Ierne Weyrhold - Main Beach
A long curving beach, the sand yellowish brown, facing eastward along the Great Bay coast. Off on the horizon, far in the distance, can be seen the cliffs of Southern Hold, on the opposite side.
The beach curves north-northeast, and south-southeast, stretching both directions quite a distance, while gentle waves lap in from the bay to the east. Far beyond the hide-tide mark, at the forest's edge, the cobbled stones of the road lead west toward Ierne.
The noonday sun beats down on the island. Were it not for the breeze whispering over the island it might actaully be rather hot. A few residents and guests of the weyrhold are scattered about the beach. Playing in the waterr, sunning or taking walks along the beach. One such person is Dare. She has a long stick thrown over her shoulder as she walks along the beach. Water laps at her bare feet with nearly in incoming wave. The stick is lowered and allowed to trail behind her, leaving of trail of her passing.
L'ren is relaxing on the beach, fully clothed as if the warmth didn't bother him, as if he had no idea where he actually was. Although, he probably doesn't, as his idea of 'relaxing' is burying his face in a book, barely even coming out for air. Out playing in the waves is the green, Reonth, who bounds to shore, then back out to sea, like it is all some great game. There aren't too many pages left in L'ren's book, it seems he's almost finished.
Dare lazily lifts her stick and lays it on her shoulder again, as if it were some sort of weapon to smite invisible foes. She stops to watch Reonth bound to shore and sea. This little bit of entertainment gives rise to a sweet laugh from Dare. "Who's rider for that green gots to be lucky to have such a playful one." She squats down and with stick in hand makes a little drawing, well not so little. She's actaully making an outline of a dragon, she pauses here in there to gauge her work and look upon her model, Reonth.
L'ren glances up at Reonth's playfulness, and frowns. "Careful, I'm trying to read here." he mutters, though he slips a bookmark in place and carefully puts the book to one side, as well as his thick-lensed glasses, even going so far as discarding his grey-blue shirt, and rolling up his pants. He heads out to join Reonth, grabbing a nearby scrubbing brush as he goes. Aha, bath time. Though Reonth now seems more interested in this Dare person, and her stick-drawings.
Still squatted, Dare carefully inches her way backwards then she pauses to look towards the green again. A smile tugs at her lips as she watches someone approach the dragon. "She your dragon?" Dare grimmaces at the silliness of her question. "Sorry, must be your dragon. She's really nice." Fingers play at a bit of hair that just doesn't want to stay in place.
L'ren glances over at Dare, and blinks slightly, his eyes still adjusting to not wearing his glasses and looking at a close book. "Er, yes." he says, awkwardly. "I'm harper L'ren, and she's my crazy green Reonth." an awkward pause, and then he blurts out, "She likes water." before blushing. Ah, so, he's not good with people, then. "I … work with the records." Reonth has gone back to frolicking in the water, appearing to have an even shorter memory span than most dragons.
Dare continues her backwards duckwalking as she nears what might be best described as the tail end of her dragon. "A harper? Blue and green, what a match if there ever was one, songs to be sung, tales to be told, of blue and green together." Not watching where she's going Dare hits a rough spot in the sand and falls backwards with a quick little yelp of surprise. "Sorry. You do? What sort of records? Sounds kinda impotent." Then she frowns, "No, not impotent, important. Yep, that's the word, sorry."
L'ren shakes his head mutely, and stammers, "I… I don't sing. I… Well… I was advised, ah, against it." he admits, sheepishly. "I'm very bad. And I didn't do too well with instruments either." L'ren winces, but doesn't make any further comment on that. He leans over and frowns at Dare's sand-Reonth, then blinks as she falls backwards. "Uh, er, do you need, um, a hand?" he asks, blushing vividly at that little 'impotent' slip. "Reonth… Um, well… I'm not…" a pause, more blushing, then, "Not important, that is. Just a quiet little harper."
"Advised against it? Oooh. I see. Not so bad you can't sing. Harpers dones lots more than just that." Dare smiles softly. "Course you was knowin' that already. No no, I is fine, thank you." After she gets to her feet she brushes the sand from her hands then resumes her stick-drawing. "Reonth, that her name, it's nice. Nice to Meet you, m'name is Dare. Oh, peoples is sometimes more important than they is thinkin'. It's important that you keeps them records else nobody would be knowin' what they was sayin'. An' you is important to Reonth, else how she gonna get cleaned properly?"
L'ren nods slowly. "Reonth finds people to do what she wants. If she can't find anyone, she calls firelizards." he blushes, and admits, "I get distracted with books and such, so it's good that she finds others to help." he nods, and shrugs. "She's … not … well, not shy… Like me." he shakes his head, then nods to the sand-dragon. "That's good." he compliments awkwardly, before gazing out at Reonth, who has resumed her run-into-the-water, run-to-shore game with enthusiasm.
"She does? I would be thinkin' that maybe a dragon was only gonna be lettin' their rider tend to 'em." Dare continues to smile at L'ren and Reonth. "I gets distracted by lots of things. Not books though, not much for readin' really." It's Dare's turn to blush upon her admission. "You is shy? Doesn't seem like it, you is talkin' to me after all, an' you doesn't really know me. Ah, thank you, not much for drawin' m'self but I try sometimes." She laughs ever so lightly at the green's game, "She likes to do that lots, doesn't she. That runnin'."
L'ren rolls his eyes and nods. "She loves the water." he says simply, shrugging at Reonth, who has already tired of her 'new' game, and instead floats out in the water. "Oh, sure, now you want to be bathed." And the man heads out to his green, scrub brush still in hand. "Some dragons won't let a person near, like my sister's brown. Reonth loves to have lots of people around. Lots and lots. I /hate/ crowds." he shudders.
Dare takes a few steps towards the water until it covers her bare feet. "Hmm. Lots of ways for dragons to be, I woulda never was thinkin' it be like that." She begins to rock back and forth on her feet then she stops. "Good for her. Tell you the truth, I doesn't much like crows either. S'long that I wasn't gettin' squished by 'em or somethin'. Then they isn't so bad, else it feels like I am not breathin' an' I doesn't really like that. Nope." A bit of the incoming breaze catches in Dare's hair and lifts it a bit then leaves it to flutter where ever it might before coming to rest on some peculair spot,
L'ren shrugs, as he wades out to his green lifemate. "Dragons are as different as people." he states, simply. "Reonth is nothing like me. My sister's brown is also not much like me. He acts like he hates people, I prefer… well… to ignore them." he admits, with a frown. "People are confusing. /Dragons/ are confusing. Books, books are good. They're straightforward. Either you know it's a story, or you know it's a record of some hatching, or whatever it is, you /know/ what it is, and what its purpose is, and what to do with it. People are confusing."
Everything seems to be paid attention to while she converses withthe rider. "Oh, " Dare frowns. "I hope I isn't botherin' you then." She giggles, "Books confuse me, sort of. When I was bein' learned to read, Ne'er could figure out why Lil Johnny does lots of runnin. See Johnny run, run Johnny run. Why's he runnin' anyways? Where's he runnin' to? An' why is I should be carin' why he's runnin' anyways? Oh, maybe you is right…Books has … yah, what you said. Hmm."
L'ren shakes his head, and attempts a smile. It's obvious that he doesn't smile often. "No, you're not bothering me. I'm not really used to people. I usually only have my books and Reonth for company. Though Reonth can be trying at times. It took me turns to get her to understand that books are not for eating." he grimaces. "I'm still not sure whether she understands it, or she feels that I'll be mad somehow. But she's stopped doing it, at least." Now if only he could get her to stop rising in flights…
Dare seems conforted by the thought of not being the sort that's bothersome. "Yah, me too. Well sometimes, I isn't use to people." Lazily she pokes the stick's tip in to the water. "Ah, that's good she's not eatin' them no more. Does dragons always eat stuff that they isn't suppose to?"
L'ren shrugs, and shakes his head. "I'm not sure Reonth is the brightest of dragons. Some eat weird stuff, but mostly I think they actually eat food. I got the book lover of the clutch, alright, but not in a good way." L'ren frowns at the green, staring at her somewhat alarmingly. A moment later, the green calms, and then L'ren explains, "I've got to really focus to get through to her. I'm not sure if that makes me a bad rider, or her a bad dragon. But, we get there in the end."
Dare giggles, "Silly dragon, books is for readin'." Silence nips at Dare while she cotemplates what the rider is telling her. "You both isn't bad. People and dragons is different. Um, most assured she picks you for her good reasons, an' it probably wasn't to be tormentin' you e'ery day. An' it's good you both can be learnin' form each other. Yep."
L'ren nods to shore, where there are actually several scrub brushes, because he usually has help with this. "Want to give me a hand? Even though she's just a green, the smallest colour, there's still a fair amount of her to wash on my own." And he's not exactly mister muscles, either.
"I can help?" Dare gushes, "oh, thank you for lettin' me. I would really like to." She glances towards the indicated direction then bounces off to retrieve a brush. With that in hand she wades over to join the pair. "Umm, I never washed a dragon b'fore. What is I suppose to do?" Brown eyes look at the brush, then the dragon, and finally the rider. "Are dragons ticklish? Cause I got a firelizard, and sometimes when I washes him he wiggles and squirms lots. Kinda funny."
L'ren shakes his head, concentrating hard on keeping Reonth still. "Just take the brush, and scrub at her hide, like this." and he pushes his brush up against the green's hide, rubbing fairly thoroughly. "Don't worry, you can't hurt her, she likes it, ah, rough." he blushes, and puts his effort into both scrubbing and keeping Reonth from being her usual playful self. The latter isn't exactly easy, either.
"Okay." Replies Dare as she sets to scrubbing near her front legs. "She likes it rough? Okay." Dare drawls out. "Good thing you wasn't gettin' one of them bronzes, that would be way lots of dragon to wash." Ah, she brightens when something comes to mind, and this she airs, "I was thinkin, how much would it be costin' for a rider to take me to the north? I gots here by ship an' that wasy just way too long to be travelin'."
L'ren tilts his head, and says, "Where are you thinking of going? I've been planning to visit family up north for a while now." he says, with a frown at Reonth, "Things… came up…" he says vaguely, blushing. "If I'm headed there anyway, I could take you cheap. Usually only a couple of marks."
"Hmm, not really sure." Says Dare softly. "First I got to gets the marks. I am tryin' to get work, to maybe help get ready for Gather, course Madrina, she's a gold rider you probably doesn't know her, says I needs to be talkin' with the Weyrlord, but that's gonna be hard 'cause he's so busy. An' then I was trying to maybe work at Robyn's Nest, but them ladies says I need to talk with Robyn, but they is busy too. So… With all them people I gots to talk to, I maybe isn't gonna get any work." She sighs, but continues scrubbing. "If I gots a dragon, then I wouldn't be needin't to worry 'bout it."
L'ren frowns, and shrugs. "It's hard to find work with a dragon too. It's not like the old records, or the harper songs, that tell of thread. Dragons were /needed/ then. People /died/ from thread." he shudders, and shakes his head firmly. "I went back to the harpers, back to my craft. And glad of it, I was. Books and hides and quiet record rooms." he sighs in contentment. At mention of the WeyrLord, he shrugs. "Very busy." he agrees. Mention of Robyn's Nest gives him the most vivid blush of all. Reonth certainly isn't too intelligent, if she chose such an easily embarrassed rider.
"Yah, times was tough an' all." Dare scrubs and scrubs, moving around to the opposite side of Reonth that L'ren is on. "Good that you gots a craft. I just gots Bath, that's my firelizard. Hmm, wonder where he be at. Probably nappin' someplace. Gonna have to be findin' him when I gets done here." Well she certainly misses the rider's blush. "You sounds like you really like what you does, an' that's good. You must be really smart."
L'ren nods slowly, concentrating still on keeping Reonth calm. "I suppose I do. I like reading, and I get to do quite a lot of that, in my line of work." he shrugs, and bends in to scrub where Reonth apparantly itches. "Even being a rider isn't all bad, even if… some parts… are rather…" he frowns, then shrugs, weakly. "Reonth… likes to fly…" he tries to explain, preferring to avoid flights if possible, though it never is, being a green's rider.
Dare begins to hum a little tune as she scrubs. The humming ceases when she wonders aloud, "She likes to fly? Was that meanin' that you doesn't? Hmm, I am tryin' to remember if I was every on a dragon. Don't think I was. I suppose it can be scary to fly, I mean, it's so far up an' all. Hmm, she's got a pretty wing." After a bit more scribbing she asks, "Is your dragon okay?"
L'ren shrugs slightly, and shakes his head, "She … has flights … often. With male dragons. Sometimes, male riders. Always in my weyr, though not always in my bed, or even there at all the next morning." Well. That's honest. But still a little cryptic. "I… Last was a bronze, that won." he shrugs and admits, "Not that it makes much difference who wins, male-ridden or female. I'd rather … not." he grimaces, and ducks under Reonth's wing as he'd forgotten to keep her still, and she'd splashed water everywhere. "Calm down, Reonth, you'll be free to play soon."
"Ooooh, those kinda flights! Well of course she has 'em with male dragons, " Dare says with some amount of humor. "Wouldn't it be silly for her to be bein' chased by female dragons." Dare squeaks from the sudden movement of the green, and getting showered at the same time. "Oh dear, you probably isn't likin' that at all. Nope. Maybe I doesn't want a dragon afterall." More scrubbing follows. "Makes a difference to you, I bet. Tell ya the truth, I wouldn't probably be beddin' with no bronze rider that's for sure. Nope. Must have been kinda scary for you. Course I isn't really knowin' what goes on, so I can only be guessin'. Poor riders."
L'ren frowns, and shakes his head, glancing at Reonth. "Stop that! Behave yourself, already!" he snorts, and rolls his eyes, though he doesn't stop scrubbing away at Reonth's hide. "Oh, well, I don't like it. Not at all. I don't care who I wind up with, it's a terrible thing. I don't know how my parents coped." he shakes his head, then says, "My parents are riders, too." And then he glances to shore, and blinks. "Oh, eggs." A friendlier version of 'shards'? "Is that kid stealing my glasses? I'd better go and get them back." he says, with a sigh. "Records keeping doesn't pay quite well enough to buy new ones already." Which is probably why his clothes are so faded in colour. L'ren heads back to shore, calling back, "Nice meeting you, Dare."
"Hmm." Dare's nearly finished then steps steps way to look over her work."Right good job washin' her for me first time. Better go an' get him, watch out, maybe he gots more people helpin' him. Nice to meet you too. Bye bye!"
