Half Moon Bay Weyr - Galleries
An amphitheater cut of rock with row after row of hard benches to sit on. The galleries have a good view of the sands below and the action that takes place there during every hatching. Despite the times, people still come to see the new pairs formed and place bets on the outcome.
Kera has a two whole days off, what's a girl to do with all that free time, waste it! Duh!! Gossip has never been a hobby of hers, but when word begins to spread of such oddities, well, Kera was curious. The visiting greenrider slips into the gallery, her chittering escort butting a knubby head against. "Shh Pol." A soothing rub along the small queen's neck as Kera works her way up the steps, pausing to peer out to the sands briefly, her gaze going to the 'odd' spot on the sands.
And, oh, what a sight it is. Valigath is reared back on her haunches, eye-marked wings spread wide and eyes a-whirl in a wash of yellows and reds. In her terrible shadow, the diminutive form of a gold firelizard can be spotted, coiled around a clutch of six eggs and shards all over the place. They're locked in a complete and utter stare down, both rumbling - or trying to - and generally trying to be as big and nasty as possible to scare the other off. In the end, the only result is Aglaia, seated in the galleries, clutching at her head and muttering under her breath.
Kera just stares at the scene below, gaze sliding from the little queen trying to protect her eggs, what seem to be left of them, to the large queen trying to protect her sands. Observing the stare down another moment, Kera steps away to find spot to sit and watch instead of standing around. It /is/ her day off so why not sit and relax. Rising a couple more steps, her spots a woman with head in hand. It's not til she takes a couple more steps up that she eyes the woman's knots. Not wanting to intrude, Kera takes a seat nearby without crowding intruding on the woman's little bubble of peace. After a moment two of alternating her attention between the head holding Weyrwoman and the battle of wills below, the visitor gently clear her throat "Excuse me Weyrwoman, are you alright."
Fortunately, they're so locked in their show of dominance that they're oblivious to intruders. Which is probably what they'd view Kera as, for the record, but that's neither here nor there. Aglaia, on the other hand, is still plenty aware and, when Kera enters, she finally cants a look in the visiting greenrider's direction. She's silent, though, at least until the other woman speaks. "Ah. Well, I'll live, if that counts for anything." The words are paired with a wry twist at the corner of her mouth. "It's… it'll be fine. Once those eggs are gone and the sands tidied, Valigath will calm down." And speaking of those eggs, one of them is already starting to twitch a little. Mama firelizard appears oblivious. "Oh! Drat it all. I'm Aglaia. You know the big one; the little one there is Tiamat. Half Moon's duties."
Kera studies the woman's face when she looks her way, maybe trying to judge if she should whisper in an infirmary ear that the Weyrwoman may need a headache mixture, or not. A gentle nod as Aglaia explains her current stirs from the activities down on the sands and Kera tilts her gaze that way. "I have to say, I've never heard of anything like this happening before. But then again, it could occur from time to time and the gossip didn't reach Xanadu." A slightly amused smile for that thought. "Xanadu's Duties Weyrwoman. Nice to meet you. I'm Kera, Moncerath's rider." Looking from Valigath to Tiamat, Kera just seems sorta…flabbergasted headshaking to and fro in in what can only be amazement "That's one fierce mama right there." Canting her head to Aglaia "Has she ever done that before? Clutch on the dragons' sands? Polgara clutched in my laundry basket once. Guess I can't really get mad at her for that after seeing this." Said lizard gives a curious little chitter turns her golden head to peer intently to the tiny eggs below. Kera may not have seen any twitching, but maybe her flitty escort did.
She sucks on her teeth for a moment and, finally, sits up and back a little. Algaia's hands lace together loosely in her lap and her eyes wander right back to the sands. "She's… well. She's about as demanding as Valigath, but without all the giggling." Deadpan, that. "It's also her first clutch and I don't know why she-" she stops, shakes her head, and starts again with, "I know why she'd pick the sands, but I don't know why she's still insisting on staying there. She won't let me get near them, either. So, I can't even pick them up and pack them off for someone else to take." The egg spasms again. Then it splits, revealing a beastly bronze firelizard. Aglaia scoots away from Kera in a not-so-subtle bid to get farther away from -that- situation. "Oh, drat. I wish they'd just go all at once. Did you bring meat? I think I have some jerky somewhere if you want it."
Kera nods and listens to how the situation below came to be. Considering for a moment a hint of a smile creep onto her face "That's sorta common among first time moms. Well, not about the sands, but the first time nervousness. First time moms that we see in the infirmary can tend to be over excitable. Fretting about everything. Not sure how that translate to lizards, but.." Kera shrugs not sure how to explain her theory more coherently, but it doesn't matter since new sounds echo across the sands. Looking towards the very protective little mama, her gaze spots the spilled hatchling and she blinks back to Aglaia dumbly for a couple of seconds. Then she snaps out of her stupor and starts fumbling in her satchel, her hurried movements causing Polgara to chitter to wing up to a rafter perch. "I grabbed some fishrolls to nibble on, but they're cold by now…" Looking up to see the Weyrwoman scooching away from her, Kera frowns a little "Wha.." Looking quickly back to the sands, the standoff, the tiny hatchling movements, then to Aglaia, her voice slightly panicked "Me go down there? She'll shred me to pieces!" Didn't you hear about the last Xanadu hatching, eggs and candidates dead… But, the baby needs some food!!!! She half stands, uncertain how to proceed, she certainly doesn't want either of those queens to look her way.
"I doubt that little guy will care if the rolls are cold or not," Aglaia replies, wry amusement settling in the line of her mouth again. "And, ah- I guess so. I don't… deal with enough mothers-to-be to know, so I'll take your word for it. I don't think Valigath or Tiamat is a good judge of how first time mothers are." Or maybe they are. Who knows. "I can keep them occupied for a little while," she says when Kera seems to balk. "Really. Honest. Don't worry about Tiamat, anyway; she's not nearly as crazy as Valigath - and Valigath just wants them off of her sands." So, Kera should be safe. Hopefully. Aglaia pushes to her feet and moves to the edge of the sands, which is just enough to pull the collective attention of queens her way. And that little bronze? He's bolting bullishly toward the stairs! Freedom!
Kera looks back to Aglaia and will trust that the Weyrwoman won't let her get mauled. Too badly at least. "Okay, I hope you can sing and dance to keep their attention." Kera nervously jokes. Tugging snack out of her satchel, and leaving her stuff on the stairs, she follows Aglaia to the edge of the sands, mostly. Her steps sidle away from the weyrwoman's path and drops down to intercept the struggling little bronze. "Oh look at you." Kera speaks softly to the tiny hatchling, gaze flickering to keep track of big and little queen as she tears into the first roll, plucking out the fishy flakes and wafting them in front of the scrambling flitter to try getting his attention. "You're a wee little beasty aren't you. Oh, and so hungry too I bet."
Valigath's growling takes on a higher quality and, soon, it transmutes into a shrill sound that can only be described as hysterical giggling - if only because there are no other words to describe it. Ever. Aglaia forces the dragon to look at her, though from the looks of things, it's a trial of the worst sort. Aggie's jaw is tight and she's sweating a little, but that's probably because the sands are pretty hot. Tiamat shrieks and flaps her wings vigorously but, by then, the bronze is well away from the danger zone and looking only to get his belly full of fishy bits. He lumbers forward - yes, -lumbers- - and as soon as he's close enough, he'll gape his maw with a terribly hungry-sounding creel. Fish? For him? Please? He's a big guy and needs his protein!
Kera 's keeps an eye out for any avenging shrieking moms or worse while creeping closer to the bullish hatchling. Fish wiggles right in front of his snout and Kera grins at the awkward cuteness. "Come on wee guy, get a taste." It's easy to tell when the snout latches on to the aroma, cause his efforts seem to double. Wincing at the tiny creels that are thankfully silenced when the fish is discovered. Leaning forward, she'll scoop up the baby and start creeping back and away from the sands. Unfortunately the creeling pitches back up when her feeding slows a bit. Hard to vacate the sands while stuffing food in a baby lizards maul. Once safely out of the danger area, Kera resumes shoving fishy flakes to the maul that keeps opening. "See, not so bad now is it." A glance to Aglaia "I got'm." Hopefully both queens will stand down a notch. Hopefully. She tears open her other fishy roll and starts divvying that to the little baby. "Think Tiamat let someone scoop the others in a bucket?" Doubtful, but since she /is/ currently distracted…
It's not certain if she hears or not - at least, not immediately. But, after the bronze is caught and whisked off to safety, Aglaia finally releases her hold and the golds are right back to shrieking at each other. Does it ever end? Probably not. All the same, after Kera's off the sands, it seems her words do sink in. "Oh, thank Rukbat." Aglaia cants a look over and flashes the greenrider a grin. "He's a pretty handsome-looking fellow, isn't he? Kind of… big." She squints at the little guy, then at Tiamat, then back again. "I think he might be bigger than she was." Maybe. "Ah. Well. You're welcome to try," she says with a bit of a laugh. "I did once. That was enough. Ah. But. Thank you. … I think that's the right response here, isn't it? Thank you for saving me from him?"
Kera feels much better about taking her eyes off the shrieking and hissing queens when there 'something between her and the sands. Even if it's just a flimsy rail. It's /something/. She's gonna have to go find more food soon most likely. But who knows, that mad dash for safety may have tuckered the little guy out. More small bites are offered, and his feeding isn't as frenzied as when he started. Smiling up to Aglaia, her head shakes quickly "Oh no, I'm not facing 'that' again." Meaning going near those two queens in their current mood. "Maybe next time you are ready to hold then both at bay, send a drudge in with a bucket." Yea, sacrifice a drudge. Head cants to the woman and chuckles "Save you? He's just a baby, not a monster." Polgara flitters back down to land nearby, churling encouragingly to the little feeding baby while Kera nods "He's adorable. Big and tiny both." She chuckles "A wee little beasty as my dad would say." Admiring the hatchling as burps,. she tries to swipe some of the sand off his belly and wings.
"I felt terrible at her first clutch," Aglaia muses with wrinkle of her nose and a surreptitious look at Valigath. "The poor Candidates." She clears her throat, shakes her head, and flashes Kera a smile that might be tired - but, by Rukbat, it is a smile. "I might have to, if she makes that mistake again. I hope Tiamat's not crazy enough to do it a second time, but…" she trails off and shakes her head. "Ah. Anyway, you did save me. Do you have any idea what they'd have done if he went to me?" It's shudder-worthy. Really. But that's fleeting and she's all smiles again, even if she's rubbing at one of her temples with a hand. "Wee little beasty," she echoes, rolling the words around. "That's… that's actually a pretty cute way to describe him. Just a wee little beasty."
Kera frowns a bit at Aglaia hints at what just might have happened with the queens, "Ah, I see what you mean, could have come to a breaking point very quickly." All it could have taken is a just one more strange sound, odd smell or bumbling intrusion to turns things bad quickly. Happy to have helped Half Moon Bay avoid a dark day, Kera smiles down to her newest friend and nods "Yea, it seems to fit him. Wee little beasty. Hmm. Bit of a mouthful though." She finishes feeding the last little flakey bits and holds the yawning bronzling in her palm, which she cradles to her chest. After spending a few seconds murmuring to herself, she spots out "Weasty. My wee little beasty Weasty." Kera nods with a growing grin "Yea, I like that. May sound childish, but I think it works. What bout you?"
"Weebleasty," comes out of Aglaia's mouth around the same time 'Weasty' does and she laughs. "Oh, drat. No. I mean, no to Weebleasty. Yes to Weasty. It's cute and it fits him. And it's… kind of a round name? I don't know if that even makes sense." Clearly, the sands and the heat and the constant noise are finally getting to her. She moves to sit where she was before, though there's a half-smile in place. "Weasty. Weeeeeasty." She toys with the name a bit more and her grin deepens. "Very good name for him, for sure. We'll just have to see if he grows into it." Which makes exactly zero sense, probably, but there it is. At least the bickering on the sands is mellowing out - but only because Valigath is stalking out in search of something or another. Tiamat calms immediately and curls up over the rest of her eggs in a huff.
Kera chuckles as Aglaia spits out a similar name as the one she spit out at nearly the same second. Nodding agreeably she peers back to her hand, reaching to gently rub the the sandy back with a finger. Small wings flutter as the now dubbed Weasty yawns mightily, then relax to spread slowly across her palm as the young bronze begins to drift off. "Oh, he'll grow into it, tis a perfect name for him. Thanks for being my meat shield Weyrwoman. And Weasty thanks you too." Now how often can one thanks a Weyrwoman for being a meat shield. Probably not very often. Since it seems the battle of wills has settle back a couple of notches, Kera looks to Aglaia "Join me for something cold to drink? And maybe a cool waft of breeze?" Somewhere not by stifling hot baking sands.