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Post by ladybug on Dec 15, 2008 17:34:47 GMT -5
Burena had stayed up late, and she was too wired on klah to sleep now. Most of the candidates were being good and they were already asleep, so the common room was pretty boring. She wandered around the barracks for a while, then grabbed a glow and headed outside into the night. Even the Weyr was quiet at this time of night, although she still saw a few people walking through the weyrbowl, and she heard laughter from one of the rooms in the lower caverns as she passed.
Her footsteps eventually carried her to the riverbank. Then, zomg, Burry thought of the PERFECT idea! She would go skinny dipping! Why hadn't she thought of it before? Why, the waters of Selenitas River needed to be broken in!
Giggling, she set the glow down on a rock and shielded it. Quickly, she pulled off her clothes and folded them neatly, putting them beside the glow. Then, she slipped into the water. "Brr!" It was kind of cold, but she would get used to it. Tee hee! Wasn't this fun? And no one would notice her in the dark, right?
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Post by dragon on Dec 15, 2008 18:02:48 GMT -5
The night was pleasantly cool ... and down near the river the air was even nicely damp. Which made for a really nice feeling. Having had a fairly good day, Dorava had decided to stay up. It was too early to end a good day! So she had taken Val in a pocket and ambled down the stairs to the river for a stroll along the bank, leaving Aonith to snooze on her evening sun-warmed ledge. The rock would cool down quickly now that Rukbat was beyond the horizon.
She had found herself a handy mossy log to sit on and dream, inhaling the cool damp air. Val crept from her pocket in the darkness, and crept along the long, being braver than usual. The blue-and-white mandyr sniffed about, frill completely collapsed against his body. Slowly, he made progress down the log until it reached where the water met the partly-submerged wood. There he sniffed the water.
He jumped when there was a sound of something getting intot he water. Frill flaring, he stood as tall as he could manage, both terrified and trying to appear big and dangerous at the same time. His sharp little eyes soon spotted that it was only a girl. But that in and of itself was more than he wanted to deal with. Spinning around on the log, he bounded back to Dorava with a cheeping sound of alarm. Mine! Mine! No keep, no keep! Val! he announced to Dorava, before diving back into her pocket.
Dorava gave her squirming pocket a curious look, and then got to her feet to go see what had excited him so much. She walked down the bank, to the water's edge, and peered both ways along the river. She couldn't see anything, however ... it just looked like darkness, after a certain distance. "Hello?" She called, experimentally.
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Post by ladybug on Dec 16, 2008 14:34:15 GMT -5
Burena hummed contentedly to herself, floating on her back and enjoying the feel of the water on her bare skin. This was the life! She almost wished she had a friend to swim with, but being alone would do for now. The Weyr was so busy, and it was nice to get away a little bit.
Suddenly, she heard something approach the bank. She tensed, flailing a little as she turned to see what it was. Oh Shards, don't let it be a water snake or something... As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she made out a creature standing on its hind legs, a big ruff around its neck. Its eyes glowed in the darkness.
"Ahhh!" Burry's scream rent the air, and she started swimming further away from the bank, hoping the thing couldn't swim. It was going to eeeaaat her! But then it ran away, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She would live to tell about it in the morning! Well...not the skinny dipping part, but the creature part. It would be fun to spread a rumor about a monster that lurked on the banks of the lake.
Burena was calming down and beginning to swim again when she heard a woman's voice. She was caught! Burena wasn't sure whether to be disappointed or relieved it was a girl. She thought about not answering, but she didn't want to risk it. "Hello!" She called back. "I'm naked, watch out! Did you see the scary monster run by here?"
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Post by dragon on Dec 16, 2008 23:12:42 GMT -5
Dorava looked around for a bit. A scary monster? She hadn't recalled seeing anything that could be called scary or a monster. Much less in this area recently enough to have evoked that kind of a scream from a girl in the river.
Maybe there had been an abnormally large tunnelsnake slinking around? "Val." She whispered. "I need you to scout around and see if there's anything in the area. Okay? Let me know quick, if you find anything." She pulled him out of her pocket, even though he fought with all his limbs to stay inside. "Go on." She prompted, dropping him on the ground.
Val heaved a sigh. Keep Val, no Val keep? He asked, looking up at her.
"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, lil' guy. Be brave, now." she encouraged the shy 'mandyr.
Well ... at least it was dark. Val hurried off into the underbrush, searching along the river's bank, looking for anything scary. But then ... to the shy little blue, that was any and everything. If he came snout to snout with a skink, he'd totally freak out.
Dorava looked around, and then out across the river. "I haven't seen anything! What did it look like?" She called, back. Being a dragonrider, nakedness didn't really bother Dorava that much. It happened to often in her world for it to bother her anymore. And she was pretty sure the girl she was talking to was not fit to make her blind.
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Post by ladybug on Dec 20, 2008 17:47:05 GMT -5
When the woman appeared, Burena swam out to the shallows and stood so she could talk with her. In the moonlight, she made out greenrider knots. Maybe the green dragon could protect them if the monster returned, then. She didn't notice the creature squirming out of Dorava's pocket, and continued to believe there was something frightening afoot.
"It was about yea high--" she said, demonstrating with her hands. "It was standing on two legs, and it had a big frill around it's head!" She waved her arms around her own head to drive the point home. "I think it was blue, but it was kind of hard to tell in the dark," she finished, hoping that was a good enough description.
"Uh--I'm Burena, by the way. Or you can call me Burry." Seeing as she was standing there buck naked, the greenrider might as well know her name.
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Post by dragon on Dec 20, 2008 23:37:18 GMT -5
Dorava listened to what the young girl said, and then smiled slightly. "I think I know what you're reffering to ... and he's not a scary monster. In fact ... he's quite shy." She laughed softly. "Val! Where are you, little guy? Come here, will you?"
Seeing the candidate buck naked didn't bother Dorava in the slightest ... that sort of thing happened a lot around dragons. And it was good to see that the candidate wasn't a prude. If she had been, she'd have been in for a rude shock once she was integrated into the dragon community.
Val came slinking and bounding back across the ground, with a curious peep. Reaching Dorava, he jumped, and clambered all the way up her leg to her hand. Scooping him up, she lifted him so Burena could see. "This what you saw? This is Val ... he's a Salamandyr ... and my pet." Dorava said, with an affectionate smile for the oddly-colored 'mandyr.
Val hunkered down in Dorava's palm, eyeing Burana warily. He wanted nothing more than to dive into that special, dark, warm place in Dorava's shirt. But he seemed to understand that she was deliberately showing him to the scary girl. And so he bravely stayed put, though he quivered nervously.
"It's good to meet you, Burena. I am Dorava. Of Green Aonith." she offered, with a smile. She was somewhat releived to have solved the monster issue. At least there hadn't been any felines slinking around. Those were dangerous.
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Post by ladybug on Dec 24, 2008 17:46:23 GMT -5
"Oh?" Burena cocked her head curiously. She felt silly for mistaking whatever Dorava knew about for a monster, but it happened. Her gaze swept along the ground when she saw movement, and there it was, the thing that had startled her. Now that she expected to see it, it didn't look quite so threatning.
"Your pet?" Burena giggled. "I'm so silly, aren't I? I've heard of 'mandyrs, but I've never got a good look at one before." She put her hand out, about to pet Val, but then hesitated. He looked a little nervous, and even if he wasn't as scary as she had originally thought, he might bite.
"Nice to meet you, Dorava of Aonith," she said when the woman introduced herself, flashing the greenrider a bright grin. It was a pity the green wasn't here, but she was probably asleep. "What brings you out here this late? Anything special?"
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Post by dragon on Dec 25, 2008 21:07:10 GMT -5
Val wiggled uncertainly on Dorava's palm, his white rear half almost seeming to glow in the darkness as he shifted from foot to foot, looking up at Burena. What a scary thing! Scary thing! He wanted to run away ... hide. The abnormally shy 'mandyr hunkered down when she reached toward him, but to his credit, he didn't totally freak out and run away, up Dorava's arm. He stayed put, just like Dorava wanted him to. His little heart was pounding fit to punch a hole in his chest, though. His frill wavered slightly, before laying flat against his body again, beady eyes shining with nervousness.
Dorava shrugged. "I just wasn't ready to sleep ... and it gets so dry, sometimes. Coming down here to sit in the cool humidity can help alot ... especially with the breathing." She said, quietly. "You can pet him. Just ... be slow." She advised. It would do the terrified little 'mandyr good to have someone besides Dorava handle him, she figured. If he didn't have a total heart failure first.
"No, you're not silly ... things can look very different in the darkness than they do in daylight." Dorava told her. "Though few will admit it, everyone has those sort of moments." she smiled slightly, reassuringly, to the young girl.
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