She stepped out into the cooling evening air, enjoying the swing of her newly lopped hair against her jawline. She was glad she'd asked Cyvarel to cut it - despite her initial thoughts, she hadn't missed it, though the comb dropping off the end of it when she combed it was still a peculiar sensation.
As she walked out, she peered into the gloom, hoping that she would be alone out here in the bowl. What with candidate lectures and the constant buzzing chatter of some candidate or other, she seemed to hardly have had any time to herself in the last couple of days.
"Get back here, Saith!" K'dan laughed as he lunged after the dragonet, who managed to artfully evade the boy. The bronze's dark hide-- so dark it could be mistaken for brown-- was almost black in the impending darkness. "Oh come on, not the lake. I don't need another bath...."
Saith's multifaceted eyes fixed on him, and Kie could have sworn he was grinning. ~~You've got coooompany.~~ He teased, and danced back, blending with the shadows.
>>Company?<< He spun on a foot, wondering who had interrupted the impromptu, losing game his dragonet had imposed on him.
"Kira! Hey!"
Kira looked into the shadows, recognising K'dan's voice, but unable to see him after the light inside the Weyr. Finally she saw him, and there was a dragonet with him! - well, heading away from him actually.
"K'dan! Hey yourself!"
What a nice surprise. On second thoughts, some company would be sweet, she thought. K'dan was hardly the sort to bother her with repetitive or meaningless drivel. >>And decorative to boot<<
"Is that Saith?" she asked hopefully.
"This is--was-- Saith." K'dan nodded, watching the bronze make his way to the barracks. "I think he's had enough for the day. You could at least get over here and introduce yourself!" This was directed to the dragonet.
Saith looked up, a black shape and huffed, just loud enough to be heard by the pair.
"You'll have to excuse him. Guess I won't be able to coax him over... ungrateful monster. But don't tell him I said that. He'll 'accidently' step on my toes now and again still. And he's getting kinda big for that."
~~Then don't say it, and your toes will now longer be~~ the bronze put in a melodramatic pause ~~downtrodden.~~
"He's even more flippant than me, to boot." To be honest, Kie had been far worse. Why was it that Kira somehow put him on his best behavior? It was irksome, sometimes, he had a reputation to uphold!
She was pleased that things were back to normal between them - well as normal as they ever seemed to get between a drippy girl with romantic thoughts and an enigmatic scruffy young dragonrider. >>Hey, he doesn't look as untidy as usual<< though she noted his hair was as dishevelled as ever. Mind you, that just made her want to run her fingers through it to smooth it out. She put aside the distracting notion with alacrity as she realised her cheeks were getting hot.
"*More* flippant?" asked Kira in exaggerated disbelief. "So, haven't seen you around lately. Not that I've seen anyone much, other than the other candidates." She smiled at him, wondering if he'd heard she'd been searched.
"*Other* candidates?" He wasn't exactly stupid, and cocked his head, curiously. The grin on his face was unmistakable.
"Does that mean what I think it means...? I mean, now I can bother you... not only that, but I outrank you." Teasingly.
>>You can *bother* me any time you like!<<
"Yep - I got searched - while sitting in the lake surrounded by your favourite method of torture," she said, grinning. "Anyway, smarty, you already did outrank me. And what d'you mean by 'bother'?" she enquired innocently.
>>My favorite method of torture? Oh yes... brats brats brats.<< For a moment he wondered on if he actually *had* outranked her before. Candidates and drudges, then weyrlings, then...? >>Tch, wow. I know my formalities.<<
"I mean that...." >>Er? What *did* I mean?<< He rubbed his arm and looked skyward, as if debating telling her. "Now that you're a candidate, I can take some free time to supervise whatever chores Jess gives you." He grinned. >>Okay, that was lame.<<
"Well, anyway-- how d'ya like being a candidate?"
"Feel free to supervise me with the littlies, 'cos I saw Jess and she's letting me continue in the creche as my chores," smirked Kira. >>You fell into *that* one.<<
"Anyway, being a candidate is great, I've made heaps of new friends."
"Really?" He thought about when he had been a candidate (obviously ignoring her comment on her continued work with brats) and couldn't find much useful there. Except, possibly, that one time he had met that bronzerider--Val?-- and endless hours being bored. Insanely and madly bored. And shirking work. Ah, those were the days....
~~No they weren't.~~
>>Oh alright, fine.<< K'dan snickered and sighed. "Heaps? Don't only dead bodies make heaps?" That guileless look again....
>>Typical.<< "You know you look like a drip with your mouth hanging open like that?" >>Now, why did I say that?<<
"Sorry." She did her best to sound sincere - she *was* sincere, but there was no way she wanted an arguement, not that she would blame him if he got annoyed. Why did he have to wind her up?
"So, what were you doing when I came out?" she asked. >>Great. Now I'm interrogating him.<<
He hesitated, wonderingly. >>A drip! Tch. Great. J'rek *was* right. I will join the rest of the world at one point.<< He thought that over again. >>Tch!<<
"Saith just took it into his head that he'd lead me on a wild wherry chase around the Weyr Bowl. I had to keep convincing him his wings don't work yet." With a small almost prideful smile at that.
Kira smothered a smile. Someone leading K'dan a merry dance? >>About time.<< Not that he was aware of the dance he led her. Or was he?
