Xanadu Weyr - Thea's Weyr
This clearing is sheltered by a thick canopy of trees, which seems supported at its centre by an immense, wild-growing fellis tree. Hanging from one of its high branches is a swing, made up of two ropes and a seat of softwood and leather. The grass is tall here and interrupted in places by clusters of white and blue alyssum. Alyssum covers the indentation of the wallow, remaining hardy despite being continually crushed. The constant sound of herdbeast in their pens can be heard close-by, though its source is invisible through the foliage.
The cottage itself is made of white softwood, like birch, though creeping vines cover all four of its walls from the outside and even encircle the brown-shuttered windows and matching door. The interior floor and walls are raw wood that has been sanded and lacquered to make them smooth and, for the most part, the inside is quite spacious. The bedroom area is plain, an ornately carved wardrobe providing the only real decoration, and at the rear of the cottage a brown lattice has been built into the doorway to a makeshift kitchen, where a breakfast nook has been carved into the wall, along with short counters. On one counter, a circle has been cut out and fixed with a clay-fired bowl with a nearby matching pitcher.
Late afternoon has Seryth back in her clearing and asleep once more, exhausted after her flight. The bronze is nowhere to be seen, apparently he has returned with his Rider to their own Weyr. It's a now-sober and grumpy-looking Thea who has made it from the bathing caverns and back to her own weyr, where she now sits brushing the tangles from her dark hair. Dressed in tunic and trous of emerald green, light shoes upon her feet, someone isn't dressed for a trip to Ista. Obviously.
D'had was looking for her, but word from Siebith has him returning once he knows she's back home. Safe and sound. There's a light wrap on the door of warning a second before he enters still muttering to himself.
Thea pauses in her brushing as D'had enters, "You don't have to knock, Donn." Her voice holds a hint of irritation, though not aimed at him. Her brush once again attacks those tangles as she peeks between long dark strands, watching him closely from behind this sort-of curtain. His muttering has her a bit wary. "Something wrong?"
"I know, just like you ta know someone's coming in," D'had explains, striding across the space in her direction. "You're not still wantin' ta go ta Ista, are you?" As long as she says no, things might be better.
"But you're not just someone." Thea assures him with puzzlement coloring her words. "You've… been living here too?" Her lips quirk into a tiny teasing grin at his question, her hair left concealing her face for the moment. "If I say yes will you take me there?" There's now a decided ripple of mischief in her tone.
"No," D'had replies sharply, not quit snapping at her for that teasing. "Still have no idea why you -had- to go." It was a pain in his ass. No, SHE was a pain in his ass over that. "Dunno why you had ta go with him either." Grumble.
Thea blinks at that sharp tone, one hand sweeping damp strands of hair out of her face to see him better. For a long moment she just regards him, all the dance gone from her eyes as her smile fades. Her chin tilts unconsciously as her back stiffens. "If it was such a pain for you, perhaps you'd prefer not to bother with me any longer?" Her cool words are echoed by the ice flashing in her eyes, her tone dangerously calm, "Care to elaborate just who we are talking about now? Go with whom?"
D'had shakes his head, sinking down to sit beside her. "No, no, you're just -very- stubborn sometimes is all." As for who, it didn't take him long to find out which bronze flew Seryth. Gold flights after all are things that quite a few pay attention to. "That sharding bronzer."
Thea's shifting away from him, her face registering surprise and some hurt to go along with it, "I'm… sorry. Next time I'm proddy you can just…" She turns away, "Just… lock the door and come back when it's all over." His last words have her twisting back to him, pain lacing the shadowed green of her eyes, "You're upset." Her lips press together in a flat, unhappy line.
D'had shakes his head again. "Sorry babe. Not your fault." He knows that. "Ain't mad at you or anything." He's just not dealing well. "Disappointed," he corrects. But upset might work just as well. "Glad you're feelin' yourself though."
The surprise and hurt on Thea's face is replaced by a wary expression. She keeps her distance, "I'm… you seem like you are mad." She cannot know what's going through his mind, but that one word 'disappointed' has her eyes widening just a bit with an unreadable expression shuttering the pain from him. She rises in one swift movement, backing away from him like a wild thing wounded, brought up short by the dresser behind her. For a long minute she stares at him, finally whispering, "What have I done to merit that?" What did she do? One could almost see she's trying to understand, floundering and missing what is wrong.
D'had isn't doing well is he. "Nothin', ain't your fault." He's jealous, that's what it is, even if there's little reason to be. "Just forget I said anything. Alright?" he's standing, moving towards her with an uncertain partial smile. "Go for a walk with me?"
Thea cannot read his mind. He's walking toward her? She begins sidling away, her face set and white. "You said disappointed. What did I do?" Her vice cracks on that last word. All the while moving out into the open space in the room where she can continue to back away from him. "You -told- me it would be alright. This is… not alright!" Her eyes flash with unshed tears. "Talk to me!"
D'had stops, given that she keeps trying to back away, not to mention that look on her face. It seems best. "Sorry babe. I just… I dun like him very much. I'll get over." Its still just fresh in his mind, which doesn't make it easier. "I got somethin' I wanna show you. Lets walk?"
Thea eyes him from across the space between them, all trust for the moment gone from her face. No, there's nothing but confusion there. "But…it was a flight?" She looking at him in disbelief, "I… didn't choose him." She shakes her head, baffled, undone. "I… I didn't have any -choice- in the matter, Donn!" His attempt to seemingly brush the subject aside and get her to walk with him meets no response. His strange and unexpected behavior finds her trembling; She couldn't be more stunned if he'd slapped her.
"I know," D'had sighs, sinking back to a seat on the edge of the bed once again. Elbows rest on his knees then, forehead pressed to his hands. "If it'd been anyone but him…" he shakes his head. "I'm sorry sweetheart," he continues, turning chin up to look towards her, offering up a smile he hopes to be as apologetic as it can be. "Didn't mean to upset you. It's alright. I promise."
Thea hesitates at those words. "Why's it matter?" She shrugs, "I honestly don't remember a thing." There's a blink of concern for him when he sits and buries his head in his hands. "Would it have been better if it were someone you liked?" Somehow this makes no sense to her. At his words of apology, she silently holds out her arms to him.
D'had shakes his head, "It don't anymore," he assures. "Its done and over and it ain't no one's fault.” "Maybe.." He pushes back to his feet, crossing the room to step into those outstretched arms. "Last night was hard. But it's okay. Really. Now about that walk…"
Thea's arms curl around D'had, her head buried in his shoulder, "Flights aren't easy for me either, you know." She holds him tight, "Please…" She lifts her head, searching his eyes, "It's -you- I chose. You I came back to." Seeking to assure him, perhaps needing some herself, "It's you I want. You I love." She peers at him, "You're all sudden in a walking mood then?" Someone knows very well how to confuse a girl, "Alright, let's walk then."
"I'm just glad you didn't manage to sneak off to Ista," D'had replies, a hint of teasing hidden in his tone. "Love you too babe," he returns, giving her a quick kiss at her agreement to that walk. Turning, he takes a hand to lead her out. It's not a terribly long walk in the direction of the coast.
Coastal Road
This coastal road runs parallel with the edge of beach that stretches endlessly beside the Caspian Lake. From coast to inland the dunes of the beach grow smaller and smaller until they eventually peter out into nothing but small moguls in the sand. The path is eventually seen to be blocked by a river that reaches the lake just south of the point where the road turns west and crosses a grassy meadow towards a sturdy wooden bridge that can be seen in the distance.
Thea laughs softly, a faint smile curving her lips, "Yeah, about that. Dunno why it was so important that I wanted to go there." She returns his kiss, flickering an uncertain look into his dark eyes before turning to walk beside him. She's quiet as they walk, lacing her fingers with the hand that holds hers, but lost in troubled thought, allowing him to fill the silence if he wishes.
“You were very .. persistent," D'had says with a bit of a chuckle, relaxing back somewhat once they get outside, but then its not complete relaxation either. He pauses as they near wherever it is he has in mind, coincidentally not so far from his own weyrbarn. "Close your eyes."
"Hmm, I'm sure I was; it's my nature to be so." Thea nudges him with a shoulder. "Too bad for you I wasn't thinking of something besides Ista, huh?" She flickers him a half-veiled look through her lashes at the slight tension in him - it's a perplexed glance. What is he up to? "Close-?" She complies, closes her eyes, a slight smile of bemusement upon her lips.
D'had chuckles. "Might have liked that," he agrees mildly amused at that. "Close," he repeats at that question, smiling in that smirking way of his when she complies. "No peeking." That said, he's leading her by both hands. She might have a clue by their direction, but then he's making sure to try and throw her off. "Step up," he warns given the porch and then the sound underfoot changes and he's pushing on door open, leading her inside and into a second. Stepping out of the way she'll be in the new bedroom doorway, facing into the room. "Okay. Open."
Siebith's Weyrbarn *
Covered in rough, weathered wood, aged by the weather and the sun, the irregular grayed clapboards outside of this weyrbarn lend the place has a rustic, masculine charm. White shutters and window boxes overflowing with brightly-hued tangles of flowers on the lower windows and flowering vines twine about the supports for the porch overhang add a feminine touch, softening the stark stone steps leading to it.
The worn stone floor of Siebith’s area is just inside the large sliding door. The living area of the weyrbarn has an open, airy layout gives the utilitarian, bachelor-like plain white-washed walls and simple hardwood floors a sense of wide open spaces. A sturdy mahogany-toned table with chairs that somehow manage to match despite their variety accent the earthy, wooden tones of the kitchenette. The same dark reddish hues are in the door at the far side of the barn, as well as in the low-slung coffee table in front of the plush, worn couch. Dusky sea-blue rugs are scattered here and there. Dark golden curtains hang on either side of the many windows and partition off the loft up above, led to by a black wrought iron set of ladder-like stairs. Lilies arranged in glass vases on the tables provide a crisp of white counterpoint to the dark wood tones.
A new addition, the bedroom has walls of the same plain white, but the floors are made of newer wood, still shiny with polish. A four-poster bed of the same red mahogany takes up the most of one wall of the small space, a blue-and-cream linen coverlet spread on the wide mattress. A set of wooden bureaus take up the bulk of the wall opposite while another wall has been painted upon in the very center with a seascape mural, its crisp blue waters and sandy shores. The final wall is graced by a feminine-looking writing desk stacked with papers and bedecked with knick-knacks. Over the bed, a set of stained-glass windows allows golden-brown light mingled with white whorls and blue haze to shine into the room with the rising of the sun, though both panes are able to be unlocked and swung wide to accept lake breezes.
Thea hasn't been paying attention where they are except that they're beside the lake. "You might've thought of that instead of simply growling at me about what did I want to do." She says this through closed eyes, a smirk of her own upon her lips. "Alright, no peeking," she answers him with baffled amusement. Her foot lifts and she's stepping up obediently, following where he leads. When he says open, she does and it's with a blink of surprise she scans the room. "Where are we?" Because she can't see the rest of the place behind him and yes, she's had a trying few days herself.
D'had chuckles. "I was tired?" he offers as a bad excuse, grinning to himself as he finishes leading her in. That question of where is met with a smirk. "Your new bedroom," he replies, correcting himself. "Our bedroom. You like it?" a touch uncertainty creeping back into his voice.
Thea flashes a startled glance at D'had, "Our…?" She squeezes his hands before gently withdrawing them and stepping further into the new room, turning in place to take it all in. Her fingers trace the coverlet, one of the posts to the bed, eyes lifting to the stained glass windows then back to him, eyes shining in a dazed sort of wonder. "You did all this?" She steps back to him, looking earnestly up into his face, assuring him, "I do. It's…lovely." Another look at the dark furniture, the painting on the wall. "How… where did you get all this?" Back to him, her delight is obvious by the smile, the sparkle in her eyes.
D'had waits with that continuing uncertainty. "Well not all of it." He did get people to do most of it though. "Found some, bought some.” However he did it, he got it and now its here. "Finished it yesterday, but.." Well they both know how yesterday went. "Its alright though?"
"But you made it happen," Thea quirks a funny sort of confused smile at his uncertainty. "Donn, it love it! It's more than alright." Her eyes sweep the room once more, admiration in her tone, "I didn't expect anything so fancy." She laughs, adding, "The couch was wonderful because you were there." Ice green eyes return to his dark brown with concern, "I've been looking forward to this. Don't you believe me?"
"You deserve it," D'had replies, hands finding hers to give them a light squeeze. "The couch was okay for me. After I saw your place…" Well Cold Stone Hold isn't anything like the ship he grew up on even if it is a minor holding. "Course I believe you, but if there's anything you wanna change, you change it."
Thea shakes her head, a gentle smile on her lips, "I wouldn't change a thing. You did this." Her voice is full of pride for him as eyes once again sweep the room. "That means more than any of the fancy stuff my da paid for." She squeezes his hands in return. "The only thing I'd change is to have you happy always." Another searching look at him, picking up traces of lingering… something in him. "I intend to see to that, however I can."
D'had chuckles, "Yeah.. well you still deserve it." That said he sends his own secondary glance around the room. "Ya know… we could break in the bed if you wanted to start on that," he comments with a wink.
Thea tilts her head up at him with a laugh rising in her throat, "Oh, we could, could we Weyrsecond?" Ignoring that bit about her deserving, she rises on tiptoe to kiss his cheek, and whisper, "Thank you." And then? She pulls away, backing up with mischief in her eyes and takes a flying leap for that bed, sprawls upon it to haul a pillow down towards her and lobs his way. That's what he meant by breaking in the bed, right?
Our thanks to Sigam for describing the inner weyr <3