Pay my respects to grace and virtue (Syd!)

[Avu]

It had rained all morning, and, consequentially, Sena had spent all morning moping indoors, caught by an inexplicable wave of wanderlust that had her restlessly migrating from the Main Hall to the Candidate Barracks, rinse and repeat, ad nauseum, etc. The rain didn’t really stop her from doing anything really; everything was nicely interconnected even if she hadn’t quite mastered the tunnel system yet, but the perpetual drumming of rain lashing against stone and glass apparently brought out the zombie tendencies in her. She hadn’t even noticed that the rain had stopped until it occurred to her that it was entirely too quiet for some reason, skidding to a slow-motion, confused stop in the middle of the hallway, eyebrows crinkling in bemusement.

“Is that…?” she mouthed, the words coming out silent before she burst into a startled, “Syd!” (ignoring the fact that her bunkmate was nowhere near her) and bolted for the Candidate Barracks, narrowly avoiding a full on collision with a passing Drudge, who uttered one loud, utterly emasculating squawk as she shot past him. By the time Sena got to the Barracks, she was panting, drooping like a flower left out too long in the sun; as she passed a mirror she automatically brushed a hand through the flyaway hair curling around her face in cheerful defiance of her braid, wrinkling her nose at her own red-cheeked, rumpled reflection.

She moved on quickly, though, and ended up almost smacking right into her bunkmate, who was evidently on her way out of the Barracks. Sena made a short, bewildered sound and automatically latched onto her bunkmate—she’d been thrilled in retrospect that she got along with Sydney so well; she hadn’t really expected it honestly since she’d never been terribly close to people at the Glasscraft Hall, especially people who were older than her like Syd was—and blurted, “It’s stopped raining!”

Done pointing out the obvious, Sena added, “Um, do you want to come out to the Weyrbowl with me? It’s so boring in here and it’s probably all nice outside, you know?” She’d been trying to limit the extent to which her accent came out when she spoke, but it was harder than she had anticipated—but she was so used to concentrating that it mostly just came out automatically as a sort of peculiar mix of distinctly Benden consonants and drawling Southern vowels. “I bet there’s nobody even out there yet,” she continued, half-pleading, “We could be the first, c’mon…”

[Rei]

Bah rain. Sydney had been rather bored today. She didn’t have to train at the infirmary today. Chores had been done this morning and there were no lessons scheduled today. Sheesh it was a sad day when you had to pray for lessons or something. What happened to liking your free time? To be honest the young woman would have been much happier with something to do besides lay on her bunk and stare at the ceiling. Her bunkmate Sena had become too restless and thus had gotten up to wander around and try and kill some of the boredom perhaps. Idly the other candidate wondered how that was going. Should have went with her probably. Then maybe they could have made their own fun. With a sigh she stretched her arms up towards the ceiling before letting them drop again. Bleh.

A few more moments in bed and Sydney had had enough. It was too boring. Even lurking around the hallways had to be better then this. Maybe she could catch up to Sena. It was weirdly nice being friends with another girl. Normally Sydney didn’t bother with other girls. They were silly and prissy and a whole bunch of other annoying things. Not Sena though. Sena was exuberant and didn’t mind getting dirty and was awesome. Swinging her legs off her bunk the dark haired girl stretched once more and hopped off the bunk. Running her hand through her humidity tousled hair the candidate made for the doorway. She had just gotten to it when a blonde object came hurtling at her at a startling pace. The near collision had Sydney’s bright green eyes widening though she couldn’t help the welcoming smile as Sena immediately latched onto her. The other girl was quickly approaching little sister status in the other girls mind. Best friends forever material maybe.

Sena’s message was met with a bright grin and a, “Really? That’s awesome!” Yes Sydney was quite sick of being cooped up. Anything but rain would be a very welcome change. She didn’t even mind that the humidity was giving her hair a mind of it’s own right now. Not if she got to move around and do something other then count cobwebs. Sena hardly needed to ask really but still the other girl let her finish. Her friend was getting a bit better about the accent thing. The mix between southern and Benden was unique at any rate. Not hard to understand even if it did sound funny at times. When the blonde finally finished the other candidate nodded her own head enthusiastically. “Well then what are we waiting for? Lets get out there before it becomes annoyingly crowded.” Besides it was a well known fact that all kinds of awesome creatures crawled out after the rain.

“Maybe we can find one of those sticky toed jungle frogs? Or one of those bright colored crawlers or something?” Sydney tried not to sound too excited about that prospect but she couldn’t help that a bit of it leaked into her tone. Sure grown woman probably shouldn’t be excited to play with frogs. But she liked frogs. So who cared what anyone else thought? Moving finally from the doorway she half trotted beside her friend towards the outside world. Anyone who happened to see them pass might wonder what all the hurry was about. Clearly the pair were going to die if they had to spend another moment cooped up indoors.

[Avu]

She answered Sydney’s enthusiasm with a flash of a dimpled grin. It was nice that Sydney’s reactions were always so real, and honestly, it drew equally genuine reactions from Sena. There was rarely anything fake from Sena to start with, but certainly filtered, and not having to filter anything, that was new. Nice. Sena twisted on her heel to run back outside, settling into fast-paced lope beside Syd, answering—faintly breathlessly with the giggles she tried to swallow and her giddy excitement of getting outside at last, “Yeah, we should try and catch one and see if the other girls like ‘em, we could keep a pet, right?” Like…a Salamandyr, except not as talkative (Sena adored Rhino absolutely and unquestioningly, no matter what Iskierka might say about the species in general).

“I think the threat of having a crawler slipped into beds’ll keep people from being bitchy,” she added, only half-joking; she did think it would be effective, even if Sena wasn’t quite mean enough to really do it. Aunt Iski would probably be upset if it got out, and anyway, she hadn’t ever had any run-ins with the other Candidates yet, but the things she’d heard about some of them! (One of them in particular, really, but either way—the point still stood.) As they rounded a corner and finally tripped outside, Sena swept the empty stretch of grass and dirt with a quick gaze and then lifted her face to the sky, pointing, “Rainbow, look, bet there’s a pot of gold at the end of it.”

She had actually tried finding the end of a rainbow once when she was little and believed in black pots full of gold, only to find that the end of the rainbow moved. In retrospect, it had been silly—but she still liked the folk tale of it.

Sena slipped her hand through Sydney’s, swung their arms in an exaggerated arc, pulling her bunkmate away from the door and towards the taller patches of grass where the crawly things they were looking for were, if anywhere…it was possible that the smarter ones had already fled from the gigantic dragons that made the Weyr a home; Sena didn’t expect they’d stay long if they had yet. “Oh, pause!” she blurted, skidding to an abrupt stop and then bending to carefully pick up a squirming pink worm in front of them, brushing dirt off of it with her thumb and then presenting it to Sydney in the palm of her hand, “Not quite as leggy as a crawler.”

Not that she meant to keep a worm for a pet—she liked them abstractly most of the time, but she was fonder of worms than she was of, say, spiders or some of the other insects, not that she let her distaste for the creepier of crawlies distract her from roaming outside. Still, since they were on the search for things that slunk in the grass and went unnoticed by nearly everyone…

[Rei]

Sena’s giddiness was apparently contagious. Sydney’s long legs ate up the distance in her excitement as she loped beside her younger friend though the hallways and towards the outside world. Even concentrating on her breathing and where she was going the older of the two found it easy to pay attention to what the blonde was saying. “Oh that’s a brilliant plan. We can tell them we found something awesome and when they lean over to look we can unveil it right under their noses. That’s sure to get some shrieks.” It was a great plan. Might make some of the even prissier ones a little ticked. Which was all good with Sydney. The candidate had never liked some of the more fake girly girls in the barracks. Sena was cool. But some of the others were just hard to talk to period. Either they were boy crazy, or they were afraid and mousy, or even worse those prissy stuck up girls who thought they were Faranth’s gift or something. Turning emerald eyes briefly back to her friend she gave a short nod. “Sure I don’t see why we couldn’t keep a pet? If it turns out that we can’t we just hide it from M’kai.” Really how hard could that be?

The next comment had Sydney actually laughing. “Now that is a great plan. I can only imagine the looks on some of their faces if we made that threat. Especially if you were sitting there petting the crawler while making it. I can only imagine how white some of them would get.” Okay maybe that was a little mean but it wasn’t like some of the other girls weren’t really asking for it. Besides threatening didn’t mean you were actually going to do it. It was more an effective preventative then anything else right? As they finally broke out into fresher air Sydney let her eyes slip shut as she took a deep breath of the fresh air. It always smelled so amazing after it rained. She left her eyes closed just enjoying the fresh sensation until Sena spoke up again. Opening her eyes the older girl lifted them to the sky and followed the line of her friend’s finger until she caught sight of the rainbow. With a smile she chuckled. “Hey you never know. I think stranger things then random pots of gold have probably happened before.” Oh sure everyone knew there was no real end to a rainbow. But flights of fancy weren’t too bad to indulge in every once and awhile.

Taking Sena’s hand Sydney joined in on the swinging with enthusiasm as she allowed the other girl to tug her forward. The older of the two had a bit of a spring in her step as they walked out over the damp ground and started their trek. The hunt for the elusive after rain beasts had begun. Here was hoping they found something worthwhile. It wasn’t long before Sena called out a pause and curiously Sydney watched as the other girl picked something up and brushed it off. When the blonde extended her palm and it’s new occupant out Sydney briefly ran her finger over the squirming creature. “Nope not as leggy at all. But it sure squirms plenty.” Smiling at her friend she gently picked the creature up between two fingers to examine it better.

“You know…” The candidate commented in a light tone. “I’ve heard that some people actually eat worms.” Turning her gaze to her friend Sydney smiled. “To me that sounds disgusting.” Reaching for the other dangling end of the worm with her other hand she gently stretched it out and then brought the creature up against her top lip. “That’s why I like to wear mine as a wormstache.” Now if that didn’t get a laugh Syd didn’t know what would. Very mature yes.

[Avu]

It was just so easy, a wide, dimpled grin spreading across Sena’s face as she laughed; she didn’t really like scaring other people—it seemed mean and sort of generally pointless: You scared people and once they got over it, they scared you, so why bother? She wasn’t masochistic—but the idea of it was enough to have her giggling. Not that she really knew any girls well enough, other than Sydney, to prank them and get away with it without seeming like a complete bitch, and anyway a crawler wouldn’t scare Syd. Or any of the guys, probably (not that she knew them any better, but generally speaking Sena figured guys would be more okay with getting randomly pranked). Still, the threat was good enough for her.

She squeezed Syd’s hand affectionately and then dropped her hand to allow her to take the worm from her palm, brushing the dirt off her fingers after and watching in fascinated curiosity. Sena hadn’t really expected Syd to take the thing from her—she couldn’t really imagine keeping a worm as a pet; didn’t they need nutrients from the soil? Would they have to change out the soil constantly? Would that traumatize the worm? She wrinkled her nose with the anticipated “eww” at the mention of eating them—and then, at Syd’s demonstration of a wormstache, opened her mouth in delighted amusement, bursting into a full-blown laugh.

“Oh man,” she said, after she’d harnessed her laughter into a manageable giggle, “That’s great. I want one, let’s find another, we can name this one Pablo Part I.” Part I because of the whole cutting-worms-in-half thing; Sena had never tried it (the idea of deliberately cutting something as helpless as a worm in half was just not appealing in any shape or form) but she’d heard of it, and if they could find Pablo Part II, then that would just be fantastic, wouldn’t it? “And afterwards we’ll have to return Pablo Part I, I guess, he probably has a weyrmate.” A pause, as she considered, tilting her head at Syd and her wormstache, and then added with absolute deadpan gravitas, “And kids. You know how those worms breed.”

Not that she did, so she actually hadn’t the faintest idea if Syd did, but that was beside the point. Sena attempted to waggle her eyebrows in mock suggestiveness. It didn’t work—however expressive Sena was, the mobility of her eyebrows through conscious thought just did not factor into that.

“C’mon, Syd, c’mon, Pablo Part I”—she wiggled her fingers playfully in a follow-me gesture at her bunkmate (plus wormstache Pablo), skipping backwards a step and peering down at the loam, “Help me find Pablo Part II.”

[Rei]

Sena’s explosion into laughter had Sydney following shortly after, though she did remember to pull the worm away from her face so as not to accidentally hurt it or something. Cupping the squirming little creature safely into her palm she half curled on herself eyes almost watering as she laughed along. It really was rather ridiculous. Seriously if someone saw her now they probably wouldn’t believe she was twenty two. She sure wasn’t acting like it. Not that the candidate gave two shakes about what anyone else thought. Sydney was one of those girls who told you like it was whether you liked her answer or not. If people didn’t like her well then you didn’t like her. The world worked like that sometimes. Finally it seemed that Sena was getting her laughter under control which helped Sydney’s case along too.

Taking in a deep breath the older of the two managed to tone it down into just light chuckles as her fellow candidate started speaking again. An enthusiastic nod was offered the girl who was her partner in crime. “That sounds like a splendid idea. Then we can have two halves of the same wormstache.” The statement was punctuated by a sage nod as she poked at the worm in her hand. “Hear that Pablo Part I? We’re going to spring you eventually. We just have to find your doppelganger first.” And really that was okay with Sydney. There was no sense in torturing the poor creature and heck this was probably going to be the most exciting day of his life. How many other worms got to be manhandled by two pretty girls?

Lifting her gaze back to her friend as Sena spoke in a completely deadpan tone, complete with attempted eyebrow waggle, Sydney almost burst out in laughter again. In manifested in her making a rather strange face and a couple of giggles escaping anyway. “Oh yes. Terrible worms. I’m sure Pablo Part I has a quite extensive family line.” Really the girl had no idea as to the mechanics of worm breeding. Nor did she think she really wanted to know but hey she could run with it for the sake of entertainment. When her bunkmate bid her follow Sydney grinned and drew another finger along the worm in her palm. “Come on Pablo lets hunt for Pablo.” Moving to the left of her friend Sydney crouched and let her eyes scan the ground and grass before her for anything squirming and wormlike.

It didn’t take long till she found another one and the candidate called out. “Hold there Pablo Part II! Where are you off too in such a fashion?” Picking the new worm up in her other hand she held it out to Sena. “Here we are. Now we can christen the ‘Fellowship of the Wormstache’. Pablo I and Pablo II can be our founding fathers.” As she spoke she grinned at her friend, her emerald eyes clearly reflecting her amusement. Maybe they could run with this thing and even make any other friends they ever made join the fellowship as well? After they proved themselves that is. It was a thought anyway.

[Avu]

Maybe it was an aftereffect of the explosion of laughter—almost cathartic after roaming restlessly so long just a few minutes earlier—but Sydney’s comment had Sena giggling in sporadic, helpless fits, the girl covering her mouth with one hand and blinking away tears as she attempted to regain control of herself. She managed to take a deep breath before she said, in a voice of utter solemnity ruined by the wide smile she just couldn’t smother, “He’s like, practically a great-great grandfather already probably; those worms, they start early, y’know.” She nodded decisively, and then moved to crouch near a patch of damp soil, threading her fingers through the grass (her other arm wound around her stomach, which hurt a little from laughing).

Sydney’s triumphant proclamation had Sena lifting her gaze from the ground just as the tail end of a pink worm squirmed damply back underground, oblivious to its close escape, and grinning widely as she rose to her feet, wobbling as her knees regained feeling, and hummed in as regal a tone as she could manage, gingerly and with a show of deliberate solemnity and grace lifting Pablo Part II from Sydney’s palm and up to her mouth; she pursed her lips and draped the worm there with a calm dignity that failed spectacularly in the face of her giggles at Syd’s suggestion, wrinkling her nose as she pulled the wormstache away from her face.

“Worms with such extensive family should be honored with the founding of such a dignified fellowship,” she agreed, widening her eyes with perfect innocence. “And this shall be the First Convention of the Fellowship of the Wormstache,” she added in a spurt of lively inspiration, and raised her cupped palm with Pablo Part II to the heavens, curling her fingers carefully around him to make sure he didn’t fall to a squirmy dirty death. Sena dropped her gaze back to Sydney and continued, “Do you, Syd, vow forevermore never to view a worm simply as a worm again, but always as a wormstache with extended familial connections and a name?”

Then, her expression breaking into a grin, “We should probably come up with better vows, that sounds sort of awkward…also vows sounds weird too, it’s like we’re marrying Pablo Part I and II.”

[Rei]

By this point there was no use in trying to hide the humor in either of their voices. It was practically charging the air. Who knew that worms could be quite so entertaining? Certainly Sydney herself had played with the occasional worm as a kid. But never like this. It was funny how her new friend made even small goofy things like this ten times more fun. Even now as she held Pablo Part II out for Sena to take, Sydney was fighting back laughter again. Mostly on account of the hummed regal tone. She wasn’t sure where the blonde got the tune from but after hearing it once the other candidate found herself humming along and trying not to burst out in more laughter as her friend donned the wormstache. She succeeded for maybe a few moments before it just all become too much and her laughter spilled out of her again.

Fortunately Sydney was able to calm herself in a reasonable time span. At least soon enough that she could pay attention to what Sena was saying. Straightening, and trying to ignore the fact that her sides were starting to hurt, she nodded to her friend. “Yes and that a great founding it shall be. This moment will go down in the histories of all worms clearly.” Smiling brightly as her friend held her worm to the heavens Sydney followed suit raising Pablo Part I towards the sky in cupped palm as well. She was very careful to make sure that she didn’t drop the poor creature. That would be a long drop for something so tiny. “I Sydney vow forevermore to never view a worm simply as a worm again, but only as a wormstache with extended familiar connections and a name.” She repeated in as serious a tone as she could currently manage. Though she had to admit it was terribly hard.

Lowering the worm and breaking into a grin as well the dark haired candidate found herself giggling again. “Yeah we should probably work on those. Clean it up and try and make it more regal sounding.” Green eyes dancing with mirth she poked at Pablo Part I. “Hear that? You’re officially married now. I don’t know how much your wife and kids are going to like that.” Looking from the worm back to Sena a look of contemplation crossed her face. “Hmm. We obviously need to work on our new fellowship. Rules and pledges and all that. At least we have something to do on the next rainy day now right?” Smiling at her friend Sydney took the worm and draped it on her face again. “One more wormstache for the road and then we should probably let these guys go. There are bound to be other things crawling around out here that we can play with.”

Trying to look down at the worm on her lip, and crossing her eyes to do so solely for Sena’s benefit, she spoke to him. “Not that you aren’t cool and all Pablo Part I but I think it’s time you went home. I think you have kids to put to bed or something probably.” Waiting till her friend also donned her wormstache Sydney threaded her fingers with the blonde and raised their hands to the sky. “To the Fellowship of the Wormstache Sister Sena. May our new fellowship live long and gather many followers.” Dropping her hands Sydney reverently removed the worm from her upper lip and crouched signaling for Sena to do so as well. Gently settling the worm back into the dirt and grass she smiled. “Live long and prosper Pablo Part I.” Brushing her palms off on her pants she watched the worm start to burrow back into the earth.

Sydney smiled at Sena. “So? What should we look for next?”

[Avu]

Sena managed not to outright giggle at Sydney’s repetition of her “vow,” but it was a close thing; she actually chewed on her lower lip to muster an appropriately solemn expression, her fingers shaking with constrained laughter. No doubt Pablo Part II was getting quite nicely jiggled in her palm. Syd’s comment earned a single escaped giggle of entirely unbecoming raggedness, Sena clapping her free hand over her mouth to keep the rest of them in. It was really a good thing she’d never been interested in acting like a civilized, lady-like, respectable woman, since she felt exactly like a grubby-handed, tomboyish child at the moment. She probably shouldn’t be as okay with that as she was, either, but Sydney was nothing if not a corrupter of lady-like manners.

“Uh ohhh,” Sena drawled, raising an eyebrow significantly once she was adequately in control of her amusement, “Pablo Part I, you cheatin’ dog you.” She nodded eagerly at Sydney’s suggestion, though—Sena hated aimlessly wandering the halls almost as much as she hated the rainy days that necessitated the wandering. Setting up their own little wormstache club sounded spectacularly fun, the sort of fun she’d really never expected to experience with another girl. Guys were just so much more conducive to ridiculousness, and Sena liked that about them, usually—but even in the absence of guy friends, she sort of adored Sydney a lot.

Obediently she lifted Pablo Part II to her upper lip, sticking out her lips in a concentrated pout to free up her hands; she caught up Sydney’s hands and echoed carefully, “To the Fellowship of the Wormstache. May Pablo Parts I and II have fruitful, child-siring lives.” It was with a slight squeeze of her friend’s hands that she released Sydney and then reached up to rescue Pablo Part II, wiping at her upper lip with the back of her wrist as she went, and crouched to deposit the worm gently in the soil, watching him squirm and then burrow into the still-damp soil.

Sydney’s question made Sena tilt her head to the side, rocking up and pursing her lips thoughtfully. “Hmm. How ‘bout…” A pause, and she couldn’t help the burst of laughter as she leaned forward and smudged her thumb over the corner of Syd’s mouth. “Pablo Part I left you a parting gift,” she commented, “It’s like a freckle!” Just a grain of dirt, but still endearingly funny. “Crawlers?” she added, “S’what we were looking for at first, right? They’re bound to be ‘round here someplace. Shouldn’t they be real bright, some of ‘em?”

[Rei]

Corrupter of ladylike manners indeed. Sydney had no problems with getting down an dirty obviously. She was just still so grateful and sometimes amazed that Sena seemed to actually honestly like hanging around with her. It really was nice to find another girl to tomboy around with. Sure Sena could be very girly when she wanted and Sydney could too. But well it was just no fun being ladylike and prim and proper. That had never been something the darker haired girl was good at. She’d just rather be running through the fields and roughhousing with the boys then trapped in a kitchen cooking and making clothes or something. Ewww. Almost bouncing on the balls of her feet as the younger girl nodded to her proposal she smiled brightly. Yep next raining day they were so drawing up all the papers. Then anyone they decided to befriend would have to be inducted into the fellowship. It was a perfect plan. It would weed out all the prissy not fun girls. Because let’s face it you had to be into fun to dawn something like a wormstache.

As the final words about the Fellowship were uttered and both worms were safely returned to the soil Sydney turned her attention back to Sena. When the girl burst into laughter and ran her thumb along the corner of her mouth the candidate blinked in momentarily confusion before the other explained. Chuckling as well she wrinkled her nose. “Obviously he just couldn’t resist after we honored him in such a fashion.” Her emerald eyes danced in amusement. “Pablo Part II was apparently the more stingy worm. No freckles for Sena. We’ll have to remember that. Pablo Part I is gracious while his brother is a bit of a miser.” Rubbing the back of her hand over her mouth once more for good measure Sydney continued. “We need to write down the whole story of the brothers for our new fellowship so details like that are probably important.” She said in a mock serious tone before turning back to the matter at hand.

“Oh right crawlers. Those or maybe a frog or something would be good.” Turning her attention back to the grass she squinted slightly at it. “Hmm I’m trying to think about what places my brother Gus and I used to find them. It made mom twitch so much when we would let them loose in the house. Once she even swatted Gus with a wooden spoon for trying to put one in her hair.” Chucking a little at the memory Sydney turned her head to look back at Sena. “Yep some of them are really bright and colorful. I think we’ll probably find them close to rocks? They like to hide under them when it’s too hot out. But the rain should have cooled things down and made them a bit more active.”

Grabbing her friends hand the older candidate gently tugged on it before starting to trot over to a cluster of large rocks nearby. “I don’t know if they actually have ears but I know they sense vibration so the quieter we are the better.” She half murmured to Sena as they got closer. “If we catch one I say we keep it as a pet for at least a little while. We can always let it lose later.” Dropping her friends hand the taller of the two half crouched to peer around one of the larger rocks, looking for any type of movement or flash of color.

[Avu]

“Aww darn, and I’d always had a thing for freckles,” Sena answered, crinkling her nose in mock disappointment (even if it was true enough—freckles were adorable, although maybe dirt freckles were generally exempt from that). She giggled at her friend’s comment, and then straightened from her half-bent position to meet Sydney’s hand halfway, lacing their fingers together comfortably and swinging both of their arms in an overenthusiastic arc as she skip-stepped over Pablo Part I and II’s little damp spot of the soil to hmm. She’d actually never done much looking for crawlers or frogs before. It wasn’t done in Benden; even among the group of friends Sena had had—albeit friends in a very stretchy sort of term; she couldn’t possibly compare them to Syd—that had never been an option. And just…busy, at Glasscraft.

She didn’t even know if there were crawlers near Ista. Or frogs.

“You musta been awful to keep track of,” she commented, grinning at Sydney. “My mom woulda thought I’d had brain damage if I started carryin’ frogs around, much less trying to get ‘em in her hair.” (Sena didn’t know if she still ought to be sad at the mention of her mother—but she wasn’t, not really; it had been years and moving on and going with it was just easier than being sad.) She almost wanted to meet Syd’s brother sometime too—just to know. It seemed like friends ought to know family. Along the same lines, she wanted to introduce Syd to Iskierka, too, but she figured Iskierka was probably more intimidating than Syd’s brother could possibly be, so maybe waiting on that would be good. Wasn’t sure of the protocol anyway, so.

“Ooh, yes,” whispered to Sydney with a flash of an eager smile. “We could get a cage or something for it so they can’t be mad at us…” It wasn’t better than a firelizard or a Salamandyr, because the draconic would always hold its appeal for Sena, but a frog or a crawler was still appealing enough. Any pet would do. “Okay, we’ve got this, okay…” She squinted among a handful of damp ferns, tentatively parting the fronds with her fingers, and then squirmed to nudge up against Syd, “They don’t bite do they…”

Whether crawlers or frogs bit or not, however, Sena was not to learn at that moment.

At least one frog, as it turned out, did not, since instead of biting and sulking away forever, a brightly colored frog—vivid green with yellow and blue dappling its sides and bulging red eyes—leapt clear over her hand in a burst of motion so unexpected that Sena actually jumped in alarm, a half-yelp half-laugh of disbelief hiccupping in her throat as her grasp on Syd’s hand tightened for a second before she blurted, “Oh gosh, wow, okay, how do we do this,” and dropped Sydney’s hand to step in a shuffling awkward circle around the frog, hands raised in vague confusion to catch the frog, which scrambled backwards away from her again and made a spectacular sort of jump through Sydney’s legs.

Theoretically, to freedom.

It was probably not used to having two full-grown human girls chasing it, though (in its defense, few things were).

[Rei]

Laughing Sydney nodded her head enthusiastically. “Oh yeah. We were terrible to keep track of. I don’t know how my parents did it? I mean we weren’t twins but we were born only a turn apart, he in the spring and I in the winter. We were certainly close as twins I think? I really hoped we would impress together. I’m kind of sad that we didn’t. I do miss him.” It really did suck not being able to see Gus as much as she wanted to anymore. But you know having Sena and Kaius did really help. It sure beat being alone by a long shot. With an amused smile Sydney nodded. “Oh I’m pretty sure our mom thought we had a bit of brain damage at times too. Especially me. I probably came close to giving her a nervous breakdown with my behavior most of the time. She never did understand why I couldn’t be a proper girl.” The candidate trailed off. She really did miss her parents. Watching them succumb to the plague hadn’t been easy. Gus was all the family she had left in the world. Well if you didn’t count her friends. That was sort of like having a family yes?

The older girl smiled at her friend as she too began searching over the still slightly damp rocks around the area. “Mhm. And if we can’t find a cage I’m sure they can’t be too hard to make? Just some wood and some thin cloth or something for an easy top if we can’t beg some smith to craft a metal one for us. I’m sure we can come up with something to keep it in in the meantime.” Maybe a wooden box if they could get some holes in it? Or a jar. A jar might work for a quick fix. Or a bucket if they could find one that the thing couldn’t jump out of. Slightly lifting up a particularly promising looking flat rock with her foot Sydney gave a small laugh. “Most of the time they don’t?” The girl couldn’t say they never did because a very bold frog had once tried to swallow her finger. Which was just odd feeling because he didn’t have any teeth. Though one little nasty crawler had once bit Gus and made him bleed. Nothing more then pinpricks of blood though.

Before she could go further or Sena could make a comment to that however her friend was jumping in alarm with a half yelp and Sydney’s head snapped around. Her emerald eyes widened as they caught sight of the vividly colored jungle frog. Trying not to giggle as her friend dropped her hand and shuffled around the frog the older girl shifted to half crouch too and moved her hands in front of her slowly in an attempt not to startle the creature. “Well me and Gus always just tried to corner them. Move slowly and try not to make any sudden movements unless you think you can make a sudden grab for it.” As she spoke Sydney’s eyes stayed on the frog. In the blink of an eye the amphibian and leapt between her legs and she tried to snatch it in mid jump. “Aww darn I missed!” She exclaimed as she tried to quickly turn and stumbled over her own feet, barely catching herself from taking a spectacular fall into the dirt.

Hoping her friend was quicker on her feet she pointed at the frog. “Hey you! Stand still. Get him Sena!” She encouraged her friend as Sydney righted herself and started chasing after the frog in her friend's wake. “Try and cut him off. Or drive him this way! Don’t let him back in the ferns or we’ll never get him.” Poor frog was probably going to end up just as traumatized if not more so then the worms.

[Zephyr]

Kaius’ day hadn’t been hindered by the rain that day. He was doing what he did best; trying to con some food out of the kitchen staff. Unfortunately, he wasn’t having much luck today. Apparently, with the explosion of new salamandyrs and people coming to get food for them, the staff had been keeping most people out of the meat. Sure, there was bread and cheese and klah that he could have if he wanted, but he really was in the mood for meat. So, the tall boy was more than slightly frustrated that his appeal to the kitchen staff wasn’t working. For once, he regretted not having chores in the kitchen.

Why eat? You’ll get fat. Came King’s reply to the boy’s wish for food. Kaius sighed dramatically, and realized that the mandyr was hiding somewhere in the kitchen. Because I’m a boy…and boys are always hungry. You should know. And I think you’re getting a little pudgy around the mid… Suddenly, an idea came to him. Eyes darted wildly around the kitchen, past the irritated woman who was currently barring his entry into the place. Forcing himself to keep his eyes steady for a moment, he shrugged lightly, gave her his most charming smile and said, “ Can’t blame a boy for trying.” Inwardly, however, he was reaching out to King. Make yourself useful and find me some meat. Get me enough and you can have what I don’t eat… He knew that wouldn’t be an incentive to the salamandyr. Why get it for Kai if he could only have what the boy didn’t want…when he could just get what he wanted and leave his bonded hanging? …and I’ll oil you early. Kaius had the bad habit of procrastinating on absolutely everything, including oiling his salamandyr, and King was feeling mighty itchy as of late. His boy was rather bullheaded though and tended to bulk if King tried to get him to oil him. He heard a croon of agreement in his mind and saw a flash of greenish bronze hide as the salamandyr set to work finding what his master asked. Grinning still at the woman, Kaius bowed a little. “ Sorry for bothering you, ma’am.” He said, grinning disarmingly and walking out to the dining hall, where he grabbed a bit of cheese and then strolled out towards the weyrbowl.

Taking a bite, he leaned against a rock, eyeing the direction he just came. Suddenly, something glinted in the air in front of him. Trying to figure out what it was, he was unprepared for the sight that greeted him. A fat little salamandyr (apparently King had already taken his fill of the meat he brought) with his forearms full of…raw meat? Kaius was about to say something when he took note of the salamandyr’s erratic flying movements. Salamandyrs weren’t the best flyers, but being Harmony’s child, he was able to fly a little, and he had taken this to his advantage. Unfortunately, his weight and the weight of his burden soon became too much and Kaius found himself intimately acquainted with his salamandyr in short order when the little beast slammed into his stomach.

Now, salamandyrs are small, but bronze salamandyrs are bigger than greens and blues, and not something you want to have slammed into you at full blast…especially when they were carrying bits of bloody meat. That, combined with the boy’s height and normal unsteadiness sent him tumbling to the ground, blood and meat flying around him. Blinking, he rose his head and eyed the salamandyr, who had a bit of herdbeast gripped in his jaws. King was sitting, nonplussed on his owner’s chest, eyes blue with hopefulness. He didn’t bother to hide his speech since they were apparently alone now. Oil now? Kaius made a face. “ I can’t eat this!” He said a bit loudly, eyeing the raw meat scattered around him, bloody and now wet from the grass. In fact, Kaius realized as he sat up, King settling into his lap, his entire back was soaked from the rain. “ Thanks, King.” The salamandyr grumbled. But I itch. He said in a pout and scurried up to his boy’s shoulder, nibbling away at the huge hunk of raw meat as if nothing happened.

“ Fine.” The boy finally said. He hadn’t asked for the little monster to bond to him, but he did admit that such a bond came with certain responsibilities, whether he liked those responsibilities or not. Yawning, he turned to walk towards the barracks when the sound of girls laughing came to him. Pausing, he frowned a little. “ Who is that?” He was mostly talking to himself, but when he was with King, he was never talking to himself. The bronze anchored himself on the boy’s ear and sniffed a little, brightening somewhat. Pretties! He said in a delightful tone, leaping off the boy’s shoulder in a glide. Kaius sighed, knowing the salamandyr expected the boy to follow him. “ Get back here, you monster!” He yelled, taking off in a run after the salamandyr.

King, in the meantime had found Sena and Sydney in short order and was positively delighted with his findings. It took the salamandyr a second to see what the girls were doing. Chasing a bright frog. Well, he was good at catching frogs! Imagine how pleased the girls would be with him if he caught them that frog. Darting forward, he expertly trapped the frog beneath sharp little claws and proceeded to bite the thing on the head. Unfortunately, or fortunately, given that the frog was likely poisonous, Kaius ran up just then, wheezing from the effort and King pulled his head away from the frog, eyeing his owner warily, “ Damn it King. I hate you sometimes.” He said to the salamandyr, who was still pinning the struggling frog. Blinking, he looked at the girls, surmising what they were doing rather quickly. “ You know. You guys are really bad at frog catching if you have to depend on a little annoying monster to catch it for you.”

[Avu]

Proper girl. Sena wasn’t sure what that meant exactly—she suspected being a ‘proper’ girl varied depending on where you lived; at any rate she hadn’t been anything special at Benden Weyr—but she didn’t think she was exactly proper either. Proper rarely involved worms and frogs, anyway. Standards just sucked—it was a moot point since Syd could practically do no wrong where Sena was concerned, and Sena wasn’t very afraid of accidentally alienating the other girl either. And it was especially unimportant in the face of a runaway frog. Sena couldn’t help the giggle that spilled out of her throat as she sidestepped to cut off the frog, hissing, “How do we trap it with only two of us? It can just—”

Oh. Awkward.

Sena blinked, poised on her tiptoes and bent forward, hands outstretched, at King, startled for a moment before she burst out into giggles. “Oh hi King,” she managed, and turned around in anticipation of—yes, a Kaius. His comment made her wrinkle his nose admonishingly and she commented to King, “By which he means he adores you, which we do too…hi,” she added, as she looped her arms around Kaius’s ribs to hug him. It was pretty short-lived; her eyes went wide and she pulled back, “Dude, you’re like…half-dry and half-wet. I don’t even know why and I’m already judging you, so you ain’t got no right to judge us on whether or not we can catch a frog.” A pause, and then, defensively, “It was fast.”

Oh yes very good one, Sena. Deciding to ignore how whiny that sounded, Sena turned back to Sydney, frog, and King, eyeing Salamandyr and amphibian warily. Now that it had come down to it, she wasn’t quite sure how to do this…“Okay,” she commented to Syd, “You hold Kaius down and I’ll get the frog and then we can…do something.” Not…that she knew where that plan was going but it sounded plenty evil, so she dropped to her knees carefully beside King and the frog and offered one hand for the Salamandyr to crawl into, smearing the other with rainwater before she gently wrapped it around the frog’s body.

“Gotcha,” she commented softly, lips pursed in concentration. The frog had stopped its squirming; whether out of fear or because it was just truly bewildered, Sena wasn’t sure, but she liked to think that frogs weren’t smart enough to remember this trauma more than a little bit after they released it. She tilted her head down at King, too, after the brief examination of the frog, and said, “Thanks, by the way, how would you feel ‘bout your pet human being set upon by a frog?”