Reflections on time (Teddy)

[Kisha-Ra]

No doubt the interior of this newly discovered Weyr was a pleasant one. R’fuin would be the first to say that being able to lay claim to a small group of rooms rather than a single chamber, without being a ranking rider or having a family to accommodate, was a fine thing, and if it ever came down to it R’fuin would be among the first to say that there was no reason why there shouldn’t be the abundance of running water that there was, and if, back when they made this place, they had the means to smooth out the walls there was no reason not to do that either. It was just that a man got tired of seeing the same stone walls day in, day out, no matter how amazingly crafted they were, and no matter how much space he had indoors there were times when a man wanted to get out and see the sky again.

Well, R’fuin reflected gloomily as he looked up at the dense blanket of green above his head, at least he was out, even if the sky seemed somewhat distant. It was strange to think of how long (and surely it must be hundreds of turns if not even longer than that) this Weyr had lain abandoned, or should that be forgotten? Long enough for the jungle to grow around it and all but swallow it. Could it be as old as the oldest parts of Benden, where the walls were as smoothly finished as those here? The concept was quite worrying for one that really wasn’t all that important. R’fuin wasn’t sure he liked the feeling of that much empty time just lying around.

The combination of the imagined weight of time and the perpetual gloom beneath the branches that loomed high above gave the discontented bluerider the eerie feeling that he was only person in the world, and as he wandered onward with his thoughts for company R’fuin began to listen more closely to the sounds of his new environment, identifying and cataloguing each in a peculiarly attentive manner. Unfortunately this did lead to him wandering around being not very attentive to anything other than the single sound he was focusing on, ultimately leading to one of those moments when the whole world holds its breath in anticipation of the accident that’s just waiting to happen.

[dragon]

Trees. Lots and lots of trees. Trees were everywhere, it seemed. He had yet to see a span of ground that was not covered in trees. But then ... trees and jungle were sort of a halmark of the souther continent, wasn't it? His childhood home, Selenitas, and now this place. What were they calling it again? He couldn't remember, but that wasn't the point. It was all wooded.

Same, but not the same. The types of trees had been different for all places. So it was with some interest that C'oar had been strolling around, hands in pockets, looking at the trees. Soon, soon he would have absolutely no interest in them again. Mostly because they would become fixtures in his environment. But for now, they were something to do. Something to look at. Which was more than he could say about anything else around here.

He had absolutely nothing to do. For a fellow who was used to spending every waking hour laboring away at some task, being idle was almost torture. For now, he minded his own business, though he was sort of contemplating going and bothering Tenlie a bit. She was an interesting girl to talk to, even though he'd only ever talked to her twice. Once at Selenitas, and once directly after evacuation. At least this time he could remember her name, instead of calling her Doby.

He came to a stop when he heard a change in the sound around him, warily taking the moment to look around. It was with some relief that he noted that it was only another fellow out strolling around rather than a predator of some sort. For he'd left Frosstyth behind to sleep the day away. "Hoy." He greeted simply, not bothering to remove his hands from his pockets.

[Kisha-Ra]

Burdened as he was by excessive thoughts, R’fuin did nothing about the sound of human footfalls but notice them, and then ignore them in favour of his mental grumbling. So, quite unsurprisingly, he was rather startled to hear another human voice, so startled in fact that he jumped, and spun to face the speaker, a hand dropping to the hilt of his belt knife before he recognised C’oar. It was rather hard not to recognise someone so large at a glance, especially with so few people in this group (and never mind that R’fuin himself was of a simalir size, and therefore presumably just as recognisable).

With the rather sheepish of expression of someone who knows he has just made an ass of himself R’fuin tucked his hands into his pockets and shrugged. ‘Sorry, I seem to have a bad combination of nerves and inattention going there.’ He half explained and half apologised with a wry smile. ‘I should really pay a bit more attention to the world around me.’

‘So,’ the bluerider said, as brightly as if he hadn’t been quite prepared to oull a knife on the other rider a few moments before, ‘do tell me what you’re doing wandering around out here. I thought it would be a bit more interesting looking at trees than looking at stone walls, but it turns out I was wrong about that.’ R’fuin gave the trees a look over just in case they’d changed in some way since his last disdainful examination. ‘It’s just as dark and gloomy outside as in here don’t you find?’ He asked, suddenly motivated to wonder if the perpetual gloom under the branches might be a state of mind. It was true he wasn’t feeling very positive about anything at the moment.

[dragon]

C'oar's brows ooched up his forehead at the reaction he got out of the other rider. "I'll say." He agreed, otherwise unruffled by the instance. "I count myself lucky you look before you use it." He prodded, more in good humor than anything else. It was a good thing he hadn't walked up to the man and tapped him on the shoulder instead! But then, given the level of nerves everyone was carrying around of late, he doubted he would have done that to even someone he knew very well.

"Wandering." C'oar answered, with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "Looking for something to do mostly. I sort of abandoned my craft back at the Weyr, and can't start it here. So, mostly just figuring out what to do. I was thinking about possibly starting to craft some things out of the abundant wood we have here in the area. Maybe some furniture, maybe some dishes. It'd be crude at best, but usable." C'oar mused aloud, both answering the question and thinking aloud. It was a good thing he'd brought most of his dagger compliment with him, if he was going to start carving bowls and stuff.

"Gloomy in thoughts, yes. In actuality, this is a very nice, somewhat pretty location." C'oar answered, truthfully, with another very slight shrug. "It's just lacking ... certain amenities." Like most of the people he'd come to know. "I have to admit that when I see things, I see potential. I guess that comes of being a crafter before being a rider." For the time being, C'oar remained where he stood, not bothering to walk anywhere or even move any closer to his new conversation partner.

[Kisha-Ra]

R’fuin just shrugged, any comment he made on C’oar’s near perforation was just going to dig him a deeper hole. He was just glad Darya wasn’t around; if she’d seen that she’d never let him live it down.

R’fuin nodded, that was a problem, not many people had anything specific to do. Many of the duties, and even the pleasures, that had made up the lives of the dragonriders before were no longer wise, or no longer needed. Things like wing drills, and even finding somewhere for the dragons to sun were certainly a challenge these days. ‘It is pretty boring around here at the moment, that might be part of the problem. Not that I want things too interesting but a non violent sort of interesting would be ideal.’ R’fuin looked at the trees with a more intent interest, making things from wood meant cutting down trees, which meant less trees, which was good. ‘That could work, you could recruit anyone who’s got the skills to help you. Furniture and whatnot and some of the idling people solved in one go.’ R’fuin might have been a dragonrider for a while now but he was still enough of a holder to recognise that large groups of idle folk could easily become large groups of troublesome folk.

Another glance at the trees. ‘It all seems gloomy to me still.’ The bluerider commented ruefully, gazing up at the branches. I guess where you’re seeing things you can do with all this wood I’m seeing all the things I can’t do because of it.’ And all the things that were hard to do because everyone was hiding. R’fuin was not equipped with the right personality to hide away and do nothing it seemed. ‘It is ironic, if I’d found somewhere like this when I still had a comfortable, amenity filled, lifestyle I’d be happy to find a quiet spot. I must say I could do without those cursed avians though. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before my firelizard gets eaten. Ylonth would never forgive me then, he’s still complaining about the feline I left behind.’

[dragon]

C'oar shrugged slightly. "The only problem is getting the concept across the committee with a go-ahead. I suppose if we went elsewhere for our tree picking, and only pulled one here and there we might could manage it. But ..." He sighed slightly. "Yeah. Cutting down trees means our cover goes away. I am sure they'd notice if a whole Weyr suddenly appeared out of a jungle canopy." Depressing, really. They couldn't even start over anew truly, because they were all fugitives. "Are you any good at crafting?" He asked, turning his gaze back to R'fuin again.

Not all riders were weyrfolk, after all. He himself was not. He'd been a crafter. It was not too much to assume that R'fuin also had a skill set lurking around unused in his background. Figuring out what skills the group had was pretty important, in C'oar's estimation. Regardless of rank and station. Rank and station was a luxury they didn't have anymore.

"What color flitter do you have?" C'oar asked, though he understood the concern completely. Storm was spending all of his time with Frosstyth anymore, wisely figuring out that no avian was going to mess with him as long as he stayed within biting distance of the big, muddy thunderstorm of a brown. Frosstyth was certainly willing enough to get little snacks here and there, too. Though once already the brown had had to spit the bronze flitter back out again. "Do we have any way of finding out what's going on back at Selenitas, do you know? I haven't heard a single word about any attempts toward that end."

[Kisha-Ra]

R’fuin blinked, still slightly put off balance that Burimyu was being ruled by committee rather than the traditional way of weyrwoman and weyrleader (not that the old way had ever really made much sense, it tended to rely heavily on the best leaders Impressing the biggest dragons, and as the whole world could probably attest that didn’t always work out for the best.). It might turn out to be better in the long run but it was still a strange concept for now. ‘Right, I wouldn’t mind losing a few dozen trees from around the place but it could be a bit of a problem if there’s suddenly visible dragons everywhere. On the other hand there’s still a great deal of largely untouched jungle on this continent, if you can get that through to everyone, not to mention the fact that we have all these largely idle dragons lying around, I can’t see that they’d have too many objections. Probably no more than twenty or so per person.’ R’fuin was not a great believer in the efficiency of committees.

R’fuin laughed a little. ‘Only if there’s a real crafter watching me and keeping me from messing up too much.’ He answered. ‘I’m a hold boy at heart, and I was educated for hold management, which is to say to be useless since I was one of a dozen or more being educated in that capacity and there was only one hold. A bit short sighted of my parents really considering they expected to be stuck with me for a long time.’ R’fuin flashed a boyish grin that indicated he really did find all that fuss over the hold rather silly, anyway Ylonth was better than any bit of ground you could care to name.

‘A green.’ R’fuin rolled his eyes. ‘A green that was probably dropped as an egg because she’s got no more sense than a week old runnerbeast. In fact the runner has more sense, at least it knows when to flee. Irritation doesn’t.’ Thankfully when R’fuin was outdoors Ylonth was happy to watch and distract the little green to the best of his ability, the bluerider was mortally afraid that his idiot green would try and be friendly with the avians that infested the place like a plague.

The bluerider shrugged in a helpless sort of gesture. ‘I haven ‘t heard anything, but then news doesn’t seem to be getting around as fast as it used to.’ With Burimyu being such a maze, and most of the people he knew being at Selenitas, the gossip chain just wasn’t functioning as well for R’fuin s it used to. ‘I guess those people are going to be watching our people closely for a while so it might not be the best time to make direct contact with anyone. That leaves either sensing in humans for direct spying, or sending in firelizards, hopefully more sensible ones than Irra, and hoping we can get some sense out of them later. Unless we could find a wherhandler somewhere and get them in to spy for us. Whers do tend to be more sensible than firelizards.’ R’fuin paused in his rambling for a moment then shrugged a second time. ‘Well that’s all the options I can currently see.’ He concluded.