Clearing Some Air
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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.


With Spring blossoming all around Kera has ventured out of her classrooms, leaving her books and charts behind for the day. The apprentice is up to her knees in the water, even though the water is still colder than most would like. She's dragging her feet slowly along the sandy bottom moving closer to shore, the outgoing waves causing her feet to sink some in the wet sands.

Spring…is a time when Mur'dah is working feverishly on his weyr. When he's not in lessons or doing chores, or whatever else V'dim asks of him. Right now though, he's heading to the beach to wash his lifemate, if Kalsuoth's graceful landing a few lengths down the shore from Kera is any indication. "Hey," Mur'dah says as he sets down his supplies - bucket, sweetsand, scrubbing brushes and the like, and begins to peel off his tunic. Puberty has been kind to the boy, and he's finally beginning to fill out a bit, muscles at least visible beneath his skin, even though they're hardly bulging.

Kera peers up from contemplating her sinking feet at the greeting and spots first the large brown, she must have been really distracted to not here him land nearby, then her gaze darts around to spot the Weyrling. Eyeing him briefly as he starts dropping supplies. The waves still come in then out, sinking her a bit more. Pulling her feet up out of the little furrowed trenches she made, Kera wiggles her fingers in greeting and starts out of the water. "Hello Mur'dah." She frowns briefly, her lips moving as she mutters quietly before snapping her fingers and grinning to the brown dragon. "And you as well Kalsorth." Her gaze drifts between dragon and weyrling. "Did I get that right?"

"Kalsuoth," Mur'dah corrects with a little smile, "but nice try. How are you?" Stripped down to only his trousers, he bends to roll them up to his knees and then wade into the water while the darkly hued brown wobbles closer and flops onto his belly with a happy sigh. It's /bath/ time.

Kera sighs and gives a little huff as she shakes her head. "I always get names wrong." Shrugging it off and moving well out of the water, Kera keeps her distance from the brownling pair but still close enough to chat as she flops down in the sand. After her previous experiances, she decides to play safe and keep quiet for the moment. Reaching down, she drags her fingers in random designs through the sand. Quickly growing bored with that, Kera props her chin on her upturned palm. After she watches a moment, she tilts her head "Is he fully grown yet?"
Mur'dah shakes his head. "Not quite. But almost. It's…very slow growth from here, until he eventually gets his full size. Looks to be kind of small for a brown. But that's good. Means he won't win any queens." Kalsuoth huffs a bit at that, but Mur'dah looks /happy/. His mother is, after all, a goldrider. NO THANK YOU. "How have you been? Infirmary doing okay?"

Kera looks between the two, comparing what she sees and what she hears. Her braid finds it's way to her hands and she starts fumbling with the leather wrapping. "I just don't understand alot of the things you Weyrfolk say and do sometimes." The leather binding comes off and she starts unbraiding up to a point. "Glad to be out of the infirmary, if you repeat that I will deny saying so of coarse, everyone's got pollen sniffles. So I figured some fresh air was in order today." She shrugs after that and starts fingercombing her hair into bunches.

Mur'dah tilts his head at her as he waits for Kalsuoth to get himself wet. "What do you mean?" he asks with a slight frown in her direction. "What's confusing you?" There's a lot to choose from, he'll give her that. Then he snorts. "I don't usually gossip."

Kera arches a curious brow at the last comment and looks up and down the breach briefly with a confused shrug. "How is this gossiping? We're not talking about other people, not specifically at least." Shaking that off as her fingers flick along the seprated clumps of hair, the thick braid starts to reform, looking neater than it did before. "Anyway, what I meant was, most people want their …." She pauses as if unsure of the correct words to use. "…children to grow up big and strong. But your.." She snaps her mouth shut a few seconds "As I said before, some of the Weyrfolk ways confuse me still."

Mur'dah shakes his head with a little sigh. "No no no, you misunderstand me. I was…I was just saying I wouldn't go around telling people you were glad to be out of the infirmary. I wouldn't do that. Faranth, we're good at misunderstanding each other aren't we?" he says with a wry, crooked grin. Wetting a rag, he starts to lather up the sweetsand across the dark dragons hide, making him groan in pleasure. "My what?" he asks, peering curiously at her, and looking at Kalsuoth. "My dragon? Oh, you mean that I like that he's small? Well, small means he won't win a gold. My mother rides gold. I would never went to be a Weyrleader, not even sure I'd enjoy clutchfather. So I'm very happy he small. Relatively."

Kera chuckles a bit and nods after the misunderstanding is straightened out. "It does seem that way doesn't it." At the further explanation, Kera nods in an absentminded way as she focuses on finishing her braiding and binding it back up. "I guess that makes sense. You could go to another Weyr though too couldn't you? That way there would be no chance of it." She cinches the leather strip around her hair and tucks it to secure the fasten. Grinning at something the Weyrling says. "I think that Ers'lan rider has ya beat for that title. He's trying to bring up a whole clutch I think. He's at six still though at last counting." She's joking of coarse, or trying to at least.

Mur'dah nods, "Yeah, I could go to another weyr while Seryth was proddy. But…that's a pain. I probably will anyway though. My sister and me." Glancing up again, he frowns. "Six…clutches? Zhaoth has won gold flights?" Mur'dah scrubs on, distracted as he prods his memory.

Kera grins as her joke didn't go ever very well, tis what she expected. Shaking her head "Nonono. I meant that he had six children….like he was trying to populate the Weyr himself." Shrugging it off she slips subjects. "That does seem like a pain in the backside though. Having to always worry about…such things." Eyeing her finished briad, she tosses it back over her shoulder as she returns to observing Mur'dah and his dragonmate. "He doesn't appear to worry about it though. But then again, I've only seen you both a handful of times. Not like you can learn very much from a couple of short meetings."

Mur'dah totally missed that joke, and he coughs when she explains. "Oh. Yeah, well. He's…odd." Understatement. "It is, I guess, but…there isn't anything I can do about it. He's a brown, he's going to chase…" Is the brownling blushing? Surely not. He turns to study Kera for a long moment, and then whips his head around to stare fixedly at his dragon's hide. "No, he's not worried. Dragons live in the moment. Not the past, and not the future either."

When Mur'dah's little staring match begins, Kera frowns a little and peers behind her as if something might be coming up that the Weyrling sees. Not seeing anything by cliffs stretching upwards, she shrugs and peers back to the brownling pair. "What?" She looks skyward and sees a few birds of some type. Reaching up to her hair quickly, she narrows her gaze at the birds "Did a bird mess my hair, again." That last bit muttered mostly to herself before forcing her attention back to Mur'dah and his dragonscrubbing. Giving his last comment some though, she nods "I guess they are lucky that way. Don't have to worry about studying for tests."

Mur'dah shakes his head quickly. "Nothing," he mutters. "I guess. But it's got to be hard to have no memories. But if you've never had memories, then you can't miss them, so would you really care?"

Kera glances behind her once more, Mur'dah's odd behavior making her self-concious. She does nod somewhat agreeably at his comments "Some people could probably argue for both sides of the fence." She slips into a few moments of quiet as Mur'dah continues his tasks, but after a time, she simply shakes her head and sighs "Alright. I seem to have done something else to offend you or something. But I don't know what I did this time. So why are you looking at me like I did something weird?"

Mur'dah glances at her in surprise. "What? I'm…what? No, you haven't done anything. I'm just looking at you while we talk. It's kind of rude to never look at someone you're talking to…"

Kera thinks about what Mur'dah's saying before finally shrugging it off and peering around briefly. "OH!!! Did you hear about Natalya? She sent her lizard friend to give me a messege." She doesn't repeat the messege, no need to repeat something Mur'dah already knows. Bored with sitting, she gets to her feet, brushing off sand as she steps a little closer to the brownling pair.
Mur'dah shakes his head, glancing at her again - though this time briefly. "No…what?"

Kera grins and flicks away a few stubborn streaks of sand from her clothes and stopping a few feet from the waters edge. "She was chosen by a hatchling at Ista. Seems to be really happy of coarse." Kera gives a hint of a sigh "Guess she probably won't be coming back here much now huh?"

Mur'dah ohs, blinking in surprise. "She did? That's great." The brownling smiles, and then stretches. "It was great talking with you, Kera, but I need to stop chatting and get his bath done, so I can go back to my chores."

Kera blinks at the sudden end to the conversation and simply nods. She stands there for a few long seconds before simply waving "Well, bye then." The apprentice starts away, shaking her head and muttering.


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