Midday In The Great Garden (Ember)

[Kisha-Ra]

The great hall was filling up in time for the midday meal but Mo’rya hardly noticed, part of it was that the great hall was, well, great; it was the only right adjective, to call it the big hall would not accurately convey the size at all. The other reason was that most of his attention was occupied y his collection of pets. Currently the salamandyr Wit was regaling Mo’rya with a riddle which he’d forgotten the answer to while the bronzerider was concentrating on feeding Evil his meal of honey without getting whipped with the firelizard’s insanely strong tail. Neither of his female firelizards were in sight at the moment but they’d both come down to the hall with him, Ghost occasionally sent him an image of a child or young animal with a comment on how cute it was (if it was up to the gold Mo’rya would have adopted every young thing around), and Gaia was conspicuously silent most likely planting cooked peas in the flagstones again.

does one serve to pay, but is free when one leaves? ‘Prison.’ Mo’rya, who had heard the riddle before, answered flatly and proceeded to take a bite of his own meal while Evil was licking honey off his nose. Ah yes, that could be the answer The verbose frilled lizard replied as he elegantly swept up a fallen piece of bread. Evil hissed at the pair of them and snapped his tail toward Wit. How dare those two waste time when he wanted more food?! A hill full, a hole full, you cannot catch a bowlful. Wit taunted the other blue in a singsong voice as he writhed out the way with surprising speed for such a tubby creature. Mo’rya merely sighed and took up the eyedropper and honey pot again wondering as he did so where Wit had gotten his riddle collection from.

Meanwhile, away from the eyes of her male companions, and even Ghost’s watchful gaze, Gaia happily chirped as she scooped the dirt collected in a corner throught the day over what would, if anyone investigated, turn out to be a bead. Perfectly planted! Now to get some more seeds… The bright green firelizard fluttered toward the nearest table because humans were always dropping seeds on tables for reasons unknown to Gaia. Here were some! Gaia moved to snatch up a bean that had landed on the table but something distracted her. That human was dreadfully stunted. Gaia looked around, and to her delight, saw exactly what she wanted, a glass of liquid balanced precariously on the edge of a table near the small human. She’d water it so it could grow!

Scampering down the table at high speed Gaia sent her idea to Ghost. Ghost would be so proud of Gaia helping the littles! The high speed green flung herself against the glass, which as she hoped teetered over the edge of the table and shattered, pattering liquid everywhere, including over the small human. Now it could grow large! Gaia was so proud of herself that she barely heard Ghost’s enraged shriek as the glass shattered, she did notice the gold looping around the small human and chittered happily to her.

Ghost ignore Gaia and fluted sweetly at the girl child who just got watered. She was truly sorry that she hadn’t arrived in time to stop this, the gold expressed with a worried chirp and a soft whirl of yellow shades in her eyes.

Mo’rya, having felt echoes of Gaia’s pride and Ghost’s worry, pulled himself up out of his seat, put the lid back on the honey and headed toward the spot where he’d last seen Ghost. Wit leapt from the table with surprising agility to assuage his own curiosity, leaving Evil to glare venomously at Mo’rya’s back.

A look at the scene was enough to tell Mo’rya what had happened, and he swept up Gaia in one hand before she could think to vanish. ‘Did you do this?’ he asked as he would of a dog that was caught in a pile of chewed shoes. ‘Ghost, calm down, come here.’ By the time he turned to the girl and her parent, he recognised the child as being Jazheera’s but couldn’t remember her name. ‘Um, sorry about that. Is everyone alright?’ That was addressed somewhere between the child and the woman, as if Mo’rya wasn’t entirely sure which of them was most sensible.

[Ember]

Jazheera couldn't believe the sheer amount of food Crystera always managed to get on herself whenever she ate. It was bordering on ridiculous. The single mother sighed as she wiped the girl's face with a clean corner of the cloth she was using as a bib for Crystera. She wished she could warn her daughter not to be so messy but not only was it in child nature to be messy but the girl actually didn't like to be messy any more than Jazz liked her to be. She was just the clumsiest child Jazheera had ever known and really couldn't help it. She noticed some of it had gotten into her daughter's haiur and made a note to give the girl a bath once meal time was over.

The small woman turned part of her attention to her other child. Her salamandyr was perpetually stuck as a very young creature mentally, made all the worse by the shadows that haunted the green's eyesight constantly. Tod was making small creels of hunger and was trying to crawl towards the food but only ended up farther from the small plate of meat because she couldn't properly make it out. Jazheera picked her up and moved her directly onto the meat pile. If she was going to wash one she might as well wash both. The puréed meat left large swatches of red all over the green's hide but she was making pleased cooing sounds at least.

It was while she was distracted with Tod that chaos ensued. The woman jumped sharply at the sound of shattering glass and the sudden, unhappy squeal of her daughter. She whipped her head around to the fussing child who was shrinking back from the green and gold firelizards alike. A quick look over of the girl had Jazz reassured that she was only upset because she had been startled by the sound and the sudden wetness. The bluerider sagged a bit in relief that her baby girl hadn't been injured by the glass. Tod was also upset by the turn of events and Jazz had oine hand pulling Crystera in for a soothing hug and another petting Tod back into calm. The dual sniffling coming from both was a little unnerving.

When she was addressed - at least, she thought the firelizard's owner was talking to her - by Mo'rya Jazz looked up at him, unable to quite stop the protective mother glare she shot at him. Her features did at least smooth out into something a little less antagonistic when he apologized. "No harm done. She's just a little spooked it seems. Crys, honey, look at the nice man for mommy, okay?" Jazz had the girl turn away from her shirt to look at Mo'rya. "He says he's sorry."

[Kisha-Ra]

Mo’rya was forced to step sideways to make way for a drugde armed with dustpan, brush, mop, and a particularly filthy glare. It wasn’t really surprising since this wasn’t the first time Gaia had tried to water something or someone with this trick, in fact she was probably responsible for more broken mugs and glasses than any human. If she’d only not been so distinctively patterned, or had the sense to flee things might have been different, but alas no matter how Mo’rya scolded her the lesson didn’t stick.

As Ghost fluttered in for a landing on his free shoulder Mo’rya became aware that the drudge wasn’t the only one giving him the evil eye, Jazheera’s glare was at least understandable, since he had just claimed responsibility for Gaia, however Ghost was impressing her disapproval upon him in no uncertain terms. This was rather unfair in his opinion, since Ghost was at least as responsible for Gaia as he was. Gaia, who was not receiving any glares, chirped happily and wriggled in Mo’rya’s hand.

Yes, apparently Gaia was just his little tool, Mo’rya decided as Jazheera want ahead and told the girl that he was sorry (he was but Gaia should be too). He decided to make the best of it and bent his knees to bring his face down to the child’s level since he didn’t like bending over people. He resolutely decided to speak to the girl as if she were an adult, albeit an innocent sort, if tried to act differently to normal he’d only get it all wrong, it came of being the youngest in his family. ‘Yes, I’m sorry. Gaia is too.’ He held up the little firelizard and prompted her to say something, Gaia responded with a pleasant chirp and an image of trees in black and white. ‘She’s just a bit…’ Mo’rya groped for an appropriate word. Stupid. Wit causally categorised his green slave when he felt Mo’rya had been silent to long. Hey Greenling, Riddle me this. Wit didn’t follow his greeting to Tod up with a riddle, instead he hopped down to the table and wandered over to investigate Tod’s meal.

‘Just wait until I find out who’s been playing the riddle game with him….’ Mo’rya sighed to that space between mother and child.

[Ember]

Jazheera jostled her little girl a little in encouragement when Mo'rya bent down to Crystera's level and her daughter shrunk back against her mother. Jazz really didn't get where Crystera got her shyness from considering her parents and even her extended family. The little black-haired angel managed a nod for the bronzerider whose firelizard had so startled her, large dark grey-blue eyes peering at him curiously. Crystera must have sensed the sincerity in the words because she relaxed, if only a little. She blinked those blue eyes wide at the images in her mind, reaching out a little to try and pet the firelizard.

Jazheera was surprised and asked, "Is it okay if she touches her? She's not usually interested in anyone but people." Dhavalth and Tod had never been of interest to her, or maybe that was just because she had grown up with those two and they weren't special? Either way it was nice, as a dragonrider, to finally see her daughter interacting with at least one type of draconic specie. It would be rather bad if Crystera grew up fearful or indifferent to the creatures that constantly surrounded her in a weyr.

Tod was startled out of her passive eating by the voice of another salamandyr. Wha..? was the green's response, having never heard a riddle before. Not like the blue had actually given her one, either. "Yours only does riddles?" Jazz asked a bit ruefully. "Consider yourself lucky, this one," she motioned to Tod, "only really likes to say-" NooooOOOooo! Tod cut her off, frustrated over the confusing not-question. "...Yeah. And my dragon rhymes everything. Badly. Jazheera, or Jazz, of Dhavalth." The woman worked an arm around her daughter to offer a handshake.