Weyr at War! [Forever Open]

[lee]

warning: Oosh's imagination skews to the graphically dramatic

The Renegades had them surrounded.

Oosh didn't actually know what a renegade was, but it sure sounded dramatic. Deadly. Like a bad guy. And to be the good guy—which Oosh, of course, was—you needed a bad guy. They'd been under siege for weeks now. Several people had starved to death. Some of them had gotten frostbite and their fingers had fallen off and stuff. Oosh only had one ear left himself, and his left foot was probably gonna fall off any day now. There wasn't enough space in the air for the dragons to come between and rescue them, but they weren't gonna last much longer.

They had to make their move.

They had to fight.

The small boy surged suddenly up from behind the bank of snow he was using for a Weyr, with a bellowing warcry his best imitation of a dragon's roar, "YAAAAAAAAARGH!" A volley of well-formed, slightly slushy snowballs, carefully packed and stockpiled in crooked pyramids were launched with great enthusiasm (and passable accuracy at best) at the unwary passerby. He wasn't really tall enough to see over the snowbank unless he stood on his toes, so the energetically bobbing tassel of his too-big hat was almost the only thing visible over the curve of snow. A fire lizard poofed into existence, cheeping furiously, and Oosh dove back under cover, seizing an icicle and brandishing it at the creature with a defiant cry of, "YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!"

[Kila]

Winter, 6th Turn, 11th Pass

Snow.

Though he had seen it before, the blanket of white over the Weyr never
ceased to excite Aydan. There was a certain kind of coldness that came
with snow. It was almost always cold during winter, but when he awoke
with tingles in his fingers and toes he knew the possibility was out
there. The air even smelled a little different, fresher, if you paid
attention. The tell-tale signs were there that afternoon when the little
boy woke. Pulling on his winter clothes hastily, he rallied his pillies
and ran towards the surface. The sun blinded him when he burst into the
Weyrbowl, reflecting off the snowy surface amplified. He threw his arm
across his eyes but didn't have the patience to keep it there long. When
he bolted forward he was still half blind.

Unsurprisingly he ran into something before he had gone very far. Caught
off guard, he wobbled and fell backwards, sinking down into the snow.
"Oh Farnath, I'm sorry!" Sh'len squeaked in apology. Aydan shook
the snow from his hair like a canine and glared up at the unfortunate
Rider as if he was at fault. Fate was in his favor that day it seemed,
for retribution came swiftly in the form of a cold, wet ball of snow.
Sh'len yelped as he was pelted and beat a hasty retreat. Aydan searched
out the source of this justice and was pleased to see Oosh diving and
screaming as he rained mushy snowballs on the people walking by. Aydan
had misliked the other boy when he had plunked down next to him at
Fenrisk's hatching, but whatever it was that he was doing now looked
like a lot of fun.

Aydan dove when a snowball strayed his way, disappearing into a pile of
snow. FRRRRrrrrr! Shardit fell mercilessly upon
the errant snowball when it hit the ground, tearing it to pieces. Bug
followed his human into the snow pile alarmed by the shouting and the
sudden attack. Aydan burst out with excitement in his eyes, delighted
with what he had stumbled into. If Oosh needed a villain he had a
formidable foe at the ready! While the other weyrbrat threatened his
flitter with an icicle, Aydan hastily turned his snowdrift into a wall
of defense. It was not as well formed as Oosh's, but it would do.
Shardit and Bug scuttled in behind him, confused but clearly picking up
on Aydan's excitement. The boy pointed at the snow behind him and
flashed them a picture of a large snow ball. He grabbed a handful of
snow and packed it together, putting the model between them.

He turned his attention back to Oosh eagerly- his new foe. Whatever side
he was fighting for, it was Aydan's opposite. He donned the cloak of
anti-hero with vigor, pulling together a snowball as fast as he could,
his little face pinched with concentration. This was war. Aydan hunkered
down and waited until he saw the floppy hat rise above the snow again
before hurling his snowball in that direction. Shardit tried to tug him
back down, but he waited with excitement to see if it would hit.

[lee]

The flitter, annoyed with being threatened, chittered even more furiously at the small boy brandishing the icicle like a flamethrower. The tirade of squeaks and whistles caused Oosh to roll his eyes and relent, lifting his makeshift weapon to lips and biting off the end of it, delighted as it cracked and froze his lips but melted quickly and ran down his throat to his stomach with a chill that shivered through his spine. He munched the last of the icicle and then bounded back to his post. Bam! Direct hit! Oshumer whooped with glee, a fist rocketing skyward as he leapt up in delight. Sh'len bolted and Oosh crowed and cackled in triumph, laughing until his belly hurt, still cold from the consumed icicle.

It was quiet then, when he finally stopped, and cautiously, he bellycrawled closer to his defense wall (it was the wall of a volcano) murmuring to himself, "It was quiet. Too quiet. Quiet meant an amb...amb...meant a surprise attack could be comin!" He dragged his left foot (the one that was gonna fall off from the frostbite) and peered cautiously over his bank.

Wham!

"HEY!" Oosh squeaked as a snowball knocked his hat clean off his head, so surprised that he gaped, snow dusting his brown hair for a fraction of a second before he knew what it meant.

Attack! Oosh whooped, diving behind him and scrabbling for his hat with a grin so wide it cracked his chapped lips. He found the knitted cap—it wasn't his, but one of the women in the lower caverns had seen him bounding outside without one and jammed it on his head with a stern lecture, and he guessed it was pretty okay even if he'd had to get yelled at for it—and yanked it down over his chilled ears, though the action caused him to yelp from the snow that had gotten inside. He hopped quickly back and forth in place to stay warm, before realizing the enemy could be advancing while he pranced around. No way! Not gonna happen! Not on HIS watch! He had to respond! No one was gonna take his Weyr down. With another dragony roar, he surged back up above the bank, hurling a snowball in his fellow weyrbrat's direction with little thought to accuracy, though he squinted his eyes and bit his lip in concentration. But speed was way more important.

[/blockquote]

[Kiran]

Dione couldn't help but grin at the game the boys were playing. But were only boys welcome? Oh, she hoped not! Games like this were too much fun! She watched down and scooped up some of the snow. It was good packing snow, good for forts and snowmen, and above all snowballs. It was her first snowball fight here at Dalibor, and she was going to enjoy it!

And besides, girls against boys was always fun!

Dione hunkered down behind her own snow bank, watching the two as they dove and hid and then waited for the perfect opportunity to pelt each other. Neither realizing that they were being watched by experienced snowball-aiming eyes. Perfect. Dione had two ready for action, having been formed into two almost-perch spheres. The goal of this, of course, was so that neither saw them coming, and that meant needing to watch and wait for the perfect moment. The perfect moment...

It came soon enough. Waiting for their heads to pop up above the snow, she took a few deep breaths in anticipation, and.... WHAM! She sent them flying in quick succession, a whoop of laughter escaping as she did it. "Take that!" Sure, they were just weyrbrats and she was a candidate, but Dione didn't have any issue getting down when it came to fun.

[Kila]

Aydan let out a silent cry of victory when his villanous
snowball found its mark, pumping his tiny fist into the in delight. He'd
got him! He whipped around to face his pillies with bright eyes. Had
they seen that??? Bug was butting the snowball Aydan had given him
meticulously, moving it across the ground so that it grew in size.
Shardit had been watching though, and the angry Brass was practically
swollen with pride. His ward- a perfect little killer. Aydan felt it and
grinned, immensely proud of himself.

But battle was no time for that! He whirled around just in time to see
Oosh- recovered and ready- hurl a speedy missile in his direction with a
mighty roar. Aydan gasped and dropped down just in time. The weapon
hadn't been well aimed, but it had been fast. It had nearly taken off
his sharding head! Shardit surged after it, ripping it to pieces where
it landed. FFRRRRR! Another attack on his human!
The audacity!

Aydan bounced back up immediately, poised to point and laugh his most
villianous laugh. He had barely opened his mouth to gloat before it was
filled with snow and he was stumbling backwards. He hid behind his bank
and spit out what he could while his attacker whooped and taunted the
taunts that should have been his. He peeked around the edge and saw that
it was an older girl that had assailed him, and the other boy too by the
looks of it. How embarassing. He scrunched up his face and looked in
Oosh's direction. Was he thinking what Aydan was thinking? They might
have to... team up.