Xanadu Weyr - Beach
The unerring range of subdued white rises and falls in a multitude of sandy dunes, creating an endless amount of tiny valleys constantly demolished and rebuilt by the frequent arrival or departure of a dragon. Smoothing out as it slopes gently to the edge of the deep blue water, the sand darkens and a shell here and there stands out for children to collect. The beach itself is set along a low cliff - the height lessoning as one heads eastwards, blocking a portion of the beach from direct access.
The wide wide stretch of water opens up to the east, the far distant shore way beyond the horizon and the beach curves ever so slowly round to east and west, distant arms of land embracing the wind-ruffled Caspian Lake. East leads up to the mouth of the Rubicon River, where the protecting cliff is merely an arms length higher then the sand, and beyond that, a winding road leading out of Xanadu's territory. Westwards, the beach narrows as the cliff swings out, leaving a path wide enough for dragons in single file before cutting in to the sheltered cove designated the Weyrling Beach. However, cut in the cliff face to the north are a variety of rough, wide staircases, providing access to the clearing and to the meadow.
Lorena leads the way down the path into the thick dark sand, composure that came with her uniform disguarded despite still being in the thing. It's evening… Technically Nalkor should be in the barracks about now, but hey, she's AWLM and abuses that apparently? Here she pauses for him, taking of her shoes which are obnoxiously useless items for a sailor, the way they are built. The cool autumn evening breeze is lovely on her skin, bordering on cold, given the temperature the sands had raised her to. "Well…" She muses. "Technically it's a lake… not the ocean. But it's salt water? The inlet is that way…" She points north, before turning around to face him.
The vintner hadn't wasted any time getting out off the sands, memories pulled to the forefront by several of the eggs he touched that night hadn't rested well within him. Troubled, he said little on his route with Lorena, letting her point out things if she wanted to or - walk in silence like him. The weather, he had to admit, was pleasant, tolerable; more of the normality in which he is complaisant with. Once on the beach, the man slows his gait, eyes wandering upward toward the night sky - tracing the dots down toward the woman in front of him. It pleased him that she was able to bend the rules for him, since the idea of being in so early meant him wide awake for several hours each night before the sleep took him. Fingers slide through his hair as he listens to her, not so interested in the water (ocean or inlet as it may be) since he's definitely watching her. A smile is one his face for her when she turns back to him…
Lorena looks shy to see him smiling at her when she turns around. She'd noticed his quietness. Perhaps out here was a better place to be more curious? If she could find a backbone perhaps. She wiggles her toes in the sand and fidgets with the wool fabric of her skirt a moment before an exhale. "So… you've been here a bit now…" She muses. "What do you think?" Yeah it's lame, but she's still hesitent. The look Zevida gave as they left wasn't much of a comfort. She could swear it was at both of them, no matter what he said. She chances a look at the water. The water at night was probably one of her favorite things.
The distance closes as he takes a few steps toward her, not touching but just making it a little more personal than having them stand vast distances apart. It looks as if this will be an intimate conversation regardless. Blue eyes watch the sway of her skirt flipped so by her hand, "I think it's a nice destination to wind up at," his voice quiet, only using as much pitch and tone to fill the distance still between their bodies. At last he adds, "Or wind down at, either way." The man isn't thinking in the least of Zevida - perhaps that's why she get so angry at him, because he couldn't care one oodle about her. "I'm sorry to have been a little short with you back there, in regards to my parents, I just don't feel the world needs to know who they are." A short smile, "I mostly just want to make my name for my name and not because someone else."
Lorena inhales a little as he gets closer, but finds herself slowly exhaling this breath as she listens, relaxing in the sound of his voice with a small smirk of a smile. "Mm… yeah…" Goes to the winding down concept as she again looks out to the water with a quiet sigh to her smaller frame. But his parents? Well that mentality bothers Lorena just a bit… but she doesn't yet voice why. "Perhaps the world doesn't -need- to know… but maybe it wants to? I know," She starts a bit shyly. "I would, if they're the reason you're here. For no other reason than that." Small flush barely visible in the starlight. The ambition, though, is attractive to the girl. "Besides… after a point, when you've made your name," A small smile at the phrase, "everything about you becomes important, whether you want it to be or not."
Unfortunately her reaction to him not exposing his private history makes him retort quietly, "I suppose it'd be easy enough to figure out…" his eyes sail over her shoulders toward the water, as he continues, "I was born in Benden, you see. My sire is impressed to a bronze. I've stood twice, just for his sake. I haven't touched eggs before though," he recalls the first experience with the beholden pink book egg. "Each time I was left to stand. My dam, was very much a woman who wanted to see results and if you didn't have them, well, you were as good as dead to her eyes. She's one of the weyrwoman up there, unfortunately. Though her daughter did well, my half sister, despite the Weaver Hall's troubles." A little cryptic, but better. Clearing the air as it were. "It's not so much a name that matters, but owning a lifestyle that you made your own.. and totally excepting it and everything that goes with it."
Lorena listens with much of a face of concern as anything else. But somehow she doesn't think that any sort of reaction with that would be quite fitting for him. So… she just nods. "I'm sorry… I was just curious." She admits, looking down at the sand a bit where she shifts her foot through them in an absent fashion. "The world doesn't always see it that way." She murmurs on the idea of lifestyles. "I mean, you're right…" She looks up. "But," A small shrug. "often names are lifestyles to other people. I'm pretty lucky in that reguard. But not so much with my brother. Always pegged for the color he rides. I guess my experiences are more in what I see than what I've experienced." Sigh. "It doesn't mean I like what I see though. Why do you think I try so hard with you all? You haven't even seen me with the weyrlings."
"You've a right to be curious," he admits, considering what moves he made on her the day she came to the Reaches and ended up searching him. He finds himself extending an arm for her to take, "Shall we take a walk?" almost more relaxed when moving than standing still. "You're right. The world is built of names and with a bad one, you'll struggle… Bitra's people know that best." If she takes his offered arm, he'll start them off down the beach, and if not, then he'll remain; either way he carries, "You don't like what you see?" A tilt of his head as if she's saying something about him, easily quipping in with yet another curious question, "What does your brother ride?"
Lorena smiles, sliping an arm in and around his, and nods. She follows his pace easily, shoes dangling from her other hand. "I've never been to Bitra." She muses. "Hear pleanty I suppose but some of it comes in one ear and out the other. I never was set up to be a captain like Matt… know all about all the holds… well… captain or Weyrleader." That earns a smirk at the sand which she watches as they walk. She glances up at him. "Bronze… Bronze Raenth, and T'eo, Weyrleader of Western." She declares in an over the top lyrical fashion. "I prefer 'Matt' still. But… well I guess… I don't like so much of the," She looks a little shy. "the… lack of respect for other people. You see it all the time on deck, with candidates with weyrlings… with riders. Any large group of people… but it seems to be a strong theme for me more recently than not. Between my brother and his relationship issues… and you candidates… I hardly see my old friends from the Oranna." Pause. "My brother's ship." She explains. "Oh dear," A frown comes over her. "I sound like I'm whining… I'm sorry."
Nalkor tucks his arm in close when she's slipped in her hand to rest there, his other flipping behind his back to rest the back of his hand on the small of his back. "Bitra. Hrm. Honestly enough, is a fun place to go if you've not a mark to your name. Worse if you do, since it makes you wonder whose trying to cheat you out of money up there." The muse of his own wears thin on that subject, as he turns quiet and respectful to listen to her. He says not a word about her brother until long after she's said her apologies and they've walked quite a distance from where they started. Thoughtful, the man eventually turns a response to her, "Weyrleader .. T'eo you say," he looks abashed, "I'm not up to date with what's going on down here in the South. For as long as I can remember, my interest was only in the North. Until now." His feet sink into the sand with each step taken, his gaze constantly scanning over the landscape - as far as the eye can see in the dark at least. "He doesn't respect other people or other people don't respect him—?" a necessary clarification to their conversation if he's to add anything upon it. A longer pause, "I've been giving you due respect, have I not?"
Lorena nods. "Yeah.. T'eo. It was, well, -relatively- recent I suppose." Her eyes drift from him out to the beachline. She knows this place well enough that evening doesn't make any effect on what she can see, if a phrase like that can make any sense. "Mm… him? Well… more… ugh it's complicated. I dislike complicated. More or less he's tired of getting pegged as a typical bronze rider because, well, he's not. Our family is important to us and I suppose his sense of morality is rather hard to believe for his position. It's sailorly, but also family?" See her reasoning for wanting to know. "And right now he's touchy about it… Because of L'alie and M'iri." She looks up at him again. "But that's a whole other story I don't even like knowing." She rests her head tentatively against his upper arm. "And yes… you have. Several have been. Just some… Well, I suppose I'm supposed to be the 'bad guy' to an extent, right? Make you all behave?" Like a parent. Pause. "How did I get mized up in so much drama?" Clearly this is not her thing. She stares at the ground some more as they walk.
Talkative to an extent, he's embellishes less about his family than anything he's ever spoken of before. He chooses to listen once more as Lorena attempts to explain her own family situation. At last, when she mentions him being of sailor bred and family oriented he quips in, "My father was the same way. He came from a large family and did the best he could for his kids. Myself included. But he was just too busy with what he had to do." A sigh at that. His childhood left him wanting. Listening again, he pulls his free arm around to put his hand on top of the one cupping his arm, patting it, "You're not supposed to be what everyone else in the position before you has been. Be who you are and people will respect you for it. If someone strays out of line, you don't have to rip them a new —" he stops himself before he says it, a quiet laugh added instead, "just pull them aside and tell them what's what. It only took me telling a few of the girls that they will be working for you and the other weyrlingmasters if they impress, to get them settled down. I found also, that a silent treatment worked .. a quiet disapproving look was all that was needed to keep some of my crew in line." He laughs at her last, "Drama? Hrm. You signed up for it, didn't you? You must have?"
Lorena listens aswell about his father an nods. "Ours… died. When we were young. And my eldest brother before that…" Pause. Frown. "And my mother before I came here. "Gee, never realized how depressing that was." She muses, but seems to shake this from herself when he touches her hand. He eyes raise again to him and she smiles docily. "well… sometimes I just get frustrated. But, well, I try not to yell if I can help it… it's just… training. That's how we are on deck. You do something wrong, you're yelled at and have some unpleasant duty for months. I'd rather just have everyone be happy and get along. I know that sounds silly, but I like it when everyone's pleasant more than anything else. But I guess with my jobs, yeah, I did sign up for it." Somehow she's still not sure how her life got this way, but while it might look daunting spelled out it she seems to be handling it alright. Her head goes back against his arm as they continue in the darkness, thoughtful.