Awed Meetings {Reky!!}

The summer weather did wonders for E'rin. There were still times when he became caught up in mourning; when the winds blew quiet in the darkening evenings and he found himself missing the mangy scruff of Rats' head on his lap or the white noise of F'lan and X'ni's low voices. He missed his fathers dearly. When they had been alive, he had taken his privilege for granted. X'ni irritated him on most days. But he owed Jarith to the both of them, and his life at the Weyr as a whole. It had been nearly half a Turn since they had passed, though - some of the first to perish in the plague.

The sunny days spent on the lake, though, were healing. Sometimes he would lay on the shore with A'lan and talk. Sometimes it would be about the consistency of the past Threadfall; sometimes about the oddities of his pillies or the new trinkets Jarith had dragged back to their weyr. On the windier, cloudier days he would get to talking about how strange and empty he felt - like he wouldn't be able to find anyone ever again. None of the girls interested him. He didn't stay much at dinners. Even whispers of an impending Gather didn't excite him, and above all else, he felt older than he should. He was only sixteen, but he had been a dragonrider for more than five Turns now and a great deal of the things he loved had passed. But when it was sunny, he felt good.

One such day, Rukbat burned bright and happy in the clear sky. He took himself and his menagerie out to the lake. His pillies Murmle, Levi II, Mitzi, and Merps trundled past him in anticipation of the cool water, and his green firelizard Lana hovered around his head and arms as he tried to tug his shirt off. Brown Levi hung back on a rock to sun himself, disinterested in the rest of the family, as per usual. But most exuberant of all was Jarith, who anxiously pranced about while E'rin stripped to his underpants. She snuffled at his blonde hair; squeaked at him; sang him songs about how excited she was to swim.

He smiled and caught her shining muzzle in his arms. She made him so happy.

SWIMMING, E'RINLOVE, she squawked at him, wriggling free of his embrace only to headbutt him from behind to rush him into the water. There was a great deal of splashing and laughing and trumpeting. The four pillies floated like a raft of placid islands, talking amongst themselves in a background drabble that comfortable filled the base layer of E'rin's head. Lana, floating high above on the cool wind that curled off the lake, spotted a new pair further off.

Being the curious little green that she was, she zipped a little closer, her bright stripes flashing in the sun. She whistled to Requezzia and Bessienth, and drew even nearer, but then suddenly backwinged and changed her mind. Oh, they frightened her a little! What was she supposed to do? Would they pet her, though? She liked being petted. Nervously, a weak and distressed creel issued from her little green maw, and E'rin looked over to see what was the matter.

"Oh, Lana!" the boy scoffed, but he was grinning. "She's scared of everyone!" he called to Requezzia. Then, out of nowhere came Jarith's glittering paw, and she dunked him under the water and loosed a triumphant bugle.

Bessienth's voice did little to soothe Lana. Rather, it sent a terrible shiver down the antsy flit's spine, and she squawked pitifully and wheeled in the air above her bonded. E'rin surfaced again, spluttering, and wiped the water out of his eyes. "You dastardly dragon," he beamed, aiming a dedicated splash at her face. She snorted the water off in a spray of gleaming droplets.

Around her new company, Jarith ceased her fooling around and straightened up. She curved her neck just so; lowered her eyelids slightly so she looked more mysterious than mischievous. E'rin propped himself up by slinging an arm over her shoulder. One of the good things about having a white was that she wasn't entirely too big. Each bit of her was reachable.

"Yeah, nah, don't worry about Lana," he smiled at Requezzia. He flipped his wet hair out of his face and Lana chittered at him from above. His mellower pillies had given the gathering a comfortable berth, but Mitzi was feeling sociable and fluttered her little legs beneath her to swim nearer.

Then came the compliment, though. Enough people had slipped in comments about Jarith's bizarre, sparkling hide over the Turns that E'rin was entirely used to it and its effects. It used to embarrass him on premise (a boy with a sparkling girl dragon!), but now it made him grin in good humour. "Really, you don't have to feel obligated to compliment her. Her ego's big enough already!"

And, as if on cue, She called me lovely! Aha! Yes, yes, that's because I am, E'rinlove. I most definitely am. See how the sun catches my glitterssss! So many glitters! Ahhh, I am beautiful.

You're impossible, he told her.

Impossibly beautiful! Ohhh, just ask Irith. Lovely pretty Irith! My Irith! Just ask him, oh, he'll tell you, alright. He'll tell you 'oh, Jarithpretty is so impossibly beautiful, E'rinlovesilly.' Yes he will!

E'rin affectionately tuned out her banter.

"So how's weyrlinghood?" he smiled to her. She seemed older than him, but her dragon was brand new. He'd watched the hatching, quite modestly but still interested. Bessienth's footwork had been a highlight among the gore. "I remember seeing you Impress." And shells! Bessienth was so small. Jarith had been that small, once - and even smaller before that.

Lana flew lower down now, and disappeared behind Jarith's bright white body where she plunked into the water to float in secrecy. Oh, but she wanted pettings! Distressed, she paddled her way around front and clambered onto the back of Mitzi's hard pink shell and silently inserted herself into the conversation.

Jarith, luckily, was easily distracted. The sprinkle of water on her forepaw was interpreted as a Terrible Water Assault and her gleaming eyes snapped to Bessienth. The little one had got her! She had got her good! Her inflated posture was quickly exchanged for a gleeful one. She gave a delighted whoop and slashed her tail through the air above the cyan, showering her in an arc of water.

Got you! she announced, much, much louder than Bessienth had before. Subtlety was not one of Jarith's best attributes.

Her antics made her move a fair bit in the water and E'rin opted to drop his arm from her shoulder and keep afloat by himself instead. "Oh, um," he said in doing so, "Let's see... Graduated in Autumn of 200... uh, three and a half Turns since." Seemed right. "Ish." Seemed safer. He swam closer to Requezzia so he could stand alongside her. Lana continued to paddle plaintively in the gap between Jarith and the humans, but Mitzi swished her little buggy legs and followed her boy. He put his hand against her head and let her feelers brush at his arm. Ma! she chirped contentedly.

"I get where you're coming from, though," he smiled. His free hand pried at some wet hair plastered to his forehead. "I definitely wasn't expecting to Impress. I don't even know if I was properly Searched? Because it was one of my dads' dragons that did it and she was the worst sort of green." Partway through, he realized that it was a fact he could have avoided bringing up, for the sake of his own feelings. A pang of sorrow hit him, but he muscled through it. He had to learn to talk about his dads sooner or later. "And I mean, I was eleven, right? Baby of the class with the sparkley dragon. All of it was just so crazy. It works out in the end, though." Mitzi's feelers ventured over to his ribs and he flinched away. "Hey! That tickles."

The pillie seemed pleased with that, though, and purred out a foam of bubbles under the water.

Jarith trilled at the return fire. She loved splashing! She loved summer! She loved that E'rin loved it, too, because he was so much happier and social. She expected Bessienth, of course, to be just like any other playful dragon, just a little smaller - but the curious question caught her off guard. Her swirling eyes widened and she lowered a glittering snout. There were no rainbows in either of their eyes, though. They hid only in the nuances of Jarith's shining hide.

Yours? she asked. Then, her maw opened into a toothy dragon's grin. How absurd! No, no, I belong to E'rinLoveMine! And you to Yours! But I could be your mine as in your friend, yes, ohhh! I would be your friend! And we can splash forever and ever and ever. I can be that sort of Yours! But not a real Yours, really, and you can't be a special Mine like IrithLove because he's the bestest and you're okay but you're not the bestest and you're pretty small and not as lovely and pretty and kind as Irith. You should meet Irith! Oh, he is so pretty, just like me - almost. I'm prettier. But he is the bestest Irith! I love him very much! I love E'rinLove, too! And Lana and Levi and Levi II and Murmle and Mitzi and Merps and summer. Summer is so warm and nice.

I love friends. Friends are the best things in the whole entire world. I'm friends with everyone! Especially Irith. He's my bestest best friend forever and ever. He sorta has colours like you all in his hide because he's like a pretty pretty rainbow. You're a pretty colour! Not as pretty as me though. Maybe close, if you weren't so tiny, but not quite! There's not enough of your pretty colour because you aren't big yet. OHHH. How old are you? Oh, wait, I should know. I should know this! I saw you. I remember.