colder than between [january chores//open]

[Avu]

Accidents /do/ happen, R’ahreMyOwn…
“Pfft, you did that on purpose and don’t lie!”

One finger jabbed for emphasis at Ahth’s nose, the blue fluttering his wings in amusement as he tilted his head innocently to look down at R’ahre. His sleek form was soaked in water, bringing out deep blue highlights with every motion, the dragon perched in the middle of the river. The water came up to his belly, but by flattening himself out he could be completely drenched if he wanted. Which he had wanted. His Rider…? Had not wanted it so much; R’ahre had been intent on staying dry that day. It was still chilly enough (it was just the first month, after all) to be worrying, and he had Sylph tucked in his shirt, the green depending on him to keep her dry. She shivered.

Or maybe it was R’ahre that had shivered. It was hard to tell, but it was clear that the ‘pair cut a comical figure. R’ahre was standing in the shallows of the river, next to an overturned boat. The water licked against his upper thighs, the young man completely drenched. Dark hair fell in straight, dripping locks around his chin, R’ahre blinking water out of his eyes furiously as he shivered again, his hands dropping to pluck in irritation at his shirt, which clung to his body now that he was wet. Both arms crossed across his chest, eyes narrowing in a glare at Ahth, who rumbled in amusement and fluttered his wings again.

It was very funny, the blue stated, unapologetic. I will not do it again.

R’ahre snorted, uncrossing his arms to grab at the rope at the top of the boat, tugging it towards him so it wouldn’t drift away. “You already did it. You don’t have to do it again,” he responded testily, leaving very little mystery as to what Ahth had done. It was hard to tip the boat by accident, after all, and the smugness that flashed across the blue’s face was undeniable. He coiled around a rock under the water, his tail flipping another splash of water playfully at R’ahre, who threw up his arms instinctively and then had to wade with a great lack of dignity to grab onto the rope again, shivering violently.

/Stupid/! Sylph snarled, clearly displeased by her impromptu drenching. The Salamandyr’s claws scrabbled against R’ahre’s back and she threw herself out of his damp shirt, spitting at Ahth defiantly. Where off river /too cold/ stupid – Her snarling went more or less ignored, though, as R’ahre tugged the boat towards shore and started to pull it out of the water, crinkling his nose and offering a soft hiss of annoyance. So hard to get traction when one was drenching wet and in the mud, tch. Too irritating. He shivered again. Unsurprising. It was cold, and not everyone had the hide of a dragon. But of course Ahth would only find his discomfort amusing.

[Lotty]

R'ahre

Of course this was K'sel's final round of chores. He was done with lessons and soon to graduate and school would be out forever. Oh the taste was rather sweet...bittersweet. There was certainly some kind of passing into manhood allegory that could be found somewhere in the tradition of a weyrling's graduation, but then that totally ignored the fact that this was K'sel we were talking about and the only kind of man he could become was a caveman. He may have been spat out of the sea and learned to walk on two feet but he certainly wasn't yet civilized. He'd fall into a wing, he'd go to drills, he'd keep his head down and his tongue in check, that would all come soon enough, but for now he still had a few bits of wild urges to feed. One of these so happened to be to find the boy who had "captured the attention" of his dear, close friend Nephele.

It just so happened that he knew this man...oh yes he met him before and while hitting it off was not a term to use for their kitchen chore session, there wasn't anything about their encounter that spelled out hate. Which of course in K'sel's world was something of a high honor. The only obstacle left to overcome then was that ever present sense of complete and utter jealousy that the man seemed unable to butcher - a phantom limb that still pained long after each and every amputation. So he sucked it in, held it with a grin and tried the savor the fact that he knew something someone else didn't...and unlike many he knew how to keep a secret good and long.

It was just so unfortunate that the blueweyrling had to pick the most miserable chore considering the weather. The south for all of it's tropical climate still seemed to have a bite of cold down in the river valleys which the brownweyrlig wouldn't have minded if it wasn't also associated with something of a wet season. Nothing like cold clinging to your lungs with such a tangible weight... well if he could help it he wasn't about to even go into that river...infact he wouldn't leave Pettahth's back if he could help it. So from his lofty spot he looked down at the soaking wet R'ahre, Are you planning on saying hi? You are a nasty one K'sel... Give me a minute...I'm taking it all in...

"And so chores bring us together again..." he mused; hiding the fact that he didn't plan on putting forth much effort into these final chores at all. Shards...he didn't know if he wanted to do any of it. He could just as easily slip off and play handyman in the main hall or go shovel out stalls. Anything would probably be more pleasant than a dip in the river, even another trip to watching the kids in the creche. Still, a little tiny part of him held out the hope that this could be fun. Maybe. Unlikely.

[Avu]

Uhhh a brown dragon why?

R’ahre stopped his efforts of pulling the boat up the slippery shore, turning to stare at Pettahth and K’sel with one eyebrow raising curiously. Errr. Was K’sel planning on…uh, doing anything, or was he just going to sit there? And be dry. Perhaps that would have been the smarter option. But then again, Ahth was usually impeccably behaved; he’d no reason to expect the blue to suddenly turn playful. Hmph. Silly blue. Sylph crawled onto his other shoulder, curling her tail around the soaking wet cloth and shaking out her wings indignantly, and the splatters of water made R’ahre refocus, tugging the boat up the rest of the path and dropping the rope immediately. The urge to ditch chores was very, very strong, but the problem was the witness standing right there.

Or sitting, as it were. On a dragon. Sigh.

Ahth’s head had come up, too, the blue dragon coiling neatly around his river rock as he eyed Pettahth curiously. The dark green shades of his eyes that were almost permanent became almost slits of curiosity before the almost-black creature uncoiled from his position and slunk out of the river to curl instead around one of the dryer, sun-warmed rocks next to the river. Just because it was cold didn’t mean nothing felt the warmth of the sun. His claws curled casually as he eyed Pettahth intently, torn between the irritation that His felt (though he knew he caused it, which was an amusing feeling) and curiosity. He didn’t remember Pettahth at all. So strange, since R’ahreHis remembered the man sitting on the brown’s neck.

Oddity of oddities. R’ahre knelt down on the ground, wordlessly, ignoring K’sel; he didn’t want to talk to anyone of they didn’t talk first. His fingers were wormed beneath the boat’s rim and he flipped it over, depositing another splash of water onto the ground as it rocked on its rounded bottom. The mud coating the edges went ignored; not his problem. Then – K’sel spoke, but R’ahre didn’t look away from the boat, even at the words. He leaned over the small craft, checking to make sure it hadn’t knocked against any rocks in its undignified turn, ignoring the shivering as much as he could.

“Tsk, chores,” was his vague reply, before he actually turned away from the boat, tilting his head at K’sel. Dripping hair fell across his eyes, but given that his hands were muddy, he made no effort to swipe them out of the way. “Is that a bad thing, then? Other than chores being…chores.” And generally offensive, hmph. The words were emphasized by Sylph tilting her head upwards and then adding, sulky, and determined to make someone else feel as upset as she was at the moment, Ugly brownpretty. Want who? G’way, ugly. The words were directed at Pettahth; the dragon received a defiant frill from the Salamandyr before she curled, shivering, against R’ahre’s neck for warmth.

What she means, Ahth commented, pleasantly, eyes whirling slowly, Is, ‘hello, how are you doing?’ Which was more or less a complete lie.

[Lotty]

He still wasn't moving. The only exception was his idle picking at his fingernails as he regarded his chore partner calmly. He was just sure that R'ahre was glad to be watched as such, and though the boy wasn't ever one to get high off of false senses of power, the idea that he could sit atop his dragon while the other boy went about just made him no less than amused. So...that was what those in charge got off on? Hmmm. He finally dismounted, with a smooth slide down the dragon's side and a bounce from an instinctually offered forelimb. They were getting very good at that, which surprised him considering his rather bare bones ethos; he never imagined he'd have so much flair at anything.

He walked over towards R'ahre with a casual, unpretentious, swagger before he settled into one of his more comfortable poses: an easy stance with hands falling somewhere behind his back, very lax...but with purpose. He didn't come just to chit chat anyway. Lets just say observation wasn't for mindhealers alone. He had been mulling long and hard over what Nephele had said...and about what he had said. Apparently R'ahre's appeal had to do with his unfriendly, non-outgoing, and indecipherable personality. Well OBJECTION is what he had to say to that. He felt like he was just as abrasive and awful as the next man - even more so maybe - and so he was left to pick through the remaining je ne sais quoi to figure out what made this guy so special.

He had started by dismissing the greenweyrling's comment as a tease, but by now it had grown into a full blown curiosity, and so it wouldn't hurt to just investigate would it? Which is exactly what he was doing...though very secretly. In fact, he knew better than to even try and act one bit out of what was normal for him, so R'ahre would be granted with the typical K'sel experience. Cue the grumbling deadpan voice now, "No. Chores man....just the chores," there wasn't anything inherently bad about their meeting that he knew of.

It is talking to me and calling me an ugly pretty. This creature is clearly touched in the head. It makes no sense. Pettahth huffed to his rider as he eyed the salamandyr; flecks of irritation drifting into play. The brown's opinions of the little creatures were tainted of course by his rider, although Mojo wasn't too high on his favorites list either for all the pranks the bronze flitter liked to play...where were the two flitterbys anyway? Hmmf. He switched his attention to Ahth. He hadn't met this one yet, A very peculiar way of saying hello. It is a shame that nobody says what they mean when they say it...greenling things are like that though.

[Avu]

So uhhh. Was the other weyrling planning on doing anything?

R’ahre tilted his head slightly, but he didn’t really care enough to actually ask. He planning on going in very soon, hmph. Better go inside and change; would the Weyrlingmaster rather him freeze to death? (Well – maybe, but he doubted it; one less person to order around and yell at, right?) Just as soon as he finished up on the boat…and figured out why on Pern he had a brownweyrling watching him. His gaze flicked backwards towards K’sel, catching out of the corner of his eye the movement as the man dismounted from his dragon and moved towards him casually, but he politely declined to comment on it. It would be ever so rude to expect a rider to actually work while they were doing chores, after all. Yes, the sarcasm was practically dripping in his mind, but that was okay; K’sel couldn’t hear it.

A quirk of his eyebrows at the man’s words, R’ahre turning to glance over his shoulder at K’sel before he returned to the boat, grabbing the soaked rope and dragging it a few feet up the shore in order to reach one of the stakes that had been driven into the ground. “The usual, then,” was his quiet reply; R’ahre didn’t bother expanding on the idea as he shivered (visibly this time, unable to repress it; he was cold with the wind cutting through his soaked clothing) again and leaned down to begin tying the craft to the stake. He tilted his head, then, and added softly, “This boat’s lost its oars but there’s another one tied about a half-dragonlength downriver if you wanted one.” To, uh, do chores with.

Sylph shivered, too, frill breezing outwards before she curled unhappily against R’ahre’s neck, seeking what body warmth she could from him. The way the brown was looking at her only pleased her slightly and the green hissed softly at Pettahth before her gaze fell on Ahth. The blue was looking at Pettahth with idle curiosity, but his eyes flicked down to her in blatant amusement as he felt her looking. Sylph spat, defiantly, before she turned towards Pettahth and went on, undeterred by the lack of answer, Stupid AhthbluethingMine, /too/ stupid. The words were broadcasted to include Ahth, irritation lashed into each syllable, but far from upsetting Ahth, it merely drew a loud croon of amusement.

A peculiar way for a peculiar creature, the blue agreed pleasantly, idly digging his claws into one of the crevices that lined the rock on which he was sprawled. And she certainly is one. A casual flick of his tail, a tilt of his head, and he went on, Is Yours not going to actually do the Chores? The wet isn’t /that/ bad. Yes, ignore R’ahre’s shivering. Clearly it was unimportant. A low rumble; the dark head canted to one side, playful. It does not bite unless he provokes it, after all. And/or his dragon did, but Ahth didn’t expect Pettahth to; he only overturned R’ahre’s boat because he knew His could deal with it. Sickness was for stupid people, and His wasn’t stupid. Simple logic.

[Lotty]

K'sel had no idea how long R'ahre had been at it. For all the weyrling knew he had been there at the river all day long, and from his current state of wetness, this is actually kind of what he had assumed. However this assumption did not lead to instant sympathies, it did not mean that he was going to back down from his investigation. Yes, the investigation that the brownweyrling honestly thought was going poorly. Even from these brief few moments he had gathered a lot, so there was no failure on that end, there was just trouble reaching a conclusion. It was such an unrewarding exercise and he was tempted to drop his pretenses and take off while he still could. The trouble was that K'sel saw nothing innately interesting about R'ahre at all. Every shrug and bland comment was exactly that. There was another boat down the way? He glanced briefly at the river faring vessel, "Indeed there is..." He neglected to comment on whether or not he wanted to deal with the boat though, despite taking slow meandering steps past the other young man towards it.

Darn those boys...how is it that a person can say exactly what they are thinking all the time! What kind of game is that? He joked to himself silently; little jabs at girls he had once known. Girls like bad boys, girls liked mysteries, but girls didn't like it when the charade was actually the truth. Quite the paradox.

Stayed relatively reserved he considered the boat again. Having lived his life at the weyr he knew a thing or two about ferrying people to and fro across the river. Adolescent days paddling against currents probably shaped more than a few muscles alone, but that didn't mean that he was keen on the idea of that kind of boat duty. He had a dragon. He could just fly people across. If anything he should have made his way over to the falls and worked with Pettahth as a virtual elevator. No..no no. He was here now and had already put entirely too much effort in talking to the blueweyrling. Jealousy had obviously gotten the best of him yet again.

"I suppose that one could use a repair or two or at least a look over first" he commented to R'ahre, "Wouldn't be good if it found a hole in it midstream. I don't want to find myself soaked like you..." soaked and stuck out in the chilly air at that. Nevermind that K'sel was keeping him this way.

K'selmine, it is spitting and hissing, which is out of line. Is Ahth's human's friendship that valuable to you? I am considering stomping his pet. It would be most unfortunate if my actions reflected upon you... Without laughing about the friendship term, the almost-rider was left to distracting the brown from trying to execute a salamandyr, Ignore him Petty-cakes. Go make friends with the blue one...go on... The speckled brown nearly fumed at being given such a silly nickname, but for the sake of not making a spectacle he turned his attentions to Ahth once again. I am not sure. He had set out to do chores of some kind, but found himself rather distracted when he spotted yours along the way. I presumed they were friends...they both know Nuoth's as I understand? He was rather careful not to spill too much of K'sel's intentions. He wasn't a gabby mindless dragon, but still he had to throw something out there just to make conversation.

[Avu]

Was he going now? Yes, that was a thread of impatience in his thoughts. R’ahre didn’t exactly want to jump up and down in delight at the idea of company, after all. The sooner K’sel split, the sooner he got to go and change. Oh, and never come back to the River. Never. Not ever again, as long as he had Ahth, since clearly the blue had far too much fun upturning his boats. Hmpf. R’ahre deliberately kept his head turned away from K’sel, focusing instead on nudging his vessel with one foot idly, though he was acutely aware of the brownweyrling wandering towards the other boat. Faster, he thought, almost automatically crinkling his nose in a vague expression of his irritation. Why was he going to slowly? At least his shivering very nicely hid any irritation that flickered across his face very well.

R’ahre chanced a flick of a glance over one shoulder towards K’sel, eyes narrowing slightly at the man’s back. Would it be easier if he ‘accidentally’ shoved him into the river too? Maybe, maybe…Pettahth wouldn’t like it but that was okay. Nobody cared what Pettahth thought. Except Ahth, but Ahth didn’t matter either, at the moment. He was angry with Ahth.

His eyebrows lifted in silent disapproval as the brownrider turned back to him again. A click of his tongue, audible, before R’ahre turned back to his boat, shivering again. “So check over it,” he replied, the impatience gaining a slight edge in his voice. “Anyway, Ahth was the one who knocked me over. You don’t have to worry about that.” Anything, just hurry up so he could skip the rest of chores. “Unless Pettahth likes to overturn boats too, which case I think you’re in the wrong chore.” The words weren’t unpleasant, per se, but they weren’t exactly overtly friendly either, but then, R’ahre had never been exactly a friendly person. It was to be expected, especially when he was cold and stuck outside drenched.

One hand rose, absently, stroking a forefinger down Sylph’s back. The green Salamandyr coiled, silent and angry, around his hand, nipping reprovingly at his fingertips. The clip of her teeth against his fingers was light, only a demonstration of her annoyance and not really the revenge, before she suddenly threw herself off of his wrist, landed on the ground, and streaked away after she spat once more at the pair of dragons. She’d go find her sister, or Merce, or someone who would keep her warm, and so there. R’ahre watched her go silently before he leaned down to check the knot that held the boat to the stake again, restless; wouldn’t K’sel just hurry up and move?

Friends, are they? Ahth inquired, amusement flaring through his gaze. And here he thought His was only ‘friends’ with two of the wher-handlers. The blue crossed his forelegs neatly, making a mental note to ask His later. R’ahre certainly wasn’t too happy. Ahth was always happier when he saw Baoth; shouldn’t His be like that? Nuoth’s. Ah, yes…my clutchsister. The words revealed very little, but Ahth did remember the green. She was the one who couldn’t hunt, the one who had helped him get his first kill. He might have caught one on his own, but it would have taken indefinitely longer. The Rider is not one I am familiar with, but the dragon is lovely company… Right. Because he definitely spent a lot of time with Nuoth.

[Lotty]

Oh noes! Poor R'ahre still shivering and pathetic looking...K'sel wasn't oblivious to this. He was rarely oblivious to anything - save blatantly obvious sexual tension between himself and another weyrling, but that was more denial that anything - but he was completely apathetic. Apathy was a very strong force in the boy, if there was only a way to harness it for good. Still, this apathy meant a very important thing; he could care less what the other guy did from here on out. R'ahre didn't have to stick around....actually why was he sticking around? Did the blueweyrling think he was going to tattle? The concept was offensive! K'sel wouldn't report to authority even if it meant the destruction of his worst enemies. Yet still the guy was sticking around and just letting himself become more and more irritated. He might have hid it decently at the beginning, from the average observer that is, but the brownie had a microscope.

However this was also sort of...humorous. Yes, it seemed that he was learning a lot about the other young man after all. He bit his lip and began to wander over to the boat again, but not before stopping again for just a little bit more chit chat. Ha. Bubbling with excitement under that cool exterior, he tried to decide whether he should just continue to play dumb or not. It might be too hard considering how much K'sel wanted to point out his comrade's growing agitation. What to do? What to do?

He merely rumbled in response. He was sort of draconic in this way, replying with whiskey scratched noises as opposed to actual words. Words failed from time to time, but a well placed grunt could get the point across, and the young man was biding his time anyway, "An overturned boat....how unfortunate... Pettahth wouldn't do that," he turned to look at the brown, "would you?" The dragon huffed and responded with no qualms as to who heard him It would be terribly counterproductive, and I wouldn't want to hear your protests the rest of the night. Because frankly K'sel would probably cuss up a storm and curse dear Faranth to between a few hundred times. Little heathen.

"But I must ask...why don't you go in and dry up? Instead of being such a grouch. I thought you were a man of great independence, you can't possibly care what I think of you if you slipped off for the end of your chores..." honestly. K'sel didn't care what R'ahre thought of him, the favor should have been reciprocated...then again if the other weyrling leaves then the fun ends. Was Pettahth's rider content with what he had learned so far? Maybe. K'sel went back to his path to the boat, he wasn't sticking around for answers, because he really only expected a scowl in reply.

Friends maybe not, the dragon was keen on the pair's interactions. They weren't exactly acting like he expected friends to act, I had hoped, I suppose? Pettahth wanted his to have more friends. It wasn't fair that the boy was so lonely, he and the two firelizards could only serve as so much company. A silent reassuring coo was sent K'sel's way, perhaps to instill some kind of friendliness into him. Yes, she is quite...smart I believe. Smart was the ultimate compliment from the brown, because intelligence was the greatest attribute anyone could ever have. Only the smart ones for him you see.