Operation FOP (Ba'sun)

[Requiem]

They say don't name something or you'll never get rid of it. Well, he hadn't named her. The pest named herself. Apparently she thought it was cute to call herself 'cootie,' just as she thought it was a fun game to chase him around and try to touch him. Weren't these things supposed to be able to tell when you didn't like them? Tch!

They also say don't feed anything if you don't want it to stick around. This was an easier concept when it didn't make you ravenously hungry, too. And of course he couldn't just give her food, no. She had to hunt it. Kill it for herself. Only she was not the best of hunters. So he ended up doing things like trapping bugs and tearing off legs, or breaking the wing of a baby darter (which still managed to peck Cootie hard enough that the baby zipped into his shirt and quivered, running all about while he was trying to get her out). At this rate he'd have breasts like Caden within the month!

But even if he was already oiling her so he didn't rub all his own skin off in sympathethic itchiness, Armind had yet to give up hope. Someone would take her. I mean, she was cute as could be (yuck!), constantly happy...some girl would like Cootie a lot. He just had to find the girl to take this little menace off his hands. Currently, though, he had left her to 'kill' her food, and practically sprinted up to the drumheights to be rid of her while she was otherwise occupied. Commence operation Find Owner for the Pest. Otherwise known as FOP. It was a top-secret mission that required special surveillance and in-depth intelligence gathering. What better place than the highest point in the weyr?

So there he was, stretched out on his belly beneath the shelter of a nice large bush on the edge of the precipice, watching the little kids playing on the river and schemeing as to how to save himself from imminent breastification...when something dropped on his nose with a Gotcha! and proceeded to sink tiny teeth into the tip of it. Naturally the bush exploded shortly thereafter in a shower of leaves as a grimy little native apparently did a rain dance, complete with hollering as he made motions at his face and flung something from him. (Thought he notably didn't throw her over the cliff, as might have been expected.)

Cootie made a chittering sound that was suspiciously like a giggle mixed with a growl, gliding about in a circle and back toward him. "No spit! That's the worstest! Go away!" he hollered at her, dodging the gliding breast-bomb. Cootie so had cooties.

[rii]

Coiled at the one the highest points, blissfully basking in the sun in a half doze, laid Ekarth. Only when he heard the running steps of child did he bother to crack an eye open – the color the same blue shade as his hide to go unnoticed – and looked down from his perch. Watched as the child crawled into the bush and waited. Clearly this was a game of hide-and-seek. Yet no one came to fetch the child. The blue squinted at the bush, unable to guess at the child age but he was very sure it was younger than a weyrling. Where was it's matron figure to herd it back toward the weyr and tell it not to venture out alone because it would get eaten..

Don't even start.
But mother hen, thiss chick hass wandered too far.
It's not that far.
Far enough for a hungry one to grab him, drag him off into the treess to never be sseen again.
Leave it - her - him - alone.
Sso plump, jusst one bite..
Ekarth..
Besst come ssave him Mother'Sun, the hunger controlss me.

The blue had slowly been uncoiling from his position and now began to snake across the ground; only the bush suddenly erupted in a burst of leaves and flailing child. Ekarth shrank against the ground and didn't move an inch. A perfectly normal blue boulder to overlook - right. Although the childling did seem entirely too involved with swatting at.. a salamandyr? A green one at that. Maybe this was the matron, there to chase the child back to the nest. She was doing a poor job at it. Ekarth would help – or wait, was he going to eat the child to teach it a valuable lesson. Ekarth's forked tail tip ticked to and for with indecision.

Neither nor.

Snapping forward in a blur of motion, the blue closed his jaws around the gliding salamandyr. She was in no danger. Ekarth had practice this move a good number of times with Aello - and just about any other small creature that ventured near his weyrledge when he was bored. Felines, darters, flitters, salamandyrs – all unwilling subjects used to hone this precious useless skill. Ekarth rolled the salamandyr around on his tongue, wondering if she would bite him like Aello always did. Abssolute worsstesst.

Of course the kid couldn't possibly be unhappy with him. The green pest was now the one covered in spit and was for all intents and purposes was 'going away'. Ekarth made a careful swallowing motion, a ruse, before turning his pleasantly whirling eyes on Armind. Hm, time for the main course?

[Requiem]

It wasn't that they were completely oblivious to the blue dragon lying out there on the hill. He just wasn't important. Dragons sunbathed all the time. (For a holder, Armind didn't have much fear of the beasts. He was also twelve. Children that age believed themselves invincible.) Nope, child and 'mandyr were completely involved in their noisy game of tag.

At least, until the blue decided to interfere. Armind froze, dark eyes wide on Ekarth. Cootie, however, found this new adventure great fun (if somewhat wet). The baby green issued something that sounded suspiciously like a squeal of delight as she tumbled in the dragon's mouth. Then she got her legs beneath her and pounced on the tip of his tongue, wrapping her limbs around it and wriggling as if she were attempting to wrestle it into submission. Rawr! she growled playfully at him, spines extending in an unseen display of her 'ferocity.'

Rawr indeed. Now, Armind might be in the market for another owner for Cootie, but as lont as she was still attached to him, annoying dragons should not be spitballing her. He was confident he'd know if she was being swallowed. Still, it was the principle of the thing. The child's face took on a very livid expression, lips pursing into a pout as he glowered at Ekarth.

Then, calm as you please, he walked right up to the animal that could have killed him with ease and kicked him as hard as he could. Armind tried to mask the wince. Shards, these things were hard. "Spit her out. Don't you know that Cootie has cooties? Do you want to be a green? Go ahead and cootify it, Cootie. Give it breasts, too."

That should punish the dragon suitably for being such a jerk. Fists found his hips. "Who do you belong to, anyway?"

[rii]

Ekarth threw his head back and let out a great bellow as the small boot struck. His foreclaw raised to grasp vainly at the air as his body slowly tipped. Further and further, slow and dramatic, Ekarth finally fell to the ground. He writhed in his last moments before death. A soundless keen came from opened jaws before the blue slumped - his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth with the green mandyr along for the ride.

The vilagers erupted in cheers! The young dragon slayer had vanquished the terrible blue! Callooh! Callay!

–Oh my! But what was this? Had the monsterous dragon found one last bit of strength beyond death? Ekarth had slowly raised one claw. Foreleg and wing shot forward to wind around young Armid and drag him close. The side of a sharp toothed grin and viciously whirling eye met Armid in the dark enclosure of his wings. A wild dragon belongss to no man.

Claws began to encircle the boy, intent on grabbing him and wisking him off to some unknown nest. Tear him apart piece by little piece. Young creatures always had such tender meat. Before I eat you, you musst explain to me thesse cootiess. I wissh not to be green. Who would want to be a green? The blue head turned away to view the motionless trees - listening - before turning his maw back toward the child. Sspeak quickly child.

[Requiem]

Armind was left staring dumbly at the dramatics of the strange blue dragon that had decided to pretend to eat Cootie. That or he had an Achilles' heel in a surpassingly strange place. Possible. The boy was surprisingly quick to step forward and scoop up his little green pest, not trusting the dragon with her. Yeah, he was trying to get rid of her, but he had the feeling that a chomped or squished Cootie would not be good for his health while she was still wrongly bonded to him. (Of course it wasn't any softness for the creature. Yuck.)

Speaking of yuck...the salamandyr was rubbing dragon slime all over his hands and crooning. Mine, she stated happily. "Just shut up," he grumbled. Cootie proceeded to capture his thumb and gnaw on it. Before he could protest her attempts at girlifying him, however, Armind found himself doubly captured, stumbling toward the dragon's head as wing and foreleg drew him in.

The boy didn't quite believe what the dragon was saying...dragons didn't really eat people, did they? But a growing doubt had worked it's way in. So close to the sharp fangs in that mouth, the smell of meat on the creature's breath, Armind suppressed a shudder. "Why? If you're going to eat me after I tell you, shouldn't I just not tell you?"

He fixed a scowl on the blue, secretly pleased with himself. See? He'd figured out the key to the puzzle and now he was safe so long as he didn't explain the problem of the cooties. "You're going to start turning green now, and you're going to Rise, and there's nothing you can do about it," he concluded, wrinkling his nose petulantly at the dragon. "Serves you right."

[rii]

Clever boy, Ekarth's tongue flicked over Armid's shins. You will make a good ssnack. Because intelligence and taste were directly related. Clearly. Herdbeasts were just so flavorless. I can alwayss eat you and find ssomeone elsse to explain thesse cootiess. Maybe- Heavy emphasis on the maybe. if you tell me I won't eat you. Sso you either you don't tell me and I eat you, or you do tell me and your chancess of living are.. improved.

Claws now firmly locked around the child without crushing him, Ekarth slowly edged his back end and tail toward the cliff edge. His rider was nearing and it would be terrible for the man to ruin his fun so soon. Not to mention rip a hole in his attempt to make Armid believe he was a wild dragon. The blue's head remained on a swivel, rising up to scan the area before returning to smell or nudge the trapped child.

On ssecond thought, perhapss turning green would not be sso bad. I am tired of being the sshade of blue. It doess not blend well with the leavess. A scolding chitter filled the air as Aello appeared. The green flittered circled the two males, spitting at the dragon all the while. Even when Ekarth snapped at her, catching her in his mouth (only for her to flee between before again appearing in the sky) Aello didn't let up on her lecture.

How dissapointing Sun'o'mine, Ekarth commented privately to his rider with amusement. Ssending the little one to do the yelling. Have you really become sso sloven? She merely beat me there. Sslow too. Next to go will be your wit - ah, my apologies. A bit too late on that one.. Amused as the whirls were in Ekarth's eyes, the blue still managed to lowered his head and growl threateningly at the tree line; scaring off the unseen threats seeking to steal his meal.

[Requiem]

The candidate attempted to shrink back from Ekarth's questing tongue, but he couldn't go very far when he was already in the dragon's grasp. Over and over he told himself that dragons did not eat people. This one was just bluffing because...because he could. Probably. But what if he really was wild? Then there was nothing to stop him. A shiver of fear coursed through him.

"You don't really want to be a green," Armind insisted, extending his arms to push at the blue's muzzle whenever it quested too close. As if that alone would keep the dragon from eating him. "Being a girl sucks. All the guys boss you around and you have to do whatever they say. I'd never want to be a girl." He didn't at all like the sound of that 'maybe.' And they were getting disconcertingly close to the edge of the cliff now. No one would come save him once the blue flew away!

Cootie had stopped gnawing on Armind's thumb to regard this beast that was scaring Hers thoughtfully. If he wanted a rescuer, why, she was the best hunter ever! She could stalk and snatch this mean beast before he hurt Hers. Naturally. So when next his muzzle passed - at about the time the flitter showed up - the beast hopped on his snout with a 'fierce' growl and set to gnawing and clawing at one of his nostrils. Haha!

Armind, for his part, squirmed. Then let out a shout, hoping that this flitter was not wild as well and the owner would be somewhere nearby. And a dragonslayer. Yes, that would be most helpful, wouldn't it? "Here! Here!" After which he shut right back up, after a disturbing mental image of the dragon gnawing off his head to make him quiet flashed through his brain.

[rii]

As much as Ekarth would have enjoyed keeping up his charade, there was a definite aroma of fear starting to surround the child. The was proud of himself, of course, for convincing the child he might actually eat him. Only the goal was not to reduce said child to a quivering mess, or start leaking in various spots. Not fun. It would also make his rider growly - and not the pretend growly that could be easily confused with growliness.

Hey, Ekarth arched his neck, lifted his head in attempt to examine the bite-size green gnawing on the end of his snout. He first tried to smack her off when the use of his tongue. When that proved fruitless he made a sneezing motion - complete with huffing out his nose. That tickless! Aello joined in the assault, diving at the blue's head - not that it was much use, but the dragon did remove one of his foreclaws from around Armind. To wipe at the salamandyr on his nose, but it was still an accomplishment to Aello.

The green fire lizard trill to herself as she zipped away. She lighted on the shoulder of the man watching the scene with a raised brow. Ekarth hissed upon noticing, flattening out against the ground - trying to worm his girth behind the human child. Come to sslay me? Besst do it quickly before I turn green.

Oh, a dragon slayer now was he? Ba'sun second brow rose to join the first. "Turn green?" The child hass cootiess that turn you into a green. "Cooties." Cootiess. Ba'sun blinked, his gaze dropping down to Armind. "I'm willing to take that risk, I've battled off cooties for many turns. Now ..dragon.. would you mind letting go of the boy?"

Drawing an arrow, Ba'sun put it to the string of his bow. Ekarth huddled more closely to Armind's back to hide. Not until I am de-cootie-fied "Well boy, there's your chance to earn freedom from the brute." Overgrown snake. Ekarth's tongue flicked the open air.

[Requiem]

Oh! He was trying to dislodge her! Delighted by this new game (did her prey really think he should escape her so easily?) the salamandyr clung even tighter to his nostrils. Missed! she commented teasingly, her foreclaws going at twice the speed of before, 'tickling' him. His sneeze, though, actually lifted the front of her body up into the air, her thick tail quickly moving to wrap around as much of his snout as she could reach. Haha. No such luck, preybeast. Clamping back onto his nostrils, she lent her teeth to the fight. Yield, she commanded, slapping her tail against his snout. Who needed a human dragonslayer when there was a Cootie?

For Armind's part, he was currently fixing the old fart that had come upon the scene with a look of open distrust. Whatever he might have said, however, was promptly overshadowed by the blue dragon's movement, the boy's eyes flicking to watch the claw narrowly. He would not put it past the evil beast to attempt to spear the Cootie...but no, she just jumped onto the claw and, wrapping her limbs about it, began licking the length of it.

His attention returned to the conversation. Dragonrider. Dragon. Yeaaah, how likely was it that the creature was really wild? Now would be a good time for them to stop playing this joke on him, however. He did not like being captured and having an arrow pointing in his general direction. Nevertheless, the child leaned against the confining claws in a show of confidence that these two wouldn't hurt him.

"I can't do anything like that," the candidate responded, glancing over his shoulder at the mischievous dragon. "It's more like filling a jar with water, as I understand it, if you couldn't pour out the jar. After a certain point the jar gets full and you can never go back. Like that guy who Impressed the gold. You get the yucky fatty boobs and end up with a female dragon. Now he...she...will only get more cootified."

His eyes narrowed slightly, a clever glint behind them. "Of course, if you let me go...Cootie would stop spreading her contaminated saliva all over you and you may escape total greenification. This time." He smiled quirkily at the dragon, making no secret of what his desire was. Armind certainly hoped it was too late for this evil dragon who was pestering him.

It also occurred to him that Cootie may actually be a decent weapon. If only he could get her to stop trying to turn him into a girl. That was a definite downside.

[rii]

Break the jar, Ekarth shook his paw in a half-hearted attempted to dislodge the clinging green. The blue being a great deal more willing to play along with the nonsense. Ba'sun, however, continued to settle a puzzled look on the kid. Or fill it with ssomething elsse that doessn't grow boobss.

"You mean Caden..?"

Ekarth's tail rose and flippped to one side, in a way rolling his eyes at his own rider. Sshe's gold. Not green. "Yeah, well.. " The dragon hissed, cutting off Ba'sun's words before speaking mainly to Armind. Look at that man there, ssee the green flyer on his sshoulder - he'ss had that creature for a long time and he hassn't turned green from her ssaliva. How does that work?

"I spend my time around guys, getting plenty of guy germs to battle the girl cooties.." Ba'sun voiced blandly at his own dragon.

The blue purred at the idea, Sso to avoid turning green, one musst have more boy germss. Ba'sun didn't much care for the mischief his dragon was angling for. Simply not in the mood for it today. A tired look settled on Ekarth. "Let the boy go." Make me. Ekarth growled, his back leg slipping over the edge of the cliff as he pulled Armind close this chest. An arrow whistled through the air, zipping past Ekarth's head. There would be no taking little kids for a ride. Ba'sun would have his ears twisted off by the creche women if he let his blue do it. Ba'sun was not amused. "Let him go."

Ekarth only debated a second or two more before nudging Armid away from himself, Wouldn't make much of a ssnack anyway. The blue licked his claws, effectively drenching Cootie with his own saliva. Ha, maybe she would turn blue. His eyes narrowed on the child, tail flick in mock irritation, Well childling? I let you go, make your cootie-beasst releasse me.

[Requiem]

Armind nodded. "Of course." Who else could he possibly be talking about, after all? Only Caden had suddenly switched genders on everyone. (Some people believed the impossible had happened and a man had Impressed Gold, but Armind wasn't stupid like them. Tch.) The boy looked to the archer obediently, head cocking slightly to the side, but then he snorted. "Flits aren't as bad as salamandyrs. Or...yeah, that," he agreed, nodding to Ba'sun's statement.

As soon as Ekarth commented about more boy germs and began backing up, the child's eyes widened again, hands curling over the slope of the topmost claw that still imprisoned him. Where was it taking him? That could not be good. Though...he would take the dragon over that archer pointing an arrow at him. "Hey, watch it," he muttered at the man, though he didn't say it too loud. There was always the chance that he'd get shot just for being annoying.

Armind couldn't resist sticking his tongue out at Ekarth when the blue released him. Hah! He won! The child bounced away quickly so that the blue couldn't change his mind and snag him again without any warning. In fact, he retreated all the way behind Ba'sun, peering around the man at Ekarth. "Well...I don't know..." The green was nuzzling her head against his claw still, crooning at the dragon. Play?

The child shrugged a shoulder finally. "Whatever. Cootie! Go...stalk a bug or something. You're hungry, right?" Boring. "A rodent, then." Feline. "You can't kill a feline," he returned, exasperated. Frog? "Yeah. Sure. Doubt you'll be able to, but at least it won't eat you if you miss." Kay! she cheered, happy to be free to hunt on her own for the first time. (Armind was really careful about this bondy thingy, at least until he could get it transferred to a more appropriate person.)

"Stay close." Yes. The boy watched her scamper off, then glanced up at Ba'sun. "Who are you, anyway? And is that some dragon/snake hybrid thingy? It doesn't look right."

[rii]

Ekarth gave up on his ruse with the boy, his short attention span already shifting to a new game. The little green salamandyr amused him; even more so when she aspired to take on a full-grown feline. Ekarth's eyes whirled with delighted blues as he rose to follow the miniscule cootie. The bottom of his jaw skim the grass on the ground as the dragon lowered himself to her level, whispering secretly to the fearsome hunter. A frog iss too ssmall and they tasste funny. You sshould hunt down a herdbeasst and sshow thesse dragonss they aren't sso tough as they think they are.

Ba'sun dubiously watched his dragon, knowing well enough the blue was up to some new antic - what having been thwarted from the child. "Huh?" Hand raising, Ba'sun caught the arrow Aello had fetched, though his gaze was turned down to the child using him as a shield. Couldn't be that old at all - and with a green salamandyr bonded to him. It was ridiculous. "How old are you?" Answer a question with a different question, always wise. "Ba'sun and - er.. "

He again looked at his blue. Ekarth didn't look that funny, did he? Ba'sun hardly noticed anymore. It might have been more obvious when up next to the other dragons.. if he bothered looking. A giant pain in the ass, that's what Ekarth was. As Ba'sun seemed to stumble over his own thoughts (his mind still caught back somewhere in the conversation about cooties turning boys into girls) Aello fluttered from her bonded's shoulder to Armind's. She trilled sweetly, offering the underside of his jaw to him.

"Aren't you kinda young to be this far from the weyr on your own? The snakey bastard -" Oh the creche women were going to have his ears for swearing in front of the children. "- is probably the least of your troubles up here. C'mon." Bow set over his shoulder, Ba'sun used the feathered end of the arrow to try and guide Armind toward the path leading down from the heights.

[Requiem]

Cootie rose up on her hind legs to regard the slithery dragon curiously, her forelegs batting at the air, then crossing over her chest. Funny haha? (She'd broken her one word rule, efficiency being the code she lived by, to make sure he understood the object of her confusion.) This question of a frog being too small for a master hunter like herself was a valid one. Especially if it wasn't the delicacy she'd been led to believe.

Twisting her body, she turned to look back at Hers, just to be certain he wasn't paying proper attention. Oh yes...excellent. Eyes slitted cunningly. Lead, she decided, the tone behind the word a request. That please was so superfluous when you merely said the word properly. These herdbeast sounded worthy of her expertise. Yessss.

Armind's brows descended in a scowl. He could sense what was coming as soon as those words left the archer's mouth. What was it with adults and age, anyway?! He was a man! The brewing storm was only momentarily diverted by Aello, whom the child suffered with a glare. (She obviously wasn't the cootie-bearing kind of green, since this Ba'sun didn't have breasts yet.)

"I am not too young to be on my own." Dodobrain. "I'm here, aren't I?" He batted at the end of the arrow prodding him in the chest, looking anything but amused, even if it wasn't the pointy end that Ba'sun was using. His chin lifted. "I'm a candidate. I don't need a babysitter." (How quickly he forget that he'd just been a captive of the 'snakey bastard.')

[rii]

Funny.. Ekarth smacked his jaws together, briskly shaking his head side to side as if to rid himself of a bad taste. Bad, yuck, funky - who needed the right word when the right actions did so much better. Ekarth joined Cootie in the surreptitious look back at the two humans. His rider seemed too occupied with the childling to take much notice to their scheming. When Cootie agreed, Ekarth lowered his head in wordless invite to carry the green the herdbeast pens. Gladly.

He pranced his way along the trail, opening his wings to glide inbetween hops. He didn't take to the sky if only to avoid having the little salamandyr slip off and plummet to the ground. That'd be terrible. Ekarth chose the corner of the pen, flattening himself against the grown just aside from the wooden posts. His head rested on the ground as he eyed the beasts in the field (pretending that they didn't notice him there at all). Ready?

Ba'sun merely stared at Armind, not sure of what to say to the kid. It was the pesky age range where kids were clearly still kids but thought themselves so much older. One or the other he was fine with, but that weird mixture inbetween just made him stare. "Of course not, considering you've already impressed to a salamandyr." Yes, the kid just believed in cooties which Ba'sun was fairly sure they stopped doing at the age of five. Whoever let this kid become a candidate needed a swift kick the rear. Ba'sun felt the youth that stood the sands should show some semblance of maturity and intelligence.

Cooties. Really?

"You're right, why wouldn't you be old enough to be on your own." Ba'sun shrugged and began to stroll toward the path he'd just been prodding Armid toward. "Ah well, guess I'll head in myself. Kinda of hungry, been tracking a rogue pair of felines around all morning. Thought I had found them when I heard your scuffle with the dragon. I wonder where they went.." Cue whistle, Ba'sun strolled on forward. Hm, where did Ekarth take of to now..

[Requiem]

Ah, that sort of funny. The salamandyr's frill flared slowly open and she waved the upper third of her body back and forth in the air, making an obvious gak face with a lolling tongue to show she'd understood his meaning. Yuck, the green added. Who would want to eat a frog that tasted funny? Hers really was way too controlling sometimes, making her do such silly things.

The green didn't hesitate at all in hopping right up onto his head, her tail and body coiling as much around Ekarth's headknob as she could manage to anchor herself. Sort of. She left her upper body free, frill flared to catch the wind as they moved fast in his queer hopping stalk. Were she any other salamandyr she might have vocally expressed her elation. But she was Cootie the Huntress, and a Huntress such as herself did not make such silly mistakes. Her eyes slitted in obvious pleasure, though, wings fanning slightly. What a ride!

Oh. These were huge. Cootie half-coiled inwards, frill waving slightly in what some might have interpreted - and correctly - as an outward manifestation of her puzzling over the problem. Yet her enthusiasm did not abate. How? she questioned Ekarth, in a whisper of suppressed excitement. To hunt one of these! Surely none could doubt her skill then, least of all Hers.

Armind nodded sharply to the words, his chin still raised in that universal sign of defiance. Of course, of course, and of course. Good that the archer called Ba'sun should acknowledge the obvious. He was tired of being herded around by a bunch of fat old biddies who thought that his ear made for an excellent leash. But a flicker of uncertainty waved behind dark eyes as the candidate watched Ba'sun's retreating back...what was that about felines?

The candidate glanced back in the direction that Cootie had gone, a little frown on his face, before he scampered up to walk alongside Ba'sun. His hands folded behind his head and he affected a nonchalant air. "You look like a lonely old man. I guess I'll do you a favor and not make you sit in a corner by yourself," he offered, drifting a little close to the man, just in case those felines decided to poke around. They wouldn't bother something as small as Cootie, would they?