Some of the oddest things ... (Gale

[dragon]

After day after day of construction and stone work, sometimes it was nice to find something else to do. Something he was more familliar with, that also needed done. It was funny, sometimes, how much work got put off and stacked up because people were either a) ignorant of how to do it, or b) too lazy to actually do it. So it was that after a long day helping with the construction work that C'oar found himself in the stables. First he had gathered up a bunch of the broken, busted, and/or bent up tools that were used in the place and carted them back to the forge. There he'd spent an hour or so fixing the tools. It didn't take much - he wasn't fabricating them. That done, he carried them back to the stables again, and put them all away where they belonged originally. Now that they were usable again, they belonged back in their original places.

And, of course, now that the tools were all functional again, it was time they were used. Since a lot of the beasts that were kept in the actual stable were usually used for stuff ... recently the hauling of stone and lumber around the Weyr ... they needed care other stock did not.

Like shoes.

So it was no great leap of imagination that found C'oar shortly tending to the shoes of the animals in the stables. Especially those individuals that had been worked at the construction. Digging chunks of rock out of hooves was easy enough, and hammering shoes into shape to be nailed on was time consuming, but not impossible. Granted, he was no farrier. But any decent smith could shoe stock. Just not as ... gracefully.

[nightingale]

It was like discovering the lost city of gold.
Freckle had recently taken to pilfering every vaguely shiny object she could find, and over the past two weeks had amassed herself a hoard that would make even the most avaricious of salamandyrs nod approvingly. The crime spree centered around Showoff, and the depressive state he had been in ever since the death of his mate. Because both Freckle and Cherilith shared strong emotional bonds with Showoff and K'lir respectively, the residual emotion was more than enough to keep Saeo from gathering up and returning the stolen items. So long as there was a chance that the sight of so many sparkling objects in one place would cheer him up, she wouldn't spoil the plan -she might even contribute an item or two from her private collection.

Just not her favourite earrings.

Upon finding them missing, the girl had convinced Baby to track Freckle back to the stables (chosen as a hiding place -no doubt- because it was her bonded's least favourite place in the entire Weyr) where she discovered the green's stash in the corner of the hayloft.

And that was why she was up to her elbows in hay searching for an obscenely expensive pair of star-sapphire earrings, Baby warbling tunelessly in one ear and Freckle chattering angrily in the other.
NOTMINEMINEMINEMINESHINEYMINENOTAKEMINEBADNOTMINEMINENOT!!!! The green trilled incoherently, hopping up and down and flaunting just how little grace she had been given. “Oh hush you beastly thing. I only need the blue ones.” The girl huffed, plucking a piece of someone's necklace from the haystack and tossing it uninterestedly to one side. No Baby no sayin' she a gooooldigger, but she no messin' with nobroke nobroke~ [/color]The blue mandyr crooned at an octave that made the runners below prance with irritation. Freckle's patience snapped and she shrieked, launching herself at the younger salamandyr and wrestling him to the floor. They tousled briefly, the larger blue quickly pinning his ungainly sister beneath him and grinning down at her playfully. BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABBADBADBADBADBAD! Freckle wailed pitifully, as though she had been some great harm during their mock battle. Saeo knew better, and ignored her completely.

Baby -deciding that he didn't really want to play with such a sore loser- reclaimed his place on his bonded's right shoulder while Freckle wandered off to wallow in self pity over her wrestling defeat and the ransacking of her treasure trove.

And then came a sound.

The green waddled to the edge of the platform, eyes whirling a curious shade of yellow green before flashing the maniacal crimson of recognition. C'oar was one of her very favourite targets for abuse, almost entirely because he stole time and affection that rightfully belonged to her. Her tail wipped sharply back and forth once, then overbalanced her and sent her tumbling squarely onto the boy's head with a shriek of protest. BAAAAAAAAADBROWNPESTNOTMINENOTPESTMINENOTNOTNOTNOTNOTMINEFRECKLEMAUL!!! She raged, tearing into his scalp and tangling herself in his hair quite effectively.

[dragon]

Something smacked into the back of his head. And it was screaming ... and trying to pull his hair out. Naturally, C'oar reacted instinctively before he could even think of what exactly was happening. With a startled shout, he dropped his tool and jerked upright, dancing away from the beast he had been holding the hoof of - who was now also freaking out because C'oar was acting oddly. He grabbed at the back of his head, and seized the thing that was attacking him. It only took a split second for him to realize it was a mandyr. Gaaaaaah, he hated mandyrs!! However, he thought he also recognized this one's voice... so he took some care in extracting her from the back of his head, so as to not damage her much. "Shut up already. I wasn't even doing anything to you." He grumped, before finally getting Freckle free of his black locks and bringing her around to where he could see her writhing, screaming form.

Yep ... salamadyrs started out hideous looking, but this one took the cake. And there was only one mandyr that ugly. "Freckle." He mentioned, before looking up at the only place she could have come from. What in Faranth's name had she been doing up in the hay loft? The beast lifted its head and snorted, blowing out through wide nostrils, eyes wide as it stared at Freckle.

Saeo didn't come to the stables - not that he was aware of anyway. So why was the tiny mandyr here? He stuffed her into a pocket and buttoned it shut to keep her there ... and out of his hair. Literally. That done, he grabbed a ladder and set it against the loft, before making his way up it to see what was going on up there. Knowing mandyrs, it could be anything. And a rather big safety bone in his body wanted to make sure there wasn't going to be a fire started in the hay loft. When he could see past the loft and into it, he stopped, though.

Now, that was an interesting sight, indeed. Saeo ... crawling around in the hay and rooting around as if she intended to nest in it. Had she lost what last marbles she owned? Grinning just a touch, he finished the climb and got his feet back under him. "Fancy seeing you here." He greeted. "What are you doing?"

[nightingale]

Baby ceased his painful rendition of 'Moon River' when he felt his bonded's muscles tense in response to a distressed cry below them. A soft brush against Freckle's frayed and raging consciousness told Saeo the entire story. “Shardidt.” The young bluerider growled, slipping one leg beneath the other and seating herself with an audible huff. Was there even a point to having a significant other when you were bonded to a creature vicously jealous enough to attack them whenever they came within ten yards of you? If there was, it certainly didn't fall under the 'intended usage' heading...

Freckle continued to rage at her captor as he handled her, sinking in her claws and teeth where ever they could find purchase and pausing only for a moment as the half-shoed runner snorted at her. Pest. She told the creature matter-of-factly, then promptly went back to trying to reach C'oar's jugular through his fingers. This continued right up to the point where she was unceremoniously shoved and buttoned into his pocket, and while her hissing was muffled by the cloth her telepathic wails only grew louder.

Saeo grinned at him in a decidedly blank and unsettling manner as he appeared on the edge of the loft, hands neatly folded in front of her. “Hello.” She responed, rolling her eyes skyward as Baby promptly launched himself from her shoulder with a squeal of delight. He skidded to a halt inches from the young man's boot, frill and wings fully extended in a glorious display of showmanship. DOOOOOON' GO WASTIN YOUR EMOOOOOOOOSHUUUUUN! LAY ALL YOUR LOOOOOOVE ON MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~~~ The gratingly off-key ending note was held for half an eternity before he chirped, gave a short bow and then scrambled up the young man's leg with a trill of pleasure.

“It isn't so fancy really.” Saeo smiled wryly, placing a hand against her now throbbing temple. “Freckle's stolen all of my good jewelry, so seeing me here is at best a rather tomboyish occasion. I believe that she's trying to bribe Showoff into happiness. I only hope that it works.” For all her irritation, she really did feel terribly for the bronze mandyr. Losing one's mate was one of the most painful experiences she could imagine, and she was far too familiar with the pain of loss to ignore that sort of agony.

[dragon]

C'oar looked down at Baby while he sang at him, a rather perplexed expression on his face. It always blew him away that the little blue seemed to like him, and wasn't terribly malicious ... if one didn't count his deafening, ear-piercing shrieking of song. Arg ... another mandyr. Well ... if he had to have another mandyr about his person, it might as well be this blue. C'oar plucked him from his scramble, wrapping him in one hand as he walked across the loft to where Saeo was sitting. "Jewelry, eh?" he asked, offering her the little scrap of blue that had scampered away from her. "Seems I have both of your pets." He remarked, somewhat amused.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much ... you look just as good without the sparkles as with, you know." He assured her, stooping to drop into a seated position not terribly far from where she was seated in the hay. "You alright? You look like you've got a head ache or something." C'oar asked, with some concern.

Releasing Baby, he started working on fishing Freckle back out of his pocket, lest she decide to start eating a hole in it. The last thing he wanted was an enraged mandyr inside his pants! Keeping her well contained, he offered her to Saeo, as well. "I think you lost something."

Oh, but it felt good to sit down, after everything he'd been up to, today. Even if it was a dusty hayloft. Saeo was there, and that made it a hundred times better, too.

[nightingale]

Saeo accepted the tiny blue into her outstretched hand, allowing him to scamper back onto her shoulder at his own pace. “How about you impress a pair of these delightful little creatures and then call them pets again?” The words were spoken in a vaguely threatening tone of voice; not enough to constitute real anger, but enough to strongly suggest a change of topic. Calling a salamandyr a pet was like calling one's dragon a mode of transportation -vague and inaccurate. As far as Saeo was concerned, it was a lot more like having a pair of angry, tone-deaf split personalities.

The girl put on her very best 'I am not impressed' expression, shifting her weight backward and prodding her companion in the forehead with an outstretched toe. “I have a headache because Baby keeps singing, and because they were my very best earrings -the sapphires my parents sent me as a graduation gift.” She explained, retracting her foot and slumping forward with a deep sigh. “They're terribly valuable and I would have be the most ungrateful of daughters if I allowed them to simply vanish. It must have taken ages to save up the money for them.”

Pest! Badpest! Stupidpest! Stupiddungheadbad PEST! Freckle screamed between mouthfuls of cloth and flesh. The moment C'oar offered her the means to escape the green was away from him and tangling herself into Saeo's hair, crooning pitifully. “I also came by to pay Tak and Sooty a visit.” The girl continued, reaching a hand up to stroke Freckle reassuringly. “The beast still hates me of course.” Her eyes drifted to the hay-strewn floorboards. She had never liked runners; not since she had been bitten by one when she was a child. They were too stupid and nervous for such large animals, and they made her uneasy. That said, Tak had been Raylin's runner, and it went without saying that Saeo felt obliged to make peace with him.

“And you?” She asked, tilting her head up at him so that a curtain of dark blonde hair covered one eye. “Don't tell me you picked a fight with someone and got assigned extra chores.” A playful grin followed her last words as Freckle clawed her way on top of her head. Hims bad! Hims BAD! Hims badbadbadbadBAD! The green accused, her narrow eyes flickering yellow and crimson. Bad bad! You know it~! Baby finished, giving his frill a shake for emphasis.

[dragon]

C'oar grinned crookedly, and shook his head. "No thanks. I get enough of mandyr love from everyone else's. I really truly don't need my own." He assured her. "You won't catch me anywhere near a nest of them, you can be quite assured of that." C'oar nodded. "Besides. You have plenty for the both of us." Of course, he was well aware that they were nothing like flitters or felines... he'd seen plenty of people-antics to suggest they were just as closely tied to the soul as dragons. The only think that kept him from suspecting that mandyrs reflected the insides of people's souls was that he knew for certain that dragons didn't ... Faranth help them all if they were. That and he liked to think that Saeo liked him a lot more than Freckle did!

C'oar reflexively leaned back and away when that foot came toward his face, reaching up to catch the guilty foot. Once he had it, he didn't let go of it, even though he did sit up straight again. Wrapping his other hand around her guilty appendage, he turned her foot up a bit and started rubbing it, massaging it for her gently. What else was one to do with someone else's foot anyway? "I suppose so." He agreed. "Maybe I can help you find them. Or, better yet ... maybe Storm can find them. He's pretty good at that sort of thing, you know." He offered, even though he had no idea where the flitter was. Probably off wooing some golden winged thing. But he was fairly certain he could convince the bronze to show up at the stables sooner rather than later.

"We heard you the first time, Freckle." He told the green. "Here." He released Saeo's foot with one hand to reach into his pocket. He normally carried bits of jerk for Storm, but maybe a peice would mollify the green into silence. Pulling a shred out, he leaned forward and offered it to the creature on Saeo's head. Any other mandyr and he would have simply ignored her - or flicked her off a high ledge. But being Saeo's, he did try to make peace. "Why does he hate you?" He asked, curiously. "I am sure that if you bring a treat each time you come by, he'll get to like you. Runners don't hold grudges ... draybeasts, on the other hand ..." He shook his head. While C'oar had never been a beascrafter, he had handled plenty of them in the smith craft. They all needed shoes, after all.

C'oar looked at Saeo for a moment, then smiled a bit with a small amused twinkle. "No. I didn't do anything. I just ... ended up working in here due to some roll off issues at the construction site that S'rei asked me to help out with. Some of the drafts were having shoe and hoof issues. So once we finished up today, I decided to come take care of that. First, of course, I had to fix a few of the tools. All in a day's work. I have to admit, I never expected to find you hiding out in the hay loft. Maybe I should have come this way sooner." He remarked, offering another scrap to Baby. Mosty to see if it would shut him up, too.