Let Sleeping Dragons Sprawl
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Rochelle
Date Posted: 31st January 2008
Characters: Ariau
Description: Ariau talks to her gold about flying while watching her get comfortable on her couch.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 8, day 3 of Turn 4
The barracks were quiet for the moment, for which Ariau was grateful. Most of the other weyrlings were either trying to study, or had wandered off in groups to the dining hall. Ariau was sitting on cross-legged on the end of her cot, watching her magnificent gold trying to get comfortable in her bed. Most of the dragons in the barracks, Ariau had noticed, slept rather neatly, with their tail curled around them and their wings folded to their back. It was rather sweet looking, sort of like looking at a room full of massive jewel-toned felines. Alabieth on the other hand, sprawled haphazardly wherever she happened to flop.
Ariau privately wondered if she should be worried about this or not.
Alabieth was now large enough that she barely fit on the couches in the barracks, and her habit of having at least one leg and part of her tail or a wing flung out at awkward angles meant that passerby had to be careful not to trip on her. Even when she started in a tight knot like some of the other dragons, within a candlemark of falling asleep she would be sprawled across as much floor as possible. But Alabieth was certainly not slovenly in any other respect, so Ariau hadn't been worried about it enough to ask.
The gold ate relatively neatly for a dragon, and was fastidious about her appearance to the point Ariau seemed to perpetually smell of dragon oil.
It was sort of like discovering that an extremely beautiful lady holder was a bed hog.
}:I like flying.:{ Alabieth said happily for the fourth time that day.
}:It was nice to fly to hunt. Easier to catch food.:{ Ariau smiled. "You mean that it was faster than waiting for me to chop it up for you."
}:You are slow.:{ Alabieth admitted thoughtfully, carefully pulling her tail onto her couch before settling for the fourth time. }:But that is all right.:{ Ariau snorted. "I know. I'm a lousy chopper -there's no need to hide it.
But as long as you're happy, I'm happy." She said softly, watching the gold shift again, this time curling her left wing tighter. "And soon we can fly together."
}:You are my rider. We are meant to fly together.:{ Alabieth said definitively, and then Ariau heard the excitement of the morning's first flights -sans riders- for the dragons seeping through. }:We will fly far together. Maybe we will go where you have been before. I would like to see the black sand beach.:{ She added with satisfaction. }:Black sand would be warm.:{ "You mean on Ista?" Ariau asked, blinking in surprise. She'd been getting impatient this last month. She'd missed the freedom of being able to leave the weyr intensely, but Alabieth's relentless curiosity about the places that came to her mind when she read letters from her family had alleviated it somewhat. She couldn't remember if she'd talked about Ista or not though. "We can go there if you want to, but we'll have to wait until we can go /between/. It's too far for a straight flight."
}:We will fly together.:{ Alabieth said softly, almost dreamily, then settled her other wing to her back and crossed her forelimbs.
"I can't wait either." She admitted quietly, admiring the smooth expanse of golden hide that she so often compared to a golden sunrise. "But we have to fly together first. Then we'll get a new weyr, and learn to go /between/."
}:Did you see our new weyr?:{ The gold asked wistfully, adjusting her position from the tight ball she'd finally settled into by sticking a hindleg out. Ariau felt a bit strange about knowing exactly where she and Alabieth would be living, since the rest of her clutchmates had not been been assigned weyrs yet. But it was something that came with Impressing gold, since there were only so many places you could put such massive dragons, and Alabieth certainly had no qualms. Unlike her rider, who frequently had doubts about her ability and feared she would never be a good queenrider, Alabieth _knew_ she was a gold, and Ariau had needed to take her to task for abusing that power twice already.
"Yes. It's on the lower level of the cliffs, by the Hatching Grounds. It's nice and big, with a huge couch, so you'll have plenty of room to sleep."
She added watching the gold shift a little farther out of the ball she'd spent so much time getting into.
}:That will be nice.:{ Alabieth said sleepily, laying her head down.
A quarter candlemark later, Ariau eased herself past the trailing wingtip by her bed, and went to dinner.
Last updated on the February 2nd 2008