I’m gazing at eternity (Open)

[Rei]

Tynaris closed his eyes as the salty sea wind whipped his hair about. Ah the smell of the sea. He hadn’t realized how much he had missed it. Much better than the acrid smell of burning wood and the stench of sweat and packed bodies. The chaos at the hatching ground still seemed like just yesterday. The candidate sat softly on the sand and watched the waves roll back and forth. The endless stretch of blue that was the sea stretched out before him. It hadn’t been hard for the hold bred boy to catch a ride to the beach. A lot of the dragon riders where eager to get away. No wonder what with the reminders of the attack everywhere one looked.

Leaning back the boy sighed and sifted the warm sand through his fingers. Maybe he should take a walk and look for shells? That always cheered him up. With one swift movement the candidate removed his shirt, the blue shell around his neck smacking comfortingly against his chest. Tossing the shirt onto the sand he stood and began to make his way down to the water. As he walked he let his mind drift back the flight to the beach. Being astride a dragon gave him a thrill nothing else ever had. Still he was slightly regretting his decision to accept the search. Had he stayed at Sothern he may have his own boat now.

Sighing Tynaris kicked at a piece of driftwood sending it back into the waves. It reminded him of his current spot in life. Being tossed and tugged by currents he couldn’t control. Running his hands through sandy blonde hair he closed his eyes against the soft kiss of the wind again. His father wouldn’t like that he had accepted the search. But his father was dead. There had been nothing left for him at Southern. Still maybe he should have thought about it a bit more before just up and leaving.

[marge]

It was hot, but Tobby barely noticed. The young candidate was having so much fun playing in the sand that he really wasn't noticing much of anything. He had decided that rather than waste a perfectly lovely morning on chores, that he was going to use it to trek the several miles down to the beach. And why not? He would do his chores later and walking was good for the body.

As was fun. So that's what Tobby was doing. He was on his hands and knees, only a foot or so from the ocean. In front of him, was a pile of wet sand that had just enough of a shape that it could be called a sand castle. It wasn't really that pretty, but Tobby didn't care. It would hold up to the waves when the tide started to rise and that was all he needed. He busied himself with scraping out a moat, giggling softly. "Come on, Melly! Help me dig this moat."

Sand stick. No like. Melly moaned from a top Tobby's head. The young hatchling had stumbled in his first few seconds of being on the beach and had been met with a face full of sand. He refused to touch the stuff again. "But Melly, how will you ever help me defend my sand hold from the big bad ocean if you don't help?" Tobby asked as he sat back, paying no heed to the sand that was sure to stick to his pants. "Could you at least help me find some shells to stick on it?"

If you couldn't win, compromise. See shells. Point. You get? He wasn't leaving his human perch. No, no, no. The 'mandyr peered out across the beach, looking for shells like the one His had shown him earlier. Tobby giggled. "Fine. But you have to come into the water with me later." Not that he would let his little Melly get out of easy grabbing distance once they were in the water. He was not going to let his little darling drown. Fine, LoveMineLove. Melly agreed before he climbed down on to Tobby's shoulder. If he was closer to the ground, he could see shells easier. But instead of shells, the little blue spotted a human like His. See bonebag, LoveMineLove.

"Oh?" Tobby glanced up, but didn't bother to move from his sitting position. Instead he merely shielded his eyes with a hand and followed Melly's gaze. "It is a person. Hm... He looks familiar... One of the other candidates maybe..." The boy shrugged slightly so that he wouldn't disturb Melly's stance on his shoulder, then lifted an arm and waved. There was no reason to be unfriendly. Maybe the other boy would want to help with his sand castle.

[Rei]

Tynaris shuffled his feet through the surf and wet sand, his eyes on the beach as he scanned the area for washed up seashells. Bending down to pick up a nice looking one he held it aloft for examination. That's when a movement out of the corner of his eyes distracted him and he turned slightly to look. Oh. It was another person. Who he wasn’t sure, but he looked kind of shrimpy. A kid maybe? He curled the shell into his fist and began to amble down that way. Might as well go see who it was. He was bored as heck anyway. As he drew closer he occasionally stopped to pick up a shell or two that caught his eye.

Finally he was close enough to get a good look at the kid. He had seen him around the barracks before. One of the candidates. One of the really young ones too. This kid probably couldn’t be older that twelve or so. Smiling widely he drew closer and examined the boy’s handiwork for a moment before speaking. “Hi there. Nice sand castle.” He felt like a giant in the land of little people so he sat down opposite the boy and tilted his head. Quickly he spied the blue mandyr upon his shoulder. “Hey. You where at the hatching in the bathing rooms weren’t you? The one where Darmori got Harmony?” He still found it funny that his friend got a yellow colored mandyr when he was deathly afraid of the color. The southern teen often helped the other boy oil his new pet. Good thing Harmony was sweet as sugar. Well unless you mentioned her weight. Then she turned into a angry ball of teeth, claws, and head spines. Typical woman really.

Anyway back to the present. Sticking out a large hand Tynaris smiled. “I’m Tynaris. Candidate from Southern hold. I’ve seen you around but I can’t say I caught your name yet.” Which yeah he probably could have just looked it up on the bunk list but oh well.

[marge]

Tobby had to tilt his head back to see the other's face but he was grinning ear to ear. "Oh, it's not that great. It's no more then a pile of sand." He protested in retort as he glanced down at his poor excuse of a sand castle. The moat was nice though, the candidate thought to himself, looking down proudly at his work. Then the other candidate mentioned the Hatching and he enthusiastically nodded.

"Yep! I was there. I Impressed Melly here." Tobby exclaimed, reaching up to scratch lightly at his blue's chest. Ever since the Hatching, he'd jumped at every chance he had to show off the salamandyr like a proud father. Melly was calmly watching Tynaris but didn't acknowledge the human again. Instead he gave a calm sigh and returned to his perch on Tobby's head, partly burying his face in the candidate's head. His was distracted by the possibility of a new friend, so he would be free to simply watch.

He smiled as the other extended a hand and reached over to shake it. "My name's Tobby. I'm a candidate too, from, well here." The candidate giggled softly before he looked down and scooped more sand on to his sand castle. "Are you hanging out here by yourself? You wanna play with me?" Tobby beamed up at the other boy but half expected him to say no. Not every candidate liked goofing off like he did, after all.

[Rei]

Tynaris smiled at the little guy’s obvious enthusiasm. It was contagious apparently because the candidate could feel his mood rapidly improving. Ah the simple mind of youth. “Yeah I suppose it is kind of a pile of sand.” He said truthfully before grinning widely. “Lucky for you I’m the sandcastle king. My brothers and I used to have contests when we where younger.” He winked at the other candidate. “If you’d like I can show you some tricks.” Before he could begin to elaborate his eyes where again drawn to the mandyr as the proud owner showed it off.

“Hello Melly. I’m Tynaris. Would you like a shell?” He asked cheerfully before taking a small white shell from his pocket and placing it on Tobby’s shoulder. He had learned quickly that flattery got you quite a way with mandyrs. Harmony loved it and he often gifted his friend Darmori’s little gold with shells he found at the beach. Gift giving done he winked at the small boy before reaching back into his pocket and relieving quite a few more shells. He was going to add them to his collection but he could always collect more. The kids castle needed them more than he did.

The offer to play had the tall blonde blinking in surprise for a moment. “Yeah I’m on my own.” He smiled. “But I’d love the company. What do you want to play?” It was odd interacting with such an outgoing person. Most of the people around here seemed kind of absorbed with themselves. Than again he really hadn’t met all that many people. Just classmates. “We could keep working on the castle if you want. If not I know an awesome tide pool about a mile from here. It’s big enough to walk in and you can find some awesome stuff there.” It was really kind of a secret place where Tynaris often went to think, but he didn’t mind sharing. At least not with Tobby. The kid seemed nice enough.

[marge]

"Oh that'd be really cool." Tobby exclaimed, glancing toward his pathetic attempt at a sand castle. Some help with it would be a most welcomed thing. He slapped his hands together to get rid of the clumps of wet sand on them. The boy stilled as Tynaris reached over to place a shell on his shoulder, not wanting to move and make it fall. Melly pounced on the shell, Found shell, LoveMineLove! He annouced, clinging to the thing. Tobby giggled softly, shaking his head. "That's cheating, Melly." He looked over to Tynaris and added, "I had asked him to find me some shells right before you came, but he refuses to touch the sand."

His eyes lit up in excitement. "A tidepool? That sounds really fun!" Melly cooed lightly at Tobby's excitement before he nuzzled his bonded and crawled on to the boy's head. "Can we go see it?" He'd never seen a tidepool before.

((Sorry it's a short reply))

[Rei]

Tynaris started working the sand castle as his new small companion chirped. It was actually kind of comforting in a weird way. Tobby seemed like a real nice kid. Still innocent enough to believe all the good things kids often did. He almost envied him. Smiling he watched the mandyr pounce on the shell and then laughed at the kids admission. “That’s ok. If he wants to believe he found it he can.”

He smiled warmly at the little creature. He liked mandyrs. Then again perhaps he was biased from interacting with Harmony. She was just the sweetest thing. Melly was her brother so maybe it made sense that he seemed rather nice to. Humming he started to smooth the lines of the castle with expert hands. Needed more water. So involved was he in his private thoughts that he almost jumped at the sudden excitement coming from his companion.

The other candidate actually laughed out loud at Tobby’s excitement. “Yeah it’s actually really awesome. Then again I’m biased cause I love the sea. But sometimes you can find starfish and seahorses in them. They are kinda stuck there until the tide rolls in again.” Shielding his eyes with his hand he considered. “Probably about the right time for it to.”

Standing Tynaris brushed some sand off his shorts and outstretched a hand toward the other boy. “Come on it’s not that far from here.” In fact it really wasn’t more than a short walk. Maybe a bit more than a mile down shore. There amidst a rocky outcropping which normally remained submerged, the top of which contained a depression about the size of a small pond, was the pool. Which filled with all kinds of awesome things when the tide rolled out. Tynaris’s secret tide pool. It probably wasn’t that secret, but as far as he knew he was the only one who visited.