Ista Weyr - Forest
The softest of breezes blow through here, causeing the already humid air to grow thick and hot. The noises of the forest surround you, a million differing scents waft slowly into your nose. Animal paths lead to and fro out here. Vines as thick as a mans arm climb skyward, tangling in the tops of the tropical trees. Little light manages to shine down here on the floor, but that doesn't stop a lushous undergrowth from carpeting the ground. Insects of every discription crawl and buzz about their business, hoping the avian in a tree doesn't decide to make them lunch. If you look carefully, you may just see a very dense growth of shrubbery to the west that conceals a dark and forboding opening in the ground.
X'hil is out for a jog now that it's later in the day, not /quite/ so hot and sunny. Jogging through the forest does help a bit too, as he sticks to the shade of the trees. That's X'hil, making the most of the final moments of his day off, not very exciting. Kinseth is nowhere to be seen, the bronze is probably still out on the beach, but X'hil's shifting expressions do seem to indicate some sort of mental conversation going on, as well as the lack of attention the rider is paying to his surroundings. He'll be lucky if he doesn't run into a tree, at this rate.
Cenlia is… lost. She's never really been to Ista before, and the fact that the day is soon ending doesn't help matters. What does help is that she is rather tipsy. What the gardener girl is doing out in the forest is anyone's guess, but she's wandering from the direction of the mine, no longer carrying a bag at all, and looking rosy-cheeked and just slightly glossy-eyed. The girl is smiling a little at some antics or other of her firelizards, the little creatures swooping through the trees and trilling as they fly around her. But the wary glance here and there indicates some nervousness, Cen finally muttering something like, "Shardin' renegades.." and rubbing one arm as she peers about. She does start just a bit as her bronze firelizard, Charmer, spots somebody and zooms thataway with a happy trill. Oh look, A X'hil!
X'hil nearly runs right into poor little Charmer, though he does come to his senses just in time, and he blinks at the firelizard. "Uh. Hello there." he says, as he tries to gather his wits about him. If Charmer is here, then..? He tilts his head at the bronze, then peers in the direction the charming fellow had come from. "Ah!" Ah? "Ah. Hey." Ah, he's spotted Cenlia. He makes his way over towards the gardener then, curiously. "What're you doing out here, at this time of night?" Lost? Tipsy? Well, he can probably make a guess.
Charmer backwings, crooning happily and swooping around with enthusiasm. He's certainly in a good mood. And so is Cenlia, apparently. The gardener girl grins a bit and waves to X'hil with a, "Hey," as he wanders over. "Gettin' sharding lost," Cenlia answers, though the lopsided grin remains on her face, "Was gonna head back to the beach an' send a flit for B'miel, but," and she wrinkles her nose, "…dunno which way's the beach." She shakes her head, "Woulda asked A'dar, but didn't want him flyin' around drunk." Yes, she got /A'dar/ boozed. Cenlia looks around and mutters, "This place is almost as bad as South Boll." And as she talks, the girl wobbles juust a little. At least she's not /reeking/ of wine.
X'hil chuckles softly, and shakes his head. "Ista's a bit of an odd shape. Xanadu sort of sprawls outward, but everything here is in one long line, sort of." There's a brief pause, and his eyes unfocus, and he turns around, orienting himself accordingly. When he stops, he's facing north. He used Kinseth somehow, didn't he? Cheater. "The beach is over this way, if that's where you want to go." he says, offering the slightly wobbly Cenlia an arm to lean on. The forest ground is a little uneven, after all. "A'dar?" he asks then, tilting his head curiously at the gardener. "You know, if you need a lift, Kinseth's on the beach, too." he offers.
Cenlia snorts, "Shoulda seen how lost I got when I first got to Xanadu. Spent half a day wanderin' round the forest." She shakes her head, and then peers around, "Easy to get lost inna forest anyways." That's her excuse, and she's sticking to it. Cen wrinkles her nose at the offered arm, but then promptly stumbles trying to step in the indicated direction and just takes the arm to lean on anyways, grumbling, "Shards, shoulda stopped at two glasses." She shakes her head again and mutters, "Yea, owed him a bottle of Benden Red." about A'dar. She tilts her head at the offer of a ride back, saying, "'S yer rest day though, innit? Should be dri- partyin' or something. Figure B'miel needs to get out of his weyr anyways. All he does now is mope an' fix laptops." She makes a face, "Even Eled thinks he spends too much time doin' that."
X'hil glances around the forest, and nods a little. "Well, forests are all much the same, aren't they? Trees. All alike. Hard to tell which way is which." And, yes, easy to get lost in. As for it being his rest day, he shrugs. "Rest day. I'm /resting/." Jogging through the forest, and now offering Cenlia a lift? Very … restful. There's a grimace as even he realizes this. "Well, I'm out of the office, at least." That's something? He gives Cenlia a long look, and then asks, "And how much of the bottle did A'dar /actually/ get?" The mention of B'miel sends another grimace flickering across the man's face, but he doesn't say anything. He tries to look concerned at least, but he's not very convincing.
"Used to be able to," Cenlia nods, about forests, "Back in South Boll, could run right into the jungle an' find my way back. This place is sorta like back home. Different plants though." She eyes some of the nearby trees suspiciously a moment. The girl snorts at the mention of resting, "Should do what D'son does. Always see him in the garden. Brings his paperwork right out onna clipboard," she sounds very approving of this, adding on, "He ain't stuffy." She does smirk a little, though, as she says, "Gave A'dar both bottles. Only /had/ three glasses. 'S 'cause I ain't had anything to eat 'cept the brandy pastries." Because three glasses of wine alone are just not enough to make the gardener wobbly, though her steps are fairly sure still.
X'hil nods a little, peering through the trees. Not far, really. "Well, I'd offer something to eat, but I'm afraid it's all soaked with brandy and rum." he says, in a light tone. He's in a reasonably good mood today, occasional grimaces notwithstanding. "Mm, portable paperwork, probably ought to do that more often myself." Last time he went anywhere with paperwork, regularly anyway, was when Seryth and Kinseth's clutch was on the sands. He stops then, stops talking, stops walking, and glances back towards the bulk of the Weyr. "Suppose we /could/ go and get something to eat? The … the Sable Sands has good food… I'm told." Has he /still/ not dared step foot in there? Well, last time he went in, he ended the day with the knot of acting Weyrleader, though completely sober.
Cenlia smirks a bit at that, "And wine. Sweetrolls got some peach wine glaze on 'em." And she grins, "'S good stuff though. Took mosta the morning to make. Ain't ever used so much booze in something I weren't drinkin'." About portable paperwork, the gardener nods, "Ista's got a garden somewheres, don't it? When I come back next time, I gotta go find it." A pause. "When there ain't no chance of renegades runnin' around," she mumbles, frowning just a little and glancing back the way she came. Nervous? Not Cenlia! Though perhaps she is a little more cautious without her trusty shovel. But the girl continues quickly enough, "Eled's always sayin' should get laptops to all the weyrleaders. Betcha he could get you one. 'Least thataway ya don't got all them papers." Cenlia blinks when X'hil stops, the girl stopping as well so she doesn't wobble off with his arm, "Sable sands? That a food tavern?" She considers a moment, and then shrugs, "Sure. Ain't like I gotta hurry back to Xanadu. Plenty of candidates around right now, so the garden's all taken care of." Apparently, she's not too worried about candidates wrecking the garden. They're not ovines, after all.
X'hil chuckles. "And wine." he says, with an amused shake of his head. Quite a lot of booze in those cakes, and rolls, and jerky. At the laptop suggestion, he grimaces. "It'd get sand in it. I mean, I don't do paperwork /on/ the sands, but the galleries get sandy enough." And, well, being Weyrleader means that Kinseth won the leadership flight, which means that Kinseth has sired a clutch, which means that a portion of X'hil's days, from now until he is no longer Weyrleader, will be devoted to the sands. Exciting. This revelation seems to have only just hit him, and he sighs. Kinseth will be happy, at least… "Mmhmm, Sable Sands has food too. Last time I was in Ista, I didn't really have marks to spare, at all. I was just an unpaid apprentice." And bronzerider, and here for a clutch Kinseth had sired. "So, I've not really eaten there, but I've /heard/ it's good." And Ista is a little more restrictive regarding alcohol, so they'd have to branch out, for the marks.
"Yea, that's one thing they ain't so useful for," Cenlia nods in agreement about sand. "'S why Eled won't let me fiddle with his; thinks I'm gonna get dirt in it or something," and she rolls her eyes. "Food's good," the gardener girl states, apparently not really in any hurry to leave Ista. She does tilt her head at X'hil, "You been in Ista before?" And then she snickers, "An' now yer the weyrleader. Shards, how'd ya land the knot before the flight? Ya didn't get weyrwoman Ysa drunk, didja?" She gives him a suspicious look. Hey, she's seen him do it before!
X'hil was sober. Ysa wasn't. And there /was/ a trip to the infirmary involved. But the man shakes his head. "Wrong place, wrong time. Wanted to talk to the Weyrwoman about the, er, Xanadu 'guests'… Somehow we wound up in the infirmary. The previous acting Weyrleader was there. Old man. Heart attack. He recovered, but, not before he was replaced. I was there, I was younger, fitter, and I'd been weyrsecond… Kinseth encouraged me to accept." He retells it honestly enough, though with a certain bluntness, he wishes it had gone differently, that the Weyr hadn't even needed another leader. X'hil sighs, and turns around, heading for the Sable Sands. "But yeah, we've been here once before. When we were living at Ierne. We'd joined up with the weavers, and ran odd jobs for marks, transport work, didn't earn much, but it was enough to get by. We were in Ista, and there … was a flight. Kinseth caught." There's a pause. "D'son impressed, that clutch."
Cenlia snorts, "Guests? Way Thea tells it, they was in jail." Funnily enough, the goldrider was also somewhat boozed when she mentioned it. Cenlia does tilt her head to listen about how X'hil got the knot, wrinkling her nose a bit, "Shards, you ain't got no luck, do ya?" And then she eyes him a moment before saying, "Or too much luck, dunno." The girl grins though, "Anyhow, /I/ think 's a good thing; dun gotta worry 'bout gettin' arrested when I come back to see A'dar. An weyrwoman Niva said you'd make a good weyrleader, anyways." So there. She follows to the Sable Sands, and just nods about D'son; she already knew about that, "Yea, K'ael told me. 'S wierd how all the dragons're related and stuff. Guess it ain't that much a surprise D'son became weyrleader, huh? Since Inimeth's got good.. breedin' or somethin'."
X'hil grimaces, but has to concede the point. "They /were/. I, I had nothing to do with that. But they didn't stay there much longer after that." After all, they're from Xanadu, and /he's/ from Xanadu. He'd never turn his back on his home. /Never/. "Oh, I have /lots/ of luck. It's just the wrong sort of luck." Like, say, getting a promotion, because your predecessor is laid up in the infirmary. Or winning a flight, only to get caught sneaking out as a result, have your knot taken away, and the clutch is a dud anyway. /Exactly/ that kind of luck. Still, he makes the best of it. "Mm, yeah. Kinseth tried, you know? Chased Kilaueth. He's from one of her clutches, from when C'ian was Weyrleader. And Kinseth's clutch here, his first clutch, it was with a retired senior. No doubt about those genes." Of course, in his mind - and Kinseth's - Kinseth has the /best/ genes. But Kinseth's children are /almost/ as great, which is high praise coming from Kinseth.