Firestone Bashing

Seliga enters the weyrling barracks with her green. "Hey, lad!," she calls out smiling as she spots M'hryn carefully examining his small bronze's hide (looking for those evil crack things despite Talibenth's lack of complaint). "You got some firestone breaking to do."

Evalla is on the heels of Seliga as she comes in from the bowl. "That's right. And Madelynda," she calls from across the barracks, "I believe you are actually be/hind/ on your own allotment of firestone breaking. Perhaps, Seliga, the young bronzerider could use some company?" One eyebrow quirks upward as the redshirt's arms cross. "Hmmmmm?"

Seliga laughs, a bright sound, much like herself. "Oh, I'm sure he would." She seems to relish being able to speak for a bronzerider.

Madelynda sighs softly, her wince hidden since she's facing her dragon, her back towards the bowl. "Yes, Evalla," she calls, tone dry in order to hide her apprehension, setting aside the set of straps she's holding against Phediath's body as if to test the size.

M'hryn watches the two redshirts with a resigned sigh. "Yes, ma'am," he says to Seliga, scrambling to his feet. He turns to Talibenth. "It'll give you some room to do your wing excercises too... No, I don't... it's we've got stuff to do, so I can't go take you to get a bath."

Evalla matches Seliga's laugh, though hers is lower, rough, and rugged as the weyrbreeding and weryling life have made her. "Hop to it!" she claps, her half-smile indicative of her own merriment at commanding a goldrider.

M'hryn jumps at the tone of command from the redshirt. "Yes, ma'am," he says to Evalla, then hurries towards the bowl. Talibenth scrambles across the floor, talons clattering against the stone floor as he ... prances? dragons can prance? Well, this one is.

M'hryn walks out of the huge opening and into the bowl. M'hryn has left.

Talibenth lumbers off out into the bowl. Talibenth has left.

Madelynda gives Phediath a smooth carress before turning and facing Evalla. "Aye, yes ma'am," she responds instinctively, tone hardening a bit and devoid of any kind of emotion at which the redshirts might be inspired to laugh. Quickly, Phediath ambling slowly behind her, Madelynda moves past the two redshirts as she enters the bowl.

You walk out of the huge opening and into the bowl.

You travel towards the center of the bowl. Ista Weyr Bowl -- Center(#900RJ)

M'hryn arrives from the northwest, near the corrals. M'hryn has arrived.

Talibenth arrives from the northwest, near the corrals. Talibenth has arrived.

Phediath arrives from the northwest, near the corrals. Phediath has arrived.

Madelynda waves slightly at Shast with a feeble smile. "Evalla and Seliga have decided we are to do firestone breaking today."

Shast thinks for a momment, "Evalla and Seliga... I remember the names... They're still weyrlings?"

Phediath warbles loudly, as she is often wont to do in the expansive space of the bowl, perhaps because her high-pitched tone tends to echo back to her three- or fourfold. At a slow and delicate pace, she moves to a free area, swinging her head to and fro to be sure that no other weyrling might be accidentally thwapped by her large wings before extending them outward, turning them into softly glowing golden wingsails.

M'hryn sighs hugely, a hammer slung over his shoulder as he moves towards a large pile of firestone -- these with large chunks. He nods to Shast. "Yeah, they're redshirts. They've been doing Between lessons," he says as he pokes through the pile.

Shast nods to M'hryn and watches the gold's little display and says, "Hello to you too Phediath."

Madelynda chuckles at Phediath, shaking her head as she also moves toward the pile of the largest-sized stone. Swinging her own, though smaller, hammer from her shoulder, she accidently lets it fall to the ground. Frowning at it, she says softly with a blush, "Oops."

Talibenth watches the young gold, head held proudly from where he sits a safe distance from her large wings.

Shast decides to make himself useful for a momment and smiles at Madelynda before quickly walking over and picking it up for her, "Here ya go Maddy."

Phediath warbles yet again, if only for good measure, but perhaps because she instinctively reacts in this way when a bronze sits nearby with a proudly held head. Nevermind that she's hardly nine months out of her baccarat shell; "it's never to early to learn" seems to be this young queen's motto.

M'hryn smiles a little at Madelynda. "It's, uhm, difficult to get us to, isn't it?" he asks, then adds, "I had always thought that, uhm, a goldrider wouldn't have to do these things as a weyrling. I didn't even really know goldriders were ever weyrlings." He finally selects a heavy, nice sized irregular shaped rock and looks it over, saying, "Grey firestone. Black and shiny cromcoal."

Madelynda smiles feebly yet again, accepting the hammer from Shast. "Ah, thankye, Shast." She tries to laugh, but it rather comes out in nervous cough-like sound. "I am afraid I'm still behind most of the other weyrlings as far as arm strength goes." Offering another smile at M'hryn, and following his example, she peers at the pile and selects a smaller but similar-looking chunk. After a moment, his comment registers, and she grins slightly. "Thank Faranth this goldrider is a weyrling. I haven't the foggiest idea what to do with anything. Poor Evalla has much to do to keep her temper in check with me, she's so used to it all."

Talibenth warbles now, a sound signficantly lighter than Phediath's own warble, which doesn't echo anyway. But that's okay. He rises from his haunches and spreads out long, narrow wingsails and stands there motionlessly, sunlight sparkling over gleaming, well oiled golden bronze hide.

Shast nods to Madelynda, "It's okay, you've been sick a good part of your life, not being very strong in understandable." he says to her, then to the both of them he inquires "You want me to help you guys?"

As if on cue, said Evalla saunters into the central area of the bowl and approaches the firestone pile. "How's that hammer, Maddy?" she calls, her voice almost as booming as a weyrlingmaster's. Then, her tone wry, "Able to hold it up yet?" The redshirt's expression is not unkind, however; jovially sympathetic in fact...as much as the rough-edged young woman's face can be jovially sympathetic, that is.

M'hryn glances at the chunk Madelynda has selected. "Make sure the piece has, uhm, more grey than than black," he offers, trying to sound helpful rather than bossy. "The, uh, Miner said that black part's cromcoal and it can give the dragon's stomach aches." He then looks at Shast. "Uhm, I'm not sure." His eyes go to Evalla.

Shast turns to the approaching woman and says, "Evalla right? I'm Shast." He holds out his hand towards the woman.

Phediath arches her neck just enough to focus her whirling eyes on Talibenth a moment, air wooshing out of her nose in a kind of draconic approval. But the moment is short, and she bends her neck upward to stare at the sun as her wings begin to idly pump up and down in the effort of wing exercises.

Madelynda wince-smiles at Evalla, uttering a soft, "Yes, ma'am" before turning to M'hryn. "More grey than black. Yes." At that, she lifts the chunk closer to her eyes, peering into it. "Oh!" she exclaims, smiling. "I think this is a good piece. More grey than black!" She holds it out toward M'hryn, eager for his approval.

M'hryn blinks at Madelynda as she offers the piece of stone to him. "Uhm, what do you, uh, want me to do with it?" he asks, definitely nervous as he completely misinterprets what Madelynda wants. "You want me to show you how to, uhm, break it?"

Evalla turns her cold grey eyes on Shast, giving him a nod as terse and hard as the flat line that is her mouth. "Yes. Evalla. Nice to meet you, Shast." Instead of extending a hand, she hastily walks over to the stone pile and begins to inspect the piece that Madelynda holds out to M'hryn.

Madelynda manages to laugh, shaking her head as her glance shifts momentarily to the nearby Evalla. "I just want to make sure that this piece is the, you know, good kind?" She looks at Evalla, too, to gauge the redshirt's response.

Shast audibly mutters to himself, "Well, what a pleasant person." Before following Evalla to the piles, and asks her blankly, "Would it be okay if I helped my friends out or is ussual for weyrlings to do these things theirselves."

Evalla's eyes narrow at the rock, and she nods as her mouth suddenly forms into a thin smile. "Very good, Madelynda," she says softly. But the smile disappears just as quickly as it emerged, as if it were never there, when Shast approaches. "I doubt it, lad. Best to ask a weyrlingmaster, not I." With that, she turns on one boot heel and walks to a better vantage point, idly watching the other firestone-breaking weyrlings on the way.

Talibenth's eyes whirl an appreciative blue-green, watching the flexing of muscles along the young queen's form as her wings pump up and down. Slowly, he starts mimicing his regal sister, wings pinioning slowly up and down. Large, dark talons dig furrows into the ground as the golden-green chased wingsails slowly speed up.

Madelynda can't seem to contain her joy at Evalla's affirmative. It seems that Evalla's use of the weyrling's full name is a positive compliment indeed. With that, she sets it down and prepares to sling her hammer at it, placing the tool firmly on her shoulder with a grunt.

M'hryn glances after Evalla and blushes at his misinterpretation of Madelynda. Grey eyes go to Shast and he shrugs a little at the other lad. Then he sets his own stone down and raises his hammer over his shoulder, where it hangs for an instant before he brings it down, hard. Unfortunately, as he normally does, he strikes a glancing blow on the stone. A small fist size chunk breaks off from one corner.

Phediath shakes her massive head quickly as she feels the wind from Talibenth's effort breeze toward her, her own wings beginning to pick up speed, though the change is almost unseeable in its grace and agility. Talons dig deep into the ground, the thickened muscles of the young queen's legs tensing at the effort.

Madelynda smiles brightly at M'hryn's action. "Oh, you are so good at it!" In her view, it seems, hitting the stone at all is a success. Inhaling deeply, she heaves the hammer up and off her shoulder, hitting the stone squarely in the middle. The stone, however, does not break in any direction, but stays solid.

M'hryn shakes his head. "I, uhm, don't really think so. Uhm, everybody was better at me when we started at this. I've just, uhm, had a little more practice at this than you. Uhm, one thing I think I heard is that you can, uh, see, uhm... faults, in the uh stone. And if you hit one of them, it will break, uh, easier." He reaches down to pick up the small chunk he broke off and tosses it in the pile of where another weyrling prompty picks it up and stuffs it into a bag.

Shast looks around for a weyrlingmaster and quickly spots one. He calls out to the man, "Hey X'ander, I can help the weyrlings out can't I?" He barely hears Shast and replies, "Hmm? What?" Shast quickly repeats himself and the weyrlingmaster responds, "Um... I guess... I don't see why not, go ahead Shast."

Madelynda nods soberly, shrugging before lifting the hammer again to her shoulder in preparation for her second attempt. As if gathering strength, she breathes inward and outward for a moment or two, squinting at the rock as if to /will/ it to break. Finally, with a loud grunt that she would never let out of her if the situation weren't so desperate, or perhaps it's because Evalla is glowering at her. Either way, the hammer hits the stone with a deafening sound and splits along three "fault" lines, falling onto the earth in three perfect, fist-sized pieces.

M'hryn wipes his forehead as he lifts his hammer for a second time. He starts to swing, but then stops, stumbling awkwardly. His eyes are on the stone Madelynda just broke... perfectly. "Wow!" he exclaims. "How did you do that?"

Shast watches Madelynda break the stone and says, "Nice, good job Maddy!" Then he fishes through his bag and pulls out a good sized hammer, "I was on my way to a job, but it can wait." He explains.

Shast amends, "You see Maddy, you don't have to be that strong, you just have to have good coordination." He turns to M'hryn and his slightly chipped rock and grins for a moment, "No offense meant of course."

Madelynda shouts out in glee, almost bouncing in her boots. "Look!" she points at the broken stone, eyes going to M'hryn and Evalla and X'ander and just about anyone else that's in looking range. "Ha!" she shouts, turning to look once more at M'hryn. "I don't know! Phediath...she just, uh, told me I could break it if I wanted to. And that I just had to think I could." She laughs, flashing a look at her wing-pumping lifemate.

Phediath warbles into the sky, her wings stretching out impossibly further, her neck arching enough to look at Madelynda as she warbles victoriously again. The exchange lasts only a moment, however, as the young queen spies a buzzing VTOL nearby and moves to examine it, head darting in the insect's various flight paths.

Shast smiles brightly at Madelynda's excitment and finds himself a good looking rock, large, pretty gray, and roundish. He lifts his hammer a few feet above it, and bashes down on it, hitting in close to the middle, breaking it into a few good sized pieces most of which he has to split in half again.

Talibenth stops his wing excercises, taking a lumbering step forward to see with his own whirling eyes what has his rider and Phediath's rider so excited. He stretches forward, head held just over to the right of M'hryn's shoulder. Then he takes another step and large talons close over the hammer his rider just set down.

Madelynda's laughter subsides into giggles, and she looks happily at Shast, calling out an encouraging "Good!" as his stone splits into pieces. She's so euphorically energetic that she doesn't seem to notice when the bronze weyrling lumbers near.

Jennae arrives from the southeast, near the living cavern. Jennae has arrived. Jennae wanders through, hands tucked into her pockets.

Shast nods, "Yeah, I guess that was a nice hit... Jays I haven't done this for long time."

M'hryn smiles again at Madelynda, then his eyes go to Talibenth. "Uhm, be careful," he says to the bronze as he leans down to pick up his hammer... and it's gone. "Hey," he exclaims. "Has anybody--" He stops and waves to Jennae. "Hi."

Madelynda bends over and picks up the three pieces of firestone and tosses them to a weryling, who stuffs them into a bag. Standing upright again, and hearing M'hryn greet someone, she turns in the direction of Jennae. "Heyla!" she cries, extraordinarily happy for some reason as she waves furiously at the nanny.

Jennae smiles brightly, returning the waves with vigor. "Hey there!" she calls back to Madelynda and M'hryn. "What's goin' on?" she queries, regarding the scene with an amused grin.

Phediath, wings moving up and down in an exercising motion, suddenly notices that her bronze clutchmate has left her alone out there. She snorts...the /nerve/. Leaning down toward the ground again, her wings slowly and steadily cease the exercise movement and she turns around to examine what all the fuss is about over there by the firestone stacks.

M'hryn is standing next to a large bronze, looking around on the ground for something. "Uhm, well, we're, uh, hammering firestone," he says then blushes as he admits something that sounds really stupid, "but I just lost my hammer."

Jennae puts her hand over her mouth, stiffling a chuckle quickly. "Well, M'hryn, if you had it, it's still here somewhere." She smiles politely to Shast, asking, "How are you this evening?"

Madelynda stops waving at Jennae and blinks at M'hryn. "You lost it?" she asks dumbly. "Where did it go? Did you fling it somewhere?" After a moment, she hastily offers, "You can have mine, if you want." Apparently, to her, that seems the polite thing to do.

Shast looks up and at the dragons approaching them, just after overhearing M'hryn he spots the hammer, "You mean the one your dragon is so joyfully admiring?" Then he nods to Jennae, "I'm fine, how about you?"

M'hryn shakes his head at Madelynda. "Oh, I couldn't, uhm, take yours," he says, then his eyes go to Shast. "What?" He looks at Talibenth, then stops the very end of the wooden shaft emerging from underneath the bronze's left forepaw. "Oh! You're standing on it!"

Jennae casts a quick grin at Maddy, chuckling to herself. At Shast's words, she nods softly. "I'm doing quite well, thank you."

Shast chuckles slightly at the antics going on between M'hryn and Talibenth before he nods to Jennae and hammers down another stone.

Madelynda doesn't let this subject drop, even as M'hryn finds his own hammer, for some reason. In fact, she begins to look ever-so-slightly agitated. A glance at her lifemate might explain why, and the casual onlooker that knows even the rudimentary stuff about how dragons affect their riders and vice versa might put two and two together, but nevertheless Madelynda peers at her fellow weyrling. "You couldn't take it? Why not? It's just a hammer. Is it not a good hammer, or something? You saw me split the stone just now." Over her shoulder, Phediath snorts; almost simultaneously, and uncharacteristically, so does Madelynda.

Shast looks strangly at Madelynda not quite sure what's going on he says, "He was just being polite Maddy. Besides he found his own hammer."

Jennae blinks at Maddy, shoving her hands into her pockets quickly. Her eyes drift to M'hryn, a questioning look cast in his direction.

M'hryn blinks at Madelynda as he stands back up, hammer once again in hand. "What?" he asks, confused. "Uhm, there's, uh, nothing wrong with your hammer. I just, uhm, I mean, I didn't want you to get into trouble with Evalla." He seems lost and quite upset by the sudden vehemence from the other weyrling.

Phediath, for her part, concentrates on Talibenth, who is unilaterally (and inexcusably) ignoring her. Another snort, and she begins to amble away. Who needs those silly bronzes watching her lovely wings while they exercise, anyway. Once she reaches a noble distance away, she plops down onto the earth and begins VTOL watching.

Dragon> Ista Weyrling dragons sense that Talibenth suddenly projects an image of a menacing Madelynda that seems to have no resemblence to the way she normally looks. << Why is your rider ... like this at M'hryn, Phediath? >>

Madelynda blinks, the color in her face subsiding again as her complexion turns to it's normal hue. "Oh," she states simply, as if not even quite sure why she was so concerned about it in the first place. After a moment, she flushes quite red again. "I'm sorry, M'hryn. I let Phediath...in too much. I'm sorry." She attempts a smile. "That whole 'keep your emotions separate' thing. I was so excited about the stone that I...um..." She shrugs, too embarrassed to finish, and glances at everyone before bending down and picking up another piece of stone in hopes that everyone's attention will /some/how become focussed elsewhere.

Shast ahhhs and nods to Madelynda, "Oh, it's okay Maddy." he says while splicing a stone in half.

Dragon> Ista Weyrling dragons sense that Phediath simply snorts. << Certainly your rider deserves it. She wouldn't be mad over nothing. >> Her terse tone is lofty, haughty, and as pinched as the great Neith's might be if she were particularly miffed. Almost an afterthought, she adds, << And neither am I. >>

Jennae summons a reassuring smile for Maddy, tucking her hair behind her ears quickly. "I'm sure we all understand," she offers.

M'hryn's nervous grey eyes go towards Phediath. "Oh," he says. "Is she, uhm... did something happen to, uh, upset her?"

Madelynda fumbles with the hammer, too swiftly lifting it to her shoulder and, carelessly, lets it fly without concentrating first. And so, the hammer flies out of her hands, sailing in an ignoble arch into the pile of firestone. This just results in turning Madelynda's face into an impossibly deeper shade of red. "Oh," she states again, staring at the fallen tool dumbly.

Shast watches the hammer fly across the bowl and heads towards it to pick it up, "Heh, you gotta be careful Maddy."

Evalla, who has apparently been watching this whole scene with immense interest, can't hide her laughter anymore as the hammer goes flying. In her usual terse tone, though there be a tinge of merriment in it, she loudly calls out, "Maddy, be careful! Just keep breaking. Forget about it." Still chuckling, she shakes her head as she watches the werylings.

Talibenth cranes his neck about to look at Phediath where she watches VTOL. He seems to be a bit hesitant, then tosses his neck and carefully, with a grace that seems ingrained, turns to face her completely. With a high, arched neck, he warbles, and steps towards the young queen. Once clear of his rider, with a loud snapping sound, he throws them out to their full length and rises on his haunches. Now he rears, towering well over the humans, fifty-meter-long wings spread to their full extent, whirling eyes on the gold.

Dragon> Ista Weyrling dragons sense that Talibenth says, simply, << Wherry dung. >>

Shast chuckles watching the dragons and grinning he says merrily, "Ah... they make such a good couple."

Jennae carefully edges away from the Weyrlings and the newly aerial hammers, smiling at the dragons. "Mmm, I agree quite heartily, Shast," she chimes.

Madelynda nods at Shast, not looking at him, and says softly, "Yes. I know." Taking a deep breath, she accepts the hammer and forces herself to say to M'hryn, "Phediath...um...she was..." Then suddenly, Talibenth towers above her lifemate and she drops the hammer, running toward the two young dragons. "M'hryn!" she calls, panic in her cry as she approaches the siblings.

Shast looks confused at all the panic over two flirting dragons, "What Maddy? What's the matter?"

M'hryn's eyes are on his bronze, so he misses Madelynda's error with the hammer. "What are you doing?" he asks, then drops his own hammer. "No. Maddy!" he cries as the other weyrling runs off. "He's showing off!"

Dragon> Ista Weyrling dragons sense that Phediath seems to ponder whether she will dignify the bronze's rejoinder with any response at all. Irritation winning over dignity, she scoffs loftily in unconcerned tone, << Are you trying to impress me with such feeble words? >>

Phediath arches her neck upward at Talibenth, the whirling in her eyes picking up speed and their color drifting from a light to a very deep blue. She considers the posing bronze for a moment in lofty silence. Then, spreading out her own wings wide, she slowly rises up on her own haunches, uplifting her head as high as her long neck will stretch. In this pose, since she is by nature bigger, she towers perhaps three meters over the weyrling bronze.

Dragon> Ista Weyrling dragons sense that Talibenth is silent for a long moment before, replying, << Feeble words? I... I... you're the one with feeble words! I am ... am ... >> Apparently, he can't find a word that conveys his feeling that his words are strong words.

Madelynda doesn't hear M'hryn; she clearly hasn't the faintest idea what's going on. It seems her own protective instinct doesn't allow her to see that the bronze is merely being friendly. Reaching the two dragons, dwarfed in their mutual shadow, she installs herself in between them, wrapping her arms around one of Phediath's massive legs. "Phediath!" she cries in a loud and insistent voice, as if commanding her lifemate to resume her previous, nonchalant position.

Shast yells, "Maddy it's okay! Step back! They're just flirting, jays!"

Talibenth's neck cranes upward as the gold rises over him. He holds his pose for a long moment, then drops to his forelegs and furls his wings back in tight along his shoulders. He then sits, looking up at the towering queen with an air of arrogance that is not in the least bit cowed. He sits this way for a moment before lowering his muzzle to the ground and nudging at some tiny bug unconcernedly.

Jennae watches the scene with no small measure of concern evident in her rapidly blinking green eyes.

Dragon> Ista Weyrling dragons sense that Phediath begins to sound interested. Or does she sound merely condescending? << Your words are what, Talibenth? >> she goads, flashing a bit of her shadowy-gold underbelly. << Please tell me what your words are. I would very much like to know. >>

Phediath slowly lowers her own body as Madelynda embraces her leg, her powerful persona seeming to crumble in spite of the onlookers she's clearly trying to impress, and she moves to nuzzle her lifemate concernedly. All softness as she's exposed to Madelynda's flurry of emotion, she croons at her in the most delicate and beautiful dragon-sound one could imagine a dragon uttering.

Dragon> Ista Weyrling dragons sense that Talibenth snorts lightly, << My words are ... are ... >> He casts about for a word, despite words not being a strong suit of his. Finally, with a blast of intense pride, he finds one: << My words are inconsequential!! >> There. Top that. His tone says.

M'hryn bites his lip, watching Phediath and Madelynda. "Uhm... sorry," he says quietly to the young goldrider, because he doesn't seem to have any better words and still somewhat confused as to what transpired.

Dragon> Ista Weyrling dragons sense that Phediath seems slightly impressed at all those syllables, though her thoughts are more on her lifemate at the moment than the bronze. She can't help but ask, however, as if eager to hear more of the same, << And what else are your words? Tell me another what they are. >>

Jennae releases a slow breath, taking a quick step back toward the weyr-proper. "Excuse me, won't you? I've a few things to tend to." And, with that, she turns on her heel and trots back the way she came.

Jennae travels southeast towards the living cavern. Jennae has left.

Madelynda melts a little as Phediath assures her, breathing a bit more normally, and she nods to some unheard comment from her lifemate. "Oh. Is that all?" She winces, flushing a little, and suddenly remember all those looking about. "Um..." she says in their direction, a feeble smile appearing as she returns back to a relative normal. With that, she reluctantly lets go of Phediath and walks toward the stone pile again, eyes on the ground.

M'hryn turns to look after Jennae, but she's gone before he can say anything. "I, uhm, hope she wasn't scared off."

Shast looks affectionatly towards his friend, "Are you okay Maddy?"

Dragon> Ista Weyrling dragons sense that Talibenth seems confused. << Uhm... they're not feeble? >>

Evalla is still amused and rather sympathetic, but her tone is critical as she walks over to Madelynda and says firmly, "You must still learn control, Maddy. A rider must be in control at all times in the face of Thread, no matter what happens. Especially when she thinks her lifemate is in danger. It is at those times that a rider must be in the most control."

Madelynda looks up at Evalla, nodding tiredly. "Yes. I'm...sorry. It won't happen again." She straightens up, swallows, and picks up the hammer again, preparing to break more stone. Almost an afterthought, she says -- in her most prim and proper tone -- toward Shast, "Quite all right, thank you." With that, she lets the hammer fly and hits the stone, a modest-sized piece breaking off: imperfect, but sufficient.

Dragon> Ista Weyrling dragons sense that Phediath sounds unconvinced, turning her large body around and ambling a short distance away, back toward Talibenth. << And yet you only said that before. I imagined you could do better than /that/. >> She seems to have completely forgotten her former irritation, and instead bespeaks in her usual mild and logical tone.

Talibenth's tail lashes against the brown, his eyes whirling a blue-green as he opens his mouth and the bronze takes a bite out of the ground where the trundelbug he'd been nudging had been. "Talibenth!" M'hryn cries out, as the named dragon opens his mouth and lets the soil fall out somewhat wetly.

Shast shrugs and nods to Madelynda, "Alright, if you're sure..." Looks up at the position of the rising moons, "Shards I gotta get this job done tonight, I'll see you two."

Shast puts his hammer back in his bag and begins to head towards the northwest end of the bowl.

Phediath apparently believes that Talibenth's taste in earth-covered insect cuisine...after all, those little things are so much fun to watch, poor things...is the last straw, and so turns round and assumes her original wing exercise position, stretching her wings out luxuriously.

Madelynda looks over at Shast. "Good even', then...Shast." She isn't quite sure what to say, it seems. So, instead, she turns to her new habit, and swings the hammer up to her shoulder again.

Shast leaves northwest, toward the corrals. Shast has left.

Rykel arrives from the northwest, near the corrals. Rykel has arrived.

Rykel waddles-walks. Upon arriving at the little crush of people she smiles, puffy, water logged face crinkling up with the motion. "Hello." She salutes off immediately with a 'don't bother' sort of look.

Dragon> Ista Weyrling dragons sense that Talibenth's logic is lost on Talibenth apparently. << My words are also ... Belior? >> Suddenly, he gets an image of one of the moons. << No. Not Belior. >>

Madelynda exhales loudly as she lets the hammer swing from her shoulder to the firestone on the ground. With a loud pop, the stone resentfully separates into two pieces. At the sound of Rykel's greeting, she turns around, firmly saluting her before turning back to her task without a word.

M'hryn stands near a pile of a firestone, a hammer down on the ground beside him. Talibenth lays on the ground a short distance away beside of a pile of disturbed earth that seems to glimmer a bit wetly. "Uhm, uhm, good evening, ma'am," he says, heeding the don't bother look.

Dragon> Ista Weyrling dragons sense that Phediath's attention, as usual, drifts as the image of the moon takes hold in her mind. << Ah, yes. Belior is beautiful. Almost as beautiful as those little buzzing things that Madlyn calls <VTOL>s. >> Phediath conveys an even greater sense of joy and appreciation as her mind combines the image of the moon with the doubly-winged insect, seeming to meld them into one.

Rykel jumps slightly at the resounding crack of the hammer as it flails against 'stone. Laying possessive hands over the belly, her face crunches up into an awful grimace. "Can't be good for the baby. It jumped too."

Madelynda blinks over at Rykel, concern on her face. "Oh, no..." she laments quietly, her nanny instincts suddenly reappearing in a kind of regretful flood. "How fares you and the baby, ma'am?" she says, firestone breaking completely forgotten.

Laurene arrives from the southeast, near the living cavern. Laurene has arrived.

M'hryn turns to look at Rykel. "Uhm... does that mean you're giving birth?" he asks.

Laurene skirts around the Weyrlings and the Assistant Weyrlingmaster, keeping her distance.

Laurene leaves northwest, toward the corrals. Laurene has left.

In the corrals, Laurene walks in the gate from the bowl, and closes it behind her.

Rykel laughs at M'hryn's question, a twinkle coming into her eye. "No, I hear that comes with a lot of pain. I'm not feeling any pain at all right now." She casts a grin at Maddy, hands still splayed over the belly. Too bad the belly seems to swallow her hands. "I'm doing well. Fat as a stuffed wherry, but well."

Madelynda looks slightly relieved, though slightly unconvinced as well. "Are you sure? Perhaps you should sit down? Can I get you anything?" She begins to walk hesitantly toward the massive-bellied woman, wincing in empathy.

M'hryn watches the two women, feeling rather out of place.

Rykel tries to lean over to peer around the sizable abdomen; to no avail. She shrugs. "I suppose my ankles need some rest. They swell pretty quickly now." She sends a longing glance to the /very/ far off living caverns. "I'm on my way there, actually. Just takes so sharding long!"

M'hryn offers hesitantly, "Uhm, I could, uh, help."

M'hryn adds, "Somehow."

Madelynda nods, still wincing. "All right. Phediath says she itches, so I think I'll have to tend to her. It seems that during her..." She swallows nervously for some reason, before continuing, "...'conversation' with Talibenth, she stretched her wings too far." She looks exremely apologetic about this.

M'hryn smiles at Madelynda, trying to seem reassuring. "It's, uhm, okay. Sometimes... I guess they have strong emotions sometimes, too."

Rykel's brows arch instantly but her face mirrors too much fatigue to worry about it now. She simply nods then stretches out a finger to M'hryn. "Can you just follow me and make sure I can make it all the way? I don't usually get winded, but today.... I don't know." She smiles vaguely.

M'hryn nods at Rykel. "Uhm, yes, ma'am," he replies. "I can, uh, do that."

Madelynda tries to smile back at M'hryn, but pretty much fails. "I haven't been that upset by her since our first days off the Sands. I'm...sorry," she offers, for what does not seem the first time, to her fellow weyrling. "I fear about the time when..." She tries to stop, but seems obligated to finish. "...when Phediath reaches three turns." With a sigh, she begins to move toward her lifemate.

Talibenth lifts his head up from the ground, eyes going to Phediath once again.

Phediath feels her lifemate approach her and meets her halfway. Doesn't happen very often, but occassionally, it does. No one else gets this kind of treatment, and only Madelynda gets it in certain situations. But her eyes whirl full of love and support as she gazes at her lifetime rider.

M'hryn looks back at Madelynda and seems a bit confused. "Three turns?" he repeats, then blushes. "Oh!" He quickly drops that subject and says, "It's, uhm, okay. I guess Talibenth did something to, uh, upset her."

In the corrals, Jh'rin closes the gate behind him as he comes off the Plateau. In the corrals, Jh'rin crosses the corral and opens the gates on the east side, and walks out to the bowl, closing the gate behind him.

Jh'rin arrives from the northwest, near the corrals. Jh'rin has arrived.

Madelynda turns back and salutes Rykel once more, and the nearby X'ander, before moving with her lifemate toward the barracks.

Madelynda also salutes Jh'rin, though she looks rather lost in thought.

Jh'rin looks behind him as if wondering who in the name of Faranth's fanny is being saluted. Then he salutes back.

M'hryn is looking after Madelynda, so sees Jh'rin's arrival. He salutes the wingsecond sharply. "Uhm, good evening, uh, sir."

Rykel's brows are slightly narrowed in thought as she watches Maddy and Phediath leave, but upon turning around to see both M'hryn /and/ Jh'rin there waiting and watching her she brightens considerably. "Well! Off to the living cavern with me then?"

Back to Home