Xanadu Weyr - Meadow
A large, slightly rolling meadow is set high enough above the riverbank on both sides to avoid suffering from flooding, healthy ground cover and grass spreading out from either side of the dividing river. Scattered amongst the meadow are a variety of weyrs, each with a narrow path leading up to it from a main, winding road. Some are set under a few trees, while others sit by themselves.
Runner stables with the paddock beyond are to the south beyond the meadow weyrs, a smithy and a woodcraft shop are settled closer in towards the path to the clearing, while trees border the western edge of the meadow, and a faint outline of a stone wall and low rolling hills can be seen to the north. Wagons laden with felled trees from the forests to the southwest or ore from the mountains to the southeast are hauled by burden beast up the road through the meadow, over the bridge spanning the river to be processed in the appropriate workshops.
Spring has finally .. heh, sprung unto Xanadu. The snow has melted, with only small patches left here and there amongst the sea of green that makes up the meadow. Flower buds have emerged, and a few have already bloomed to welcome the new season. Petals of white and yellow dot the field, though the largest eye-catcher isn't the picturesque field itself but the girthy bronze dragon that lounges in it. Grass has been flatted beneath his weight, though Kanekith cares little for that as he sprawls, sunbathing and snoozing. Nearby, another is sprawled lazily out, though he's considerably smaller than the gleaming bronze. Ka'el lays on his own back, spread eagle, with his eyes upon the sky, following the slow trail of a puffy white cloud. He's sans riding gear, dressed in a long-sleeved light blue tunic and dark trousers with boots on his feet, though he does have riding goggles settled upon his head and away from his eyes. The mid-afternoon sun is high in the sky, and the temperature is still a bit cool when the wind blows, warm when it's still.
Staring at the sky as he is, and with his dragon snoozing, perhaps they'll both miss the arrival of a slim woman, who, from a distance, looks rather more like a blob on stilts due the bags she has slung about her person. Arabet comes trekking up from the direction of the docks, a few large bundles strapped to her back and a smaller bag jostling beside her hip as she attempts to navigate the path made least soft and muddy by the spring melt. A hand comes up to tuck the dark hair from her face as it's blown about by the wafting breeze and, not all that far from Ka'el and his lifemate, she comes to a pause to get her bearings with a squint across the sunny meadow. And also to let a cool eye skim over the supine form of the man in the grass.
Kanekith remains quiet, his sleep sound. Ka'el shifts on the grass, moving one sprawled arm behind his head to use as a makeshift pillow as his sky gazing continues. Up to a lot of nothing, this one, which tends not to happen often around here. But oh, when it does, it is a glorious thing! Absolute laziness is written on his face. Or perhaps that's contentment? Whichever the case, he's the picture perfect image of a man with nothing but time on his hands, made even more perfect with the yawn that interrupts his glazed stare. The deep breath is exhaled, and with it his eyes wanders to the side, causing his head to turn as well, cheek settling lightly against his upper arm. There's the usual things to see. Someone is exiting a distant weyr. Down a road, a wagon is being drawn by a runner. And somewhere nearer there's a misshapen bush… No. Make that a person with lots of bags. He blinks, halfway sitting up to get a better look, then all the way up upon noticing the person is a woman. Unfamiliar, at that. "Need help?" he calls in offer, glancing over her load.
For a beat, Arabet just meets his eye, her face expressionnless, as if perhaps she hasn't heard him. And then a twitch of consideration tightens at her cheek and her glance moves off in the direction of the Weyr. Unhurried, all of it. But just when it seems she might decline answering altogether, her boots start moving again, closing the distance a little more so that she doesn't have to lift her voice too much to reply. "I need to see someone about a room." Her steady gaze has returned to Ka'el, or perhaps more specifically the squashed grass that's visible now that he's shifted position.
Hmmm. Ka'el continues to sit as he awaits her answer. And … awaits her answer … And awaits her answer some more. Maybe she didn't hear him? He's deciding that another shout may be in order, a little louder this time, but then she's starting towards him, erasing the thought that she's a new realistic statue that's been added as meadow decor without him noticing. She even speaks! "…A room?" He rises now, briskly dusting out his trousers while nearby Kanekith makes a low rumble in his throat. "Suppose you'll be wantin' the… Headwoman for that?" he says, or rather asks, as he isn't too sure of just how honest he's being with just who she could turn to for her room. "..Got anywhere else to stay til then? Word has it she's been..busy, so she might not get to ya soon."
She confirms, yes, a room, with just a dip of her chin, hair tossing lightly across her face — and this time without her hand being bothered to corral it. The man might stand and brush himself off, but it's the dragon, with his rumble, that gets her eye now, and continues while she nods again that she should probably see the Headwoman. It probably seems like her words have run dry already when his final query begins to get a shake of her head, but, finally, a proper expression starts to curve her mouth into a wry smile. "I don't." Have anywhere else to stay. And so a brow lifts as Arabet cuts her glance from Ka'el across the meadow again. She's open to ideas. Or at least being pointed in the right direction.
Blue eyes sweep in the direction of his bronze, but the bronze shows no signs of being wakeful, and thus Ka'el's attention sweeps back to the apparent traveler. "Just lookin' at you makes my back hurt," he remarks with a faint smirk that curves a single edge of his mouth. "Y'need help other than securin' a room? I can show you the caverns," he says, nodding his head in the general direction that they can be found, "though it'll be less've a trip with a bit of a load off," is added with a fractional lift of his brows.
A beat of closed eyes paired with her sly grin seems to indicate some amount of acceptance of her burden. But Arabet does roll her shoulders around beneath the straps, the bulky shape of the bundles at her back rising and falling. She turns another look at Ka'el, this time her smile a bit more even, perhaps grateful, as she flicks her glance over his face rather shamelessly. "Thank you." She starts a sideways step, but just one, to see if he's ready to lead the way. And also because it's a complicated thing to unwind the layers of straps to release one bag from her back so she can hand it over to him. The pack she offers up is a rather light thing, but nonetheless has left some dents in the leather of her jacket. There's a bit of fur lining to that jacket, too warm for this sunny day and leaving her cheeks with a touch of overheated flush, a bit of a sheen across her brow. "Do you know if they let rooms?" she wonders.
The next steps he takes brings Ka'el closer to her as opposed to start off on their adventure to find a room. He needs bags first, and he wholly expects to be handed over man, being the strapping young man that he is. And thus, the measly thing that he is given if eyed with some amount of disappointment, the weight lighter than expected or able to carry, though she doesn't seem to be looking to offer him much further than that. Thus, the thing is hoisted over his back and he starts off through the meadow, tossing a look to Kanekith, and likely also sending him some unheard message. After hesitating long enough to assure that she's ready, he guides her through the meadow of emerging green and disappearing snow. His pace is a meandering one, perhaps still not fully out of his lazy mindset from moments ago, which perhaps also kept him blind to the extra attention that was given to the features of his face. But, he's never been the overly observant type. "Not just landed, are you?" he asks with a glance to her. "Would've noticed the transport dragon comin'. There're usually rooms open. Probably one waitin' empty right now if you're lookin' to claim one. People come an' go all the time. We'll get you fixed up, don't worry. .. Name's Ka'el, by the way."
The meandering pace suits Arabet just fine, giving her a chance to cast her gaze this way and that across the vista of open space, the gleam of new green beneath the remaining piles of melting snow. And as they walk, she does pull her glance in to travel over Ka'el and whatever bits of fresh grass might still be clinging to his trousers. "I came by ship," she explains. Hence the lack of dragon-unloading. But his assurances win another smile, a little wan about the edges, but a smile nonetheless. "Arabet." That's her. "What do you do?" she wonders, hands hitching up onto the straps of the bags she still has, bangles poking out from her wrists at odd angles from the pressure. There is a quick glance back toward the dragon, because yes, she realizes that the bronze is his. So the question must mean something more.
"..Huh," he chuckles. "S'not a question that's asked much. I fly," is Ka'el's easy answer, giving her a sidelong grin. "I work Galaxy here. Search an' Rescue wing of Xanadu." He nods his head towards the bronze. "Kanekith," he introduces. "Trust me, he's usually more to look at, but with winter gone an' a rest day on us, he's doin' the smart thing and takin' advantage." Lucky for Ka'el who won't have to try to rein in his bronze's blatant flaunting of himself whenever new faces are met. "I also smith a bit," he says with a grin, pausing that train of thought a bit to nod greeting to a passing resident, continuing after. "Apprenticed in the craft before Kanekith came along. Never could give it up entirely, y'know? When somethin's in your heart.." He gives a shoulder a vague shrug. "An' you?" he asks, turning the question over. "Jus' arrived by ship. From the looks've it, lookin' to stay," he says with a pointed glance to her bags of stuff. "What's bringin' you here?"
Arabet lifts a brow aside at him, her smile creeping sly again, just as bemusedly surprised that it's a question he doesn't often hear. "Search, rescue, smith. And no one ever asks?" Now there's something else in her calm blue gaze as it moves over him, some hint of curiosity. "I was ready for a change," she says, her exhale a little heavier as she looks forward again. "I trade." Absently, a hand slips from her straps to reach into the bag at her hip, but more consciously it pulls out again without anything in its grasp. Instead she opts just for fingering a few of the necklaces that hang down her chest. "Do you rescue many people?" There's a knowing curl at the corner of her mouth.
Ka'el chuckles, bobbing his head once in answer. "Likely because most already know," he says. "An' those who don't don't stick around long enough to wonder. Comin' and goin' on business and whatever else doesn't leave much time for talk. Unfortunate for them," he remarks with a crooked smirk. "I think I'm worth gettin' to know." Their lazy walk continues on through the meadow til the grasses begin to get shorter and traffic slightly less light. Xanadu is a busy place in the middle of the day, and the clearing is a hotspot for dragon landings and people shuffling about. He continues on with her, nodding ahead. "It's just up a ways," he remarks off-handedly. "And change is … yeah. I get that," he agrees. "Especially if you're a trader. I won't bother gettin' to know you too well as I've never known a trader to stick around for long," he says, his grin lightly teasing now, even as he sees that hand reappear from her pocket empty-handedly. Her question has him laughing. "Including or excludin' practice dummies?" he grins. "Sorry to say I don't have any grand rescue stories under my belt yet. People have been livin' cautious lives since I was tapped in, I guess. Give me another turn and maybe then I'll have a tale." Perhaps a daring sea rescue or near-death experience! "Where do you come from?"
The busy clearing means all the more for Arabet to observe; which she does, taking it all in with a jaded eye that avoids going wide with innocent interest. But she looks: at those people over there discussing something and pointing at a dragon's talons. To a cart loaded with something, being pulled toward somewhere. All the outbuildings with their doors and people moving through them. At 'up a ways', she casts her sights ahead again, trying to pick out where they're headed, but seeming comfortable in letting Ka'el lead the way. She'll discover where soon enough. And meanwhile, he catches her. She's about to take his not-bothering at face value, a blink toward him, only to discover that he's grinning at her. And she grins back, even indulging him with a low chuckle. As she listens to the expected tale, one without any grandiose drama or glory, her forefinger slowly winds the thin leather thread of a necklace around and around. She might have more to say on the subject of his rescuing, but instead, when she finds her voice again, a rather throaty thing, she says, "Everywhere." The slow spread of another smile knows exactly how oblique that answer is, imbues the simple word with a toying weight. "Native?" she asks of him.
"That's a large place to come from," muses Ka'el at her answer, her smile met with a bemused smirk. "Traders.." he concludes with a chuckle. "Never can claim one place, eh? 'From anywhere and everywhere' is what I always get. Vague as vague can be." A laugh. "It's either that or 'no place at all'. I'd rather take your answer than that one. Everyone's from somewhere. I," he continues on to answer her question, "have lived here for turns, but not born here in the weyr proper. Black Rock .. was my home." His grip upon her bag tightens and untightens lightly as he looks ahead, eyes following a group of young weyrbrats as they skitter across the clearing. His gaze grows momentarily distant, unfocused as if lost in a daydream. It lasts only a moment, this unfocused staring, and afterwards he gives his head a brisk shake. "And that's how a rest day is cut short…" he begrudgingly muses to himself before shaking his head, as if that'll clear it of less than pleasant thoughts. "M'sorry," he offers to the young woman, steps slowing as he unhooks the bag from his back to offer it back to her. "I've to head back for Kanekith. Maybe someone'll need rescuin' today after all." Or, maybe someone drank too much the previous night and needs Ka'el to cover his midday shift. He points his free hand to the opening of a cavern a little bit aways. "There's the Caverns. The admin hallway's there. Ask for the headwoman or steward, and they'll get you situated, alright?" He smiles at her, his expression genuinely warm. "Well met, Arabet. Welcome to Xanadu."
There's a teasing bounce of Arabet's eyebrow as he muses about everywhere, her smile getting just a bit quietly smug. She has a little nod for the name of his own home, but it's the distant look he gets that has her sighing out an accepting note. And she puts out a hand for her bag even before he's made his excuses. She swings it easily over one shoulder, letting it hang awkwardly for now. A swaying lean in toward him attempts to be exact about where he's pointing, her gaze following his hand toward the opening of the caverns. She turns back to him, still a bit close, and lingering there so she can say, "Thank you," with her eyes blatantly look over his face again. Only once she's back in her own space does she tug a cool smile onto her lips, chin lifted. "Good luck," she arches over at him for the prospect of a daring rescue being in the works. "I'll see you. Ka'el." It sounds like a promise. But she doesn't delay in being on her way. Who knows how long it could take to find this very busy headwoman.