Only a Crazy Person Doesn't Like Bacon!
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Xanadu Weyr - Rustic Treetop Café
Perched on the cliff overlooking Xanadu's beach is a gnarled and massive skybroom tree. The bark and outer layers are sturdy enough to support the thriving, brushy top, but the interior, which is hollow, contains a spiral staircase that leads to a café built on a high platform amongst the branches. With a panoramic view of lake, sky, Weyr and the mountains beyond, the treetop eatery offers both sheltered seating just inside the trunk and tables on the wide deck that encircles the old tree.
The cafe's décor is comfortable and rustic, but closer inspection shows the smallest embellishments to be artfully combined into one detailed masterpiece. The wood of the doors, floor and walls of the trunk have been stained a dark mahogany that lends the space a sense of intimacy. Tables in various sizes have been carved to mimic driftwood, the chairs and benches padded with oiled sailcloth cushions to provide weather-proof comfort. Each table has an aged brass lantern filled with shells and agates gathered from Xanadu's shores, the sparkling natural mosaics holding tapered candles upright in their embrace. Lamps hang from the ceiling on silver poles, the thick frosted glass carved into intricate pastel shells or swirling white-capped waves. At night the colored glass softens the glowlight to enhance the ambience.
During the day, the retractable doors allow leaf-spattered sunlight to fill both the outer deck and the smaller interior with green and gold light, as well as allowing pleasant breezes to cool the interior. On clear nights, farviewers perch on the elaborately carved railing are free for use to enhance the gorgeous view of the stars over the Caspian Lake, the Sea of Azov beyond and the rock formations of the Weyr.


Kera takes advantage the nice weather today to enjoy a bite out in the breeze. Her trio of lizards are in attendance, brown and gold perched on the railing, but only the baby flitter is perching on the greenrider right now. She drains her glass and refills from the pitcher while waiting for her food. Every so often she reaches to give Weasty a little chin scritch and starts sorta zoning out as she watches and listens to the waves below.

Something to eat, catching the breeze and the view from the treetops - why not. Whatever the reason D'had finds his way to the café. He's on his own, no firelizards for him. Settling into a seat a table over from Kera he sends the girl a slight nod of silent greeting should she be paying enough attention to her surroundings to see it.

Kera spots the man quick enough when he steps out onto the deck and dips her head in a polite greeting. "G'afternoon." He's already taken a seat at another table, but she offers a seat anyway. "Plenty of room over here. Not to mention, I'll never finish off this pitcher by myself." Kera chuckles as he's greeted with a chorus of happy churls and croons from the lizards. "Oh quiet you beggars, he doesn't have any food yet." Head cants at the man a bit, as if trying to place him. "I'm Kera. Moncerath's preferred scrubber an oiler of her hide."

"Afternoon," the blue rider returns. He wasn't about to invite himself to join her right off given she's not someone he recognized. He chuckles at her invitation however, "That so? Pitcher of what exactly?" the question posed even as he does shift and stand to join to move a seat over and join her table. "D'had," he returns his own name when her's is offered.

Kera grins as he moves over to the table, though she still eyes the man like she should know him somehow, beyond seeing him around the weyr. Shaking it off, she gestures briefly to the pitcher "Seems to be some mixture of various fruits. Subtle hints of flavor without any specific one overpowering." A little shrug as the waitress returns and sets a couple of plates out. A wherry sandwich and a side plate with a bacon mountain. She wishes it was a mountain of bacon "Oh thank you.." Kera replies and dives into making the finishing touches on her sandwich, which means getting as much of the bacon as she can to stay in between the bread slices. The Waitress turns a smile to the bluerider who just arrived "And what can I get you?"

D'had ahs nodding for her explanation of the drink. If he notices that look of hers he doesn't comment on it, rather a lopsided smile is sent towards the waitress as she arrives and he orders that Kera got. Hey it looks good, and really who doesn't like bacon? That an a glass to help with that pitcher of juice. The glass is at least returned with shortly.

Kera flashes a grin and gives D'had two thumbs up when he doubles her order. "Good choice." she says around a half strip of crisply bacon. As if an afterthought, she starts breaking a couple of strips into lizard bites and tossing up over her head, except the ones she gives to the still young bronze draped along her arm. When the waitress heads back inside to see to D'had's order, Kera drags her gaze away from the man's face with a little headshake "It'll come to me eventually." is murmured mostly for herself. Then suddenly as if someone might have jabbed her, she looks up and snaps her fingers "Mur'dah! That's who you look like!"

D'had chuckles. "Well you'd know," he tosses back at her. Of course its a good choice! The glass having been delivered to the table he reaches for the pitcher to pour some for himself. "Never did understand those things," he comments on the firelizards with a shake of his head. Her next comment brings a narrowing of his gazes as he tries to follow her line of thought. What exactly will come to her? Oh, that. Her sudden realization is met with another laugh from the man. "More he looks like me I'd say."

Kera chuckles as D'had turns her words back around to he and she nods agreeably "Well yea, there is that." Flashing an amused wink, she grabs up her sandwich and takes a couple of bites before setting it back down and thumbing towards her brown lizard "Just don't ask that one's name." Tossing a couple more bacony bites to her winged friends, she peers across to the bluerider curiously "What's to understand?" A soft chitter from one of the trio seems to back up her question.

D'had nods. "He's my son," the man clarifies just why he might look like the brownrider she'd mentioned. Taking a long drink of the juice he shrugs at the question that's turned back on him. "Only had one once, sharding thing." Yeah, no he doesn't so much care for the miniature dragons and their seemingly endless guts.

Kera fiddles with her sandwich, tearing it in half to make it more manageable, and nods when D'had confirms the features she recognized in him. "I really need to go visit them and see how he's doing for myself. I speak with Kiena often, and she says that it seems like Kalsuoth's wing is still out of action, but looks to be mending to a point." A little shrug and sigh over Mur'dah's injured dragonmate. Gaze flickers to Polgara as she wings rustle against her well oiled hide, then back to her table companion. "Oh? Once?" She's not really sure how to inquire, but she sorta did anyway. If he doesn't have it any longer, it's probably didn't turn out very well. Kera nudges the bacon plate towards D'had, having piled plenty onto her sandwich, she doesn't mind sharing til the waitress returns.

"He's flying," D'had replies of Mur'dah's lifemate for what its worth. "And he says he's alright," he adds with a light shrug of shoulders. He can only take his son's word for it. A drink and then he does take one of those offered strips of bacon. "Can't say I know how or why it picked me but he went mostly wild a long time ago, shows up now and then." And that doesn't bother him in the slightest.

Kera flashes a quick smile "Oh that's very good news!" Nodding over her sandwich, she is very glad her friend is doing much better. A couple of bites vanish from her sandwich as the waitress returns and sets out D'had's plates, offers to get anything else, then steps off to tend other customers. Kera gives the man a moment to get his food in order before speaking out again. "I gather that you don't really like lizards all that much?"

How well he's flying is anyone's guess yet, but he was in the air at least once that D'had saw. "Thanks," he notes to the waitress as his food is delivered. A shake of his head, no he doesn't need anything else, though there's a glance to Kera to ensure she doesn't need anything yet before he readies his sandwich. "Not so much, just annoying," he agrees on his dislike of them. "His ma," being Mur'dah's "tried telling me what good they could be, just ain't my thing I guess."

Kera refills her glass, offering to top off D'had's in the process, then sneaks a couple of quick sips as he mentions his dislike of flitters, even when being told of their merits by Thea. "They do come in handy sometimes. But not everyone appreciates their antics. Just like many people find runners fascinating and cute, but I think they are sneaky vicious creatures. They're just waiting for you to let your guard down then they will bite." Kera nods her head determinedly, even if a cheeky grin is spread across her face.

D'had nods at that offer, mouth full of sandwich at the moment. There's a smirk that makes it to his face at her mention of runners before he swallows. "Yeah, wasn't ever much for them either." Runners that is, sure he's ridden but it wasn't ever anything he went out of his way for. "So, what about you?" Obviously she knows his son.

Kera reaches down to gran a strip of bacon that fell out of her sandwich when she shifted her hold on it. Stuffing the strip between wherry slices with a couple of fingers pokes she mutters "No escaping for you." Yes, she talks to her food at times. So what? Peering back up once she has put her food in it's proper place, she nods wholeheartedly on the evilness of runners. "Finally someone else sees them for what they are!" Kera gestures around to include the Weyr. "Maybe you can talk some sense some of these people." The greenrider jokes over the tricksy runners and tears off another bite of her sandwich. Canting her head a bit at D'had's question? "Hmm? Whfa bwo.." Hard to talk around a bite of food so she clears her mouth and starts over, already reaching for her glass "What about me?" sip sip.

D'had smirks, yes her talking to her food amuses him if nothing else. No comment however. He at least has learned how to wait until his mouth isn't full to talk. For a second she might catch a second of that parental reminder look. Yeah, that one. He shrugs when she poses the question back, "What about you? Where you from? How you know my boy?" Aside from the obvious of being at the same weyr.

Kera doesn't miss /that look/. She's seen it before, many times. Scolding parents, Jrmen and Masters from the hall, and that was before she ever stepped for onto Xanadu soil. A 'slightly' apologetic shrug "Sorry." When D'had clarifies his question, she ahhs softly "Oh. Originally I'm from Rubicon River. Parents have a cothold along the river. Then a handful of turns at Healer Hall and I was posted at Xanadu to continue my studies." Kera takes a moment to study the other half of her a sandwich, perhaps stalling a little before the next bit. "Mur'dah was one of the first people I met." Pausing briefly as she tries to recall specifics "I think he was still a weyrling at the time." She shrugs and goes on, wrapping hands around the half sandwich and shifting it just so "I sorta used to have a tiny little crush on him." Tiny and little being major understatements considering she named a lizard after him.

D'had doesn't give that look very often, but she caught him at it. He nods a bit now and then as she gives those answers to the questions he'd asked as he eats. "Healer, huh?" he comments between bites, "No offence sweetheart, but I hope I don't have to see you often," he teases. He's one of those people who avoids the healers when he can. But that admittance about her crush finds a grin, "That so?"

Kera snorts at D'had's comment about not wanting to see a healer too often. "Yep, there's the family resemblance, right there." She chuckles out and turns her attention back to her food, while still talking. Not eating, just talking. "Ya sounded just like him for a moment..or he you really." Shrugging over which way to look at it, she goes on with a hint of an embarrassed eye roll as she's prompted to continue. "I had a crush on him, he was clueless. Even when I named that one over there Minimur." Said brown flaps over and settles on the edge of the table. Having heard his name when Kera was holding that big ole sandwich, he rightly concluded, he's getting a big ole treat. He chitters excitedly and extends his little brown snout towards the wherry/bacon meal "Oh back off Mini. You ate already, off." Shooing him off the table, he flaps back to his perch without a prize. the gold lizard's chitter sounding alot like she's laughing at the brown.

D'had laughs, easily amused by that comment and perhaps her internal struggle of how to phrase it. That smirk of his remains as she goes on though he shakes his head for his clueless son. "Don't know that I've caught that," if she hadn't told him, he admits to it this time at least. "Can't imagine he didn't at least think you were cute," he teases.

Kera successfully defends her sandwich and takes a victory bite as the brown retreats to his perch. After a moment Kera speaks on, shrugging "Doubtful he thinks anyone wearing healer knots is cute." She's not at all bothered by it now. "He was always really nice to me though, when he wasn't insulting my craft." A little amusement slips across her face at that and she takes another couple of bites before breaking up the rest of the sandwich for the lizards to share.

"You know," D'had points out, "didn't just get that from me." The dislike of going to the healer. "His ma was pretty terrible at that too." He won't say aloud, right now at least, that he had to carry her to them at least once. "But healer aside, you eat bacon," he notes in a teasing fashion. "And you got pretty eyes," he adds with a wink. So there.

Kera considers briefly and nods while she doles out portions of her meal to the trio one by one. "Well then he came by his dislike naturally, rather than being prompted by an extremely bad experience." Brushing crumbs from her hands she grabs up her glass and slouches comfortably back in the chair. Dipping her head politely at the compliment. "Thank you. And as for bacon, well, only a crazy person doesn't like bacon. My mom would always say "Never trust someone who won't touch bacon. They up to no good!" Kera chuckles at the memory and tips her glass up.

D'had chuckles, "We'll go with that then," he agrees on her theory the boy's dislike for her craft. "And I think I like your mom too," he adds, still a chuckle in his voice. "Good advice anyway. I'll have to keep that one in mind." That said however he's looking for marks to cover his meal. "It was nice meetin' ya, but should get going. Duties comin' up." And he needs to be elsewhere.

Kera nods in amusement and winks in a conspiratory way "Yea, we'll go with that." Setting her glass down and gathering her things as well to settle up with the waitress, waving off D'had's marks "Don't worry bout it, my treat. Maybe sometime you can tell me some embarrassing stories from Mur'dah's early turns and we'll call it even." Grinning cheekily at the future amusement to come, Kera pushes to her feet "Was nice meeting you as well D'had. Yea. I should go check on the weyrlings. A couple of them still bandaged up. Clear skies!" Waving to the bluerider, she makes one last check she isn't forgetting anything then starts down the steps. After a half dozen, she whistles for her lizards, the one not hitching a ride, to flap on ahead.


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