Xanadu Weyr - Training Grounds
A wide, grassy expanse, nestled into the gentle bowl shape where something's taken a bite out of the mountain. It's high above the level of the beach, and there's a good eastern view of the lake and a long path leading down to that sandy shore. Granite cliffs surround it on the other sides.
While much of the grounds are left in their natural state, one area has been trampled and trodden by enough feet that the grass struggles to grow. A running track circles a set of equipment - straw dummies with wooden frames, obstacles of various sizes and shapes, and targets for flaming, archery, and whatever else.
There's a dragon-sized opening to the south that leads to the cavernous weyrling barracks, and a smaller tunnel to the northeast - large enough for dragons newly emerged from the sands, but quickly outgrown by hatchlings who are then forced to take the long way around - at least, until they learn to spread their wings and fly. Between them in both position and size, a jagged crack in the stone leads to a dim cave with the sound of water.
How long has it been since the Hatching? It's hard to keep track of time when it's measured by oiling, bathing, feeding and sleeping, rather than strictly by day and night. The only thing for sure is that Xanadu's newest dragons have certainly grown! Qhynnveslacth, freshly oiled and gleaming, leads Q'll from the barracks, strutting proudly and ignoring the muck he gets on his feet from the muddy ground. Q'll's not at all bothered by the mud, and he's trying his best not to limp along behind Qhynn, though each step does seem to cause him some pain. The pair stop, not too far from the entrance to the barracks, and Qhynn begins the wing exercises he's been so keen to try whenever he's not been otherwise occupied.
If Jaya tried to count by 'full nights of sleep', she'd come up short. If she tried to count by every time she manages to go unconscious, she'd have an exhausted too long. Easier to just give up on it and take the moments as they come! Just now, she's heading back from somewhere across the training grounds, Leikoirath at her side… up until Leikoirath notices something in the mud, that is. Jaya keeps on walking, but Leikoirath's busy nudging her muzzle right into that mud. What's this? What's this fascinating thing that she's found? Hmmmmm? For the moment, Jaya doesn't notice her dragon's distraction or the growing distance between them, for she's seen Q'll and Qhynnveslacth instead. She grins and waves!
Q'll spots Jaya before Qhynnvesclath does, as the bronze is facing the wrong direction and focusing, intently enough to miss the pair in his periheral vision. Or maybe he's just ignoring them, in favour of keeping his attention on exercising. Either way, Q'll waves at the pair, and even waves them over. « My Q'll extends an invitation to you and yours to join us, should you be so inclined. » The portraits in Qhynn's mind echo images of his own handsome self, joined by a dashing-looking Q'll, welcoming Leikoirath and Jaya into one of the edgemost frames. « You can come and observe my wing exercises. »
Leikoirath lifts her head up, muck on her muzzle, and wiggles her full body. Her mind is a flurry of scampering steps, charging in to leave muddy prints all over that offered frame. « Okay! » Her head goes down again, muzzle nudging into the mud as she grabs a lump of… rock, maybe? A stick? It's hard to tell, given how covered it is in mud. Either way, it's Leikoirath's now. Jaya takes a few steps closer, with a grin and a, "Heya," before she realizes that she's short a dragon. She turns, looking back. Where's… oh, there's Leikoirath! She's charging in to meet them with something mucky in her maw… which does nothing to muffle her projections. « I have wings too! We can exercise together! »
"Hey, Jay." Q'll grins, looking over her shoulder when she looks back to see where Leikoirath's got to. "I kinda like Jay more than Jan. Good name choice. What's she got there?" Qhynn doesn't care much for sticks or stones or whatever else is in the muddy prize his sister's found. « It's not just having wings that counts, Leikoirath. It's putting them to the appropriate use - would people admire me so if I was a wher, or a firelizard, or even an avian? » Those mind-portraits of himself are inflated, glowing, even, designed to be oohed and aahed over as he shares a future view of himself as an elegant flier, dipping and diving and swooping. Perhaps that's what makes Q'll smirk, proudly, as he says; "I can't believe how much they've grown already, can you?"
"You're not just going to go with Ja?" Jaya asks without turning back. Her grin is being replaced by a puzzled look as she stares at Leikoirath's … treasure. "Shells if I know. Leikoirath, what's that?" The direct approach! « I found it! » The green slip-slides to a stop in front of Jaya, and lovingly offers her rider that… whatever it is, nudging it up against stomach. "Lei, it's covered in… ugh, okay, fine!" Jaya takes it! Leikoirath wiggles and drops to her belly in the mud, first forequarters, then her hind, and sprawls there as she peers up at Qhynn and sends scampering stampedes through all those pictures he shows. « Maybe. I dunno! You should try it. » Leikoirath flops over on her side. In the mud. « You'd make a silly avian. » Jaya just… looks at the muddy lump in her hands… and her dragon in the mud… "Growing up, on the other hand… not so much." A sigh, and then a grin as she looks back to him. "It's all just such a blur."
Qhynn's not so keen on having anything rampaging through his portraits that isn't him, and he shoos Leikoirath's images out of each and every frame so that all are filled with images of him looking noble. « I dare say I'd make a fine avian if I was one, however I am a dragon, Leikoirath, as are you. » He'll ignore that she's acting like a canine, rolling in the mud! Q'll, on the other hand, isn't at all fazed by mud and muddy offerings, and he peers in closer to try and see what Jaya's been given. "No clue what that is, and I've got a feeling Qhynn mightn't be so keen on my getting my hands dirty to try and figure it out. He seems more grown-up than me, most of the time. Well… all the time."
Leikoirath - for now! - keeps her messy pawprints on her side of Qhynn's picture frames. Which is to say, the outside of them, not in where there's a noble, dashing, handsome, and all-around-good-looking bronze. « Yup! I am. » she agrees. Despite the fact that she's rolling around in the mud and acting like a canine. Jaya turns that… thing… over in her hands. "It's… a… it's not a rock, anyway, it's not heavy enough. Maybe a… uhm. A tree root? Fossilized dragon dung? Shells if I know." It's a thing. Jaya shrugs, looking from it (and her muddy hands) down to her muddy dragon. "Ha. Leikoirath definitely… isn't." She glances to Qhynn, with his wing exercises and graceful poses, then back to … Leikoirath, beaming and wiggling in the mud.
Q'll looks from one dragon to the other too, nodding in agreement. "Yeeeeah, they're pretty different, huh? He's more tolerant of Leikoirath than he is of Kiv, though… I think because she's a girl." He grins, resting his hands against his hips. "She's awesome, though. So's Qhynn, of course. And, by the way, I made good marks with the bookies putting down that you'd Impress a green. Though I think had kinda hoped you'd Impress a blue." To prevent future awkwardness, perhaps. Qhynnveslacth, as if intentionally doing the opposite of Leikoirath, continues to flex his wings and look as dignified as he can.
Jaya grins at the understatement… then laughs. "Figures. He wants to show off to her…" Because really, while Leikoirath may not quite get the idea behind all this strutting, Jaya can recognize it even past the species barrier. Boys! They're so… boys, sometimes. Jaya nods firmly to her dragon's awesomeness… even as she shifts that whatever-it-is to one hand as a preface for quietly dropping to behind her… then snorts. "Do I get a cut? After all, if it weren't for me, you'd never have made those marks." Because obviously she had sooo much to do with which dragon chose her. "I really do love her, though… even if she's going to need another bath." …wait. Leikoirath heard that word, and she freezes right there in the mud, looking up at Jaya with a piercing eye. « No. Don't need one! Nope. »
« On the contrary, my dear green, I do believe a bath would do wonders for you. » Qhynn's mind-images certainly suggest that he enjoys bathtime! "Do you get a cut? Eh." Q'll gives Jaya a teasing nudge with his elbow. "We'll see. Maybe I'll treat you to something when we're allowed outta here." Then he winks at her. "I'll be washing Qhynn when we're done here… he'll need his paws cleaning off, and that'll mean more oiling too, probably… I swear, it's like that's all there is to life nowadays. Oiling, bathing, feeding, and I'd say sleeping, but I don't think I'm getting enough of that at all."
« Awh-don't-wanna-rrr… » is Leikoirath's not-mature and un-reasonable response. Jaya tilts her head down to level a look at her dragon, which gets a verbalized version of the whine to go with the mental one and a wiggle down against that mud. She does look at Qhynn's imagery, but… « You can bath for me. » Yeah! That'll work. "….noooo. But he can bath with you." « …rrhrroooowkay. » Leikoirath thumps her tail against the mud as she agrees, then gets back to her wiggling around to enjoy it while she can. Jaya grins wryly. "Does sleeping count when it's my legs? She's still trying to climb in my lap, and… that only barely worked when she was hatched."
"Maybe if your brain was down there? Faranth's fancy bits, how does she ever think she can fit in your lap?" Q'll looks from Jaya to her dragon, brows raised in surprise. "They would probably fit into one of the baths together, if you think that'll help get her in there. Qhynn's not dirty so I don't need to be in with him. It's really shardin' hard trying to bathe him and keep my stitches dry. The Healers have this waterproof barrier thing, but… eh. It still sucks." And how does Qhynn feel about sharing a bath with Leikoirath? He doesn't say anything, but the image is definitely there in multiple in his thoughts: he's all up for a chance to snuggle up in the water.
Jaya spreads her (muddy) hands to express the depths of her ignorance. "Shells if I know. She'll agree to sit next to me and then she'll just start creeping." And before Jaya knows it, she's got a lap-dragon. "…I hope it doesn't mean there's something wrong with her, y'know… spatial stuff." She frowns with concern, then grins with relief for Q'll's proposal as she nods. "I bet it would. She likes being with the rest… though I dunno if she's exactly at their level, sometimes." So many of the weyrling dragons seem mature and dignified beyond their days! Jaya's frown is once more fleeting, but this time it's replaced by a wrinkle of her nose. "And ugh, you can't even wash? I mean… yeah, I guess stitches, but that sucks." As he said. "How much longer is it supposed to be?"
"It'd be cool if they could fit in our laps, if they were that tiny," Q'll muses, looking fondly at Qhynnveslacth. The bronze tucks his wings in with a little flourish, and then comes to stand by Q'll, resting against the teen's side and getting an arm draped over him in return. "She's at her level, which is what's important. They're all different, remember? And I can bathe, I just need to be careful, and not do it if there's mud in the water…" He winces. An infection would not be good. "They're checking it every day, and reckon it might be another seven or so before the stitches can come out. I've just got to, uh…" A deep blush colours his cheeks, and he clears his throat. "Take it easy, in the meantime, and use lots of numbweed. I can hardly feel anything." Qhynn makes a warm rumbling sound, then starts heading bathwards. "He's ready to get bathed already… want to come with us now?" Q'll's already turning to follow his lifemate, albeit at a slower pace than the bronze goes.
"…like firelizards?" Jaya muses about those lap-dragons, then hehs before wincing in sympathy and… ahem. Aherm. Nope, not thinking about that, and she nods while studiously looking away from Q'll. How about Leikoirath! She can look there, and while she's at it, she reaches down to rub her belly, mud and all. "…yeah. That's good. That it's healing. Good." Everything's good. And… Qhynn's ready for his bath? Jaya straightens up, and nods. "Yeah, we'll do that. Come on, Leikoirath." The green, for all her earlier protests, comes obediently to her feet to gambol along next to Jaya, sometimes falling behind and sometimes pulling ahead but mostly keeping pace with her as Jaya keeps pace with Q'll. "…I am glad for her, really I am." She smiles. "Mud and all." But don't think that's going to get Leikoirath out of her bath!