My, How You've Grown (Open)

"Happy Nameday Day'ar!" a tinny, distant voice announced before Halventh lowered himself from the sky, powder blue pinions backwinging with precision so as to only ruffle the skygazer's hair and the surrounding short grasses. Green-eyed, Halventh stretched his arm over the embankment and arrested an extended talon just above the glistening water.

Try this one, he announced to the pillies there, then wiggled his talon till a segmented drop of blue plummeted off. He was very small, and barely dipped below the laketop when he landed. He strummed his legs in slight discoordination, bobbing up the water column. He stopped when he noticed the much larger pillies, and began to sink, rotating as he descended.

Deep, he proposed of the strangers.

"That's Halventh's newest," L'xon said, continuing to converse at calling volume as he climbed down the dragon. "He walked into the weyr yesterday morning and tossed it at my face. Apparently he conned some other dragons into doing the same to their riders. No idea why he wouldn't host Ambrith for such an venture." He was joking, bowing his head to the viridian even as he spoke, but Halventh responded anyway:

Ambrith didn't bring me any presents.

"Oh, well then, it seems he needed to be bribed," L'xon continued, hardly missing even the moment it took Halventh to answer. The blue tilted his head, eyes sparkling. His rider thumped onto the grass and headed straight for the lounging hypochondriac, a thin bag swinging from his hand. He sat down, considered Day'ar's immersed feet, then stuck out his arm with the bag. "I made it for you," he declared.

The blond was a study in contrast to the heavily-clad, dark-haired Day'ar. He wore one of his gifted blue tunics, and shorts, a band of cloth over his arm marking the scrape of a mishandled firestone sack in the previous Fall. Somewhere along the production line, someone had failed to check the noose holding the bag neck closed, and someone else had missed the discrepancy. Finally, the delivering Weyrling had leaned over to lazily deliver the parcel to a fighting green above Halventh, and the blocks of stone had spilled out, smacking L'xon's bicep and drawing ineffectual white scratches down Halventh's leg. Could have been worse: a little more velocity and the stones could start punching through the wings of the lower Flights, or an unlucky beast might mistakenly ignite them along with the enemy Thread.

As it was, the bluepair had dove and recovered the splinters, shooting down the Wings while the other dragons performed a coordinated peel-away around them. The injury had been so thoroughly forgotten that a healer had to stop them both from attending to their dinners that evening. Exhiliarating, like so many Halventh-sponsored activities at late. "Do you remember when we were Weyrlings," he paused to account for the misphrasing- they had not been in the same class. Just nearly. "And they made us go around learning a tidbit from each Craft so as to foster respect? But the Harpers got a lot more because they do so much, and I imagine because they'd complain the loudest if denied..." L'xon grinned. "I went back to the classrooms and got them to let me use the 'wheel' again. So I really did make it..."

Inside the bag was a broad-lipped ceramic bowl, clumsy, accidental trails of pressing fingertips still evident in its fired carapace. A blue-green glaze had been applied, though it covered the bowl entire and there were no special designs. The top edge was just a little lower on one side than the other. On the inside of the piece, dents were creatively but inexpertly pressed into the glaze, resembling with some effort the arrangement of living spaces in Dalibor. One, the very bottom, was somewhat enlarged from its natural proportions. "I wanted to make a mug, but the handles kept melting."

***

On a distant ledge, in her donation bucket, a gray pillie pondered the Bowl. She turned over a small fish she had clasped between her front legs- for some reason her donatee remembered things she needed, like food -and nibbled on the head-end of it. Though her vision was not meant for such vistas, she thought she spied a greenish-yellow blob. Her nibbling slowed, and she wondered if her good-will had ever made it to the earth below.

No one should starve on their special day.

"Are you really gonna wear that?" He asked of his purple, looking at the dark blue hat that fit quite snug on top of Moruluth's head. Well, you're dressing up for the party. So why can't I? "You just want to see what Ambrith thinks of it, don't you?" I never said looking nice was the only reason, now did I? Moruluth said truthfully. He had become somewhat good at getting the hat on and off without too much assistance, but it still took a few minutes to get the holes properly aligned against his headknobs, as it had originally been made for Halventh's much smaller head.

From underneath the large hat, Raincloud's black head poked out briefly, before a call made him pull it back in. Grr grr! Greedo said to get the flit's attention again. The hat had become the new hiding spot for the black pillie, and he now claimed it as his base for secret plannings. He clicked and hissed to Cloud, explaining why he had brought him here, and to tell him that he was to tell NO ONE of where his base was, because then they'd know everything. Grr! Grr grr grr! Since Tinyhisblack could fly, he was thinking the two of them could try to conquer Pern together. After all, he could get things that the pillie couldn't. And everything would be split fairly for his work, 70-30, respectively.

While Greedo tried to explain his plans to the lizard, T'von had made sure he looked good enough, then grabbed his gitar and the present and hopped onto Moruluth. He peered over the top of the hat while Moruluth went into a glide, heading for the form of Ambrith. When he had made it there, he crooned a greeting to the other dragons there, and let his rider slide off "Happy Nameday Day'ar! Never thought I'd ever see you with you're feet in the water. Another few pillies and maybe Ambrith could convince you to swim with him."

Waaaaa. Loess said as he moved off from where he had been concealed against the hat, letting Greedo know there were others here. The black made sure no one could see him, then slinked out from the hat from the back, heading down to the water with the blue to see if anyone had anything he could use. Good day Halventh, Lamith, Ambrith. A fine day for a Nameday. How have you all been? Moruluth greeted the other dragons

T'von handed the viridianrider his gift, a wooden carving of Ambrith that was about the size of a green firelizard. He had met a woman who could carve it out for him, and he gave her the colors as best as he could remember them. "Hope you like it. I met someone a while ago who said she would do this for you." He looked at the other two gifts. "And it looks like you already have some nice gifts" He picked up the bowl and examined it, before setting it back down again. "Alright, who here would like a bit of music to listen to?" He addressed all, holding his gitar in the playing position.