Moments of reflection and Peace (S'rei

[Requiem]

S'rei regarded Emoyan sideways, a roguish twinkle (diminished over the turns but still familiar enough that it would have earned him a whack from any of the older drudges who had the misfortune of knowing him as a lad) springing into his mild grays. "Oh, you know how tongues wag. If it's not about what you are doing it's about what you aren't. Drudges get bored with the same work day after day, and I'm afraid giving them a chance to spin tails out of their heads is worse than giving them actual dirt." Sadly, that was how he was keeping up with Selenitas, these days: listening to the drudges spin yarns. He'd always felt comfortable in the kitchens, mingling with the people too many dragonriders (particularly bronzeriders) tended to avoid. S'rei had never cared for questions of caste. Half the older women there had helped raise him, after all. Dragonriders were busy as a general rule, his father in particular, and they with four children.

"You'd be surprised at the breadth, I think. There's talk of everything from secret love affairs with faceless women (and men) to plottings against Benden." The bronzerider pulled a face. "But I wouldn't worry too much. As long as you just remain a curious figure and don't give them too much ammunition, their attention will turn elsewhere. I'm sure there's no end of craziness about me." S'rei snorted mildly. It didn't help that so much of it would be true, either. The man was pretty good about making himself look ridiculous. You'd think it was some sort of...tactic...to have the enemy underestimating him, but nope. S'rei just landed himself in ridiculous situations. Constantly.

That sounded a bit reluctant, didn't it? Not that S'rei could blame him. The bronzerider wisely made no comment, merely nodding. At least there was a tentative sort of half-committment involved in there somewhere. He'd take that if that was all Emoyan could give. In all honesty, if he wanted to S'rei could be more social. He just needed to get back out there and leave the familiar - if aggravating - comfort zone of simply minding the children and flying in a wing. Actually, it was about time he did work on getting himself back out there. Hermit life wasn't really something the bronzerider was built for. He'd leave that to Ka'rys.

Glancing up at Emoyan, S'rei flashed the harper a smile. "Let's just start with 'help' and see where it goes from there," he replied lightly. The man rose with a considerable amount of grace given his large size, gathering up all the items still out of his pack. His movements were vaguely reminiscent of a langorous feline - as they usually were - and he stepped lightly down off the rock. "There was one area just down the beach..." And he was striding off, covering ground swiftly without thought - not because he was in a hurry, but because the long strides tended to eat up the earth at a quick pace.

[dragon]

Emoyan laughed a bit. "Yeah ... I know how gossip vines work." He said, with a nod. It was part of why he didn't really participate in such things. He'd listen sometimes, but never would he input something. The things that went around in those circles was 90% untrue. The other 10% had some basis in fact, but the details were all messed up and blown out of proportion. "I should hope I haven't deliberatly been feeding them ... truth be known, I haven't even been thinking about such things. I just ... do my job. And that's about it. Which, in reality, I really shouldn't do." But also, he wasn't as secluded as it seemed ... it was kinda hard to hide from society when society was thrust at you in your daily work in the form of a gaggle of giggling children. Or snarky brats, in some cases.

Emoyan slipped the strap of his gitar over his head, allowing the light instrument to hang from his shoulder, big end up. He then carefully climbed down off the boulder, wary of smacking the head and neck of his instrument off the rock. Which in turn made his descent a lot more awkward than it would have been had he been unencumbered ... and a whole lot more ungraceful than S'rei's own descent. Arriving safely on the beach, Emoyan strode out after the Bronzerider in a long stride to match. He was not short himself (though not nearly as tall as his companion), and was quite used to walking everywhere by now. "I was going to mention a likely spot on the beach, too ... but I guess I forgot before I managed to actually say it." Emoyan agreed.

Right ... he'd been distracted by a certain dragon bespeaking him. Anyway ... !

"Right. We can do that." Emoyan nodded, grinning slightly. Help, and then see what happens after that. He'd have to find a good spot to rest his gitar before he actually went brush diving, though ... he didn't want to destroy the instrument. It was far sturdier and stronger than it looked, but even so, it was a fairly fragile device. And one that he rather liked he finish on. "I'd say I'd hold it down and you can whack it, but I'd be afraid of losing a finger or two..." He joked, lightly, picking at the bronzerider.

Dropping out of the sentinel tree, Voyager cruised after the two men on outspread wings, in lazy flight. He was joined shortly by the hurried flapping of Rascal, launching off the top of the boulder. When the two flitters caught up to the men, they started a slow, languid circling over head, watching patiently. In a strange turn of events, the loss of the dragon had taken the pair of scatterbrained flitters and turned them into a pair of extremely well focused and dedicated pets, always looking out for theirs and making sure that the man stayed out of harm's way.

[Requiem]

Going up onto his toes, S'rei took the most direct path down to the beach, springing down the rocks and half-running down the steep face of the cliff. His familiarity with the area was clear in the confidence with which he traversed the treacherous footing, quickly finding his way down to the shore. He waved Emoyan down after him. "Come on! And I promise there won't be any loss of fing-" His voice broke off as Salenth's presence in his mind took on a different aspect. S'rei stood stock-still, his head swiveling around toward the Weyr.

Then he was suddenly from a dead standstill to a full sprint in only a few seconds, the powerful, graceful muscles propelling him swiftly down the edge of the shore. Emoyan was wholly forgotten. I couldn't stop him, Mine. He's not even five! There are felines out here. How could you let him? You saw. Indeed. Out the other way, not going past Salenth's ledge. S'rei felt comfortable leaving them alone because Miguel was usually responsible. Two separate fears twisted in his gut.

Branches broke against the large man, his path all too easy to follow if someone couldn't keep up directly. He thrust the leaves aside and plunged deeper, not caring to find paths but forging straight ahead. The glade itself was one he'd often taken them, and relief flashed over him as he saw...saw the small child. S'rei pulled up, his heart thundering more from the worry than the running. He walked into the clearing, struggling to control his emotions enough not to scare Miguel - Laurie's child - all he had left of his family and the sister he'd loved so dearly. Solemn Miguel, who had...seen...his mother's death, and hardly had spoken more than a dozen words since.

Whatever scoldings might have leapt from his lips vanished, though, the moment he saw what - who - Miguel was carrying. It was the boy who closed the distance, his face all too serious, and his deep blues turned up to S'rei's. There was fear and sadness in them, and he looked down to the girl who clung to him, shivering. Even if the father hadn't noticed the unnatural flush, that she would cling to her cousin, whom she hated, was indication enough. He wasn't sure how it had happened, but the plague, despite keeping the children apart from the Weyr, had touched them just the same.

S'rei took Shei into his arms, the child whimpering and curling tighter, before letting a hand fall on Miguel's shoulder. "It'll be all right." Miguel glanced up at him, the moisture in his eyes the only sign of expression - his face was blank.

[dragon]

Emoyan loped after S'rei, right up until the man went pelting down the cliff face as if he were a mountain caprine or something. He hesitated and watched for a moment, then shook his head. "I have got to be insane." And then he followed. Quickly, to keep his balance, but not nearly so fast as what S'rei had taken it at. He stumbled a few times, but managed to get his balance back. Years of dragonriding weren't for nothing, after all... especially since most riders worth their salt eventually learned how to ride with no harness. Or at least those with at least a tiny daring bone.

He finally arrived down at the bottom, he realized that S'rei had vanished off somewhere. He'd been so busy paying attention to his balance and where his feet were going that he hadn't been paying any attention at all about where S'rei currently was. Pausing at the bottom and blowing slightly, Emoyan looked around curiously. Shards, but he needed to get out more. All that scroll pushing and candidate coddling were making him soft.

Hearing the crashing noises, Emoyan turned, and saw the trail the bear of a man had left behind him. "What...?" He started, before taking off at a sprint again. Clearly something had happened, that S'rei had taken off like that. And with not a word. At least, not a word that Emoyan had heard, at any rate. Pulling a deep breath as he ran, he chased after the bronzerider, tailed by his two flitters who thought this was all just great lots of fun. Zooming down cliffs and then through the forest ... yes, it was great fun! Twirling and zooming and flipping, the two flitters knocked off the occasional leaf in their revelry.

Eventually, Emoyan caught up again, following down the broken path that S'rei had left. Coming to a puffing halt, he looked at the two small children, before giving a confused and curious look to S'rei. "What...?" He asked, before trying again. "What's going on?" He managed, finally, past being winded. "She looks sick." He observed, more to himself than anyone else. His two flitters zoomed around, and then landed on branches again, looking down at the small gathering of humans.

[Requiem]

Shei whimpered, her hand curling in S'rei's shirt, and then she coughed. Blood. Definitely the plague that had been sweeping the Weyr, and most likely she'd gotten it from him. All the rest of them hadn't left the weyr since the plague hit. He cradled her close, fear gnawing at his stomach. Of all the children he loved and felt responsible for, only Shei was truly his, a child produced from him, outside of Flightlust. No matter how bitter the relationship that had produced her, she was special to him for that reason. Loved, not more, but differently. To see her so ill, and to know how many the plague was killing, made him feel ill himself. He couldn't lose his Shei.

Miguel understood though both were silent; he clutched at S'rei's leg, burying his wet face in the fabric. Miguel's grip tightened with Emoyan's arrival. S'rei glanced down at the Candidatemaster. His face was of an unusual pallor, being Southern and naturally darker skinned and a man who tended to spend more time outdoors on top of that. "Yes," he managed softly. "Miguel left on his own - snuck past Sal - to bring her to me. Salenth didn't know she was sick." Going to one knee, he looked to Miguel. "When did this happen?"

The boy's wide eyes turned on Emoyan, distrustful or shy, itwas hard to discern. He clearly didn't want to speak with the candidatemaster there. S'rei shook him slightly to get his attention, his voice lower in volume but somehow having more the bite of command behind it despite that. "When, Miguel?" The child looked down, twisting his shirt between his fingers, a shirt stained with Shei's blood just as S'rei's now was. The bronzerider tugged at the laces one-handed, seeking to free his nephew of the contaminated shirt. "This morning," Miguel finally replied softly. "Scared sounds, when I woke."

Just now, then. S'rei bit his lip. He couldn't - wouldn't - bring Shei to the infirmary. They had no cure. All they did was treat the symptoms, something that he could do just as easily as his weyr. He was convinced that having so many sick in one place, with the healers understaffed, only increased the chances of people not recovering. But what about Miguel? He didn't want his nephew sick if he could help it. Yet those he normally would depend on...Laurie was dead. Kalierre certainly couldn't look after him. S'rei wasn't about to ask Aliscia. The woman was neurotic. Ka'rys? Not unless he absolutely had to.

S'rei glanced at Emoyan. "Do you know of anyone willing to take in a quiet five-turn-old...at least until Shei gets better?"

[dragon]

Emoyan stood silent, as if he wasn't even there. An invisible spectator to the scene unfolding before him. Though the lad certainly knew he was there ... kept staring at him like he expected the Candidate Master to suddenly bust into a roaring lunge and gobble him up.

The child was sick ... very sick. And not just with a fever or cold, either. That blood was a bad sign. And even though the child was of no relation to him ... indeed he'd never seen her before that he could accurately recall ... Emoyan was concerned. And worried. No child so young should ever have to suffer with being so sick. Shards ... no child of any age should have to suffer through a sickness as bad as that.

This morning, the lad said ... well ... that meant that she wasn't terribly far along ... maybe there was hope she could be cured of it yet? Not being a Healer of any degree, not even any random pets, he had no idea what all was involved in finding a cure or treating the illness. All he knew was that this particular illness was pretty bad, had the Healers worried, and ... he hoped none of his Candidates caught it. He'd even instituted stricter kurfews and travel restrictions, to try and keep them safe from the bug. Time would only tell if it worked. Likely as not, it was already too late. By the time symptoms showed, people had been infectious for a week or more already, unknown.

Emoyan was genuinely surprised by the question directed at him from the Bronzerider. Know anyone who could take a kid? Errrr ... His brows templed together in a thoughtful frown. Did he know anyone? Truth be known, he didn't know anyone at all, really, much less in a classification of willing babysitter.

"Ah ... no ... no, I don't." Emoyan apologized, with a small shrug. For a moment he tried to wrack his brains a bit more, trying to be helpful, but there really was just nothing there. The only people he was even vaguely familiar with were either Candidates ... used to be Candidates ... or Ka'rys. And there was no way Emoyan was even going to suggest Ka'rys as a babysitter. Just no way. Nor would he suggest one of those kids that he was trying to hammer info into the heads of. Just wasn't gonna happen.

Emoyan looked at the shy boy for a moment, and then S'rei, wishing he could help. Only then, did it hit him like a speeding brown dragon. What was wrong with him? Other than the kid possibly being contaminated and infectious ... and having to possibly infect all the Candidates with it?

Oh, this wasn't good. He couldn't take the kid! He sure as shards didn't want to get it! But then ... he was standing here, already. If he was gonna catch it, he likely as not already had. Just now. Lovely.

"I can keep him for a while?" Emoyan offered.

He still would not chance exposing his Candidates, though ... not even without taking the kid. Which meant either a lapse in lessons for the youngsters, or finding someone to fill in for him until he could be sure that he wasn't going to infect them. Which would take a few weeks' time.

Oh, fun.

[Requiem]

"Take that off, Miguel. It's dirty," S'rei insisted in calm, quiet undertones to the child, not wishing to give the boy any more reason to be upset. His stomach was tight, though. Stupid to think of it, but...he always seemed to survive everyone. His parents, all three of his siblings, both weyrmates, an unborn child. And now Shei was sick. Miguel had been near her constantly for days. The fear twisted inside him. No, he wouldn't give her up without a fight, and he had to believe that his nephew would remain healthy. Had to. The child had been his almost as much as Laurie's...she'd fostered Miguel to S'rei and Shmee after the couple lost the first child.

Miguel was all that was left of the family S'rei had grown up with.

Sighing at Emoyan's admission, the bronzerider ran a hand over his face. "Ummm. I can't ask F'rah to." S'rei knew how bittersweet it was to have the child of the one you'd once loved living with you. "Aliscia has enough on her plate with the twins. Kalierre's got a whole infirmary. Ka'rys...I'm sure he's busy." Not bad with children, actually, but S'rei didn't want to have to deal with Savitri. Besides, they had a set of twins as well. He couldn't say he really knew anyone else, other than the four he'd mentioned, that he was comfortable enough to entrust his nephew to, however.

He glanced at Emoyan, his expression openly surprised, eyebrows high. Miguel had ducked behind S'rei, the slender child putting his uncle between him and the candidatemaster, on hand fisted in S'rei's pant leg. He tugged at the bronzerider's sleeve, never once taking wary eyes off the other man. S'rei let his hand fall on the boy's head in silent reassurance. But his focus was on Emoyan as well. "Are you sure?"

Surprisingly, the idea wasn't a bad one, at least in S'rei's head, but there was the possibility that Miguel was already sick and just not showing symptoms yet. For two of the four he'd mentioned that wouldn't matter. Kalierre was a dragonhealer in the middle of plague victims and hardly would be put off, and F'rah wouldn't care. The other two wouldn't if they didn't have children of their own who might catch the sickness. In Aliscia's case his children, and S'rei was just as protective of them as the ones who lived with him.

But Emoyan had no reason to risk himself like that. S'rei thought there might eventually be a friendship between them - the potential was there - but the offer still surprised him. He didn't mention that Miguel might also be sick, what with the child standing right there. No need to terrify the little one. The bronzerider had little other choice, though, if Emoyan was willing. He didn't know who else to ask.

"I'd really appreciate it -" Miguel clung tighter "- but I can figure something else out. Don't feel you have to."

[dragon]

Emoyan had to admit ... he'd surprised himself with that volunteering, too. But, what else was there to do? S'rei had just listed off everyone he knew, as well ... and frankly? Emoyan rather thought putting a healthy-seeming child in the hands of an already over burdened healer was not a good idea. "Yeah, I'm sure. It's not like I'm up to my eyeballs in work like a lot of people around here suddenly are."

The Candidates just took most of his time, rather than all of it. He didn't have to physically run after them and try to herd them. He just laid down the rules, and if they chose to break them ... then he dolled out appropriate repercussions. And Lessons, while there were quite a few classes to do, did not last all day.

"I am sure I can find something for him to do." Emoyan added, after a silent moment. "He'll be safe enough." Getting the lad out of the way of potential sickness was something that certainly needed done, that was for sure. And Emoyan liked S'rei enough to be willing to do that for him. Besides ... after dealing with older kids that were so troublesome, how hard could it be to take care of a youngster as small and quiet as Miguel?