Where would you go?
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Xanadu Weyr - Forest
The trees grow thickly here, avians nesting in their branches and flitting about after insects. Flowers sprout up and speckle the ground between, the green of small plants and their blooms of bright saffron and cheeky rose that creep all the way up to the bases of the trees and adorn the fallen leaves and mulch of the forest floor. Those trees rise upward in their aged magnificence, gargantuan limbs casting often welcome shade, the general atmosphere and scent of the path is one of freshness and wild abandon.

A path winds its leisurely way through the trees, wide enough for wagons to pass. As it goes through into the forest, a number of other trails branch away, both more and less traveled. Many of them lead to private weyrs, but there's a few more trodden paths - notable among them a road to the feeding grounds, set against the western slopes.

The forest grows wilder the further north one goes, deep growth and ancient places, and the road splits in two against it. One branch leads to a clearing with a large stone building finished with wooden cladding, while the other turns back toward the meadow. Just before it emerges, a trail veers off to the Firelizard Theatre.


On a beautiful late summer afternoon, the forest truly shines. Almost literally, as golden sunlight streams in ribbons through the canopy, catching dust motes and the occasional flicker of bird wings on its way to dapple the mulchy ground. It's not too unusual to find N'on in the forest, especially at this time of year. He has a bow slung onto his back, but he either hasn't been activly hunting or his luck was poor, because there's no evidence that he's actually caught anything. Zhelinath is not in evidence, but that doesn't mean she's not nearby. The trees are a bit dense for dragon passage, after all, but N'on finds it perfectly comfortable as he makes his slow, ambling way along, vaguely in the direction of the weyr.

Slow and ambling is a nice way to spend an afternoon such as this. The weather perfect for just about any outdoor activity one might want to engage in. Katailea's path leads her away from the Weyr and into the forest, which is rather the opposite of the beach and the docks where she's most often to be found.

N'on glances up just in time to spot Katailea coming up the path, and he lifts a hand in a lazy greeting, along with his typical crooked grin. He seems to be in a good mood, at least. Who wouldn't be, in such lovely weather?

Katailea might have noticed N'on sooner if she'd been playing more attention, but she does in time to see that greeting. A hand lifts in a silent return greeting, her lips pulling into a brief smile at the sight of a friendly face. Who wouldn't be in a good mood on such a day? Maybe her for one.

N'on tilts his head a bit at the brief smile. If he were a cartoon, that would be a question mark above his head. He's not, but one can imagine! He keeps to his path until they are about to pass, and then he turns on his heel to walk along with her. Did she want company? Hopefully!

Katailea doesn't seem to notice that question mark over his head as they draw nearer, but there's certainly one in the glance she turns in his direction when he turns to fall in beside her. Did she want company? That could go either way between the look she sends his way and the fact that she's not asking to be left alone. "No luck today then?" the question more to break the silence after a moment of continued walking.

N'on lifts a shoulder, a rueful little smile flickering across his face before he shakes his head to confirm her assumption. He waves vaguely at the sky, and signs, "Pretty weather." Did he ever teach her signs? He certainly meant to.

Katailea might catch his drift without knowing how to read his signs, but he's certainly taught her a few at the least. A glance up towards sky between the leaves of the trees and she shrugs. "I suppose," which is agreement short of saying as much. "Could be raining." Not that she's wishing it was, but the weather could be much worse that's for certain.

N'on nods a little and glances to the sky, but since there's not a sign of a raincloud, he looks back to Katailea with another curious sort of look. He walks along next to her without continuing the conversation for several paces. But finally, he offers a simple enough sign. "Okay?"

"I've been here a whole turn," Katailea notes a moment later. She pauses then, turning to lean back against a tree along the side of the path. For a girl who never spent much time in one place, as she's said herself, that can seem far longer than what it really is. What it has to do with anything is anyone's guess.

N'on nods amiably. He shrugs off the bow and leans it against a tree so he can take up a similarly relaxed posture nearby. From his pocket, he produces the familiar notebook and pencil, scrawling out a quick note to hand over: "Do you still like it?"

Reading the note Katailea's eyes shift from paper to the greenrider's face, a smile lifting a corner of her lips for a second before she turns her head back to look across the path into the trees. The answer to that question takes a moment longer in coming. "Yes and no," she replies letting out a breath. "Sometimes I wonder if I should have just waited out the storm after the hatching at the docks. If I should have kept going when I left."

N'on takes back the paper to write his response, never being one to waste a square inch of free writing space. "Sometimes I think about leaving too." With that note passed over, he looks up toward the canopy again, and the dappled light and shadow cast through the leaves.

Shifting from trees to paper and then up to N'on, the look Katailea sends him is quizzical. "Why would you want to leave?" She has her reasons for thinking about doing so, but he's apparently not one she would have thought would.

N'on lifts a shoulder, starts to bring his pencil up to write another note, then hesitates. His brow furrows just a touch, but finally he scrawls a quick couple of words and hands it over with an apologetic little smile. "History. Complicated."

"I understand complicated," Katailea replies. She won't push for more, not right now. If he doesn't want to share more he doesn't have to. "You know in this whole time I only got one letter," part question, mostly comment that as her attention wanders back towards the trees. "I have friends here, but most of them have their lifemates to worry about."

N'on winces at that a bit, but nods. Another quickly scribbled note is handed over. "They mean well. Babies are time consuming." Another apologetic smile. But there's another question scribbled just below the comment: "Where would you go, if you left?"

Katailea shakes her head when she looks at the note. "Not your fault. Not theirs. I understand." She says that and she does, but there are still moments where that doesn't mean anything. As to where she'd go she shrugs. "I don't know. Anywhere but Big Bay. Boll maybe? Tillek? or Nerat?" Maybe all in some order or another. "Where would you go?"

N'on gives a smile that almost has a sad tilt to it, along with a one-shouldered shrug. A quick note clarifies, as though it were necessary, "Don't know. Everything's here."

"Same for me, everything's here." Katailea replies, which may be something of a surprise given while she seems to think a turn is a long time its only one turn. "Doesn't mean there's not somewhere you might want to go."

N'on takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. He looks around, thinking it over, then slowly looks down at the next blank page in his notebook. He scrawls another note and passes it over. "Someplace without renegades. Don't think it exists."

A frown flickers across her face when she reads those words and a shake of her head follows when she looks up. "I'm sorry," Katailea offers her sympathy for that note. "Your family?" she starts, hints at the question she might ask but leaves it at that.

N'on hesitates to answer that question, as though considering a disagreement, but then just nods and gives a tight smile. He writes another note and passes it over. "Why Boll/Tillek/Nerat?"

"I'm sorry," the blonde offers again whether its for her asking or her assumption. A shrug follows the next note, "Why not?" Katailea replies, pausing a second before continuing with something more of an explanation. "I like the beaches?" Okay so maybe that's a lame reason, and not exactly the real reasons. "I don't know, I've only ever been on the coast. My grandfather used to tell me stories about Nerat."

N'on nods slowly, with a little wistful smile. "Good," he signs, with a wink. Without warning, he gets a familiar glazed-eyed look particular to riders. When he snaps out of it, he goes straight to the notebook with an already apologetic look. "Need to go. Talk again soon." He presses it into her hand, signs another apology while stepping back, and then he's off to who-knows-where. Must be important.

"Maybe you could take me somewhere?" Katailea asks, the question hesitant in coming. "Sometime.." Its that look that has her stop talking and instead she offers a shake of her head at his apology. "Its alright, go," she assures, pushing a smile forward.


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