a new fantastic point of view [tags r'wign]

[Avu]

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t still tired, because Meira was. Riaren had started to sleep longer spans at a time, though, which meant that she slept longer at one time, too. It didn’t help that she woke up in the middle of the night anyway without wishing it and couldn’t get back to sleep again until she’d made sure Riaren was perfectly okay – and that it happened more than a few times per night. Still, it was worth it when he was awake, especially when Riaren had smiled for the first time…the first real smile; not just a thoughtless mimic but an actual, conscious smile directed at her, and then at Jingth. A toothless smile, but the sweetest, the absolute most adorable expression she’d ever remembered seeing, a smile that continued to show over the days, to R’wign and M’ta and their respective dragons and zoo of pets as well. Maybe he was aware of how cute it was, how his obvious adoration of both parents and of his “uncle” only made her affection for him stronger, but she doubted it; Meira would much rather believe Riaren smiled because he was happy.

And with his first smile, Jingth had begun to nuzzle him, touch him. Very, very gently, and she had yet to bespeak him. She still considered him her hatchling, her clutch, but she was gentle and careful enough with him that Meira didn’t have to worry about the hatchling’s accidentally hurting Riaren, so there were no complaints from the young mother and certainly none from the baby, who had actually been able to pet her on the nose clumsily, undoubtedly a mimic of what Meira did.

I don’t understand, was the gold’s insightful comment, Why he doesn’t grow faster. /I/ grew faster… She was sprawled inelegantly in a huge patch of sun right outside of the Weyrling Barracks, crooning steadily to Hers and to the hatchling. It was very warm outside without being humid, and since Hers wasn’t on shift, it made sense to spend the day with the hatchling outside. And that was precisely where they were; a blanket had been thrown onto the ground so Riaren wouldn’t hurt or cut himself on any of the pebbles, with both mother and baby lying on top of it. Riaren was on his stomach, dark green eyes looking solemnly up at Meira, who was also on her stomach in an undeniably childish posture, arms crossed and her chin propped against her forearms, legs bent at the knee, feet in the air. It wasn’t something she thought about, though undoubtedly it looked rather comical, pale blue-gray eyes focused as intently on Riaren as he was regarding her.

“Riaren grows slower than you. Don’t you?” The words came out in a soft croon; she shifted to touch Riaren’s free palm with one finger; the other arm was wrapped securely around a stuffed firelizard. Blue; it had been given to her by T’san. The baby opened his mouth slightly and smiled, wrapping his hand around her finger. Tight, she expected it was, for a baby, and Meira didn’t pull away, head tilting sideways to rest along her forearm before she smiled softly at Riaren. The two people that could always, without fail, elicit a smile from her would have to include Riaren – and Jingth; and of the two, one of them was telepathically linked. Then, on a more serious note for Jingth’s benefit – the gold was amused enough by what she considered ‘talking to the hatchling tone’ but it didn’t satisfy her question entirely – “Humans never grow that fast. Riaren’s actually doing pretty well for being premature…” And for that neither of his parents had the first idea of how to actually take care of a baby. “He’ll grow up soon enough, won’t you?”

The baby’s smile and soft hiccup earned a quiet croon from Jingth, the gold lifting her head briefly before she commented, I don’t expect I’ll remember it taking a very long time once he does grow, but it seems to take a /very/ long time…oh, and LoveMine, Checkoth’s is coming. He won’t take the hatchling, will he? I’d like for you to keep him awhile longer…you don’t need to go anywhere, do you?

[glamourie]

The flutter of wings preceded Ellie as she flew up to the weyrling barracks. She glided through the open air before coming to settle on one of the ridges of the stone structure that was the residency. The firelizard gave a delicate flip of her wings before looking at Meira with a soft chirp. Her presence was obviously a prelude to R’wign’s impending arrival. While it was true that Elegance liked babies, she did not often venture too far away from R’wign – she worried over him. The gold firelizard eyed the baby thoughtfully, but did not fly closer. When R’wign held him, she fussed and it was plain as day: she rarely moved too far from her mindmate, but the baby would always have the center of her attention. Meira wasn’t R’wign though and she always felt very awkward perching on Meira, as if she was insulting the girl somehow. Or maybe she was insulting the memory of Zesa. She remembered the other gold well… and the last thing that Ellie wanted was to cause hurt. So she stayed on her perch, wings fluttering anxiously; the gold weyrling was all but ignored.

The second sign of R’wign’s arrival was the shadow: long and streamlined, steadily growing larger until a rush of wind was carried by Checkoth’s wings, kicking up sand and small bits of rock as the brown settled down on the ground. He stretched out and crooned toward Meira before ducking his head (decidedly not looking at Jingth; she brought out his shyness prominently). The brown curled up as R’wign dismounted, and his two tails flipped agitatedly at his side. It wasn’t that he disliked Jingth (far from), he just… didn’t know how to respond to golds that weren’t Ellie. So he tended to not speak to them if it could be helped, lest they find him offensive. He always believed that the golds of Selenitas were just far too busy to have anything to do with one such as him. He was just a nuisance – a bother of their time. So he didn’t talk.

R’wign was not half as shy. He reached one hand up to stroke Checkoth’s neck absently, earning a low croon in response. His hand dropped away and he stalked absently over to the patch of sunlight that Jingth was laying in. Rather than approach Meira first, he actually knelt down to speak to Jingth directly, “If you get any prettier, Pern won’t be big enough to house all your suitors, Jingth. You’re going to make Millieth and Hepaticath jealous, lounging around that way. Such a show off.” Was he deliberately stroking the young queen’s ego? Perhaps. R’wign had no problem with Jingth so long as she wasn’t sitting on him (and that only bothered him due to his low tolerance for weight being pressed against him, not because he actually cared). He also knew from experience that females liked being complimented… except Meira, but she was odd.

Spinning around, the healer stepped over to literally flop onto the ground right in front of Meira. No doubt an unusual sight was he, falling over onto the ground next to the gold weyrlingrider, his legs pulled up at the knee. He laid flat on his back and rubbed the tip of his nose absently before turning his head to the side; he was careful to not sit too close to the baby. Was it odd to walk up to someone and just sprawl next to them? Dragons did it all the time so he could too, only fair. Plus he didn’t think that Meira would mind his behavior; she was surely accustomed to him by now. Considering that Meira had lived with him for awhile, R’wign did not expect any of his unusual quirks to get to the girl. Short of grabbing and kissing her, anyway, and he’d deserve her anger if he tried. Which he wouldn’t.

“I’ve decided,” R’wign said by way of greeting (he was obviously too good for the word ‘Hello’), “that our son is entirely too cute, and we’re going to end up beating away the girls by the time he’s five. I’ve just come back from talking to Ka’rys, and I can just foresee one of his evil spawns trying to latch onto Riaren whether he likes it or not. We need to nip this problem in the bud early. Think we can convince M’ta to wave around knives threateningly?”

[Avu]

“Hi Ellie.” The words were spoken quietly, the weyrlingrider shifting slightly to look at the gold firelizard; Meira tilted her head before her gaze returned to Riaren and she moved the finger the baby was clutching to wave at the firelizard, more for Riaren’s amusement than anything else, since likely Ellie knew perfectly well what she was saying without the accompanying gesture. Whether or not Riaren associated Ellie’s arrival with that of his father, Meira didn’t know; she honestly had no idea how quickly babies developed, but Riaren…seemed to be doing well. Certainly the baby smiled in the queen’s direction, but nothing more. Meira rested her chin against her forearm again, eyes returning to Riaren; one finger stroked the baby’s cheek gently, lips pursing slightly and then curving into a smile when Riaren mimicked the expression, before she turned to look first at the shadow indicating Checkoth’s arrival and then up at the brown, squinting before she looked down at Riaren and murmured, “See, it’s Check – see?”

Certainly Riaren smiled, clinging tighter to Meira’s finger (whether or not it was conscious, the weyrlingrider wasn’t really sure). Tugging her forefinger from the baby’s grasp gently, Meira shifted her weight mostly onto her other elbow to wave at Checkoth. Of course, R’wign was included, but it was mostly to Checkoth; other than Jingth, there was no dragon she adored more – no other dragon came close to the affection she held for Checkoth. Riaren, meanwhile, had his eyes fixed intently on R’wign, the baby gurgling quietly before he dropped his head onto the ground without looking away. Meira clicked her tongue in quiet amusement before she turned, too, following the brownrider’s progress with her eyes. Was he going to see – Jingth. The look of amused dismay was prominent across her face at R’wign’s words; she couldn’t help it. She loved the queen, but really – so vain, she was; if dragons were supposed to either compliment their Riders or be very much the same as them Meira supposed that meant she was either ridiculously modest or ridiculously vain.

The wave of smugness was unmistakable; Jingth’s eyes whirled rapidly bright blues and greens at the brownrider’s words and she condescended to offer a low croon to R’wign. Tempting, it was, to lean forward and lick him in praise for being so observant, but that would mean actually moving more than just lifting up her head and that was unacceptable. But good slave nonetheless – very good for spotting her superiority! And if it made her clutchmother and the Senior queen jealous – well, Jingth certainly had no issues with that; they ought to be jealous. After all, Jingth was, like the hatchlingsireslave had said, the best…He is /very/ observant, Jingth stated privately to MeiraHers, the smug note still audible in her ‘voice’; that most dragons would have said something along the lines of ‘kind’ in order to be modest escaped her; why should she be modest, after all?

Umm, Meira replied, before she turned. Easier to just allow herself to be distracted by R’wign…falling down in front of her…than to try to tell Jingth nicely that such vanity was not acceptable socially. And anyway, Jingth didn’t mind; the hatchling offered another little purring croon before she glanced at Checkoth, humming pleasantly at him, before she dropped her head against her forepaws again, stretching out contentedly. “Hi to you, too,” Meira replied bemusedly, an amused smile curling the corners of her mouth upwards before she looked down at Riaren and crinkled her nose at Riaren, knowing full well that the baby would mimic her – and he tried to before she turned to stare hopefully at his father, cooing quietly, trying to turn himself around (failing, but he was trying!) “I think M’ta’ll wave knives around at babies about the same time you convince him they're actually dangerous to Riaren’s well-being. Why exactly are Kera and Sammy evil, anyway?”

Because they’re not /our/ hatchling, and he is the best.

[glamourie]

Down to Riaren, Ellie fluted, her tail swishing back and forth. Meira received a pleasant bob of her head as the firelizard looked at her, but with his arrival, the queen flew over to join her mindmate. She swiveled her tail up and around his throat possessively, her head resting against the side of his face as colorful hints of blue and green filled her eyes, whirling in affection. She didn’t make any more noise than that initial flute, but her fondness for the baby was evident in the refusal to remove her gaze from him. It was clear that she was the only firelizard present for the moment (an anomaly – Grouch rarely left R’wign’s presence if it could be helped), perhaps as a quiet sort of mercy: Ellie was a lot more even-tempered than the rest of her fair, perhaps excluding Hazard, though the brown had taken to staying in the infirmary when His wasn’t on shift to relay information (like a good little soldier). Usually Ellie was accompanied by either Grouch or, of late, Crash (he’d noticed a slight variation in her personality and was extremely interested in the gold firelizard). Being alone was weird. Neither Ellie nor R’wign noticed, though.

Just as R’wign didn’t seem to notice how his praise stroked Jingth’s already (noticeably) large ego; the healer looked up at Meira and crinkled his nose before his gaze shifted back to Riaren. He reached one hand out toward the baby, wiggling his fingers playfully; his nails had been painted (literally) rainbow shades, each one a different color. It would wash off with some scrubbing and sweetsand, but for the moment the colors were there to stay; he was obviously quite bored in the infirmary. The vibrant array was entirely for Riaren’s benefit as he’d noticed that most babies quite liked brilliant colors. Riaren was no exception. For sanitation’s sake, he’d done the painting at the end of his shift – no need to anger the Kalierremonster.

“They’re evil because when they get older, they are going to want little Riaren to love them, they will; both of them. And he’ll end up having to beat them off with sticks. Our poor little boy,” he said, speaking as much to the child as he was to Meira. “No child of Savitri’s would be good enough for him either. They’re polluted by her evil.”

No, R’wign did not make any effort to disguise his dislike of Savitri. It was his opinion that the goldrider was an absolutely terrible influence on everyone, and a hypocrite at that. He worked with her flawlessly because it was in his nature to contain his feelings; he took everything and shoved it down deep, far enough not to be reached (most of the time). Where Savitri was concerned, he tended to vent his anger in passive aggressive manners; he would move her supplies just enough to be annoying. Just enough to agitate, not enough to disrupt, because he cared enough about the infirmary to draw the line. His reason for disliking her was perhaps petty; he had no use for the girl whatsoever, though. Her arrogance exceeded his and really was unfounded because she didn’t know half as much as she seemed to think she did… or maybe he just had no tolerance for people mothering him; whatever it was, Savitri touched on his nerves and he was controlled enough not to show that to her (though she probably knew – Ka’rys had a big mouth).

It was a testament to his own arrogance however that he assumed both girls would have a crush on Riaren. Of course they would. He was a beautiful child and he was His and Meira’s which meant, quite literally, that he’d have an army of girls falling over themselves for him. Why wouldn’t they? Good looks and brains! What more could anyone want?

“They’re dangerous to his happiness, at least. Hm, I’m going to try asking him.” Tilting his head up, R’wign grinned pleasantly. “Believe it or not… I came to see you, not him. Although he’s distracting. Yes, Riaren, you’re distracting. Stop distracting me so I can remember what I was going to tell your mommy – gosh, you make it so hard to tell her everything, I mean, can you stop being so cute for five seconds so that I can talk? No? Well, bother. I’ll just have to learn to not notice the cute. You’ve got your own woos – should’ve known. May yours be more effective than mine. And may you not jump under women’s skirts in public locations; some woos make people mad…”

Oh. Right. Talking to Meira. R’wign looked up at Meira, and rolled over onto his side to look at her more clearly. “Dael clutched on the hatching sands, K’lir tells me. I think you should go to the hatching,” he said with a slight eyebrow raise. “Or, rather, he thought to formally extend an invitation – he seemed to feel it appropriate, since Showoff used to…” Used to cause trouble at Zesa’s hatchings. “He thought you might want to come watch from the Stands; he said it should be relatively safe up there. And I am delivering the message. I think he secretly wants to talk parent-shop with someone who is less terrible than me though, so I would consider the invitation with a grain of salt. Riareeeen. Stop distracting meee…”

Behind him, Checkoth turned and crooned quietly to Jingth. He shifted nervously and then lounged out, cautious not to get in the young gold’s light. No one ever said he was inconsiderate. Shy, yes, inconsiderate, no.

[Avu]

There was no disguising Riaren’s absolute delight at his father’s presence; the baby smiled widely at the Healer and tried to push himself up, his head lifting from the blanket, one palm pressed against it so the other could swat at those pretty colors on his nails; a little gurgle emerged from his throat as Riaren wobbled, and then overbalanced, sprawling back onto the blanket for a moment. Then he tried again, this time with the other hand. See, see; he was determined to grab on – and – yes! Now he cooed contentedly, wrapping his hand around R’wign’s hand as tightly as he could manage, and, apparently forgetting one arm was being used to prop himself up, reached out to grab on with that hand as well before he tilted forward awkwardly. Meira leaned forward to balance the baby, but Riaren didn’t look back at her; his entire focus was on clinging happily to R’wign’s hand. There was no pulling or tugging; he was just happy to latch on tightly and examine the colors, staring intently at them.

The sound of speaking distracted him, though Riaren still wrapped both hands around R’wign’s fingers, the baby trying to turn his head to look up at his father. Meira’s laugh of amusement made the baby smile, too, undeniably pleased at having both parents so close that he could feel both of them at once. “Riaren doesn’t mind attention, though,” she pointed out, squirming forward slightly (undignified, yes, but she didn’t notice) to hold Riaren up better. Did not want baby to wobble forward and get hurt, nope. She didn’t make any response to ‘Savitri’s evil’, though; it amused her, even if she did like the Junior Weyrwoman; Savitri had always been welcome company for her. R’wign had said something about not liking Savitri before, she thought – or had it been Saeo? She didn’t argue with the idea of both girls wanting Riaren to love them, either; biased as she was, Meira was perfectly willing to believe, like Jingth, that Riaren was absolutely the most beautiful and most perfect baby ever.

Come to see – “Me,” Meira echoed, both eyebrows rising to express her surprise at the idea; she liked R’wign’s company well enough, and she did consider him to be one of her closer friends, but Riaren had always been the link, even before his birth. “Riaren,” she added, looking down at the baby who was still clinging insistently to R’wign’s fingers, eyes bright with his delight with the situation, before she crinkled her nose in amusement. As R’wign talked, she leaned forward to press her lips against the top of Riaren’s head, arms still looped beneath the baby to keep his face from pressing against the blanket. Soft, it may have looked, but Meira was sure it wasn’t as comfortable as it appeared, given that the ground beneath it was anything but and it wasn’t that thick. Riaren was oblivious to any dangers, though, smiling up at R’wign with undisguised joy at being addressed. No matter how many times he was spoken to, he always seemed to love the attention, his eyes even leaving R’wign’s nails to focus on the brownrider’s face intently.

“‘Woos’ – ” What were woos? But it would wait, but – but what did she need to know about a Salamandyr clutch for? Meira tilted her head slightly, pressing her cheek against Riaren’s head instead, the position making her view of R’wign sideways – but given that he was sideways, too, it worked out. “I – ” Definitely don’t want a Salamandyr. Don’t want Riaren near a Salamandyr Hatching. Meira bit her lip for a second before she turned to look at Jingth curiously for a moment before she answered. “I don’t know – safe – would it be ‘safe’ enough to bring Riaren with me…?” The idea of talking babies wasn’t a bad one; she was perfectly okay with that. But did it have to be at the Hatching? “Will you be going?” she thought to ask, just before the amusement at the thought of the Salamandyr gold clutching in the Hatching Sands hit her; hopefully neither Millieth or Hepaticath would be upset…?

I don’t see why they would be, Jingth interjected helpfully. It’s very warm there. /I/ would clutch there if /I/ were a Salamandyr too. Could I come if you do go? I would like to see a Salamandyr Hatching… Checkoth was offered a quiet croon, before the gold hatchling stretched out even farther and plopped her head back onto her forepaws, giving her tail an idle swish. See, wasn’t she lovely? Just like R’wign had said; she hoped Millieth and Hepaticath saw her and were jealous. She didn’t expect them to be too terribly jealous because she wasn’t full-grown yet, but when she was…Jingth’s tail settled in a lazy loop on the ground, eyelids closing over bright blue shades of smugness. Oh, yes; just because Checkoth’s didn’t make a good couch didn’t mean he didn’t make a good overall slave…

[glamourie]

The grip on his fingers made R’wign smile and he wiggled them again –lightly, of course, so as to not break the free from the baby’s grasp. He tilted his head to the side and the smile grew wider; it was one of the rare, completely genuine smiles of R’wign’s that very few people got to see. Not that his fake one was much different, except that the real one was a lot less secure, a lot less ‘pretty’ in many ways – yet in others, it was all the more meaningful, at least to those who understood the difference (which numbered in the single digits). Riaren made him happy. Terrified him, yes; the baby was possibly the single most frightening entity in R’wign’s world simply because of what he meant – he was the ultimate test in many ways… but Riaren made him happy. He could see so much potential and he loved the idea of this little life that was so perfect being… his. It was weird, too, for the very same thought made him want to tremble in terror. If he made any mistakes, it was on his head that the baby was messed up. K’lir kept telling him that children were resilient (just look at Kahrelir) but… he wasn’t sure how much comfort he took from that thought. M’ta made jokes about the baby having him wrapped around his little fingers but jokes or not, it was true; there was very little he put above Riaren even if he was incredibly awkward with him and still trembled when he held him from time to time. He was sure he’d eventually drop the baby like a dolt… and half the time he had no idea when Riaren was hungry or thirsty or not. There had to be some kind of translation device. So far, all he had was Ellie and Meira (although Ellie was very good at telling things, thank Faranth for small favors).

Meira’s disjointed one-word responses to his behavior were mostly overlooked; R’wign was focusing almost entirely on his son and in that focus, he missed much of Meira’s reactions. If she wanted his attention, she knew how to seize it; as it was, at the mere sight of Riaren he became distracted and he was much more comfortable with his child when Meira was there to act as buffer. He felt safer with here there, as if she could keep him from making silly mistakes, and he frequently would spend time with Riaren with Meira just for that safety net. He knew intellectually that he needed to work on being more comfortable with the child alone, but it was taking time – time. Eventually he’d get there, or so he hoped; he was trying very hard to be optimistic.

“I’m not going. I try to avoid being near hatching creatures as a general rule,” R’wign said without looking up at Meira; he could see her hands on Riaren, keeping him steady, and that was really the only thing he needed to see. “Bad things happen if I go near hatching draconids and I’m… I’m not ready for another mindmate.” If anyone could understand that, it would be Meira, right? Usually it was firelizards that favored him strongly but he wouldn’t put it past salamandyrs to be evil and latch onto him and R’wign just could not deal with that. Not yet. Not so soon after Collision and Accident; he’d been very fond of them both and he missed them every second of every day. There was a notable absence inside that he had some trouble dealing with; he had no idea how people like Meira and K’lir got by on a day-to-day basis. “I wouldn’t bring Riaren. It’s unlikely you’ll Impress anything from the Stands but just as a cautionary method; I can watch him though. It’s not like I have anything better to do when I’m hiding from hatchings.” His voice took on a decidedly more babyish tone. “We can tie ribbons onto Checkoth, yes we can, we can make him a very pretty brown…”

Checkoth gave a slight snort in response to R’wign’s words, and squirmed down to curl up, his body twisting about in a feline-like fashion with his tail curling over his hind legs. His head came to rest down on his claws and he crooned to Jingth again. He wasn’t in the habit of talking to the young queen, though. He often assumed that she found him annoying to converse with (as was his assumption with all queens) and since he had nothing to say, he didn’t say it. His eyes whirled pleasantly before falling closed, obviously with the intention of a nap.

“Don’t mind him,” R’wign tacked on over his shoulder to the gold. He glanced back at her by way of explanation. “He’s shy when it comes to queens; he doesn’t mean any harm.”

[Avu]

Riaren’s attention, for the moment, was focused again on the fingers that he’d managed to grasp; a smile curled his lips upwards and he squirmed slightly forward. Very seriously did he study R’wign’s hand for a moment before he raised his head unsteadily to look at his father and smile, trying to mimic the brownrider’s words by moving his mouth the same way R’wign did. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quick enough and in the end he only gave a little coo, returning his attention to the rainbow-shaded nails. So pretty, they were, so bright~ Riaren squirmed, trying to draw R’wign’s hand into his mouth to see if the rainbows tasted as good as they looked. Because they had to taste good, didn’t they? They looked it, hmm…not that Riaren could tug very forcefully, but he could try, anyway. The stuffed firelizard had been forgotten, laying limply to one side; all of his attention had been stolen by the pretty.

Ah. Of course. Meira was looking down at Riaren, too – she’d caught sight of R’wign’s nails with some amusement; where’d he gotten the paints? – but she nodded. That R’wign seemed to magnetically attract firelizards – she’d forgotten for the moment. Probably because only Ellie was nearby, something she couldn’t really remembering happening before. Hmm; she hadn’t considered that it might translate to Salamandyrs as well, ether. “Oh…right. Okay then…” Hmm. “I don’t know…if I do go, I’ll drop him off with you, then.” It was a very big ‘if’, even if Jingth did want to see the Hatching. She could always send the queen off by herself to go watch from the entrance or the Stands; Jingth wasn’t small anymore but she wasn’t big either, and she could probably fit without any problems and there wasn’t the risk of Impression for Jingth. Lucky gold…“Do you know roughly when they’ll be Hatching?” she added, more out of curiosity than anything else. Every day of the sevenday was equally busy, between Weyrling Lessons and the Infirmary, and she very well couldn’t skip either of those.

Jingth’s head came up at R’wign’s words to her, and the gold hatchling gave a little croon. Why would she take offense? No; she was used to Checkoth and anyway, he was hers, was he not? The gold rolled to her feet, impulsively, to make her way idly over to Hers, the hatchling, and Checkoth’s, before she sprawled out right next to R’wign again, deliberately halfway in the sun as opposed to in the shade; she never did understand why people sometimes didn’t like the sun. So silly; wasn’t it much nicer? Crooning politely at R’wign again, she craned her neck over the brownrider to nudge Riaren lightly and then lick his cheek, earning a delighted giggle from the baby, before she leaned back and rested her head on R’wign’s legs. Lightly, but the motion was decidedly possessive; her brownrider-slave-pillow-thing. LoveMine, please tell Checkoth’s that I’m certainly not offended? And that his nails are very pretty. The hatchling likes them and I do, too.

Amusement flickered across the weyrlingrider’s face before Meira reached forward to wipe the dampness off of Riaren’s cheek. Fortunately Jingth didn’t slobber when she licked people, and Riaren didn’t seem to mind it. “Um. You can poke her if you want her off,” she suggested weakly, earning a reproving snort from Jingth. “She said she’s not offended – and she likes your nails; they’re pretty…” She looked down at Riaren again; the baby’s attention had paused for a moment on Jingth, but she’d become quite everyday, and her touching and licking him wasn’t new, either. No; the rainbows were much more distracting, they were.

[glamourie]

“Kind of hard to predict for me. Firelizard eggs, I can usually pinpoint within a half candlemark but salamandyr eggs are not something that I’ve spent very much time around. I don’t like the creatures much.”Actually, he detested salamandyrs. The only one he’d found worthwhile was P.M.S. and only because the salamandyr seemed to adore Behruth and do everything that he said; plus he was a good influence on M’ta, which helped sway R’wign’s opinion in his favor. Showoff, Lust – they were totally obnoxious, could any creature be more irritating to be around? He didn’t exactly like Daeluunya, either, though he was biased: she came from the clutch that he and Marra took care of together, so she was favored in her own way. Ironically, he’d picked Dael’s egg up and examined the odd thing; he was the one who decided to keep the egg in with the clutch despite its odd appearance. Sometimes he wished he’d never made that mistake, other times… well, regardless, he did not like salamandyrs. He just didn’t. He tolerated P.M.S. and that was due to no real option otherwise. Going to one of their hatchings was like asking for trouble and R’wign saw himself as intelligent. No need to Impress a salamandyr. He had enough trouble with the firelizards and they didn’t affect his emotions half as much as salamandyrs did their mindmates.

Also, he thought Riaren was the most precious child he’d ever encountered. The way he was squirming trying to get at the rainbow nails made R’wign smile ear-to-ear. Yes, he’d painted them just for Riaren but it was pleasing to see that he liked them so much. Rainbows: best toy ever. The only reason he didn’t scoop the boy up and cuddle him was because Meira seemed quite content to hold him upright as she was and he didn’t want to intrude on mommy-baby time – odd as it sounded. Although he was kind of already intruding but whatever, at least he wasn’t running off with the child which in itself was a miracle all things considered (it was tempting to grab him and flounce off; he was getting more comfortable with the baby so long as he didn’t cry or sniffle or anything). So hah. At least he was being somewhat good.

Though, at venturing a guess – “Salamandyrs are smaller than firelizards, so probably within the sevenday. I’m sure Adith or Baoth will announce it when they start to hatch, someone always does,” he explained, shrugging one shoulder. “Probably Adith, though. Dael looks to Uu’n after all.” He had a hard time imagining K’lir’s green menace cooperating enough to announce the birth of salamandyrs. Not that Baoth ever gave him a reason to deem her a ‘menace’ (she was in fact quite pleasant to him and Checkoth both, eerily enough) but she looked to K’lir and anything that picked him was liable to be quite a troublemaker. K’lir was, after all, and so was Showoff. Personalities attracted and the like. Although, that statement certainly didn’t apply to him. Checkoth was almost nothing like him. The brown was significantly kinder than he ever could hope to be. He pretended to be sweet and innocent, but… R’wign was not. Hnf.

Jingth’s proximity made him look up and R’wign turned his head to look at her more seriously; she was on his blindside, which was decidedly odd, but he was able to get a good look at her as she leaned down to lick Riaren and he smirked. Her head coming down to rest on his legs made him quirk his eyebrows and he put one hand down on the top of the gold’s head affectionately. Gentle touches, nothing more.

“I don’t think it’s necessary to poke her off,” he replied to Meira with a shrug. “As long as she’s not on my chest, I’m okay. I just don’t think I can handle her weight on my chest – nothing personal. And I’m glad she likes the nails. I had to filch the paints from one of the supply cabinets and I’m sure our wood and glasscrafters will be missing them.” A wry smile passed over his face. “Oh well. It’s not like I used very much. I was bored; the infirmary was pretty dull, since most of the sickies have cleared out. I thought Riaren would like them. I remember Cezine telling me that Calerin liked firelizards because of their bright colors; seems like he’s impressed. Right Riaren? You like ‘em?” He wiggled his fingers, moving them closer for Riaren to suck on the ends if he wanted to. So cute.

[Avu]

Of course. She’d half-expected it; it wasn’t quite fair to expect R’wign to know when she didn’t either. Meira nodded, wondering absently if other Salamandyrs would know – not that it’d help if they did, since the only Salamandyr she’d ask would be PMS, and the blue’s coherency (or lack thereof) would make it decidedly difficult to figure out his answer. Another nod as the brownrider went on. Fine with her; she’d just go if they Hatched at a convenient time; certainly she wouldn’t be crawling out of bed at midnight to attend a Salamandyr Hatching like everyone had to at Hepaticath’s Hatching; nor could she ditch Weyrling Lessons to attend the Hatching or anything of the like. Weyrlings weren’t allowed to go the Hatchings anyway, from what she could recall; would be quite awkward, wouldn’t it? It was supposed to be traumatic for the hatchlings if they did Impress and the Salamandyr Ran – but then, giving birth was supposed to be traumatic too, and Jingth seemed just fine, even fond of Riaren.

Said gold was currently purring at R’wign’s touch, the smug note in her voice undeniable. Good slave, he was. She would have preferred Hers, of course, but her hands were occupied and this one had one hand available to touch her with. Jingth pressed against his hand, wriggling to sprawl out farther and to get his hand on an itch at the same time. Right – there. Now he had to scratch. How did she make him do that without bespeaking him, though? Jingth rumbled thoughtfully, nosing at R’wign’s leg. There, see? Scratch there. She couldn’t ask Checkoth; that’d disturb the brown’s nap, and Hers wouldn’t pass along that message, she knew from experience – it was rude, apparently. She just wanted to be scratched…yes? Yes? Scratch there…

Her slightly frustrated croon made Meira glance over at her, and an amused look passed over the weyrling rider’s face, but she didn’t speak to the gold. R’wign’s assurances that Jingth was fine earned a shrug from her, though, before she smiled, one eyebrow rising as she glanced at the brownrider’s nails again. “Shouldn’t encourage Riaren to steal,” she commented teasingly, before looking down at Riaren and crinkling her nose in amusement; the baby’s fascination with the nails was obvious, and it was cute. Although, once she thought about it, she was just as fascinated with Riaren as the baby was with R’wign’s nails; she would have loved to just watch Riaren, was sure she’d never tire of it, not because Riaren did anything extraordinary for a baby but because he was a baby.

At the sound of his name, the baby looked up at his father briefly, and smiled, eyes bright with his obvious delight, before he looked down at the pretty again. Close enough to taste now, they were, and he did just that, wrapping both hands as firmly as he could around R’wign’s forefinger and putting it into his mouth and chewing. Toothless, but it was an attempt to chew, anyway, the way bigger people did it, even though they didn’t usually chew fingers; they ate food. After a moment, however, Riaren pulled back to stare at the finger before he moved onto R’wign’s middle finger. Hmm, wonder if they tasted differently…? But they didn’t taste good. Paint didn’t, generally speaking, though the taste wasn’t obvious in the least – it just wasn’t good. Maybe this color would be better…