Xanadu Weyr - Beach
The unerring range of subdued white rises and falls in a multitude of sandy dunes, creating an endless amount of tiny valleys constantly demolished and rebuilt by the frequent arrival or departure of a dragon. Smoothing out as it slopes gently to the edge of the deep blue water, the sand darkens and a shell here and there stands out for children to collect. The beach itself is set along a low cliff - the height lessoning as one heads eastwards, blocking a portion of the beach from direct access.
The wide wide stretch of water opens up to the east, the far distant shore way beyond the horizon and the beach curves ever so slowly round to east and west, distant arms of land embracing the wind-ruffled Caspian Lake. East leads up to the mouth of the Rubicon River, where the protecting cliff is merely an arms length higher then the sand, and beyond that, a winding road leading out of Xanadu's territory. Westwards, the beach narrows as the cliff swings out, leaving a path wide enough for dragons in single file before cutting in to the sheltered cove designated the Weyrling Beach. However, cut in the cliff face to the north are a variety of rough, wide staircases, providing access to the clearing and to the meadow.
It's morning at Xanadu, and morning means exercises for weyrling and dragonet alike. Today, however, Jessi and Aisuohkoth have chosen the beach to do their exercises on. The young woman is jogging along the beach in the morning's warm rain, and from the look of it, she's already been out in the weather for awhile as she's soaked, her clothes clinging to her lightly. The green dragonet is actually busy stretching her wings, trying to use them to keep her balance as she goes pouncing after her chosen one. Well, it's one way of exercising the young greenlet, right?
Tarrin makes his way along the beach and chuckles softly to himself as he spots Aisuokoth in hot pursuit of Jessi and grins, finding himself a small overhang along the low cliff to stand under he smiles and watches the pair at their exersizes.
Aisuohkoth pauses in her pouncing as she spots the visiting Eastern Baker, he's still here, her chosen one will be glad to know that. The young green diverts her path from following her lifemate to pouncing towards the man. "Aisuohkoth, where are you…" Oh! That's where the green is going, guess the exercises are over for now. Young woman slows her pace as she approaches her friend. "Morning Tarrin." Aisuohkoth, for her part, gives the man a nice lick in greeting before ruuuuubbbbbing her head against both the visitor and her lifemate. "Sorry, she likes to taste things." Jessi giggles softly.
Tarrin reachs up and wipes his face and says, "Its ok Jessi." he smiles and says, "You all don't need to stop your exersize for me, was enjoying watching you to." he reaches up and gives the green a light pat.
Jessi giggles softly, swiping rain from her face. "It's okay, I think we've been out here for hours. What time is it anyway?" She tries to judge time by glancing up into the sky, but of course with the rain and clouds the sun is difficult to make out. "Bet I missed breakfast again." Oops, she's been making a habit of that. Aisuohkoth purrcroons softly and headbutts the man's hand as he pats her, her tail curling around her chosen one's ankle and pushing Jessi beneath the overhang with the baker. Hey, at least it's semi-dry under there right?
Tarrin gives Jessi a stern look and says, "You know what I think about missing meals Jessi. I am sure your Aisu here will agree, you need your food to stay healthy."
Firelizards grow just as fast as dragons, though it's far less impressive given that they don't start out the size of a small runner and go from there! Soriana's brown Toral is perched in her shoulder, chirping as he spreads his wings up against the falling rain. Neither he nor his girl seem to much mind the wet, Sori heading down the stairs at an unhurried pace as Inkfoot runs around her feet, sniffing at cracks in the rock and then hopping down the steps like a furry slinky.
Jessi gives her green a pat, leaving a hand upon the young dragonet's head lightly. "I know, I just get distracted with her and everything, you know? I'll make up for it at lunch, promise." As long as she doesn't miss that meal as well, eventually she'll get hungry enough to remember regular meals, right? Aisuohkoth sniffs the air, tail releasing Jessi's ankle briefly as she smells something. What is that smell that's so familiar? Then the green figures it out, it's Inkfoot, the tunnelcat that taught her all about digging holes. And soon the green is scamper-pouncing across the wet sand to greet tunnelcat and owner alike with a purrcroon huff. Hellooooo there!
Tarrin blinks and looks up as the green bounds away and smiles, "looks like we have company an dyour mate there is truely distracted." he grins and glances towards the newcommer
Oh, look! There's a green pouncing across the sands! Soriana grins, and quickens her steps down the stairs to meet, "Aisuohkoth!" Why, yes. She does recognize dragons on sight, even when they /don't/ have their humans in immediate view. She reaches out with both hands to pet affectionately at Aisu, while Inkfoot scampers around one of the green's legs and then rears up with his paws on her leg to chirp hullo! Toral's the only dignified one, rustling his wings to keep his position and giving a croon. Sori grins. "Well, you sure seem to be doing well! Keeping Jessi busy, I bet…"
Aisuohkoth has never and likely will never decline any sort of pets or scritches or other such attetions and the young greenlet gives a warble to Soriana as she gets petted. And Inkfoot gets his own greeting in way of a puff of air over the little tunnelcat, yay friends! Aisu dances around a little before starting to lead Sori and Inkfoot onto the beach, so her chosen one can lean out from under the overhang and grin. "Morning Sori, morning brave little Inkfoot." The greeting pleases Aisuohkoth, she knew her chosen one had friends and new how to socialize at least a little. "Keeping me busy's an understatement. I didn't realize how much work a young dragon would be." Of course, she wouldn't trade her green for the world but being a weyrling is definitely exhausting. "How're things on your end? Toral's getting big I see. Why he might even be bigger than Copper. Oh! And this is my friend Tarrin, he's Eastern Weyr's baker come for a visit. Tarrin, this is my friend Soriana and the ever brave hero Inkfoot." She grins.
Tarrin leans out from the underhang to give a wave in greating and says, "It is a pleasure to meet you Soriana." he grring down to the little critter with her, "Hes a cute one."
Soriana, for her part, is quite happy to give pettings, so it all works out! Inkfoot dooks, and hops down sidewise from Aisuohkoth's leg, scampering off beneath her and across the beach to investigate something-or-other. There are always something-or-others to investigate. Always. Meanwhile, Soriana follows the green dragon back to Jessi and Tarrin. "Hey there!" The weyrling gets a grin, though the unknown man gets a somewhat uncertain look at first…. but not for long, because her attention is drawn back to Jessi. "Well, maybe…" she says, reaching up to pet under Toral's chin and make the brown croon. "But he is doing really well! He caught a rockmite, the other day… All on his own, no help from Inkfoot or anything!" She grins proudly, and continues petting the firelizard before nodding to the introductions. She waves to the baker. "Uhm. Hi. Nice to meet you."
Aisuohkoth leads the girl to where her chosen one and the Easterner are, then her attention is distracted once again by the scampering off of Inkfoot, and the greenlet busies herself with trying to follow the quick little tunnelcat. Hey, she likes her furry friend and he does all manners of curious and interesting things. "Aisu, Dearest, not too far now." The greenling calls towards her dragonet. "So he's hunting on his own now? That's great. Copper has been trying to larn to fish, he and Aisuohkoth tire themselves out most afternoons trying to catch those quick little fishies in the shallows, though Aisu keeps asking me when she can go deeper into the water to find the bigger fishies." The young woman chuckles softly. Jessi offers Toral a brief scritch before leaning a little against tarrin, to make room beneath the overhang for the girl to join them if she would like. "Next time Tarrin here sends me a care package I'll have to remember to save a fritter for you, Sori, his fritters are the best in all Pern." Yep, just a little bit of compliment for her friend the awesome baker.
Tarrin smiles to Soriana and says, "It is a pleasure to meet, any friends of Jessi' I was her neighbor back at eastern before she was searched her. " he grins to Jessi and continues, "I was worried about here cause she never seemed ta get out and make friends, cept for her cats, that seem to be taking over my bakery now….."
Toral leans forward to the scritch and croons politely before settling back against Soriana's shoulder. She laughs at the idea of Aisu and Copper fishing. "That must be fun to watch! Toral'd probably join in." The brown chirps approvingly at the mental image, and Sori grins. "Inkfoot, not so much." She looks out across the sands for her pet… who might be hard to find, except, hey! There's a dragon following him around. The tunnelcat is casting from side to side, sniffing at the sands and sometimes sticking his head in little burrows. Investigative power, go! Sori hehs, and shakes her head a bit before sliding in under (okay, half-under) the shelter. The mention of tasty treats does make her perk up a little. "Ooh. That'd be nice!" she says, and gives Tarrin somewhat more of an actual smile!
Tarrin smiles as he catcthes the smiles and says, "Well if I am going to have someone for Jessi to share her treats with over her, I will have to bake up a special batch when I get home…." he smiles, "I wonder if there is a boat from here…." he half says to himself.
Jessi grins as she watches her greenlet follow the tunnelcat around, "I think she's intrigued by Inkfoot, she likes to investigate and she seems to find him very interesting." It's a funny picture, her overgrown green firelizard following after the little tunnelcat. "Oh, are they causing problems over there, Tarrie? I'm sorry, I'll have to send J'ios to collect them or something." She frowns a little. "Bet they're just looking for me. I can't bring them here until I have my own place. Somehow I don't think the weyrlingmasters will allow me to have my pride of felines in the weyrling barracks." She didn't really plan on being gone this long, and now she uesses she should try to figure out what to do about her pets back at Eastern.
Soriana gives a glance with Jessi that might border on conspiratorial. Double the appreciation means double the kinds of treats, right? This has the potential for awesome. She'll even go and write letters to this fellow, uh… Tarrin, was it?… if it means more tasties! She laughs to the weyrling at the mention of Aisu and Inkfoot, and nods. "Yeah." She tilts her head at the mention of all those felines, but she can't think of anything to say, so she just keeps watching. The tunnelcat continues his investigating until he finally finds something that meets with his approval, and gives a few brief scrapes of digging before looking up at the green dragon. "Dook!" he orders.
Tarrin chuckles and says, "Not to worry about them Jessi, Kesti is actually looking after them, they just seem to have migrated to my bakery, loney or soemthing you know. Some of them are actually pretty good company…"
Aisuohkoth had been watching Inkfoot investigate and scurry about, so when he stops so does the dragonet. After a moment of watching the tunnelcat dig a bit, she purrcroons at the creature's order and soon her forepaws begin to dig in the sand as well, obviously her furry friend has found something of interest. With long sweeps of paws, she's probably making a bigger hole than she needs to, but hey, she's a dragon, dragon's don't make small holes. Jessi can't help but laugh at the pair, "I think Aisu's hole is a bit overkill, don't you guys agree?" But the words don't stop Aisu as she continues to dig, wet sand flying in all directions before she pushes her muzzle into her hole, rooting and digging with it as well. That is until she draws back, nostrils full of sand, and lets loose a might sneeze. "Well, silly girl, that's what happens when you snort things you're not supposed to." Jessi quips to her indignant greenlet. "She's gonna need a serious bath after this, unless the rain happens to wash her for me." Though it's not raining that hard so the green will likely still need some semblance of scrubbing. "I'm glad Kesti's looking after the pride. How is he doing? I know he wanted me to take him on as my apprentice, but plans change sometimes." She says as she watches her young charge.
Soriana laughs. "I'm not so sure she's learned moderation in anything yet. Though… at least she hasn't knocked anyone over yet today. That I saw." Inkfoot bounds aside out of the way as Aisu starts digging this thing, jumping back and forth and chirping approvingly! At first it seems like maybe there's nothing there, but then… right there on Aisu's nose is a tiny translucent-shelled creature. A spiderclaw! In fact… it seems there's whole nest of spiderclaws, scuttling up from their disturbed holes and scattering across the sands. The little ones with their glasslike shells come first, but then there's more and bigger ones, all the way to the tough-shelled brownish ones as big as a tunnelcat. It is, of course, one of those that Inkfoot decides to pounce. He leaps up onto its back, dancing away from the claws and trying to bite the tough shell. Toral chirps with interest, and then hops down to Sori's hand and into the air toward the others.
Aisuohkoth blinks, almost crossing her eyes as she feels something on her nose. Hey what's that? She warbles in surprise as the thing begins to move on her dark hide, jumping backwards as more spill out from the hole. Azurite and Copper almost immediately emerge from between at the green's distress and Jessi is quickly trying to get a calming mental touch to her lifemate. "It's okay, Aisu, calm down." She adds a vocal calming tone to her mental one. But then Aisuohoth sees what Inkfoot is doing and so she too goes after one of the big ones after shaking the little one off of her nose, which Azurite catches mid-air. Of course, the young green has no idea about what those claws can do until she has the spiderclaw in her mouth and the biggest pincher gets her right on her tongue as she tries to get a lick in followed by the spiderclaw latching onto her nose, this causes the green to backpedal and shake her head, ouchie! And, of course, Jessi feels the exact same thing her lifemate does and lets out a yelp of pain. "Aisu, don't let them pinch you!" She calls, rubbing at her own nose and frowning. Okay the whole sharing what the other feels kinda sucks sometimes.
Soriana grins, seeing the swarm of spiderclaws! "Where's a bucket when you need one?" she mutters - those are good eating, after all! And there's nothing like showing up in the kitchens with supplies to make up for maybe possibly shirking on chores sometimes. She looks up and down along the beach for anything, and then darts off from the ledge toward the cafe to see if she can scrounge something!
Inkfoot dooks his excitement, snapping down at the spiderclaw. His jaws can't do much against the tough shell on the back, but he catches at the less-armored joints of the legs and gnaws there. Toral flaps toward the swarming feast, and starts to dive down - only to pull up sharply at Aisuohkoth's projected pain, twisting in the air. He's caught in indecision for a moment… and then swoops toward the green dragon, grabbing that nose-pinching pincer and bracing his feet against her muzzle to pull! Leggo! …is maybe not the smartest idea, but he's only a little firelizard.
See, this is what happens when you sniff and try to lick a spiderclaw, they latch onto your nose and just won't let go. Poor young Aisuohkoth didn't know this and now she's suffering the consequences of her actions. Another headshake trying to dislodge the spiderclaw from her nose, but then there's a brown firelizard there and she tries not to shake him off as well. But the oulling of the firelizard only makes the pincher close down harder on her nose, causing the green even more discomfort. Finally she's moving again, trying to use forepaws to bat the creature off of her nose. Getitoff getitoff getitoff! She projects to any open minds around her whether it be human or otherwise. Hopefully she's not alerting the whole weyr with her surprise and discomfort. Finally Jessi has to take action and she jets out from the cover of the overhang to move towards her lifemate even as the other girl proceeds to find something to put the spiderclaws into. Jessi tries to work her fingers to get the pincher from her lifemate's nose, only to have the thing try to pinch her finger. She draws back quickly and finally the large spiderclaw falls to the ground and starts to scurry away only to be pounced by Aisuohkoth with a crunching sound, that'll teach it to grab her nose, hrmph. Of course, there are the others spilling forth and Copper dives after one of the smaller ones, lifting it in his talons before flying up high and dropping it against a rock, yummy, free food!
Toral veers away as Jessi comes in, flitting on Aisu's head and chirping his concern, wings mantled and eyes whirling a worried orange. He doesn't know what to do about these things! If Inkfoot has better ideas… he shares them only by example, assaulting the one spiderclaw until it stops moving, and then leaping to the next one in range. Tunnelcat on a rampage! When Aisuohkoth is freed, Toral takes the the air again, flapping off as the green pounces and takes her revenge on that mean ol' spiderclaw. The brown gives a battle-cry for that victory, and dives down to grab one of the smallest ones and crunch it in his jaws just like she did!
The part about charging up the cafe stairs was a success for Soriana. Only, then there was the bit of Unhappy Dragon Broadcasting, and she comes charging back /down/ the stairs at full speed. She does have a bucket, grabbed without even thinking about it. If she had thought about it, she might not have, because this particular bucket is half full of rainwater from a newly-discovered leak in the roof. Which is now leaking on the floor. Oops. She runs back toward the spiderclaw-swarm. "Is… what…?" she asks between pants, eyes darting around!
Aisuohkoth warbles proudly despite her still sore nose as she regards the now squished spiderclaw, that's what it gets for attacking her, hrmph! At least it's not too squished and the dragonet actually winds up slurping it up, might as well taste it, right? "Shards, how'm I gonna explain that outburst to the weyrlingmasters?" She has a feeling she's gonna be in for a lecture about controlling her lifemate's mindvoice by the time the day's done. "Are you alright Dearest?" Asks the greenling as she tries to look over her dragon's nose, but she's unsuccessful, she'll have to wait until her lifemate has calmed before she'll be able to look at it better. "Better scoop them up before they kill them all." Jessi says to the arriving Soiana with the bucket as she starts ducking down to snatch the spiderclaws up, careful not to let them get ahold of her fingers, she's had enough pain through her dragonet today thanks.
At least if Aisuohkoth can be proud of her victory, it can't be all that bad. Soriana nods to Jessi, and sets the bucket down before starting to grab those spiderclaws - a snatch from behind, so they can't get the big claws around, and then dump 'em in the bucket with a sploosh before they can get free. Inkfoot is continuing his rampage, and Soriana scoops up some of the spiderclaws he's disabled. Not like he can get into their shells effectively anyhow… if he's actually hungry, he's better off with the little ones like Toral is doing. Swoop, crunch, nomnomnom goes the brown firelizard… and then he notices what Soriana and Jessi are doing, and he goes swoop, grab, sploosh-in-the-bucket!
[Dragon/XAW] Aisuohkoth's softly rustling furry tone might have managed to seep through to any dragon minds awake and attuned to the alarm of surprise from the young green, followed by a quick. « Getitoff getitoff getitoff! » Chanted for a few moments. Soon enough though, thankfully, the young weyrling's tone is calmed as relief floods from her mind once more. And then, after a long moment where she's being comforted, the tone fades off as if it weren't even there. Someone needs to work on mind tone control.
It's a new game, really, and soon young Copper, having sated his appetite with a few more of the smaller spiderclaws, joins in the scooping and depositing. "Well, at least we've got plenty of helpers, right?" Jessi grins, though she's still quite aware of the throbbing on the nose her dragon feels, at least it's fading though, maybe the green will totally forget about it in a short time. Azurite, having eaten a few more of the smaller spiderclaws, joins in the harvest. The small group will have the bucket filled in no time at this rate. "Guess the weyr will eat good tonight huh?" Jesi chuckles softly.
[Dragon/XAW] Seryth soothes, her contact a cooling eddy laden with the snow-fresh scent of mountains, kissed with the tang of cedar, « Easy Little One. Be calm, the helpers who teach yours will give you a gel that stops the pain. » Her presence lingers to support and help ease the panic that she hears in Aisuohkoth's cry.
Firelizards are so all about games, and to judge from the chittering, this here is a fun one! Soriana laughs, and nods. "Spiderclaws for everyone! We'll just have ours cooked, is all." She grins at the dragon and firelizards, and catches another spiderclaw that was just about to slip away underneath the sand, then peers into the rapidly filling bucket. "We'd better find a cover soon, or they'll start climbing out again…"
Aisuohkoth decides that spiderclaws taste kinda yummy, but she's not about to mess with the large ones who have their pincers ready, instead she chomps a few of the tunnlcat-disabled ones. Crunch crunch croon, tasty! The greenlet definitely isn't helping to drop them in the bucket, but at least she doesn't have anymore incidents with claws grabbing her anymore thankfully, the weyr probably couldn't handle another outburst from the young green. Jessi hmms quietly, and starts to remove her jacket. "We can put my jacket over the top and tie it down maybe, it should hold them until we get them to the weyr proper." She thinks it should anyway. The greenling continues to harvest the spiderclaws until only a few remain. She'll let the firelizards gather the rest, they seem to be having so much fun grabbing and diving and splooshing the shelled critters into the bucket.
Soriana looks at the jacket consideringly, and nods. "That oughta work." At least, so long as they're quick about it! As the bucket gets near to full, Soriana grabs a stick of driftwood and stands next to it, knocking down those spiderclaws who're starting to get a leg over the edge while the firelizards snag those few remaining ones that haven't fled into the waves or other burrows in the sand.
[Dragon/XAW] Aisuohkoth lets her dam's tone assist with the calming, though her nose still hurty hurts. She sends a projection of a large spiderclaw attached to her poor little nose. « Hurts. » She sends, as if in warning to any other dragons who might think about trying to lick a pinchy thing. A brush of velvet touch and the young mind also sends an image of a bucket full of spiderclaws. « Look what we caught. They are yummy. » Okay, well, this is sent proudly towards the other minds willing to listen.
As the rest of the spiderclaws are deposited in the bucket, and as soon as the edge clingers are knocked inside, Jessi quickly tosses her jacket over the bucket's top, and proceeds to secure it with her belt. "There we go. That oughta hold them until we can get them to the kitchens." Aisuohkoth purrcroons softly, nudging her chosen one, "And then I will get the gel for your nose, I promise Dearest." And as soon as the spiderclaws are deposited, the weyrling's two firelizards proceen to settle down, Azurite wrapping himself in his typical position of big blue scarf while Copper settles on his person's shoulder lightly next to his big blue buddy.
[Dragon/XAW] Seryth's amusement is a whisper of light raindrops pattering upon Aisuohkoth's velvet, implying that learning the hard way more often is a lesson remembered. Her contact is a sleepy mist at best as she returns to her nap.
Inkfoot scampers up after his rampage, and dooks to Soriana. She scoops him up, and she smiles as he yawns then tucks him away into her pouch. Naptime for tunnelcat! Though he resists for a bit, leaning his head out the edge to try and peer around as his eyes just keep fluttering shut instead. Toral glides in to perch on Soriana's shoulder, and the girl grins to Jessi. "I can take 'em myself if you'd rather, and let you treat Aisu's battlewounds." She grins to the green.
Jessi considers this a moment, then nods. "Just drop my jacket and belt by the barracks if you can? Or send Toral and I'll step out and grab them." Aisuohkoth is nuzzling her rider, she's got a sore nose and is getting very sleepy, perhaps it's time for a catnap. Hunting spiderclaws is hard work afterall, right? The firelizards are already settling in for their nap, a common sight after a good feeding, both blue and bronzen bellies round with the feast of spiderclaws. "Looks like our little hero needs a nap too." She giggles as she watches Inkfoot. Aisuohkoth puffs a little at the tunnelcat, until their next adventure, which she's sure will be even better than this one. Can a dragon and a tunnelcat be best friends? Aisu will sure try anyway.
"Yeah, I'll do that!" she says, and leans down to pick up the heavy, sloshing bucket with both hands. Oof! Toral flutters to stabilize himself, and Inkfoot drapes one paw out of his pouch. Chirrrrr, he goes to Aisuohkoth. Dragons are good for adventuring with! They're the brawn. (Because he's totally the brains. Yep.) Soriana grins. "I foresee a lot of naps…" she says. Ferret, firelizards, dragon… "I'll see if I can bring around some lunch, too!" It's about that time, after all! And a napping dragon might mean a chance to actually enjoy the meal. She gives a nod of her head instead of a wave, and starts off up the stairs with bucket-sloshing steps.
Jessi watches the sloshing of bucket. "You sure you got that?" She calls after the girl. Because she'd totally help the youngster carry it if she needed help, she's nice like that. And instead of heading towards the weyrling beach she takes a detour towards the steps just to make sure, wouldn't want to lose the load of spiderclaws afterall, right? Aisuohkoth had started in the direction of the weyrling beach but she pauses as her chosen one heads the other way, she can make it a little longer if need be.
Heavy and awkward, yes, but Soriana seems to have it in hand(s). "'m fine," she calls back, and for once she's taking things slow and easy instead of racing around to get into trouble. She pauses partway up the steps, setting the bucket down and grinning back to Jessi. "You'n Aisu should probably get back before someone comes asking where you've been." Or about that mindshout earlier! So many potentially awkward questions… and so many gossipy older dragons to pretty much ensure they'll get asked sooner or later.
Jessi wrinkles her nose at the thought of answering questions about her dragon's outburst. "Aye, suppose so." And once she's sure the girl gets up the stairs without too much incident, she turns back to where Aisuohkoth waits for her. "I'll see you later Sori." The Weyrling calls before jogging back to her green's side so the pair can head back towards the barracks. Maybe they'll be lucky and everyone will either be out or taking thir own naps. With a wave, the greenpair disappear across the beach.