One True Pairing (A!)

[Chimera]

At least R'lan had only gotten one of the strange bugs. He seemed enough to keep Ainoth happy when R'lan was at the lessons for humans only - besides, he seemed to attract wild pillies, though strangely enough the amount of wild ones perching on Ainoth's snout when she emerged from the water had diminished since R'lan bonded to the brown Pebble. He didn't seem very popular, which the greenrider could understand. He'd probably not gotten enough air in his egg. Even Malikot was annoyed with the brown after a certain incident damaging her...reputation.

However, R'lan, Ainoth, and the two flits he had failed to notice the baby brown pillie slipping away as they practiced their swimming in laps, crawling with a chirp of Mareee as he scuttled through the lakeshore. Aha! At last!

A Candidate by the name of Talubara would find a very insistent pillie on their head, Mareee!ing eagerly, with a feather of a chicken that had been carried by the wind all the way to the shore. It and Tal were simply meant to be united, the paths of their fate intertwining!

[A]

Talubara's first thought when a strange pillie landed on his head was 'Oh no, not again.' He had one pillie too many already, thank you very much. Fortunately, this one seemed distinctly disinterested in bonding with him. Tal couldn't see the pillie, but it was still moving which was a good sign. He reached up gently. Yep, no goo in his hair. Just another pillie with boundary issues. Typical day at Dalibor weyr.

Tal's own pillie emerged an instant later, greeting the brown with a cautious Mss. Did his lord need a rescue? Or a message carried? He ran off, but he would return with aid! And there it was, aid. R'lan looked like he could help! Cerulean swam over doggedly, pushing his little body as fast it could go. He would deliver a rescue!

Talubara, in the mean time, was attempting to gently disentangle the creature from his hair, but it seemed to keep slipping his grasp. Come on, come on little guy, he thought, let's get you off me now. Before Rayla comes back and eats you.

[Chimera]

Pebble wriggled around on Talubara's head, squeaking when the boy reached up to check if there was goo in his hair. Maree? He picked up the chicken feather with his segmented mouth when it fell off. Maree! Take it, he seemed to say to the candidate. Did he not see? They were meant to be together!

Then Pebble's blue brother arrived, 'Mss'ing at the wacky brown. But before he could say hello to Cerulean in response, the other pillie had swum away, swimming to R'lan. Talubara's attempts, meanwhile, to get Pebble off of his hair, were in vain. MAREE! The pillie exclaimed, growing frustrated. At last, he accepted being picked up by Tal, wriggling to try and get the feather into the boy's view.

Hmm, there is a pillie swimming towards us, and... Ainoth craned her neck to get a better view. My pillie is on a boy, we should go help, no? Um, the pillie going for us may be that boy's.

Could be. Best to go over and check, to keep the crazy thing out of trouble.

He's not crazy!

Alright, odd. With the end to that conversation, R'lan dove through the water, moving one arm after another to get to the lakeshore. With intensive weyrling training and free-time swimming with Ainoth, the teen had become quite adept at swimming. He reached the edge at last, pulling himself up and standing, sopping wet and looking very much like a merman that had come out of the sea with his sudden appearance.

"Um, hello! Greetings, I am Weyrling R'lan of Green Ainoth, who is in the lake over there." He made a sweeping gesture to the dragon's location, sending droplets of water flying into the air. "I assume you are a Candidate, by your knots...And there's just something about the way Candidates are. Trust me." He chuckled awkwardly. "Anyways, er, I apologize about the pillie. He's mine, called Pebble, and he's a...bit...of an oddball. He likes to try and matchmake people (and dragonkin, and other bugs), unfortunately many times with an inanimate object....so, I hope you are not very upset. In this case, it seems he has a..feather. Anyways, I'm rambling. May I know your name?"

[A]

This might have been the oddest pillie Tal had ever met. Not that he'd had much contact with pillies asides from his own (thank Faranth) exceptionally civil one. But he'd never had one wave a feather in his face before...

"Um...thanks, I guess?" he said, shifting a bit awkwardly as he finally managed to get a good glimpse of the thing the pillie seemed oddly desperate to show him, "It's a very nice feather..." Tal wasn't quite sure what the pillie expected to accomplish with said feather. Where was Cerulean when he needed him?

Cerulean was swimming desperately after R'lan. No, no, no! Where was he going? Didn't he see Cerulean was bearing an urgent message? That his grand and gracious lord was desperately in need of aid? Cerulean would catch him, he would! But oh he was fast...And oh, he was already there. It seemed Cerulean's message had been successfully conveyed after all. Now he just had to make it back to Tal, inform his master of his grand exploits. He had faced the big water pool and survived! All in the name of Talubara.

Talubara, meanwhile, did his best to retain his poise as a strange boy popped out of nowhere and started babbling. He gave him a blank look as his mind processed the sudden onslaught.

"Greetings, Weyrling R'lan," Talubara said with a polite smile, offering back the pillie and politely plucking the feather from his grasp. Well, if it got the thing to stop babbling...And it was a very nice feather. Talubara had planned on collecting souvenirs of his time in the west, "I am Candidate Talubara. Good day Pebble," he nodded politely to the brown pillie. Overgrown insect or not, he'd expect the same respect for his own Cerulean, who had resumed his customary spot on Talubara's shoulder and was chattering eagerly. Tal turned to him and murmured, "Hush now," and the pillie mercifully quieted. He'd taken to training quickly and easily, uncommonly eager to please, "This is Cerulean. My own pillbug." Tal believed that was the formal term, at the very least it was one he'd heard around and one that sounded substantially more dignified than "pillie," "A pleasure to make your acquaintance. My best to you and yours."

[Chimera]

Pebble didn't get the 'I guess', but he got the 'thanks' - whether it was selective hearing or his baby bug mind not wrapping around some human phrases was questionable, and he squeaked as if to say 'You're welcome!' to the Candidate after his confused compliment about the feather. Perhaps this boy did not know the extent of his compatibility - no, there was no perhaps, he was clueless - but all would come in time.

R'lan hadn't noticed Pebble's blue brother swim after him, but Ainoth did.

Hello hello friend. I wonder what is your name? The seafoam-colored green was shy around other dragons, whers, and humans that weren't R'lan, but around pillies she spoke to the bugs with no "ums" or barely-heard voice. She wove through the water expertly, following Cerulean all the way to the shore. Ainoth stopped there, standing just at the edge where the water only reached up to her ankles. Upon seeing Talubara, the green tried to hide behind R'lan, which unfortunately did not work as well as it did when she was a hatchling. R'lan would always be tall to Ainoth, however, and it led to a rather comical sight.

The brown pillie did stop chattering when Tal took the feather. Mostly. A Maree was spoken to the candidate before Pebble turned away and practically zoomed onto his established "perch" between Ainoth's headknobs.

"A pleasure to make yours, Candidate Talubara. And good day to your, em, pillbug Cerulean too." R'lan glanced behind for a moment. "Ainoth is pleased to make your acquaintance as well." The dragon retreated further into the water, wading backwards until only the top of her head was above the water, just enough to keep her nose above too.

"How is Weyr life so far? It seems that either it's very monotonous, or unpredictable. The wher at Wenth's hatching fell into the latter, of course. Were you at that one? An eyewitness's account would be rather interesting to hear, especially from a Candidate." Nora was always up for a chatter, but a more neutral one, slower and without the occasional blurted phrase about how perfect K'ius was, would be easier to listen to. Still, R'lan reflected on that day with an amused smile. He'd heard some things about it after, as he was on snow duty at the time of the hatching - which in itself was quite silly with blue Lemminkath's antics.