Kalette laughs again at Caledon's shiver/stutter. "You're not warm yet? I've been inside all day, and it's not really all that bad inside..." She leans back, tilting her chair off the ground so she can look at everyone and fidget at the same time. "So... I'm new here. What is it you guys do around here? You know, for fun?" An innocent question, right? Hopefully nothing too frightening for her. She munches on another cookie and soothes her angry stomach.

Well, what /Lis/ does for fun and what normal people do for fun are usually two different things. But the greenrider realizes an opportunity when she sees it, and gives Kalatte a rather evil beam. "Why, we usually have snowball fights. Or we go iceskating. Nude, for the more daring." She's not the first to suggest it either. Really.

Daeyn cocks an eyebrow at Lis.  "A lot of gossip," she says dryly.  "And the same things everyone does.  Games and debate and mischief for the younger set -" well, most of the time "- and ..."  The lifting of her shoulder in a shrug.

"Nude, eh?" comes the reply from little Kalette. "Sounds fun, but cold. I wonder how he'd like that?" She points to the shivering mass of Caledon. "Tell me next time you do that, okay?" She winks at Lis and starts balancing her chair again. "Gossip." She shudders. Evil, evil gossip. But it /is/ entertainment. She allows herself a wicked grin before leaning back again in her chair, only to lose her concentration and fall to the floor. "Ouch."

Loren simply blinks at Lis, dropping her cookie back onto her plate. "Really?" Blink, blink. Blink. Runner shrugs, eventually, and picks her cookie back up to nibble on the edge.

"Ayup. Igen," Caledon confirms. "Born an' rai'ed. S'much 'otter than w'rever you're from," he notes wryly to Kalette. Warm indoors is freezing to him. He's not even ready to /think/ about the bowl. Eye grow just that much wider again, and he eyes Lis worriedly. what kind of person did he wind up sitting next to? "N-n-nude? On ice?"

"Sure, sure..." Lis is at her worst now, rivalling a trained harper when she wants to. "It'll zap the cold right out of your bones, all the running around. And I hear it's really invogorating - good exercise!" How much is true and how much is fluff is debatable, but the greenrider is nodding so earnestly and talking so smoothly, it might be hard to tell.

Kalette laughs at that. "If you say so, Lis." She winces as she pulls herself up off the floor, and lifts the chair, blushing a bit. That'll teach her not to fidget! At least not that way. She commences tapping the table with her fingernails again. Taptap... taptap... "What now?" Yes, bored. She's /bored/.

Loren twitches, then blinks, and pulls her legs into her chair. "..invigorating is right," runner notes, shuddering. "That's a scary thought. Nude ice skating. I think I'll just.. stick to doing it with my clothes on." When she skates at all.

Bored? With Lis around, Kalette won't be bored for long. "We could go ice-skating. Not necessarily nude, if you're not up to it..." The greenrider makes her offer into some sort of derisive statement - she's not /really/ trying to lobby an outing like this, is she? "It's not scary - it's /healthy/." Just like frostbite is healthy.

Caledon glances down at his mug, staring at the klah for a couple minutes before shivering rapidly again. "If-f-f you'll 'scuse me, I th'nk I'll g'look for s'more clothin'." Dipping a bow as best he can in the bulge of clothing, he turns and beats a hasty retreat.

Caledon goes home.

Right. Frostbite. Kalette's not /that/ new. Or is she? "I'd love to." She jumps out of her chair suddenly, looking at it as if it bit her. She's odd today. "But with clothes... I'm still new." For now, at least. She gulps down her klah, still standing, and smiles at Lis. "I'm going to like it here, aren't I?"

Lis notices the jumping-out-of-the-chair bit with a slight flick of her eyebrows, shoulders raising in a more obvious shrug. "I'd hope so. If not, you can always leave..." She has no large green lump of a lifemate that tends to anchor her, especially during certain times of the Turn. "Well, I'm not going to skate without clothes by /myself/, but I'll skate." Sheepish greenrider.

Kalette grins and laughs again. She wipes herself off and places her mug on the table, looking at the chair a little nervously. She keeps assuming it's trying to tip her over again. "Okay then." She looks around. "I'm lost already. That's pretty pathetic, isn't it?" She giggles a bit and motions to Lis to lead the way, while she spins around a few times trying to figure out where she's going.

Loren blinks. "Huh? What? Skate?" Dorothy lets off a quiet chirp; oh, looook; her pet listened for once. "..hush up, Dorothy. I'm not like that." Green chitters again, and slides off Loren's shoulder to plop in her lap. "..um. Doro, you're on the cookies..." Lis gets a blink, and former-Candidate shakes her head, hair smacking into her cheeks. "..no thanks? I gotta get Doro off my cookies. And my lap.. oow, Dorothy, don't cling.." What fun, what fun. Clingy greens on cookies.

Loren has disconnected.
Loren falls asleep, beaming as she curls up with her firelizards.

With a creak of pink leather - it will never really lose it's creakiness - Lis pushes herself out of her chair and heads towards the door. "This way!" Just follow the woman in the bright clothes.

Bundle up 'gainst snow or sun! The bowl is open to seasons' wrath.

You go to the Lake.

Lake
An irregularly shaped lake - like a great murky teardrop - curves along the southeast corner of the bowl; the clay bank falls off sharply at the shoreline to form a natural bench just ideal for sitting and dabbling one's feet into the calcium-rich waters. The lake is not terribly deep, but it rarely warms up to a comfortable temperature, even in the height of summer. The southern shore is far more swampy: a muskeg estuary that is home to a multitude of avians and insects.  The boggy, mossy ground there makes for treacherous footing, but provides a variety of marsh plants invaluable to the healing profession.
Above the lake, a series of ledges climb the volcanic wall to overlook the chill waters, and far above those, the star stones themselves perch on the rim of the volcano.
  It is a winter afternoon.  Snow begins to fall from the clouds, swirling about in a haze of white flakes that brush lightly against your face.  A slight wind picks up from the north, driving the snowflakes at an angle.
You see small wooden raft here.
Obvious exits:
Lakeside     Lakesky

Kalette strides in from the Beach.

Quara saunters calmly in from the Beach.

"There, now..." Lis walks out experimentally onto the frozen-over lake, more confidently as the thing doesn't collapse under her weight. "Now, I don't know what to use for skates, but I think we should be able to - oof!" Even as she discusses sliding, the greenrider's feet decide now would be a good time to slip out from under her and leave her on her rear end.

Kalette walks in, looking nervously at the ice beneath her. "Will it hold?" she asks carefully, testing it with her foot. She throws her hair back behind her back and wraps her coat around her more. Cold. As Lis falls, she can't help but giggle a bit. She starts to walk over to help her up, but soon finds herself on the ice as well. "Feet are good. They slide enough..." Grinning, she starts to pull herself up and glide a bit.

Quara walks, carefully, to the edge of the lake, making sure of her footing at every step. Wisely so, given Lis's spill. "Having fun, Lissie?" she calls, half-mockingly, a racous call echoed by the gold on her shoulder. What a pair they are.

"Oh, loads of it, Quara." Lis isn't bothered at all by her clutchmate's odd mood, calling back to her brightly. "Oh, they do slide," the greenrider admits readily, taking her sweet time getting onto hands and knees - and even this doesn't seem too steady, as the pink-wearing one wobbles as it is.

Quara is, of course, clad in her ubiquitous green, in an Alymath-like counterpoint to Lis's pink. The green /does/ have both, after all, for all she's green first. And, only vaguely miffed when Lis doesn't rise to her taunts, she tucks her fleece-lined jacket a little closer in, for warmth and protection 'gainst the snow.

Kalette begins to slide a little less-than-gracefully across the surface, stumbling and falling more than once. "I've never skated, as you can probably tell..." Trying to get the hang of flying across the ice, she leans down and crouch-crawls for a few minutes, feeling her way across the ice in a very pathetic fashion. "How're you doing?" she calls out to the others.

"Well, I haven't either...." Lis calls back at Kalette as she merrily inches her way across the ice, inchworm-like. Maybe eventually she'll get back on her feet. Quara's broody silence makes her all that much easier for the greenrider to ignore, and that's precisely what she does. Besides, the effort of getting on her feet is consuming most of her attention, breath puffing out in little clouds.

Kiylan illumines a leisurely promenade in from the Beach.

Lylia walks in from the Beach.

Quara might well be pondering something. Then again, she might just be shivering. It /is/ chilly out. And then she waves to Lylia, calling, "Lyli! Hullo!" before waving to Kiylan. A new face.

A new face, indeed - and one lingering more on the beach than in the water. Kiylan's glances are mainly directed at the water with distrust. "Uh...hello, out there..."

"Lis! Quara!" Lylia beams at her friends, skittering along the edge of the lake as she rubs her arms. Coldcoldcold. But the glittering emerald eyes are quick to dart to those unfamiliar. "Um.... Other people! Hi!" Okay, not the best way to say it, but still. Tentatively, she prods a toe at the frozen lake, wrinkling her nose. It can't be safe.

Lis is much too busy crawling around on her hands and knees on the frozen lake to notice any new faces, or even old ones, though the soung of 'Lyli!' does cause her to turn her head. "Hey, Lylia!" the greenrider calls to her other - and hopefully more cheerful - clutchmate, managing to get kneel on the ice, one foot propped against the surface. "Look! We're /ice skating/." More acurrately, ice sliding, but that doesn't sound as much fun.

"Oof!" Kalette plants herself on the ice with a loud *thunk*. Diediediediedie ice! She looks over at others coming and sighs. More people to be humiliated in front of, huh? She sighs and crawls over, trying to right herself. She rolls on her side, then her back. "This... isn't... working!" she pants out as she pulls herself to her knees. She considers introducing herself, but decides she probably shouldn't advertise who she is right now... it's not her best moment.

Brr. Arms wrapped tightly around her a figure well-insulated by borrowed clothing, Kiylan glances out with one eyebrow risen at those slipping out on the ice. Not gonna budge, nope.

Quara is on the edge of that ice-covered lake. Unlike some greenriders she could name... But let's not get into that. No, Quara's going to stay right where she is until she knows that ice won't crack. And instead she'll stand still and shiver and generally look pitiful.

"Are you sure that's safe?" Lylia calls out, lips quirked into a slight smile. "Y'know... You're not going to plunge to your freezing death?" Cheerful, cheerful. But the daredevil nature is enough to make the young woman tromp onto the ice, immediately slipping and landing on her rear. Pout.

If Lis can get one foot on the ice, the other can't be that hard, right? With much wobbling and a precarious teeter, the pink wearing greenrider does manage to get upright with a proud - if a tad foolish - grin. "Of course it's safe. It hasn't cracked yet, and we've both fallen down." And we all know how much of a dent Lis could make in the ice... The new face gets a cheerful wave, and - oblivious to the fact that the girl's /cold/ - calls out, "Hey, you going to join us?"

Teeth chattering obviously, an aghast Kiylan peers out a Lis. Is she /mad?/ "On th-that? It c-can't be s-safe." Not if she has a chance of making a fool of herself.

Quara is still, durnit. She's not falling down. Which means she's not bruising. And bruises are /most/ unattractive. So there. "It's safer here, Lis," she calls out, tartly. She can pretend she's got logic on her side.

Freezing death? Did Kalette think of that before slipping out into the middle of the lake? No... of course not. She prefers to die first, think later. Sigh. "Gotta get myself..." She grunts. "Up." Pulling her leg under her and sitting on her heels she manages to prop herself up, shaking as she gets a wobbly stance, both feet on the ice. "Here we go..."

Lis rolls her eyes in exhasperation at all the non-believers, slowly making her shuffling way towards the shore - and Quara. After a few steps, the greenrider has a decent glide going. "Come /on/, Quara. It's so much more fun! And everybody's doing it..." Surely the bluerider wouldn't want to be out of style, would she? "There you go!" are her warbled words of encouragement for Kalette.

Slowly, and quite unsteadily, Lylia manages to stagger to her feet, only offering a slight grin and a blush. Once more her feet begin to move, this time letting her do a more graceful little glide forward. If a bit wobbly. But once more she breaks out in a bright grin, heading towards Lis as she gives a wide wave towards Kiylan. "C'mon! It's 'Reaches tradition to play on the ice!"

Quara is just fine where she is. "No, thanks. Not in riding boots." True enough. "Dangerous." Also true, if brief. What's gotten into her lately?

Though a stubborn nature holds Kiylan's tongue from agreeing immediately, a teency bit of an adventurous sense flickers in midsummer's orbs, glancing down at the ice with interest. "Well...maybe for a second."

Kalette gains her confidence from Lis, shuffling at a slow pace and beginning to- gasp!- move. With a startled yelp she glides quickly over a rather smooth patch of ice and finds she can't stop. "How do you st-" And her question is interrupted by her face hitting the ice again. But, considering how often this is happening, it may have been the /ice/ that was hitting her. You never know. She leans back and tries to pull herself, and her heavy layers of clothes, up off surface of the lake.

Stopping is harder than starting, or so Lis discovers, landing in a snowbank off to the side of Quara. "You're such a worry wherry, Quara. Why, are you pregnant again?" If her clutchmate can be dour, she's allowed to be flippant. "Yeah, Quara, it's /tradition/." Just like Turnday kisses. "You can't argue with tradition. See?" Kiylan's acquisence is noted with a broad grin as she waves the girl out onto the ice.

Quara shakes her head adamantly. "Nuh-uh. Not going." And nothing Lis can say will drag her out there.

Kalette frowns and pushes herself back up with a grunt, looking over at Quara. "Why not? It's perfectly- ugh- safe!" She trips yet again and lands her rear-end right on the ice. It's beginning to throb now. "Ouch." Groaning and grinning simultaneously, she rises once again and begins to slide. It comes as a shock to her when she /doesn't/ fall down immediately. "Yay!" she shouts for herself. "I did it!"

Sliiiiiide, man. It's just groovy. Lylia kicks it, slipping along the ice and picking up speed. It's time for a crash in three... two... one... POW! Her long legs sweep out from under her on a particular ice patch, and she goes sprawling, another pout on her face. "This ice is too shardin' slippery!" Yes, dear. But she gets up again, once more puttering around, albeit slower.

Quara finally, reluctantly, sends her firelizards off. They return a few moments later with a pair of odd-looking metal and leather items, which she catches deftly in gloved hands, praising the quintet avidly as she does. Then, seating herself temporarily, she straps the contraptions onto her boots, making sure they're secure. And /then/ it's time to get up again. But she does it neatly, rising and pushing off into a glide. "See, Lis, /this/ is ice skating," she explains.

Lis is still foundering in her snowbank moreso than actually doing anything productive. This, however, leaves her ample opportunity to laugh at Lylia et al - that is, until Quara decides to royally show her up. "So? It's just what we were doing, only without those metal things." Most people would call them skates, but not the pink-leathered greenrider flopping in the snow. Of course not.

Quara can't help that she was raised in mountain country. They skate all the time up there. And ski. And the bluerider, when she's of a mind to, does both as well as anyone. "Something like, at least," she amends, Lis-wards, skating in graceful loops about the lake.

Athletic-type things are obviously not Kiylan's forte. At least there aren't any /males/ around. One should have lost count of her falls by now, but as she gets braver, she pushes off...big mistake. Too petrified to move, she's heading straight toward Kalette.

After much flailing and wiggling, Lis can finally inch herself down onto the shelf running around this side of the lake, and from there, it's only a short drop to the ice itself. In this manner she scoots around, feet dragging her hindquaters forward while hands push. "Well, you don't have to be all show-offy about it," she states with a snort, keeping half an eye on the other skaters.

Purple-tinted lips turn an unhealthy blue as Kalette glides gracefully (Yeah, right...) across the ice. She peers over at Quara's skates. How did those things work better than her nice, slippery boots? Oh well. She can't turn, that's not part of her 'style'. Her 'style' of skating, which she just developed, involves standing and letting the ice take you wherever it feels like. And of course, she doesn't see Kiylan coming up directly in front of her. She just looks down at the ice and heads /straight/ for the other girl. Now it's Lette's turn to go *SPLAT*.

Lylia doesn't like being laughed at, and sticks her tongue out at Lis before swooping off in her cautious skulking. "Sliding's more fun." With a cheerful yelp, she crouches slightly, skidding along with her coppery tresses flying out behind her. Unfortunately, her little blue Solo is squawking pitifully and slipping and sliding around the lake, in the path of the rider. A near miss occurs as he manages to skid out of the way, squeaking.

Quara watches the rest of them flop about like so many unfledged hatchlings, her own path taking her about. "What's the matter, Lis? Didn't you ever learn to skate properly?" comes her next taunt. Aimed, of course, at the pink-clad girl. She, meanwhile, has taken the time to skate backwards, as graceful as ever. Showoff.

Quara goes home.

"Exactly, Lylia." Lis' opinion is backed by the brownrider, and this buoy's the greenrider's self esteem enough to survive Quara's jibe. "No, I didn't," is her snappy comeback - no one ever said she was long on wits - as she tries to shove herself to her feet, and not very effectively. "Oof!"

"This /is/ properly?" Lylia gives a little taunt, once more careening off as she reaches down a hand to scoop up her wayward blue, before the little fella ends up roadkill. Scoot, scoot, scoot.... She drifts towards Lis, a slightly evil grin on her face. Mwahaha.

Lips uttering not a sound, Kiylan's haphazard slip is definitely less graceful than Kalette's as the terrified traveler keeps in one direction with amazing speed. Nearer...nearer...OOMPH! Bouncing back from the force of the impact, it seems as if she has, indeed, successfully made an idiot of herself. Shards.

Lis is immediately wary of that evil grin on Lylia's face, scooting her tush along the ice as fast as she can. "Ly... Ly, /why/ are you looking at me like that?" she calls plaintively over her shoulder, wincing as she notices the two that have fallen victim to their own lack of balance.

Kalette falls to the ice, nearly knocked out from that very hard /smack/. Oh, the lovely bruises she'll have, come tomorrow. "Are you alright?" she asks Kiylan, nearly choked for air. "That was semi-painful." She laughs and stands, getting used to the pain of winter sports. Reaching out a hand to Kiylan, she grins. "That was my fault... I should have been looking where I was going." She gives her a sheepish grin and starts to glide again.

"You two alright over there?" Though Lis may be doing her darnedest, inching around at an almost painful - and certainly ludicirous - speed to avoid the brownrider following her, it wouldn't do to let any injured persons go unnoticed.

Lylia is the only one still standing? Yay! After her few falls, she can be triumphant. Crossing her arms over her leather-clad chest, that dark smirk just widens slightly. "No reason." None at all. Except for the fact that she's picking up speed, closing in on Lis like a rabid shark. Closer, closer.... Plaintive pleas are ignored.

/Ouch./ Rubbing her head with a dramatically pained expression, Kiylan somehow manages to get herself up without slipping, calling after the girl, "No, it was my fault...I...." Uh. Don't advertise, first rule of Non-Embarrassment.

Kalette slips and slides over to the beach once again. "This was fun. Thanks Lis!" She rubs her head, back, rear, and more as she walks off the lake. "I need to get some rest now!" she calls after them. "Bye!"

Kalette goes home.

What about plaintive whimpers? Lis tries a few of those as she starts losing to Lylia, managing to blurt out a "Bye!" as Kalette leaves, before she's inching frantically. No way she can get to her feet /now/. Perhaps, though, if she heads for Kiylan...

Relief flooding her expression as the ice begins to clear, Kiylan begins to glide...considerably better than her earlier performances indicated. Ah, finally...no one pulling at her feet. Not, of course, noticing Lis.

"Y'know what?" Lylia keeps up a conversational tone, sliding along beside Lis, that grin widening ever-so-slightly. Kiylan just gets a playful wink, coppery eyebrows tilting slightly. "We should play a game." Slide, slide, and closer the 'Reachean comes. "Like this." With her arm sliding forward, she gives the greenrider a poke. Hard. "You're It!" And off she goes. Lylia likes tag, you see. And she's darting towards Kiylan....

"Ow!" Lis is soft and plushy - she bruises easily, too! But now that she's it, she scrambles to her feet, arms whirling as she wobbles back and forth. "Alright, that's it..." Someone else will become the victim now, and off stalks the huntress. Hellooooo, Kiylan!

Slow, nice and slow...scream? Glancing behind her, Kiylan's face falls as she notices the two 'riders come straight in her direction. Drat. She puts on an extra burst of speed, heading straight toward a wall of rock.

Eeeheeheeheehee. Cue the evil theme music. Lylia quickly darts away, a glimmer of amusement in her eyes as Lis turns on Kiylan. She manages to use the weyrling-enduced agility to slide around, teetering as she waves towards Kiylan. "Over here!" Towards the edge. Slippery enough of a twist that Lis may be thrown off.

Oh, but it's so much easier to go after Kiylan - especially since she's headed for that rock. Rock? The greenrider notices this not, and pelts after the girl for all she's worth, skidding the last few paces between them. A glancing brush is delivered to her shoulder, but it counts, in this 'Reachian's book. "You're it!" And away darts the pink missile, slipping and sliding all the while.

"Aaaaaahhhhhh!" Tagged, waved at, or threatened by a dragon in a pink tutu, there's no way Kiylan's going to be able to steer; thinking quickly, she causes herself to slip onto her back, feet aimed toward the wall to soften the blow. Ee-yick; if one could see her eyes, one could see revenge flickering instead of the usual flirtatious innocence. Grr.

Okay, don't come over here. Please? Lylia immediately skids, turning to the left as she veers off. The brownrider's trying to put as much distance as she can between herself, and the two that are ominously known in her mind as 'Them'. Especially once Kiylan's the new enemy. This prey's gonna be darting along the edge... Until she slips, which she promptly does, ending up kissing the ice. Joy.

Hey, the ice might be enjoying it too... Lis, meanwhile, is still on her feet, and merrily ricocheting off the parts of the lake that stick out - mere grab, and push off! Faranth knows what it's doing to the soles of her boots, but she's having fun - giggling, even - and avoiding Kiylan like a proddy green does males. Except Alymath.

And so they played long into the night... or at least until they got really cold and went inside.