Kisha-Ra
Rider Mo?rya Rider Darya Rider K?fuzzi Rider J?on Handler Vivano Handler Yoalla
Happier'n a pig in mud ABOUT WHERBABIES!
Posts: 1,109
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Post by Kisha-Ra on Jul 29, 2010 12:47:23 GMT -5
It was inevitable that she would lose this battle, even as she regained her footing on the already frosty ground and resumed the struggle. The battle, punctuated by fierce growling from one end of the disputed rope and panting mixed with breathless curses from the other, plus occasional encouraging flutes and trills form the bronze firelizard that lazily orbited the situation, had raged for perhaps ten minutes and quite frankly Yoalla felt that it had gone on long enough. It wasn’t like her wher couldn’t snatch the rope away any time she chose to. Green Yosk might be, smallest and lowliest of the colours of dragon kin, and not large for a wher green, but she was far stronger than any human could be, even in play Yosk could yank her handler forward several paces without apparent effort. Yoalla blamed all the running, and all the flying practice she and Yosk did, obviously it had made the green so much stronger than she had been as a wherling.
A surprised yelp, the muffled thud of a body hitting the ground and a wher’s chagrined whine, while Yoalla had been thinking Yosk had shifted sideways and pulled Yoalla off balance, and consequently the woolgathering wherhandler had ended up lying on her front on the ground with a dazed expression on her face.
You fall, fall down, all fall down you. The Devil babbled helpfully, or possibly insultingly, it was often hard to tell with the green. Lao fluted consolingly and preened at Yoalla’s hair while Yosk, who had dropped her end of the rope in horror as her beloved handler fell, whined softly, anxiously. Please don’t be hurt? Please don’t be angry with Yosk? Didn’t mean to… The wher’s tongue flicked out to lick the side of her handler’s face gently.
Yoalla lifted her head to glare at The Devil, if there was one thing she really missed about Dmitri moving out of the wher quarters and in with that greenrider who won him in a bet, it was that The Devil used to hang around him and his gold salamandyr almost constantly. Now Yoalla was pretty much stuck with her salamandyr, and the green constantly stuck with her (even though Yoalla wasn’t quite sure why the green even bonded to her, The Devil often seemed to hate her) in order to escape being hunted by the youngest of Yoalla’s firelizards (and Yoalla was quite certain that Denial had only bonded to her for a greater chance of eating The Devil). However as she attempted to glare at the salamandyr her wher’s tongue caught the side off her face. ‘Urgh.’ Yoalla shifted, slowly, so that Lao had time to move, and wiped her face on her sleeve. ‘That was quite disgusting.’ She commented but gave Yosk a comforting pat anyway. No she wasn’t hurt, wasn’t angry, still loved Yosk. In response to the thoughts the wher let out a grateful sigh and stepped back a little. So now what did hers want to do?
‘Good question.’ Yoalla answered the silent inquiry as she sat up. ‘Next question?’
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Ruby
Shiny Hoarder
Jr.Weyrwoman Caden Bronzehandler Piden Bluerider M'kai Bluerider T'ri Greenrider Tenlie Greenhandler Serissa
Posts: 1,524
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Post by Ruby on Aug 10, 2010 2:29:22 GMT -5
Carenath saw his opening. He'd been watching the Wherpair for a while now, the beautiful female and her awkward, if sweet, Wher. The creature was no Queen, but the woman - she was another story. She might be the Queen His deserved, although of course that remained to be seen. The tiny, legless firelizard's head whipped around when he heard T'mund's voice in the distance - it was time for bed, but T'mund didn't like to go to sleep without taking inventory of all his creatures.
It was time to make his move.
Hopping to the ground behind Yoalla, the Bronze tucked one wing, holding the other out at an awkward angle. He double-checked the position, trying to make the wing look as broken as possible, then raised a piteous whine. Ohhh, she had sat on his wing without realizing, Yoalla had! He didn't blame her, but it did hurt. Wouldn't she help him? Inchworming towards her with surprising speed, Carenath nuzzled the closest wrist, looking up at the Wherhandler with huge, liquid eyes. Please?
Not far away, T'mund called again, the swung his head around when he caught sight of a telltale whine. Oh no, not again. Carenath was apparently at his favorite game again, the one where he convinced a pretty female he was injured to gain their sympathy, then tried to hook them up with T'mund. Generally the women were more worried about abuse than anything, so it often backfired (Tiramnet being the notable exception), but no matter what the outcome, T'mund rarely enjoyed it. His short-sightedness meant he didn't know what she looked like, yet, but that rarely made a differance. Pretty girls just made him blather.
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Kisha-Ra
Rider Mo?rya Rider Darya Rider K?fuzzi Rider J?on Handler Vivano Handler Yoalla
Happier'n a pig in mud ABOUT WHERBABIES!
Posts: 1,109
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Post by Kisha-Ra on Aug 10, 2010 16:56:39 GMT -5
A small whine gave Yosk a clue of how best to answer her handler. Here was the next question; where did that firelizard come from? The question was conveyed along with an image of Carenath, just as the tiny bronze nuzzled Yoalla’s wrist.
Startled by the gentle nuzzle to her arm, both her pets were in front of her, Yoalla looked down into huge firelizard eyes, and for a split second experienced a fleeting terror that this little bronze was an immature one that she’d somehow managed to add to her growing horde. Then with a sigh of relief she recognised one of the offspring of Dementia’s odd clutch with Lao, it was of course the very tiny, legless, bronze baby. ‘What’s the matter little one?’ Yoalla asked the limbless firelizard rhetorically, the angle the bronze was holding his wing at was awkward. Probably he’d escaped the boy he was bonded to (it was a boy wasn’t it?) and managed to hurt himself out here.
As Lao circled, fluting his commiserations to the smaller bronze (it wasn’t fun to be hurt, it wasn’t and Carenath was such a pretty bronze), Yoalla reached out to stroke the tiny firelizard along the back. ‘I’m going to look at your wing, and you aren’t going to bite me, you hear?’ From all the work she’d had to do with her own mindmates Yoalla knew that gentle but firm was the best way to go with these creatures, and calm, telepathic animals could sense nerves even better than canines and things. Yoalla’s head lifted at the nearby sound of a human calling. ‘Yosk, sweetie, I think you’ll find that’s this bronze’s bonded. Go and fetch him for me?’
Yosk drooped instantly into her normal slinking posture, for such moments of self confidence as she had were always dampened by the presence of humans, dragons, and other whers, all of whom Yosk felt a need to hide from. If Yoalla wanted Yosk to fetch the bonded one of Lao’s and The Devil’s baby, she would, of course. As long as he wasn’t scared away by Yosk’s ugly face.
Moving at her quietest slink, which was almost silent, Yosk approached T’mund with her head down and eyes almost closed. Would he come with her, please? Her handler had his bronze little one. The green looped around the weyrling so she stood at his side, tilting her head slightly to give him an expectant look. Was he coming or not?
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Ruby
Shiny Hoarder
Jr.Weyrwoman Caden Bronzehandler Piden Bluerider M'kai Bluerider T'ri Greenrider Tenlie Greenhandler Serissa
Posts: 1,524
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Post by Ruby on Aug 18, 2010 17:24:29 GMT -5
Yoalla's question was answered with an incredibly useful image of Carenath's bent wing. He whined again, managing to look even more pitiful, even turning huge eyes on Lao (although his father was given a gentle flute, as well. Hurting DID hurt). Then Yoalla was reaching for him, and Carenath nuzzled her hand to show he wouldn't bite. Oh no, nothing like that. He was a perfectly behaved creature... when it suited him. It generally suited him when there was a potential Queen involved.
T'mund barely managed not to shriek when the Wher materialized out of the darkness, but he did jump a good foot in the air. It had nothing to do with her appearance (although were Whers always that ugly?) he was simply startled. Poor eyesight always got worse at night. Putting a hand to his heart, the Weyrling muttered, "Make less noise, would you? I love being scared out of my skin by a wher appearing out of the darkness. Keep it up," in a most sarcastic tone. Once he'd gotten over his fright, though, and looked back at Yosk, he tacked on a "Sorry.
"So you have my Carenath, do you?" he added after a second, trying to take attention off his social faux pas. He wasn't totally clear how he knew that, but something about the wher's body language, or mood or something made it clear. T'mund was aware that Whers didn't 'speak' like Jagjith did, but it was still a little bizzare to be so sure of something no one had told him. "Well, we should go find him before he tries to re-Impress to Yours, or something. Assuming it is Yours that has him?" he added, gesturing for Yosk to lead the way with no more acknowledgment of what may have been major psychological damage for the Green.
As they approached the Handler and Carenath, T'mund tried to place her, but she wasn't someone he'd seen before. Then again, Whers were nocturnal, so wouldn't it make sense for their handlers to be so as well? That seriously cut in to chances he'd have had to see her. Of course, he never would have spoken to her, and he doubted he could now. This would be interesting.
Keeping his eyes down, T'mund attempted a sensible greeting. "You have my handler? Er- Flith? Carenath?" There we go, that was the right one. Not wanting to push his luck, T'mund left it at that. For now.
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Kisha-Ra
Rider Mo?rya Rider Darya Rider K?fuzzi Rider J?on Handler Vivano Handler Yoalla
Happier'n a pig in mud ABOUT WHERBABIES!
Posts: 1,109
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Post by Kisha-Ra on Aug 19, 2010 16:57:03 GMT -5
The answer seemed to be affirmative, and anyway, if the firelizard bit her it wouldn’t be like it was the fist ever time. The Devil in particular had a positive taste for her bonded’s blood. Ignoring the mutinous rumblings from The Devil’s mind (she did not want any more of those foul winged slaveys thank you) and the encouraging trill from Lao (oh the lovely little bronze noticed him), Yoalla ran gentle fingers down the strange firelizard’s wing bones.
Yosk cringed and whined an apology. She hadn’t meant to scare him, wouldn’t have shown herself at all if Yoalla didn’t want her to get him. The green drooped sadly towards the ground, unsure of how to modify her behaviour to match the backhanded requests, was she too noisy or too quiet?
Yes! Yes, the firelizard was with her bonded. Yosk answered promptly and positively, she might not be certain of how much noise she should make to please this human but she was very sure about the firelizard. Oh yes, Yosk really didn’t want another firelizard hanging around, especially not another one of Lao’s babies, Denial was bad enough for two. Yosk couldn’t even eat without a serpentine lizard in her way. Deciding that since she didn’t know if her steps were supposed to be quieter or louder to be more pleasing she might as well move as she normally did Yosk moved out at a slower than usual slink, because she also wasn’t sure how well this new human could keep up. It didn’t look like he moved very fast at all.
‘There little one. It’s not as bad as it looks, nothing broken. But your wing’s going to stiffen up something awful if you keep holding it like that. Shame I don’t have a jar of numbweed hanging about really.’ Yoalla talked softly to the legless firelizard until she was distracted by Yosk returning, and, as soon as the wher judged her charge to be safely within sight of Yoalla, looped behind her at high speed.
With one hand reassuringly resting on her wher, and the other being used to pet the small bronze Yoalla looked up at the sound of a human voice, albeit a rather confused one. ‘Carenath is it? A noble name for a little bronze.’ Yoalla commented, bestowing a smile on Carenath. A claming thought was sent out to Yosk. This poor boy was a bundle of nerves, probably not used to even being out this far into the night, not Yosk’s fault she startled him. Probably he wasn’t even aware there were whers at the Weyr.
Rising gracefully from the ground, and scooping Carenath up with one hand, Yoalla stepped forward and proffered the missing pet on the palm of her hand. ‘Here he is, a little worse for wear it seems, but there’s no broken bones under that. Could be a muscle strain but it’s so hard to tell on these tiny wings isn’t it?’ Yoalla spoke as softly and calmly to the boy as if he were Yosk in a skittish mood, it was only a shame she couldn’t project the same confident calm to this lad as she could to her wher.
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Ruby
Shiny Hoarder
Jr.Weyrwoman Caden Bronzehandler Piden Bluerider M'kai Bluerider T'ri Greenrider Tenlie Greenhandler Serissa
Posts: 1,524
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Post by Ruby on Sept 10, 2010 16:21:05 GMT -5
T'mund did not, in fact, move very fast unless it was absolutely necessary. If it WAS necessary (ex. the archives were on fire), he could haul right along with the best of them... but he wasn't going to if he didn't have to. Carenath was fine, he was sure. So he kept his pace sedate, only shying sideways slightly when the wher darted past to join her handler. Such an ugly thing.
Yoalla, on the other had, was distinctly not ugly. T'mund had barely glanced at her before fixing his gaze deliberately at Carenath, in her hands. As soon as she started talking, though, he swung his eyes up and over her head, aware that it could look like he was looking at... well, not Carenath. "Yes, the name was a purposeful reference to the original mate of Faranth, in hopes that this Carenath would live up to the power and nobility of his illustrious ancestor." All of this came out in a rush, and T'mund swung his head to the side and took a full step backwards when Yoalla rose. His cheeks were burning scarlet in the night, something Yoalla might not be able to see - but Yosk would certainly notice the glowing patches. Luckily, T'mund knew nothing about Wher night vision.
Carenath, for his part, had held himself very still and behaved perfectly for Yoalla's whole inspection, faking a little whimper every once in a while. Big eyes, whirling a gentle grey-green, were turned on the Handler and he nuzzled her finger again. Lao was offered feelings of love, of course, and Carenath wasn't shy about extending those feelings to Yoalla and Yosk, as well. Why not? The point was to catch a Queen for His. This one certainly fit the bill, looks- and kindness-wise. So far.
T'mund accepted the doe-eyed Bronze when Yoalla offered him, using a thumb and forefinger to pick the miniature creature up by the loose skin at the base of his neck. "Quit it," he snapped, when Carenath whined about his wing - T'mund reached out and bent it flat again, drawing not a pained moan but, shockingly, an engraged shriek out of the lizard. The indignity! "He has no muscle strain, believe me," T'mund explained absently, trying to keep Carenath's teeth and lashing tail away from his exposed flesh. "He enjoys pretending he is injured to gain the sympathy of... er... beautiful lovelies. Ladies." He'd been doing well for a while there, but as soon as the topic turned back to Yoalla, his cheeks flared again, and the Weyrling backed off another half-step. "Thank you anyway, I hope he was no trouble." Buuuttt.... he didn't quite make to leave.
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Kisha-Ra
Rider Mo?rya Rider Darya Rider K?fuzzi Rider J?on Handler Vivano Handler Yoalla
Happier'n a pig in mud ABOUT WHERBABIES!
Posts: 1,109
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Post by Kisha-Ra on Sept 23, 2010 16:31:30 GMT -5
Oh but he knew she was hideous, just hideous, look he didn’t even want to look at her now, she must be ugly. Or fat. She might be fat too. Yosk just knew there had to be something wrong with her. Why else would the boy pull those faces at her. Hers was kind to say it wasn’t so though.
Yoalla shook her head slightly over Yosk, she always let the opinions of others go right to her head, and always assumed the worst, if anyone was rude to the green they were totally justified but if anyone complimented her they were obviously making fun of her or just deluded. Yoalla would have liked to place the blame for her wher’s lack of confidence squarely on the shoulders of her metallic siblings, but Yosk had just been hatched with no confidence, therefore her clutchmates had only contributed.
The word that flashed through Yoalla’s mind as the boy’s mouth opened again was prig, she couldn’t help the thought there was just something about the lad’s tone, half absentmindedly arrogant, half nervous to her perception, that scraped against the common Bitran dirt of her soul.
To her surprise the lad accepted his firelizard by picking Carenath up by the back off his neck and pulling his wing straight, which seemed to inspire a shriek of rage all out of proportion with the bronze firelizard’s size. After the explaination she given Yoalla could only chuckle ruefully. ‘Well I was certainly taken in by that.’ She admitted then waved a finger in front of Carenath, out of range of his teeth. ‘You’re a little trickster aren’t you? It’s a good thing you look so adorable really.’ She attempted to scold the bronze for fooling her, but it wasn’t really that successful. ‘Well I have to admit he’s good at it. He certainly had me on a string there. That’s a very smart firelizard.’ She commented to the boy, willing to compliment Carenath, even if his bonded hadn’t made too good an impression on her.
Yoalla managed a friendly smile for the boy’s manners, apparently he wasn’t all bad, it may even just have been nerves, which seemed to get to this boy a lot judging by his stumbling over his words and the flush on his cheeks that Yosk displayed a little curiousity over. ‘It’s alright, I like firelizards, and Carenath is very sweet, not to mention a superb actor.’ Lao trilled his agreement of this statement, abandoning his flitting about in delight (Carenath had noticed him again) to perch on Yoalla’s shoulder and gaze adoringly at the other bronze. Lovely he was.
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Ruby
Shiny Hoarder
Jr.Weyrwoman Caden Bronzehandler Piden Bluerider M'kai Bluerider T'ri Greenrider Tenlie Greenhandler Serissa
Posts: 1,524
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Post by Ruby on Sept 28, 2010 15:13:38 GMT -5
Carenath, still suspended between T'munds fingers, huffed angrily at being found out. He snapped half-heartedly at Yoalla's finger, considering changing his mind about queen selection. But no, she called him adorable and praised his acting abilities. Alright, alright, she was exempted from face attacking. For now, anyway.
T'mund finally allowed Carenath to climb up on to his forearm instead of being suspended in space, holding the arm awkwardly across his abdomen as if he was halfway through the process of crossing it. "He is just out for the attention," T'mund said, dismissing the bronze out of hand. "He was born knowing how to do that. I believe having no legs helps, or maybe someone spent all their time on his brain, instead of his body." The weyrling squirmed a little at his own words, considering how applicable that statement was to himself, as well. Was he the Carenath of the human world? Tiny and scrawny, too smart for his own good, sometimes annoying - Not so, T'mundmine, Jagjith cut in, his mental voice alert even though T'mund knew full well that the Brown had just woken up. Simply misunderstood. You need more self confidence, I believe. She like Carenath, after all he added, offering a sanitized shrug of love in his rider's direction.
Standing up a touch straighter, T'mund tried to imitate the casual bowing of the head that he'd seen other, more powerful men do when accepting praise. Instead, he just kind of jerked his head up and to the side, shrugging stiffly. "He is not usually so sweet, he simply likes you. And your bronze too, luckily. Generally, he attempts to run any males out of the vicinity, but I assume some sort of filial piety is in play, here, as Lao is his father. The first week after I impressed Jagjith was pure hysteria, however," he added, relaxing slightly as he got started talking about things he understood.
Carenath basked in all the attention he was getting, but he knew it couldn't last. It was meant to be attention for His, anyway. However, there was a green that needed claiming, as he claimed all females. With a thankful feeling for Lao, Carenath unwound himself and took off, twisting through the air like a ribbon to drape himself around Yosk's neck. Oh, she was lovely, did she like him too? He curled up to rub his head against one of her knobs. Because he would be claiming her, whether she liked it or not. It was just sooo much easier when she DID like the idea.
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