December 14, 2003
R'hyn takes a moment out of his time with Rhyena to chat with a few of Ista's weyrlings.

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R'hyn's two-turn-old daughter - or so it must be - is swung above his head, set down upon his shoulders, as the young man strides easily from the corner of the bowl where the ground weyrs are located. Her expression is grumpy, as the drizzle dampens her hair and clothes; R'hyn, on the other hand, seems to enjoy it, something of a dance to his step. "C'mon, Rhy. It's fun. Don't sulk."

B'myr is coming in with Nhi from the rain, she is a slightly unhappy but clean dragon at least. He notes R'hyn as he is heading toward the ground weyrs and chuckles slightly. Kids are always cute ... arn't they?"

Siramyth is digging trenches in the dirt with her claws, more entertained by this practice than she ought to be. Kiora is sulking nearby, with her jacket pulled over her head. "Are you done yet? C'mon, Sira, are you finished? I'm going to have to clean you in the rain, or else it'll just get caked to your claws." Siramyth continues digging, and Ki kicks irritably at the ground, frowning in R'hyn's direction as she spots him. "Arr." Apparently, Ki does not think rain is fun, but she opts out of expressing this loudly enough to be heard.

Rhyena lets out a particularly loud squawk, and R'hyn, his face becoming set with a frown, scoops her down from his shoulders, setting her upon the ground. She can walk, already, but right now, she just glares at him - like father, like daughter. "NO!" Says she. R'hyn sighs. "Go back to Mamma, then, Rhyena." The altercation averted - Rhyena toddling safely off home, watched carefully by a nearby Arisvath - R'hyn's attention is caught by those others in this area of the bowl. "Afternooon. Beautiful day, isn't it?"

B'myr smiles and looks up, "Well it's not bad, at least a little helpful for getting one green dragon clean, though it's going to take me forever to get her dry and oiled now."

"It's wet," Kiora states in return. "It's going to be even /harder/ to get Sira clean. She just wants to dig in the dirt." Siramyth digs her claws in again obligingly. "Arr."

"You have my sympathy," says R'hyn, in what is outwardly a sympathetic and understanding tone; there is, however, a twitch at the corner of his lip which makes it seem somewhat less authentic. "I don't know. Between the two of you, I can't decide whether rain is good for cleaning, or not!" His curls are going frizzy, tangling up about his face.

B'myr looks toward Siramyth with a bit of a quirked brow, and though harder to tell Nhiameth is no less confused by her digging. "Well I guess it depends on what you're doing before you go to get clean."

"S'bad," Kiora states, quite sure of this. "'cause Siramyth likes to dig when the ground is wet, and then whenever I clean her off, she just gets in the dirt again, and it gets all messed up." Siramyth moves a few feet, and begins digging again. "I dunno what she wants to find, but I'd rather clean her when it's hot than clean her when it's wet. But that's just me, o'course."

Late afternoon arrives on this spring day. Flashes of lightning illuminate the sky 'neath a heavy layer of clouds. Thunder booms every few minutes, and a steady rain falls. The spring air is cool with an edge of perpetual humidity. (69F, 21C)

R'hyn considers both statements for a moment, pushing several curls out of his face with his left hand. "Well," says the soft-spoken man after a pause, "I guess you're right, B'myr. Just don't bathe her, Kiora, and let her play as long as she likes. If it keeps raining, the mud won't stick, and then she can just take a dunk in the pool and it'll mostly come straight off."

B'myr nods, "Just be thankful there is no hair for the mud to get stuck in, you don't know how bad it is to get mud out of a thick runner or herdbeast coat."

Kiora looks no less grumpy, and frowns at Siramyth again. "I guess that's true, with the dunking and the not having hair and all that stuff. But I still don't like it. What're you doin' in the rain, anyway? Either of you, I guess. Are you goin' or comin' or just come to stand outside?"

"Or a child," remarks R'hyn. "I suppose I should be glad that Rhyena hates the rain." He digs his hands into his pockets, glancing up at the skies - the clouds are getting thicker, the rain heavier. "I like the rain. I like to walk in it. It's strangely surreal."

B'myr shrugs, "I was just getting Nhi cleaned off, she insisted she must be clean, so I had to get her cleaned up, and now we're returning from that trip.""

"What's surreal mean?" Kiora sticks her hands in her pockets, now, leaving her jacket draped over her head. "Is that a good thing?" She peers in B'myr's direction, grinning vaguely. "Sira wanted to be clean, too, but as you can see she didn't get near as far as Nhiameth."

R'hyn has to think for a moment about this definition, and finally proffers, "Kind of dreamlike, I guess. Detached from normality. /I/ think it is." Blowing on a lock of hair that has, yet again, fallen over his right eye, R'hyn adds, "How did the desire to be clean turn to a desire to be dirty, Kiora?"

B'myr rubs back his hair, getting a few wet strands out of his face. "It is a bit strange, I used to enjoy it only because it cut down on the dust working with the animals."

Kiora ahs sagely, and nods slightly. "I guess I can understand that. The gardens at the hold are like that in the rain, too. Real pretty ... well, I dunno, sir, about the dirty. She wanted to go to the beach and get a bath, so we were gonna fly over there -- but then she started diggin'. I guess because she figured I'd have to clean her when she was done, anyway, or somethin'."

R'hyn shifts his feet, slightly; a puddle is forming right where he was standing, his booted feet getting damp. "It would do that, I suppose," he agrees, in response to B'myr. "Threadfall in the rain is a menace, of course. Visibility is awful." He listens to Kiora with a smile upon his face, laughing. "Oh, I see. There's a lot of her to clean now, too."

B'myr pats Nhi's hide, glad there isn't quite as much of her to clean. "I hope there isn't any rain for our first thread," he mutters quietly.

B'myr pats Nhi's hide, glad there isn't quite as much of her to clean. "I hope there isn't any rain for our first thread," he mutters quietly.

Kiora sighs, but beams adoringly at Siramyth. "Oh, yes sir, quite a bit, now. She's very /big./" Most of this is fat, however, and probably shouldn't count. "I don't want to think about fall at all, B'myr, much less rain in fall," she notes to the greenrider, switching topics at random yet again. "It seems very frightening."

R'hyn makes the briefest of grimaces at the use of 'sir', but makes no remark upon the subject. "I don't think you'd be subjected to that," he tells the weyrlings. "It's scary enough as it is. But you'll have to do it, eventually. It /is/ frightening," he swallows, then adds, "but so long as you're careful, you have an okay chance of not being injured or anything."

B'myr nods in sympathy to Kiora, "Sorry for bringing it up ..." He looks toward R'hyn again then, "I hope we won't, I'm worried enough about it as it is."

"S'okay." Kiora shrugs, and pulls her hands from her pockets, popping her fingers idly. "R'hyn's right, we gotta deal with it soon anyway. But I'm more worried about you guys than I am me and Sira, I guess."

"I don't think it's wrong to be worried," remarks R'hyn, scrunching up his nose in thought. "Though, erm, if you're paralysed by fear, that's a bad thing. You /are/ being well trained. And your lifemates'll know what to do - it's instinctive, and stuff."

B'myr slings an arm over Nhi and nods, "I trust her, and I feel like things are going to go alright, just a bit of nerves."

Kiora shrugs again. "I'm not /real/ worried. Whatever happens, happens. Can't do much about it, I guess, 'cept have Siramyth and me do the best we can at not getting hurt."

R'hyn nods his head quickly. "Good. Good! Um. Yeah. I was pretty nervous, too. But it's not so bad, really. I mean..." He shrugs. "Well. You'll see, I guess. Not long now, until you fly that first fall, huh?"

B'myr nods, "Not too long at all, but too much time to think about it."

"Not long at all," Kiora agrees, paling faintly. "Not long 'til we graduate, either, I guess, after that."

"Time flies," says R'hyn, quietly. "You'll be fine, I'm sure. And I bet you're looking forward to being full riders at last, and all. Though I don't envy you all the other classes you'll have to take, Kiora."

B'myr nods, "It will be kind of nice to be full riders, not be kept to the weyr and such, but soo many other things too."

"Arr." Kiora is so very eloquent. "Serri's already got me started on hidework, sir, and I've not even graduated. What other things do we get to do when we're graduated, anything? 'sides join wings. Anything special?"

R'hyn's hair is well and truly plastered to his face, now. "The freedom is good," he agrees. "It's still hard work, and you don't have a great deal of free time, but you're your own person. An adult." A sympathetic grin is made towards Kiora. "Much sympathy. She was talking about it. Well-- you can probably have your own celebration. I don't know, really."

B'myr nods and is rather wet himself at this point. "Well guys, I'm going to head inside. I'm tired and Nhi still needs to be dried and oiled before we bed for the night."

Kiora beams, and waves after B'myr. "Have a good night, B'myr!" Then she gnaws on her bottom lip, peering thoughtfully at R'hyn again. "Our own celebration? Like a party, or something? I like parties. And gathers and the like. I haven't ever been to any very /big/ ones. So I guess a little one would be nice."

"Night, B'myr," says R'hyn, cheerfully. He grins at Kiora. "I don't see why not. I mean, the weyr doesn't necessarily do anything official, but I bet you could have some fun, if you wanted. It's a special occasion. You only graduate once."

Kiora rocks back and forth on her heels, hands making for her pockets yet again. "I could have a little party for the weyrlings in my weyr. So long as Siramyth isn't in at the time, of course, because otherwise I just don't think there would be enough room. Did you do anything like that when you graduated, sir? 'cause if you did, you can tell me how. I dunno how to ... you know, host company or anything, except that I guess you ought to feed them."

R'hyn's eyes go slightly vacant, as if lost in his own memories. "Southern had a bit of a ceremony, for us. Officialish. We had a party, afterwards, and some of the girls got really drunk." A blush creeps across his face. "Food is good," he agrees, thinking. "Some alcohol, if you don't mind potential projectile vomit. Um. You could play games, or maybe just talk. I don't know."

"Nooo." Kiora grimaces slightly. "I'm not givin' anyone any alcohol. Don't want'm to get hurt, and don't want /any/ vomit in my weyr." She rocks again, expression thoughtful. "But talkin' sounds nice. And games. And food. I guess I can try that. How come they don't do anything here? Is it just Weyrleader E'van, or have they never done it?"

R'hyn's expression is amused. "Good call. Alcohol is, um... messy." His own hands are shoved deeper into his pockets, and he shrugs. "Different weyrs do different things, and different weyrleaders want to try different things. Ista has done celebrations and stuff, in the past, but not for a long time. Not even when I was Weyrleader."

Kiora 'ah's faintly. "Well. I guess that's okay. Parties aren't that important, after all." She stops her rocking, and peers back in Siramyth's direction, finding the gold to still be digging about. "What's it like, anyway, to be a full rider, sir? Is it really that much different from being a weyrling, 'sides the not having classes?"

R'hyn nods. "Weyrs are all about fighting thread. We don't always have time for parties." The rain, getting harder, finally draws R'hyn's head upwards. He grimaces, slightly. "More freedom. More respect. But also, big expectations. You have to keep up, from the start. It's really hard, at first."

"That's true." Kiora replies vaguely -- then she pauses and looks upwards, holding her jacket to her head. "D'you want to go inside, maybe, sir? Or not. I just don't want us to get sick from bein' all wet or anything."

With a sigh, R'hyn says, "I ought to be getting back to Rhyena -- it's supposed to be my afternoon, even if I'm not in the mood." His nose wrinkles, slightly. "I love her dearly, but sometimes it's just not the right time. You'd better get inside yourself, too. It's been good to talk to you, though. Good luck, with the fall, and everything."

Kiora bobs her head, and begins shuffling towards the ground weyrs, leaving Siramyth to her own devices. "S'okay, sir. I'm sure my parents felt that way a lot, too. Nice talking to you, too, sir, and thanks."

You head over to the slightly detached area of the bowl that houses the ground weyrs and the council room.

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