Xanadu Weyr - Hatching Sands
The large circular "stage" is surrounded on one half by a towering wall, thin slit windows high overhead letting in some light without truly endangering the objects on the sands, though plenty of lights are spaced at human-level all the way around. The other half is ringed by the dark blue seats of the observation level, rising upwards towards the back wall. The circle itself is filled with a mix of red and white sands, deep enough to cover the largest of dragon eggs with ease. To one side, a small door is visible, hidden away behind a platform meant to provide a place for the clutch parent's lifemates to stand during the on goings.
Sand-squatting: the sport that ever goldrider looks forward to. Where they can stare at the hatching grounds with their lifemates and guard eggs. "You think they're hard enough to touch /already/, love? Didn't ya jus' lay 'em?" Ysa was shifting on her feet, leaning close to the egg near the Kilaueth/Ellamariseth boundary line. It was afternoon and she was either waiting on lunch at the sands or had already taken it in the caverns earlier. Her own lifemate was flicking sand around the egg as she stares at it. "Let Kilaueth and Niva deal with those sharding candidates for now. You don't need 'em."
After twenty some-odd years of being a goldrider, eventually you manage to convince your lifemate that nothing is going to happen to her eggs if you wander off to get some food. And so, Niva has enjoyed a leisurely lunch, and is only now returning back to the hatching grounds, looking refreshed from her time outside in the the cool Xanadu winter. Of course, a leisurely lunch was necessary to calm down after Kilaueth had chased those darn candidates off the sands for failing to behave properly. Kilaueth, for her own part, is merely glowering at the younger gold as she's near to her own clutch, though at least there's no grumbling aloud, yet.
Ellamariseth only grows more and more grumpy when the Senior continues to run off the candidates. She glances up at the older gold to snort at before returning her attention to that one egg. Ysa notices the return of the other goldrider and waves her over. "Niva! Could ya do me the favor and tell this idiot gold of mine that her eggs are too soft to touch? Your Kilaueth's been here a sharding lot longer than her. It's not like those candidates the riders have been bringing in are worth your time, love," she comments last back to Ellamariseth, who drops her head again to blink at the riders.
Kilaueth just runs off the irresponsible ones. After all, there's no reason that those incompetent little children should be endangering /her/ offspring. Ellamariseth's? Maybe. Kilaueth grumbles a bit as Ellamariseth snorts at her, lifting her head before Niva's quickly moving to soothe her, and she's hearing Ysa's words. "They know best, Ysa.." Niva reminds her, a bit distracted as she carefully calms Kilaueth so that her eyes return to a simple blue and green mixture.
Ellamariseth calmly watches Kilaueth's reaction before tilting her head down to Niva. There's a satisfied rumble and she stretches her body out, forelegs caging in the one egg as she faces the Senior pair. Ysa frowns at her lifemate before shaking her head. "Kilaueth might," she grumbles. "There're a sharding lot of worthless candidates this time around, and a few of 'em that came from Faranth knows where! Leave those for Kila's clutch, I say." She nods back to the other pair. She turns to study Niva calming her lifemate, though she's smart enough not to get closer. Even if it's Ellamariseth that likes the antagonize the other queen.
Kilaueth turns to snort at Ysa, going so far as to snap in her general direction as she talks about leaving the worthless ones for her eggs. Niva's moving to sooth her again, rolling her eyes at Ysa. "You go Search, then. If the dragons bring them, they have something, even if it doesn't seem like it. Just.. have to whip them in shape." Perhaps she should reintroduce mandatory physical training for the candidates. "They're hard enough, whether you like it or not."
Ysa tries to look defiant even in front of the Senior's snapping jaws. But was that a flinch? Definitely. Ellamariseth lifts her head higher when her lifemate is threatened like that, pulling her lips back in a silent snarl towards Kilaueth. Her tail starts twitching and she stares at the bigger gold now. Ysa shakes her head towards Niva slowly. "Oh, I would. Except for the fact that I've got to be here with Ella most of the time, and with my family the other half of the time." And she squeezes work in there somewhere. "I think most of the dragons that bring 'em in must be defective, really. That tramp Neferennu's a candidate, did you know? She isn't sharding standing for /Ella's/ eggs, I'll tell you that. And I saw that that smithing traveler got himself a white knot, too." The candidates, these days. Ysa takes a step back either way, in case Kila got angry, and moves to put a hand on the gold's forearm.
Kilaueth would never actually hurt Ysa. Nor even come close to it, though a bit of intimidation now and then tends to do the trick. As Ellamariseth lifts her head, Kilaueth is quickly spreading her wings, hovering protectively over her eggs, and leaning as if to force the matter of exactly whose hatching grounds these really are. Engaging Ellamariseth in a staring contest, Kilaueth's rumble is more felt than heard in the grounds. "Maybe its that weyrmate of yours who's the tramp, not the girl." Niva suggests, innocently enough, even as she's rubbing Kilaueth's leg, and returning to the chilled wineskins kept on the platform.
Now that's just not fair. Ellamariseth goes to mimic Kilaueth, but only one wing pops out and the other makes her wince. "Don't move it," Ysa growls back to her lifemate, whose wing was still splinted from the fracture. The smaller gold has to settle with looking small on the sands but keeping her one egg protected quite well between her forelegs. She stretches her wing out as far as it'll go, but doesn't match the bigger gold's rumble. Instead, she's just staring still all the while. Her grounds, but Ella's definitely got herself a nice patch of rented sands. And she wasn't budging. Ysa's jaw visibly clenches at the Weyrwoman's remark and her eyes narrow just a fraction. "My weyrmate lost your flight. He's only got that little excuse, but at least he wasn't hanging around to purposely pick up the flight losers in a place he really shouldn't be." She hesitates in moving off the hot sands to the platform, especially having to follow Niva. But that wine was enticing.
Kilaueth seems to decide that Ellamariseth has gotten the point, and with an outstretched neck, she snorts once more at the junior gold before settling back down on her haunches, and going about rotating her eggs in the Sands as if nothing had happened. Lalala. "Its not as if he needed to take both of them." Oh, Niva knows exactly what R'miel did, and it seems is rather amused by the turn of events, even now. "After all, not everyone needs to find someone." Despite her obnoxious words, however, the senior is pouring a pair of glasses of wine, leaving one for the younger woman even as she sips at her own.
Stare. Stare. Staaare. Well, now that Kilaueth wasn't getting riled up, Ellamariseth was growing bored of it quickly. She closes her wing up slowly and then carefully moves the egg she had been guarding before turning her back on the Senior and returning her attention to the nine others she was ignoring before. There goes that twitch in Ysa's jaw as she stomps over to the platform, happy to get her feet off the hot sands. "No, not everyone needs to find one person. And I had to deal with that already. It's not like I can blame that sharding brownrider, since she didn't know better." Or rather, Ysa just didn't know her name or where she came from. "But if that wench thinks she can hang around a gold flight and follow someone home, that's just taking advantage of my idiot weyrmate. She's the worse one of the lot." Not that Ram was getting off easy, either.
"Didn't look like she was really following. More like.. taken with." Niva was still at least somewhat aware at that point, with Arinith exiting the flight early due to his own acrobatics. "But, maybe she'll find a nice little green of her own, so she'll be satisfied enough she won't have to try and take your weyrmate. Unless of course, he happens to win." Salt in the wound, perhaps. Settling down in one of the hanging chairs, Niva's sipping at her wine, as unperturbed at Ysa's growing irritation as Kilaueth was of Ellamariseth's. "But, they all have a reason for being here."
"And how would ya know while ya were wrapped up with R'sul anyway?" Ysa points out with a short glare. She finally takes up the wine, and nearly tosses the whole thing back immediately. This topic just made her want to drink and drink. "I can hope that she runs off with some other sharding rider after being left standing for your clutch and we wouldn't have to deal with another sharding horny greenrider around these parts." She gulps down the rest of the glass and holds it out for a refill. She barely even tasted the drink before she finished it off, her jaw still clenching as her nerves were pricked. "Arinith doesn't fly greens as often," she reassures herself. "And it's not reason enough. Don't we have a say who could stand for our eggs? There're definitely some fellows I'd rather toss back out to whatever Hold they came from…"
"Arinith didn't stand a chance. He was out, and Ram was gone, before Hesketh got close." And Niva was still expecting C'ian to show up. As the glass is held out, Niva eyes her for a moment, before reaching out to carefully fill the other woman's glass. "You can't kick her out." The senior says firmly, shaking her head with a look of exasperation, as she is actually enjoying her own glass of wine. "Besides. What if you'd been thrown back to whatever hold /you/ came from."
Ysa glances around the hatching grounds as if searching for the excuse. "I can't say I know what it's like to lose a flight, but I guess it's not just feeling horny and needing release but a bit more tension than that. Ram's an idiot, and he's weak." And she's still with him, of course, but her anger was really focused on one person now. She takes one big gulp of the second glass of wine, and then moves to sip it as if proving she wasn't just drinking it to get drunk to the Senior. Ysa heaves a big sigh and gives Niva a miserable look. "Ya sure I can't?" She waits a moment before shrugging her shoulders helplessly. "An' I didn't mean just her. There's a candidate that's as dumb as a pile of firestone. Hasn't been taught a thing with the Harpers and I think I trust Kate more than him." As far as her being tossed out… well, she did arrive to Telgar on suspicious terms, running away from Fort. But she wasn't going to mention that.
"I don't know either, but at least I've seen people have some sort of control." However, as Ysa calls Ram an idiot, Niva's only nodding in agreement, willing to go along with that assessment of the Weyrsecond. "I sometimes wonder if you lose all your brains, when you become 'second. Look at that thrice blasted one at Ista." Oh no, not this again. But then, as she's shrugging, and going on to whine about the other candidates, she shakes her head. "They were here for a reason. And, Kate has been nothing but perfect, I don't understand you."
"So have I. But what do we know, really?" Ysa doesn't, and that's why she takes another big gulp. There's a snort for the Weyrwoman when she brings up the other bronzer she's familiar with, smirking in her direction. "I wonder if that's just the problem, then. Maybe Weyrseconds just aren't getting enough work off the Weyrleaders to be tied down properly." She drops into a chair as well with a heavy sigh, shaking her head towards Niva. "It's all 'bout trust, Niva. Ya can't really let your guard down when ya /know/ someone's out there, thinking up of something that's bound to go down, somewhere on Pern."
"Maybe both the weyrseconds and the junior weyrwoman need more work." Niva replies, contemplating this option for a while with a soft hmmm, sipping at her drink. But then at Ysa's words, she's arching an eyebrow. "I hardly think that Kate is going to be the issue. Did you see how afraid of him she was?" Niva shakes her head, waving the glass a bit. "She'll make a great rider, I'm sure."
Ysa looks towards Niva at her comment and shrugs. "I really don't know a thing about Ista's junior weyrwomen. They might need some more work themselves, too. But so far it's always the Weyrsecond ya hear bad stories about." Xanadu juniors? Noo… Niva couldn't be talking about her! She lounges in the chair and finishes off the second glass with another loud sigh, turning to wave a hand towards the Weyrwoman. "I said I trusted her a little bit, didn't I? She's probably not all /that/ bad, but it's those other candidates I'm not thrilled about. The idiot. I'd rather Kate on a dragon than some of those we have no clue where they came from."
"Well, Ista's Junior's aren't my problem. You are." Niva smirks a bit at Ysa, clearly entertained by this prospect. Less work for her, and more for Ysa and Zevida! As the second glass is finished, Niva makes no move to fill it back up, having decided herself that the other goldrider has had more than enough for now, and is instead shaking her head. "Have you even bothered to ask them where they are from?"
Ysa gives Niva a wide eyed innocent look. "/Me/? Shells, I was just getting some of your paperwork done 'fore I got here! If there's anyone that needs work, it's that Zevida to pick up the slack now that Ethne left." She gives her head a slow shake and a few tsking. She stares at her empty glass with a frown befor looking at the Weyrwoman. If she wasn't going to get a refill, she could at least give her those miserable eyes. "I did. The stupid one is a Smithy, but travels a lot he said. Or something along those lines. Kinda suspicious sounding to me. I haven't had a chance to speak with the others, though."
"Sure you were.. we all have to pick up her slack." Not that a lot of it hadn't already been taken up, as the junior gold had taken on more and more responsibilities with the dragonhealers, and less with the Weyr herself, even before her transfer. Despite the miserable eyes, there's still no refill, and Niva's shaking her head. "If you haven't talked to them, its your own fault."
"And now we're down one less dragonhealer that might have been any good as well as a junior." Because Ysa definitely gave that one paperwork when she wasn't healing dragons. And now that left Ellamariseth to be more likely to be tended by that idiot apprentice she wasn't fond of. Still her glass was empty, and Ysa was beginning to feel the thirst. She licks her lips and sneaks glances to Niva's skin. "Have ya talked to any of 'em? Or maybe R'sul? There should be interviews with everyone coming into the Weyr. Afterall, ya didn't believe me the first time I told ya something wrong was happening."
"Her skills are better use there, than here. And, well… with Mellonath not clutching properly.." Niva has opinions on those juniors not helping the Weyr's population. Niva's own glass is topped off, before she's reluctantly offering the skin to Ysa with a sigh, shaking her head. "I'm sure they're fine. I mean, they're just a bunch of kids, and they're too nervous to do much but their chores."
"That gold of hers had been having trouble for awhile now, hasn't she? At least she's got a Healer as a lifemate…" Ysa shrugs both her shoulders again, only to grin widely as she gets the skin from the Weyrwoman. She quickly fills up her glass, takes a swig from the skin itself, and then finally passes it back. "Thanks. And how about our youngest. Avaeth? She's had just a few eggs each time, too. Though this one has been Ella's largest clutch so far; second time she's caught by a bronze, though." So that's taken into consideration. At the excuse for the candidates she runs her free hand over her hair and nods. "I guess so. 'm keeping an eye on the lot, though."
"Last few. She was blaming the bronzes, though clearly both of them have sired healthy enough clutches.. After this last one, there really was no ignoring the fact, anymore." Niva shakes her head, grimacing as Ysa takes a drink straight from the skin. "Shards, Ysa. Use a glsas." She mutters, sighing and shaking her head. "Smaller clutches are the norm. I doubt we'll ever see another clutch of fifty or sixty.." Niva sighs a bit, as if she wishes she could have seen that.
Ysa frowns at the Weyrwoman. "The sires? Arinith is definitely /not/ a defective sire, I'll tell ya that. We'll leave that to Mellonath, now." There was more than a defensive tone to her voice for the bronze clutchfather of her own clutch. She liked the bronze dragon too, afterall. "'m using a glass," she says with a smirk, raising her own. "I was just giving the wine a taste. Kind of tastes different from the skin than from the glass." She chuckles and then nods. "Oh, it is. 'm just used to Ella having four or five when she was caught by browns, not by bronzes. And if all our golds clutch together, we might nearly have a big enough clutch." But there's a wishful sigh as she looks around the huge hatching grounds, imagining what fifty would have been like.
"Just keep the skin." Niva sighs with an exasperated sigh, passing it back to her, and shaking her head, even as she's leaning back in her seat. "Each gold, rising twice turn.. Fifty or sixty eggs… We don't even see that in a whole turn.." And then, she considers this, shaking her head. "Though, not that I'd want to fight thread." So, perhaps its better to take the smaller clutches, and just the occasional crazy cultist.
"Shells, Niva. It's not like I poisoned it or like I have some sort of sickness." Ysa rolls her eyes at the older woman but takes back the skin nonetheless, tucking it next to her side. "Twice a turn?" She repeats in surprise with a big gulp of her drink. "Faranth… I can't even get used to once a turn." She frowns and thinks over that idea for awhile before she gives a short nod. "Yah, I'd imagine it was a really tough time. There was a reason they were laying that many eggs, afterall. But that's what dragons were bred to do. Must've been a /bit/ exciting." She winks to the other woman, but doesn't sound too regretful to have been born in the wrong time as she leans back in her chair.
"I think I prefer my weyrmate in one piece and alive, and not having to deal with those idiot holders anymore than we have to. Could you imagine what they'd be like?" Niva shakes her head, sighing softly. "They're bad enough without death raining from above." And then, Kilaueth is turning to rumble at Niva, and the weyrwoman is reluctantly moving to get up. "Speaking of weyrmates.." Niva excuses herself, pausing to give her gold a reassuring pat, before she's heading off to find out what C'ian needs.
Ysa chuckles again to the Senior before nodding. "Oh, me too, definitely. And myself in one piece, because the golds weren't always free from danger either. Exciting, I said, but I'd rather have it stuck in books and records than in the skies." There's a wry grin at the mention of the Holders and another agreeing nod before her attention turns to Kilaueth. Ellamariseth also looks up curiously, but it's Ysa that raises her glass in parting to the Weyrwoman. "I'll see ya 'round, Niva," she calls after her.