How To Demuck Your Dragon
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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 a bright and brillant mid-afternoon in Xanadu. Up high in the sky a green rolls in out of between covered in mud and muck. They head for the beach, skimming over a group of kids that squeal when frozen mud starts to thaw and drip downwards along the beach. Landing swiftly once they find a spot Alosynth gives a little shiver, sending more mud out and Keziah is laughing as she quickly hops down and starts to remove the straps. "We reek my love, but oh, it was so much fun watching those boys. They should have known better than to go chasing a bull into the swamp. Honestly, if I've told them once I've told them a million times. Don't chase the critters. Alosynth rumbles a little as she shifts from side to side. "I know, I know, but give me a second to get these undone."

Pyriel is not bright and brilliant. Pyriel is grumpy and thick as a brick. But he has dragon washing duty, so he's stuck on the beach washing dragons. It was fall now in Xanadu, so honestly he was freezing, with his pants rolled up to just above his knees, and shirt rolled up above his elbows. He's just finished with a blue, now sparkling clean and the blond candidate shivering as he moves out of the water to grab a towel.

Of course Ryeokie would be paired up to do chores with Pyriel, what a lucky starcrafter. But at least he's not hounding over the harper or anything. Instead, Ryeokie stands on the beach wearing no shirt and only a pair of black swimming trunks. In all honesty, Ryeo should be freezing his butt off, but it seems like the starcrafter is particularly immune to the cold. A bucket filled with brushes and sand rests in one hand as he scans the area for more dragons in need of a wash. When the green lands, Rye is quick to run over and give a slightly flourshing bow followed by a wide grin. "Ryeokie at your service. You two lovely ladies need help with washing today?"

Cold is a wet night in Reaches in the middle of winter when the tender has been chomped up by caprines. As soon as Keziah pulls the straps off of Alosynth, she starts stripping herself. She pauses a moment after pulling her shirt off and peers up at Ryeokie with a look. "Nah, we both like staying covered in smelly swamp muck. It's good for the complexion, didnae ya know?" she then oofs as Alosynth lightly noses her in the back. "Hey, easy there. You know I'm just jokin. We'll get ya washed an all. Though your feet will still be stuck that color." she notes with a smirk and then turns her attention back to the boys. Her gaze flicks towards Pyriel and waves him over as well. "Are you cold?" she asks as she notes the shivering. "Honestly, strip the clothes, wet ones will just keep you cold longer. Move quickly will also get that blood flowing." She stops suddenly and looks at Alosynth. "What? Huh? Oh." She hrms a little as she peers around behind her to only discover she has a tail of vine caught on her waistband. "Ooops, I don't need that." she notes as she reaches back to remove it only to have Alosynth snatch it instead, sending the rider sprawling "Alo!!!"

Pyriel grumbles something about missing Eastern as he eyes Ryeokie and his frown deepens. More grumpy mutterings soon ensue. Having been distracted by the blue and his rider, the harper hadn't even noticed that a filthy green and her rider had arrived and he looks between them both, shivering the entire time. He does not look amused when Keziah jokes around, shoulders slumping. At the question, it's clear that Py bites back some sarcastic remark or another, fairly reluctant it seems to approach either rider or dragon. When he's told to strip though, for some reason his golden depth flicker to Ryeokie again, and the boy vehemently refuses. "No way." he puts his foot down, but at least he stomps over towards the greenrider pair.

Pyriel grumbles something about missing Eastern as he eyes Ryeokie and his frown deepens. More grumpy mutterings soon ensue. Having been distracted by the blue and his rider, the harper hadn't even noticed that a filthy green and her rider had arrived and he looks between them both, shivering the entire time. He does not look amused when Keziah jokes around, shoulders slumping. At the question, it's clear that Py bites back some sarcastic remark or another, fairly reluctant it seems to approach either rider or dragon. When he's told to strip though, for some reason his golden depth flicker to Ryeokie again, and the boy vehemently refuses. "No way." he puts his foot down, but at least he stomps over towards the greenrider pair.

Ryeokie laughs and shakes his head, "I always wondered why my brothers liked mud wrestling, now I know its because of the fasion statement it makes." His own eyes wander over to Pyriel, a small smirk forming on his face. "She's right you know, strip down and you'll be less likely to get sick." Or well, that's one reason. But the candidate's attention soon returns to the two ladies, and when Keziah falls, Rye can't help the low chuckle that escapes his mouth. With a smile he crouches down, dark eyes resting upon her. "I'm guessing a witty one like you doesn't need help getting up either? I hear the rocks in the sand make sleeping /very/ comfortable."

Keziah lies there a moment as she looks over at Alo who is eyes the candidates. Her tail twitching quietly as she waits. "Uh huh. Innocent." she mutters and then turns her attention back to the candi's, not the least bit fazed by Pyriel's grumbles and refusal, though there was a hint of interest at his glance at Ryeokie and she then snorts "Nah, getting it up ain't my job." she notes with a smile "However, the rocks are good for getting at those knots and all, beats a good massage anyday." she remarks and gets back up. "So ya too just gonna stay there gabbing or ya gonna help out?" she remarks as she shucks her pants and motions Alo out into the water and follows.

Pyriel just has no body fat to speak of, or so little that every little quiver of wind across the beach is making him shudder. "How the shell is being more naked going to make me warmer?" he snaps at the two, snatching a scrub brush from one of Ryeokie's buckets. Grumbling as he goes, he looks like he might be tempted to just take off for the rest of the day instead of having to touch the green at all. The harper's clothing isn't wet at this point, but it's really just a matter of time. Deep purple swim trunks peek out from beneath his trousers as he bends at the waist to dip the brush into the other bucket that the starcrafter had brought along. Yeah, he was letting Ryeo do the heavy lifting. "Yeah yeah," he says to Keziah, "Keep yer shirt on."

Keziah stops in her tracks and spins around and eyes Pyriel. She may be short, but she can give a mean eye "Pneumonia?" she asks as her eyes narrow. "How long ago? The straps need brushing off just as much as Alosynth does. Maybe you need to do that instead and stay out of the water." she states as she punctuates with a jabbing of a finger. "I just got down rescuing some idiot boys, I want some time off. I don't need another one to worry about. There's a wool blanket in the bags wrapped in oilcloth if you need it. " she then turns and glances at Ryeokie and is about to say something and then shakes her head and starts attacking the muck on her green.

Pyriel oof's at the elbow to his side, glaring at Ryeokie certainly but is nonetheless herded off towards the water. "Stop tellin' me what to do." he gripes under his breath, but under the seriousness of getting a second bout of pneumonia, the harper actually takes pause. While Py wasn't the type to get ill very often, when he did, he got very ill. The glare softens and reluctantly, the blond sets down the brush, and strips off his pants and shirt. His swim trunks hang off his narrow hips, and cover him straight down to the knee. There are even two white stripes down either side. For style purposes. He stops though, mid shirt removal, and blinks over at Keziah. "I dunno, couple months?" he says, looking to Ryeokie as if for clarification. He deflates as he's babied, now the glare returning in full force even as he tosses his shirt to the ground, kicks some sand and storms over to demuck the straps.

Even the starcrafter becomes serious at the serious possibility of a relapse and he motions over to the blankets. "A few months is right. But I really don't want you getting sick again…." Ryeokie trails off though, refusing to say much else and instead grabbing a brush and beginning to scrub at the green's hide. Every few minutes there's a worried glance over at Pyriel and a small sigh. The attitude was nothing new to him, but at least the harper was listening, even if the action were accompanied by grumbles.

Keziah careful with the sand kickin, I've sliced my toe open on a shell doing that." she remarks and then lets out a squeal as Alo opens her wings out and some muck slides down and plops on Kezi's head "You did that on purpose!" she hmmphs and ducks under the water and gives herself a quick rinse. "So, Ryeokie was it? Whats your friends name?" she asks after a moment "THis here is Alosynth and I'm Keziah. My bad fer forggetin to introduce ourselves." she notes as leans against the green a moment and watches Pyriel "He always moody like this? Or is just fer our benefit?"

Pyriel yanks some of the blankets out of the oiled bag as he was told and gets all warm and toasty in them. Shivering down to next to nothing he gets busy on taking the muck off the straps, at least not making a fuss about of that. He takes great handfuls and throws them off to the side. He wasn't as girly as he looked. He doesn't even so much as look at the others over there, even as he gets up from his blanket nest to get a scrub brush and then snuggles back in to start really working the gunk out of the leather. It was a softer brush you see, so it wouldn't damage the integrity or such of the straps themselves.

Ryeokie breaks into a crescent eye grin and laughs at the rider's misfortune, shaking his head. A hand moves to push up his glasses before the crafter returns to his scrubbing. "Yup, Ryeokie. Senior Apprentice for the starcraft. That over there is Pyriel. Apprentice harper. It's nice to meet you." He hikes a thumb over his shoulder and smirks. "He's the resident downer, at least in my opinion. Moody most of the days and just especially bad today."

Keziah hmms a little as she nods. "Well, there's worse than moody." she remarks as she leans a little to scritch at a spot on Alo's hide. "Gonna have to get you a nice oilin later my love." she remarks as she keeps an eye on the harper turned candi. "So who Searched ya?" she asks curiously while Alosynth starts to lengthen out in the water, enjoying the attention and the water. Another glance towards Py "Least he doesn't seem to be afraid of the muck. That's nothin' compared to what you'll be up against iffen ya Impress."

Pyriel fears not the muck, even when something jumps out of it and lands on his head. What is that exactly? It's slimy and ugly whatever it is, and the harper merely scowls, grabs it and throws it towards the water. The thing half jumps, and half slithers into the lake and disappears there after. Py then goes back to yanking off each little bit of green and slime he can find on every inch, before the brush is picked up and he uses it surprisingly gentle against the straps. He doesn't actually appear to be one unfamiliar with dragon straps, working the brush around joins and buckles with relative ease.

Ryeokie snorts, "Yeah, there is…violence." The scrubbing continues, now working diligently on an extra tough spot of mud. "E'gin, bluie. He Searched me and Kiley. Came up with a bunch of kittens asking if we thought they had feelings." Rye chuckles slightly at the memory, "I didn't even realize what he gave me was a knot, started playing tug of war with a kitten using it." There's another quick glance over at Pyriel and a small smile crosses his face, "There aren't many things he's afriad of. Everything else is more of afraid of him."

Keziah snorts a bit "Kittens." she just shakes her head a little. "Well, it takes all sorts I would suppose." She glances back over at Py "How are the straps coming?" she calls out as she slogs out of the water a bit and then flops back onto the sand for a moment. "You were so much easier to clean when you were little Alo, can I trade you in for a smaller one?" The green glances back at her rider a moment and then lowers her head for Ryeokie to work on. Keziah in the mean time sits up and sputters. She shakes her finger at the green and then shakes her head. Clearing her throt she changes the subject and then looks back at Py "So Harper lad, what were you specializing in?"

Pyriel is moving now down the straps inch by inch, and making sure that every single bit of muck is gone before going further down. He was about a quarter the way through the entire mess now, being sure to keep the sticky grossness of the dirty straps away from the clean thoroughly brushed parts. Every once in a while there is a flash of gold over the edge of the wool blanket, but never when Ryeokie is looking, and it's rather infrequent. However, Keziah catches one of those peeks with a question, and the harper suddenly colors bright red, already working out a protest of 'I wasn't doin' nothin'' before he realizes that it was on a topic completely unrelated. "Fine." he grouches, wiggling down further within his nest so that only the most fluffest of his blond hair can be seen sticking up there. He's cleaning quietly with no more sneaky peeks at least, remaining thus even when he's called over to again. "Vocal and Guitar." he calls back.

"I like kittens…." That's about all the candidate gets out before the green's head is right infront of him and he falls silent. Ryeokie has more work to do, he begins at the top, along her eyeridges and slowly working his way down and around. This may take quite a while and pretty much all of Rye's concentration.

Wasn't doin' nothin'. Those words bring the barest of smirks to Keziah's face and she just shakes her head a little. She glances back at her green and the starcrafter lad and then nods as it seems well in hand and just lays back and closes her eyes as she soaks up the sun. "You aren't by chance the one I've been hearing singing late at night are ya? Nah, I think that was a girls voice I'd been hearing. So who Searched you?"

Pyriel stiffens at the girl comment, his actions taking on a bit more roughness and certainly increases the volume of his grumbling but doesn't in any way make it any more intelligible. THat was all the response that Keziah was gunna get for that question, and so the harper moves on to the next. "I dunno, some short ass brownrider." he launches back over towards the chillin' greenrider. Now a little more than half way through the green's straps, perhaps just then thinking that he was glad that this wasn't a bronze or gold's straps. That would take all day.

And luckily Alosynth is one of the smaller greens too. "Well, that can pretty much describe most any brownie." she notes and then eyes him a little at the grumbling. "Does all that grumbling help the muck come off quicker?" she asks curiously and then adds "And here I thought you had gentler hands. Musta been mistaken." she notes quietly. "So what brought on the pnuemonia last time? Had you been sick with something else first or caught out in weather?" she asks after a moment.

Pyriel had gone back to being more gentle after a couple of minutes, and he hadn't damaged the straps at all. He continues in silence, nearly done now, until Keziah gets to the question about his illness. The harper shrugs, or at least the blankets seem to. "I was on a ship that sank, trapped in cold water overnight. And No." It was the truth, even if it wasn't really forthcoming with too many details. Finally Py is done with the straps, all squeeky clean and springtime fresh, taking the blanket off and tucking it back inside the oiled satchel. "I'm done now, so I'm gunna go get something to eat." he says, heading over to his clothing and starting to pull it back on.

Keziah hmms thoughtfully as she watches the lad and then gets up to head over to the straps "Good work, Harper." she notes as she looks them over. "You do a good job. Get some soup in ya as well, warm ya from the inside out." She watches him a moment and then adds, iffen you wanna ever switch from washing to doin' straps, just let me know. We'll keep ya healthy."

Pyriel pulls his shirt on over his head and steps into his pants. That done, lashes lower and murmurs something that sounds like thanks for the blanket, before hand slide into the pockets of his trous and he heads back up the beach and off towards the weyr.

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