
Xanadu Weyr - Meadow
A large, slightly rolling meadow is set high enough above the riverbank on both sides to avoid suffering from flooding, healthy ground cover and grass spreading out from either side of the dividing river. Scattered amongst the meadow are a variety of weyrs, each with a narrow path leading up to it from a main, winding road. Some are set under a few trees, while others sit by themselves. The meadow continues with gentle rolls and dips, grass tall and short waving in the slightest of breezes, and eventually those hills grow higher and steeper, ending in a large ridge that provides a fine view of that meadow and the rest of the Weyr, gazing out over the multicolored roofs of the houses and the cliff that holds the caverns.
Runner stables with the paddock beyond are to the south beyond the meadow weyrs, and a smithy and a woodcraft shop are settled closer in towards the path to the clearing. Trees border the northern side of the meadow, and more of those low, rolling hills can be seen to the northwest. A road passes through the meadow, coming from the east and used by traders and crafters alike. Wagons laden with felled trees from the forests or ore from the mountains are hauled by burden beast up the road through the meadow, over the bridge spanning the river to be processed in the appropriate workshops.
GLORIOUS is a word one might call this particular summer afternoon were one not wary of drawing the attention of certain dragons thankfully not presently lounging among the many scattered about the meadow enjoying the heat afforded by clear blue skies overhead. Those blessed with thick hide that only warms pleasantly under the sun's direct assault are possibly the only ones who could be said to be taking pleasure in the weather because the workers guiding the wagon as yet waaaaay down toward the forest are sweating, as are the riders dotted here and there oiling those miles and miles of pretty-or-ugh-what-is-that-even hides of their lifemates. Tej has not escaped the natural consequences of such heat, GLISTENING under her broad brimmed hat as she makes her way, meanderingly, toward the ridge that affords one a spectacular view of the surrounding area. It may take her a while to get there, not for lack of those long limbs that could prance her yonder at speed should need arise, but rather because pale eyes are drinking in other sights, namely all those possibly lovely or just unique (IT'S A COMPLIMENT, OKAY?) dragon bodies that are a rarity in places not called 'Weyr.' She lacks the dew-eyed hallmark of one unfamiliar with being around dragons, but there might be some hint of nostalgic relish in her largely unguarded expression.
Well, that avoids one particular monstrosity in Xanadu Weyr. TOO BAD XANADU IS RIFE WITH IDIOTIC DRAGONS WHOSE ONLY DECIBLE IS, 'AHHHHHHHH MY BRAIN'S MELTING' AND NOT A SINGLE BRAIN CELL TO RUB TOGETHER BETWEEN THEM. Cue Leirith, who is both idiotic and monstrotic (it's a word now and you can pry it from our COLD DEAD HANDS) without any brain cells enjoying her freedom from the sands with a little too much enthusiasm and not an ounce of shame in sight. She's probably running over sunning hides and interrupting peaceful tans and ruining the life of oil-minded riders just trying their best to get through personal tasks without getting damn near mauled by the weyr's senior most queen, but HERE THE HELL WE ARE and maybe Tejra should run because HERE THE HELL SHE COMES. There's a whole lot of boxily mustard-hued calamity coming her way on gnarled talons and not enough will to stop as she bounds and bounds and bounds and eats up the distance with an alarming finesse only dragons ever seem to exhibit. Probably because they're MASSIVE. What's actually impressive is how delicately and masterfully Leirith manages to snag Tejra's hat in her maw as she GOES ON PAST, giddy bass and drums a flood of laughter as she slides to a halt and drops to the ground and uses one paw to shove the hat over her nose. « SHE WILL NEVER FIND ME NOW. MINION!!! CAN YOU SEE ME? OF COURSE YOU CAN'T. AHAHAHAHA. » Yeah. Leirith. Luckily Risali is not too far behind her, jogging and clutching at a stitch in her side as she wheezes, "I am so sorry. I will get your hat back for you just — LEIRITH." « SHE WILL NOT. SHE CANNOT SEE ME. » Is that Leirith, squishing the whole of her bulk up behind Tejra and SMOLIFYING HERSELF by tucking in wings and tail and ducking behind the harper? Yes. Yes it is. That's also Risali, finally coming to a stop in front of Tejra and wincing as she doubles over and swallows breath before wheezing out, "There's a dragon behind you. Just…" a wave of her hand, and more swallowing down air, "so you know."
Hey. Woah. Hey. Woah. We said Tejra's longer-than-Risali's-but-way-heckin'-shorter-than-even-a-boxy-monster-like-Leirith's legs could PRANCE HER over toward the ridge at speed if she wanted to. No one here said anything about RUNNING. It doesn't matter that, "You should run," is a causal bit of advice that Tej calls to a markedly less worldly mark denizen of the meadows that perhaps she thinks is either more in the senior gold's direct path of (hopefully) chaos (not carnage), or at least less likely to shake a leg given the way pupils have grown in sheer terror disbelief as she's a-comin' galumphing along and so on. He does, but obviously the -doomed— behatted redhead embraces her destiny as Leirith's next artistic splat on the green green grass~ because she grins like only a lunatic run-of-the-mill Xanadoan could in the face of all of that brain pain awesome, moving only enough to sweep a comically stately bow that is entirely uncalled for, with absurd grace (that is only made more by the immediate presence of one who can be so precise and yet so— here's where we gesture to all of Leirith and let imaginations Mad Lib in the adjective). Obviously, the truly baffling bit of all of this is how a dragon can even exist with the level of rudeness it takes to steal a hat off one according her entirely undeserved and possibly entirely false excessive respect and DOOM HER to BURN. But that's the brand, amirite? All that pale skin now out of the shade of anything except an ENORMOUS AND CLEARLY COMPLETELY HIDDEN BEING SO WELL HIDDEN WE'VE EVEN FORGOTTEN SHE'S AN IDIOT DRAGON won't stay creamy long if her new shade shifts. It would be unreal to claim that Tej doesn't blink (and more than once, rapidly) at finding herself suddenly WITHOUT HAT and appropriated as clearly proportionally appropriate hiding place for the gold not to mention the incursion of sudden volume in her head, but all in all she probably gets points for the judges for not letting it fluster her overmuch as she straightens to her full totally taller than Risa height and does her part by streeeetching her arms up as if in a big yawn to ensure she's hiding the gold, which, spoiler alert, is physically impossible, even with everyone trying their darndest. All that reality doesn't give her the slightest pause when she cocks an eyebrow and tilts her face to look down imperiously at the woman SO FORTUNATE as to get to live the ENTIRE REST OF HER LIFE with the no, we won't fill in any adjectives here; there are too many choices dragon definitely not behind the willowy woman without apparent knot. She must be modeling one of the many instructors a Harper tends to have in a lifetime of learning — maybe the sort that would even ring bells for one FREED from that life and chained to the one that involves hat-stealing dragons with no sense of decorcum, reality or dignity, when to that look she adds the haughty words, "Don't you think I would know were there a dragon behind me? Obviously, I should have pinned my hat so the wind wouldn't snatch it away." She doesn't break character, just unfairly pinning the Weyrwoman with that look as if Risali were the one in all this not doing her part and as if she has any right to look at a senior weyrwoman that way to begin with.
Were Risali any other Weyrwoman (or most other Weyrwomen and the stereotypes that surround them), she probably would have found Tejra's manner insulting, shunned her from the Weyr proper, and walked away with something like dignity in her (very short) step. But Risali can only ever be Risali, and so there's a long moment of just sweating and heavy breathing before she intelligently injects, "Right," into the conversation. "Hold on." SO THIS IS THEIR TRAJECTORY, IS IT? An absolute descent into madness, a shedding of decorum and dignity and ALL THINGS GOOD so that they might indulge the whims of one bombastically chaotic queen who, for however big that brain inside of her head might be, is NOT clever? Risali is holding out both of her hands as if asking Tejra for just another moment, grimacing when she straightens her spine just enough to press a second hand to her stitch-smarting side, and then corrects with, "You have a very golden wind behind you. I just thought you should know." And Leirith, stealer of hats, harbinger of sunburns, PURVEYOR OF FAIR-SKINNED MISERY EVERYWHERE bleps Tej's hat awkwardly back onto her head (with the newly added improvement of dragon spit) because clearly this one is, « FIERCE!! SHE IS FIERCE, MINION. WE LIKE HER. WE ARE GOING TO KEEP HER AND HER HAT. » Risali's eyes narrow, jumping from queen to harper before she forces a smile that never quite reaches her eyes but isn't lacking for Tejra's part in all of this. Risali is doomed to live with Leirith, and understands the shortcomings of her dragon that somehow make her endearing and strong to those around her. "She's not coming out, is she?" is directed to Tejra, her tone harboring exasperation and what might be defeat as she gives the hell up and, without much preamble, drops to the ground. She lays down on her back, too, and then stares up at the clouds as she wills her lungs to calm and beseeches long dead queens for patience. "Right. I'm Risali, by the way. That's Leirith." RUN FOR YOUR LIVES.
Is dignity not one of the things they confiscate upon relocation to Xanadu? It's possible Tej has been working with a counterfeit since her first sojourn at this Weyr if so and she may have chucked that one on re-entry~ What's displayed now can't be mistaken for even that at any rate. Magnanimously, the redhead only lets go a singular (im)patient audible exhale not a sigh, that would be rude~ timed not long before the goldrider is gathering herself into something more upright. Tejra's head tips, inquisitive, face a mask of exaggerated readiness for— whatever may come. "Ah, yes," she agrees, her voice deepening and gaining degrees of gravity, as though she confirms some great wisdom when Risali edits the script. The Very Golden Wind. IT IS KNOWN. It may be fortunate (or deeply unfortunate depending on events yet to unfold) that the redhead misses the delicious enhancement to her headwear because until Leirith shifts the hat, she's invisible. It is known. She affects a look of bland confusion, the sort one might receive from a journeyman running interference for a master disinterested in being found. She resists making verbal response, settling for an ambiguous, "Mm?" of polite inquiry as if Risali hasn't made herself entirely clear. It's probably for the best that Risali ACCEPTS HER FATE because who knows how long the redhead could ridiculously deny the reality before their eyes? Harpers are shifty like that. It is kn— we probably don't even need to finish that again. Tej's pale gaze observes the goldrider on the ground and not the gold, game's still on and the mask cracks slightly as her lips curve just enough to intimate a wry smile. "I would join you," there, on the ground, "but there's a wind." One hand raises to make a very vague gesture as though she was indicating the air, generally, all around and especially Leirith behind her. "I'm Tej," she offers in return. Probably, here is where many others would eagerly offer up position, rank, or heck, even a full name, but not this one. This one just lets a small smile pin across her lips before commenting in a very blase way, "The wind is a nice distraction from all this heat. I'd forgotten how warm the summers can be here." Clearly, this is exactly the right circumstance in which to make small talk. NOTHING TO SEE HERE~
Risali is certainly not asking for any ranks or titles or pushing for more information; Risali hasn't offered up her own (even though her name and the gold dragon and the whole being a Senior Weyrwoman thing throws a wrench in her being able to cloak herself in anonymity). In fact, Risali is void her rank-stating knot (per usual) and if it is rude to forgo giving one's station (a crime of which Risali is equally guilty more often than not), then they're both in this together. That and Risali doesn't actually seem to care. She doesn't raise a brow, or lift her head, or squint at Tejra as if omission leads to suspicion and she is now trying to figure out all the missing pieces of a puzzle she's just stumbled upon. Risali just… lays there, panting, and when Tejra makes it clear that she would join her but for the very distracting breeze turning a backdrop of blue and brown and green to mustard yellow, Risali only rolls one shoulder in a manner that could be an adjustment over rocks but is more likely dismissive as she breathes, "Your loss. You can see the whole breeze from down here. It's very… yellow." AND THE BREEZE IS BOUND TO DISAPPOINT. It's something with the gnarled talons, and the wonky headknobs, and the lack of dignity and grace. Still, grey eyes roll from her (still gleefully 'hiding') dragon to Tej and humor hits her lips - light, mischievous, fey in a way that no Weyrwoman should be. "I would tell you to run," comes harboring a hint of laughter, "but somehow I get the feeling it would be a pointless endeavor and I'm tired. You should run, though. She's going to -" BLEP. NOT LEIRITH, LICKING TEJ, DRAGGING HER HUGE DRAGON TONGUE UP THE SIDE OF HER FACE AND THROUGH HER HAIR AND KNOCKING OFF HER HAT as Risali sighs and drops her head back to the ground. " - lick you." « MINION. SHE TASTES LIKE SYNONYMS. » "I don't think that word means what you think it means, Leirith." « AHAHA NONSENSE. WORDS CAN MEAN WHATEVER I WANT THEM TO MEAN. WHAT IF I JUST - » Run, Tej. OR DON'T. You're gonna get BLORKED with another blep though, and Risali laughing. "You could still join me. At least down here you can see the breeze coming." And maybe get TRAMPLED BY IT, but who'ssssssssssss couuunttttttttinnnnnnnng?
With every position, whether it be one voiced politely to new acquaintances, officially contracted, or simply assumed without formal invitation, some unanticipated duties of a dubious or downright dirty nature must inevitably come. It is known. Risali surely knows all about this universal Truth, and if Tejra did not before, SHE DO NOW. Having donned the mantle of the bulwark for buffoonery by grace of not rejecting the voluntold status, Tej is thusly bleped. Then blorked. Then bleped again. Possibly, the Harper (who might suddenly have a new level of (if not love, then—) appreciation for previously only being voluntold into a capacity of caring for beings whose bodily discharges are of relatively small quantity. To her credit, she doesn't shriek. She does FAIRLY, "EeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeewwwwww!" after the rare moment of speechlessness passes. It's a musical thing, almost, that decided objection to being slimed. Perhaps she earns points, too, for managing to get arms up as the blorking is in progress to pit muscle to much-stronger-and-juicy-dragon-muscle in a vain attempt at shoving that tongue away… only, of course, to suffer the further indignity of being blepped. WAS IT ONLY FOR GOOD MEASURE, LEIRITH? OR ARE SYNONYMS DELICIOUS? Evidently, TASTELESS bodily contact crosses the line in what a good bulwark will put up with and still do the job, so that large step that is nearly, nearly a leap, that takes the dancer right over the goldrider on the ground so that at least Risali is forced to her proper place: between the ONCE-INNOCENT BYSTANDER and— well, all of what Leirith's going on. Minus the gifts of the pounding brain. Once foot is on firm ground again, the crafter could take the weyrwoman's clearly excellent advice and KEEP GOING, but life isn't fun without a few bad decisions, so she twists and drops in a smooth motion that brings her onto the ground, legs akimbo by the time she settles. It's not quite the same as laying out like the trusting Risali, but then, Tej has been warned to run. "There was a dragon behind me." She deadpans to the woman, not taking her slightly narrowed eyes off the one who has absolutely earned the squinty eyed suspicion treatment.
ARE SYNONYMS DELICIOUS? It's a good question, and half the reason why Leirith brings the pandemonium of a blork-blep down upon Tejra's JUST TRYING TO DO HER BEST soul. RIP, Tejra, keeper of Very Golden Winds and betrayer of The Sisterhood. YOU WERE ALWAYS LIKE A TEJRA TO US. ROLL THE CREDITS!!! Just kidding. Tej's vocalization of displeasure only has Risali laughing harder, shameless where most dragonriders might be scrambling to apologize or attempting to free what shreds of dignity remained from the catastrophe of coming up against errant lifemates and their proclivity for chaos. Risali's amusement follows Tejra, the tiny, wild landfall storm of a weyrwoman shying away not at all from that leap over her person because this is Risali who wouldn't know self-preservation if it smacked her in the face. Instead, Tejra comes down alongside her, delivers her deadpan observations, and Risali offers a clearly feigned look of surprise, whispering, "What a clever dragon. I definitely thought it was a breeze. You fooled me." But Leirith is exposed, and that massively bombastic force of nature is rising to her full height, windsails held aloft as she peers VERY MUCH DOWN at both women and Risali whispers, "If you hold very still, I don't think she will see us." Which is a lie, of course, the extent of which is revealed when THE QUEEN SHESELF is DROPPING HER NOSE ON BOTH OF THEM. Now we can add a BOMF to the list. « MINION. SUDDENLY I CANNOT FIND YOU?? I WAS BLIND ONCE AND NOW I AM BLIND AGAIN, WHERE HAVE YOU - » not her, rolling her maw onto Tejra, « - GONE? THIS IS A TRAGEDY OF UN-DRAGONABLE PROPORTIONS. WHO WILL PRETEND TO BE MY FRIEND NOW? YOU!! MINION!!! HAVE YOU SEEN MY MINION? NO? SHE'S VERY DISAPPOINTING, YOU CAN'T MISS HER. HAVE YOU SEEN THE SLIGHTLY LESS DISAPPOINTING BUT SIGNIFICANTLY MORE TALL DISAPPOINTMENT? I WAS GOING TO ASK HER IF SHE'D LIKE TO BE MY LIFEMATE IN LIEU OF THE ONE I HAD. » And now of course Risali, amid laughter, is gritting ot, "Get off you monstrous cheat," as she SHOVES AT LEIRITH'S MAW. TEJRA. SISTER. HELP. Leirith is squishing the dancing-kind-of-harper too; maybe if they work together, they can defeat She Who Must Not Be Named. IT'S WORTH A SHOT, ISN'T IT? PUT YOUR BACK INTO IT.
HOLD THAT THOUGHT. Those credits might still need to roll if Tej doesn't decide to join Risali AFTER ALL. With the GOLDEN THWOMP in descent, there's really little choice for a woman who wants the red of her hair (instead of the scarlet smear of a body turned flesh pancake) to be all the evidence of her presence in the green grass of the meadow but to drop her torso back. It might only be the harper's long time association with other Xanadoan dragons (but it probably also has something to do with an unhealthy enjoyment of adrenaline) giving zero credit to Risa's utterly unreassuring laughter that let's things stay in the 'fun and games' instead of 'losing eyes' realm. NEVERTHELESS, THE POOR DRAGON HAS LOST HER SIGHT A N Y W A Y. At least that means she can't see it coming when Tej, who managed to untangle her legs and pull knees to her chest during the descent to give herself just a touch more breathing room (in theory) can use those stronger, longer limbs to AID IN THE CAUSE. She's not laughing, but her bemusement might be heard in the words that drift toward the other disappointingly useless at getting dragons to move or apparently anything else woman, "Does your dragon often get stricken blind?" ONE WONDERS WHAT LEIRITH HAS DONE TO DESERVE IT if all the egregious tresspasses of this scene alone aren't enough~.
Risali, straining to push Leirith away, manages a breathless, "Only when it's convenient for her." And, you know, when she was young and Risali - in tandem with the dragonhealers - had to salve her eyes for a good long while until infection cleared and she could see. But LOOK (yes, we get the irony of stating this right after a tangent on Leirith's Not Blindness). Beneath the beauty of team effort comes the amazing feat of VICTORY. Whether by their actual strength or Leirith's willing to let them win (because she's SUCH A GOOD GUY), the gold's head is suddenly gone and Risali is swallowing down air again between breaths of laughter. Give her a moment and she'll turn her head just enough to look at Tejra, just enough to give her too brilliant a smile as she scrunches her nose and offers, "Well done, Tej." A beat, as Risali shifts about and Leirith drops her head again, close enough to watch both women with an air of excitement that translates only as the overwhelming rush of a crescendo, too much sound crashing together as Risali - having probably used Leirith's rudeness to disguise her movements - produces a white knot that she, without much ceremony at all, drops onto Tej's chest. "You really should have run though. But Leirith was impressed by your, ah, willingness to play along and your betrayal after, so now you can't exactly escape." She can. Tejra can absolute opt out until she gets THE MOST ROMANTIC DRAGON SEARCHING OF ANY SEARCH EVER, but for now it's only one bombastic beast and the woman she decided to tie the rest of her too-damn-loud life to. It's probably why there's a note of something tentative in Risali's posture, as if she's holding her breath to hear the answer while Leirith positively vibrates with anticipation.
Too brilliant smiles are reasons for caution. It is known. Tej probably even uses them herself from time to time. That might account for at least some of the comical level of dubiousness that is directed right back at that goldrider. "Really, I think we're just fortunate that very golden winds are fick—" -le. She would've finished that and the vowel certainly didn't sound a little funny. All the redirection of credit where credit is due is abandoned because the sudden crescendo and second drop has her tensing, ready perhaps to roll away in as much as one ever could from something that size and so, so determined to handle the next challenge differently. The white knot that drops onto her chest is more effective by far than any mustard colored mega-sized snout in pinning the woman to the earth, utterly still. She doesn't even breathe. The inevitable exhale comes in the moment after a slender finger hooks through the loop, so slight a thing to invite the possibility of so strong a bond. She draws it up enough to see it clearly before letting it drop back onto her chest, hand following with an audible dull clap of hand to ribcage. She might be trying to stare at the sky, but there's a very golden wind thereabouts, so she probably stares at that instead. Maybe Tej likes to build the tension, maybe she's the kind of brave-or-foolish who just wants to see what will happen if Leirith doesn't receive some kind of immediate response, or maybe it's just the gravity of the choice manifesting itself. She turns her head enough to meet the older woman's eyes. "I've stood for clutches all over the world." The candid words are not any variety of boast (not that they could be since standing all over the world means failing to impress all over the world, too). It might be the newly cemented sisterhood, bonds forged in the fight against an unruly foe, that even prompts something that sounds like a heart's truth (or maybe it's just because Risali is the one popped-but-didn't the question). "But never here." Her fingers trace the loop without plucking it up. "Not before now, I suppose." Is that a yes? Things seem to point that way when she scoops the knot up another beat of staring up at not-sky later and pockets it. She wasn't supposed to put that on right now, was she?
Tej speaks and Risali listens, attention rapt, eyes never once leaving the woman beside her as what might be a yes but still has room for a no is delivered between them. Risali lingers for a moment too long in that newly forged sisterhood, one made in the fires of besting a dragon and coming out slightly wet, slightly less dignified, but no worse for the wear on the other side. And Risali's smile softens into something undefined, something that's echoed in the sudden reach of fingers to brush bangs behind one of Tej's ears gently as she breathes out, "You can always run away." There's a whole horizon holding impossible possibilities - and a whole lot of cliffs Risali herself has spent too many nights throwing herself from in a bid to outrun her feelings. "But I'm glad that it sounds like you're going to stay." And here that smile gets just a touch brighter, even as Risali is rolling to sit up and looking at Leirith who was WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT to bound around the women and send the ground ashaking (or is that just the thunderous roar of window-rattling bass in their minds?) as she booms, « WE DID IT, MINION. WE GOT ANOTHER BADASS. MY CHILDREN WILL ONLY HAVE THE FIERCEST MINIONS TO PICK FROM. » And Risali is biting down on her bottom lip to stifle a laugh, turning her eyes back onto Tej for a moment longer before she's pushing herself to her feet and holding out both hands in an offer to help the taller woman to her feet. "You should probably get cleaned up and then let the weyrlingmasters know that you're 'the badass with really long legs and fire for hair' because Leirith just told them that's who to expect." TRY NOT TO PUNCH ANYBODY, TEJ. ESPECIALLY ILA, WHEN YOU RUN INTO HIM FOR A MEETING 2.0 AND HE INEVITABLY SAYS THE WRONG THING.
Maybe, just maybe, that sisterhood is finding an unexpected depth despite its moist, malapropos origins as the suggestion prompts an unexpected laugh from the redhead, who seems either not to mind or not to notice the relocation of windswept strands. Tej quirks an impish smile at the goldrider, unnervingly at home on the stretch of pressed lips for all her nearly thirty turns. She might have said something more to Risali, shared some other secret or story, but they're SAVED from anymore of that heartfelt nonsense by the sudden EARTHQUAAAAAAAaaaaAAAAaaaAAAAKE that's really just Leirith expressing joy as only Leirith can. The dancer does not need the help, but that doesn't stop her from slapping her hands into Risali's and pulling herself up with every intention to keep hold of them so while Risali's still pulling, she can lean back and twist them into a twirl that might last enough rotations that they'll have to spin away from one another when it's done. Fortunately, Tej already has her marching orders and rather than reply from the distance her hop-spin-kartwheel takes her after releasing the senior's hand, she just raises a lazy hand in acknowledgement. Obviously a very long bath is in order, but she'll find her way to the barracks afterward. Probably. She might even keep her hands to herself~~ Unlikely, but why warn? This is Xanadu where the punches come and you just roll, roll, roll along~~
Risali is only all too willing to have her hands caught, knows what the shift of body means and willingly leans her own into it with another burst of wild laughter, as she spins and spins and spins and — stumbles. When they're done, Risali is doubling over swallowing down her breath between even more of that laughter and a raise of her own hand in a farewell she doesn't speak. Instead of goodbye, Risali is calling, "Good luck, Tej!" Then she's turning herself, gently smacking Leirith's nose before leaning into her dragon, hugging that maw with a nuzzling burrow of her face into golden hide before the pair break away and start off in the direction they started. Maybe Leirith was actually out scouting for somebody worthy enough today, because she seems much more sedate as she makes her way back towards the weyr proper alongside her rider.