Wondering about the future, sharing the past (open

[summerrain]

"Saphireth, stop!" Tera said with a laugh. The blue had shook himself like a canine, spraying his Rider with water. "You're a dragon, not a canine!"

Sorry, he replied, changing his position so he could sun himself. A much more preferred option of His, when compared to him soaking her. Hey, Mine... What did the Weyr used to be like? Your memories show of Gold flights and Bronzes catching them, and the Bronzeriders becoming Weyrleader... Before the competitions that are starting later this Turn... Do you have some stories about the Weyr, from before I hatched?

"Strange of you to ask that," Tera responded, gathering the empty bucket and dropping the brush inside it. It had been filled with the sweetsand she'd used to bathe Saphireth's dark hide, but it had all been used up. "Let me think..." She moved the bucket out of the way, then went back for Saphireth's riding straps. She had to use both hands. Despite having been a Rider for three full Turns, she wasn't as strong as some of the others. Then again, she had Impressed on the younger end of the scale, at fourteen.

"Hmm... Well, if I remember right..." Tera started, taking a spot next to Saphireth's right forepaw. "Now, remember, I was only here for two Turns before you Hatched. It's always obvious when a Queen is about to Rise. All the male dragons get a bit agitated, and even some of the Browns will snap at each other. It's Riders of low rank, myself and other female BlueRiders, and any Greenrider that happens to get in the crossfire..." She stopped, thinking back to the last Flight she remembered in detail. It was Kleopath's, the one in 3020, that Hatched her Saphireth. Well, that wasn't including all the GreenFlights that he'd attempted since Hatching.

"I don't really remember much from before you Hatched for me..." Tera admitted. "I remember a lot of not wanting to be with my parents in my home Hold, but they'd have sold me to be the bride of the highest bidder Turns ago. A Turn after you hatched, in fact." She leaned against Saphireth, looking at the sky, her knees bent upwards. "If you want funny, though... You'd probably have to ask someone else." She laughed softly at the sense of dissappointment eminating from Saphireth. "Don't worry. Someone'll come along who was able to see the funny moments. Most of them usually involve a flit or canine." Sothey were content with waiting, enjoying the simple pleasure of each other's company, until someone showed up.

[Lotty]

He usually left the younger riders alone. They didn't want to talk to him really, and besides he rarely had anything interesting to say. They could enjoy their youth without him popping up and reminding them what happens when dragonriders get old and boring. Hermit life. So, when Mi'rah was tracing across the weyrbowl in his leisurely manner, he didn't stop to chit chat so much as eavesdrop. The bronzerider figured that as long as he wasn't purposely prying into other people's business, it didn't hurt to hear some stray words. Besides, it was good to keep in the loop a little bit yes? So when what he thought was talk of rising queens and hatchings touched his ears, he canted his head ever so slightly as to try and usher in more to hear and opened his eyes to hone in on the source. From voice alone he knew it to be a young woman but... ah there...

He caught sight of the brunette propped up there next to her blue, knees pulled into her chest and chatting easily to her dragon. That was a nice gesture he thought, so comfortably speaking with her bonded aloud as such. He rarely did so anymore, retaining most of his exchanges through mindspeak alone, but then he had been bonded to a dragon for the past twenty seven turns. It wasn't a fair comparison in the least.

He would have continued on then, finding himself stalling for a moment and falling into a dreamy daze about hatchings and impressions, when Kierjaarth cut in on his train of thought, musing from his spot on his ledge, Perhaps you should engage in some small talk instead of staring like an awkward boor. Besides you need the practice. I shall bail you out if your tongue ties up as it so often does... Hesitant still, Mi'rah was reminded subtly that it would in fact be a lot like talking to Tenlie, and perhaps just enough to keep him dwelling and sulking over the woman's departure away from him and to the hold. With new resolve then he made a stutter step before angling in clumsily towards where Tera had perched, smiling in his ever goofy way.

"Do you mind if I... uhm.... join you?" He thought after all she had mentioned something about someone coming along with funny stories. Of course, Mi'rah didn't think himself a very funny person, but there was always that inescapable fact that everyone always seemed to laugh around him. Clearly he must be a riot, "I - I overheard you from..." he pointed vaugely off in the direction from whence he came before clearing his throat and continuing, "over there. I didn't mean to, I was just passing. I can go if I am a bother?" He looked around in a half panic, as if the woman was offended by his presence alone before pulling himself together again for another winning smile and the clasping of his hands to wring each other in a subconsciously calming manner.

[summerrain]

"Mi'rah," Tera said when the older rider approached. "It's no problem at all." She smiled slightly. Saphireth nodded, then curled his head around His. "I was trying to think of some stories about the Weyr before the war, before the Summit... Saphireth hasn't known the Weyr before the Summit of 3020, because he Hatched that Turn." She looked up at the sky again. "I was saying that I wasn't really sure myself, having been here only two Turns before he Hatched."

She turned to look at the Bronzerider. "You remember the day I came here?" she asked. She laughed quitetly, leaning back against Saphireth's foreleg. "We were visiting family in one of the Holds under the jurisdiction of Selenitas, and there were riders on Search. I was twelve that day, and mother and father didn't want me to stay at Ista alone, so I had to tag along. Anyway, the lead Searchrider's dragon saw me, and they both agreed that I had the potential for a good rider. If only they knew what they'd saved me from..." she added softly. Her smile vanished, and her eyes darkened. "The Searchriders saved me... From being auctioned off to the highest bidder... An engagement auction, they call it..." She shook her head, a sad smile returning to her face. "I would've been engaged by the time Saphireth Hatched for me, possibly even married. It wasn't the life for me. I really don't like housework, but it did help with chores as a Candidate." She sighed and looked back at the sky.

"Do you have any good stories about the Weyr of the past?" Tera asked Mi'rah suddenly. "Like I said, I don't know much about the Weyr before the Summit." She smiled slightly, this one genuine. "If you do, would you please share them?"

[Lotty]

"Well," he began listening to Tera, musing on her tale of how she was saved from a life at the hold. It was always interesting to Mi'rah, to hear about other people's lives and what they could have been. Illogical to dwell, yes, but that didn't make it at all less worthy to think about, "you must be quite auspicious to have been chosen right then and there. Though I suppose everyone who Impresses is in their own right aren't they?" Just... some were more than others, "I - uhm... I can't claim to have had such a past as you... though I came from a hold as well. Lemos," he smiled then, partly in an attempt to quell the sadness he saw fall over the woman. She shouldn't have to carry that weight anymore, it was over, and she was clearly better off, "I c-could have been married too, but us guys... you know... we get the sweeter end of the deal...un...fair as that can be." He could only commiserate so much, grant so much sympathy since he too was destined to be married to somebody he didn't know or love. But as a male he would never be subject to quite the same oppressive system.

But stories. Stories would be good, and they could draw attention away from such sobering details about life. Certainly somewhere within him he knew something of a life that wasn't war. Maybe? He tilted his head upwards, trying to summon his thoughts and recall them to create something other than a mumbled mess of words, "I came here... after living at Benden for a... a long time. I s-snuck out really, because I thought even then, that I had spent too long playing war games," he thought on that for a second before picking up again, "but you know, it had a way of following me around anyway. I - I want to say that it was in 2013."

He tried then to think of a story from that period, since really that small window was all he knew of the Weyr before the Summit and the War that was still seemingly fresh on everybody's minds, "We had a gather not too entirely long after I arrived. I think it was in Hyphen," he still hadn't had all the Southern holds right in his head, "b-but I uh, was in a starcraft stall, and I was looking at some starscopes, when I bumped into a table full of maps. I was already clumsy, but I remember I was injured then, and was using a cane as a c-crutch and so...." he stalled considering the fact that his story wasn't all that exciting, nor was there a moral or a point to it. It just was, and that had to be good enough, "anyway, the stall keeper was this very short and... um ornery woman. She blamed another girl for my mistake and then when I tried to stop her she stole my cane and attacked me with it, and so here I was running out of a stall with the girl and a limp."

"Somehow in the process the girl ended up buying me a stargazer anyway. I wish I still had it..." of course that girl was Tenlie, and it was no surprise that the story of how they met was the first one to pop into his brain. Of course his retelling was certainly abridged, and he couldn't claim to have been completely innocent in the entire exchange. He did call the stallkeeper names right back, but it kinda lacked oomph coming from someone with a slight stammer, "Is that what you had in mind? I am not too exciting you see..."