Reflections (open)

[Kisha-Ra]

There was no doubt about it; the wonder of being around dragons day after day was wearing thin on Yoalla. She didn’t even bother to look up as a large, winged, shadow passed over her on the way to some distant place. Instead she continued to stare morosely into the dark green eyes of her reflection in the river, searching for, what? She didn’t know really, something other than a painted little flower she hoped.

With snort of derision for her own thoughts that disturbed the water and shattered the reflection Yoalla wriggled around on the river bank until she was lying on her back with her feet in the water and her skirt pulled up around her knees. Only two or three months ago she’d have been trying to look like a flower in a lady’s garden and doing quite well at it thank you very much, but somewhere along the line she’d changed without quite noticing, a disturbing thought to be sure.

Partially it was the lack of… desire? Need? For her and her kind around here, it was like these southerners never thought about hiring some pretty girl or boy for a few hours. N’nam would probably have hated it here, and most of the girls back at Raasheen’s would have wanted to go back within a few days. Yoalla smiled a strange smile as she reflected that the doxies there had more luxuries than most people in Bitra could ever hope to, and yet so many of them looked down on doxies. Strange, strange world.

Another thought, more insidious and most unwelcome, occurred. The spiteful little whisper in her own mind that she wasn’t good enough to be here as more than a drudge. Maybe she was just dragon deaf and that was why she was just about the only person not trailing flitters or those strange salamandyr beasties. It made her feel quite conspicuous, like she was walking around naked when everyone else was dressed. To dismiss the notion, Yoalla flicked a foot upward, sending droplets of water flying over herself, and anyone else who happened to be around.

[dragon]

A brown flitter zoomed down the river, flying as fast as he could go. Which wasn't too bad, really, considering the chunky brown that he was. Following shortly after was a bronze one… considerably larger, also considerably younger. The sheer spunk of youth was what was allowing him to keep up with the older brown ahead of him. Especially considering his little passenger.

Fast! Fast! Skink run fast than this! Fast! Berating, the minature green mandyr was hopping up and down on the bronze's back, hanging on to the bronze flitter with only her front feet. Her frill was flapping open and shut the whole while, probably creating quite the airblock out of herself. The screetching of the green's mindvoice dimmed the farther she was carried down the river, away from those who could hear her.

Following along at a far more sedate pace, walking the river again as had been his old habit, Emoyan strolled in a more or less aimless fashion. He had no where to be, at the moment, and no inclination to get there in a hurry. After a few dozen dragonlengths, his pets would return. Eventually. And head back up the other way, before looping back around again. Apparently the lot were entirely too happy to be outside … happy that Emoyan himself was outside. They were milking the expedition for all it was worth, while they were at it. It didn't take him long to spot one of the Candidates sprawled out on the ground at the edge of the river, even though he hadn't been looking to find anyone at all.

"You look a little on the down side, today." He remarked, upon reaching that point on the river. He came to a halt and looked down at the sprawled out girl, hands in pockets. "You feeling alright?" he asked, aware that some people had been getting sick of late, in the Weyr. He rather hoped all the kids were going to avoid it and stay healthy, but there was only so much he could do.

[Kisha-Ra]

A strangely familiar shout had Yoalla half sitting up and looking around for a child, for the voice was a sort of excited shriek, before she twigged that it wasn’t a real voice, as such, but the mental cry of a salamandyr. The catalyst for this sudden enlightenment was the somewhat strange sight of a pale green salamandyr zooming past, riding on the back of a bronze firelizard. Yoalla couldn’t tell if the green was tormenting the firelizard or playing with him, or both, but it made for a strange sight indeed.

As the firelizard carried his loud passenger away, and not so incidentally took the salamndyr’s voice elsewhere, Yoalla relaxed back into her sprawling and introspection, however it was only a few moments before another voice, a human one this time, interrupted her thoughts. She craned her head back to look at the source, although she recognised Emoyan’s voice. Just as well really since from upside down on the ground he looked a great deal like a wall with a nose on it.


‘Down?’ Yoalla asked, rolling over and shuffling back a little so she could look at Emoyan without experiencing too great a feeling of being loomed over. There was no point in standing up and looking him in the eye, the candidate master was not the type who was easily read. For example she was entirely nonplussed by an enquiry as to her health. ‘No, I’m fine, just moping around. I’ll be at lessons.’ She answered, not caring to share her doubts. ‘That is, unless you were seeking me out to tell me that you’ve decided to let me out of lessons. In which case, I’m all yours.’ Yoalla added in a thoughtful tone, flirting her eyelashes as she looked up at the candidate master. She didn’t think that for one moment, but she just couldn’t help making the suggestion. Something about Emoyan demanded that someone wind him up.

[dragon]

Emoyan tilted his head off to one side as he looked down at Yoalla. "Moping around. Alright, I suppose." He remarked, before quirking a crooked grin. "Actually? I wasn't hunting you up at all ... just out for a stroll. And no, you aren't excused from lessons." He remarked, somewhat amused that she was still trying to play that angle. Though he found it quite interesting that she thought she could even try at being alluring ... after having been laying in the muddy bank of the river.

Apparently, things had changed a lot up north since he'd left, if that was how they did it these days.

Rascal reappeared around the bend of the river, still flying just as fast as he could go, about six feet over the water. But for the moment, there was no sign of Voyager or his interestingly loud cargo. With a happy chirp, the brown zoomed past, headed on down the river course.

[Kisha-Ra]

Yoalla shrugged one shoulder and laughed, a strangely girlish little sound that didn’t seem to suit her at all. ‘Well I suppose I need the lessons more than most but propositioning you was worth a try.’ She admitted, suddenly feeling a little less morose, it seemed winding Emoyan up was good for the spirit, if not for the grades. ‘You southern types are very strange in that respect, you know. No one around here even thinks of renting someone for a while. I don’t know how I going to scrape together the marks for… anything really. Everyone around here is so asexual I’ll be lucky to get pies at the next gather.’ Yoalla mused, forgetting for a moment that it was Emoyan’s ear she was bending with her complaints.

As one of the firelizards that had zipped by returned, the one that wasn’t the green salamandyr’s ride of choice, Yoalla’s attention followed his flightpath, so much so that she actually shut up for a moment. ‘If I had the marks I’d get a firelizard egg.’ Yoalla thought she spoke casually, but there was a note of determination in her voice. ‘I’d like a pet that’s a bit smarter than most animals, and I don’t really want a salamandyr if I get an extra set of lessons.’ Yoalla meant that, although her major reason for not wanting a salamandyr was the rumour doing the rounds that have a salamandyr bonded to you decreased your chance of Impressing a dragon. She’d already missed one chance, how many more would she get? Only one or two a turn, until she was twenty two, and she was already seventeen. Never before in any thought, had seventeen seemed so old.

Abruptly, and far too late to stop her mouth running on without intervention from the brain, Yoalla remembered who she was talking to, or rather, at. ‘Um, you don’t have to actually stay here and listen to me if you’ve got other things to do.’ Yoalla looked at the ground as she spoke, embarrassed that she’d just been blurting out all her thoughts to Emoyan of all people.

[dragon]

Emoyan shifted his stance, and settled to sit down on the ground near where Yoalla was ... albeit farther from the edge of the water. He wasn't interested in wetting his britches to the point where they'd cling to him awkwardly when he got around to getting back to his feet. He listened patiently as she talked, with apparent ease ... he liked it when the Candidates felt they could talk to him. He wasn't going to bite them every time they turned around, after all.

"You know ... not everyone here is Southern." He pointed out. "Quite a lot of the people in Selenitas are from the North ... even some of the dragons themselves are Northern." He cautioned. "Though, some may tell you, and some may not. But yes, this is a very mixed up pot of people ... you have those who swing all sorts of interesting directions ... no matter what kind of topic you're referring to." He shrugged a bit. "Maybe you're bothering the wrong people." He shot her a crooked look that was slightly amused. "You're not a bad looking girl, Yoalla... but, so you understand my stance ... no body can bribe their way out of lessons, no matter what they offer. And I also don't fraternize with my students." He explained, to help her preserve her sense of self worth. Especially since her allure was probably her only sense of self worth, considering where she was coming from. He had no interest in busting her.

"You don't have to buy a flitter egg, either." He shrugged loosely, casual. "Just attend a hatching, next time there is one. If you impress, it's yours free. Flitters don't get sold and traded around, in Weyrs. That tends to only happen in Holds." He gestured loosely at the two flitters and one mandyr zooming back and forth up and down the river. "That's how I acquired all of them. Barring Voyager ... I did buy him, at a gather."

Emoyan looked at her for a quiet moment, and then shook his head. "Right now, I have nothing at all to do. And even if I did ... I don't mind talking to you kids. Not in the slightest. If you need to talk ... that's part of what I'm here for. Questions, concerns, or just an ear." He gestured loosely with both hands, before dropping them between his knees, resting his forearms on his thighs. "I don't bite."

[Kisha-Ra]

Much as Yoalla hated to admit anything good of the strict candidate master (she wasn’t totally willing to admit that he was the unholy terror that some candidates and weyrlings claimed either though), she had to say, he seemed to be a good listener, even if she had effectively just started blurting out her inner musings for him to hear.

Yoalla had a feeling that north born or not a certain southern-ness crept into people who stayed in the south too long. Attitudes towards most things tended to be totally different here, more relaxed in most respects. Most of the time Yoalla thought that was a good thing but sometimes it seemed to her as if many people here lacked a certain ruthlessness and paranoia that was so very common in the northern continent. Or least in Bitra Hold and immediately surrounding areas. Yoalla was prepared to admit that she hadn’t even seen a tenth of the north in her lifetime.

The idea that she’d been approaching the wrong people never occurred to her before, and intrigued Yoalla enough to make her raise an eyebrow in inquiry. ‘Oh.’ Was all she could manage but it seemed as she’d managed to put the whole assumption on her part that she had been propositioning the right sort of people, riders mostly, and a few crafters who looked like they could afford a good time, and couldn’t quite see why things weren’t working. She was beginning to wonder if she should put up a poster somewhere. ‘Well I can see your point at least. If you took anyone up on a bribe, pretty soon you’d be considering taking every bribe, and if you did that, what would be the point? Only people with nothing you wanted would be in lessons, and they probably wouldn’t be too happy that their bribing failed either.’ Yoalla worked her way through putting what she thought into words quickly, before she thought the better of it. It seemed important that Emoyan should know she understood on some level, even though she didn’t think that was his primary reason for repeated refusals.

Talk of firelizards easily swayed Yoalla back from the brink of deep philosophical thought. She’d heard that line before but she’d yet to see a hatching. She couldn’t doubt the existence of clutches though, since there was at least one firelizard queen around here somewhere. ‘About how often do these hatchings happen?’ She inquired slowly, thinking that there hadn’t been a hatching since she’d been here, so one might be coming up soon. She’d heard of mysterious eggs coming out of the jungle too, but that route didn’t tempt Yoalla at all. She was definitely not woods wise, and might come back with anything.

A shrug was the only possible answer to some things. ‘Well sir, if you want to hear our concerns you could try being a little less… foreboding sometime.’ She suggested in a serious tone that was utterly ruined by a smile that hovered perilously at the corners of her mouth. ‘You do come across as hard to approach.’

[dragon]

Emoyan listened to her interpretation of what he said, and couldn't help but be amused. Things could go in one ear, and come out so twisted and convoluted there was no recognizing the original thought. And it was downright funny... when it wasn't distressing. "Well ... that's not quite what I meant, but okay. That has its merits, too, I suppose." He nodded. "But, in some folk still today, there still is such a thing as honor." Sadly, some people had no concept of what the word meant.

"About once or twice a turn, or so. There's usually a dozen or so eggs in the clutch ... it doesn't happen very often, no. But when they are there, they're free for the impressing. When they happen doesn't really matter ... if they're not laid, they're not there to be purchased, either. Now are they?" He pointed out, lest she get bummed out at the scarcity of the creatures' nests. "There are wild nests that can be raided ... but more often than not they're green nests, and either dead, or hollow. Sometimes they'll be live, but still. They're not really worth having." Emoyan shrugged.

"Foreboding? Me?" Emoyan asked, surprised. Was that the problem? He'd never thought of himself as foreboding ... not at all. In fact, he had rather been one of the more lighthearted people around ... until ...

Until. That was the catch. Maybe she was right. Losing his dragon had certainly changed his demeanor by quite a bit ... and not all for the good. Had be been taking it out on his students? He hadn't thought so ...

"Well ... I don't mean to be." He apologized. He didn't make excuses. Excuses were worthless. Shards ... how long had it been, now, since Kindrith had gone? He didn't even know. But as long as it had been ... it was pittance against the many long turns he had been bonded. However ... maybe now that he was aware he could work on it a bit. He didn't want the youths to think he was an evil taskmaster and that was it.

[Kisha-Ra]

Another shrug, was the only reply to Emoyan’s tone, sort of slightly amused and slightly disappointed at the same time. Yoalla knew she didn’t have the skill to fully comprehend Emoyan’s basic moral concept, so she made up a more realistic, possibly more convoluted explanation that worked for her, and was also true. At the mention of honour Yoalla could only look sceptical. ‘Yeah, well, you don’t see much of them types around Bitra these days. If you ever did.’ She answered back, slightly bitterly. Honour and the like were for people who could afford them, to the child of a Bitran whore those attributes were about as tangible as air, or sunlight, and had about the monetary value as well.

Once or twice a turn? Yoalla’s face was study in childlike disappointment as she calculated that her chances of Impressing a free firelizard were about the same as Impressing a dragon, less in fact since there were a lot more people who were suitable for firelizards than dragons. Even the lowliest could aspire to Impress a flitter. ‘I suppose not, but I don’t think I’ll be going after wild nests either.’ Yoalla admitted frankly. ‘What I know about the great outdoors can probably be written on the back of my hand with room to spare, in big letters. I’d probably end up all muddy, bruised, and cut, and then end up coming back with chicken eggs after all my trials.’ Yoalla could just see herself in such a state, proudly looking on as her bronze chicken hatched. It was actually quite a funny thought, and it got funnier the more she examined it. ‘No, that’s definitely not for me.’ She reiterated, grinning at her strange thought.

Yoalla nodded. ‘I’m afraid so sir.’ She agreed with the oddest feeling that she’d just walked out over a metaphorical cliff and she was about to find out how high it was. ‘You wouldn’t believe that tales I’ve heard. Your last class didn’t seem to like you much. I’m not sure what you could do to make yourself more approachable though.’ Yoalla nibbled her lower lip as she thought on the matter. ‘It’s sort of a vauge feeling about you. Maybe you could shrink a bit, I’m sure you wouldn’t look so foreboding it you weren’t quite so tall.’ It was a useless suggestion, and probably not a very good joke, but in both respects it was the best Yoalla could offer. ‘Don’t they teach you harpers how to do special things like that?’ Yoalla suddenly inquired, referring to making Emoyan more approachable rather than him shirking, though it would be easy to take it that she meant altering his appearance in some radical way.

[dragon]

"Bitra ... no, I don't suppose so." Emoyan agreed. If there was a dark, dank place to be from, it was Bitra. The backstabbing and maliciousness that went on there ... it wasn't a very nice place, no. And likely as not, not a scrap of honor to be found in the place. "Well ... this isn't Bitra, and you can't expect to get good results from anything you do, if you treat it like Bitra. I know there are some Bitrans here, but they're here for the same reason everyone else is ... because they didn't like the way things were, in the North." He shrugged a little bit. "People aren't quite as cold as you would think. Cautious, yes. Wary, yes. Especially of new people. But they are not bad folk. Treat them like Bitra, and you'll keep getting the cold shoulder."

"I can't say as I know much more about it, myself." Emoyan agreed. "In any event, even if you did know your way around, I would not suggest you go out there into the jungle, whatever the reason. There are hungry felines out there, and they have attacked people before. Sometimes killed them. It is highly recommended that folk not go out there without being part of a larger, well armed group. We don't want you getting hurt, and or disappearing on us." he looked at her, with a crooked grin. "You are pretty valuable, after all. Candidates are not a dime a dozen."

"Tall?!" Emoyan asked, startled, before laughing. "Well, there's not much I can do about that, not without developing a hunch. And I daresay that doesn't sound very nice to me." He thought about that a moment, and then laughed again. Too tall. Who would have thought? "That last class ... they weren't exactly the most cooperative bunch, either. After all ... its hard to take a class seriously when they all do their level best to mess things up." he shook his head, slightly, unwilling to get into the details of that fiasco. He was glad they had impressed well, and were now the Weyrling Master's headache. "I probably do need to work on it a bit, I suppose ... things haven't exactly been easy." He shot her a meaningful look. "Uncooperative students don't make it any easier."

[Kisha-Ra]

Well it was pretty obvious that Emoyan didn’t think too much of Bitra, not that Yoalla could blame him. There were a great many reasons to dislike Bitra, many of which Yoalla had witnessed first hand. However she wasn’t quite sure what point he was trying to make. No one was stealing her stuff, attempting to beat or intimidate her, she had all the food one girl could possibly eat, and enough clothing and blankets to give herself severe heatstroke. Therefore, it was quite clear she wasn’t in Bitra anymore. Overall she personally thought she was doing quite well by treating people normally, alright, she couldn’t call too many people friends, but she couldn’t call any of them enemies either.

‘Thanks, that makes the jungle seem even less appealing than when I though it was just infested with tunnelsnakes, venomous crawlers, wild whers, and feral canines.’ Yoalla answered flippantly, although it was clear from her expression that the addition of killer felines to her imagined hostile landscape really did make the girl even less willing to roam the jungle than before. Yoalla snorted inelegantly. ‘You cannot be serious; there’s always loads more kids out there, and I’m probably not even really the right sort. If I hadn’t showed up south no one would ever think “what we really need right now is a pleasure girl from Bitra, let’s go!”’ Yoalla enhanced her statement with an array of dramatic hand gestures to emphasis the ridiculousness of the whole concept. ‘I think I could afford to just vanish one day, although I was hoping not to be eaten by felines, I’ll admit. Dying in bed would be more my style, or maybe in the bath.’

‘Hey you try looking at you from my height.’ Yoalla protested Emoyan’s laughter. ‘You look taller from down here.’ That was true; Yoalla had inherited her mother’s stature.

From Emoyan’s next comment Yoalla gathered that some of the stories about that class had been at least partially true, she badly wanted to ask if it was true about the grapefruits but she lacked the courage to bring up the topic, especially when a significant look was turned on her. She had the decency to at least look slightly embarrassed. ‘Well if you’d come right out and said what you just said in the first place I would have given up to start with.’ She mumbled defiantly. ‘I’m not going to waste my time for no reward. I just can’t take a hint unless it’s applied with a brick or explained very clearly.’

[dragon]

Emoyan looked at her with a crooked grin. "That was the point, actually. The forest is a dangerous place. I imagine it's one of the things that keeps folk from sneaking up at ground level to cause mischief." He told her, with a small nod as Voyager – shy his green payload – came to plop in his lap, sides heaving heavily in exhaustion. Emoyan stroked the flitter once, from head to tail, before leaving him alone to loll all over the place limply. His eyes were bright and attentive, though, despite being so completely and obviously worn out by Skink.

"No, no. I mean that quite a bit. Dragon-worthy minds are not as common as you might think." Emoyan remarked. "If they were, everyone would be in a Weyr, and no one in the Holds. There is a reason Search dragons only drag in a few Candidates a week, if that much. There are a lot of people out there, you know. You're far more special than you might think … just for qualifying to be brought here." He ducked out of the way as she started flailing her arms around in dramatic gestures … getting smacked in the teeth was not his idea of a good conversation in the least. "You might could afford to do that, sure. But we can't afford for you to do that. We need you alive, well, and learning." He pointed out. He didn't even bother to make a comment on what her remark about dying in bed brought to mind. That was not a topic he was looking to talk about…

Emoyan laughed, again. "I would have a hard time getting out of me, to look at me, from your height." He joked. Though he could understand her point quite well … he wasn't short, that was for sure. Usually, he either did not notice the difference in height between himself and other people, or he was glad for it … since he was a Harper after all, it made it better to do some of the jobs he did. Especially entertaining … he could see past everyone else's heads while he played. Gosh … that had been a long time ago since he'd last done that. But when it came to his class? He never thought about it. He rather expected to be taller than them … they were, after all, kids. Most of them. Kids usually were not into their full growth yet.

"Bricks tend to hurt a bit. I usually try to avoid that method. Makes a fellow unpopular, you know?" Emoyan teased. "Just … don't start leaving bricks on my desk, okay? I have enough clutter with all the grapefruits." It was a good thing he liked grapefruits…