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Post by dragon on Dec 31, 2008 15:07:32 GMT -5
C'oar sat down on the end of the dock, and allowed his booted feet to dangle over the edge. He was bored ... it was the middle of the day, now, right after lunch. And there wasn't a whole lot of activity in the weyr at the moment. The river was getting awful low ... soon people could wade across and not get thier butts wet, the drought kept up like it was. The water was pretty far down from the dock, meaning C'oar could easily dangle his feet off and not get them wet.
They were going to need a new dock, soon, for people to be able to easily get in and out of boats.
Frosstyth was curled up on the side of the dock, a section back, snoozing the midday warmth away. He was again looking like a big brown egg ... he looked a lot like his egg had, at that, barring color. Round. And sleeping. Not moving a whole lot.
C'oar looked over at the metal pail he'd made the day before. It was kind of crude looking, but it was double layered, with water between layers, and a latching lid. Not pretty at all. But with fresh water added between layers, and cold meat piled in the middle bucket, the meat actually stayed cool for most of the day. Meaning C'oar no longer had to run all the way back to the kitchens every two hours to feed Frosstyth ... just every four hours. The pail was currentely full, waiting on Frosstyth to wake up and decide he was hungry again.
C'oar looked over at where Saeo was ... she was supposed to be on boat duty, too, but he hadn't seen her do much in the way of any kind of boating all day. In fact, she'd spent a few hours just riding around in the boat as C'oar rowed, ferrying one person across whenever they wanted to cross.
She'd spent a little while directing boats from the shore during the lunch rush, and he supposed that was useful enough... but he did wonder if she was going to get away with just yelling at Weyrlings all day for her chores.
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Post by nightingale on Dec 31, 2008 15:46:17 GMT -5
Saeo was perched in one of the low branches of a nearby tree, watching the surface of the river with a glazed, uninterested expression. The warmth of the sun was making her very sleepy...which wasn't so bad really, because at least it destracted her from how bored she was. She had gathered a rough idea what boat duty involved -hang out by the shore, wait for someone to show up and then take them across- but she had neither the upper body strength nor the co-ordination to move a boat on her own. She supposed that cleaning them was still an option...but how was she to clean them when they were still being used? Oh, thank goodness she only had to do this twice a week...
The girl was vaguely aware of Cherilith dozing nearby. He was only half asleep, and so she was able to pick out fragments of what she could only guess was some grand, river-based saga playing out in his dreaming mind. She smiled affectionately, wondering if she was wandering about anywhere in that dream of his. It certainly seemed interesting.
"Hey?"
She called, flicking her half-closed eyes in C'oar's direction. She had been purposely avoiding the use of his new name since the hatching. It just seemed...odd, to be calling him anything other than Cloar. Besides, she had grown quite fond of that poor little L he had so unkindly cast aside...
"How exactly does one clean a boat? I don't imagine that they would get very dirty, considering that the spend their days half submerged...maybe if I tilted one over and swept out the inside?"
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Post by dragon on Dec 31, 2008 16:14:23 GMT -5
C'oar looked over at her, up in that tree again. Why in the world was she hanging out in a tree? What was she? A monkey? How in the world was she supposed to stay with her hatchling, way up there? Oh well ... the blue appeared to be sleeping, anyway. Couldn't be hurting anything.
C'oar listened to her question, and looked at the boats. "Well ... you could, I suppose. Dragging them out of the river shouldn't be that big of a deal. But I'd think that cleaning the slime off thier bottoms would be a better idea than sweeping the inside out." He suggested. Though that sounded like more work than just rowing them back and forth, to him. But he'd help her drag one out if she really wanted to. Couldn't hurt ... might earn them some cookies or something. Or maybe a pie?
"You want to do that?" He looked up at her again, resting the palms of his hands on the edge of the peir.
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Post by nightingale on Dec 31, 2008 23:08:33 GMT -5
Saeo wrinkled her nose at the thought of cleaning river slime off of a boat's hull, and eyed one of the floating watercraft darkly.
"I didn't realize that they would attract slime just by sitting out there...and while I'm not sure why it's so important to keep the part of the boat that's forever underwater clean, I suppose I'd best start on it so I can say that I actually accomplished something today."
Arcing her back into a long, feline stretch, Saeo groaned, giving her tired eyes a careful rub to ensure the charcoal didn't smear. That done, getting out of the tree was a simple matter that consisted of little more than easing herself off of the branch and letting go. The soft leather of her boots sent up a whisper of dust as they hit the ground, and the girl offered only the briefest glances up and down the riverbank briefly to check for potential passengers before making her way to the dock.
"Could you untie it for me?"
She asked C'oar with an innocent expression, pointing to one of the heavy ropes that kept the rowboats from being swept away in the current. It was just a little bit out of her reach, and she was worried that if she tried to reach it she'd end up losing her balance and plummeting headfirst into the river.
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Post by dragon on Dec 31, 2008 23:20:23 GMT -5
C'oar watched as she decended from the tree, and grinned slightly. He got to his feet as she approached, and then looked at the boat she indicated. Shards. She had to pick one of the bigger boats? Ah well. He reached over and yanked on the rope, making the slip knot come undone. Unwinding the heavy rope from the peir post, he dragged the boat across the surface of the river, down the peir, until it brushed the shore. Walking off the peir itslef and out onto the ground, C'oar then applied some muscle and weight into dragging the thing up onto dry land.
He grunted a few times, wrestling the thing up where she could easily work on it, what ever she chose to do to it... Once it was completely on dry land, he let the rope drop, and left it lay. Gesturing at it with one arm, he spoke: "Have at it." He offered, before wandering back to the peir and sitting down on the first post he came too, propping his boots on the wood beneath him.
Frosstyth woke up, then, and lifted his head to see what all that horrid scraping and scratching was. Finding a boat where it wasn't supposed to be, he arranged all his legs and wings to get to his feet, and ambled over to the dry docked boat to check it out.
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Post by nightingale on Jan 1, 2009 0:39:16 GMT -5
"Thank you!"
Saeo chirped, grinning widely at Cloar before setting her attention on what was the best way to clean slime off of a boat's hull. It was obvious that the job hadn't been done in a while... Sand then? Yes, sand would have do do. She wasn't about to go running back to the kitches for a scrubbing brush. The girl knelt down next to the overturned craft and set about scrubbing at the slimey buildup with a handful of wet sand.
Saeo? Cherilith's mental voice was sleepy and destracted. What is it Cherilith? I was having this strange dream that you and Ebolath's were swimming in the river when this very large creature tried to eat you...oh, and what was that noise? It was just Cloar dragging one of the boats ashore. Are we going somewhere? No, sorry. I just have to clean it. You're far to big to fit anyway. I could swim next to it? Cherilith, we're not going boating right now, I'm sorry...are you hungry? A little...maybe we can swim later? Sure, we can go after supper tonight. You need a bath anyway. Maybe Frosstyth and His will come? I...don't think so. Why?...Saeo-mine, why will they not come with us?...Saeo-mine?
The little blue lifted his head lethargically from the sandy bank, his eyes whirling a slightly confused yellow-green as he watched his bonded's efforts at scrubbing a hole right through the bottom of the boat. His was friends with Frosstyth's, wasn't she? Why should they not bathe together then? Well, if Saeo wouldn't give him a reason why they shouldn't come, he would just have to invite them.
Frosstyth? He quirried, watching his brown Clutchsibling as he wandered toward the docks. Mine and I are going swimming this evening after supper. Would you and yours like to join us?
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Post by dragon on Jan 1, 2009 0:48:19 GMT -5
Frosstyth blinked, and looked up from inspecting the boat, looking over at Cherilith. Sure. Sounds like fun! Which meal is dinner? the brown asked, curiously. After all ... there were so many meals in a day! And he didn't know the names of most of them ... just two. Breakfast and lunch.
Wandering around the boat, Frosstyth sat down next to Cherilith, and tilted his head, watching Saeo. Why is yours scratching at the bottom of the boat? It looks icky. I wouldn't want to touch it. Then I'd be icky. Yours is icky, now! I can see why you're going bathing after supper. Frosstyth mentioned.
C'oar knew that Frost was talking to Cherry, but he hadn't the slightest notion what about. But he was happy they were getting along. Some of the weyrlings simply didn't. Which was sad. Propping an elbow on his raised knee, C'oar watched as Saeo attempted to scrub off slime with sand... it looked to him like all she was doing was impregnating the slime with sand. What she needed, he thought, was a scraper.
"Saeo?" He asked, finally. "Would you like to borrow my knife?" He offered. Just like usual, the blade was hidden on his person, but also like usual, he was always carrying the item. And ... watching her working like that while he was sitting was making him a little self concious of not doing anything at the moment.
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Post by nightingale on Jan 1, 2009 1:20:46 GMT -5
Supper is the one that comes a little bit before sunset. Cherilith informed the brown, flaring his wings before settling down again, so as to absorb as much sun as possible. Mine says that she is trying to clean the boat...but you're right, it will be nice to have a bath. Mine dosen't bathe in the river though. She says that there's a special place with warm water that the humans go to.
"Umm...no, that's alright."
The girl murmured absently at C'oar question, not bothering to mention that scraping the bottom of a boat was a poor use for a good blade. At the moment, she was more concerned with reaching out for her dragon's mind. She had hoped ignoring his question would make Cherilith back off...but not nearly so swifty and competely. It made her nervous...
Cherilith? Yes mine? Are you...what are you doing? Oh, I was just speaking with Frosstyth. He says that having a bath would be good because you're getting icky -supper is the meal we eat right before the sun sets, isn't it? Yes, it comes after lunch...why? Oh, I just wanted to be sure that he knew the proper time to meet us. Is here alright for a place?
Saeo flinched, pausing momentarily from her scrubbing as a cold horror clawed it's way into her chest
Oh you didn't! I didn't what? Oh Cherilith, you did NOT just invite them to come swimming! I did...is my Saeo upset?
Wish a small, almost inaudible groan of misery Saeo ducked her head and went back to her scrubbing.
My Saeo is upset...Cherilith didn't mean to upset her. Does she not like Frosstyth's? I've no issues with Cloar! And I had aimed to keep it that way! Well, then how can a bath hurt?...Cherilith I love you...but patiance become me, you have a lot of learning to do...
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Post by dragon on Jan 1, 2009 1:34:54 GMT -5
Frosstyth looked at Cherilith for a moment, before looking at the boat again for a moment. That was starting to get boring ... it wasn't interesting anymore. No longer something new. So, he wandered over to where Cherilith was laying in the sun, and piled up against his little brother. Heaving a contented sigh, Frosstyth blinked slowly, before draping his neck over the smaller blue. Contented with that, and getting lots of sun, the young brown went back to sleep again. And for a change he didn't resemble and egg shape.
C'oar watched the two dragons for a moment, then shook his head ruefully. Getting down off the post, he wandered off toward some trees. After finding a suitable branch, he pulled out his knife and started whittling on it. The sharp blade made quick work of the wood, and soon he had a shaped scraper made of wood. This he carried back to Saeo, and offered it to her, silently.
While making the scraper, he had completely missed all her ranging expressions, and had no idea the difficulty she was having with Cherilith. He tucked the knife back into its sheath, and then wandered back to the peir, ready should anyone turn up wanting across.
... boat duty sure was boring. And when it wasn't boring, it was a lot of work. But at least he wasn't alone ... There were a few others around and about, also stuck in the area.
Perching on the top of the post again, C'oar went back to watching Saeo work at the boat. He had no idea when the last time the boats had been maintained was ... nor had he any idea how long it took a boat to get that kind of algae build up. But it looked like something that tended to happen quickly. He didn't even really know if the effort to clean the bottoms was worth it. Now ... on sea going vessels ... those he knew had to be cleaned of crustations on the hull periodically. But ... river boats? He just didn't know.
But Saeo was busy now, and that was making her happy. So he let her have at it, rather uninterested in getting into the slime himself.
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Post by nightingale on Jan 1, 2009 19:32:43 GMT -5
Saeo was slowly becoming aware that a run to the kitchens might be in her best interest if she hoped to get the boats clean before sunset. Then again she mused, maybe if she took an incredibly long time completing the task she could convince Cherilith to take a bath in the morning instead...
She made a small, curious noise as C'oar offered her what looked to be a very ugly wood carving. For a moment, she simply stared at it, wondering what it could possibly be...oh, it was for scraping boats, wasn't it? It looked to be the proper shape anyway.
"Oh...uh, thank you."
She mumured, accepting the object with a blank expression. While her hands were rather small for it's heft, a quick test proved the tool to be far more efficant than wet sand at removing river slime.
"Hey, this thing works really well!"
She commented, smiling with grim satsifaction as she attacked the slime-coated hull with her new scraper. Die, revolting green scum of misery and dispair! Cower before my mighty wrath!
"Did they teach you to make this kind of thing back when you were a smithy?"
She asked offhandedly, attempting to destract herself from the righteous crusade against river slime that was beginning to form in her thoughts before she started making sound effects.
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Post by dragon on Jan 1, 2009 20:06:35 GMT -5
C'oar smiled slightly as Saeo announced that it worked really well. "Good." He answered, simply, watching as she worked on the boat. He got down off the post again, almost feeling like a hyper kid who can't sit still. But this time, there was another good reason for it ... sitting on a post wasn't comfy. And it was starting to make his behind hurt. So he piled up at the base of the post, instead, using it as a back rest. He propped one elbow on a raised knee, and started picking the grit out from under his thick nails with the tip of his knife.
She was looking awfully happy scraping slime... and the pile of slime at her feet was starting to get a tad deep and gross looking. Cloar considered maybe doing something about it, but didn't get a chance to before she started talking again. He laughed, lightly. "Not really, no. Not out of wood, anyway. We did make metal boat scrapers, though. Curved blades designed to scrape those crustaceous growths off of the seagoing boats. I figured for slime, a wooden one would work. So ... I know how they're supposed to be shaped, and carved one. Not hard, really." He explained. And it wasn't, either. Especially not with a sharp knife to work with.
At that point, Frosstyth woke up again, and make a strange belching noise. I am hungry, mine. He announced, rather abruptly.
"Well, get your butt up and get over here, then." C'oar remarked, in reply, unwilling to get up just so his hungry dragon could have breakfast in bed.
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Post by nightingale on Jan 3, 2009 14:19:48 GMT -5
It took Saeo a moment's pause to realize that the last statement C'oar had made wasn't directed at her. When it did register she laughed, giving her head a little shake before going back to work. She'd almost finished with the small vessel, but wanted to make sure that she did a thorough job before moving on the the second of the eight she would have to finish before supper.
"It's strange having another mind inside your head, isn't it?"
She commented, offering Cherilith a brief glance as she shifted positions to follow the moving sun. He looked perfectly content, wings spread around him like a great blue lilypad as he dreamed some grand fantasy of his own devising.
"But then, I'm sure it's not quite so odd for you."
She continued, rubbing one algae-coated hand against her pants to improve her grip on the wooden scraper.
"You've already had Storm impress to you...but then again, dragons I'm sure are rather different from Fire Lizards."
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Post by dragon on Jan 3, 2009 15:37:13 GMT -5
C'oar laughed softly at Saeo's laughter, after he realized what she was laughing at. "No, I wasn't talking to you." he told her, as he gently scrubbed the top of Frosstyth's brown head once the weyrling got close enough. Frosstyth was still new enough to have really tender skin, and C'oar's work-roughened hands were quite scratchy enough without him having to actially scratch his dragon. Tugging his pail over, he popped the catch free, and pulled out a peice of meat. Frosstyth hungrily slurped it up ... and actually remembered to chew before swallowing! "Good boy." C'oar rumbled, patting Frosstyth's shoulder.
Frosstyth burbled and reached for the pail with his snout. More? Please! Another? He asked, almost drooling.
"Having another mind inside your head is rather strange." He agreed, with a nod, as he fed another peice into the brown's open and waiting mouth. "And it's just as odd for me, I think, actually. Flitters and dragons are nothing alike. I will say that the flitter did help in preparing me ... I didn't go gaga like some of those others did, when Frosstyth found me. But ... It was still like nothing I'd ever dreamed possible." C'oar said, holding the brown dragon by the snout to keep him out of the pail. "Wait a moment, big guy, okay? Just be patient." he scolded, lightly. "Flitters are kinda like suddenly having a teddy bear next to you in your bed, when you're little. They're there. You can feel them. But they're ... peripheral. They're not actually in your mind. You can feel them, find them, talk to them, but you don't automatically share every thought and feeling and emotion." C'oar said, relenting and giving Frosstyth a larger peice of meat to chew on for a bit. That one was a trick peice ... it had a blob of gristle in the middle, and might ... might ... keep the dragon occupied for a little bit before he gave up and just swallowed it.
"Having a dragon is like suddenly having a whole other soul merge with yours, inside your own body, and yet, part of you leaving at the same time, to merge in thier body." C'oar continued. "Becomes something of a dual single entity. Every thought, every feeling, every pain, every hunger, every love ... it's all the same. There's little to no distinguishing between the two physicals, because the mind is one."
And then C'oar realized he was talking to someone who already knew all that ... and he grinned crookedly again. "Sorry." he apologised. "Speaking of ... " He looked around, wondering where Storm was. He hadn't seen the bronze flitter in an hour or so.
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Post by nightingale on Jan 4, 2009 16:59:36 GMT -5
Saeo smiled widely, amused both by Frosstyth's poor table manners and C'oar's attempt at poetry. It wasn't such a terrible metaphor, she supposed. And after all, without a mindpet of her own the words of others were all she had to go on.
Glancing over the bottom of her boat, she suddenly realized that she had scraped it clean. Well, that wasn't so bad...
"That's very eloquent you know."
She chuckled, rising from her algae strewn patch of sand and brushing grit off of her bare knees.
"And I have to agree that sometimes it's hard for me to tell where my thoughts end and Cherilith's begin...I always manage to find the joining point though. The usual tip off is when my mind starts flooding with thoughts of juicy meat."
She sighed, joints cracking audibly as she lifted her arms into a long stretch. Shells, this scraping boats was more work than she had imagined it would be. Well, at least she was making progress. She tilted her head curiously as she noticed that C'oar seemed to be looking for something.
"Is something wrong?"
She queried, letting her arms drop to her sides so that she could swing them idly.
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Post by dragon on Jan 4, 2009 19:29:55 GMT -5
"Eloquent?" C'oar asked, with a blink. He had been called many things in his young life, but never that. He'd have just said he was rambling. Needlessly. So ... that was rather ... unexpected thing to hear her say. "Um... okay?" He offered, lamely.
He noticed that she seemed to be finished with the boat, but was unable to ruse and help her out with getting it back in the water, since Frosstyth was now more or less draped over his lap, pinning him down as he reached for the bucket of food... which C'oar was vainly trying to keep out of his reach. "Frost!" He said, finally, shoving on the dragon, before actually laughing at Saeo's comment. "Juicy meat." He repeated. "Yeah, that would be a tip off, huh?" He agreed.
Mmmm. Juicy meat. Mine! Mine! Give it to me, mine! I am hungry. Juicy meat! and as an accent, the weyrling's belly actually growled.
"Alright! Sheesh. Just... back off, get off me ... alright? You're too big for this." C'oar protested.
Something wrong? What...? Oh. "Ah ... not really. I was just wondering where Storm got to. Haven't seen him in awhile. I just hope he's not hunting Stupid down." He commented, as Frosstyth finally got off of him. Heaving a sigh of releif, C'oar gave the dragon a new peice to chew on.
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