Boys Will Be Boys (The Dragon)

[shadowreine]

Even Candidates got some time off. More, Keloran thought wryly, than the weyrlings did.

He'd gladly sacrifice every second of it. For right now, though, he enjoyed, somewhat, the perk of not Impressing. He was at the base of the waterfall, relaxing on the shore and wearing no more than he had to. The rest of his clothes were neatly folded outside the spray zone.

Oh yes, he had learned that one. Dragons liked to splash. "Bored," he murmured.

That was the downside to free time. One did have to find some way to fill it. And for a boy who had never Impressed so much as a green firelizard and who's friends had a habit of Impressing dragons...

"Bored," he repeated, louder.

Bored, lonely, frustrated. When would he experience something positive in his life? For now, he would settle for something to take his mind off of his troubles. A new friend would be perfect...or at least an acquaintance. Somebody fun to hang with. There had to be someone around here...

[dragon]

Swimming in the river itself, Cloar was powering his way upstream toward the waterfall. This day, having had not much to do (again - something he was most definitely NOT used to having), he had been drawn inexplicably back to the river again. It had an energy that he could not resist. Instead of walking up it, today he was swimming up it. It was a self assigned task that was excersizing all his recently lax muscles. Despite the chill of the water, he was staying quite warm indeed!

His progress was slow, but the candidate was making his way upstream. When he reached the waterfall, he planned to climb the thing. Though he knew that if the Candidate master found out about that plan, he was liable to get the thrashing of his life. By tongue if not litterally! A fall from that thing would be quite ... interesting.

But Cloar was an adventurous sort who love physical activities. And climbing the waterfall was something he had yet to do. Something he had wanted to do ever since he'd seen the thing. But someone had always been there. Maybe today was different, and no one would be there.

Reaching the pool at the base of the waterfall, Cloar headed for shore, knowing better than to swim into that roiling mess where the water fell. The undertow there would keep him under, no matter how strong a swimmer he was. It would take a dragon to fish him out of it. And as adventurous as he was, drowning was not on his list of things to try.

Crawling up out of the water, Cloar shook his head and slicked his black hair back out of his face and looked around. Ah, shards. There was someone here. Who, he didn't know. Only that he'd seen the lad before, here and there. Most notably on the sands.

So much for climbing the waterfall this day! Flicking some of the water off his tanned skin, he walked over to where the lad was sitting. "Hello." he said, amiably, before sitting down on a rock.

[shadowreine]

Keloran did not know the other candidate who approached well. Another boy, and he'd been swimming -up- the river.

That told him one thing right off the bat. This guy enjoyed making his life difficult. Most people stayed in the eddies near the shore or swam downstream, with the current. Against it? Somebody was either enjoying a good challenge, obsessed with physical fitness or...both. He remembered him from the Sands and the barracks, but wasn't sure on his name.

"Hey there," he offered, forcing his voice cheerful. If the other boy was in a good mood, there was no sense dragging him down with what Keloran himself even realized, if he was honest about it, was pure angst.

It was, at least, a nice day for swimming. At least he wasn't doing it in the coldest part of the Turn...well, he probably would. "I don't think we've ever properly met, have we?"

Was his memory just faulty. It was always possible.

[dragon]

Cloar laughed. "In passing only, I think. I have never learned your name. Mine is Cloar. I've seen you in the barracks ... at mealtimes ... and then on the sands as well. I think we've even done some chores in remotely the same area." Cloar mentioned, starting to feel a little chilled. Now that he was sitting still, instead of swimming, the water on his skin was starting to raise some serious gooseflesh.

He shivered convulsively, and then slicked some more water off his arms, flicking his fingers at the river. "Water's a tad cold." He mentioned, as if it were the weather. He looked over at Keloran, wondering what had prompted the other lad to just sit at the base of the waterfall and do ... nothing. That seemed a tad on the boring side, to Cloar. But then ... that was Cloar.

[shadowreine]

Keloran nodded. "I know, that's why I got out of it." Cold water was something one could only tolerate for so long. "But it's not too bad, it gets colder."

At the mention of the word Sands, he tried not to make a face. He wasn't going to talk about Hatchings, or think about them. "I suppose I should do something."

Maybe this guy would be interested in a swimming race? He'd probably win, but it would be fun. He studied Cloar, not, of course, in the manner of one of those boys who was interested in his own gender, but more like...assessing a rival.

Friendly, of course. They might be competition for the eggs, but right now, they were both big, fat zeros on that front. And besides, there was no sense competing. The dragons chose as they would...or not.

[dragon]

"Oh, I know it gets colder! It's taken forever for it to warm up enough for me to get enough gumtion to brave the water's bite!" Cloar grinned. Indeed, he'd monitored the temperature of the river for some time before ever daring to set a toe into it. He rather liked being warm, and rather did not like the cold.

But he loved the water. So a comprimise was made, even while the water was still on the chilly side.

He gazed up at the cascading waterfall, wondering how long it would take him to climb it. He didn't often sit here near it's base, and it was something to admire indeed. Nature was a marvelous thing.

"Do something?" Cloar asked, looking at the lad again. "What sort of something?" he asked, watching as Keloran seemed to size him up. What was the lad thinking? Cloar desperately hoped he wasn't one of those nuts who loved to fight or wrestle. As big and as strong as Cloar was, he was not the type that enjoyed fights. He rather avoided them when possible. The few times he had been cornered with no way out, he had fought like a trapped feline - quick with no holds barred, aiming to end it as quick as possible.

[shadowreine]

Keloran considered. "My first thought was a swimming race, but I'm fresher than you, it might not be fair...of course, you might beat me anyway, as fast as you were coming up the river."

He was never one to brag and be dishonest. And a race would be fun, win or lose. Had he known Cloar thought he was implying they should -fight-, he would have been offended.

Fighting was something one did because one had to, not for the sheer -fun- of it...seriously. "Unless you have a better idea?"

He had warmed up enough that getting back in the water didn't seem quite such a bad idea, now. And, hey, if he ever Impressed, he'd have to get used to cold water.

He was certain he never would, but he might as well act as if he retained some...hope.

[dragon]

"A swimming race?" Cloar asked. Not what he had planned on doing, certainly. Especially since he had just climbed out of the river. "Well..." he looked around a bit, and then up at the fall. He shrugged loosely. "I never was much of one for speed, actually." he said, more to himself than to Keloran. He had no idea how fast he had been going upriver ... he'd been doing the swimming, not the clocking, after all.

Taking a chance on the lad, he decided that maybe he could recruit a climbing partner. Things were always double the fun when you had a partner to participate! And if the lad ratted him out instead, what was the worst that could happen? Someone chew him out for thinking of doing something? Not likely. Though it might result in the authorities in the area keeping a closer eye on his activities.

"Acutally ... I had been thinking about some climbing." he said, not bothering to specify what, exactly, he had been thinking about climbing. His gaze made it abundantly clear what, exactly, he meant. Though if the lad got outraged at the idea, he could still claim innocence and say 'tree'.

Sneaky sneaky. My, but he hadn't known he had it in him! Cloar wondered on that a moment. Where had that come from? A straight-forward personality like him, making sneaky around the back plans? How ... strange.

[shadowreine]

Keloran considered "Always better to do that kind of thing with a partner."

Would be better yet if either of them had a firelizard they could send for help if anyone did fall. Of course, did he mean... "Although if you mean the waterfall, I'd sort of like a third person, as neither of us has flits."

One to stay with the injured person, one to go for help. Who had told him that? Probably his dad, in one of his lectures. And while going up the waterfall was not totally insane, it was definitely risky. He certainly wouldn't have considered it right -before- the Hatching, but right -after- was another matter...it would be a little while before a gold rose again, after all.

Besides. He wasn't going to Impress...so who the heck cared what happened? Faranth, if he fell and broke his neck, nobody would lose anything.

Yeah. He was -definitely- in all out emo mode right then...and perhaps more than a little easily led. He needed something or somebody to break him out of this...

...before he did something -really- stupid.

[dragon]

Cloar contemplated the lad for a moment. He looked a little on the weird side. He was game for climbing the waterfall, but Keloran looked a little on the extreme side that was in danger of doing for spite of something.

Which was a bad combination.

"Ehr..." Cloar said, looking around. It would ride him forever, if he did something that got another person killed. He scratched his head for a moment, and then shifted his weight from one side to the other, trying to think.

Now what had he done?

[dreamer]

There was one good thing about the time after the hatching. Chores weren't as often or as long. Brulen was using the extra time to explore around the Weyr.

He'd grown up in one place and was used to knowing every inch of land around. Not knowing anything about the weyr area was something he was fixing when he could. Today he was following the river, keeping an eye out for good fishing places and ripe fruits or berries.

The water fall stopped him in his tracks. He'd heard it of course, but it was rather impressive close up. Southern was fairly flat, the cliff was impressive. It brought out the same itch to climb that a really big old tree did. Was it possible though? Falling certainly wouldn't be fun.

Working his way closer he came into an open area with two candidates he recognized.

"Hey, Cloar, Keloran. Are you two exploring too?" He didn't see any fishing gear. They'd been swimming though, maybe their things were stashed somewhere else.

[shadowreine]

Keloran waved. "Exploring, hanging out, contemplating what to do next."

Maybe Brulen could talk him down. A small, rational part knew he shouldn't take insane risks, but it was smaller than usual right now. Besides, being a teenage boy, he tended to think himself immortal anyway.

He stood from his rock, stretching out some kinks he had developed. Apparently, he had been sitting there too long. As for his things...they were indeed stashed, laid out on a different rock near the falls, out of the spray zone. No fishing gear, though. Keloran was not really into fishing for the fun of it, unlike many people.

Brulen, of course, was one who understood why he was so out of sorts right now. Cloar? He hadn't been here long enough to get it, no, not at all.

[dragon]

Cloar looked over as Brulen approached. "Hello! Exploring ... yeah, kinda." he answered, at the same time that Keloran did. He grimmaced for a split second, at realizing that. Talking over others was something that had been grilled into him as not polite. But ... since no one said anything about it, he let it slide off to the side, hopefully into forgotten history.

He looked at Keloran again, before looking back over at Brulen. Okay. How to salvage this situation? Climbing that waterfall was something that Cloar really truely wanted to do. But now Keloran was apparently thinking of doing it too ... just because it was dangerous. At least, that's what it appeared to Cloar, from the look on the boy's face. He held up a hand for a moment, to sign a pause.

He needed time to think.

And now Brulen was here, too. What next? They'd soon have the entire unimpressed male Candidate contingient out here, all climbing the waterfall. All because Cloar had been stupid and opened his mouth. Not at all distressed at not having impressed, Cloar had a hard time wrapping his mind around why the others seemed so fey over it.

Nor was he any better at figuring out how to snap them out of it. A mindhealer, he was not. An accomplished smith, that he was. Unfortunately, smithing lent him no aid at the moment.

Unless... hum. No, that wouldn't work.

Not knowing whether or not Brulen had heard what he had said about climbing a minute ago, Cloar was unsure what to say next. The last thing he needed was another pissed off Candidate climbing the fall. And Cloar knew quite well that Brulen was another that was frustrated on that very point.

Grr.

And they weren't as easily distractible as flitters or 'mandyrs. Shinies wouldn't fix the problem.

Ah, well. "Neither of you two have flitters or something like that, do you?" Cloar asked, on a spur of curiousity. Anything to give him a moment to think.

[dreamer]

They were up to something. There was no doubt about that, the question was, what were they hiding? A wine flask or some stolen food? there was no reason to steal food at the Weyr, everyone was fed enough. Wine or beer was possible though, and if that was it Brulen would have to be very careful about drinking. Strong emotions and drink combined very poorly in him, something he didn't wasn't anyone here to ever know about.

"A flit? Not me. Flitt eggs were given to important people or sold to people with marks, where I come from."

What were they up to that could involve a flitt? Maybe they'd swum over here and left their clothes on the other side of the river? That would be funny. He could get them, but bringing the clothes back here would get them very wet.

"I was looking to see what berries or fruit grew around here. If I'm intruding on something I can leave?"

It was a polite thing to offer, he supposed, and he was doing his best to learn what was considered mannerly at the Weyr. Not knowing what they were up to would have him curious the rest of the day though.

[shadowreine]

Keloran shook his head. "Never been able to bribe an egg out of..." He paused.

"You know, I have a better idea for what we could do if everyone has a bunch of time and doesn't mind a walk."

He'd tried to find eggs on the beach before, but with three sets of eyes, it might be more luck...and if there was anything that would cheer both him and Brulen up. But it was an hour or two's walk to the beach. Did everyone have that much free time. "Wish I could bribe a rider," he added, thoughtfully.

He didn't know that many of them, to be honest. His father certainly wouldn't waste his time on an expedition in search of firelizard eggs, disliking the creatures as he did.

"Not many berries around here. I think the edible ones get eaten and the inedible ones removed to the weyrbrats won't eat -them-," he added, for Brulen's benefit.