Fort Weyr - Stables
While the stables aren't elaborate or very big, the Fort Weyr runnerbeast stable is well-cared for. With five stalls down each side of the aisle, a small office makes up one end, with a tack room beside it. On the other end is a storage room, a feed room on the other side. The stalls are box variety, with the walls between stalls thick wood built two-thirds up from the ground. Stalls along the near side are a bit wider than on the far side, to accomadate Fort's ride runners, as well as hold guests' runners overnight when needed. Feeders and waterers are set into each stall, with also a hay net set against the far side of each stall, near the mesh framed doors. Lighting is dim, but there is enough light to see by. The air is nearly always the crisp scent of runners, even just outside and nearby the stable.
Karona is wandering through the stable, peeking into stalls here and there. "No. No. No. No." she's murmuring as she eyes each runner, apparently looking for a specific one. "Come /on/, where /is/ he?" she mutters, continuing her futile search. After going through half of the stables, she mutters to herself, and pokes her head out the exit, as if she might see that runner coming down the trail. "He should /be/ here by now."
Down on one knee, Risner has his trusty screwdriver again, and is busily loosening the hinges on a door to an unoccupied stall. Footsteps cause him to look up, and he flashes Karona a brief smile before he turns back to his work. "Karona," he greets, his eyes on his job.
There's the clip-clop of many hooves from the further end of the stable. Many little hooves, in fact, though as the source of the noise comes into view it's obvious it's not runners. Heading a small herd of goats - one adult and two kids - is the fairly easy to recognize form of Elyciana. Oddly eonugh, though, there's not a smirk to beseen on her face but a genuine smile instead. Strange upon strange. Not only that, but she's clutching a rather large bottle of what appears to be milk against her chest and, of course,Waldo the gosling is waddling along at her heels. "C'mon! You won't get anything if you — " she begins in an almost cheerful voice, though cuts abruptly short as she notices she's /not/ alone in the stables. "I mean …" For a moment she's tongue tied, the smile melting off her face as she eyes Risner and Karona. Both baby goats start to bleat and headbutt her legs insistently. They want that bottle, obviously.
Moydeo is down at the stables, checking in on things, while the nannies have given her break from halping with the 'brats. She's not been to the stables in days. She wanders in, and goes out, first visiting her favorites, including the counting runner. She looks up hearing voices, and waves to Risner, and Karona. "Hey Risner, Karona." She greets them with a grin. "They got you doing repairs today Risner?" She asks him, and then looks up as goats enter, herded by Ely, and she snickers at the girl quietly. "Hey Ely."
Karona tilts her head briefly at Risner, though her gaze quickly returns to the exit. "Risner." she does at least say, acknowledging the candidate's presence. The clip-clopping of the goats /does/ get her to turn her head, even though there's this nagging voice in the back of her head that says there's no /way/ that's the runner - the sound is wrong, the hooves are too small and plentiful. Her shoulders slump a bit, but she does give a nod to Elyciana with the goats. "Uh, hi.." Has she met Elyciana yet? She doesn't think she has, she certainly can't place a name. And then there's Moydeo too. So many people, and each time she thinks it might be someone else… but it never is. "Ah. Moydeo, hi." she says, trying to keep the disappointment from her tone. "Where /is/ he?!" she mutters again, eyeing the exit.
Risner shifts his weight, balancing the stable door as he removes it from the hinges. He leans it carefully against the wall before he stands, dusts himself off, and turn towards the incoming Elyciana. "Hey, Ely," he greets her, making no comment about her voice or 'real' smile. He'll be nice, and pretend he didn't notice. "Mo! Yeah. Maintanence all day. Had a chair in the living caverns, the fence out in the feeding grounds, and now a few repairs in here, too. What have you been up to?" Karona is glanced at, a puzzled expression on his face. "Who are you looking for?"
Elyciana clutches the bottle even tighter, perhaps a little tense at being caught smiling, Faranth forbid it. "Hey Mo," she finally manages to regain her voiec and her smirk, which immediately returns, "They finally let you out of those candidate duties of yours?" Still, she remains almost frozen on the spot, her arms clenched tightly around that milk bottle as her eyes stray from the runner girl over to Karona, who elicits a tiny frown, "I don't know you. But … hello anyways." Her mismatched eyes leave her and eventually settle on Risner, who causes an arched brow, "Are you following me or something? Shards. I didn't think I was that popular." With each greeting and word, the cacophony of animal noises next to her becomes louder. Bleating, as well as cheeping from the tiny gosling, fill the room. Eventually there is one powerful headbutt from one of the kids that has her stumbling a little. This breaks her trance and she blinks once, frowning a little down at the pair of black and white goat kids, "Fine, fine! Blame them!" She starts towards a low lying stack of hay, which might do for a seat, and flops down onto it. Her little menagerie follows along at a trot. Clip clop. Bleat. Cheep.
Moydeo blinks at Karona. "Where is who?" She asks crafter, and then looks to Risner. "Ah, helping nannies in the nursery all day." She admits. "Man, never knew babies smelled so bad." She says, making a face for a moment, and then nods to Elyciana. "Yeah, for now, they've let me go, but they know where to find me if they need me." She chuckles, and resists laughing as one of the goat kids head butts Ely. "I see those twins are doing well." She comments, yes, being nice about goats for once, heh.
Karona glances to Risner, and shrugs just a bit. "Ah, my, er, a harper. From the hall. Master Karell." Kar, as in Karona? She likely would have introduced him as her father, if she hadn't been hoping someone could identify him, in case perhaps he snuck by when she wasn't looking. "He had one of his apprentices with a firelizard send me a message, saying he'd be here today. Arranged a day off and everything. Do you know how /hard/ it is to get an unscheduled day off less than a month after being posted?" Okay, so she's a /little/ bit emotional, but it's her /father/. She actually likes her father. "Ah. Karona." is her introduction to Elyciana. Simple, to the point. Yep. She eyes Elyciana's little menagerie warily, and takes a step closer to the door. All the better to see the trail with, honestly! She tilts her head at Moydeo, and then smiles, just faintly. "My father. Waiting for my father."
"Ely-dear, I think you've got that backwards. You're following *me*." Risner nods slowly, confident in this decision. "First you sic your attack goose on me in the LC, now you've come to sic the goats on me." But he doesn't seem too concerned, seeing as he soon turns his back from the goats to poke at the door. But he only pokes for a moment before turning around to lean against the wall to flash Moydeo a smile. "Oh uh. Well…" he starts, glancing at Karona with mild confusion. "Did he say he was going to meet you in the, ah, barn? Not the caverns? Good luck, though. Bummer."
Elyciana plonks the large milk bottle down in front of her with a soft *thump* and begins to deftly work at adjusting the rubber nipple end of the thing. Oddly eonugh, it's branched off at one end to allow for both of the babies to have access to it without any problems. It's obvious they're hungry, too, as immediately they crowd around and begin to bleat, their little tails wiggling. "Doing that won't get you the milk any faster," she quips in a good-natured sort of way, snorting a little in derision. When WAldo the gosling cheeps too, she adds for his benefit, "And you're not allowed milk." Hefting teh bottle in both hands,s he glances over it at Moydeo with a slight smirk, "Much hardier than runners!" Of course that'd be what she says. "I'm Ely, if you hadn't guessed yet," she throws at Karona as she begins to lever the bottle on her knees, "And you often meet your loved ones in a barn, of all places? Is your father a runner or really a human?" It looksa bit difficult to positio the bottle with the twog oat kids headbutting for access and she grumbles a bit, "And you're wrong Risner. I'm always right. You're following me. I'm /supposed/ to be here. You're just here by chance that some stupid door needs tightening."
Moydeo blinks at Karona. "But, if you're a Smithcrafter, and he is a Harper, why would he meet you in the stable? Not out in the bowl, or in the living caverns?" She asks, just as confused, and then blinks at Risner. "She siced Waldo on you?" She asks him. "Why did she do that?" She asks him, and snorts at Ely, and her attitude. She moves to take a seat near where Risner was working. "Runners are plenty hardy Ely, and alot smarter than goats." She adds.
Karona looks a little sheepish, and shakes her head. "Well, no, he didn't say the barn, as such. But he's coming in on runner, so he'd /have/ to come here. I don't see his runner in here, unless… He might've gotten a different one since I last saw him ride." she has to admit the possibility, frowning back at the stalls. "His runner'd be getting on a bit by now." So might not be able to make the trip in the same time? Perhaps. "He, er… The note actually said to meet in the caverns." Ahem. She frowns a little, and finds a bale of hay to plop herself down on as well. "The Hall's just a day's ride, by runner. My father prefers not to deal with riders if it's not necessary. Sometimes he can be a real stubborn old fool." But he's still her father.
"Father?" asks Risner, looking between Ely and Karona. "I thought he was a Harper?" But apparently he's both. Huh. Ely is thoroughly and instantaneously ignored as he readjusts against the wall, allowing room for Moydeo with the door on one side. Gonna have to fix that eventually. "It wasn't intentionally, he just ended up running at me, instead of the millions of other residents in the Living Caverns. Besides, it's not like the little thing has teeth."
Elyciana tilts the bottle downwards and grasps it firmly with both hands, ready for the onslaught. It doesn't take long for both of the goats to latch on and begin to make happy suckling noises. "Well," she retorst to Moydeo, glancing up with a smirk once more, "We've been through this so many times. I think goats have won overall on many different points. But .. for the sake of company, we'll drop it." She shifts a bit on the bale of hay, trying to make herself as comfortable as possible on the scratchy, lumpy surface. Not an easy job, of course, but she tries. The little gosling cheeps quietly and settles himself down at Ely's foot, looking content just to be nearby his surrogate mother. How sweet. "His looks can be deceiving," she adds with a smirk for Risner this time, "Allt hat cute and fluffy business is a ruse. It'll work perfectly if he learns to be protective. But … I think he's a bit too friendly." She eyes the goose at her feet skeptically, as though waiting for him to show some signs of being an attack goose. The gosling cheeps softly, looking all innocent with his beady black eyes. Attack? Me?
Moydeo blinks at Risner. "Harpers can't be fathers?" She asks him, and nods to Karona. "If you like I can send one of firelizards to the caverns with a message, to see if he's there." She offers the girl. "That way you'll know if he's there or not." She adds. "So, what happened to the door? One of Ely's goats break it open?" She asks with a snicker, and nods to Ely. "Sure, about time we drop it anyway, agree to disagree." She shrugs.
Karona nods at Risner. "My father, the harper. Yes. Karell, Karona?" she points out, subtly perhaps. If the 'Kar' came from Karell, presumably the 'ona' of her name came from her mother. "He's been both for, oh, the past twenty-odd turns." Twenty three, but who's counting. "And he's already nearly a sevenday late." Ahem. A new turn started about then, and it was Karona's turnday. Not that /she's/ counting. "He'd /better/ have a good reason." Pout. Seems her excitement about seeing her father again isn't /limitless/. Moydeo's offer of sending a firelizard gets a grateful nod. "I'd send my own, but they're not even a month old yet, all they do is eat and sleep, they'd be no use."
"Oh hey!" speaking of Firelizards, "Guess what I found in my boot earlier, Mo? A firelizard egg." Risner turns to bob his head at Ely. "I asked a dragonhealer, he said it was definitely a firelizard egg. Now I just have to figure out who left it in my boot." He glances briefly at Karona before finally turning to begin working on that door, which seems to involve removing several warped and rotting boards. To Karona, he simply says "Moydeo, A'deo, doesn't mean A'deo's her father, does it?" So there.
Elyciana nearly gets knocked off of her bale of hay after a rather strong tug from the goat twins, causing her to stumble awkwardly and lean crazily to one side for a few seconds. That's what she gets for being distracted by Moydeo's comment about goats. She rights herself fairly quickly and passes it off by quipping, "It was probably one of your runners, I'm sure. We spend a lot of time shoring up the goat pens." Bracing her feet firmly against the floor, she resituates the bottle on her knees and then lets out her breath in a sigh as she eyes Karona, "Well. I'm sure he'll get here soon. Maybe the snow got him delayed? It's certainly cold out there." She eyes the door next, shivering a little at the thought of having to go out there again. "It was either a fire lizard egg or another goose egg. Thankfully it was a fire lizard," she notes to Risner, smirking a little, "I hope you put it somewhere warm. You sure it's not going to hatch while you're here fixing rotten boards? One of the other candidates might Impress it." Waldo cheeps quietly, his eyes beginning to close. Sleepy goose.
Moydeo nods to Karona. "Yours came from the big clutch that was in the living cavern, right?" She asks the crafter, and then gives a low whistle, and soon her brassy brown flitter swoops into the stable, only 4months old, but he's big enough to carry a small note, being over half grown. She takes out a scrap of paper, and starts writing the note down. "Karell, right?" She asks the girl, writting 'Inquiring if the Harper, Karell, is in the cavern, please return with a note.' She gives Elan the message, before giving him the image of the caverns. The brown gives a chitter, befpre he takes flight, and disappears between. As she waits, she looks to Risner. "Really? Wow, what luck, I don't know, maybe ask the other candidates if they're missing eggs from their firelizards?" She sugggests. "Since those are the only flitters that reside in the barracks at the moment."
Karona snorts, but she /does/ have to concede Risner's point. "I guess not. But still. Karell is my father." she says, with a shrug. There we go, all stated factually, and please /do/ ignore her fretting here. He's fine, surely. "If he's still riding that ancient runner… Oooh, I could /kill/ him." She's just worried, really. She gets up and starts pacing. She's not the best conversationalist when she's worrying, is she? But she does nod briefly at Moydeo. "Ah, yes, both of them." Both hatchings, or both firelizards? …both. "Brown in the first, blue in the second."
Risner shakes his head as he pries a board from the door. "Nah," he tells Ely. "Dragonhealer said I had at least a day, probably two, before I had to worry. Besides, it's not my egg. Shouldn't I find whoever it belongs to?" And interrogate them about why it was in his boot? He nods at Moydeo. "Exactly what I was thinking. But why leave it in my boot?" Sigh. The board is tossed aside and a new one, resting on a small pile at his feet, is picked up and fit into place. Apparently, they were pre-cut, and all Risner has to do is nail it into place. Easy. "I'm sure he's fine. Besides, if he runs into trouble, the dragonriders would find him, right? Search and rescue, that sorta thing." Too bad Fort lost that one.
Elyciana clenchs her fingers around the edges of the bottle and leans back slowly, carefully easing the thing away from the suckling goats. There's a comical moment where the kids are lifted briefly onto their hind legs as they make a vain attempt to cling to their prize, but they soon release, looking quite content. "No more, you gluttons, or you'll be too fat to move," she chides them in a half-exasperated, half-fond tone. The huge bottle is set to one side on the hay stack and she wipes her hands carefully on a nearby rag, "Honestly … why would anyone put an egg in his boot if they wanted to keep it? Likely someone's sharding green didn't want an egg and went and laid it in his boot. They're not going to miss it." Despite her lack of experience in these matters, she seems fairly confident. Or she could just be confident about anything, whether she's experienced or not. Settling back against the stable wall, she lets her eyes follow the pacing Karona. Back and forth. Back and forth. "Waldo here's from that clutch too .. albeit … not really." She eyes the sleeping gosling at her feet for a moment.
"Good point," concedes Risner with a grimace, "But I don't like the mental image of a green laying an egg in my boot. Besides, it's too hard to be just laid." Phew. "But that idea of it being a green's egg, and maybe the owner didn't want it? I'll buy that." Which means it's his egg, right? Risner looks slightly more cheerful at the idea. Good timing, too, as just at that moment a firelizard pops into existence at the top of the stable, flies around his head, and drops a note on him. "Oh, well, I guess dragonhealer's can't always be right, right? Gotta go!" and away he goes - but don't worry, he doesn't run until he's OUT of the stable.
Moydeo shrugs at Risner. "Maybe the female liked how your boot smelled, or maybe thought it was nice and warm." She shrugs, wwhy do firelizards do weird things like that? Sometimes it would be nice to be able to communicate with them like you can the dragons. She nods to Karona. "Nice, I got a brown in the first, and a green in the second." She chuckles. "Elan, the one I sent to the caverns is one of my oldest, I got him in a hatching that happened while I was visiting Ista, the same with my blue, Rocky." She admits, and looks up as the young brown returns, coming to land on her outstretched arm. She takes the note, and frowns. "Well, seems he's not in there." She says, looking at Karona. "Maybe he got delayed by the snow?" She offers hopefully.
Karona halts her pacing, and gives Waldo a long look. The gosling hatched in that clutch? But, but… It's a gosling! That does explain the 'not really', though. "I. But he's not.. How… You didn't /impress/ him?" It's more an accusation than a question, but she's eyeing the gosling warily. She /knows/ birds also hatch from eggs, but she's never heard of someone 'impressing' or imprinting one. She's a smith, not a beastcrafter, and birds are just sources of food to her — wherry meat, and eggs, and the like — not /pets/. She offers a wave to Risner as he leaves, shaking her head slowly. "Wish him luck with that egg." she murmurs. There's an exasperated sigh then, as Moydeo's firelizard returns bearing a negative note, and she plops herself back down on that hay bale. "Stubborn old /fool/." But, he'll show up when he shows up. "Snow's likely it. He'll be fine." Hopefully. She's at least /trying/ to focus on other things now, and her eyes drift back to that mysterious gosling.
Elyciana leans forward a bit to offer pets to the two baby goats, scratching them between their tiny horns and then tickling them under their chins. Each caress causes a happy bleat in return and soon the pudgy things are settling down intot he hay on the floor to rest, their tails twitching slightly. "Geese imprint," she explains, glancing up towards Karona, a slight smirk on her face, "Basically …" She pauses, folding her arms across her chest as she glances down at Waldo, who's actually fallen asleep into a little bundle of fluffy down feathers, "… he thinks I'm his mother, since I was the first thing he saw when he hatched. A bit silly, really, but that's the way it works. He won't stop following me around." She lets out a scoff at this, as though it were a great inconvenience, despite the fact there's a softness in her tone. A weakness in Ely? Perhaps - perhaps not. Still, she flicks an absent hand at the door, which rattles slightly with each gust of chilly wind, "Anyone'll take a long time to get here in that. It's sharding freezing. He's probably had to stop along the way for a rest somewhere. It might take twice as long to get here in this weather."
Moydeo waves to Risner as he goes. "Bye Risner! See you later!" She calls after him, before she looks to Ely, and Karona, nodding to the latter. "Maybe he should of asked for a ride from the riders here, he would of gotten here much sooner." She says, blinking slightly at Karona calling her /father/ an old fool, but she doesn't comment on it. "And, if what you say about his runner being older, the snow could be hampering the beast as well, some of the older ones can be as stiff as some of the old nannies in the cold." She says, and idly gives Elan a meat roll for his sucessful message delivery, best to award them after all.
Karona scowls, and shakes her head. "If he's not here by tomorrow, I'll see if I can't hitch a ride with some rider on sweeps. But there's every chance he's just delayed. Probably holed up in some small holding along the way." Doesn't mean she can't /worry/. And she only calls him a fool because she /is/ worried, and it makes her lash out a bit. She shakes her head, and tries to put it out of her mind. She can investigate and worry /tomorrow/. It is very logical to assume he's simply been delayed, no reason to panic. So she attempts to refocus on the barn, and Elyciana's interesting menagerie. "He thinks you're his /mother/? But, uh, you don't even /look/ like him at all." Of course, she's not about to /argue/, she just thinks it's odd. There's a nod for Moydeo, at the old runner reminder, and she sighs. "Ought to talk him into a new runner, or at least ask him to talk to the watchrider when he wants a lift." Because the watchrider could call a transport rider. "But he really… He prefers not to deal with riders. Can't really blame him." But /she'd/ take a dragonride if she wanted to visit. She's /really/ not doing too well at putting it out of her mind, huh?
Elyciana rubs her hands together idly, eyeing the multiple stalls of runners in the stables and letting out her breath in a frustrated huff, "Well .. silly to depend on a runner in this weather anyhow when you have a perfectly good dragonrider to ask for help. He could've been here in a shake of a goat tail." Excuse the pun on the goats, but it stil causes Ely to smirk a little, despite the feebleness of the comment. She lets out a derisive snort at Karona's comment on her goose and motions absently to herself, "I know I don't look like a goose. It's just the way their brains work. They sort of imprint on the first living thing they see. Had he clapped eyes on you when he first broke shell, he'd be following oyu around." And here she pauses, letting her eyes follow Karona's form up and down critically, "You don't look like a goose, either." An apt conclusion. Brushing hay from her clothing, she pushes herself to her feet and leans forward, nudging both goats carefully to get them to rise to their feet. "Speaking of goats and the like .. I need to get these back to their pen so they can have a bit of a rest. Hope your father turns up whole and unfrozen." She lifts a hand in an idle wave to the pair of them before she leads the goats off, who follow her almost as willingly as they would a mother. It takes Waldo the gosling a few seconds to realize his surrogate is leaving. With a distressed *cheep!* he stumbles to his feet and scurries off after her, tagging along the heels of the goats. What an odd parade of farm animals.
Moydeo waves to Ely as she goes. "See you around Ely." She says as the girl heads off with the goats. She then looks to Karona. "He must be determined to get here, if he hasn't atleast sent a firelizard to let you know that he's delayed." She does find it kind of odd that after days of the last one, he's not sent anything, and left her to worry. "Good idea, and I know you said he doesn't like to talk to rider, but I know one of the rider s owns runners in this stables, and he's trying to reduce his herd." She chuckles. "I think he has some pretty young ones."
Karona shakes her head, "Well, if he doesn't run into anyone /with/ a firelizard, he can't send one to me, can he? He's been meaning to get a firelizard since, oh, before I was born, probably. Just… not got around to it yet. He's a busy man." And yet can afford to take a few days off to visit Fort Weyr, by runner? The smith offers Elyciana a nod of farewell, smirking just a little at the sight of the parade of animals. It /is/ an odd sight. "Ah, I really ought to talk him into getting a new runner, I suppose, but he's so fussy. Needs to be a sturdy runner," he's a little, ahem, portly. "and a smooth ride, with a calm temperament. He's just a harper, see, he's not really all that used to runners."
Moydeo blinks, oh, she hadn't thought about that, she assumed the one he sent was his. "Oh, I'm sorry, I assumed the one he sent was his." She says apologetically. "But then again, not everybody has firelizards." She says. "Hmm, a busy man, and yet he can take take days off to ride a runnerbeast in snow, rather then take a dragon." The man must not be that busy then. "Ah, I understand, most of the runners here have good temperaments, I haven't heard of them biting anybody, or kicking them yet." She says, and considering they let candidates unsupervised in here is a good sign too, right?
Karona frowns a little, and shakes her head. "It's okay… I'd best go, I think. Consult with a few search and rescue riders, maybe ask them to keep an eye out." she says finally, standing again. "I, I ought to go. Thanks for the firelizard help, and I'll look into those runners. Need a nice solid /riding/ runner." But it seems they're not that common a breed, actually. With a shrug, she heads for the exit, going for the trail back to the Weyr. "I'll, uh. See you round." she does offer, as parting words.
Moydeo nod, and waves to Karona. "Ah, yea, I think I should check back with the nannies at the nursery." She says, standing up. "I'll see you around as well, and I hope your father arrives safely." She says, as the crafter departs. She's soon treking out into the snow herself, headed back to her assigned chore.
