Among the masses (M'ta)

[Tashe]

If he was the type of person inclined to sing the halls would be resounding with song. It had been a rough week for him at the infirmary, not solely because of injuries or emergencies, but because three of their Healing and two of their Dragonhealer interns walked the tables. Which meant both he and his Weyrmate had been tirelessly working at getting the three new Journeymen Healers all that they needed, while simultaneously dealing with the Healer hall on whether or not they would be receiving replacements among other things. He was only thirty some odd turns, but recently E'rro had begun feeling much older. Perhaps it was from the stagnation that had settled on the continents due to the new 'peaceful Pern'. Meetings were boring, Dragonhealing was generally never exhilarating, and it seemed most days Ismaroth was getting less and less content with just going out to fly. He was still a Wingleader, and if the rumors were true, he and Legatus still wrecked havoc on wrongdoers and spies. Those of course, always earned an amused snort from him whenever he picked up on a passing conversation.

E'rro sighed as he bounced a round ball of rubber against a wall of his weyr, watching as Nui tried to bat it away but ultimately fail to do so. After catching it he returned it to his nightstand and heaved himself off the bed with some effort. Everything seemed so much harder to do when he was bored. "Nui, I'm going out, let me know when Thross gets back." Okayokay. I stay, much full. Stay with Feather. His Razorclaw had left early this morning and had yet to return, and although he wasn't terriblely concerned yet, the Brownrider still would have liked to know when the bird had actually left. Are you going to Behruths'? Yeah. I need some entertainment, hopefully M'ta isn't busy with Weyrling stuff. I'll tell him to expect you over. Although he didn't see the point as they lived right next to each other, he shrugged quietly to himself. Their Browns were probably already engaged in talking previous to his decision.

Making sure he had all his necessities on him, he stepped out the door and traversed the short distance to his destination. Knocking on the frame the Brownrider waited to see if M'ta was actually at home, he wouldn't put it past Isma to trick him into thinking otherwise. "Hey M'ta, you there? Raebeli is out and I'm boorred."

[Rei]

It wasn’t M’ta who answered the door. Instead it was a girl with dark hazel eyes, a half scowl on her face, and her hair done up in pigtails with a red ribbon tied to each one. “It’s rude to yell and knock on a door you know. Bored or not.” Terilyn quipped her gaze still slightly narrowed on E’rro. Oh look. It was the one who took her brother from her. What did he want? A more pleasant greeting was given Ismaroth. Wasn’t the dragon’s fault his rider was a brother napper after all. Ismaroth I think that there is plenty of room on the ledge right now if you want to be closer to Ruth. Right Ruth?

Putting a hand on her hip she then turned her attention back to E’rro. “If you want me to shut the door again so that you can knock like a normal person, I’ll tell Daddy that you came calling. I think that’s fair don’t you?” The little girl pursed her lips and started to shut the door then. Teach that brownrider to steal her brother and then have the nerve to bang the door down. Wasn’t anyone ever polite anymore?

[Requiem]

As it turned out, having Ismaroth contact Behruth was probably best. The brownrider was in the middle of one of his myriad projects when the knock on the door came and had heard neither it nor E’rro (despite Terilyn’s fit). That perhaps wasn’t entirely true. He’d heard noise but had been too focused to register what it actually was. The girl’s temper could in fact be partially blamed on the project; M’ta was adding all of the herbal knowledge he had to the book R’wign had written for his turnday so many turns before…all to give to the man’s son when he left for Healer Hall soon. It was the only way the brownrider knew how to say that he supported Riaren. Truthfully, he dreaded losing R’wign’s son to the Hall, and he knew that he was more or less an open book to his entire family no matter how hard he tried to mask that feeling from them. It was selfish, not wanting to give the boy up. Then again, he didn’t want either Riaren or Terilyn to grow up at all. Logic and reality had to win out sometime.

R’wign would be so proud that his son wanted to follow in his footsteps. The stories were from his life…romanticized, of course, because that’s how the late Weyrhealer had been. M’ta’s knowledge stemmed from what R’wign had taught him and his own determination to preserve his weyrmate’s memory by continuing to pursue it after his death. It was all very personal. Nor did it include Meira, perhaps selfishly as well. Though M’ta hadn’t known her as a healer, really. She’d always just been his friend. The carving of her and her wher, though…he planned to give to Riaren at the same time. He’d preserved it in a drawer for turns, ever since he was a weyrling over a decade before. It hadn’t seemed appropriate to give it to her anymore after her wher’s death, and then she was gone, too.

Behruth and Terilyn alerted the Weyrlingmaster to his friend’s presence at about the same time, M’ta taking the time to gather up what he was working on and set it aside on a table carefully before leaving the common area in time to catch the tail end of his willful daughter’s verbal tantrum, catching the door before she could close it and whacking her lightly upside the head in harmless physical reproof to accompany his scolding words. “We don’t talk to adults like that, Terilyn. Any adults. But particularly not weyrdragonhealers and wingleaders. You know better.” The reproof was mild, spoken without bite. Then again, M’ta rarely needed that to handle his daughter. She was very sensitive to his criticisms.

“Why don’t you get us all some juice? I’d appreciate it.” He turned from her to smile at E’rro and usher the other brownrider in. “We’re all going to miss Riaren,” M’ta offered to the man, by way of explanation for the girl’s odd behavior. “And here I was certain you’d be at the infirmary until the wee hours again. You live there these days, it seems.” There was a note of questioning behind the statement, though no doubt that he was pleased to see him. Expression and tone made that more than clear if their longstanding friendship wasn’t enough.

The Teribug is very much correct. There is plenty of room on the ledge for you if you would like to join me, Ismaroth, Behruth agreed pleasantly, more or less ignoring any tension or conflict between the humans.

[Tashe]

"Ah, Te-" He of course was not allowed to finish his greeting as M'ta's daughter began scolding him for, what he had assumed was, a normal knock on the door and a slightly elevated inquiry. Crossing his arms in a way so that his small smile was blocked by a hand, the Brownrider let Teri continue, not wanting to interrupt. He'd heard from Ria that his sister wasn't terribly fond of him at the moment, so, the least he could do was take a little verbal chastising from the child. E'rro was going to let her close the door, and try knocking again but M'ta interceded first. There was a moment of pause before he stepped into the weyr as he waited for Terilyn to move enough so that there was space to move past her. "As I have been told." Smiling he greeted his friend with a pat on the shoulder. "I'm just the bad guy for a while, better myself than Rae or someone else. I just hope one day she will forgive me." He put a hand to his heart with a over dramatic expression.

"Ahh, yes," he perched on the arm of an open chair, "I'm practically Joined to it, considering these last weeks. Long story short, five of my staff are walking the tables and three of those are leaving to be Journeyman Healers. Its boring. I'd leave it to Rae if I could but I wouldn't hear the end of it if I did." E'rro smirked. "Anyway, I've got the day off," and by day off he meant on-call but not working, "and Rae is out with... a girl friend I think. Wanted to see if you were busy." Though he had not been expecting any of M'ta's kids to be there, it was assumed they were either off playing or doing some learning somewhere. "Have I caught you at a good time? I don't want to interrupt any big bad Weyrlingmaster responsibilities, or family time of course."

Then I think I will join you. Picking himself up the large Brown made the hop, the skip, and the jump it took to get to the ledge. He flopped down close to Behruth with a yawn, flicking his tail up to playfully bop his companion on the flank. Such a long journey, now I'm tired, the things I do to see you Behruth.

[Requiem]

Getting so old! Is this how I'll be in a few turns? Behruth, ever the cuddler, pounced Ismaroth as soon as the older brown was settled as an excuse to flop all over him with a welcoming croon. Such an expression of love should be rewarded. What do Ismaroths like? the dragon added teasingly.

M'ta wrinkled his nose. "Sounds lovely," he commented wryly. Well he remembered how crazy infirmaries could get while undermanned. The Weyrhealer before E'rro was even more of a control freak and the Weyrlingmaster was well acquainted with the endless work. Especially when healers had a tendency of being anal and creating more for themselves if they couldn't find enough in the first place. He nudged E'rro hard enough to get him to sit in the chair rather than risk damaging the arm from tall brownrider weight and crossed the room to toss a redfruit to his friend.

"At least your weyrmate works there with you." M'ta always found the pairing amusing. Raebeli and her chirpy optimism with E'rro...though he definitely approved. The Weyrhealer was far less taciturn and more fun to be around than he'd been before he met the mindhealer. Even M'ta with his protective streak had to admit that there didn't seem to be any heartbreak looming on the horizon for his best friend. (That had really been his only concern about Raebeli, anyway; E'rro was so self-contained he was afraid that rejection or simple playing around on her part would hit his friend hard.)

Taking a seat near E'rro, M'ta flopped in it bonelessly. "I'd offer my help, but it's illegal or something," he added with a grin that clearly showed he wasn't complaining too much about being immune to the hunger of the infirmary monster. Soul-sucker that it was. "No, you're not interrupting anything. I was just adding all the herbal knowledge that R'wign taught me...and some I learned on my own...to a collection of stories about his life. He gave it to me turns ago but I think he'd like Riaren to have it. I don't really know what to say to the kid so...this'll have to do," he added. "But believe me, I don't mind a break. At all." This work tended to emotionally exhaust him. He was nearly finished, but it could wait another day.

"So, Mr. Bored. I assume you came to be entertained. Suggestions?"

[Tashe]

Oh yes, this is what you get to look forward to. With Behruth flopped on top of him, the larger Brown shifted around so they were both comfortable. Ah, just the company of a good friend. Ismaroths are easily pleased dragons.

"True, its nice." Most of the time. They kept most of the same hours so while they did see each other everyday they didn't have very long to really be around one another due to work or lessons. E'rro let M'ta's nudge unbalance him and slid into the chair backward. "Yeah, well you should be glad its illegal or whatever, even after five years I still find the apprentices they send me annoying." He toyed with an end of a string on his shirt. "Oh that reminds me, we'll be bringing up some of the restrictions on Healers to the Summit in hopes they will agree to taking some of the sticks out of their asses. I'm really going to push for allowing dual healing again."

"That sounds like a lot of work. I'm sure Ria will like it though, he'll appreciate the stories and remedies." E'rro hoped to be around long enough to see Riaren come back to apprentice at Selenitas, if he even wanted to come back that is. Truly it was weird not having the kid around. Clearing his throat he rolled his head to the side to look at his friend and shrugged. "I don't know. We could play chess, or do something else... not terribly picky about it, I just didn't want to be alone with only Isma and Nui for company."

[Requiem]

It didn't take a Behruth very long to get comfortable at all. In fact, simply being in contact with other dragons he liked (and he really couldn't remember any that he actually didn't) was usually efficient. He expressed his contentment in a near constant croon. I shall have to keep such an Ismaroth as a pet then. Easily pleased and great company...what Behruth could ask for more?

Dual healing, huh? "If you're trying to imply I was ever any good at it...well, friendship does have a tendency to make people blind," the weyrlingmaster commented teasingly. He didn't mention the reality that he often had two weyrling classes at once these days since they'd gone to one after Sel'n...ceased to be able to fill that role. That was about as much as he could deal with at once.

M'ta could only hope that Riaren liked the book. And the small figure of his mother and her wher. He wasn't so great at expressing himself in words, especially with R'wign's son. Also...the book was very dear to the weyrlingmaster. He wouldn't give it away frivolously. "I hope so," he commented to the other brownrider, again keeping things that E'rro likely already knew about or suspected to himself.

Then he laughed. "Chess? Of course you'd pick that; you always beat me." M'ta wrinkled his nose at his friend. "I'm not betting with you, either. Learned my lesson from T'san." He paused to think for a moment. "Want to go to the beach? I miss the ocean."