It's like defying gravity [ anyone! ]

[caffelatte]

The jungle was lush, the air sweet with the scent of ripe fruit and the heat nearly unbearable. Initially, the plan had been to simply explore a little and get his bearings in this new place, (seeing as how he hadn’t really done that yet), but the day had gone just completely unacourding to plan. Mavorn didn’t like it very much when things didn’t work the way he thought they ought. Funny thing, that. A sudden streak of green - that was all it had taken, to send his silly little blue flitter darting headlong into the dense jungle and far from Mavorn’s line of sight. Grumpily, he had chased after Nosy, calling his name over and again, not paying terribly much mind to where he was in all the tangled vegetation of the jungle. Now, he found himself standing knee-deep in dead plant junk, lost and still firelizard-less.

Uhg. That little brat...oh, he’d best be enjoying himself, because he was in soooooo much trouble when he came back!

Sighing deeply, Mavorn helped himself to a seat on half-fallen tree, wiping the sweat from his forehead almost without thinking about it. His head felt itchy, but that was probably because he was sweating and he had a couple feet of hair dangling from his scalp. Yuck. At least he had all that sandy brown hair braided back and away from his face, so it was out of his way. That was one less thing to worry about. Really, he wasn’t dressed for this kind of exploration. He’d only tossed on a thin, tan, too-baggy top, some brown trousers and sandals that morning. All the pushing through the vegetation was earning him quite a few scrapes and scratches over unprotected skin. Just not pleasant, all things considered. Although, it wasn’t all bad. There were some great vines that far into the jungle. If he dragged some back with him, perhaps he could weave them into a nice chair seat? Hmm. That was a fairly decent idea, actually.

“Noooosy,” he called, his voice calm, but somewhat strained. His patience was beginning to wear thin. That took some doing, too. Silly little thing. “This isn’t funny anymore.” Though the words were supposed to sound serious, he was a little preoccupied, tugging at the stronger-looking vines he happened upon. As he found good ones, he draped them over his shoulder, looping them around his arm, so that they would stay out from under his feet.

Of course, the more vines he found, the less able he was to control them and eventually, after one good tumble to the ground, he’d managed to get himself hopelessly tangled...and dangling upside-down from a tree, to boot. Oops? Well, this wasn’t very good, now was it? He tugged at his arms, finding them decidedly caught-up in the strong vines. Perhaps he had chosen a little too well... And eek! The blood was rushing to his head! Noooooot good! Moments later, Nosy had returned, but lacking the green he’d thought he’d been chasing. He seemed a bit dejected, poor thing, cooing almost sadly.

“I wish I could comfort you, little friend,” Mavorn told his little blue, wiggling in his viney trap, to no effect. “But uhm... I’m stuck. Think you could get us some help? Please?” Nosy tilted his little head then, as if trying to make eye-contact and only then noticing the upside-down problem. Oh, yes. His person was tied up. Oh. Well. He could help with that! Delighted to be helpful, Nosy flew over to one of the many vines, finding it tangled into some vines, which were still attached to trees. That wouldn’t do. He tugged with his little claws, but nothing budged. Oh, it didn’t take the blue long to figure things out, once he had a handle on what was going on. The vines were not winning any points in Nosy’s book. He wanted food and the vines catching his person was not getting him fed any faster. Quite the opposite.

Squawking at the vines in a massive fit of irritation, Nosy disappeared from the jungle, reappearing outside of the said jungle, chattering animatedly at whoever would listen. Nosy to the rescue! Now then, who could he drag into the jungle? Person-to-person he went, little more than a blue smear in the air, screeching up a storm as he went along. Certainly someone would help him?

[glamourie]

Sulk. Keliris was sulking as he sat at the jungle's edge, his legs curled up underneath him. He was more upset than he was willing to admit and it made him angry, because he had no reason to be. He should have been happy. The firelizards hatched and his brother, Kaliran, managed to impress a charming little blue. And Keliris? Keliris Impressed absolutely nothing. He was happy for Kaliran - it was always easier to endure failure if he thought his brother had a chance at something, or was successful. Some part of him was still regretful, still felt as if he was one big massive failure, unworthy of anything some how. He'd told himself he wouldn't get his hopes up like that, and he did. It was ridiculous. He didn't need a firelizard! But... if even the firelizards didn't want him, how was he to have any hope of Impressing a dragon? The answer was that he would not - could not - have any chance. Firelizards were far less picky than dragons. If ever there was anything to cement that belief, it was the firelizard hatching. He'd officially given up complete hope and it depressed him - enough that the brunet was hiding away from people, curled up at the edge of the jungle, with his legs curled up underneath him, head pressed to his knees. No one approached him and Keliris didn't want anyone to do so. He wanted to be left alone.

What was wrong with him, that no flitters would want him? Aside from... everything? Shaking his head, Keliris dropped one hand to draw circles in the dirt with the tip of his index finger. It had only been a day, but he was more upset than before by far. He should have felt better, not worse, but the more he thought about it, the more his mind clamped onto the idea that he just.. was not good enough. His circles became wider. He wasn't good enough for even a firelizard...

The sound of screeching made Keliris lift his head and look up curiously. His eyebrows raised as a blue firelizard zoomed past, obviously distressed, and he uncurled slightly before flagging the creature down as animatedly as he could - no doubt a comical sight, given that Keliris was half-sprawled across the ground. His expression was very well-guarded, though, hiding how upset he was easily enough. Keliris had long-since taught himself to hide his emotions, at least outwardly. And the firelizard flying by making such a fuss was an excellent distraction from his darker moods. Keliris actually flailed his arms around before calling out to the little fellow, not recognizing him, which meant he wasn't Kaliran's new little blue and he wasn't Rawign's Beggar.

"Hey! You! Firelizard! Noisy thing!" Keliris climbed to his feet and dusted himself off before walking over to the blue. What did he expect, an answer? Well, maybe. He knew the firelizard couldn't talk, but... "What's wrong with you?" It was so loud. Maybe if he did whatever the creature wanted, it would stop squawking so much. Talk about ear-splitting sounds. Once the firelizard actually calmed down, Keliris stopped flailing, and then put his hands behind his back. He supposed from the way it was flying about that it wanted some attention, silly creature. He did wish they didn't make so much noise at times. Aside from frantic shrieking and flying about, though, he couldn't determine exactly what it wanted, but... "Take me to whatever it is that you're so worried about, then, if you please, and I'll do whatever it is." He tilted his head slightly and gestured for the firelizard to lead the way.

[caffelatte]

Noisy? No, that wasn’t his name, but it was close enough. That word alone had caught his attention, not so much the flailing of the person-type who had said it. He quieted down then, his rapidly whirling eyes on the person. Was he listening? He seemed to be. Hovering a little, Nosey tilted his head in a perfect mimic of the way the person was tilting his own head. Softly, sweetly, the lean, but relatively small blue trilled at the boy, his eyes taking on more composed colors than they’d held before. His mission had been to get someone’s attention and that he had done and well. Where was his treat? His person always gave him treats for doing things well. Oh, wait. He was upside-down in the woods. He’d been carrying on so much, he'd almost forgotten why he'd been doing it in the first place, actually.

Now that Nosey wasn’t darting this way and that, it was more obvious that he was a handsome little thing, with a very long tail, which he flicked this way and that now. His main shade was a bright, medium blue, darker along his back and fading down into a light, almost sky blue around his belly. A little chirp from him and he fluttered over to the boy, landing on his shoulder, climbing onto his head, sitting on his other shoulder, draping his tail this way and that... From a distance, this dance must have been frankly hilarious, but it was Nosey’s way of “inspecting” people. He was ever the curious thing, after all. Quite abruptly, he crawled along the front of the boy and smooshed his snout right into the boy’s nose; not painfully so, but just enough so that he had the boy’s eyes. After a moment, he arched himself backward, releasing the newly found person and dove into the air again.

Cooing pleasantly, very obviously rather satisfied with his find, Nosey began flying into the jungle, this time very slowly. Peoples didn’t move very quickly on their own, so he had to make sure he didn’t lose the boy before they got to his person. All the while, he would arch back to trill at the person, or chatter enthusiastically, as though they were carrying on some real conversation as they walked, instead of just tromping along. Pointedly, the little blue circled around a nasty thistle bush of some sort, chittering less pleasantly, so that the new person would know not to touch that. It was pointy. Ouchie.

Soon enough, even the barest bit of path that had once been visible had faded, leaving them in nothing but endless jungle. A few times Nosey had literally shrieked at dangling vines, as though that would keep them at bay. He’d circle back then to sit on the boy’s shoulder, chittered in irritation at the presence of the vines, before leading the way again, watching with diligent care that the person avoid the vines. When he could, Nosey would pull them out of the way with his claws, so that he wouldn’t have to touch them at all. It was all the vines’ faults, you see. Not his for running off in the first place. Nope.

Finally, they arrived in an area which was dense with vines, very far from the jungle’s edge. Nosey chirped and almost tried to sing at his person, just to let him know that help had been brought! Once past the more dense vines, it became more clear what had had this little blue in such a tizzy...

His person, caught up in vines, dangling upside-down from a tree, all red-faced, because the blood had rushed to his head. Nosey trumpeted with enthusiasm, obviously perfectly tickled with his performance. Then, he tried raiding Mavorn’s pockets for treats and found none. This irritated him, so he chided his person for his lack of treats, before switching moods again, flying over to the person he’d found and cuddling up against his neck, trilling all affectionately. He’d brought a person! To help his person! Wasn’t he just the smartest, cleverest, bestest firelizard ever? Lookit! Lookit!

My, was Nosey ever putting on a show! Ah well. What could you do? Very little, when you were tied up, consequently. “Uhm. ... Hello,” the dangling boy with the very long hair greeted, looking more than a little bit comical. This would have been funnier if it wasn’t him. No, actually. He doubted that very much. Maybe he just didn’t have much of a sense of humor? That was probably it. “I’m...uhm...stuck. Help?”

[glamourie]

Keliris raised his eyebrows as the firelizard flew over and ... looked at him. Then sat on his head and made quite a big deal about looking him over. The proximity actually made him uncomfortable and it took every ounce of Keliris's self-control not to swat the creature away irritably. He didn't like other people's firelizards perching on him, it emphasized the fact that he didn't have any of his own. (He made a mental note to save up to buy a feline cub once more - maybe he'd feel better if he had something cuddly to hug.) However, once the firelizard flew off, Keliris took to following him at a half-jog, in order to keep up with the flit's so casual flight. For all their faults (and he was mentally listing off as many as he could find, to try and detract from the fact that he was upset at being incapable of Impressing any), firelizards were graceful for the most part, and they were fast. And Keliris was... short. Which meant he had to follow at a bouncy pace, trying to keep up with little in the way of actual skill, and he probably looked comical half-jogging after a blue firelizard that obviously didn't look to him. Or at least, it felt obvious to Lir.

Through the forest he moved, his eyebrows raised inquisitively each time the little blue seemed to scold the vines. What in the world had they done? His head cocked to the side, but he was grateful for the help in navigating the jungle, though he didn't really need it. Short as he was, Keliris was actually very slender and able to climb around the roots and through the underbrush with a natural skill that made it clear that the sixteen-turn-old had spent his time as a child and younger man hiding in the jungle. Lir actually spent more free time there than hiding in the Weyr - less people to hide from, really. As they came to the dense growth of vines and brush, Keliris slowed down, stepping onto the larger vines before bouncing around, as if from memory. Two vines left, one right, avoid the center, duck, walk crouched and -

- and there was a person there. A-ha. No wonder the little chatterbox was distressed. From the way the boy hung, half-upside down and obviously distressed, Keliris was betting that he'd been there at least a good few moments. The firelizard's behavior earned a muted smile and Keliris glanced at him as he returned to his side, before digging out a hunk of dried meat from his pocket, wound up to preserve it. After uncovering the meat, he handed it off to the firelizard before patting his head.

"I'd ask how you managed to get stuck in these vines, but it's clear you're not used to navigating through here," Keliris replied as he jumped onto another, larger vine. His eyes drifted up to the branches of one of the trees and he proceeded to pull himself up before walking along it in an almost feline manner. He looked perfectly natural climbing through the branches, which made it blatantly obvious that he'd done so on numerous occasions. The branch extended into the tree where the boy was suspended, and Keliris maneuvered about expertly before settling on the branch where all the wicked vines that held the other boy so securely could be found. Lazily, he sat down, legs dangling over the side of the branch as he removed a small, boot knife from its spot in his boots. "You need to be more careful in this part of the jungle and its neighboring areas. Specifically, there's a pattern to navigating. You walk on top of the largest roots, and you duck. Always. It helps. Or you get in the trees and stay on the lowest level unless you know what you're doing, though honestly, what business does -" He glanced at the boy's knots to make sure, " - a simple candidate have wandering in here, eh?"

Twirling his knife, Keliris leaned forward to the vines and cut the smallest ones first. Then he moved to jiggle two of the vines, watching where they suspended on the other candidate, until he was sure he had the ones around the other boy's wrists. Cut, cut, cut. The vines tore beneath the blade and fell lifelessly to the ground. "Your arms should be free now. You'll want to hold on to the side of your right leg, while I cut free your left one. That way you can even out. Then I'll cut the right one free and here is hoping you don't fall on your face. You got a name?" Keliris went to jiggling the vines again as he spoke before moving to work on cutting the thickest of the vines holding the long-haired boy's left leg, just as he'd said he would. How in Faranth's name did he manage to get himself so delightfully tangled up, anyway?

[caffelatte]

With a pleased little chirp at getting food after all, Nosy delicately took the offered piece of meat into his claws, as though he had been carefully instructed not to claw up the hands that fed him. So pleased was he by the food that he didn’t even protest the patting - Nosy preferred to be rubbed, but beggars can’t be choosers. He dove off, landing on a nearby branch, so that he had some relative privacy to tear into the meat. The little blue wasn’t a finicky eater, but he certainly liked to have his space when he was doing it. Happily, the flitter ignored the people below.

On Mavorn’s end, the newcomer had fed his firelizard and now seemed to be helping him get untangled. That certainly made a good first impression. Although to be honest, he wasn’t sure if he ought to have been taking offense to the boy’s tone. Maybe some would, but it wasn’t as though the boy were speaking anything but true fact. No, he wasn’t used to navigating the jungle. Yes, he did need to be more careful. Yes, there was a system to these sorts of things. No, he hadn’t the faintest idea as to what that system actually was. The instruction was appreciated and he would certainly remember the other’s words in the future. From where he was, he could barely see the other and the ease with which he moved around. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been so terrible if he hadn’t started grabbing vines to take back with him. Really, the problems hadn’t started until he’d done that. That wasn’t something he felt like sharing, however. The candidate wasn’t much for conversation, when and where he could avoid it.

“We started at the very entrance. A certain blue firelizard,” Nosy shrunk down on his branch a little, gnawing on the meat and pointedly not looking their way, “took off into these deeper sections. I didn’t want to leave without him and ended up following him.” He could acknowledge the stupidity of it, but if there was one thing he tended to get worked up over, it was Nosy. That firelizard was his only friend in the world, so yeah. He got a little wherry-brained when the little guy decided to go darting off that way. Vines were being moved, things were being sorted out. He’d feel so much better when his head wasn’t throbbing with the blood that was settling in his skull.

Soon, vines were being cut apart, and were falling to the jungle floor. Even that little bit, freeing his wrists, made him feel worlds better. Wordlessly, Mavorn did as he was instructed to do, offering no useless commentary, no idle conversation. That just wasn’t his way. After Nosy had finished his meat, he swooped over and lent a helpful wing where and when he could. Sometimes he dragged away cut vines, sometimes he just made sure nothing else was tangled - he understood what the other was trying to accomplish and was aiding as best he could, without being in the way. As he said he would, the newcomer cut his leg free. That left one more. He’d heard a question in there somewhere, too.

“I’m Mavorn,” he replied, hoping privately that most other questions could wait until after he was completely freed. He’d hate to divide his attentions too much and end up falling on his face after everything. Although, Nosy did deserve an introduction, as well. He was trying so hard to help! “His name is Nosy.” Trilling a little, Nosy backed off from the vines, sitting to watch the rest. There wasn’t much more he could do, with only the one left to go and he didn't want to turn into a flattened-flitter, after all.

[glamourie]

Keliris raised an eyebrow as he worked his knife through the vines, cutting all the smaller ones before moving to the thicker, more tangled groups. That boy really did have himself in quite a pickle, didn't he? Still, it wasn't like he was the first. The densest part of the jungle was primarily devoid of life save for wild flitters and vegetation for a reason. Even the felines wouldn't brave the vines and their tangles. When in doubt, trust the animals. They tended to know what they were doing. Actually, the felines were a problem, the deeper part of the jungle was home to them. Did the candidate know that? Probably not. Keliris was also reluctant to mention it to him. People didn't like being told when they were so obviously reckless. Although ... his reasons for going so deep into the jungle were ridiculous. Positively, utterly ridiculous. What, did he think his firelizard was going to get lost?

"In my experience, firelizards can always find their bonded when they fly off. Many of them are independent, especially blues and greens. Bronzes and golds tend to be more oriented to their people, browns can go either way... Regardless, even if he flies off, he'll always be able to find you. It isn't as if he's going to get lost," Keliris scolded quietly. It wasn't in his nature to let something like that go, and Mavorn was actually lucky in that Lir didn't proceed to call him a wherry-brain to his face. Aloud, anyway. He most definitely thought it as he finished pulling the knife through the last of the vines. It was a poor knife, likely apprentice made, but it got the job done well enough. Keliris was a former Weyrbrat-turned-Candidate, he didn't make marks all that easily, and he wouldn't have spent them on something like a nicer knife as a result. "So next time, instead of charging into this section of the jungle, do yourself a favor and remain on the outskirts. It's safer there. Wandering in this far is for people who have the time to memorize much of the jungle's layout. In other words, for former Weyrbrats, or Weyrbrats themselves."

Without waiting to make sure Mavorn was okay (no doubt cutting that last vine was likely to be startling for him), Keliris wiped his knife off on his pants and then replaced it in his boot. With an almost predatory grace, he circled back around the tree, swinging himself around the branches before actually dropping to the forest floor. His boots crunched the remnants of some of the smaller vines he'd torn as he settled down, and he stretched his arms up above him. His back cracked twice with an eerie popping sound that Keliris rather liked, if only because it tended to repel people from his presence. Nothing like strange noises one's body was capable of producing to chase off the squeamish! Between that and his natural sarcastic drawl, along with the fact that Lir was better at picking fights than he was at making friends, there wasn't much to ponder on why he didn't have any.

The firelizard was named Nosy, though? The irony of that was not lost on Keliris, who glanced over at the flitter. He'd appreciated the help in removing the vines, though it wasn't him the little creature was helping and as a result, he didn't thank him. Thank-yous and apologies came very hard to Keliris. The amber-eyed boy would just as soon have feigned disinterest, which was exactly what he did.

"Explains why he answered to 'Noisy thing' when I was swatting at him," he mumbled with a gruff nod in the firelizard's direction. "Well, come on then. This way. We shouldn't stay this far in." And then he spun on his heel and proceeded to navigate the roots expertly once more, ducking and turning without so much as a second's hesitation. Instinct and memory went hand-in-hand when dealing with that particular part of the jungle, and it helped that when he was seven he'd ended up none-too-different from Mavorn himself. Such experiences were good at making one remember how to navigate their way. Not that he'd ever have admitted something similar happened to him. Oh, no, Keliris was flawless, he never did anything ridiculous... like.. stepping on pointed rocks by the river. Not once!

[caffelatte]

The lecture was decidedly unnecessary. Yes, Mavorn realized he’d been silly, but it wasn’t as though he’d made a conscious decision or anything. It had been a reaction of sorts and once he’d started...well, needless to say, he’d somehow forgotten to stop. He loved his little firelizard and while he realized they were quite independent little things, Nosy was the only familiar thing to him in this whole place! Was it really so unusual? Perhaps if he’d bothered to make some human friends, he wouldn’t have felt quite so out of place... Well, if wishes were dragons, he supposed.

Still, it confused him a tad to be getting a lecture from someone he didn’t even know. Not a lot, mind, but just enough. Perhaps it was all in the boy’s tone. Although, he could understand, he supposed. The boy could have been in the middle of something important when Nosy interrupted. How far had Nosy gone to retrieve him? He had a few confused images to work with, but not anything he could make sense of. Hmm. Well, at any rate, the other had his own things to attend to and here he had taken time out of his day to rescue him from a stupid mistake. For that, Mavorn was indeed thankful and that ultimately over-rode any real displeasure at the boy’s attitude towards him. As was typical for the candidate, Mavorn did not make commentary on the boy’s words. He simply took them in stride. It struck him then that he didn’t even know the other’s name. He’d forgotten to ask, hadn’t he? Yes, yes he had.

Then the vine broke and he was quite free. He had just enough time to shift his weight before the movement jarred him too much to function. Though he landed on his feet (or, one foot, rather), it did take him a moment to adjust to being upright again. Dizzy, dizzy... Nosy was on his shoulder all of the sudden, cooing softly and trilling. With one hand, he reached up and rubbed the little blue’s head affectionately, before Nosy decided he’d had enough of that and hopped into the air, circling the rescue-boy once, before landing on another vine nearby. Shards, were his legs ever feeling wobbly!

Noisy thing? Mavorn did have to smile a little bit at that, but he hid it in his hair. Still, there was a trace of humor in his voice when he replied with, “I apologize for his and my disrupting your day. Thank you for the rescue.” Nosy chittered with a certain tone at Mavorn, as though he hadn’t very well liked the sound of that remark, flying past both boys, then doubling back. “I’m sorry I forgot to ask sooner, but what’s your name?” Always good to know the name of your rescuer, after all.

((I'm sorry this kind of sucked - distracted today))

[glamourie]

Keliris raised an eyebrow at the firelizard as it circled him, then shook his head. He didn't understand flitters. Most people probably didn't but he most assuredly found them strange. It could not be normal for such energy to practically exude off any living being. Just watching the little fellow made him tired, not that Lir was energetic to begin with. Well, at least he seemed happy enough once his person was free. Good, did that mean he wouldn't fly by howling so loud it was hard to hear? Goodie, goodie, indeed. He didn't want to deal with a noisy firelizard any more than most people would have wanted to deal with him. (Lir was willing to accept that he was something of a pain to most people -- he knew he should try to be more personable, but really, what was the point? People were nothing more than incessant disappointments, in his experience, and he was tired of being disappointed by them. Tired of it.)

"You have nothing to apologize for," Keliris replied dismissively as he swung under one of the larger branches. He was still making his way away from the other boy, as if he were leaving, though occasional glances made it obvious he was expecting to be followed. Typical Keliris. Follow him or die mentality. "And you're welcome."

At least the little headache was polite. And that was what he was in the end: a headache. Keliris shook his head slowly, lifting one hand to his temples. Seeing people with firelizards depressed him more than he was willing to admit. He was sure some part of why he couldn't Impress any was because of his inherent hostility - no one would have wanted him around. He didn't even want himself around, so how could he expect a firelizard ... or dragon... to like him? Heh. Rejected by people... and by winged creatures. No part of Keliris was modest enough to admit aloud just how much that thought hurt him, but it did. It hurt him bad, cut right to the core of his being. He wasn't good enough. And he never would be.

Around another vine he twisted, then he bent it back so as to avoid Mavorn being caught by it again. While it was relatively unlikely that he'd walk into another vine, Lir did not want to take the chance. He wasn't up to playing rescuer again. Really, it was a miracle that he'd bothered to help Mavorn in the first place and if not for his own depression, he probably would have left him to rot. Funny, that, how being rejected made him more tolerable to be around. Not that he thought the other candidate would find him all that amazing company. Surely once they were out of the jungle, they would part ways and Mavorn would never speak to him again. And Keliris didn't mind that thought one little bit. He didn't depend on humans for friendship. Never had, never would!

"My name?" he called over his shoulder, as if confused by the question, though he added half a second later, "It's Keliris. Most everyone just calls me Lir, though... What were you doing in the jungle in the first place? I don't recall if you answered that."

[caffelatte]

The long and short of it was, Mavorn just didn’t always understand people. There were things you did do and things you did not do, things you did say and things you did not say, things you showed and things you did not show... The weaver was generally a fair judge of character, but all the same, had a nasty habit of comparing people to tangled skeins. The more tangled they were, the more delicacy was required with them. For as much as Mavorn radiated calm and serenity, his rescuer had a distinctive air of tangled hostility. The “why” of it was frankly none of his business and thus, he did not try to make sense of it, but there was more to this other than met the eye or senses. After all, whatever aura the other boy might have exuded, he did come to his rescue. He could have left him there. He did not. That certainly indicated that underneath what could be perceived, there was goodness...or was he being uncharacteristically optimistic?

Picking up on his mood, Nosy glided around him, before attaching himself to Mavorn’s so-long hair. It was a great place to ride, actually. So long as he didn’t pull too much, he didn’t even get shooed away. The other was moving quickly and despite his now aching head, the candidate did his best to keep up. Long legs were good for that he supposed and he used them. It was a strange sensation, trying to follow someone who seemed intent upon putting as much distance as humanly possible between them. If he’d wanted, he could have just stopped and let Nosy guide him the rest of the way out, but that wouldn’t have been terribly polite, given that the boy had gone to this much trouble to free him. So he’d just try to keep up without falling flat on his face, which he seemed to risk doing with every step.

Was it normal to want to apologize for having apologized? Mavorn had to wonder about that. In the end, he hadn’t, but he’d certainly thought about it.

Unexpectedly, Mavorn’s rescuer paused to hold a vine back for him. He nodded fairly deeply to him as he went through, not wanting to be too slow for the other. That was a “thank you”. Mavorn preferred body language to speaking almost always. There were times when he couldn’t get around speaking, of course. For those times, he did his best to be as clear and concise and possible, though he sometimes fell very short of that goal. Had he asked something strange, though? It almost seemed so for a moment...then the other boy gave his name.

“I am fortunate to have met you, Keliris,” said he. Said it and meant it, too. The circumstances had been less than ideal of course, but would they ever have met otherwise? Not likely. Mavorn wasn’t the outgoing sort and Keliris wouldn't have had a reason to deal with him. No, they would never have spoken under normal circumstances and in all likelihood, they would leave these dense trees, part ways and who knew if their lines would ever cross again? It wasn’t probable that his rescuer would care to socialize further and Mavorn wasn’t exactly the best company, anyway... Still, Mavorn never forgot a kindness. Perhaps it wouldn’t be impossible for him... to... oh... maybe... wave at Keliris... sort of... or something... someday... in the future. . . . . ?

“I wanted to learn my way around,” he replied in his usual even tone. There was no inflection, no emphasis anywhere, giving no hint to what he might have been thinking about. “It might have been better, had I asked someone to come show me, but...” He trailed off. Nosy was climbing up his hair now, tugging painfully, but he didn’t do anything about it. Little croons from behind his head were soothing to him. The whole thing could have been avoided, if he’d had a guide. Too bad he didn’t know anyone, not really. He considered finishing the sentence, then decided to just let it stand as it was. Wasn’t it obvious? He was the quiet kid that no one talked to. He didn’t know anyone who would take him around the jungle.

[glamourie]

Fortunate to have met him? Keliris raised an eyebrow as he released the vine and circled around to head back through the jungle. Not long of a walk anymore. He'd made quite a bit of headway in his paths and he was content to travel at a more leisurely pace once they were away from the danger zone of the center of the jungle. The fact was, felines were known for coming close to the Weyr. Entire wings of dragons were sent to dispatch them. Had they been encountered, the two would surely die. Keliris always traveled in the trees to avoid risks like that. He was a master at traveling through and around the branches, twisting and turning until he fit perfectly through the vines. Being short and almost too thin to be healthy had its advantages, even if that meant that the other candidate made him feel like half of a person when they were face-to-face. But their movements and how quickly Keliris made it through the jungle by comparison spoke volumes to the sixteen-turn-old and in his opinion, it was blatantly obvious that he was the more agile and dangerous of the two and size meant nothing. Harumph.

How could he say he was fortunate to have met him? Keliris shook his head slowly and did not reply immediately, instead walking along the jungle pathways with the ease of someone who had done so countless times before. Keliris wasn't someone that people wanted to get to know - he wasn't someone that people liked. He was cold, he was calculating, he was condescending, and he was critical. Four Cs, expelled from the grounds of friendship with most humanity. He liked it that way. Clearly Mavorn wasn't the sharpest knife ever made. Oh well. It wasn't Lir's job to teach people common sense and he didn't care enough to try. He was happy enough that he'd managed to avoid an all out fight so far.

But if Mavorn wanted to learn his way around, he was going about it the wrong way. Stopping, Keliris turned and walked over to a thick tree trunk and pointed out a very large carving cut into it, large enough to be noticeable once Keliris brushed away some of the vines climbing up the trunk.

"You want to learn about the jungle, you learn signs. See this K? That was put here by me for my brother Kaliran. It means not to go further than this tree. There's tons with it. Mostly, you want to avoid going too far past trees with carvings in them. If you can't see light above the canopy, you don't want to go that way either. And never, ever eat anything on the bushes that have the big, red-and-greenish leaves. The berries are poisonous, delicious though they look. These are basic rules for survival. You always stay where you can see where you're going and you learn to navigate the tree tops. In other words, you need to learn to climb trees. The higher up you are, the more camouflage you have, the less anything on the ground will notice you. You also get a better view."

Turning back to Mavorn, Keliris folded his arms over his lower stomach. He was getting to be an expert on navigating the trees, perhaps unfortunately. "You want to learn, we'll start from the outside and work our way in - and you can come with me. But do not think for one second that it's going to be easy. Got it?"

[caffelatte]

They had been moving fairly quickly throughout the jungle. Keliris was small and agile. Mavorn was tall and decidedly not. Keeping up with that boy was probably one of the most physically taxing things he’d ever had to do. Not that Mavorn was adverse to a little hard work or anything of the sort, it was just that he wasn’t used to this level of activity. When the weaverboy moved, he tended to do so slowly, each move carefully plotted. This...this was anything but careful! Chances were good that the muscles in his legs weren’t going to thank him for all of this unusual activity later, but for the moment he was just focusing on not falling on his face. Easier said than done, of course.

Quite suddenly, the breakneck pace halted and Keliris was pointing at a tree. At first, his eyes couldn’t make sense of what was there, then he began to see to what the other boy had actually been pointing. A carving was there, in the tree. Just as Mavorn was digesting that bit, Keliris went on to explain the purpose of the marking. He nodded a bit, just to indicate that he was paying attention and looked out at the jungle, as though looking for berries and such that were not good for eating. To be honest, Mavorn wasn’t very interested in trying to eat things off the trees and bushes, but he was thankful for the instruction, just the same. The boy’s tone was as it had been all along, cold and critically condescending. Sometime during the run, that had stopped bothering Mavorn. He could take criticism, if he knew that the one doing the critique knew what they were talking about. Obviously Keliris did.

The lesson had been unexpected, of course, but not unwelcome. He did want to learn his way around and if he’d been given the opportunity, the candidate would never have asked anyone for the help. Taking Keliris up on his offer seemed the best thing he could do for his woefully deficient knowledge in practical things...like not dying in the jungle. If that high-speed picking through the jungle just to get to where they were now was any clue as to how the rest of it was going to be, Mavorn had to confess inwardly a certain amount of doubt. No, he didn’t expect it to be easy, but how hard was this really going to turn out to be?

Not enough time to weigh pros and cons, unfortunately. Keliris didn’t strike him as the sort to wait forever. He had to decide and do it quickly, another thing the weaverboy just wasn’t used to doing. After swallowing back a lump of tension in this throat, he said the first thing that came to mind. “I understand.”

Just what was he really getting himself into? Well, one thing was for sure - he was about to find out.