Defend your Dignity (Teddy)

[Shiny]

Dead leaves and twigs crunched under the soles of J'ash's dirty boots as he strolled through the beginnings of the jungle. A chunk of bread was ripped from the half-eaten small loaf in hand; inhaling the crisp, fresh air of the morning, J'ash popped it into his mouth and chewed. What a beautiful morning it was! The temperature wasn't as cold as it had been, though it was still cold enough to be uncomfortable without an extra clothing item or two. Bright sunlight filtered down through the canopy and branches, warming J'ash's tanned skin. The pale blue-gray sky was completely clear, and Rukbat was fully visible with little space between itself and the horizon. Yes, it was early, but today just called for getting up and getting out there.

A light sigh escaped the Blueweyrling as he just stood there, appreciating everything around him. Truthfully, he was still down in the dumps from the Hatching incident. It was upsetting to know that not very many people saw his point of view. Yeah, he'd tried to beat the crap out of some blind kid, but he didn't know he was blind and he was rude and he was putting firelizard eggs in danger. Somehow he'd turned into the bad guy. His reaction had been a little extreme, sure, but that was just J'ash. Unnecessarily over-dramatic drama queen. A hand rose to rub at his tired eyes (they had bags under them because he hadn't slept all that much since the Hatching) as if to clear away any thought of the fight. He wanted to get over it, move on. That was the reason he had come here.

He stuffed the remainders of his breakfast into his mouth, his underestimation of the amount of food giving him chipmunk cheeks. (He was used to having large things in his mouth, so the feeling wasn't that unusual.) He stepped around a tree in his way, trying to chew the massive chunk of bread. Stepping on a vine that seemed to have a weird tension to it, J'ash looked down, disgruntled. "Mff!" he exclaimed in a muffled fashion as he threw himself backwards just in time to avoid being captured by a net that had erupted from the ground.

Landing on his ass, his momentum knocked him onto his back, and he spluttered and choked for a good fifteen seconds after the large chunk of bread forced itself halfway down his throat on impact. He sat up and coughed, which didn't help, and then forced himself to swallow it, wincing in pain as he managed to get it down. A few more coughs escaped him as he inhaled a huge amount of air to make up for the air he'd lost, face red. He glared with red, teary eyes at the thing that had made him do such a maneuver.

An empty net was hanging from a tree branch directly above. J'ash observed it with wide eyes. It must have taken quite a bit of effort to set up such an elaborate trap. Who would do such a thing? What if the Weyr had to escape to the jungle if Fort attacked? He reached over and knocked on the nearest trunk with his knuckles ('where did that weird, old "knock on wood" superstition come from, anyway?' he thought.), hoping the Northern Weyr would leave them alone. But still, if the jungle was rigged like this, people could get killed.

He doubted that there was only one trap set up. Who would go through all the trouble to set up a single trap, when it was rather unlikely someone would walk into it? If they were set up all over the place, there was more of a chance of catching somebody. Yes, the whole place must be rigged, he thought, starting to eye everything suspiciously. That leaf moved funny, that twig looked sinister...

Sighing again, the thin-figured man flopped onto his back and closed his eyes, sprawling on the jungle floor. He'd get up soon, but he seriously needed to take a break after nearly choking to death. Maybe today wasn't such a good day to go out on a walk after all...

[dragon]

L'nu had seen J'ash wander off into the woods this morning, and had wondered where his friend was going. Determined to find out, and wanting to go along to boot, L'nu headed off out after him. Rose, for her part, sat where she was on a branch and just watched her slave leave. After an interminable moment, the Gold then hopped off of her perch to glide after him. Might as well keep an eye on her slave, make sure he didn't get pounced by something, thus making him unfit to be her slave anymore.

L'nu felt he was doing a fairly good job sneaking after J'ash, thinking he could follow him to wherever he was going, and then surprise him. But, his plans were kind of cut off mid attempt by circumstances. First, there came a very strange sound ahead of him, just past where he could see, and what sounded like someone falling down followed by rough coughing. L'nu hurried forward, afraid that J'ash had gotten hurt. Only he circled the other way around a tree than the way J'ash had taken, and tripped yet another of the traps.

Before he even knew what was going on, L'nu was upside down in a rough net, suspended so very high above the floor. The wind knocked out of him, he didn't make a single sound, feeling like his stomach was trying to come out his eyes.

Rose snapped between at the sudden uprush of the net, startled. Only to reappear a few breaths later. She circled a bit, trying to figure out where L'nu had vanished to. It wasn't until a faint wheeze from the boy that she figured out that he was above, not below. With a raucous cry, she flew upwards and latched onto the net, flapping her wings in annoyance.

Stupid stupid stupid humanslave! Now why in the world had he gone and done a thing like that, it just wasn't natural! Especially bad, how was he now going to oil her like he'd promised and get her those cutlets?! Hissing and spitting in frustration, Rose was not at all being kind to her slave, swatting at him with a foreleg through the netting, wings flapping even as she tried to scratch him.

L'nu righted himself inside the net, blinking as he coughed up a leaf. The attack of Rose from the outside had him turning in his cage, leaning away from her. "Shoo. Go away." He told her. "Stop trying to hurt me and go get help, you little twat!" He smacked at her paw when she stuck it through the netting.

Offended that he'd do anything akin to giving her orders, Rose launched off the net and flew around it a few times, hissing, spitting, and howling like only Rose could do.

L'nu heaved a sigh. Well, at least, he wasn't out of dragon reach. If Rose wouldn't go get help, he could prod at Paglieth until the blue woke up. Paglieth would come get him, he was sure. Oddly enough, it never even occurred to L'nu to wonder why there were traps set in the woods of Selenitas ...

To him it was just one more bizarre thing that these crazy Weyr people did. Nutjobs the lot of them, always being so aggressive.

[Shiny]

J'ash's eyes flew open at the sound of a trap being set off. He flung himself into an upright position and scurried to his feet, ignoring the dizzy rush that went to his head. So much for taking a break.

He stumbled forward and caught himself against the tree trunk with his hands, maneuvering drunkenly around it to observe what all the commotion had been about. A weight on his left shoulder settled, and then a lighter one on his other. His two firelizards, Vomit and Tux, had betweened to him, sensing the sudden spike of panic in Theirs. Nearly simultaneously, the two browns twined their tails around J'ash's neck, trying to comfort him. Tux rubbed his face along J'ash's jaw, chirping soothingly, while Vomit growled, perched like a gargoyle. Nothing would hurt His as long as Vomit lived.

J'ash blinked at the familiar sound of hissing and spitting - was that Rose? - and looked around, seeing nothing. He recognized the human's voice as belonging to L'nu. Movement caught his eye and he tilted his head up, blinking at the swinging net, and the person caught in it. "L'nu!" he called, a hand raising to hover near his mouth subconsciously. He was nervous at the sight of the boy in danger. "Ah - I'll, I'll get you down, just-" he said, eyes quickly scanning the ground for any kind of trap before skittishly circling the Blueweyrling, trying to figure out how the trap was set up. The four corners of the net appeared to pull up when one stepped on a vine suspended slightly above ground (J'ash knew this from experience). He wasn't sure exactly how the contraption worked, but the net came up to capture the victim, and then it would hang from a branch. Needless to say, if one had a blade of some sorts, this trap would only be an annoyance. But if one didn't...

Biting his lip, he hesitated for a moment before approaching the swinging bundle of L'nu. Vomit launched off of J'ash's left shoulder and flew up to the Gold firelizard. If she wasn't his mother, he would have chased her off - especially because she was being loud, bossy, and unhelpful. The live mud-ball chirped at the noisy Gold, flying around her. Hush, mother!

He reached out and grabbed onto L'nu's feet with both hands, gently stilling the swinging bundle to a stop. The last thing he needed was for the weyrling to throw up on him. Yuck. Now holding onto a still, trapped L'nu, J'ash thought hard about what to do next. He didn't have a blade, and he really couldn't see the weyrling carrying one on him...

Tux chirped and launched from his perch, fluttering gracefully up to the top of the net. J'ash blinked and leaned backwards to try and see what the gold-laced Brown was doing. Chirping pleasantly at L'nu, Tux grabbed onto the top part of the net and started sawing at the four vines with his claws, gnawing with his little teeth. Snap. The Blueweyrling smiled at the Hatchling, thankful that he had come up with a way to get his friend out. Snap. The bundle of L'nu jaggedly dropped a centimeter as the second vine went. Snap. J'ash blinked as the captured boy dropped some more, deciding that, frankly, standing underneath him now was not such a good idea. Without any extra time to move, a final snap set the net and its captive free to be pulled down by gravity, and the helpful Brown flew into the air, circling, watching the results of his doing.

J'ash winced as he heard the final snap, standing with open arms. He sure as hell wasn't going to let the other Blueweyrling get hurt; he would rather get hurt himself. Not that this would really cause any injuries, or anything. He stood underneath the cut bundle to catch it - or at least act as a cushion to break L'nu's fall, considering his lack of strength. He awaited being knocked down again - this time, at least he didn't have anything in his mouth to choke on.

[dragon]

"J'ash!" L'nu said, when he saw the other weyrling turn up from around a tree. He stuck an arm through the net and waved, only to have Rose fly at his hand and bite him on the hand. "Ow!" He yanked his hand back inside the nest and cussed the flitter out under his breath. "J'ash! What's up with the net? If you didn't want me to follow, you coulda just said so, you know ...." He trailed off, eyeing his pet warily as he rubbed his hand.

It was kinda odd, feeling his feet getting grabbed a hold of. L'nu peered downward as J'ash stopped the swaying motion, not really having been getting ill off it. He did, after all, ride a rather haywire blue dragon around. But he was grateful nonetheless. "How do I get down?" He asked, rather obviously. "Please don't tell me you're going to leave me up here." Oh wait. He'd just talked over J'ash saying he'd get him down. Yay!

"Who's net is this anyway?" L'nu asked, gathering that it wasn't J'ash's. Why did he ask J'ash? Cause he asked J'ash everything. J'ash always knew the answer. Usually. The sound of a vine snapping got the weyrling's attention and he turned his face upward, to see the flitter chewing on the vines.

"Uh-oh." He mttered, knowing this was going to be bad. He started trying to get untangled from the net as quickly as he could, just knowing this was going to end badly. "No no no no ..." He groaned, fighting with the net, eventually ending up flailing there at the end as the last support gave way. As the net rolled, falling open, L'nu did too, tumbling out of the net.

Head first.

"GAHHH!!!" He yelled, arms flailing as he turned upside down again, caught by his ankles. He didn't fall very far, coming to a decided halt. But not until after he'd cracked his head off of J'ash's with a resounding pop. "OOOOWWW!!!" He wailed, covering his forehead with both hands and groaning. Dangling now upside down and swaying back and forth again, L'nu was seeing a few more things than stars.

Rose screamed again, indignant that now hers was not only stuck, but hurt too. She chased after the culprit of course, this time the flitter that had chewed the net open, screaming her indignities. It was a small wonder she didn't just banish the flitter from her presence, but apparently she was aware that he was, somewhat, responsible for getting hers that much further out of being trapped. If he was bleeding from the forehead now.

"I ... can't .... Owwwwwwwww." L'nu mumbled, barely conscious after the head crack.

[Shiny]

A smile graced J'ash's lips as the younger boy called out to him. "Hey, little bro," he said, watching Rose try to attack the hand he'd stretched out towards him. "Rose, leave Yours alone! Do you want him to get hurt?" No, they weren't brothers, but J'ash was going to treat him like one anyway. And he sure wasn't going to let something happen to his brother. Not again. J'ash shook his head slightly to clear the image of his deceased real little brother and continued circling L'nu.

"I didn't even know you were following me," J'ash muttered, a little weirded out that he'd been followed and hadn't noticed at all. He was already pretty paranoid, and this was definitely not helping. "I have no idea whose net this is," the blond admitted, pausing to think for a moment. "But I think they're set up all over the place... Someone must have gone to great lengths to do this. Maybe it was some Fortian." That made sense, because if Fort attacked the Weyr now, a lot of them would get caught while trying to flee. It must have been a Fortian.

L'nu's uh-oh's and no-no-no-ing was making J'ash nervous. But really, there was no other way to get him down without a blade, and he was sure neither of them had one. (It was decided: if he had enough marks when the next Gather rolled around, he was buying a blade.) J'ash closed his eyes tight when the net started to fall and the captive yelled, but instead of being pancake'd by the weight of a falling person, pain split his head as L'nu's cracked against J'ash's loudly. "ARGH," he wailed as he fell over, hands flying up to the front-top part of his skull, eyes tearing. Collapsing onto the ground, he moaned and groaned. The older Blueweyrling rolled to his side and just endured the pain while rubbing the victimized spot. "Oww, oww, oww," he moaned, eyes cracking open to look at his friend dangling upside-down. How was it even possible to get stuck after what Tux did? Only L'nu would be able to pull it off. Only. L'nu.

"Hey!" J'ash barked as the Gold suddenly went after his Hatchling. Tux squealed and flung himself off of the branch, unfolding his gold-laced wings to quickly glide away from Rose. "He was only trying to help!" Vomit growled and went after his mother, intending to grab her tail and stop her. His was upset by what she was doing, so he would try to stop her.

A bit relieved Vomit was helping, J'ash got up from the ground, nearly falling over again. Oh, how his head hurt... Removing his hands from his sore noggin, he grabbed a secure hold of L'nu. "Brace yourself," he said through gritted teeth. He yanked as hard as he could, knowing full well that the Blueweyrling would almost certainly come crashing down on top of him. L'nu may somehow have stayed up there even though it was almost physically impossible, but not now. He was coming down. Right. Now.

[dragon]

Rose hissed at Vomit and whirled around at him for even daring to try and catch her tail. Of all the impertinent things for the little whelp to do! Rose was being rather indignant the whole nine yards. Idiots. She was Surrounded by Idiots. Honking and screaming again, she zipped around the tree only to come right back and land on the hunk of net right at the tether. Ruffling her wings, she glared down at J'ash while the blueweyrling worked on freeing her slave.

L'nu just sortof groaned, holding his head as he dangled upside down. "Today ... is not ... a good ... day...." he grumped. Feeling the grab J'ash was making, L'nu had the distinct impression that J'ash was being more than a touch wobbly on his own feet. What was J'ash going to do when L'nu wasn't suspended anymore? Fall down? But in realizing what J'ash was fixing to do, L'nu started to protest again. But all that came out was a strangled yelp as J'ash hauled downward on that yank.

His ankle twisted horribly, but it came free of where it was hung. L'nu crashed downward, landed with a solid enough blow to knock the air from his lungs, but then just as soon as he got his air back, he wailed at the agony ripping through his ankle, balling up to hold it in both hands. For a moment, he forgot the splitting headache he had from having his forehead smashed on J'ash's forehead.

Shardit, if he'd known coming to the Weyr was going to be like this, he may well have never come!!!!!

Give him time to calm down and stop hurting so badly and he was probably going to go right back to being his usual ignorant self, and quite happy to be there. But at the moment he was really cursing his luck.