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 buildings, 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.
Stables and a smithy are settled on their own plots, while trees border the western edge of the meadow, and a faint outline of a fence can be seen to the north.
The morning sun is bright overhead, the day is warm, and Soriana lies on the grass like a basking dragon or a lazy feline. She's on the slope up to the ridge, her head resting back on her hands and her eyes closed, and she practically exudes content. Inkfoot is beside her, curled up in a little ball, and Toral perches near her head. The brown firelizard seems the most alert of the three - his eyes are only half-lidded, and he looks about from time to time. For the most part, things are quiet. Sori's out of the way of most traffic, though hardly out of sight.
Idrissa had skipped the morning meal in order to get down to the stables an make sure the runners she is in charge off was fed and let out into the paddock. Though now she and Asher is making there way up the hill into the meadow, a yawn escaping her while she walks along pulling her vest around her a bit more. Asher catches sight of Soriana first and the large dog is making a beeline over towards her with a bark escaping the canine in the process. "Hey Soriana." Rissa offers once closer.
Ahh, peace and quiet. That's what Soriana had, before Asher started toward her. The girl's eyes open, but she doesn't bother moving out of the way, just tilts her head and peers at the approaching canine. So, what, she's gonna get licked? Inkfoot rolls over onto his side, and Toral takes a little flutterhop up to a rock nearby. When Asher gets close enough, Sori grins and reaches up to ruffle at his shoulder, looking past him to say, "Hey, Riss."
Asher may just indeed lick Soriana if given the chance! Though instead the canine settles to his haunches next to Sori and leans into the petting. "What 'cha doing out here?" Idrissa questions as she peers around and then looks back to her friend before sitting down next to her. Her knees getting pulled to her.
Big dogs're for petting. It's fact. So Sori pets Asher. Inkfoot opens one eye, considers the situation, and closes it again. Streeetch. Snoooooze. Soriana laughs at the question, and stops petting the dog to fling both her hands back against the grass. "It's a nice day," she declares, as if that explains absolutely everything.
Idrissa peers upwards at the sky and soon smirks. "Yes well I suppose it is a nice day." She looks over at Inkfoot and grins while leaning over to softly pet across his head. "So I know which runners we can use for that beach ride. Swifthooves and Sunny. Even got one picked out for Kale, older laid back gelding named Two-Trots." She's been giving this some thought it seems!
Suppose nothing! It is a nice day, and Soriana grins wide. Maybe it's not quite nice enough to wholly account for her mood, but whatever. Inkfoot makes a sleepy sort of chirp, but doesn't bother waking up for the pettings. At the talk of the runners, Sori gets a thinky expression for a moment. "Swifthooves… is that the grulla? No, wait, I think I'm thinking of a different one…"
"Swifthooves is the cherry bay." Idrissa offeres after the petting to the sleepy Inkfoot. "Sunny is a palmino and Two-Trots is an dapple gray." She ponders a moment and ahs. "SevenSpots it the grulla." An yes he has seven spots! Asher soon slides down to the ground and is leaning against Soriana in the process, lazy canine.
Oh yeahhhh. Soriana nods. She hasn't been paying as much attention to the runners as she once did, back when they were her mother's herd. Of course, there's been plenty of other things to distract her lately, so maybe that's not so surprising. "That's right." She reaches for Asher again, ruffling between the canine's shoulders and down along his back as he settles against her. Lazy canine… lazy girl.
Idrissa spends more time with the runners then with anyone else, well save for when she hangs out with Soriana and Kale that is. A yawn escapes her and she soon drops back so she is looking up at the sky, her arms folded under her head in the process. "There are really calm and laid back. An I've had 'em out in the far paddock so I know they have seen dragons around and they seem alright with them from what I can tell." She actually said more then a few words, someone stop the presses. See? She can talk when she wants to. Asher leans into the attention, his head plops down upon the grass and the canine seems to fall asleep.
Suddenly Harlin materializes out of thin air behind the two girls. Well, he doesn't really come out of nowhere, but one gets the idea. It's what he usually does; and plunks down into a sitting position between the two of them. "Hi." He says, looking at Idrissa. For some reason, he's not looking at Soriana at all, and one might notice a slight colouring to his cheeks when he glances at her out of the corner of his eye. "Did you guys happen to put my ball somewhere? I've been, uh, looking for it everywhere."
In fact, so far today, Idrissa has been more talkative than Soriana. Sori laughs, and nods. "I don't mind spirit," she notes, though its in a conversational sort of tone, not an objecting one. Calm works too! When Harlin appears, she looks to him, and smiles slightly, a little tug up of the corners of her mouth… until his question makes her frown with practical thought. "Oh, that? I put it in the coat closet. Behind the spare overboots." Asher is petted, as Sori regard the boy between two girls, and after a few moments she adds, "Hope you didn't get in too much trouble…"
Idrissa grins and nods. "I don't either, but I figure a nice calm one for Kale an all you know?" Yes somewhere soemthing is freezing over if Rissa is more talktive then Sori! She peers up at Harlin, her head tilting back in order for this. "Hey Harlin." At the coloring of his cheeks is picked up, an the fact that he is not looking at Sori might given her a clue that something is up. A soft ah escapes her as she blinks looking rather confused for a moment before Soriana answer. "Why..would he have gotten in trouble?" This is sent towards both of them. Asher lifts his head at the apperance of another and his tail thumps against the ground before her wruffs out towards Harlin.
Harlin shakes his head and glances at Soriana finally — and the colour rises still more. Then all at once, it disappears as the lad pushes any sort of embarrassment away. "Oh, nothing." He says. "I was late for my scheduled duty and got caught, that's all." His chest puffs out a little bit. "I didn't get in any trouble, just had to make up the tie at the end of my shift." He offers Soriana a smile as though nothing at all had happened, no face colouring, nothing of the sort. "Thanks, I'll go and get it here in a minute. What's this about riding? Hiya, Blushy, by the way."
"Oh, good," says Soriana to Harlin's answer. "Thought they might've given you extra for being late." Just time-shifting the schedule, well, that's nothing at all to worry about, though- "Quite a set of lungs on that guy." She grins, and ruffles down Asher's back. The talk about the ball makes her nod. "Oh, yeah. Rissa and I are gonna go for a ride on the beach. Kale, too, if we can convince him the runner won't eat him."
Idrissa watches the two curiously a few moments before she glances off. An yes she notices the look Harlin give Sori that makes him blush more? "Talking about going on a beach ride /blushy/." She offers back to Harlin. Har she can use that nickname on him with how he was blushing there a moment. "I'll figure out some way to prove to him that the runner an't gona hurt him."
Harlin hmms. "Yeh, whatever." Harlin says to Idrissa. "I ain't got nothing to be embarrassed about." He then turns and looks Soriana dead in the eye. "Any regrets about last night?" If he is acting, he's being completely masterful. Then he glances back to Idrissa. " . . I'd like to go, if you don't mind. I know how to ride. Not as well as some maybe, but I know how. I can ride it first and he can see it's not going to kill him if you want." Then right back to Soriana as he continues in a conversational tone. "Yeah, yeah. I just don't know how he found me. Must have sent a lizard or something."
Soriana meets Harlin's gaze steadily, and she grins. "Nah." Seems pretty honest! And even if she did, they certainly weren't vast enough to keep her from lying in sunbeams contentedly. "Well, I mean, I'm not the fondest of his timing. And the jelly didn't go well with dirt. But other than that…" Her tone is teasing for those; little complaints that, while quite true… really don't even register as regrets. She lets Rissa answer the question about the ride, then nods to Harlin again. "Could be, yeah." Her own firelizard is curled up on a warm rock nearby, eyes half-lidded.
Idrissa rolls her eyes as she hears Harlin, someone isn't falling for it today it seems. "Darn people an there timing huh?" Is offered while she sits herself up and peers off. Ok, so perhaps she is blushing /just/ a bit. At the talk of Harlin wanted to go along she peers over at him. Her bright green gaze watching him curiously, as if waiting to see if his joking. Though after a moment she smiles and nods. "Alright, I don't see why you can't come along. I know a few other runners that don't mind dragon so I bet it'll work out fine."
Harlin glances at Idrissa, and grins a bit. "All right, if you don't believe us, we can talk about it freely in your presence without having to worry any. You just let me know when it's time to go and I'd be happy to skip work again. Just to go farther this time." He makes a little grumbly sound, and stretches his heavily booted feet out in front of him. "So, Sori. Since we're obviously imagining things anyway. I finish my shift late tonight, after dark. Wanna wander off beach direction for a candle mark or two?"
While Idrissa's rolling her eyes in disbelief, Soriana… isn't. Nor is she joining in with the dubious comments. Well, mostly she isn't. "What, and we couldn't if she did?" She just couldn't resist that one. When Idrissa agrees to let Harlin come along, Sori nods. "The runners can use the exercise," she says with a grin. After all, that's the grand excuse for why a beastcraft 'pprentice gets to give her friends rides. The runners can always use exercise, and an actual ride is better for them than just trotting around in the paddock. As for the question of fevered imaginations… she considers on it a moment, then grins. "Yeah. I'd like that."
Idrissa glances over to Soriana curiously an then looks back to Harlin. Seeming to weigh the thoughts on what he is saying that happened between him and Soriana the night before. "Ya.. they do." Is offered after about the runners while she picks at a nail trying to get some dirt off it seems. Oh sure, she gets caught when she wants to spend time on the beach just star watch and there talking about doing something down on the beach after he works. Maybe she doesn't care what they do? Which really, why would she care? There sorta adult like right? An yes she is blushing, so like always they win yet again at making Rissa blush.
Harlin is evil, and so is Soriana. It's kind of like kicking a puppy though, and Harlin feels somewhat bad. Reaching over, he pats Idrissa lightly on the knee. "Runners, exercise, good." Then he settles back on his haunches and pulls a sandwich wrapped in paper from his pocket. Breaking in into three sections, he offers each of his companions a third of it. "So." He says to Idrissa. "I think we're both going to get all quiet now, and make you talk exclusively for the next five minutes." He sage nods.
Well it's not like Idrissa's said anything to object! Or asked any questions! Or… anything, really! Okay, yes, this is Idrissa, that may be too much to expect, but even so. Soriana looks past Harlin to see Idrissa of the blush, and hehs. She reaches up to take the offered bit of sandwich, "Thanks," then shakes her head. "You'd probably have better chances of getting Asher and Inkfoot to put on a play and entertain us."
Idrissa talk for five minutes? HA, that would be a bet Harlin would most likely lose. At the offer of sandwich she makes no move to take it, her arms folding in front of her while she peers off towards river. Hearing Soriana she frowns a moment. "I don't got nothing to talk about…" Well she said something but it came out more of a mutter. "Nothing for five minutes for sure." An /why/ would she ask questions about what they did? That doesn't even compute with Rissa.
Harlin seems unbothered by Idrissa's denial of sandwich — he tosses it in a low arc towards Asher instead. It's not that he's trolling for Idrissa to ask questions either, he's just trying to get Idrissa to come out of her shell and talk a little. But since she won't, he can at least poke at her in some ways — which is exactly what he's doing. "Mm-hmm." He says to Soriana.
Soriana nibbles on the sandwich - a small bite first, then a larger one as her stomach reminds her, oh yeah, she's been here for rather a while, hasn't she? So she's quiet for a bit, except for the munchings. Toral lifts up his head as she starts eating, then spreads wings and launches himself into the air. Funny how mindlinks can send reminders back and forth like that. After a few more bites of quiet, Sori decides she might as well fill it. "So what do you do in minecraft, anyway? I mean… it's all caves and rocks and stuff, but… what do you /do/?"
Plenty of people have tryed to get Idrissa to come out of her shell, and its never really worked. Even with Soriana and Kale she doesn't go into great detail about many things, save dealing with runners. Asher snaps hold of the sandwich and its gone with a few chomps. Once the conversation is off her she peers over to Harlin perhaps a bit curious.
Harlin glances sidelong at Soriana. "I haven't technically picked a specialty yet, but I'm working towards it I guess." He scratches his short hair. "I work mainly with gemstones, polishing and cutting them. That sort of thing. I suppose I'll work with jewellers when I get older, but who cares. It's… not really the job I want, doesn't suit my look much, but it beats doing nothing but swinging a pickaxe all day even if that does a lot for my muscles." He tosses his half eaten bit of sandwich to Asher too. He likes that dog.
Soriana finishes her own sandwich-part as she listens to Harlin. That should hold off needing to go get lunch… for now. "Rocks and stuff," she says with a grin, then nods. "That makes sense. I mean… that it's something miners'd do. I haven't really talked to many miners. Well, I'fan, he was a miner before he Impressed," not that she's talked to him much anyway, "-and there were some miners at the ruins that one time, but…" those hardly count, she shrugs as if to say.
Asher takes the rest of Harlin's sandwich without a problem, really the dog would eat whatever someone gave him. "I've never met one before.. Well up until Harlin." Idrissa says while pondering. "Well, at least not that I know of." An she spoke, sorta a sentence. "What..sort of job would you rather have then?" This questioned while she actually looks at Harlin.
Harlin shrugs a little at that. He seems oddly uncomfortable with questions about himself. Not that he's shy, just that he doesn't really have much to say. "I suppose I'd rather do prospecting. Be the first person to go into an area and look for minerals and stuff, work out there in the middle of nowhere on my own and all that. I'm actually, this might come as a surprise, not so good with people." He's got his arms crossed over his chest now as he lies on his back to look upwards at the sky. "That's interesting stuff."
"That does sound interesting," says Soriana to Harlin. "Prospecting, huh. Exploring, miner-style." And hasn't she gone on quite a few explorations? Okay, yes, just kid stuff, she'll admit that at this point, but it was still fun. She pulls up a few blades of grass, and holds them up against the sky to look at them. Ah such a fine shade of green, it will be highly prized. The wind tugs them, and she lets go of them to flutter away. "So why don't you?" she asks bluntly. What was that about good with people? Yeah, whatever.
Idrissa watches Harlin a moment before she hums softly an soon nods to what Soriana says. "If its soemthing you really want to do you should do it." She offers. Oh sure, Rissa is the one with the vast amount of knowledge in this of course. "Cause if you don't do it you might regret it later. Sorta why I came with Soriana and her mother an all the runners." Oh geezs, she said something about herself.
Harlin quirks at Idrissa. "Came with Soriana and her mother on all the runners?" He repeats in a dry tone that is clearly asking for some sort of explanation. "I see." He then offers something like a shrug. "Unfortunatly, prospecting tends to be dominated by old men who aren't going away anytime soon and there are more than enough of them — so if I want to do it I'll have to try to get into it later after the current bunch dies off." It's kind of a blunt statement. He rises though, carefully, and leans over — not really caring if Idrissa sees, and attempts to muss Soriana's hair up with both hands! Successful or not, he wanders off. "Time for my duty."
"Only on one runner at a time," answers Soriana in a joking tone, then less joking. "Well, really, the runners were on the ship mostly." Okay, even less joking, it's time for an actual explanation. "My mother's Sorrin. Yumeth's rider." That'd be gold Yumeth, and Sorrin the junior Weyrwoman, despite Sori's casual tone in reporting it. And, if Harlin remembers last year's news, that junior Weyrwoman did in fact come along with a bunch of runners she'd been breeding near Ierne, as well as a daughter. (Hi!) The explanation for why Harlin can't prospect gets a nod, and a bit of a frown - but, well, it makes sense, and she nods. "Jewels aren't bad, anyway." Second best? Yeah, or something. "The- yeep!" She is being ruffled! Her hair was hardly neat in the first place, but now it's even worse, despite her thwapping at his arms! She's grinning, though, and the thwaps aren't very hard. As he wanders off to his duty, she sits up, crossing her arms, and hmphs with indignance that really can't be real, given the way her eyes are still twinkling and the corners of her mouth keep wanting to turn up. After he's gone, she shakes her head. Boys!
Idrissa has been known to confuse people when talking about things that deal with herself. A faint ah escapes her as she hears Harlin repeat what she said. It totally sounded better in her head. "I worked with the runners back near Ierne an became friends with 'em an.. When I heard they was coming here well I came along and started working on my beastcraft apprentice." Make more sense? No most likely not. She peers over at Harlin and Soriana, smirking slightly. "So…I guess I should talk more is what I'm gathering from all that?" This brought up once Harlin is gone, but is he /really/ gone?
A tangle of hair falls down in front of Sori's face, and she blows a puff of air against it to make it dance before reaching up her hands and starting to untangle and push her hair back into place. As she does, she peers over at Idrissa, and grins. "Might not be a bad idea," she says. "He's kinda got a point. I mean… do you really want to just sit and listen all the time?"
Idrissa smirks and leans over to help her friend deal with her mess of a hair, until its out of her face. "No.. Not really. I'm just afraid I'm gona say somethin' stupid, or bore someone..or ignored." Sure that totaly makes sense right? She lets her hands drop back into her lap while she looks off. "I guess he does sorta have a good point on the matter."
With Idrissa's help, Soriana's tangled mane is soon a manageable mane. More or less. "Oh, sure, you might." Gee, isn't Sori reassuring today? "And Kale might fall off the runner." Oh! Also going off on tangents. Well, maybe it's not entirely a tangent. She turns, flops down with her head in Idrissa's lap, and adds, "So what?"
Idrissa smirks at this and peers down at Soriana once her lap is taken over. "I dono.. Fearful of the what if's I suppose." She pokes at Sori's arm. "Don't you ever get fearful of stuff?" Which she doesn't think is posisble as it is Soriana after all.
Ahh, comfy. Soriana closes her eyes and goes mmm, then opens them again to look up at Idrissa as she's poked. "Sure I do. But… that's the fun of it. Staring down wild felines, looking over the cliff-edge… Sneaking out at night." She reaches up to tap Idrissa's nose. "Boop. There's other what-ifs. Like… what if you talk to someone, and what if they like you… and what if you have fun together? What-if? What if you do something… and /don't/ get in trouble?"
Idrissa is quiet as she listens to Soriana, she peers crosseyed at her nose is tapped. Geezs she really hates to admit it but Sori is so right at the moment. A faint sight escapes her. "Ya.. Alright.. You got a point there." Is offered softly. "You want to explain to me why you always seem to make sense then?" This questioned as she attempts to tickle Soriana's sides. HA! She is in perfect tickling range..
Soriana is wise behind her years! Her sage wisdom will be - tickled! She laughs, squirming, and starts tickling back! "'m older!" By about two months. Yeah, that's it for sure! Eep, flail, tickle-tickle-tickle… If she's in range, then so is Idrissa!
Idrissa laughs out and leans back to escape Soriana's attack and stops tickling all in the same moment as she is able to lean back /just/ enough to avoid getting tickled back. She grins. "Older by how many months?" A soft huff escapes her, an then for a moment she is quiety while peering at Soriana. "So…did you and Harlin really do something?" She questions with a soft tone, she even peers around half expecting Harlin to appear now that she has asked this. Well why not? He is so sneaky like that that he would.
Bah! Cheater. Soriana sticks out her tongue, and stretches her arm to poke at Idrissa's belly. Rissa's just lucky Sori's comfy, more or less, or there'd be trouble with a capital trub. She takes in a deep breath to recover from those tickles, draping her arm off past her head, then tilts her head sideways to look up at Idrissa as the question is asked. She's quiet for a moment, as her breathing returns to normal. Thinking what to say? Maybe. At the end of that moment, she shrugs. Nothing to be ashamed of, here. "Yeah."
Idrissa is so not a cheater, how is it her fault that Soriana is lazy and doesn't want to move? A faint squeak escapes her at the sudden poke, which she is rather glad it was only a poke not getting tickled, as yes Rissa is very ticklish. She peers down at her curiously. "What..like..kiss?" It would seems someone is mighty curious at the moment.
Soriana laughs at Idrissa's wide-eyed curiosity. "Yeah, we kissed," she says, but there's something about that tone that says it's waiting for another clause or three. Oh, here comes one of them now. "We-" From down across the meadow, there's a squeak from a firelizard, and Sori cuts herself off to peer down and see Toral spinning with another firelizard around a figure. "Oh!" she goes. "Sorry, I gotta go, I said I'd meet… uh, later!" She quickly picks herself up, then her tunnelcat up, and runs off down the slope and away!
Idrissa ohs as she hears Soriana, she blushes a moment and looks rather amused at this. "Well..how was it?.." Though she is stopped as Sori is about to say something else, an then there is a squeak! She looks up as she catches sight of Toral, and then Sori is running of. "Oh.. Alright, later.." She peers around a moment and sighs some. "Come on Asher, let's go do something." An with Asher trotting off she soon follows along after brushing her jeans off. Though for once she doesn't go back to the stables.