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Igen Weyr Lake
The Igen lake is suprisingly warm for a mountain lake! The water is very blue, and as you swim away from the shore, it becomes very deep. You notice the slightest taste of minerals in the water, but it is not unpleasant. The cliffs to the north plunge directly into the deep water. There are several natural ledges at various places along them.
The main beach lies to the southeast, while the northern, more secluded beach is to the northeast.

U'yn wades in after Kismith with a shout. "Hey!" he protests as the water climbs higher. "I didn't think it would ever get... chilly!"

Chayil wades in, clad in swimming togs and without one of her many hats, and allows her body below the knees to adjust to the temperature. "It doesn't seem right, does it?" agrees the teeny weyrling. "It still feels mostly warm, but even so, it's...it's so not how I think of Igen!"

On the beach, Natasya is taking off her shoes. She calls out to her friends, "Shouldn't you be used to cold water, U'yn? After all, Telgar is further north... Oh, hey! Watch out for those undertows."

U'yn is energized by the water, despite his claim to chilliness. He dives like a shipfish, chasing after his bronze dragon, swimming more like a southerner than the average kid from Telgar. In a nod to Igen fashion, he's wearing shorts, rathern than swimming nekkid like he's accustomed. He surfaces with a bucketful of sand in time to hear the headwoman's taunts. "I didn't swim much at Telgar!" he calls back as he climbs up Kismith's side to find that perfect spot that always needs scrubbing. Standing over neckridges, he laughs, "I FEAR the undertows," he agrees.

Chayil turns about to wave at Natasya as Keturath lays her bulk out, stretched over the water's surface, and lets herself sink in so that only her head is exposed. Then, only her eyes. "Hi, Natasya! C'mon in, the water's cool!"

On the beach, Natasya sets her shoes aside, out of the water's range, and heads in.

U'yn is still standing high atop Kismith, not scrubbing yet. He has a good view up there, and is just in the laughingest mood. This contrasts sharply to his subdued/businesslike mood he's been adopting during training. Somehow, the water brings out the best in him. "Hey Headwoman!" he calls, and belatedly salutes. "I've got a new one for you." He grins down down at the diminutive goldrider. "You'll like this, as an ex-harper," he tells her.

Natasya swims out towards her friends, still managing to raise an eyebrow at U'yn. She winks at Chayil, warning, "Watch out, this could get very bovinish..."

Chayil paddles towards Keturath on her back, so that she can still face the others. "Okay, then, tell it!" she challenges. "And why would it be bovinish?"

Natasya treads water between her two friends' lifemates, and grins at Chayil. "Because it's U'yn!" is her cryptic reply, as though that should make everything clear.

U'yn stands straight and tall, on his impromptu bronzen stage. Hands clasped behind his back, he recites in a voice that carries well on the water. "My bovine won a prize. It was a big surprise! And when she won that prize," and he looks around at his audience, serene, "She left a huge surprise!" And he dips a deep bow.

Natasya claps her hand over her face. "See what I mean?" She recovers somewhat, and calls up to the bronzeling poet, despite her own warnings to the ex-Harper, "Say, d'you know the one about the purple bovine?"

Chayil sighs hugely and, though grinning, kicks up a storm of water in U'yn's direction. "That's just awful! U'yn, honestly...What purple bovine?"

Natasya grins at Chayil, then turns back to U'yn with a wink before giving her own recitation. "I learned this from the Weyrherder. Ah-h-hm. I never saw a purple bovine. I never hope to see one. But if I ever do, I'd rather see, than be one."

U'yn applauds from above. "Hoorah! Hoorah! Now Chayil... you need a bovine poem or song!" he tells his clutchmate.

"What for?" Chayil returns, after turning a flip in the water to stall for time and think of one. "I don't think I know any."

Kismith seems content to be used as a stage, but finally tires of waiting. With a whuffle and the merest twitch, which nearly knocks U'yn off his feet, he reminds his lifemate why he's atop his back, and it's not for recitations or performances.

Natasya grins at U'yn, bowing her head by way of accepting the accolade. She turns in her spot, and calls to Chayil, "Oh, it's easy... U'yn can stick bovines into /anything/..."

Dragon> Kismith senses that Keturath's wings flex, propelling her idly through the water. << I would like a bit of bovine, too. >>

Keturath's wings flex, propelling her idly through the water.

U'yn is jarred, and he settles down to scrubbing, muttering, "Okay, Kis, I'll get busy. Sheesh, from recitation to resucitation..." That's when he calls, irreverently, "Oh, hush, Tasya, or you'll just see where I can stick a bovine."

Kismith is 0 Turns, 8 months, and 13 days old, with a length of 33.55 metres, and a wingspan of 55.92 metres.

Keturath(#9254JMVabelpqst$)
This young queen is all clean lines and angles, without a trace of excess flesh. Long limbed and nimble as she is, there's a precision to the way her frame is put together, neither too sharp nor too curved, perhaps even plain at first glance. A hint of buttery amber pools at the base of her belly and darkens the edges and undersails of her wings, the curves of her talons, the arch of her eye ridges, with that rich hue. Brighter, more liquid shades descend in a sheer, warm glissando from the tips of her headknobs to the very tip of her forked tail, from near-platinum to pure gold, repeated several times along the length of her hide. But underneath it something else shifts, complexity within her very lack of embellishment, a hint of color of which imagination can barely catch scent, to revel in the purity and simplicity of her.
  Keturath is 0 Turns, 8 months, and 12 days old, and 34.44m long.

Chayil hoots with laughter at that latest heresy. She's gotten better at recognizing certain brands of humor since being twenty-four/seven among other, older weyrlings (and of course candidates) for so long now. Better yet, not only at recognizing them, but at appreciating them.

Natasya gasps at U'yn in mock horror, and replies in her sternest Headwoman tone, "You just watch yourself, weyrling, or I'll make sure you get plenty of experience with bovines... or their leftovers, at least." Her face doesn't seem to match her tone, however, and in the end the effect is completely lost due to her spasm of laughter.

Kismith> Keturath senses that Kismith responds with a remembered image a fullgrown bronze dragon catching a fullgrown bovine. << He says soon we will catch our own bovines. >> His mindvoice glistens with a youthful enthusiasm and curiosity.

U'yn is scrubbing enthusiastically now, wet sand splattering everywhere. "Yes, ma'am!" he calls cheerfully. Then he pauses, and peers down, "Oh, Tasya, I had a question."

Dragon> Kismith senses that Keturath catches hold of the image, turning it around and around in her musical mind. << I would like to do that. My Chayil says that I am as big as a brown now...but I am bigger than Hicerth. Bigger than all our browns. >> She has probably not grasped yet that her rider refers to /adult/ browns. << I should go and get my own meals now. >>

Natasya looks up cheerfully at U'yn, still treading water. "Yes?"

U'yn calls down, from his spot atop bronzen hide, voice toned to carry but still with a gentle edge, "How's Auntie Hana doing? I haven't seen her since you chopped my ponytail off, way back then."

Chayil finally tires of her own play and kicks her way over to her submurged dragon to begin the bathing ritual, from tail to face.

Natasya smiles. "She's cranky. Keeps looking for 'that nice young man with the runnertail.'" She sighs, and adds, "She's doing much better than Nagger, anyway. /She's/ getting crankier and crankier every day. I'd never have thought that was possible..."

U'yn smiles sadly. "She hasn't forgotten me?" though he seems, strangely, a little pleased. "You need to find her a new young man with a runnertail."

Keturath rises from the water enough to allow Chayil to scrub lightly at her shining tail as the small girl calls, "Oh, no! She'll probably render him bald! And what's Auntie Nagger doing lately that's so much worse than what she's always done?"

Kismith> Keturath senses that Kismith responds amiably, << Yes, you should. >> He also considers the size comment. << The Big Blue >> and with that comes an image of Cyameth, << is smaller, now. >>

Natasya pages to Chayil and U'yn: Guys and Dolls. Great musical. Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando.

Chayil notes while rubbing at Keturath's middle tail section, "She's not understanding why she isn't bigger than the grownup dragons. And what's Nagger doing lately that's so much worse than what she always does?"

Natasya twirls around in the water to answer Chayil. "Oh, she's just getting crankier by the day. Reaching levels of crankiness even /I/ thought were impossible for her." She smiles up at the already-very-large Keturath. "She's big. And she's going to get /much/ bigger. Seems like she's bigger every time I see her."

Chayil's eyes travel up Keturath's tail to her ever-larger backside, spine, wings, all the way up as far as they can see. She practically plumps with pride. "She is, isn't she? And every time I look at her, she looks different and more beautiful!"

U'yn slides down Kismith's side, apparently for the sheer joy of it, landing in the water with a *splash*. Or perhaps for more sand, for he splashes out of the water with his little bucket full again of sand. With a cautious eye at the headwoman, he starts scrubbing further down, propped on a forelimb.