Forward Steps
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Xanadu Weyr - Shore of Lake Caspian
The cliffs that run along the shore come and go, various weyrs nestled along the tops of them or dug into the walls, but eventually they recede enough to expose a beach. The white sand echoes the rise and fall of the cliffs with a multitude of sandy dunes, endlessly creating tiny valleys that are constantly demolished and rebuilt by the frequent arrival or departure of dragons. The dunes smooth out as the gentle slope approaches the edge of the deep blue water. The sand darkens, and a shell here and there stands out for children to collect.
The beach narrows to the southwest, leaving a path barely wide enough for dragons in single file before cutting in to a smaller, more sheltered cove. The sands are the same white, the waters the same blue, but they're calmer and more tranquil, more protected from the winds that ruffle Lake Caspian and the currents that tug beneath the surface.
Rough, wide stairs lead up to the meadow above and the road that runs along the top of the cliffs, passing through the fields and heading for the river mouth that can be just barely seen from here. The largest of the staircases up the cliff is located near the docks that jut out onto the peaceful blue waters.


Kanekith lands on the far end of the beach, claws digging in to the warm golden sands as his wings fold neatly against his sides. Ka'el removes his goggles and gives his lifemate's neck a rub while he look out towards the lake. "Good fly, Kanekith," he murmurs to the bronze. "Tomorrow, it's with Comet. .. I know.. I know," he says in response to a stormcloud to the mind. "But no one thinks of you as a package runner, I promise." The Weyrleader dismounts and pulls off his riding gloves before loosening the straps upon the bronze. "Go on and find your dinner then. I can feel the hole in your stomach. It's about that time, anyway." Dinnertime. It's still hot outside though, despite the hour. But the sun hangs low in the horizon, hovering just above the waterline. Ka'el doesn't follow Kanekith away. Instead, he pauses, looking past the sands and to the weyrs just a ways away from them, along the coast. His friends and neighbors. Riders and Weyrfolk alike. His eyes pause on one, and after a long stretch of silence, heads towards a cottage that he's not visited … .in quite some time. One with a stable nearby.

Idrissa doesn't often pay much attention to the dragons that go flying by, and thus she doesn't catch sight of the bronze that goes about landing on the beach a good ways off. Tahryth is settled in her wallow, her swirling gaze settling upon the movement that belongs to Ka'el as the Weyrleader moves onwards and ever close to the cottage. Idrissa is busy in the stable of hers, up until the message from her dear dragon that there is a visitor coming to see them, someone she did not expect to come honestly unless perhaps there was a problem. She'll wait until Ka'el is closer to the weyr before she makes her way out from the stable sending him a slight curious look. "Hey Evening Weyrleader." Is offered while she brushes off some dirt from her hands and then off her shirt as she catches sight of it. "Everything alright?" It has been a very long time since he came for a visit, nearly as old as there dragons honestly.

Ka'el has his eyes on the cottage, not the stable, and so Idrissa's appearance from that particular area surprises him. Though, should it have, really? The girl's weyr should've been a huge stable! He pauses in his footsteps as his attention turns her way, eyes glancing towards the nearby green as well before he redirects his walk towards the stables instead. "Idrissa," he greets with a nod as he nears. "Good evening to you too." He slows when he nears her, hands clasping behind his back. "…I…yes. Everything is alright," he answers with a single nod of his head. "I wanted to pay you a visit. And Tahryth, as well," he extends with a smile to the green. "To see how the two of you were. … How are you?"

Idrissa wouldn't have had a problem if her weyr was a huge stable! Better to place to keep runners after all, and with Tahryth acting like a larger runner at times it would just fit honestly. She offers a slight smile and nods a moment, though his reasoning for coming makes her peer at him once more. She looks confused, uncertain and it is most likely noticeable. "Good to hear everything is well." Tahryth offers a soft warble to Ka'el in her form of a greeting, though the green stays put, merely watching the two as she takes in the conversation. "That Was nice of you. We're good, restday and all." Reason for her being here perhaps, though lately she has been sticking around her Weyr more for one reason or another. She points over to the cottage. "Would, you like something to drink?" She may a well play nice.

"No thank you," answers Ka'el to her offer, shaking his head a couple of times. He's quiet for a few ticks of a second. Awkward silence ensues as he possibly searches for the words he means to say, if there are in fact words that he came to speak. His eyes wander to her cottage and the outside of it. Whatever decor she may have. Any garden. The color of the paint. The grass. Weeds. Flowers. Imprints ofa dragon that has dozed in the sun. He inhales a breath through the nose and exhales it slowly as his gaze returns to hold hers. "I believe," he says, carefully, "that perhaps … I've kept a distance from you for .. too long. And .. I want to attempt to take steps to .. righting a wrong I've done."

The cottage has been well taken care of over the past turns, good to make sure such things stay well after all. There are some pails of paint near the stable proving that it is due for a new coat of paint soon from the looks of it. A garden is found at the side of the stable with small plants growing within, there are a few chickens seen scratching around here and there, and of course her runner is off in the small round pen chewing away on some hay. A few of the suncatchers that she has made is seen hanging from small strings near the front of the cottage, almost like windchimes that catch the light and send it sparkling across certain places. Tahryth is well content under her bit of cover that stretches over her wallow. "Your welcome." Idrissa offers after a moment before she glances over the stables while a chicken comes pecking close and she leans down to ruffle the feathers a bit before it is scurrying off with a few clucking sounds hears. She is not about to make this easy, if Ka'el wants to talk about something he'll have to do the talking. Once he starts Rissa does glance back to him curiously a few moments, looking surprise it seems and she is quiet while just peering at Ka'el. "Well, I would agree that yes you have done such things. What has brought around this change of events?" She's curious to say the least what brought on the change of heart all of a sudden, or well perhaps not /that/ sudden.

All of a sudden … after how many turns? "Maturity," answers Ka'el with little hesitation. "I believed you were immature. I hadn't realized how much I still was, as well. And it took a long time for me to realize this. Even longer for me to figure out what I really wanted to do about it. And doing something about it took even longer because … distractions." Life. Weyrleadership. Loss. So much can happen in a turn. Two turns. Three. And on and on. Until one hardly notices the turns have…well, turned. Ka'el's hands unclasp from behind his back and rest neutrally at his sides, eyes still on her. "You've been distant with the Weyr. That doesn't mean you have not been doing your duties to it. You have," he assures. "But, other than duties you are … absent from us. And I believe my Weyrleadership is the cause of your distance. Is it?"

Idrissa was immature, but then they all were at the time, they were all young when they impressed. Sure some impress younger but the point is they were all in the same boat. She watches him for a few long moments and soon glances off. The Weyr lost a lot, she knows she was there somewhere in the background like when she came to the Weyr all those turns ago, she slipped right back in to her old routines after so much happened as it was easy and it left her feeling safe to some degree. "That I know, I felt it was the best thing given everything that went on." Too much of the past was here, too many memories that could never be touched, and no new ones to replace them. A glance is sent towards Ka'el watching him. "You told me you wanted nothing else to do with me Ka'el, so I made sure it wouldn't be a problem. When you became Weyrleader it just made more sense to find other ways to avoid the Weyr unless I needed to be here of course.." She's never been one to come right out and tell how something is, she always use to hide it, though not it isn't like she has something to fear it seems. "I know I stayed away to long from things It was just easy to do I suppose."

"And that is something that I should not have said," admits Ka'el. "At the time … I was angry. Frustrated. …. Angry," he says again with a mild, brief-lasting smirk. "And what I wanted was to be rid of you. I thought that would be easiest..for me. I believed that'swhat I wanted. But, I don't believe it actually was," he says, shifting his weight a little. "I have a temper. That isn't really news. It was bigger then than it is now … in ways. I stll have a temper, but .. Being Weyrleader, I've learned that yelling the first thing that comes to the mind when I'm angry is.. called a temper tantrum," he says, his smirk a little more noticeable at that point. "And it isn't flattering, and rarely is it ever helpful. What I said to you might have been what I was feeling at the time, but it shouldnt've come out of my mouth. And once I got this knot," he gives a slight shrug to the shoulder that it's pinned upon, "I should've realized sooner that I needed to fix..this. But I was still learning. Still mad. Still with a temper." His lips quirk. "Really, all I am to say is that I'm sorry. I apologize for my actions and words back then. We were friends for a long time, and I'm sorry to have ruined that."

Idrissa smirks a touch at this while she takes in a soft breath while he speaks. Oh yes she knows he has a temper, she was on the other end of it and saw it firsthand that day, it still bothers her to some degree. They were more than friends there for some time, then everything fell apart as she has a feeling it would long before everything happened. "Everyone is allowed their feelings, their thoughts Though saying them as such is not a way to do things. People get hurt from words more than a fist." She spent a lot of life under such words thanks to her mother. "It can linger for a long time after the sting as well." She has always has a problem letting things go, she has grown up since that day, a lot of things have happened since then after all, life lessons really, but some things are hard to sweep away from ones memories. Once he is apologizing she just eyes him for a few long moments, working on what to say it seems as it caught her a touch off guard perhaps. "I'm not sure what will happen Ka'el, if we're ever be friends again, but I do accept your apology. I'm sorry it came to such things then if that means anything. The last thing I wanted to do was lose the friendship that we did have."

Ka'el shakes his head a little. "I'm not asking for your friendship, Idrissa. I only seek forgiveness and the understanding that the words of a boy I was do not mirror the thoughts of the person that I am now. People change. I've been told that I have, and I'd have to agree. I don't aim to remain stagnant. There's too much to learn from to continue to be the same person forever. Things that remain still never progress." His head turns slightly, as if catching the sound of a far-off thing, or perhaps the sound of a distant call. "If you have it set in your mind that we won't be friends, we won't be. Human will works that way, I believe," he says, refocusing on her. "Something won't happen unless it's given a chance to. Whether or not you allow that chance… well, that's the question." He smiles now. "In either case, thank you for lending me this brief amount of time. I'm afraid I must go." He dips his head to her, still smiling genuine looking smile. "I hope the evening finds you both well," he says in farewell both to her and Tahryth before he takes a step back to take his leave.

Idrissa nods slightly at this. "Yes, people do indeed change." Given time everyone changes to some degree, it sometimes just takes longer for some over others. "No one knows what the future will bring. I never thought this conversation would happen." So that is proof that things do happen, and chances are indeed given. A nod is seen, a slight smile caught. "Thanks for coming by." Her words prove she actually seems to mean that. "I do hope you have a good evening, tell Soriana that I said hi." Tahryth warbles out once more while she shifts, stretching and settling upon her side while she seems to doze off as the conversation is coming to an end. Idrissa offers a slight wave as she watches Ka'el turn to leave.


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