the firelizards could make it themselves. Perhaps with a little help from their handlers but I don’t know about that because I would think their handlers were really busy with other things. Unless they’re also assigned the task… Perhaps they get some marks for it or it’s part of a craft.”

With that explanation out of the way, Kire looked back over at Kisk in response to the next question.
“Well, Kisk gets along very well with Vesta but not so well with some of the other firelizards. He seems to get along well with just about everything but he’s yet to properly meet a dragon. Maybe when you impress your dragon can be the first he meets!”

Because there was no doubt in Kire’s mind that the woman before her would impress to something.
Kisk no like bad firelizard. It attack BestKire. Kisk want eat… It no be doing right thing.
Kisk sent an image to Aylina of Kire cowering from a blue firelizard and himself bravely protecting her, a memory that had definitely stuck with him. The very thought of something harming Kire had frightened Kisk enough to remember that particular bad blue firelizard.