The Ugly Duckling [Open]

[Lotty]

In a fairytale manner Cap'n grew up and out of his garish gray feathers and tiny bony body and into ...well it wasn't a swan, we could all agree on that. But he was still something to admire, he was turning into something beautiful: in the wake of the molt, the richest of browns were coming in from behind the rugged, boring plumage and Raebeli spied a glimmer of gold coming in on the crown of her sweet prince's head. She adored this little big darter, despite his awkward baby days, all the screaming and wailing and long sleepless days didn't invoke any feeling into the mindhealer other than something of a mother's love. Cap'n could have stayed that way forever, and the young woman wouldn't have thought anything of it, but it was nice to see this little transformation in progress.

It was a shame these things didn't happen overnight. Raebeli's little apartment was now filled with feathers and down from all the moltings she had battled through in the past ten weeks since the little guy had hatched in her panty drawer, and now that he had his flight feathers, she was preparing herself for a new set of hurdles: Cap'n's maiden voyages, and the inevitable mess that would make....and she didn't expect him to start so soon.

She was on a mission to replace her ink blots. Yes, ink blots. Rae, like any good mindhealer had their own ink blot test, the set of cards with those ambiguous splotches that made all the other healers scoff at their pseudo-science, but the test was rather structured, much more than one would believe. Little did most people know, it didn't matter as much what someone saw in the blots, but how they respond to it. The girl was very fond of this test. But her cards - a very nice example, with multicolored inks on the rough edges of watercolor paper - had gone missing, stolen even! In truth they were probably misplaced, she did have a knack for doing so.

But as tempting as it was to use up the Weyr's ink and paper to try and re-make her own. She decided to instead draft a letter back to the hall in request of a new set. Oh bother, Raebeli didn't want all of her correspondences to be about things she needed...she wanted to send good news. And so she sat at a table and pondered how to word the message, deviously thinking of a harper's language tricks to soften it all up. It just so happened that Cap'n decided to spread his wings, carefully balancing himself on his mother's shoulder before taking a pitiful leap off her. His first short attempt saw him landing on the table and knocking over the ink well the girl had borrowed, his furious flapping sending more feathers all about the archives.

Poor Raebeli had ink on her hands, and speckles on her face, blotches on her skirt, and of course...there was ink all over the papers on the table, "Oh! Cap'n!" she sighed in exasperation, but she couldn't be too angry, no she didn't have much in the way of aggression, "I guess I got my wish didn't I?" The bird looked over at his owner with a cocked head, bobbing it a few times in response.

[Requiem]

Avoid the smith. Avoid the smith. Avoid the smith. The little mantra went through the boy's mind over and over again, as he skulked along. Clearly, despite being northern, Dmitri was sheltered or he would have known that he stood out like a sore thumb creeping along like that. He'd braided his long hair and coiled it into a knot at the nape of his neck, and was even know hunched beneath a cloak and hood that had to be unbearably hot at this time of day. Avoid the smith. Avoid the smith.

(You never knew when Rulven would get it into his head to throw Dmitri over a shoulder and carry him off somewhere like a sack of potatoes. The harper was done with that, he was. He refused to be the smith's little plaything.)

But chores still had to be accomplished, particularly now that the three candidates were all in trouble. Not his fault that the girl hadn't been precisely single. (It wasn't as if he'd known.) And why did all these males want to exert their power over him, anyway? If it wasn't throwing punches and attempts at strangulation, he was being tossed around by smiths who lacked in intelligence. Clearly Selenitas was a breeding ground for testosterone-related contests, and he looked like an easy target. Not fair. Not fair at all.

Coming upon the archives, it only took a small jump to get his fingers hooked over the windowsill. The resulting scramble was decidedly less graceful than normal for the harper (he didn't make it a habit of sneaking into buildings, after all) as he fought to get his eyes over the edge to see if the smith was in there. So far so good. It looked like...Raebali? Oh! He liked that one he did. Pulling himself up with the aid of feet scrambling against the outer wall, Dmitri overbalanced and tumbled forward, missing Cap'n's mess and crashing into a nearby table. More papers spilled onto the floor as Dmitri laid flat on his back, blinking up at the ceiling (or, rather, trying to through the fabric of the hood that was covering his face) utterly stunned.

Whooops. Not the most impressive of entrances, was that?

[Lotty]

Raebeli immediately wanted to blame the second crash on Cap'n again. The only problem was that she was looking right at the eaglet and he hadn't moved from his sorry spot on the table, but Rae could follow his stare, and the way he craned his neck to see around her. He bounced forward to the edge of the desk and looked down to the boy lain out on the floor. Turning her head she too joined in on the speechless audience, taking a few moments to assess the situation before it all came together in her head. Oh dear, who was that? She slipped off of the edge of her chair, very carefully motioning to de-hood the intruder...oh Faranth...he was an intruder!

Why else would someone use the window to enter as opposed to the door? Why else would they be cloaked in this sweltering weather? This was probably the same criminal who stole her ink blots! No, even worse, he was the one taking away the dragonriders and weyrfolk! How dare he try and strike again! She pulled back her hand, and instead jutted her foot forward, kicking the figure in the side. Cap'n, sensing his caretaker in distress, made another attempt at flight, and leaped off his table and onto Demi's chest with a heavy drop, screeching the whole way. It all happened so fast, and the mindhealer was very much caught up in the moment, adding to the avian's war cries, "Who do you think you are attacking an innocent healer!?"

Nevermind the fact that this hooded figure never really attacked her. If only she hadn't jumped to conclusions, then she would have pulled away the fabric to see her friend. But with his tall stature and without the aid of his pretty curly hair sticking out as a clue, she figured the worst. He was coming to steal her away! Rae refused to be added to the list of disappearances, she began to panic and flap about the room looking for something very sharp and pointy to defend herself with, "You aren't kidnapping me!" she wailed at him. She wouldn't go down without a fight!

[Requiem]

Wait! The boot in his side might have belonged to a small foot, but Dmitri didn't have a lot of extra padding to help absorb the blow and he'd already had the breath knocked out of him. The boy attempted to roll away, whimpering, but then something large and heavy and loud landed on his chest. He didn't have enough time to figure out what it was before Raebeli started shrieking utter nonsense at him. Oh, this wasn't good at all. (He had no idea that it was a bird on his chest, and considering the voice was coming from a distance, he could only assume that someone else was in the room.)

Someone was pinning him down! Not good, not good, all not good. Demi squirmed, surprised that the weight lifted so quickly...and convinced the man was going to stomp on him now. Honestly! Why would he want to kidnap Raebeli?! And shardit, but that hurt when she'd kicked him. Scrambling to one side on his knees, he groped for something, getting fresh ink all over his hands in the process before finally latching onto a chair leg. The boy shot up and swung wildly with the chair to keep the 'man' at bay, which required two hands and left him still effectively blind.

"Rae!" But his voice came out breathless, and something - likely a bruised rib - caused him to double over slightly, the chair falling from his hands. He pushed at the fabric over his face in an attempt to get his breath back, moving toward her voice in the hopes that she might protect him from the chest-crushing brute. If only he could get her to see that it was him. "I'm not trying to kidnap you!" The hood fell back...but he'd smeared the fresh ink on his hands all over his face in the last few seconds, darkening his hairline.

[Lotty]

Let look at this situation:

Raebeli - covered in ink - had just kicked a hooded stranger. Her pet, a bird of prey, had then pinned the boy down and began screaming at him as the mindhealer joined in with her wailing. Then a moment later the character was up on his feet with his face still covered and with his own ink stained hands, began to swing around a chair. Cap'n flittered off of Demi and flapped about trying to find a safe spot away from this crazy scene, knocking even more things over before quickly learning to lift himself up to a high enough shelf. Cue more yelling from Raebeli, "Somebody help meeeeeee!"

This room was tragically lacking in weaponry. Hadn't these people learned a thing since all the last attacks? Even though she was usually something of a pacifist, there was always an exception when you needed to defend oneself. So to think that a Weyr that had grown used to defending itself didn't have a spare knife around? Not even a letter opener? For shame. Instead she had to wield a wooden spindle scroll, rearing back the thing like a ball player up to bat, and she was just about to swing when the chair was dropped and the boy finally called out. Why that voice was awfully familiar! Not to mention it knew her name!

The face uncovered left her mortified. It was like looking at a monster when she really should have been relieved. So she wasn't going to be killed after all, but that didn't really make up for how guilty she felt. She had managed to kick a fifteen turn old boy. She attacked her good friend Demi! She dropped the scroll, now just another record that was littering the floor like the rest, and her hands clamped over her mouth and cheeks to hide the deep red flush of embarrassment rushing over her. "Oh my Faranth! I am so sorry Demi! I am...." wait a moment. Maybe he didn't know that this was all her. Hmmmmm, "I mean, are you alright? Let me take a look at you!" Let us assume that the real menace ran out through the door. Cap'n stayed quiet up in his makeshift bird coop, he wasn't giving away any secrets either.

[Requiem]

He got a real good look at that spindle and shied back, open dismay on his face, before tripping over the chair he'd just dropped and cracking his skull rather sharply on the floor. Whether due to an exceptionally thick skull, or out of sheer luck, the boy didn't knock himself unconscious, but the world was spinning and yes...he actually saw multiple birds that looked a lot like that blasted darter of Rae's. Dmitri groaned, twitching, one leg sticking practically straight up in the air due to the chair being in the way. The cloak had become all tangled around him and moving his arms was proving difficult. He barely even registered Raebeli's first words.

"I'm fine, fine," he mumbled, finally extricating one arm to bat at something in front of his nose. "Kinda sleepy. Owwww," he winced at the pain in his skull, half-sitting up and rubbing at it. Staring at the blood that came away on his hand, he grimaced slightly. "Mostly. Where's the shard-blasted idiot?" he snarled, head whipping around and causing him to palm the ground as everything spun again. "I think I bruised a rib. And I'm still seeing birds." Cap'n, but Dmitri didn't connect that just yet.

Blinking up at Raebeli, he winced as he moved his leg from the chair. That seemed to be bruised, too. "Ya know...ya look kinda pretty bouncing around like that." So maybe he'd hit his head a little harder than he thought. Rubbing at it again, he found himself staring at the blood in fascination. Such a pretty color. All nice and red and bright in a rich, not-glaring sort of way. He wondered what blood sounded like. Humming something that was supposed to represent that color, he turned his hand over in front of his face, alternately fascinated by the crimson and the moving tendons in the long hand that he though actually looked kind of...pretty. Slender fingers. Long. Mmmm. "I think I'm going to take a nap," he told Raebeli quietly, rolling onto his side. "Yes. Nap sounds good."

[Lotty]

Oh no! WHAT HAVE I DONE? She scurried over to Dmitri as fast as her little clogs took her, though completely horrified to see him bleeding. Bleeding! From his head! If too much oozed out, she was afraid she would have her first patient for life...and she wasn't sure she wanted to stick with mindhealing if that meant repairing the mental trauma that she herself caused. Oh just listen to his babbling...he clearly knocked himself into a stupor, but certainly is was temporary...right? At least he was talking, and what he was saying made sense, sort of. Did he just call her pretty? Raebeli needed to fix this incident immediately.

Squatting down beside him and laying a hand on his side (but pulling away incase that was the side she so cruelly kicked), she needed to keep the boy still. Although the idea of him closing his eyes was daunting and very scary, she couldn't help but think that at very least it would keep him from flailing around, which he would surely do once the shock wore off and he realized how much pain he was in. Until then, she bundled up a corner of his cloak and dabbed along his head, slighty afraid to find the source of the bleeding, and cooing to the boy in the hopes that the bleeding would stop, "You do see birds, it's Cap'n....and the man got away..." she lied. She didn't like lying, and rarely did it, but it wouldn't hurt to now would it? If he has a concussion, there was a good chance he wouldn't remember anyway. Besides, she would weave the most wonderful story to justify the whole mess, "You saved me Demi! You chased him off, you're my hero....it looks like I you owe you once again."

And she'd owe him a new cloak too, but the marks it would cost for one would be easily given up for it. She ripped off a long piece of it and began to wrap up his head. Both of them where now not only covered in black ink, but now red blood, with Cap'n's little feathers sticking to anything wet. What a sight it must be for anyone unlucky enough to walk in on this.

One question remained. What exactly did she plan on doing next? If she wanted to get him to the infirmary she could hardly do it herself. Typically they needed stretchers in these situations, and she'd have to fetch one of those and a couple of the stronger infirmary aids. This was a problem in itself. She couldn't just leave him here. She had to keep an eye on him. Make sure he was breathing and all! Oh dear....

[Requiem]

Cap'n? Who was that? Oh, right. The bird. But that was only one bird...he cracked open an eye, squinting at the creature. Just one now. His friends were hiding somewhere, though, Dmitri just knew it. Any moment now they'd pop out and begin circling, just to confuse him, then disappear when Raebeli looked their direction. Such mean, nasty birds. Cap'n wasn't bad, though. He wasn't hiding.

Demi barely twitched at her touch on his side, the discomfort not registering that much. He was too woozy to notice, to be honest. "I am?" How could he have chased the man off, when all he'd done was get kicked, stomped on, and fallen over a chair? The man would have to be awfully skittish to be afraid of that. Then again, he supposed the wild swings with the chair might be enough to drive a sane man off. Possibly. "Shouldn't you be kissing me, then?" he questioned cheekily, the comment clearly meant to be more of a joke, but it fell a little flat in that his words were coming out mildly slurred. You'd think he'd been drinking again.

He winced as she ministered to his head, grumbling something unintelligible. Not nice. That hurt. The ripping sound escaped him entirely, but as she began wrapping it he was forced to pay a little more attention between the tenderness of his skull and the fact that he had to lift his head off the ground. Glancing up at her, he frowned. "Who painted the Rae?" Reaching up, he wiped away a small droplet of blood that had somehow found her cheek. "Still wet. We've got someone running around painting people. Is that allowed?"

But apparently he lost interest in that pretty quick, as well, instead rolling (carefully keeping his head from the ground) until he'd cocooned himself tightly in the cloak. He was now resting against the table leg, looking out in Raebeli's direction. "Any more scary people come, I'm a black lizard." This apparently made sense to him. Demi's lids fluttered. Sleep definitely sounded good. Yes.

[Lotty]

It was painfully obvious: he had knocked himself stupid. He'd never be a harper again!

Wait, let's not jump to such conclusions. These situations called for a level of calm, rationality. After all, what kind of mindhealer would go about panicking over a head wound. That would be a little uncalled for, and she would never hear the end of it from the other healers if word got out. It didn't help at all that R'wign didn't even consider her a real healer, if he could use this incident against her somehow she'd probably be resigned to seeing patients in her apartment and co-ordinating weyr brat plays in the main hall. What that had to do with mindhealing, she didn't know, but she imagined it would take her far away from the healer who thought so little of her. As for the woman in charge of the infirmary, Kalierre, she hardly knew her opinion. Probably because Raebeli made a conscious effort to stay out of the way. Since the woman seemed to have a thing for efficiency and little to no time for trivial matters, Rae made herself only a ghost in the building. By the time her shift was over she made sure there was little evidence of her existence left over aside from the usual scribblings in the required logs.

It was hard to keep upbeat when she thought of things that way, but this was Raebeli we were talking about, she couldn't not try and find a little bit of humor in all of this; blushing at the idea that she should be kissing him in gratitude, and smiling awkwardly as he touched her face. "I think it would be a little presumptuous to think you'd want my kisses sweetie," not to mention a little odd. As grown up as he looked, he was still a fifteen turn old boy who from what she understood, formerly lived a rather sheltered lifestyle. She was like that once too...hmmm, "instead I'm going to take care of you dear....now try not squirm so much..."

Not that it mattered, he was wrapping himself up in his torn cloak anyway, and she would have let him mummify himself like this if he didn't insist on continually spouting the most ridiculous stuff. Black lizard? What was that supposed to even mean? She wanted to be amused, reading about the delusions of people were fine and dandy, but when it really came down to it, when it was all real, it wasn't quite as cute. Well, he could rest all he wanted, she was still going to question him, still going to hope he'd come to his senses, "What would a black lizard be?" She probably shouldn't care so much, but what if it was the pouring out of his hidden psyche!? Ohhhhhh fascinating. Cap'n cocked his head from his perch, he loved his pet, and he remembered that boy friend of hers, but they were a very, very weird pair.

[Requiem]

Demi pouted slightly, again more for effect than ought else. No, he didn't actually want to kiss Raebeli. (She wasn't unattractive, but, despite his tendency toward bold actions, he was more or less holdbred and was much too shy to just up and kiss anyone, much less an older woman. She'd probably laugh at how much he sucked at it.) Poor kid couldn't handle such blows to his budding pride at this age.

He blinked at her slowly. What was a black lizard? "A black lizard...is a lizard...that is black," he enunciated slowly and clearly. Dmitri wouldn't have thought that it would be so difficult to understand. "You know. The tongue-flicky things." He stuck out his tongue and wiggled it at her. See? The things that did that. "No one wants to stomp a lizard. They're cute. And squirmy." And of course he had to illustrate by wriggling around on the floor, which was only made more humorous by the fact that he wasn't completely bad at it; Dmitri's natural gracefulness made the move less than utterly ludicrous. Though only just.

"Haven't you seen one before?" His head still hurt a little, but he thought that maybe, by concentrating on other things, the throbbing of the walls would go away. It was like the room had its very own heartbeat. Monster archives. Kinda disturbing, really. "They can't be that far..." Demi rolled over onto his stomach and began inching toward the entrance, completely comfortable all wrapped up as he was. It looked decidedly awkward, and about halfway across the floor he stopped, resting his cheek on the ground, his face flushed. "How do tunnelsnakes do this? It would probably be better to say I was a tunnelsnake, come to think. Lizards are small."

Very weird, though, that even the ground seemed to be pulling back and pressing close, though the rythym wasn't quite perfect and it was making him nauseous. "Don't like getting stomped on," he muttered to the ground. "Nor is it very nice to trip me up," he added to the chair not far away. "I didn't mean to break you on the ground. You'd do the same in my position."

[Lotty]

Raebeli took her eyes off the "black lizard" to look at her bird. It was a shame that Cap'n wasn't too good at this whole flying thing yet. It was even worse that he wasn't trained to do any tricks. She'd send him out to fetch somebody. Or at least find something to sedate the boy. She simply couldn't have him...what was he doing? With her jaw half dropped, she watched him flop around on the ground disapprovingly. He thought he was being cute? Ohhhhh Demi... she pitied the boy, she really did, she just wish he hadn't picked the window to come through instead of the door. That was that though, she needed to stop him before he hurt himself any further.

She walked over to him, her shoes clomping against the floor giving her a false air of authority. Her heavy steps were probably the only quasi intimidating thing about her, "Now Demi. I thought I had told you to hold still....and you aren't a tunnel snake..." as if he would know the difference, but people generally tried to kill tunnel snakes. They weren't welcomed creatures, and unlike little black lizards, playing pretend as a tunnel snake didn't gain sympathy points. Talking to furniture might though, "Demi dear, there is no need to talk to the chair. It can't hear you..."

The mindhealer stepped over him and opened the door to the record room. Some air in the room might help...and she was looking around for help while she was at it. This would be so much easier if she had some medicine on her...a good pain killer even if it was only for a temporary fix. As it was, the only drugs she tended to use were sedatives...usually fellis in big enough doses to take out a runnerbeast, and though there were a few other herbs in her arsenal, that about covered most of it. Regardless, she just didn't carry these things around with her every where, especially to here.

Stepping back from the threshold she shook her head in disappointment. There just wasn't a soul around, and she did enough yelling today to already be hoarse, she wasn't about to go yelling again. Off handedly she said to Cap'n, "Can't you make some noise again? I'll give you treats?" The avian dropped down off of his shelf, and bounced and flapped his way back to Rae's shoulder. Apparently all he heard was the treat part and not the making noise one....."What amy I going to do with you boys hmmm?"

[Requiem]

Dmitri lapped at the blood trickling down his chin, thinking it was nice and coppery and nice and where was he going with that? Something was on him. Hrm. Wriggling, he discovered that his arms were pinned, and that wasn't at all good. Pinned arms meant someone was about to plant a fist into his face, from past experience. Really, he wasn't that bad, was he? The light from the doorway was kind of blinding. Who was restraining him now? And what was this about not talking to chairs? Of course they didn't talk back. Silly woman. "You're not my mom." His nose wrinkled. Maybe he should have been nicer, though, because he was pretty sure she wasn't restraining him.

Treats? Dmitri suddenly thrashed, a strange whining coming from his throat. "You promised. I don't want any treats. No, no, go away, go away." But he couldn't move because they were here and they just didn't care. No one ever cared enough to fight against the darkness at Harper Hall that everyone pretended didn't exist. Not even Dmitri. Perhaps especially not him. But the man had only said he wanted to play with them...Demi didn't know. Not until later.

The thrashing finally managed to loosen the cloak he'd wrapped around himself, the boy climbing shakily to his feet and put the table between him and Raebeli. The one talking about treats. He blinked at her, still partially blinded, shrinking back to plaster himself against the opposite wall. "I'll tell everyone. If you try, I will. About all of them." No, he hadn't known, it wasn't his fault. Not his fault that he believed the man when he'd said he'd just wanted to play, that Demi should coax his friends up the stairs because it was a secret. Some would get jealous if they found out the Masterharper wasn't playing with everyone, Camlin said.

He'd believed him. Of course.

"You promised," Demi stated again, more firmly, trying to hide his face and glare at the same time, even though his hair was all pulled back and that was more or less impossible. "You promised..." Because he hadn't wanted to be 'played' with, and the man had said that as long as he found other playmates...as long as he didn't tell... The boy slid down the wall and turned his face away.

[Lotty]

As worried as she was about Demi's bleeding (oh Faranth, why was he stil bleeding?) and about the fact that he just forced himself to his feet, she was just as worried about the things he was saying. Namely the fact that he suddenly seemed so afraid of her. Of her! Raebeli! The little healer that was relatively harmless (relatively because, well, she did kick Dmitri in the side moments ago), was being shied away from, and accused of making promises that had never spewed from her mouth. Hmmf, she understood not being trusted, but she hardly thought that was something to worry about with someone who she had met before. She never thought that she would have to be so careful about dealing with the harper...

She shooed away Cap'n from her shoulder - Rae wasn't sure if he wasn't aiding in the terror after all - and rounded the corner of the table that separated herself from him, taking small little steps, slowly but surely, hands clasped together in front of her in relative passivity. All she wanted to do was calm him down...and now that he was on his feet anyway, maybe she could usher him to the infirmary, or at least far enough to get some decent help. She cocked her head curiously...it was unknown where she got that habit from, and sweetly tried to make conversation back, "I am certainly not your mom, not old enough to be by a long shot Dmitri..." and she wanted so desperately to turn this into a a drawn out therapy session and ask him about his mother, but resisted the temptation.

"Promises? What did I promise you?" Did this have to do with the treats she offered Cap'n? She tried not to jump to conclusions but it was easy for her to imagine the boy flashing back to some kind of childhood memory. It was all to vague at the moment. It was just a bunch of babel for the most part...but it was curious things he was saying for sure, especially remembering their first encounter. His "friends" they all sent him off with candies and sweets...and he hardly seemed very impressed.

[Requiem]

His head was really beginning to ache right about now. A dull throbbing growing stronger with each beat of his heart. He rubbed the back of his hand over his upper lip, the sticky blood coming away. Leaking from his nose. Blinking at the blurry image in front of him, he dipped his head lower, wanting his hair right now more than ever for the visual shield it provided. His hands wrapped tightly around his knees. There, that was some form of protection, wasn't it?

"You promised you wouldn't touch me," he snarled. See? Scary, he could be scary, and the man would go away, he would. The voice sounded high and familiar but that could be the pounding in his head. It was distracting. "If I didn't say anything about them. I didn't." He clamped his mouth shut suddenly. Yes, if Camlin broke his promise, he had every right to break his...but the MasterHarper knew that, didn't he? Which meant he wasn't afraid of Dmitri telling anyone. Now the boy was doubly frightened, but he couldn't scrunch himself any smaller or get any closer to the wall.

Maybe if he screamed...But why bother? It was warm and dark, and a few had told him it wasn't so bad if you just...didn't fight it. All over. A song yes, a song about corners and walls with heartbeats, he could write that in his head and block out the man who lies. But so tired...hrm. Very tired. Dmitri's head dipped, jerking up briefly and he frowned. There was a reason he should stay awake, wasn't there? Couldn't remember. His head fell against the wall, still curled up protectively, though his arms loosened as he slept.

(That'll be my last post for Demi. xP I have trouble with threads pre-Impression.)