Azhdarchid
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Post by Azhdarchid on Nov 16, 2012 13:38:10 GMT -5
Midday rang across his forehead, oppressively warm, and L'xon braced a hand to his brow as he looked toward the white sun in a cloudless sky. Halventh passed through the air overhead, wings outstretched but unmoving, tail winding in banner-like Ses behind him. He was the only dragon left in the Bowl. L'xon looked out across the tranquil aquamarine cobweb of the lake, and reached for a winged shadow at the center.
He blinked. His hand golden-brown and smooth from a long summer, had been replaced by reality: a callused, thin quintet of white fingers that had started to blue on the tips from Winter exposure. The lake was still behind it, but had gone still and iced over in shiny patches. He recalled something from Weyrlinghood about how if the water would just keep moving, it was much harder to freeze. But the lake and air lay stale and freezing. Couldn't even see the sun. It was nestled in a velvety looking corner of the sea of gray clouds that had washed over the sky.
L'xon looked at his other hand, which was holding his boot. He became aware of cold blood pumping up his leg from his foot, which inexplicably stood bare on the wet lakeshore rock. At first he could not recall what he'd been doing. His eyes slipped left, to the hint of blue that had been bothering his peripheral.
Halventh sat beside him, head just craned from the shallows to look at him. The dragon's eyes had blanched all color and darkened, the same mediocre gray as the clouds. L'xon was surprised he'd recognized the hide as blue- Halventh's blue, anyway. The dragon's skin looked like the lake: iced over, in patches that grew and creeped under L'xon's very eyes. Eventually the patches merged, lightened, and Halventh's tone creeped closer to that of his facets. This did not happen as fast as L'xon thought. Dragon and rider had just stared at each other for a very long time.
But when he finally moved, bending toward his naked foot, Halventh flushed back to brighter color right away. L'xon pulled up the bottom of his trouser leg and began rubbing lakewater against the iridescent patch just two inches off his anklebone. Halventh had asked him to do that.
Healers haven't said anything about this helping, he started, with a taste of de ja vu on his tongue. Halventh answered in the exasperated tone of a father whose child was repeatedly asking why he must perform his chores.
I do not care what the healers say. Maybe it will help.
Certainly takes my mind off it, L'xon chuckled and grimaced both as the freezing water burned trails down his ankle. He took another scoopful and pulled down his scarf, applying it to the older fester of rainbows clinging to his throat just to the left of his jaw. "Agh," he groaned as the droplets slipped down his neck and burrowed in the scarf threads. This was insane. Why was he listening to Halventh anyway? At least his forehead still felt like it was under a hot midsummer sun.
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kireon
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Post by kireon on Nov 17, 2012 14:28:10 GMT -5
Aylina, in a word, was troubled.
Symptoms of some sickness, a nasty one, were popping up left and right, and from what she'd caught at the Infirmary once or twice in her attempts to figure out what was going on, it was going to get significantly worse before it was going to get better. In the times she had in between drills, meetings and whatever else she and Wenth were required to do, she gave herself some moments to think, and think hard about her life back home and the illnesses they'd faced there. Fatal, almost fatal, and otherwise from as far back as she could remember. Not even her mother's illness before her death had been like this, though the cough was close enough at times she shuddered at the sound.
People were dyin', and the shardin' cause of it wasn't any clearer than it'd been any number of nights ago.
Tugging on the last of the straps on Wenth's warm hide, double checking to make sure they didn't pinch or twist in a way that would give her lady an entirely unwelcome and unneeded sore, she patted the thick arm just above the elbow on the patient dragon laying down for her. "Up an' at 'em there, Wenth. Let's head on down again, see iffin' there's somethin' we can do." She was already thinking of what things she could do to make things a little easier on the dragonriders who fell ill- making an offer or two to give them some comfort that, though they were ill, their dragons would not fall by the wayside an' would be cared for like they were her own or somethin'. Maybe a good 'un there, might be able t'recruit some others t'help in that.
Are we going to check on the hut people and fish-friends again....?[/i] Wenth inquired distantly, eyes on the cloudy horizon. AylinaPretty was tense, and had been more and more worried every day... yes, she had... She rose at Aylina's command, offering her leg to use as a mount as Aylina clambored up and on to her broad back with little issue. Her head swiveled, making sure Aylina wasn't going to suddenly fall sick and fall off, that would be bad, yes... yes... it would... definitely be bad...
"Yeah, wanna see if there's anyone needin' t'get to the Infirmary." And also if they had any ideas on what in Faranth's name was goin' on with the cause of it. She reached out, touching the velvety-soft muzzle of her partner and smiled, feeling like it'd been the first one she'd done in quite some time. "I'm fine, feelin' fit as the fiddle in a Harper's hands." Worried, but she'd been meticulous in both bathing habits and in examining her body, as well as having that uncomfortably moment where a dragon with rather good eyesight was trying to be helpful. At one point, she'd panicked earlier, thinking she'd gotten one of those patches- and it'd turned out she'd been resting on that elbow a little too much, and was getting a callous as a result of it.
Wenth nuzzled her hand again before turning away, facing forward as she lumbered out of their Weyr and into the chilly winter air. Her wings unfurled and she launched herself off with a momentary, telling tension of her hindquarters. Her stomach leaped into her throat, and then dropped somewhere into her feet as the rough, jerky take off turned smooth as Wenth got herself situated in the sky. They'd been doin' this forever, it seemed, and Aylina still found herself with a white-knuckled grip every time they took off and landed. Seated as comfortably as she could, Aylina began to turn her thoughts, and thus her mind for Wenth to glean the information from, towards the fishermen huts along the lake.
Wenth angled, altering her direction to follow the command- and paused, her head swiveling down suddenly as she caught something. Ignoring orders for the moment, she circled, her thoughts confused, unsure but at the same time very sure all at once. Naturally, Aylina wound up about as confused as could be expected.
Whatcha see? She asked, wondering if Wenth was trying to put on a little more bulk for the winter, and thus was hungrier a good deal sooner than she'd thought. She peered, grip impossibly tighter as she did so, just in case, and found nothing out of the ordinary- oh, spot of blue on the shore. Aylina squinted, blue tinged locks mussing about in her face as they escaped the confines of her sharding flight cap.
Halventh... I think... yes, I do...[/i] Wenth's response came almost instantly. Whether or not Wenth thought it was Halventh, or that she was thinking was entirely up in the air. A moment and she bobbed her head in flight, causing them to lose a bit of altitude suddenly at the motion, Aylina uttering something that probably would have gotten her own hide tanned had her father been around to hear it. Can we go...?[/i]
She thought about it for a moment, not wanting to intrude on the private time between the bluerider and his dragon. But something in the way Wenth's voice sounded, as well as the events going around also gave her the feeling that, well... L'xon was a smart guy, likely smarter 'n her own self on a number of levels, he might know a little something. Couldn't hurt to consult with him, see if he and Halventh'd heard anything new. Y'know, yeah, we can. Let's go say hi now, maybe they've heard or know somethin' we don't.
Wenth immediately changed her course, wing dipping to circle lower, and lower until she found a suitable place that wouldn't splash and spray them with water she knew from Aylina's experience was very cold, and sand that would probably hurt and sting. HerPretty and Halventh's did not have thick hides like she and Halventh, no... they did not... Her land-legs done, she stretched out, resettling her wings back into place as she ambled towards the pair with a croon of greeting. Hello Halventh... hello...
Aylina slipped carefully off her beloved's back, landing with an oof on the wet sand and straightened, readjusting her clothing appropriately and removed the now useless flightcap from her head, running a hand through her hair to get it as relatively unridiculous as possible. "'lo there!" She greeted... and paused, her vision flickering a moment as Wenth's vision was suddenly her own- and with it the notice of a few telltale signs she'd hoped against seein' on her fellow Firefinder. "...L'xon?" Her voice was cautious, though her approach didn't slow in the slightest. "Y'feelin' in sorts there?" Her gaze flicked to Halventh, studying the blue before her attention went back to the young man standing there with a bare foot and ankle in some of the chilliest waters she'd seen on the sides of Pern she'd been in. The water spots on the scarf too, were telling. As was the... flush, on his cheeks. Though she admitted privately that could very well be because of the cold, her own face wound up pink as a result of that at times too.
...but still.
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Azhdarchid
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Post by Azhdarchid on Nov 17, 2012 17:03:13 GMT -5
Halventh's eyes rolled after the descending tan, but L'xon did not look up till he was called. He smiled right away, and stepped out of the lake. The bluerider started toward Aylina, then stopped and took a moment to pull his boot on. He hurried after the delay, though he walked with his frozen foot jumped up a little high on each step. And he swayed to a stop still some ten feet off from her, swallowing hard a couple times before he spoke. His voice rang soft, though it oft did:
"You won't want to get any closer, I think." And he pulled down his scarf, throwing his head back as though baring his neck willingly to an executioner's axe. It took such severe exposure to get the full-spectrum glimmer off the pearly skin of his throat in such poor daylight. He tucked his scarf- one of the intensely woolly affairs his wife had made rather than one of Day'ar's sleek gifts -back into place, then closed his bare white hand over his own neck. "One." He dropped the same hand to the side of his leg, bending to reach his ankle with a kind of reverent slowness. "Two." His hand rose and back straightened, and for a moment his pose looked more questioning than questing.
Then he finally tapped his fingers on the center of his upper thigh. "Three. And I assure you Halventh's not going to convince me to slather that in ice."
Halventh ignored his own rider's advice and lurched off his lakeside sentinel toward Wenth. There were no chipper greetings for Aylina: the blue carried his head high, as if to pantomime not noticing the tanrider, though he took care not to step on her on his dash down the shore to his sister. As he neared Wenth, his powerful neck sagged, and as he reached her he stuck his head between her stumpy forelegs and burrowed it against the join of her chest and stomach with a hatchling-like bleek of distress. His legs went out from under him and he collapsed before her, curling his tail up around both their bodies.
L'xon watched this display with the mild distaste of someone who had just noticed clouds pulling over the sun. "He thinks the water helps," he offered, voice wavering through the explanation without quite wisping out. "I've not coughed once yet. Maybe he's right. There is something to be said for draconic intuition and how it has guided us in the past."
He made to fold his arms across his chest, but found one of his hands gripping the jacket sleeve of the other arm, clutching at himself instead. Like he was cold. He was cold, from the neck-down. "Don't have any of the little ones. The dots. Maybe that's better." The bluerider had no clue, no more insight from having the disease than Aylina did observing. "Think I picked it up at Brindy's." See, even in the depths of plague, some dragons still had the indecency to hold merry little Flights.
And certain other male dragons had the gravely misplaced instinct to provide their pleasures. At nearly the same rate (more times than days in a Turn) till just a sunrise ago. "She's gotten it since. Went in there." He edged one arm away so as to crook a single finger at the dark, gaping craw of the infirmary.
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kireon
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Post by kireon on Nov 17, 2012 19:24:26 GMT -5
Well, that was one thing confirmed, Aylina thought grimly to herself as she caught the patch on his neck. Three patches of the damn thing, so L'xon'd gotten it too. Shards. Her mouth pressed into a thin line at the sight, and proceeded to follow in Halventh's footsteps regarding the matter. She was a practical minded, thought incredibly stubborn, sort; she'd already been exposed via the Infirmary, to say nothing of the Weyr itself as one after another, people fell ill to varying degrees.
"Don' you be fussin' over likes of me right now, sir," she informed him rather sternly, complete with a waggle of one finger in his direction as she closed the ten feet within a few long strides to prove her own point. "I been exposed on a number o' times now an' nothin' happenin' t'me as of yet. I ain't shunnin' or avoidin' nobody, sick 'r not, 'specially not a fellow rider." Which didn't make her feel all that good, really, because it meant she had to sit back and watch others get sick while not bein' able to do anything helpful.
She did, however, give him a bit of a grin to show she'd gotten the joke about slathering that thigh in ice. And, had she figured the time was appropriate for it, she'd have cracked a joke and teased 'im about it the way she'd have done for her brothers. "'sides, I'm th' picture o' that sayin', fools who only catch colds durin' th' summer season." Aylina found herself having her own deja-vu feeling, like she was back to the days she'd been carin' for her ma and her siblings when they'd been sick.
Three of the four'd made it, her mother hadn't.
Wenth's head reared up, startled for a moment before her eyes whirred, distressed at her brother's own and angled her neck down, bumping his side with her snout as she took to nuzzling him gently with a low sound meant to comfort him. Halventh's was sick, yes... he was... and Halventh was sad and scared, yes... he felt like he was... very worried at the least, yes... and Aylina was going to be as well... She flicked her tail up on top of his, eyes momentarily meeting Aylina's before the vapid gaze seemed to take on a hint of understanding, simple as it was, and then looked to L'xon, as if to comfort the rider that she would care for the blue while the people took care of themselves. It's okay Halventh... it's okay...[/i]
She didn't know if it would be, but Aylina would tell her it would be okay, because AylinaPretty knew things she didn't, yes... she did... So, she would tell Halventh to be okay, because he had to believe it would be too. Halventh's will be okay, yes... he will... because he is a good boy, yes... he is... and good boys always get better, yes... they do...[/color]
"Hey, if it turns out Halventh's right, we'll go with it an' I'll haul buckets of the frigid stuff with m'own hands all through th' night iffin that's what it takes." She assured him, giving his shoulder a gentle, reassuring pat. Wonder now if Halventh there'd figured out his bonded's got a temp an' was tryin' his own way t'help lower it somewhat. Halventh seemed pretty shardin' smart for a dragon, she wouldn't put it past 'im to think of it. "Them patches, they spreadin' or gettin' bulgy-like?" She inquired, having seen a couple less fortunate individuals in the infirmary with the swollen what-have-yous on their skin. At one point she'd heard a scream, and then some Healer or another'd said a few things she'd filed away t'use in a situation that called for it.
Her teeth were white against the dark leather of the gloves as she pulled one, and then the other from her hands to do a temperature check. She'd bet a whole month's sweep duty that he'd have one somethin' of a fever. "For that matter, what's goin' other than the patches? Y'mentioned no cough or dots, that's a tell good sign s'far I know." Not that she'd be out of the dark on that one for long, the gloves were tucked into a jacket pocket for the time being, she'd use those later on. Brown eyes flicked towards the Infirmary as he'd indicated.
So Brindy'd been in the Infirmary, good to know, she'd check up on the lady when she had the chance, as well as head down like she'd thought before. "You been eatin'? Makin' sure t'have water an' stayin' bundled up warm-like?" The inside of her wrist and palm flattened against her old classmate's forehead, free hand reaching up to monitor her own temperature in comparison. Some were sicker 'n others, and from what little she knew about ailing and such, there were usually different levels of sick that varied amongst people. Aylina didn't know whether or not those little rules applied to this, but until proven otherwise, she'd run with it. "When'd you see the healers last anyhow?"
Shards, if the answer was only as simple as sweatin' the fever out.
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Azhdarchid
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Post by Azhdarchid on Nov 17, 2012 23:07:24 GMT -5
The ex-guard stood straighter at the address of sir. Habit still trumped illness.
"Yes m'lady." He was less clear on following the rest of her speech, but that was not so much Aylina's flavor of speech as a reflection on his hazy mind. He had dealt with no small number of minor holders clutched under Fort that spoke in similar slurry. His eyes, staring off to an invisible horizon as part of his orderly assumption, slipped over to Wenth when the tan put him under pointed owlish regard. He parted his lips, then shut them again and swallowed a couple times before speaking: "You ride a- you ride Wenth, and that does make you worthy of fuss."
The blond smiled back at her. "I'm just a blue," he said, having successfully recessed all the way back to pre-Halventh levels of self-worth in the face of his imminent doom. Or maybe that was Halventh's voice, passed down his wounded human channel. Only on the tail of his own statement, Aylina's hand defied him at the shoulder. Both L'xon and the dragon huddled half under his larger sister flinched. L'xon's lips pressed in poorly contained appreciation, even as his brows scribbled low dismay over dark eyes. "You have the strength of a dragonrider." The color in his cheeks, overrun as it was, might have taken a shade redder at that. Soon L'xon would not be fit to ride his own body.
He took a deep breath, and the sunlit Summer day shined on him for a few seconds while he held it in his chest. Then he released his breath toward his feet. He flinched again when a drop of water betrayed his eye and flopped off his cheek into the folds of his scarf. Halventh moaned.
I'm scaring you more than the sickness does. I'm sorry, L'xon tried. Halventh didn't grant a verbal answer, but the rider still got a sense that he was dead wrong. He saw Aylina nibbling her gloves free and had a sudden mind to find his and reapply them. They were tucked into his belt. He pulled them on, eyes shutting reflexively as the shadow of her hand passed over, but his response to the contact no longer twitchy (Day'arish, one corner of his brain whispered fervently).
"N-no bulging. No bulging things," he murmured with a very Halventh-like horror. "They've been the same since they appeared." He waggled his newly-gloved fingers at her in reply to another question. A shiver pulsed through him at its own aberrant tempo, less detectable through his hot forehead but visible in his outstretched hands. "To be honest, this is the first I've been up today."
He glanced to the upper-right of his eyes, just confirming the late afternoon blot of the sun. "I have water by my cot. I haven't been too hungry. Actually, thinking about it does not seem to be good for my stomach." He finally lowered his hands, which he'd been offering out at his sides like a brigand's guilty surrender. "I saw a healer a few months ago when some 'stone-bagger dropped his shipment on me during Fall."
L'xon moved his head in a subtle side-to-side under her wrist. "I am alright with going. Halventh won't let me." The blue made his own negating head-shift against Wenth's tummy, though his looked more like an attempt to disappear under her. "Should have noticed when he stopped Chasing," the rider chuckled. "He was watching the infirmary, counting who went in...what came out. He's got the idea that they aren't doing any good. Only ice-water, right my love?" he called down to the burrowed dragon, who growled back from his hiding spot. "I think he's a little too brainy than what does good for a blue. That might be why he wins the Chase so much, some method to the madness."
L'xon's face relaxed in momentary, albeit misplaced pride. His eyes flicked back up to Aylina's. There were many homey traits to the woman, who dwarfed him like Wenth to his Halventh, but he didn't think he'd noticed before that her eyes held stock in the same color as his. "Did you know they took the Weyrlingmaster?"
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kireon
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Post by kireon on Nov 18, 2012 23:55:01 GMT -5
Aylina's eyes narrowed, never turning from L'xon and felt her mouth press into a thin, white line as a result of her fellow Weyrling's words. "Ain' worth makin' a fuss when ain' nothin' t'fuss on 'bout." She informed him tersely, rather reminiscent of a wherry who'd gotten their feathers in a ruffle over something asinine that had clearly insulted them. "An' I ain' never met nobody who ain' important in th' grand scheme o' things, hide color don' matter t'me none, s'what beats 'ere that counts." Her thumb pointed in the general direction of her heart for emphasis.
Wasn't like the L'xon she'd come to know, the helpful lad who'd been a great source of comfort and encouragement during the rougher periods, the frustrating times during their Weyrling days when she'd wondered if she'd been doing something wrong, or if Wenth was, as she'd suspected, just a tad slower 'n the others in her class. Plus, generous heart that he'd been, had gifted her with some of the stuff she took care not to ruin in her own Weyr... even if it had been given to him by another, Day'ar, she thought his name'd been. "Yer important, L'xon, don' go foolin' y'self otherwise." Her voice was softer at that, as if her annoyance had been replaced by the understanding he was sick, and probably not thinkin' as clearly as he would've normally.
True to her nature, she pretended, for his sake, that she hadn't seen the tear, and compared the temperature. Fever, definitely that. Shiverin' had been her first sign, even if she wanted to do so herself because it was sharding cold, and she'd not been the one dumpin' ice water on herself. Wenth? She inquired, worried at the sound of the moan from Halventh. Worried reassurance came through in response, but it was clear that Wenth felt she had things under relatively good control. "No bulging's a good sign, from what some I know anyhow," she replied idly, trying to be encouraging during the process. "feverish though, s'prolly why you've got th' shakes a bit."
Poor Halventh... he is worried, yes... he is...[/color] Wenth nuzzled him again, shifting a little because his headknobs were ticklish against her belly. The growl in response to L'xon's comment made her rumble in response, trying to soothe her blue brother. They are doing the best they can, yes... they are... Halventh's is not as bad as a lot of them, no... he is not... he will be okay, yes... he will...[/i]
"Could be, don' blame 'im for not wantin' t'be in there." It wasn't exactly the lake in a hot summer, fulla fun an' all. "but prolly better t'get checked by the healers anyhow, see what we can do t'get you back up on yer feet an' all. "He's always been a smart 'un, s'prolly why you an' he make such a good pair, got yer wits about the both of ya." She knew Wenth adored Halventh for his smarts, and because she just had enough love that Aylina swore some days she'd been born the wrong type of dragon.
Her mouth drew tight as she withdrew her hand and wrist, dropping it casually back to her side. If he didn't want to get treated for plague, he needed to get something for that fever of his. She'd heard rumors that their Weyrlingmaster was in the Infirmary, but L'xon confirming it made it all the more real. "Thought I'd heard it, sad t'hear s'true now." Hope she'd recover too, as she didn't know how bad things were with the woman who'd trained them through Weyrlinghood. "I've an idea, les' go get you somethin' warm t'drink, eh? Food ain' soundin' good for number 'o reasons, but I reckon we can rustle up somethin' light an' easy that'll keep ya from gettin' weak due t'lack of eatin'."
Plus, it'd give her and Wenth some more time to think about how they were going to convince L'xon, and more importantly, Halventh, to get to the Infirmary to at least get checked out, if not staying there to ride out the worst of it. Aylina knew some weren't going to make it, knew others would join them... but her own stubborn heart and mind were refusing to believe that L'xon was going to be one of them.
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Azhdarchid
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Post by Azhdarchid on Nov 23, 2012 11:59:09 GMT -5
L'xon, who had met more than one ruffled wherry in the course of his former employment, nonetheless gave ground with a literal swaying backstep when Aylina shot down his assertion. His twitch of a smile played indulgence, but his eyes demurred as they traced the jab of the tanrider's thumb. His eyebrows rose at her softer contradiction. He almost thought...but no. He could see Wenth plainly past her rider, mothering his pathetic beast. The same thing was happening here. Foolish he was, to see any star but the Red by daylight.
And over clouds! The bluerider laughed, then waved a hand in front of his face, trying to coax Aylina into forgiving him his own thoughts.
"Drink, sure," he murmured, rearranging his features to suitably slyer blankness. The dining hall had its own interior routes to the infirmary- he thinly recalled the tapestries lining them had burnt down following the fire his arriving day -and they were too small for a dragon to seek and block.
Halventh quieted against his clutchmate, outer eyelids wincing across his facets in a telegraph of weariness. Then L'xon's bald plotting pierced his awareness, clearer than any fever burning. He unraveled his head and neck and laid both up against Wenth's chest and throat a moment, then turned around and stalked up on the two riders. He did not lace himself around them in a blocking ring, but bunched up flat behind Aylina, low as a tunnelsnake, teeth baring not in violence but in a peel-lipped gesture of displeasure. His eyes glowed a dark navy-gray. In the time he took to walk away from Wenth, his hide shed a few more shades of saturation.
For a time he only sat there, a monument to disapproval, but it might not be unknown to Aylina that he had started brushing her thoughts in a very deliberate manner. Checking to see if everything was still in the same place it was when they met. Normally it wouldn't have been a question, but L'xon was not the only one he'd drawn into isolation at late. At last, like an alien dipping his toe into strange waters, he spoke:
No. Neither of you. No. Dying there. Some of Halventh's thought leaned toward the human notion of sickness, but he could not fully grasp why a body would collapse on itself without wound. But he did know dying. Stay here. The rapid-fire staccato had the blue's ribs heaving at his sides. He craned his head back at his sister. Wenth tell them not to go! he pleaded, voice resuming its full complement of language and connection in this safer territory. It would be a wonder if Aylina got anything from the direct speech besides fear and no.
"Aylina," L'xon said from the other side. "If you were to take my hand, we might walk there. I could do that with your help, I think." With enough assistance, even the dying could find the time to defy their dragons- one last blasphemous torment before the fall.
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kireon
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Post by kireon on Nov 26, 2012 0:53:45 GMT -5
Stubborn as she was, Aylina also happened to be remarkably easy to placate and please, and her metaphorical feathers de-ruffled once her point seemed to be taken relatively seriously. Simple was as simple did, after all, and wasn't anything wrong with that. Wasn't anything bad enough to grant forgiveness for, so long as it was just the fever talkin' and not his actual, true to Faranth an' then some belief. She could hear her dragon making small, comforting noises to her clutchmate and listened to the worried, distracted thoughts of her dragon when they came through to her.
Wenth nuzzled him affectionately, attempting to reassure him in her own way that everything would be okay, still- for Halventh was a very big worrier, yes... he was... and she had not known him to be such, no, she hadn't... if Aylina said it was okay, then she knew it would be. HerPretty did not say things she did not know were true, after all. Her head cocked to the right a little, slowly, always slowly, moving more towards the right as she watched Halventh move and bunch up behind Aylina.
What was he doing? A new game...? Wenth wiggled on her stomach, dragging herself through the sandy, pebbly shore on her way to stretch out flat next to Halventh in her own curious, daft manner. He did not feel happy, but this was new, so maybe doing this would make him feel a little better?
Recoiling slightly from the sheer waves of no, heavy fear tinged as they were coming from a source most certainly not her Wenth, Aylina turned a moment, regarding Halventh in some sort of surprise. He'd not, in her recent memory anyway, spoken to her directly before, nor been so... blunt about certain matters. More like his rider than either of 'em prolly knew, she thought to herself as she regarded to blue for a moment. It didn't take a genius to know the look the pretty one sent her lady either; poor thing was probably scared halfway to between on his own. Giving L'xon a nod, she'd help 'im in a few moments, she just... needed to let the blue know she understood. Probably better than he'd know. "Yep, I'll be helpin' ya, gimme a tic though, need t'let your handsome one know sommat real fast."
She took a couple of steps towards Halventh, soft brown eyes on the blue as she tried figuring out what she could say, if anything, to be of some sort of comfort to the dragon. One way or another, L'xon would end up in the infirmary, and she'd personally rather it be sooner than later, by the chance there might be more the Healers could do for him now in comparison to... well, how some others'd come out of it. "'ey there, there's the strong, handsome lad I know," Her voice took the same tone she'd often used with agitated runners at her family's stables, and with Wenth whenever she'd gotten herself upset or worked up. She reached one hand out towards him, same way she'd always done with Wenth. "I know," Aylina told her beloved's clutchmate softly. "I know, scary stuff, havin' someone y'care 'bout bein' illin' an' all."
Wenth's head lifted from the sand at Halventh's plea, worry filling the usual blue with more than a touch of gray as she looked to him to Aylina... and felt AylinaPretty's concern too. She could feel the sad coming off of Aylina too, and knew what she was thinking about. A soft mewl escaped from her, almost too low for the human pair to hear. AylinaPretty knows... she lost her dam to sickness... yes... she did...[/i] Wenth informed Halventh sadly, shedding a bit of light on the tall woman's somewhat overbearing, probably more than a touch bossy attitude.
"I know," Aylina repeated, watching the blue. "an' that's why I can't leave it be, knowin' what little I do 'bout bein' sick an' seein' others in the same state." She inhaled, the sharp bite of the clear, cold air attacking her lungs, and exhaled. "Gonna have t'trust me, an' trust your sir over there, 'kay? He's a strong 'un, not s'much at th' present, but he'll bounce back, I know he will." Her gaze turned to Wenth, her tan staring back at her as a wealth of love and affection washed over her. That was her girl, always patient, always waiting. "Trust in L'xon, savvy? He ain' gonna leave you, y'both got work t'do once he's all recovered." An almost worry-free grin as she tossed it over her shoulder at Halventh's rider before looking back to Halventh. "Y'can say he owes you big time, double oilin' and choice pick o' feedin' at that, once he's back up on his feet again."
Double oilings is a good idea, yes... it is... it will make Halventh even prettier than he is now, yes, it will...[/i] Wenth supplied helpfully, looking to Halventh as if saying it was a good idea. He liked to be spoiled, her favorite Halventh, yes... he did... and whenever Aylina had scared her, she got spoiled, yes... she did, it was a good apology... Maybe he will feel better after something warm to eat, yes... maybe... we should try that first.... okay...?[/i] The infirmary did smell like dying, and she knew that their friend was there, the dragon who had taught them so much and her human too. There were others too...
Aylina nodded, leaving it to Wenth, for the time being, to talk to her favorite brother and went back to L'xon. "Sling an arm up 'round the shoulders if y'need, lean as much as y'need an' let's head in fer now. Warmth in yer belly might do you some good, an' we'll go from there." It'd give them all time to convince Halventh that it wouldn't be the very end of everything, of L'xon for him to go in there. Her expression set into grim, stubborn determination, she eyed him from her position at his side. "Jus' so we're clear, y'ain' dyin' on us, that's... I dunno, an order o' some sort." A somewhat ridiculous half-smile crept on her face. "I'm one ugly crier, an' ain' nobody need t'see the likes 'o that, y'can get sicker, but yer pullin' through, yer too strong not to."
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Azhdarchid
Jr. Weyrwoman
azhct[M:-1490]
Totes.
Posts: 1,627
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Post by Azhdarchid on Nov 26, 2012 15:45:58 GMT -5
Halventh actually arched his neck a few inches when Aylina addressed him, hide coloring like a full-body blush. Then he recommitted to his terror and flattened back out, though his eyes rolled toward Wenth performing an identical pose next to him before returning to Aylina with a noncommittal blink. His nostrils worked at the approaching hand in the sharp-soft way only a process of wind currents could achieve. Wenth's noise stopped him, facets flashing a terrific white that sank into a kind of purple-black milieu, then whirled the corrupted colors out on an oscillating tide of blue and silver. His replies- just smaller, wholly empathic echoes of Wenth's upset -couldn't be heard by the humans at all, but maybe felt as they vibrated in the rock between the bodies of the two dragons.
The glint off his eyes suggested the blue had returned his attention to Aylina, but his mind was off with Wenth, trembling against hers, less settled for her brief revelation of upset. L'xon did nothing to assist the other Firefinder's attempt, but smiled back his encouragement when she glanced pointedly at him. For all Halventh's throes, he thought it might be working where his own tired attempts had not. That was all he amounted to, it seemed: too fever-sick to have a will. Now who sounded pathetic? When Aylina turned back to her uncooperative charge, his smile dropped and he rubbed a cool glove against his burning cheek.
While the dripping of L'xon's consciousness continued, Halventh's fluttered out of the dark, unable to withstand both Aylina and Wenth. He laid his weight against one elbow, and then that side of his body, taking an inactive posture to indicate his compliance with the present maneuver. His head still rose up and cocked after Aylina when she returned to L'xon and the blond- with just a brief flare of bashfulness -took her up on the offer of a friendly shoulder. The blue bobbed his neck at them in a plaintive call for attention, but L'xon did not look back and tried to keep moving so that Aylina might not accidentally do so.
L'xon privately thought that he'd only just started this path- then cancelled the notion, before it reached Halventh and upset all of the tanrider's hard work. He numbly agreed to her instead, grinning at her self-depredation.
"Halventh would not want either of you to cry," he said, ignoring the necessary consequence his death would have on the blue. This worked: Halventh quit his entreating bobs, and drooped his head toward Wenth instead, miserable but willing. He even tipped his wings open.
L'xon slipped his arm off Aylina as they passed into the gap to the dining hall, without comment. His eyes had mostly been on the ground in front of his feet, but now he raised his head as the first coils of foodstuff odor reached out to him. He ground his canine tooth against the bottom corner of his lip as he waited to see if his stomach would reject the proposal before he even got close, but as he got closer his step went a little broader, eyes peering about the main Hall as they reached it. Mostly he looked at the pitchers and platefuls, but also across the people. He hadn't paid much attention to the Weyrfolk since he'd become a rider, but he had a sense that there were far fewer of them attending the lunch crowd. Unlike him, most of the riders looked well. It was the tables of the wingless that had most dramatically depopulated.
There was one unpleasant trait to the majestic cavern: it was warm. He felt like the fire in his head was bleeding down his veins to the rest of him, prompting a sigh. He supposed he must still look reasonably intact, because the paler cooks mustering to the call of lunch were getting dirty looks from some of the assembled healthy populace, but no one had as yet leveled such venom at him. "I'm sorry about your mother," he said, but the line of his mouth crinkled with curiosity as he looked back at Aylina. L'xon had already decided Wenth couldn't have meant this sickness. He believed he would have been testing the putative ugliness of the tanrider's grief mask otherwise.
He knew of no other recent plagues in any part of Pern, but flus and other cruel oddities took a few every Winter. Riders perhaps were too good for it, but apparently the mothers of riders had not the value. His brows furrowed into accusing slants at each other, and he tried to ignore that infuriating notion. "Have you made lots of friends in the queens' wing?" he heard himself ask, like it were any other day and he'd just spotted Aylina, deciding right then and there to catch up. "Talk with Naireth's rider, eh?"
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