Galleries
Row upon row of stone benching rises above the Hatching Grounds, seats for those who come to watch the incredible experience that is a hatching. Each individual seat is embellished with a worn cushion, the only concession to comfort in a place that traps heat, holding it within so that those who watch are inflicted with its intensity, though on a milder level than those who must stand and face the dragonets. The expanse of sand that is the hatching grounds spreads out in front of the benches, a huge stage for a spectacular show.
Type 'help here' for info on how to view objects on the sands.
Auri and Pyrene are here.
Pyrene picks her way carefully up the stairs, a hand going back to assist Lis if the rider needs it. "Hey, Auri," she calls in a whisper. Don't want to wake Tiareth. She's offputting.
Auri walks waveringly around, arms full of...underwear. "Py...Lis...help..." Her voice is muffled behind the garments. "I can't see...By the way Lissie, I helped you. Remember how you said you wished somebody would shrink D'renn's boxers? Look!" An unsure hand pats blindly about on top of the pile, before pulling out a random rasberry-colored pair of boxers. "See? Shrunk!"
Lis can still get herself up the stairs, thank you very much. "'Lo Auri!" gets called in the girl's direction in a whisper much like Pyrene's, the greenrider collapsing into the nearest seat uncerimoniously.
Pyrene snickers at Auri delightedly. "You /didn't/? The hot water worked then?" As long as they don't end up scrubbing the barracks again.
At the boxers, Lis merely coughs, eyes bugging. "Auri, I didn't mean for you to actually /do/ it!" A hand is raised to her face, fingers splayed across it as she groans behind her palm.
On the sands, Tiareth stirs, raising the head and ruining her poise. She peers into the galleries eyes awhirling, and rumbles. Nuff complains. "That's not fair Lumpie, Nuffs was almost doGo back to sleep!"
"If it sterilises him, that's all to the good, isn't it, Lis dear?" Pyrene comments sweetly. "And at least he can wear them underneath those leathers of his now." Tiareth gets eyed. "We're not making robes and D'renn's boxers won't fit round your eggs so don't even think about it."
Auri gives up. While friends cackle, and forget about to oh-so-pitiful little girl blind behind the wall of boxers, blonde candidate finally drops the pile with an oof onto the gallery floors. "Yup, the hot water worked. All of them are shrunked, and each one's smaller than the next one, so he won't notice. That way he'll get um...how d'ya say it again? Sterilized." Blue eyes open wide as the girl remembers something. She fairly -dives- into the pile, the only part of her visible being her boots and legs, until she emerges with a pair of lacey /somethings/. "I forgot. Does this belong to anyone? I found it in the pile, but I don't think it's his. I don't think. I might've picked it up in the barracks or um..." Auri sounds embarassed and meek. "He might've...taken something from someone when he was...with someone..." Hinthint. Lis. Ah yes, Auri knows aaaall.
Lis is still staring at the boxers, caught between laughter and shock. "Speaking of fitting, Pyrene, think D'renn'll be able to even get /in/ to those?" Granted, they're not terribly tiny, but you can never tell with weyrlingmasters. Tiareth is given a friendly wave, along with Nuff, from her vantage point in the galleries even if both are just waking. The underthings catch Lis' eye, but in spite of a sudden blanching, she retains a straight face. "Nope. Never seen 'em in my life."
Pyrene makes a disgusted sound. "He didn't? Oh, Lis! And /this/ is the father of your child?" she demands of the smaller mother-to-be. For all her cracks about Lis weight, the rider's got a way to go to rival Tiareth. She turns back to survey the boxers, "Actually, maybe you should keep these, Lis. If the baby's a boy... in a few years he'd be able to fit."
On the sands, Nuff wavies back, sliding down the hullock of sand to smack Tiareth smartly on her nose. "Stoopid dragon. Nuff wanted to finish the picture." And with that she turns her back on the very uncontrite gold and goes to fuss about over by cot'n water and little Nuffish area where she can find something to drink.
Auri puts the boxers neatly into a pile. "Lissie, now that I helped you, can you help me help you? I need you to help me if you you want me to help you. So will you help me? You too, Pyrene?" The girl looks hopeful. "Here Reenee, take these." The girl extends an armful of boxers, mostly blue, but the eye-catching pair on top are white with little red hearts on them, and incredibly small.
Faye comes up the stairs.
Pyrene sighs gingerly, and takes the boxers. She's washed D'renn's underwear before, she can handle it when it's clean. And smaller. "Faye? Want to come help us?" she calls to the candidate before turning to the Sands and Nuff. One finger taps the side of her nose. No fair telling.
Lis gives Auri one of her warier glances, eyes darting over towards the seemingly-innocuous Nuff on the Sands. Hopefully word of this won't get out... "Now, Auri, /why/ would I need to help you? Or need you to help me?" demands the greenrider in a highly amused tone, grin spreading as she watches the little brat-candidate and her boxers, fingers idly waving at Faye.
"Help with what?" Inquiry is asked, a couple fingers wiggled politely to present greenrider. Sepia optics wander, and once settled on undergarments, a hand is brought to mouth: Faye must resist giggling. "/Oh/. Help." She gets it now. Shoulders lift in a light shrug, and Cookcandie finally replies, "Okay. I c'n help."
Auri blinks. Twice. "Um...well, because you want D'renn to be sterile? Good reason? She knows that Lis does...or at least so the greenie had said to the clueless candidate. "Besides, it'll be fun. We can all go together and ride on your pretty dragon. And you can show off how pretty she is." Auri beams. Greens are very pretty indeed. "Hi Faye!" Faye is waved at enthusiastically. "This yours?" asks Auri, holding up the lacy somethings. "Oh wait...I already asked you..."
Lis rolls her eyes emphatically at Auri, groaning, "As much as I'd like that, I doubt he'd be too happy with it - or shrunken underwear, for that matter." The Pink Terror's other reasons are ignored, and she scowls at the girl's waving of the underthings. "Auri, I'm sure whoever owns them doesn't - /wouldn't/ like you waving them around."
"You could just hang that pair from the starstones, Aur," says Pyrene of the long memory. "Then everyone will see them and whoever owns them can claim them." And she smiles sweetly at Lis. She's done laundry duties with that one before.
Pyrene gets glared at by Lis for that. Fiercely.
Faye peers curiously at familiar, skimpy, lacy-somethings with a cough. "Maybe we should just hide them somewhere where no one'll get upset over them?" white-knot'd Cook offers in a slightly dubious tone, turning sienna gaze from lacy garment to sands. "'Sides, urm, those, what's everyone up to?"
"Ooh! That's a good idea! I'll hang them up on the starstone for everybody to see. So whoever's they are can get them. Wow, you're smart, Pyrene. I wish I could be like you," says Auri adoringly. The brat-candidate plays with a gold curl, twisting it around a finger. "Or else we can just leave it in D'renn's weyr, and he can do something with them? They were with the rest of his boxers, anyways..."
Lis burries her head in her hands, elbows balancing on either side of her gigantic bulge. "Why, why?" the greenrider moans under her breath, finally calming down enough to offer a solution: "Why don't I hold on to them, for now? I'll just ask around discreetly..." Or not. Faye gets a piteous glance - the whole puppy-eyed works.
Pyrene smiles sweetly at Lis. "What do you think Faye?" she asks the cook-candidate. "Starstones or back in his weyr? Y'know... I've heard that some men /like/ wearing ladies underwear... maybe they're his after all." She'll offer Lis an out if it means slandering D'renn.
Aww. It's a puppy-eyed greenrider. "Maybe you should let Lis ask around," Faye agrees, slinking over to a seat to more comfortably watch sands and eggs. "They probably do belong to a rider, if they really were from D'renn's weyr."
"D'renn does /not/! I didn't see anything like those when I was-" Lis' mouth clamps shut with almost an audible snap, only opened as she amends her previous statement. "When I was doing laundry. Just... don't hang them from the Starstones. It's not fair to whoever owns them." Faye's words get nodded at enthusiastically - just hand over the lacy underthings and no one will get hurt.
On the sands, Nuff tries to find something really nice and cold and fails, so shuffles towards one of the tunnels off the Sands, muttering softly.
Puppy eyes? Puppy eyes? Hah. Auri is /queen/ of puppy eyes. And puppy eyes she gives Lis, big watery, dewy, sad, folorn, cerulean puppy eyes. "Please Lis? /Pleeease/ can you take us up to D'renn's weyr? Please? We're just helping you." She bows her head and clasps her hands together. "Don't you like me enough to do that? We won't hang the undies up on the starstones if you take us up." Sniffsniff.
On the sands, Nuff slips back into the shadows.
Pyrene stands. "Well, if we're going to go... let's go? Y'know where D'renn is Lis?" Seeing as he's the father of her child she should have an inbuilt radar or something, right?
Pyrene assumes Lis will take them of course. If she wants those undies back.
Lis can live with that. Sagging in visible relief, the greenrider mentally summons her lifemate to the ledges perched above the galleries. "If you /promise/, Auri. It's not a very nice thing to do, hanging someone's underwear up on the 'stones." As Alymath lands, the greenrider casts a look over her shoulder at Pyrene. "No, I don't. But we'll just have to take that chance, hmm? Coming, Faye?" Might as well drag all of them down into this.
On the Gallery ledges, Alymath scrambles in, careful of wings and tail.
Carefully you edge out over the sands, through the narrow pillars, and out onto nearby accessible ledges.
Gallery Ledges
Wide enough for a whole weyrful of dragons, the ledge lines the Hatching Cavern walls, interrupted at one side by the Galleries themselves, with stairs leading down each side to the spectator seats. Scuffed and scraped by years of use and dragon talons, the well-worn stone retains the heat that rises from the sands, comfortably cozy with a perfect view of the hatching grounds.
Type 'help here' for info on how to view objects on the sands.
To the south, you see three people.
Green Alymath is here.
You notice Shilra asleep here.
In the Galleries, "It's not, is it, Lis?" Pyrene agrees cheerfully, gathering up a share of the boxers. "Take a few, Faye?" and she follows the waddling Lis.
Pyrene steps carefully in from the galleries, the Hatching Sands displayed below them.
In the Galleries, Auri's miserable little face breaks into a bright beam. "Ok! I promise!" Blonde curls bounce as she jumps excitedly. "Oh, Faye, Rene, can you give me a hand with these boxers? There's a lot" Auri herself takes the lacey ones, and she skips out.
In the Galleries, "I'll come help." Faye bobs head in reply to greenrider, standing from seat, snatching her share of shrunken boxers whilst following. Lightly-curled tendrils dip, slightly, as she skitters over, Alymath-wards.
Faye steps carefully in from the galleries, the Hatching Sands displayed below them.
Lis doesn't help anyone carry anything, her own bulk being more than enough. By some miracle of physics and human strength, the greenrider hoists herself up Alymath's straps, ushering the rest of them to mount as well. "C'mon, I don't have all day here..."
Auri steps carefully in from the galleries, the Hatching Sands displayed below them.
Using a twiggy forelimb, you manage to get yourself up onto Alymath's silver-brushed neck.
Auri uses a twiggy forelimb to climb up onto Alymath's silver-brushed neck.
Pyrene suddenly drops the boxers with a squeak. "Oh, /shells/... I was supposed to.... Tell me how it went!" And she leaves them to pick up the scattered unders as she pelts back down towards the bowl.
Pyrene goes home.
Faye casts brown glance up green's side thoughtfully, hugging shrunken undergarments close with one arm-and-elbow as other hand assists in grasping straps, the ex-Cook clambering up dragon.
Faye uses a twiggy forelimb to climb up onto Alymath's silver-brushed neck.
Cramped, these ledges, so you carefully manoever to the edge and leap out over the sands, whisked upwards by wayward thermals.
The lake beckons, chalky but inviting nonetheless.
Above the Lake
A panorama unfolds beneath: the bowl beaten flat as it curves out from the lake's chalky waters, dusky earth 'neath the endless stretch of sky above before the Weyr's spindles break the view. Milky blue-green waters swirl below, tempering the 'lizard filled air with gentle thermals that flow and eddy through the Walls' many cracks and crevices. Scattered ledges mark the nearby rocks, endless layers of Weyrs tucked into the wall as it sweeps right up to the Star Stones high above.
It is a spring midmorning.
Gliding around is Neely.
Bronze Rixesith is here.
Swooping down, you nearly hit the water before gaining the safety of Trydanth's ledge.
Trydanth's Ledge
Both smooth-worn and talon-scarred in patches, the ledge stretches to overhang the milky-watered lake not so very far below. A dark opening leads, brown-dragon-high, into the weyr proper.
It is a spring midmorning.
Auri tries not to bump 'gainst any sharp joints as she slides down Alymath's forearm.
They're.... here. Lis glances around apprehensively before sliding quickly down Alymath's side, muttering something about wanting to get this over with, and /quickly/.
Down you go! Just mind the sharp dragon-elbow, there.
Between sharp, moonlight-silvered 'ridges, Faye fumbles with pile of undergarments under her arm as she unbuckles self from berry-coloured straps, eventually slithering down from 'twixt green dragon's neckridges.
Faye tries not to bump 'gainst any sharp joints as she slides down Alymath's forearm.
Arms full of boxers, Auri slides off of Alymath carefully, and pats down her skirt after she is off. She looks to the left and the right. "I don't think he's here..." she whispers. "C'mon." The girl tiptoes into the weyr, motioning for her friends to follow.
Auri disappears into the weyr.
Faye takes a few steps away from Alymath, pile of boxers cradled under arms. "You sure, Auri?" queries ex-Cook, rising to tiptoes, glancing at weyr's entrance. With a quick shrug, Candidate follows ...
Faye disappears into the weyr.
"I can't believe I'm /actually/ doing this..." Grumbling all the while, Lis docilely follows Auri and Faye in.
Into the darker weyr you go...
Trydanth's Weyr
Warmth surrounds the large dragon-couch as crimson-hued tapestries. Vermillion too, the coverlet on the meagre cot; mahogany-burnished the scant though well-made furnishings. A litter of leather straps and steel buckles lie slumped in a corner with several sagging wineskins and a dented metal goblet.
Resting on a high-carved rock shelf is Wilt.
You see Handy-dandy Gingham Hankie, Abandoned Sweetstick, and Cookie Crumbs here.
Auri and Faye are here.
Lis keeps to the outermost part of the weyr, arms folding nervously across her belly as she waits impatiently for the candidates to drop off their cargo. After all, she's heard plenty of stories from Pyrene... "C'mon, Auri, can we just drop off the underwear and go?"
Isn't it sweet? There's a stuffed llama stood on top of the clothes press.
Auri look around with furrowed eyebrows. "This place is kinda...creepy..." she says worriedly. Pacing quickly through the weyr, she stops. "Uh...I forgot which drawer his undies go in..." says Auri. Oops. "I guess we'll kind of have to guess which drawer.
"Yeah." Faye agrees with Lis' plan, peering at rider over white knot-adorned shoulder with a quick nod. Pile of underthings is shifted in both arms uncomfortably, sienna gaze scanning weyr, examining. "We don't want to get caught or anything ... just pick a drawer, Auri."
Lis peers up through her brows at her surroundings, nodding somberly. "Creepy indeed. Even the baby doesn't seem to like it - he's taken to doing that funny thing of his again." Wonderfully vague, the greenrider keeps glancing out towards the ledge. Just in case.
Auri closes her eyes, spins, and point. "That one." She opens it, and surprise surprise! It's the right drawer! Boxers are hastily put in order, and placed neatly back in the drawer. Auri stares. "That doesn't look like how we found it..." The girl musses them up, makes a face, and nods. "That's more like it." With that, the drawer is closed, lacey something is placed oh-so-inconspicuously on D'renn's bed, and a quick retreat is started.
Variating-in-smallness underthings are shifted again as Faye continues to peer 'round weyr's crevices; nervously. "It /is/ creepy," former Baker mumbles, advancing Auri in a few, stalking steps. "That one?" inquires she, tiptoeing oh-so quietly and gently to drawer, tugging its handle, reopening to deposit her share. Releasing grip on undergarments, Cookcandie messes her batch around, too, letting out a sigh of relief. "Oh, /good/ ... lessee ... looks right. Let's get going." Faye shuffles after Auri, sparing a glance to lacey somethings on her way.
Faye drops Lacey Somethings.
Lis doesn't even wait to see where Auri put the lacy thing - she's already on her way out, shuddering at something. Possibly having actually visited the den of iniquity that is D'renn's weyr?
Time to brave the elements: out to the ledge you go.