A Moment on the Weyrling Beach
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Xanadu Weyr - Weyrling Beach

With a gentler slope to the water from the main beach and the way it is cut in like a cove, this is the most sheltered spot for bathing. The sand is the same white hue, there are just as many — or perhaps more — scattered shells. From here, one has a beautiful view across the lake, a scene more often tranquil than not.


It is Midday at Xanadu weyr, deep into summer. A muggy heat settles on the weyr, only relieved by a touch of a sea breeze. All the older Weyrlings are in lessons at the moment that little Kereth is far too young to join, so the pair are enjoying a moment of quiet on the beach. What could be an idyllic sight is perhaps somewhat disturbed by the tarp carrying bits of cut up meat, still red and bloody, for Kereth to eat. Perhaps it is her turns living with a dragon that Laera can sit not two feet away and munch down on her own meal of a meat pie. She is wearing shorts and a halter bikini top, her hair still wait from recently bathing her lifemate.

A sarong has been wrapped about the narrow hips of a one Xanadu nanny, beneath which is a pair of swimming briefs. Hair, last long and flowing when last Laera and Delenn met, has been severed short into a sort of bob, tucked simply behind the young man's ears. Strolling absently against the shoreline, he reads from a small leather bound book, brows furrowed in concentration despite the fact he manages to side step any obstacles that might have pitched him over with relative ease. His feet are barefoot, sandals dangling from the fingers of one hand as he moves.

Kereth occasionally looks up from his meal to his chosen, her eyes unfocusing each time. Yes having a silent coversation, sharing thoughts noone else would know or perhaps understand. Laera and Kereth, Kereth and Laera. Is there anyone else in the world? Not to the young blue for the most part. Well there are those big dragons who tell him how to move and those slightly bigger dragons he sees doing stuff he wants to do, but for the most part they are disregarded for the young woman at his side. So it is Laera that notices Delenn and she gives a look around the beach for a Weyrlingmaster before waving him over, "Hey there…" Kereth looks up as his chosen greets another, before tilting his head questioningly at his chosen, "He looks after babies and helps them learn to be adults just like Myra and Lorena." She explains.

Delenn hadn't noticed that he had wandered off the public beach and was now in a part of the weyr that he was not allowed. Though when he looks up from his book to find Laera and her young lifemate the nanny blinks once and peers over one of his broadening shoulders. His months at Xanadu, were rapidly closing in on a full turn, and in that time he'd changed into someone he himself barely recognized. His boyhood was at an end, and his manhood just beginning, though, one still couldn't call him handsome. Beautiful, perhaps even pretty, but not handsome. "Laeraana?" he blinks, closing his book, his pale eyes widening a bit as he starts to realize he's certainly wandered off the beaten path. "Oh dear, this is the weyrling area isn't it?" he notices and glances to the tiny blue. Another blink, and his flicks
his gaze to the girl. "Yours?"

Kereth looks over the man curiously, different from the other men he has seen. Laera eyes unfocus for a moment before she smiles up at her lifemate, ""Yes men can wear skirts too, his is just exceptionally stylish." She winks at Delenn as she rises neatly to his feet. "And he wanted me to tell you I am Laera now, his Laera." So we are a little clingy at the moment. She gives a helpless shrug as she rests a hand on the blue's shoulder. She does not mind his closeness, his clinginess. It is to be expected even if it was not a part of him, moved to another weyr sevendays after hatching and dealing the Laera's worries of losing her Clutchmother. "Yeah, but I won't say anything if you won't. A little lonely when they are doing drills. Lorena does not want Kereth getting injured trying to match the older ones." Her hand strokes the blue hide gently, "He is mine and I am his.." She says softly as she looks upon him, Yes she is smitten.

Not hold nor weyr born, Delenn's interactions with dragons are few and mostly related to passing by the bowl or taking a ride to Eastern upon occasion. Enough to know that dragons are just as conscious as people are, and he offers a soft smile to the young blue. "Nice to meet you Kereth. I'm Delenn." he greets, and after a short inclination of his head the nanny shifts his attention to Laera and that smile broadens just slightly. "My mistake, I'll be sure to call you that from now on." He momentarily glances about the patch of beach meant only for weyrlings and their dragons and judges it as being no different then any other stretch of land along the coast. "It's not a skirt, it's a sarong. Men can wear them just as women can."

Kereth looks over toward Delenn as he is addressed and after a moment of hesitation and a pat of encouragement gives a low warble of greeting in return. For someone so young it is such a melodic tone to that little sound. "Nah, it's ok, it took me a bit to get used to it. Noone ever shortened my name that way before, I like it." She responds as looks over her lifemate, her green eyes bright with admiration. She nods at his comment of skirts and nods, "One day I will take you up to Dolphinhall Kereth, many people wear sarongs there especially at the hold." The dragon warbles again to his lifemate before taking another dainty bite of meat from the tarp in front of him. Laera motions Delenn over as she plops back down on the small rug she procured for herself to sit on, "Join me if you got some time? The weyrlingmasters
should be busy with the older ones for a good candlemark or two."

Being caught here in an off limits area could get Delenn into some serious trouble for sure, and he didn't like being in trouble. Still, at the girl's insistence that they'll be safe for a few candlemarks yet, he moves fluidly over towards her to lower himself to sit besides Laera. Another soft smile is spared to the young dragon, just another form of infancy in the world. Delenn loved babies. All kinds really, though the human kind was the sort he worked best with. "How is your mother, Laera?" he asks, crossing his concealed legs at the ankle and folds his hands over the book now in his lap. Those startling green eyes of his drinking the young woman in and offering her in return one of his softer, sweeter smiles. Always gentle this young man, almost kind, and always just the tiniest bit sad.

Kereth continues to daintily eat his lunch meal, occasionally lifting his head to look at his chosen. Yes she is still there. Yep..still there. Laera looks up at him as well at those moments, minds connecting with a feather touch of reasurance. She will never leave him. At the question of her mother she actually smiles a bit, "She woke up finally this morning, we got to go visit for a few minutes. They need me to focus here not there, but they knew it would be a relief to visit with her." And indeed there is relief in her voice. Her time away has changed her a little bit as well. Just a little more grounded, more focussed. She reaches a hand out to the young man, "How have things been here? I have hardly seen outside of this compound since I returned."

There is no connection between Delenn and Kereth, and while the young dragon might need assurances from his lifemate, the nanny has no such need. Instead, he gives Laera his full attention, bobbing his head a few times at her good news, that sadness in him fading to but a flicker when she speaks of her mother's coming to. He's glad to hear the relief in her voice. "I would have stopped by and checked on her myself, but it'd be rather silly to show up in the Infirmary announcing that I was little more than a friend of a patient's daughter." They'd of course of shown him quickly to the door. Still, he takes her offered hand between both of his, no more calloused than the last time the two had spent time together, warm and soft. "I'm sure you noticed the rain has moved on. Otherwise there isn't much to report. Some minor flooding of the bathing pools, an argument, and a surprising burst of pregnancy. Three riders, including the Weyrwoman Niva…all to contribute to the population in a matter of months. I suppose they all needed something to do, what with the rain keeping them indoors." he cheerfully gossips.

"Yeah, pretty much family owner. They have let the Weyrlingmasters in as well so they can give me reports..She was banged up pretty bad." Leara says as her gaze drops a little. Kereth swings his head to croon at her worriedly and Laera reaches out for the head and leans hers to his, "But she is going to fine now." She says cheerily. Perhaps a bit forced, trying to batten down the hatches. Force thoughts of contentness to the fore. Everything is fine. Once settled Kereth swings his head back to his meal once more. With another topic to focus on Laera jumps on it, "Aye, the damned rains followed me to Igen of all places! Not a sevenday after I got searched, rain started falling in the desert. I swear it followed me!" She exclaims raising her hands to the heavens. She giggles at the mention of the pregnant riders, "Yeah my Ma's would get all randy if they got weyrbound, half the time forgetting me and Risa were still about!"

Delenn gives a firm squeeze to Laera's hand when she resorts her thoughts for her lifemate's sake, his own expression shifting to allow for a measure of sympathy to show solely for her benefit before it flitters off to be filed away for later use when needed. Relinquishing his grasp of the girl's fingers he refolds his hands onto his lap, again over the dark brown of the leather bound book he'd been reading. No surprises to find the nanny with his nose in a book. If he could live on the written word, it'd be likely never to see him at the serving table again. He watches the girl carefully, allowing her to take solace in the change of subject, a glance spared to Kereth. It was for his benefit of course that she was forcing herself to be cheerful, and he would not force her to revisit the topic. He chuckles gently at Laera's hand raising, "At least it didn't follow you back this way, we're only just drying out." he adds, trying not to laugh too hard at the girl's candor about her parents. "Though I must admit it explains quite a bit." he teases, still amused.

Laera takes the firm squeeze with a thankful look before setting her own hands in her lap again. "So what are you reading now?" She asks as she glances down at the book curiously, fingers extending to make sense of the leatherbound cover. She glances back up at the sky and grins, "Well that is one small mercy, I think I would have worried about some odd curse if it had!" She exclaims before laughing at his comment, "Wherries do it, Vtols do it…" She starts in a sing song sorta way. "It is a natural act..they didn't really see any reason to hide it. They could send us out and we could go pass a pair of runners rutting around." She gives a shrug, "I mean, they didn't go fornicating all the time around us, they
liked sixtynining in privacy as well."

"Hmm?" Delenn asks, glancing down at the book and laughing softly as he caressing over the spine like one might a favored lover. "Terran poetry. It was found tucked behind a panel aboard the Yokohama, or so it was told to me when I inquired of it. It's by a man named William Yates, and I really shouldn't be carrying it about. Anyone got wind I got my dirty little fingers on it, and I'm sure I'd have a gaggle of historians rummaging through my private collection before sunset." he grins, half serious, half teasing. Instead of talking more about what people do behind closed doors, the nanny opens the book and smiles at the blue pair. He selects a page, his soothing soft voice like honey over the ancient powerful words. "Actions always planned are never completed. This is the lesson of love. For always holding you in my mind, I never held you in my arms. For always writing love letters in my mind, I never wrote them in your heart. For always asking you in my mind, I never asked you with my mouth. For always planning our union in my mind, I forever will be incomplete." He pauses and then reads the rest of the poem himself, eyes darting over the words as a smile spreads warm and tender across his lips before he very carefully closes the book once more, clutching it to his chest. "I could have loved this man. He wrote so beautifully."

Her fingers stroke the aged cover lightly and she shakes her head slightly, "Wow..you are damned lucky to have it and tell them to come speak to me if they try to take it from you." Laera says with a nod and a wink, a smile forming on her lips. Yes she will take them down with her mightly little blue. Or just shock them with her foul mouth. As the poetry is read even Kereth turns his head to listen, resting it on Laera's as best he can as she slides her arm around it to support it there. They both sit there quietly listening and Laera smiles at the end, "That is lovely…perfect. I never really heard much poetry before…well other than what the ocasional randy dandy tried to spout off at me. Silly little lines meant to impress and well…not." She shrugs and leans her head against Kereth's. Yes this will likely be the only male for her for awhile.

The nanny chuckles, laying the book lovingly back against his lap, though his attention resided with the blue pair. While Delenn's smile remained, his thoughts were his own as he regarded them, breaking the silence if only to lightly laugh. The image of Laera and Kereth championing against the injustice of communal knowledge was enough to distract from his own worries for a while. For which he was grateful to his young friend. "Once you and Kereth are free to wander outside of the weyrling area, I'd be happy to read more to you both. I enjoy sharing it with people, as long as they can appreciate it." He can't help a grin though, shaking his head. "Take your time sweetling, there's plenty of time for all that nonsense later." She likely knew that of course, but there was no harm in being supportive.

She tilts her head at Delenn as he laughs, "That is better…you look far too serious sometimes." She says gently, a smile on her own lips. Her hand lovingly strokes Kereth's cheek before finally he withdraws his head to finish his bloody meal. "That sounds like a wonderful plan. I think that kind of poetry I would like to hear." She grins and leans back on one elbow. As she is now, she definately shows the potential for the beauty to come. Chest filling out, hips rounding. Yes she is turning heads already and no doubt will continue to do so as she gets older. She at least seems to have the aptitude to deal with her gentlemen callers. "I know and well can't get nothing twixt my nethers anyway for at least a turn anyway."

"I've a great many things on my mind," Delenn admits freely, though he does not elaborate. However, it doesn't stop that seriousness she noted to appear once more, if just to linger in the background. "Nothing you need to worry your pretty head about though my dear." He reaches out and pats one of Laera's hands softly before glancing to Kereth as he returns to his meal. As appetizing as that looks, the nanny tears his eyes away and returns his attention fully to the blue's lifemate. "It'd be nice to have someone to read to. Ryski won't stand for it, and I don't really have anyone else to share it with." Not to mention no lovers to speak of. He can't help the flush that presents itself to his cheeks when Laera revisits what he likes to secretly call, her favorite topic. Though admittedly, he believed this was so only because she enjoyed the shock value of such things coming about from such a delicate girl. No one would ever think the beauty had a mouth that could make even a whore, former or otherwise, blush. "Laera!"

"Yeah I don't mind it at all. That was pretty…reckon there is more like it in there if you covet it so." Laera responds and squeezes the hand as it is offered to her. "Well if you ever need time to talk…you have a firelizard? I can send my Lya around when I have downtime like this? They are still sorting out our different lessons, they were not exactly prepared to have two weyrlings dropped in so young." At his reaction to her words she just laughs out loud startling Kereth from his male, causing to lift up his bloody muzzle to look over the pair, "Oh come on now, you seen it before surely. Just a bit of skin touching skin, ain't no big deal unless you mean it to." She gives a shrug, "I suppose though I want it to mean something when I do it, just not sure what I want it to mean."

Delenn nods, "Some of the words I don't understand, and the context. Though it's easy to understand the ones on love, and other things as ageless." At mention of firelizards, the nanny perks up considerably. "Oh yes! I forgot to mention in my letters." he starts and takes a moment to summon his brood. Consisting of Arsenic of course, his green, but with her is a tiny golden counterpart no more than a few months old. She chirps in greeting to the humans before flittering over to inspect closely the food that Kereth has there. After all, it might be poison! She will just have to sample it to make sure it is fit for consumption, you see. Another series of chirps for the young blue and the tiny queen edges closer to the bloody scraps. "That, is Lotus. I found a nest of wild firelizard eggs, most of them crushed, as if someone had
deliberately stepped on them." A pause, and the firelizards are forgotten, even as Arsenic flitters over to help Lotus inspect the scraps. "There's plenty of time to get your head wrapped around it sweetling. No need to be worrying about all that nonsense now, not with Kereth unable to understand it." He didn't know much about dragons, but he knew enough to warn Laera off from hurting her new lifemate since he was far too young to deal with certain subject matter.

As the firelizard descend on his food Kereth jerks his head up to look curiously on the little ones. Not that he has not seen a flitter before, but in his food bowl? He looks to Laera for a moment who just nods at her lifemate with a smile before Kereth warbles softly to the firelizard, his attention going more to the baby of the pair. « You may feast with me. » He says in his melodic voice. Far more beautiful then any Leara heard before. Ok so she has only heard a couple.

Laera looks over the firelizards as they are introduced and grins, "Well if you ever need to talk or feel like reading a poem, just send one my way, alright?" She says with a grin to Delenn. Perhaps she was not a prankster, but she does have her mother's spirit about her. Rules are made to be worked around. "Yeah I reckon, it would be like trying to explain it to some holderkin who ain't never seen it. Just a bit difficult and very awkward." For the holderkin. "Ain't really a need for it, ain't nothing can fill my heart like he can." She says softly as she looks over to her lifemate once more.

Delenn eyes his two, seeming to settle once Kereth allows them to nibble at what remains of his meal. Lotus snags herself a scrap nearly as large as herself and drags it off with some effort so that she might partake if it on her own. Arsenic, however, is content to settle down on her haunches and tear off hunks of a larger piece, projecting fluffy happy thoughts at the blue for his kindness. "Either that, or send Lya to me when your free. I'll send one of mine if I can meet you. Between the girls, my brother, nanny duties and my apprenticeship with the healers, it seems I have less and less time even to read during the day." A sigh for this. His expression falls just enough to be noticed when Laera looks so adoringly at her lifemate as she does, his own green eyes flicking over in the young male's direction as a sad smile pulls up the corners of his lips. Again, though, his reasons for this are kept to himself. Delenn after all was learning that being open about certain things was not met always with kindness. Not that he thought Laera would laugh or scorn him, but he was trying to teach himself to be less informative about himself. "I'm happy for you Laera." he murmurs just above a whisper.

"Ambitious little thing she is." Laera comments as she watches Lotus before turning back to the young man. Kereth daintily chews on the other side of the same chunk Arsenic is. What a sight to see. "I will do that." She says with a nod of her head, "Healers? Congratulations, might me my uncle some day then. I will put in a good word for ya." She says with a wink. "I was thinking of taking up dragonhealering. I know it ain't what is considered a proper craft, but…well it looked interesting. I ain't never been much interested in human bits, but yeah…being able to take care of him with my own hands.." She gives a little wrinkle of her nose as if teasing herself for being overly sentimental on the subject. She tilts her head at the man as she gives his approval, "Thank you…was reckoning I would have impressed here, but if I
had not gone to Igen…well..I would not have HIM, I can't think of life without him."

Lotus is eating just as daintily as Kereth, though every once in a while she gets her jaws wrapped around a bit that has a little more gristle than she anticipated, which sends her toppling over once the sinew has given way. Arsenic on the other hand happily engorges herself in a matter of minutes and is soon sitting herself in the sand to digest and take a nap. Delenn laughs, "The bits I'm interested in are above the shoulders in my case. I want to specialize in mindhealing." he tells her, "Especially with children. They have the toughest time expressing what it is that bothers them, and people don't seem to realize just how much bothers them. I saw a healer once draw this little girl out of her shell just by drawing pictures with her to find out what was troubling her." he frowns deeply, a rarity for him, the topic having quite visibly gotten his heckles up. Though he does not elaborate, again. A moment taken to sooth himself, the nanny's
smile slowly returns. "Everyone has a calling, Laera, perhaps dragonhealing is yours?" He tilts his head to the side as he regards her and his smile widens. "I must say I'm a touch jealous, this bond the two of you share."

"Wow…" She starts off with and tilts her head with interest, "Yeah I suppose…I reckon I have had a good life, moved around a bit but go where the wind takes ya. Some kids especially the holderkin seem all locked up. They start spluttering when I speak my mind." Ok she does go a bit out of her way to get them to splutter, but that is neither here nor there. She draws up a knee and rests her chin on it as she listens to him speak, biting her lower lip for a moment. She is quiet for a moment before her gaze narrows for a moment, "Reckon you wish you had someone to draw pictures with?" She asks softly as she notes his stress at the topic. She nods slightly at his question, "Perhaps, ain't never found anything I was REALLY interested in before." At the comment of the bond she looks back over her shoulder as Kereth lowers
his muzzle to help right Lotus when she topples. "My Grandma used to say, everyone has a path to follow. Perhaps your path will take you to a dragon, perhaps to help some kid?"

Quite suddenly Delenn finds the weathered and aged cover of the book in his lap very interesting, though despite his attention being there he still nods at what the girl has to say, chuckling softly at her ability to make those holderborn swallow their own tongues. He grow quiet though, his eyes drifting slowly over towards Laera and holding there briefly before they once more settle on the book. "Nazaya and Briana aren't my own. Kadesh carries the next generation of my bloodline within her, but I very much doubt she'll hand her or him over to me once she births." Casually his shoulders lift in a shrug, as if he didn't care, though his tone denotes otherwise. He does stiffen somewhat at the last thing said, and he firmly shakes his head with conviction. "There'll be no lifemate for me, upon any sands, Laera. My path, may run parallel to your own, but the two shall never meet."

"Reckon Parenthood is in the eye of the child. I have seen you with those girls and they love ya like a da. Laureate had no part in my creation but I call her my mother.." Laera says softly as she looks upon the young man. She then grows quiet for a moment as he does, just sitting there thoughtfully glancing back to her lifemate for a moment before looking back to Delenn, "Never say never. This is my path and perhaps it is not yours, but it does not make your path any less important.." Where did this insightful girl come from? She then giggles at a thought and shakes her head turning her gaze away to look over at her lifemate again.

And on that note, Delenn rises and collects his firelizards, allowing them time to settle on his shoulders before he inclines his head to Laera. "I should get going. I've been here far longer than I should have, and I don't want to press my luck in getting caught." He leans over and presses a kiss to the weyrling's forehead, a parental gesture of affection and nothing more. "You take care of Kereth." Not that he doubted she wouldn't, but it was all sentimental anyhow. He bids his farewells to the blue dragonet as well, turning to go. "If you ever need to talk Laera, please let me know alright? My ears are always open to you." That said, he quietly sneaks out of the weyrling area and creeps down the waterline heading back towards the weyr proper.

"Yeah, I reckon they should be finishing up soon." Laera says as she rises to her own feet to say goodbye. Her lips quirk with that amusement from a moment before. A thought she keeps to herself for now. She reaches out to the man for a one armed hug before she moves to stand by her lifemate as the Nanny leaves. "You take care…look out for Lya.." She calls out to him before looking back to her lifemate and rolling up the remains of the meal in the tarp, "Suppose I should get you cleaned up and back inside for afternoon lessons. Anatomy I think today." She says as they head toward the water once more.

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