Down by the Bay [Azzles]

[Lan]

{desc=S'in/Q'sis}

It's almost time. S'in looked out over the Weyrbowl, watching the faint traces left of Rukbat that colored the sky in its dusk apparel. The star had already set below the horizon, leaving dusty colors like an oil painting. It was pretty, in its own right... but beauty was not what S'in was after. It never would be.

You are correct. Nemeth overlooked the Bowl as well, seeing no more beauty in it than her rider. At least there was one thing they could agree about... there were more important things to ponder than sunsets or colors or pretty things. Their world was changing and the change had come sooner than either had anticipated. It was time to get their bearings. It was time to sink or swim.

As the last traces of yellow disappeared, leaving the sky to oranges and pinks, rider and dragon flew high above the Bowl, gave a tip of their metaphorical hat to the Watchdragon, then blinked between.

They reappeared in a stretch of water far off from the coast of the Northern Wastes. Such a length would be impossible to swim even if the water wasn't frigid cold, S'in noted with some appreciation. The glows he had packed would be uncovered after his partner joined them, which would show as merely a blip on the horizon at this distance from land--easily mistakable for a passing fishing vessel. He waited, then, so as to not illuminate Unath's pale tan wings as she came in for a landing. Multiple meetings with Q'sis had taught him a thing or two about secrecy and the art of stealth, oddly enough.

They are coming, Nemeth informed with a low rumble. S'in nodded his head. This night should prove interesting.

They sat once again in silence.

[Azhdarchid]

[ Q'sis ][ Qunath ]

Unath appeared, blotting out the entirety of small Timor. Belior had already been blanketed in cloud, some nocturnal sea storm rolling down the coast of the Wastes. It would never reach the meeting in time. The dragons would blink out again before the first hailstone fell. But it kept a chill wind to Q'sis back as he rode his dragon down into the sea, where she hit faint enough to suppress the puff of foam.

He scowled in the light of S'in's glowbasket.

"You have learned nothing."

His voice extended too to Nemeth, carried by his blank-eyed dragon's possessed thoughts. Feel the area for firelizards. They are impossible to see in this pitch. Clear them. He waited for the green to take possession of the area. He might have been able to do it himself, through Unath. He had already long learned the process of finding other dragon minds. Even a rider directly, once or twice.

But an untouched dragon still had greater efficiency than him in this. Unath stared at Nemeth till confirmation, then Q'sis exhaled, his breath a smoketrail off his lips. "No one will believe we are only fishing at this hour. It is not as if you could tell them we had gone somewhere Rukbat's eye is still open, either. You have to be honest about the destination." That said, specifying a purpose was not required, and it was a rider's right to refuse inquiry even if that refusal would subsequently be reported. "Did the Watch ask why you were going to the Wastes in the middle of the night? What did you say?"

Unath's jaws hung open around a low growl, a gutteral sound that she retained low enough to not interrupt her other half's inquisition. It was all him anyway, but a growl did not bring out all the details of the admonishment. "I have told you, it is not about concealment. Obscurity." Q'sis glanced around their landing site, where the waves crested against the two floating dragons high enough to speckle his boot, and snorted, raising his hands to indicate the theater of the black sky. Then he lapsed back into a frown at S'in. "It is about blending into the everyday, and doing what you need to right under the noses of everyone from Weyrwoman to mate. Next time we go right off the coast, middle of Restday. Fishing," he insisted.