Firelizards and Exploring the Loft

Xanadu Weyr - Garden

garden.jpg

An arch woven from the tendrils of a willow tree stretches overhead lightly creeping with ivy as one steps in from the meadow into this sanctuary of green. Cool gray flagstone carefully spaced enables a soft velvety moss to thrive within the cracks, and creates a single wide pathway that fluidly breaks off into two paths of stone once free of the natural arbor. It is a wonder this place, and meticulously tended from the way it seems not a single leaf is out of place. On either side of the main path expansive grassy patches are trimmed short and edged behind with natural tan colored stone selectively chosen to stack just right. Beyond these are a line of fine puffed shrubberies in vibrant green intermingled with flowering bushes of brilliant pinks varying in hue from the very light to the very dark, which causes the occasional snowy white blossoms of other scattered here and there without worry to simply pop out of the scenery.

Directly in the center of the garden is another wall of intricately stacked stone, this of muted grays, creating what from the air would prove to be a perfect circle. It's been set high for safety, but not so much as one would not be able to lean over it to admire what lies beyond, either standing or sitting at the smattering of benches whose backs are set every four feet along it. Flush to the ground inside it's protective stone outcropping, is an enormous twenty foot wide fish pond. Within one can glean the metallic glint of playful goldfish, the unhurried cruise of fat koi, and even a frog or three among pale yellow and white flowering water lilies and their thick green pads.

The trees surrounding the entire garden were planted to give the impression that they had always been here, not only lending to a rustic look, but also eluding to the beauty that can be found among the wilds if only one might just look for it. Species vary from the ordinary Birch and Pine, but the flaming red capsules of the Indian Shot to the robust orange spokes of the Firewheel tree suggest the spice of the exotic. The two paths leading away from the entrance have come full circle, wrapping around to meet each other on the other side, yet still continue on to the far left and right. One path leads off deeper into the surrounding woods, while the other wider; cheerily decorated with brightly colored slabs of painted stones.


The gardens are looking oddly manincured, after all the disasters it has seen lately. Apparently, someone's been cleaning up, and even the sheep-flattened shrubbery has been replanted. From deeper in the garden, however, comes the sound of bickering. Eledri's voice rises sternly, "You should have thought about that /before/-" but he's cut off by Cenlia's irritated, "Of shove off it Eled!" The two are, curiously enough, sitting on a large blanket beneath a tree, Eledri leaning back against the trunk while Cenlia is lying on her stomach and spreading tiny garden tools out before her. He four flits are at the edge of the blanket, looking oddly attentive as the girl seems to be showing them the little spades.

X'hil strolls up the garden path, only it's not really a stroll. He knows /exactly/ where he's going. He seems momentarily lost on entering the garden, but the sound of bickering calls his attention deeper into the garden, and he follows his ears. There's another firelizard near the blanket, a strange little blue. X'hil's own little Wraith, though X'hil seems surprised to see the blue when he approaches, the brown Meredith on his shoulder arching his back and hissing at the blue. Get lost, you! Wraith flares his wings out defiantly, but flies off to perch in a nearby tree all the same.

Cenlia watches Wraith curiously, her own blues attentively eyeing the little garden tools while her bronze and brown seem to be more intent on playing. The girl glances up when Meredith hisses, and waves to X'hil. Eledri looks less thrilled to see the bronzerider, but nevertheless, voices a polite greeting, "Hello Sir."

X'hil frowns at Wraith, and Meredith. "What has gotten into you these last few days, Mer? Honestly!" he shakes his head, then moves over to sit awkwardly at the edge of the blanket. "Hey." he nods to Cenlia and Eledri, frowning slightly at the latter, but he shakes it off. "What's the story here?" he asks, getting /straight/ into business. "What are you doing here?" this to Eledri, "and what is the problem?" the question is aimed at both of them, but he turns to look at Cenlia as he asks it. Eye contact, probably step one of whatever handbook he's been reading.

Cenlia's not so sure about this eye contact thing, and tries to look anywhere but at X'hil. Being stared at by Thea was bad enough… "Eled's here to get me in even more trouble," she mutters, while her brother rolls his eyes and replies, "I'm here to take her back home. Our uncle asked me to come get her." Straight and to the point. The young man isn't looking as beat-up today, with cleaner clothes, though his wrist is still bandaged. Now and again, he rubs it, as if it's sore. Cenlia adds somewhat petulantly, "My Uncle Cern's got a trundlebug up his butt the size of a brandy peach." Eledri rolls his eyes, but… was that a snerk? Cenlia's bronze flit waddles over to X'hil to chirp a greeting. Why /hello/ there… it croons happily, waggling its tail.

X'hil nods slowly, pulling a serious face. 'Look like you know what you're talking about', probably step two. "I see." There's a pause, and he glances down briefly, breaking eye contact, then hastily re-establishing it. He's new at this. He's now looking at Eledri, since Cenlia is avoiding eye contact. "Right. Home." He frowns, then turns to Cenlia. "And what do you want?" he asks her, though he has a fairly good idea. Meredith grumbles - it's almost, but not /quite/, a growl - at the little bronze. This one is /mine/, get your own. Meanwhile, Wraith is spying from the treetops, eyeing Cenlia's tiny garden tools.

The little bronze croons and postures, not turing to waggle and preen at… Meredith? Eh?? That bronze will flirt with anybody, really. Poor, confused little flit. Cenlia, meanwhile, fidgets and pokes at her garden tools. Eledri maintains eye contact when X'hil looks at him, though the youngman is frowning. Cenlia, however, shrugs slightly at the question, grumbling, "I dun want to get shipped off to Fort to get forstered by some crusty old vinter." And she makes a face. Eledri sighs and runs a hand through his hair, "Uncle Cernien believes you need still need to be supervised by an adult-" Cenlia glares at her brother, "Then he can come drag me to Fort himself."

X'hil frowns, and tilts his head at Eledri, thinking over the man's words thus far. 'Our uncle asked…' 'Uncle Cernien believes…' Finally, he speaks, asking, "And what do /you/ want to do?" Because there's a chance, however slim, that Eledri is not 'the enemy' in this situation. Meredith /does/ growl at the bronze now, flaring out his wings. I don't /swing/ that way, leave me alone! There's a rustling in the trees, and Wraith has disappeared from sight. He's still around though, somewhere.

Seeing X'hil's firelizard growling at her bronze, Cenlia plucks the little hatchling up before he can get himself bitten or something, as the wiggling bronze is still at it. She does snerk, however. At being picked up, the bronze tries it on her! Waggling and cooing and all of that. Cenlia ignores him. Eledri, however, is frowning. "I want to get back to my studies," he mutters. Cenlia rolls her eyes, "How ya gonna do that after you got kicked outta Landing?" Eledri glares at his sister, "Shut up, Cen."

X'hil leans forward now, less 'respected authority figure' pose, more 'gossipy old auntie' pose. "Well, I could pull a few strings maybe. It depends on a number of factors. Craft, the Master I'll be speaking to, the reason you got kicked out." He tacks it on the end there, but it's really the /real/ question. "So, er, I can promise it won't happen again." Right. Of course. He smirks very briefly at Cenlia's little bronze, clearly finding the firelizard's behaviour much more amusing than his own firelizard does. There's a rustling in the trees again, but still no sign of Wraith.

Eledri eyes X'hil warily, though his face reddens quite a bit at 'reason you got kicked out' and Cenlia snickers, "The /reason/ he got kicked out-" but Eledri interrupts stiffly, "I was not 'kicked out' and I don't-" only to be interrupted by Cenlia, "Then what would /you/ call it? Yer Master asked you to leave." She smirks. Eledri glares. "I was asked to… take leave from my studies for a short while. I'll be recalled when.." there's the barest pause, "when it all blows over." Cenlia rolls her eyes and mutters under her breath, "Right, 'least nobody can get pregnant this time." Eledri looks mortified and glares at her. In fact, he clearly looks like he'd like to punch her. With the two of them going at it like that, is it any wonder, really, that they ended up in the infirmary earlier?

X'hil frowns, and clears his throat. No fighting here, authority figure. Right. X'hil sits up a little bit straighter, though he really /wants/ to get all the gossip. He'd have better luck asking Cenlia alone, probably, so he resolves to do that, if he gets a chance. "When it all blows over. Well, there you go, you can get back to your studies in no time!" Optimist. "And, er, there's no reason you can't study here in the meantime, is there?" he asks, though there's a slight grimace. /Everyone/ would probably be happier if Eledri were packed off back home. Preferably alone. Wraith makes a diving run for the tiny garden tools, but is swiftly driven to between by a screeching Meredith flying right at him! Did the blue succeed in his goal? Did he get away with one of the tiny garden tools? X'hil is too busy calming an angry Meredith to notice.

Adjusting his spectacles and glaring at his sister, Eledri says quit firmly, "I can't stay here, I've been asked to return home. If I hadn't had to come get Cenlia, I'd be at home by now, installing screens for the Hold." Cenlia glares back, "Yea, well I didn't /ask/ you to come get me!" Eledri almost growls, "No, Uncle Cernien did, because you couldn't keep yourself out of trouble /or/ out of the orchards!" Great, now they're yelling at each other. Cenlia abruptly acks as one of her tools gets swiped, "Hey!" And then, seeing that all her flits are still there, she looks momentarily baffled, "What.." And then she immediately casts a suspicious glance at Rogue. "You ain't been teaching other flits to steal, have you?" she asks, groaning, "Just what I need, /more/ of them running off with my spades!" Eledri just blinks in surprise, looking from Cenlia, to her little flits, to X'hil.

X'hil looks a little lost for a moment, too many things vying for attention. Meredith is mostly calm now, so he switches his focus to Cenlia and Eledri first. "Easy, easy, I'm sure we can reach /some/ kind of a solution, or at least a truce." But it's clear he's struggling to maintain control. And then, when Cenlia groans, he groans. "Wraith, that little /rat/." he scowls, and his eyes glaze over briefly. He seems surprised when he comes around, and confused. "In my weyr?" he asks aloud, blinking.

Cenlia eye X'hil, possibly just now realizing the little thief that snatched her tools is his. She laughs an, "Oh no, Rogue!" The little midnight-hued flit chirps innocently, and clambers up to her shoulder, trying to hide his head under her chin. Bright blue Mizzle does the same, and is soon followed by Cenlia's little bronze and brown. Cenlia snickers, "What's in yer weyr?" Eledri meanwhile is just leaning back against the tree, watching, though he does remark, "If Cenir's brown firelizard is half as bad yours are," and he shakes his head.

Meredith growwwls at Eledri, as if sensing that he, or rather another of X'hil's firelizards, are being talked about in an unfavourable light. X'hil snaps at the brown, "Stop that!" and he does, perfectly obedient once given an order. As for what's in his weyr, he sighs. "My firelizard. And his /hoard/, apparently. I didn't know he had a hoard, but Kinseth assures me that's what he sees. What he sees is, well, he's seeing what the firelizard sees, but not /exactly/, and, it's complicated. But there's a pile of shiny things, with that rat firelizard in the middle." Obviously Kinseth didn't give him that entire mouthful, he just showed X'hil the image itself. X'hil sighs. "So much for no trouble…"

Eledri frowns at the hissing firelizard. The gardener girl laughs as X'hil explains, her eyes shining merrily, "At least he puts it all in one place? Mine just go hide my stuff everywhere." And then she snerks, "Though they only nab my tools. And my sammiches." Eledri interjects, "You're lucky they don't steal from anyone else. Can you imagine what Uncle Cernien would do if he found out?" Cenlia actually cringes, muttering, "I been training them not to!"

X'hil shakes his head slowly. "Blasted firelizard. Suppose I'd better go and take his hoard away…" he rolls his eyes. "At least it's all in one place, at least I hope it is." Could be worse, he could have decided to hoard his stash in X'hil's old weyr, at Ierne. Technically still his weyr, but he's had to find temporary accommodations at Xanadu, because of the transport ban. "You two are welcome to join me." He adds, with a crooked frown. He'd /wanted/ to try and reach some kind of peace here, but that doesn't seem particularly likely at the moment. Maybe after the ban is lifted he should go and talk to this uncle of theirs.

Any excuse to get away from her brother, "Sure, can see if any of my other stuff got nabbed," Cenlia gets up, scooping up her tools. Unfortunately, Eledri gets up as well, folding the blanket over one arm and following, murmuring a curious, "Some of my tech parts are missing." Cenlia makes a face at him, but doesn't protest, especially since her bronze and brown flits decide to go nuzzle Eledri. The computercrafter looks a bit dubious at having the hatchlings nuzzling under his chin, but he's got an armful of blanket and can't exactly remove them. Cenlia smirks, just slightly. She totally didn't tell her flits to go bug her brother. Honest.

Xanadu Weyr - X'hil and Kinseth's Weyr

X'hil smirks a little at Eledri's predicament, then leads the pair of them out to the meadow, pointing out a large barnlike structure. "There's my weyr." It's huge! Kinseth must prefer to sleep indoors, or something. And actually, that's exactly it. The rider's quarters are squooshed up at the back, a bed, a few cupboards for storage, and a ladder leading up to a loft. It's the ladder that X'hil makes a beeline to, climbing up into the loft, sneezing as dust comes off of the mostly untouched and probably motheaten pile of blankets and throw-pillows left up there by the previous occupant.

Cenlia follows X'hil, eyeing his weyr curiously, and perhaps snickering a bit when she notes his actual sleeping place is squooshed in the back. Eledri follows, the look on his face somewhere between dubious and annoyed. But then, unsurprising, given that the two flits are currently huddling on his shoulders and nuzzling him. Also, apparently he's ticklish, as evidenced by the occasional twitching. When they get to the ladder, Cenlia follows X'hil right up. Eledri pauses with a, "Cenlia-" but then just drops the blanket and follows, removing the two flits and shoving them at his sister with a frown. Cenlia grins at Eledri, and pats her little hatchlings. Such friendly little things, aren't they? Eledri sneezes too, taking out a kerchief from a pocket and wiping his nose, and peering about as curious as his sister is.

Kinseth had been sunning himself elsewhere in the weyr, but he comes shuffling through the ginormous barn doors now, tilting his head up at his rider in the loft. They're /trapped/ now. Only, not really, there is still room to walk around Kinseth to the exit. Not much room, but it's there. X'hil is digging around in piles of blankets, the little blue apparently long gone. He finds an old firelizard clutch, the eggs all long since hatched, and scowls. "I really need to clean this place up." Sneeze! "Uh, you guys dig around in the blankets over there, why are there even this many blankets up here? Who /needs/ this many blankets?" And pillows. "Um. Look over there." he waves to different spots, then continues his slow search.

Eledri begins looking though blankets and pillows, occasionally rubbing his nose. Cenlia peers about and then grins at her flits, the four little creatures trilling almost in unison and taking off to dive through the pillow piles. Cenlia, too, dives in, semi-literally. "This place is neat," she grins, then sneezes. Eledri moves aside some dusty blankets, murmuring, "Reminds me of Aunt Kal's supply closets." Cenlia snerks, "Yea. You took enough tumbles in there to kno-" And Eledri blushes fiercely, "Cenlia!"

X'hil grins, and has to admit, it's kind of fun to crawl around up here. Dusty though! He sneezes, then scowls, and digs through the piles. "Mrr. /Another/ dud firelizard clutch." he mutters, blinking as he goes to move it aside. "Shells're soft. Not /rotten/ though… Shards." he whispers under his breath, then makes for the ladder. He scrambles down, and returns with a rope? And a basket? He carefully puts the eggs in the basket, looping the rope around the old railing, and lowers the basket to safety, before resuming his search. He snickers at the tumbles comment, eyeing Eledri. "You little bronzer, you." he teases, followed by another sneeze.

Eledri appears mortified. Looking up from the pillow-pile, Cenlia grins at her brother, and then she spots the bronze dragon and waves, "Sir Kinseth!" She gives the dragon a grin, and Eledri merely eyes the creature, looking tired. He's pretty much figured out whose bronze dragon flew over the orchards, and he fixes X'hil with a wary look. Cenlia is bad enough on her own. Speaking of the gardener girl, she spots the clutch and acks, backing away cautiously. "They ain't close to hatching, are they?" she asks X'hil, "Every time I go near flit eggs, I impress one." Eledri eyes Cenlia, "All the more reason to get you out of a weyr. Next thing you know, you'll impress a dragon." His voice is joking, but he's frowning all the same. Cenlia rolls her eyes, muttering, "Yea, and you'll impress a trundlebug." That's apparently the best comeback she can think of, so instead she does the next best thing and grabs a pillow… "OOPH!" Eledri sprawls into a blanket pile as he gets whacked in the head, but he rolls over to glare at his sister, "Hey! Watch the glasses!" Whoops, Cenlia looks a bit sheepish. But she continues holding the pillow, grinning.

X'hil snickers, and grins over at Cenlia. "Sir Kinseth says hello." And indeed the bronze is looking at Cenlia, dipping his head briefly. In a stage whisper, X'hil calls out, "I think he likes you." with a smirk. Of course he does, she calls him /sir/. As for the eggs, he peers over the railing at them, and shakes his head. "Nah, shells're still soft, they were laid recently, won't hatch for a couple of sevendays, at least. You're welcome to have them, if you want." he offers, with a grin. "Eledri, want a firelizard?!" he laughs, then goes back to searching. "Hey, Cenlia'd make a great ri— Oh, hey, I found the stash!" he calls, waving the two over to see the sizeable pile of shiny things.

Cenlia grins again at /Sir/ Kinseth, and then looks much relieved to know that the flit eggs won't hatch anytime soon. Her four hatchlings are enough trouble on their own! She does laugh when X'hil offers her brother some flit eggs, and Eledri frowns, pulling himself out of the blankets and adjustinghis glasses, saying, "No thank-you." Cenlia peers over when X'hil finds the stash, looking for her lost tools. Eledri also moves closer, eyeing his sister warily. Cenlia seems too busy eyeing the stash to start a pillow fight… She's still wielding that pillow, though.

X'hil scowls suddenly, and pokes at the pile. "THERE it is!" He pulls out a shiny pocket-watch, glaring at the pile, lacking the firelizard responsible to glare at. He pockets the pocket-watch, and moves over to lean against the rear wall of the barn, the stash being right in one of the rear corners of the loft, which is surrounded on three sides by the barn's walls. It's a long narrow loft, compared to the rest of the barn, but actually quite decently sized.

"What's what?" Cenlia asks as X'hil picks up something, and then raising an eyebrow at the pocketwatch. "How're you gonna find out who's stuff the rest of this is?" she asks as she retrieves her garden tools, though Eledri doesn't seem to find his missing tech stuff. And as the computercrafter straightens with a shrug, Cenlia gives X'hil a grin, and whaps her brother again, this time in the stomach. Ooph Eledri tumbles into another blanket pile, looking started, "Cenlia!" The gardener girl is snickering and trying unsuccessfully to look innocent, "Hey X'hil, you should dust this stuff off and use this place. It's make a neat-" but whatever she was about to say gets cut off as Eledri seems to have found himself a pillow. Pillow, meet face. OOPH!

X'hil frowns, and honestly has no clue. He shrugs, and goes to the railing, pulling up the basket of eggs, and adding the firelizard's hoard to it, before lowering it again. "Make a neat?" he asks, before turning around, and catching sight of the pillow fight. His reaction? He laughs, and starts looking around for a good pillow. Kinseth lowers his head with a big draconic /sigh/. /Riders/! There's a flash of something - guilt? shame? - over X'hil's face, but it doesn't last long. He grabs a pillow, and grins. When in Rome…

Cenlia tumbles backwards into some blankets, but not before she swings the pillow she's wielding! Unfortunately, it goes flying out of her grasp, and Eledri ducks, which means it goes sailing off in some random direction. But Eledri is already arming himself with another pillow. Considering he's nearly as old as X'hil, he looks pretty silly swinging a pillow, but before he can whap Cenlia again, the girl swings the pillow she just got face-planted with! Whee, pillow fight!

X'hil seems to be mostly keeping out of it really, but he's moving around the loft area, just, circling. The pillow is held at the ready, and he — whoa! Flying pillow! The man ducks quickly, landing in a pile of pillows and sending pillows flying. Not very far, mind, but enough to subtly shift the entire blanket load as they move in to fill the sudden gap. X'hil wobbles a little, then jumps into the fray, taking on Eledri, because Cenlia just wouldn't be fair for a man of his age and size.

Eledri actually goes "Ack!" as the bronzer joins the fray, being swung at from both sides, "H- hey! No fair!" the computercrafter says laughingly - yes, he actually laughs. Cenlia laughs too, thwapping away, "This's for punching the tree!" Wait, tree? What tree? But Eledri is swinging with one arm, trying to fend off X'hil's pillow thawap with the other, and then ELedri yelps, his sprained wrist apparently proving his downfall, and down he goes! And Cenlia, well, she stops swinging at his wrist, at least. She might even look a little guilty.

X'hil just grins at Eledri. "All's fair in pillow fights!" is his battle cry, as he lunges with the pillow. Take that, and that, and that! Ha ha ha! The blankets are tangled around his ankles, slowing him down some. And then there's the distraction technique, as he turns away from Eledri to peer at Cenlia, "Tree?" he asks, with a confused blink. And then Eledri is down, and X'hil frowns, looking rather sheepish, and, yes, also slightly guilty. "Oh, shards, you okay?" he asks, suddenly concerned. He hasn't even begun to think of getting Eledri down yet, the ladder will be tricky with only one hand.

Cenlia can't help grinning at X'hil, "I beat him up good and proper, but what I did ain't half as bad as what the tree did to him," and the girl indicates Eledri's bandaged wrist. Eledri, meanwhile, sprawls on his stomach, oophing and holding his arms out in front of him so he doesn't hurt his wrist any further. Really, he looks like a human splat - but he's still laughing! He must be okay. Seeing that she hasn't broken anything, and that her brother is okay, Cenlia grins, "Ya swing like a /girl/, Eled." Eledri continues to laugh, actually getting out an, "I'm fine. Shells, I needed that." With an injured wrist, Cenlia can't fairly beat him up with a pillow. So. Instead she sits on him. She does drop the pillow she's wielding onto her brother's back first, though. She's not that heavy, but she's not that light either. At least she didn't plop right down on his spine, anyway. Eledri lets out an indignant, "Hey!" but he's still laughing too much to shove her off. "So," Cenlia crosses her arms smugly once she's seated, and has Eledri firmly pinned down, "you gonna stop whining about that letter, or do /weyrsecond/ X'hil and I gotta beat you up some more?" Eledri rolls his eyes and gives X'hil an exasperated look, "You're worse than my cousin Cedris! Bet you were a terror when you were little." Although his tone is a lot less uptight and serious than it was before the pillow fight.

X'hil seems to be eyeing Eledri /very/ cautiously for a few minutes, but, since everything seems to be okay, he exhales, and plops himself down on a pile of pillows. Which is really the entire loft. He's near Eledri and Cenlia, obviously. "Aww, I was a good kid, really. Sure, I got into, er, a couple of fights, but for good reason." The hesitation before he says 'a couple' seems rather telling. "They insulted my mother. And by my mother, I mean greenriders. And by greenriders, I mean I didn't like their face. No, wait, I meant greenriders. Though their faces /weren't/ pretty afterwards, and sometimes before." he's not exactly /proud/ of it, but he can joke about it at least. "Didn't have much of a childhood though, impressed literally the day after I turned twelve. I was a late search, I wasn't even a candidate for a whole day. Looking after a baby dragon… Nothing grows you up faster." He shrugs. It's not like he'd change anything if he had the chance, he likes his life, mostly. "If it'll help, with this letter business, I could come talk on your behalf? If all else fails, I could fake a search. You can't refuse search, now can you?" he smirks. Devious. Never mind that that may cause more problems than it'd solve.

As X'hil speaks, Eledri raises a brow, though Cenlia snickers at the 'didn't like their face' bit. Cenlia grins, "If anybody insulted my ma, I'd beat them up too." Eledri, though, mutters, "If someone insulted out mother, Cen, half the farmers in South Boll would make them sorry." Cenlia smirks. Eledri says, sounding surprised, "You impressed at twelve?" While Cenlia mutters, "Grows you up fast, huh?" She's glancing over towards Kinseth and then eyeing the pillows dubiously. But when X'hil mentions faking search, Eledri frowns, "Please don't." Cenlia eyes her brother, but Eledri shakes his head, saying flatly, "Cenlia would lose her knot." Cenlia is frowning now, too, "At least he could /talk/ to Uncle Cern… it's not like I been making trouble here." She does shift and bite her lip, though. Yeah, trouble.

X'hil nods slowly. "As you wish. To be honest, I'd probably get in trouble over that too. It… It'd be noticed. Kinseth can always tell the candidates from the not, he gets, it's difficult to explain… He gets a sort of a twinge, a feeling. It's like dragons /know/. He can tell the difference between a candidate and a not yet searched candidate. I've no idea how." He shakes his head, and leans back on the pillows with a sigh. "Course, one of the side-effects of growing up /fast/ means I've got to get my childhood in anywhere I can." That certainly would explain the pillow fight. "I really… Kinseth won his first flight when I was /thirteen/. Thirteen!" he grimaces. But, that's in the past. Back to the present, and maybe the future… "I could /talk/ though. Talk I can do." Right. That must be code for 'try a different handbook this time'.

Cenlia tilts her head curiously as X'hil explains searches, and she says, "Hunh." And then she snickers, "Uncle Cern'd never believe it, either. Am farmcrafter, through an' through, like my da always says. Keep my feet on the ground." Eledri rolls his eyes and mutters, "Except when you're up in a tree." Cenlia whaps him lightly on the top of his head, "That weren't my fault!" Eledri snorts, "Sure." And then, "Thirteen?" Eledri's brows go up. Celia, though, shrugs, "Mosta the boys in the orchard were tumbling the sheets around that age," and she smirks again as Eledri blushes, "Cenlia!" But Cenlia whaps him on the head again. Eledri attempts to get up, but with one arm, he simply can't. When his sister continues to stay put, Eledri sighs and says, "Cenlia, please get off, you're heavy." Cenlia snerks, "Ain't that heavy." Eledri tries to squirm and grumbles, "You're heavier than you used to be," and then a slight pause and he adds in a faintly teasing tone, "What have you been eating here? Brandycakes?" Cenlia rolls her eyes, but does get off him, whapping Eled lightly in the back of the head with that pillow before plopping down beside her brother. Eledri sits up, and says to X'hil with a sigh, "You could /try/ talking to my uncle, but I don't think it will do any good. He's already arranged for Cenlia to be fostered in Fort Hold." The face Cenlia makes is anything but pleased.

X'hil frowns, and glances over the edge of the loft to Kinseth. "Bah, I'm weyrbred, mother's a greenrider, father's, well, I have no idea." He shrugs, as if it doesn't bother him, but there's a brief flash in his eyes, and he tugs at his ill-fitting jacket a little bit. "It was no big shock, but thirteen was perhaps earlier than I'd've liked, in hindsight. Not that I didn't enjoy it at the time." he smirks. There is a reason he impressed bronze, and it clearly isn't his leadership ability. "Would it calm your uncle if you were fostered here, fostered by, say, a weyrsecond?" he suggests. Hey, come stay with X'hil in his barn, yeah! "…or a /very/ reputable chef, who fostered and /raised/ said weyrsecond. It'd be good for her to have another foster. She might get off my back about /grandchildren/. Honestly. She's not /my/ mother!"

Eledri is still blushing, apparently having more of a sense of decendy than Cenlia. Cenlia laughs out loud when X'hil suggests being fostered by a weyrsecond, and Eledri looks outright horrified. He does seem more thoughtful about the chef, though. "Your foster mother?" Eledri asks, while Cenlia, still snerking, elbows her brother and says, "He ain't old enough, an' ma would have my hide if I went and got fostered by another cook." And then she adds suddenly, "Though bein' fostered by a weyrsecond ain't a bad idea…" Eledri eyes his sister, but Cenlia's not looking at X'hil. It's a fair bet she doesn't mean him.

Eledri shakes his head, apparently not realizing that Cenlia doesn't mean X'hil, and mutters, "There's a /reason/ Uncle Cernien didn't send you to be fostered with one of our cousins. One troublemaker is bad enough - when you're around one, it's a catastrophe." Why yes, he does sound a bit out of patience. Also, did he just call X'hil a troublemaker? Cenlia rolls her eyes, but does grin as X'hil, "You'd have made a great orchard brat." Cenlia snickers as X'hil talks about having kids, though Eledri just sighs, adjusting his glasses and shaking his head again, "I can't imagine being a dragonrider. It honestly sounds terrifying." Yeah, he did just say that. Cenlia rolls her eyes at him, "Not like you didn't manage to get brats anyway-" Eledri cuts her off, "Cenlia!" and cuffs her ear with his uninjured hand, hard. Cenlia yelps, and glares at her brother, but Eledri has gone red in the face and glares right back. Cenlia's four little flits peek their heads out from their ongoing search in the far blanket piles, all four of them starting to chitter scoldingly at Eledri. So much for peace. They look like they're going to start bickering again at any moment.

X'hil snorts at Eledri's dragonriding comment, and glances over the edge. Kinseth raises his head to /peeer/ at Eledri, curiously. X'hil smirks, and settles back down. "Look, the both of you, I'll have no bickering in my weyr, you hear me?" He's got no idea if it'll work, but it's worth a try. Kinseth shuffles closer to the loft, nose now almost touching the railing, and he's still moving. He waits until Eledri is looking his way, then just /yawwwns/. My, what a big, sharp, pointy mouth you have! "There's /nothing/ terrifying about dragons. Not a thing." X'hil affirms, with a smirk. Oh, he /planned/ that, he did.

Eledri nods apologetically to X'hil, and opens his mouth to say something, but then pales as he spies Kinseth. My, what big teeth you have? The computercrafter swallows, mumbling, "Understood, sir." Though whether he's saying this to X'hil or the dragon is debatable. Cenlia may be getting used to dragons, but Sir Kinseth is big dragon, and the girl does the first thing that comes to mind. She ducks behind her brother. She does grin sheepishly at X'hil's comment, thought Eledri is looking much less amused.

X'hil gives a wave to Kinseth, well, more of a hand signal than a wave, and the bronze backs down, resting his head comfortably on his front legs, down on the barn floor. The man seems satisfied with the reaction, then irritated, at himself mainly for resorting to such a tactic. "Look, Kinseth won't hurt you, no dragon will hurt you. Dragons are /perfectly/ safe." There's a pause and then a smirk, "Unless you're an ovine."

Eledri just stares at X'hil. No, he is very much not amused. Cenlia, on the other hand, starts laughing, "Should ask him to eat the one in the infirmary!" But then Cenlia seems to rethink the suggestion, "Well, Maybe not… he won't fit in the door." She still remembers those injured trees from the garden. But then she's snerking again, remembering something /else/ from her last trip into the infirmary. She grins at X'hil, "If you keep running away so much and wearin' dresses, the weyr's gonna start talkin'." As if people aren't talking already.

X'hil rolls his eyes, peering down at Kinseth. "Let 'em talk. It's not like I'll /be/ here much longer." he snorts. "I, I might /visit/, though." he does add. "For, Kinseth, you know. Sir high and mighty over there." The bronze croons happily at being called sir, though it quickly becomes a snort when it becomes clear it was not well meant. He mutters absently at the bronze, then gets up and starts moving towards the ladder, just expecting to be followed. There's a pause and then, "Er, you can get down okay, with that wrist? I can rig up a harness or something, lower you down. I was in the search and rescue wing." he explains. He's a wizard with rope. If there was a craft around rope, he'd be a master, easy. Except for the part where riders can't /be/ masters, because they don't have the time.

Eledri just sort of eyes his sister, not quite following her thought process, and probably afraid she's going to bring up something embarrassing again. Cenlia frowns at X'hil's mention of not being there much longer - where's she going to find another booze-run accomplice?? But she gets up to follow him, saying, "Still, you really shoulda helped Thea stop that ovine. Even Eled tried to help," and she glances at her brother with amusement. Nevermind that the help didn't do much, or that Cenlia was also hiding at the time, but eh, X'hil's the weyrsecond! Eledri gets up and rubs his wrist, saying, "It's fine." He follows as well, though he does glance warily at the bronze. Cenlia rolls her eyes at her brother, muttering, "I don't think Sir Kinseth's gonna eat you - you're not an ovine!" Eledri frowns, and then grabs a pillow, raising it and fully intending to whap Cenlia - however, Cen's four flits immediately take flight and grab the pillow right out of his hands! Eledri stands there, with his arms up, looking somewhat startled. Cenlia laughs, "Nice try, Eled!" However, the laughter is short-lived as the bronze flit, apparently trying to make a point, dives at Eledri. The computercrafter ducks just in time, but the little flit is looking back at Eled, perhaps surprised that he missed, and is going /fast/ - and there's a THUNK as he misjudges his flight and careens right into the wall! With a cry, Cenlia rushes over, and her three other flits shriek in alarm, dropping their snatched pillow… right on Eled's head!

X'hil pauses, and eyes Cenlia's firelizards, eyes going quite wide as the bronze collides with the wall. He tilts his head at Cenlia as she runs over to the bronze, looking from her to Kinseth, to Eledri. Great, what does he do now? What does he do? "Uh. Is he okay?" he asks, with a furrowed brow. He makes for the ladder, "Maybe we should take him to the infirmary, or a dragonhealer, or something?" he suggests, though he hasn't really thought about who'd care for firelizards. "Or a beastcrafter?" he frowns, and scampers down the ladder, heading towards the weyr exit, and out into the meadow. His own brown, Meredith, is chittering at the injured bronze firelizard.

Cenlia grabs her creeling little bronze flit and practically flies down the ladder, not even waiting for herbrother Eledri. Which is a shame… because he really can't get down with that wrist - but she can worry about that later. She's runs out behind X'hil, her voice worried, "A dragonhealer!" And then her eyes fly to Rogue, and she stares at the little flit. Rogue chitters, falls silent, and then is off *between* immediately. He's gone to find the one person she knows who is one. Hopefully he's nearby? Rogue's not exactly that smart. If he finds him, though, chances are the little flit is going to do whatever it takes to drag him off to Cenlia.

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 buildings, 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.

Stables and a smithy are settled on their own plots, while trees border the northern edge of the meadow, and a faint outline of a fence can be seen to the east.

And down, outside of the weyr, K'vin practically runs out of his own weyr, his shirt still open and he looks around, a bit worriedly. He'd just been called for an emergency but he sees no one and he frowns lightly

X'hil blinks a little as he notices what the time is, and frowns. "I, work, got to go… I'll stay to make sure he gets to a healer though." he says, nodding to the bronze. Poor little guy. "Shut /up/ Kinseth, I can be late. It's not like I'm the /only/ weyrsecond." he snaps at the bronze, though it's obvious the nagging is getting to him. There's actually a good chance that the bronze has been nagging him for some while now.

Cenlia keeps running, out across the meadow, creeling flit in her arms. She's going to /find/ a healer, damnit! Blue Mizzle and brown Trouble fly around her head, shrieking in alarm, the two firelizards certainly giving the impression that something is definitely -very- wrong. Or at least, Cenlia's very upset. Of course, she's probably going to blame Eledri for this.

When he sees Cenlia running with a firelizard in her arms, he stops her. "Hey hey, is it you who called for me?" He asks, eyeing both the girl and the lizard in her arms.

At the sight of K'vin, Cenlia looks extremely relieved and holds up the creeling bronze hatchling, "He flew into a wall!" The little bronze firelizard has green ichor dribbling down his nose, and he's looking about quite dazed. Bit other than his head, he doesn't seem /too/ injured. No broken wings or anything.

X'hil spots K'vin before Cenlia, and hurriedly nods as he stops her. "Hey. Good luck with the firelizard. Gotta go. Let me know how it all works out!" he calls in a rush, and while jogging to the clearing, kicking it up to a sprint as soon as he's done speaking.

K'vin stares at Cenlia. "For a lizard, right." He shakes his head and turns his gaze to the lizard, touching him here and there. "I think he'll be fine really, I can feel any broken bone so I guess he'll recover in time."

Cenlia looks relieved as K'vin checks her flit over, muttering, "Shardin' flit, what was it thinking?" The little bronze firelizard croons, perhaps apologetically, and Cenlia's three other firelizards land on her shoulders and croon as well, their eyes yellow with concern. Cenlia actually looks a bit sheepish now, her concern lessening. "I guess I need to keep him under better control." The little bronze flit chirps at K'vin. A little knock on the head doesn't seem to have done him any serious harm.

K'vin frowns. "How in the world did he manage to hit the wall, firelizards and dragons know where they are, at all time." He says softly. "There's something to clear about him."

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