This is how much I love you, K'tric. :)
Who: Lili, D'rian
What: D'rian spills some gossip on K'tric, after Lili pesters.
Where: The usual, under the lean-to.
On a Western Island, Clearing(#632RAh)
Set off and away from the main encampment, a broad path leads to this clearing of generous size. The lack of vegetation is mostly natural with the edges cut back to provide a bit more room. Located off to the side and in the shade is a large lean-to of sorts. Not much more than four supports with a thatched roof, said roof is big enough to cover a space that allows thirty three cots and ample room between each for growing dragons. A large pile of dried grasses and palm leaves is available for those young dragons that wish to construct a nest of sorts. There are also ever present barrels of oil.
The portion of the clearing that is not used for this makeshift barracks is empty space for dragons and their riders to move or land. Near to the main path but off to the side, there is a circle of staggered flat rocks and old tree stumps. A seating area for talking, lessons, or studying.
In the heavy wet season, it is always raining. However, there is an ebb and flow. Sometimes there is less rain, and sometimes there is more. The water pouning from the skies now is spilling down in sheets. People cannot walk through the rain, so much as swim through it.
-----
The lunching hour is almost past, but not many weyrlings are milling around the barracks area - most are finishing off their tucker, or getting an early start on their afternoon chores. Lili is sitting on her bed, for once unaccompanied by young Emieth. The girl has her full-'o'-stitches rabbitskin out, and there's an empty bowl next to her to suggest she's already eaten. Her hair is out, and while not sopping, it's definitely wet; tendrils of honey blonde clump heavily together, giving her a bit of a bedraggled appearance.
D'rian's forced to make a pitstop to the barrack lean-to at this particular hour: a rip in his shirt in need of stitching. As he ducks under the entrance and heads into the barracks proper, he casts a look in Lili's direction then looks around for her hired-watcher. In absense of A'der being present, D'rian settles himself on his cot with the greenrider in his direct line of sight. Well, mostly in his line of sight, for as he's forced to bend over the edge of his cot to retrieve his sewing materials, he momentarally loses sight of the girl.
Dark blue eyes peer up from her work, but her head doesn't move; Lili watches D'rian's approach carefully, guardedly, as the bronzerider may have noticed her doing once or twice in the past 'seven. There are advantages to being small: you can duck down into places others may not see you, and at lightning-fast pace! In the moment her fellow weyrling spends retrieving his work, she flat-lines in between her cot and the next - stealthy, although there's a loud 'oof' and a bit of a thud as she hits the ground.
D'rian sits upright rather sharply at the thud and oof combination. The lack of a Lili where there was once a Lili earns a bit of a confused look, and a moment of worry before he stands and takes a step in that direction. There's a pause, as though he fully expects the girl to resurface, and when she doesn't, he takes another step in that direction. "Lilli?" A pause and he edges closer until he's kneeling on the surface of her cot, all set and ready to peer over the edge to the opposite side.
A finger slices the air above her head well before her wrinkled-nose twists upward to peek over the top of her cot - Lili is defiant, triumphant! And peeved, apparently. "I /knew/ it!" The hand that isn't pointing towards the sky (or lean-to roof) serves to push her up, and she finds a comfortable sitting position on the ground from which to accuse D'rian. "You're spyin' on me. You and A'der. Always watchin', peering and keeping tabs on me. What'd I do, huh? Is this about your lunch the other seven?"
D'rian settles back out of his lean with a cross expression, "You're as daft as K'tric." This is not to be mistaken as a compliment. "Are you alright?" He looks her over, not willing to trust her judgement on the matter while distractedly denying her accusation, "Didn't do nothin' Lili. Just making sure you stay out of trouble."
"K'tic isn't /daft/," Lili defends her fellow greenrider with a frown. She brushes a bit of dirt from her clothes, and fixes her shirt huffily. "I'm fine. And I can keep myself just fine, too. Is it about the ocean thing, then? Where you saved me?" Her eyes narrow, and the girl leans forward. It's meant to be a menacing sort of look, but anything remotely menacing about it is drowned in her innate Liliness - and the fact the she's sitting on the /ground/ whilst D'rian towers well above her head.
D'rian doesn't look the least bit threatened. Amused, maybe, or like someone trying to make sense of the utmost confusing puzzle in the world...but not threatened. "Yes," Flatly, he reaches out a hand, offering it to Lili as a form of assistance up from the ground, "That's exactly what this is about."
Lili frowns some more, lines appearing in her forehead as her brows join in the expression. With some effort, she manages to haul herself up without using her hands, or D'rian's. "I can get up just fine, thank-you." Her tone is still biting with accusation. "I don't get it. Why're you spyin' on me, so's I don't go drowning again? And who else besides A'der have you got workin' with you? Does mister J'lor know about this?"
"Tell him if you don't like it," D'rian suggests as he eases off her cot and stands before it, his arms folded casually across his chest, just over that tear he'd meant to repair, "Won't stop me from watching you." Unaware of the number of ways /that/ can be twisted, the weyrling adds, "Trying to keep K'tric from knocking you upside the head or worse. Guy is sick even if you don't want to see it."
Lili's jaw drops open as the bronze weyrling retorts, and promptly snaps shut as she finds herself unable to fault his logic. Innocent mind here, lucky for D'rian! She mimics his arm-folding action, albeit a little more animated. Huffy. "What do you mean, he's sick? He seems perfectly healthy to me. He keeps up with everyone just fine."
"Sick. In the head," D'rian taps his own head to emphasize the source of the problem, "So just stay away from him, Lili." D'rian doesn't give an excuse. She is a woman and a greenrider to boot, therefore not needing of an excuse. He does, however, emphasize his demand with a potent stare.
"Oh." Lili's expression changes to something a little less peeved, though she's gritting her teeth as her eyes slide to the right for a moment. "Wait a second, you can't tell me what to do! Not yet, anyways, I got just as little rank as you. And I like K'tric, he's nice. Friendly-like. And he doesn't spy on me. Shouldn't I be stayin' away from /you/, since you're the one bein' all suspecty-like?" Her hands settle defiantly on her hips.
D'rian doesn't take long to counter her statement. "No. I'm not the one that's gonna hurt you. He will. He's /too/ friendly." There's a particular way D'rian states that which is meant to carry more then what words don't. "I'm just trying to keep you safe," A small allowance, genuine in earnesty, "Someone's got to."
Lili's eyebrows rise, her skinny fingers digging into the material around her waist. "He's /too/ friendly," she repeats warily, mulling this over. "Keep me safe... huh. What're you tryin' to say?"
"That." D'rian responds, "You don't even see it. You're too you." Struggling for a definition, D'rian settles with the easiest. Dropping his arms and turning away, he heads back to his cot to pick up the dropped sewing kit before settling on the edge and opening it. A needle and thread are removed, the former threaded and then the tear on his shirt assessed before he proceeds to mend it.
"What don't I see?" Lili persists, her own sewing left behind in favour of pursuing D'rian over towards his cot. "I don't understand what you've got against K'tric, D'rian. He's nothin' but nice, to both me /and/ you, that I've ever seen." She probably causes a disturbance to his mending as she scrambles to climb atop the cot next to the bronze weyrling, on all fours. "Huh?" That's a challenge, right there.
D'rian weathers the resultant bounce, stilling his needlework until she's settled and then resuming it. "Nice don't get you sent to this place, Lili. Don't forget that." Looking aside to re-enforce his point, D'rian adds, "You can't do it for yourself so I have to."
Lili digs the heels of her palms into the cot to steady herself, sobering as D'rian makes his ominous comment. Her shoulders drop some, and she has to re-steady herself again, meeting his eyes with hers unblinkingly. "Not everyone's here for bad things, but." She pauses, and settles back on top of her calves. "Do you know why K'tric's here, then?"
"Yes." Quite suddenly stubborn, D'rian doesn't say anything more and makes every effort to avoid looking at Lili.
Well, obviously, she's going to press for more information. "Why?" Lili counters D'rian's avoidance of her gaze by leaning forward to peer at him, intruding on his personal space. Possibly intentionally, for once.
D'rian stiffens, once more stopping his needlework but /still/ not looking at the other weyrling. "He did things." Intentionally vague, it is none the less followed with a pause, "Ask him. You'll think I'm just lying."
"/What/ things?" Lili cuts in during the pause, shaking her head as D'rian refers her elsewhere. "Come on, you can't do that. Just tell me, and then I'll go ask him anyways if I don't believe you."
"Not my business to tell." D'rian replies staunchly, "Can't answer his questions, either." Questions meant for him, in other words. "He's not a good guy, Lili. You think I'd lie to you?" The long-averted eye-contact is finally made.
"Well you'd spy on me," Lili points out as her head tilts to the right, eyes wide. "If you're so worried, why don't you just tell me and then I'll know and think the same about him like you do and then you won't have to worry about keeping track of me all the time anymore." A breath. Phew! "If what he did is so bad, like you say."
A blank stare follows a shake of his head, "You could trust me," D'rian says, countering her statement, "It'd be easier. Safer too."
"Or /you/ could trust me, and just /tell/ me," Lili snips back, clearly a little irritated. Even though she's the pesterer!
"Think about it." D'rian, settling in for the long haul, sets his needle and thread down - still attached to that one-stitch sewn tear. "What do folks get sent down here for doing?"
Getting frustrated, Lili's lips quirk and twist, and her eyebrows knit again, bringing those wrinkles in her forehead out again. "What does it matter what /folks/ get sent here for? They get sent her here for lotsa things! Bad things, odd things, things they didn't do, some of them. Just tell me what /K'tric/ got sent here for!" She heaves a sigh.
"You'll stay away from him?" D'rian asks, "After I tell you, you're gonna stay away from him?"
"If it's bad, probably yes," she agrees, flicking her hair as some of the drying strands start to stray down from behind her ears. Lili contemplates, and changes her answer. "No, yes. Yes I will." Surely she's convincing enough to get the four-one-one now?
"He kidnapped a girl. Girl he's in love with. Knocked her upside the head and tied her up and he's in love with her." D'rian, unable to supress the revulsion, scowls and shakes his head. "Did other things too, I bet." Things he won't say, nope.
Lili's quiet for a moment as she processes this, leaning back again. "Well." A pause. "Huh." More pause. "Hhhhhhuh." Her eyes take on that vagueness suggesting she might be communicating with Emieth, though more than likely she's simply retreating into her own mind to pass judgement on K'tric's crime. "Well, he's not in love with me, if he's in love with someone else, so do I /really/ need to be worried about him kidnapping me?"
D'rian looks rather disappointed in her reply. Picking the needle back up, he resumes his stitching activities. "Never mind, Lili. Go and spend all the time you want with him." It's not permission. It's resignment.
"I'm just /saying/," Lili shoots back, sounding as disappointed as D'rian looks. "I don't think it's a nice thing to do, it's pretty nasty. I'll be more careful," she resolves, to ease the bronzerider's mind. She starts to back off the cot, first one leg down, then the next. In a rather hushed voice, she adds, "You don't think he /is/ in love with me, do you?"
"Dunno," D'rian shrugs, once more playing the no eye-contact game, "If he is it's gonna take more then me and A'der keeping an eye on you to keep you safe." The tear is mended, D'rian snaps the last bit of thread off then tucks the needle in its case.
That response hurries along Lili's retreat, and sees her straightening quicksmart. Her eyes go wide once again, and she blinks disbelievingly. "Surely not, but... he has Kasvatuth now, doesn't that change things? He'd be in love with her, wouldn't he? Like me and Em, and you and Taikath, and A'der and Navasoth, and everyone else? Maybe we should be worried for Kas? Should I get Em to keep and eye on her?"
"I don't love Taikath," D'rian says sharply, "He's... just a dragon. Not a person," Nudging the case under his bed with his heel, he stands and moves toward the entrance, "Just watch him yourself, Lili. That's all you gotta do."
"I bet you do," Lili begs to differ, with a smug smile. She starts to pace back towards her own cot as he looks to leave, taking that little smile with her. "Okay, okay. I'll be more careful, I swear. And you... you should learn how to spy better. I knew all along, y'know."
D'rian scowls without much effort at Lili, though continues retreating for the exit. "You're just too smart for me, Lili," he obliges with a lofty wave of one hand, "Take care."
"I will, see you later!" Lili calls in cheery contrast to the bronze weyrling as she settles on her cot.
What: D'rian spills some gossip on K'tric, after Lili pesters.
Where: The usual, under the lean-to.
On a Western Island, Clearing(#632RAh)
Set off and away from the main encampment, a broad path leads to this clearing of generous size. The lack of vegetation is mostly natural with the edges cut back to provide a bit more room. Located off to the side and in the shade is a large lean-to of sorts. Not much more than four supports with a thatched roof, said roof is big enough to cover a space that allows thirty three cots and ample room between each for growing dragons. A large pile of dried grasses and palm leaves is available for those young dragons that wish to construct a nest of sorts. There are also ever present barrels of oil.
The portion of the clearing that is not used for this makeshift barracks is empty space for dragons and their riders to move or land. Near to the main path but off to the side, there is a circle of staggered flat rocks and old tree stumps. A seating area for talking, lessons, or studying.
In the heavy wet season, it is always raining. However, there is an ebb and flow. Sometimes there is less rain, and sometimes there is more. The water pouning from the skies now is spilling down in sheets. People cannot walk through the rain, so much as swim through it.
-----
The lunching hour is almost past, but not many weyrlings are milling around the barracks area - most are finishing off their tucker, or getting an early start on their afternoon chores. Lili is sitting on her bed, for once unaccompanied by young Emieth. The girl has her full-'o'-stitches rabbitskin out, and there's an empty bowl next to her to suggest she's already eaten. Her hair is out, and while not sopping, it's definitely wet; tendrils of honey blonde clump heavily together, giving her a bit of a bedraggled appearance.
D'rian's forced to make a pitstop to the barrack lean-to at this particular hour: a rip in his shirt in need of stitching. As he ducks under the entrance and heads into the barracks proper, he casts a look in Lili's direction then looks around for her hired-watcher. In absense of A'der being present, D'rian settles himself on his cot with the greenrider in his direct line of sight. Well, mostly in his line of sight, for as he's forced to bend over the edge of his cot to retrieve his sewing materials, he momentarally loses sight of the girl.
Dark blue eyes peer up from her work, but her head doesn't move; Lili watches D'rian's approach carefully, guardedly, as the bronzerider may have noticed her doing once or twice in the past 'seven. There are advantages to being small: you can duck down into places others may not see you, and at lightning-fast pace! In the moment her fellow weyrling spends retrieving his work, she flat-lines in between her cot and the next - stealthy, although there's a loud 'oof' and a bit of a thud as she hits the ground.
D'rian sits upright rather sharply at the thud and oof combination. The lack of a Lili where there was once a Lili earns a bit of a confused look, and a moment of worry before he stands and takes a step in that direction. There's a pause, as though he fully expects the girl to resurface, and when she doesn't, he takes another step in that direction. "Lilli?" A pause and he edges closer until he's kneeling on the surface of her cot, all set and ready to peer over the edge to the opposite side.
A finger slices the air above her head well before her wrinkled-nose twists upward to peek over the top of her cot - Lili is defiant, triumphant! And peeved, apparently. "I /knew/ it!" The hand that isn't pointing towards the sky (or lean-to roof) serves to push her up, and she finds a comfortable sitting position on the ground from which to accuse D'rian. "You're spyin' on me. You and A'der. Always watchin', peering and keeping tabs on me. What'd I do, huh? Is this about your lunch the other seven?"
D'rian settles back out of his lean with a cross expression, "You're as daft as K'tric." This is not to be mistaken as a compliment. "Are you alright?" He looks her over, not willing to trust her judgement on the matter while distractedly denying her accusation, "Didn't do nothin' Lili. Just making sure you stay out of trouble."
"K'tic isn't /daft/," Lili defends her fellow greenrider with a frown. She brushes a bit of dirt from her clothes, and fixes her shirt huffily. "I'm fine. And I can keep myself just fine, too. Is it about the ocean thing, then? Where you saved me?" Her eyes narrow, and the girl leans forward. It's meant to be a menacing sort of look, but anything remotely menacing about it is drowned in her innate Liliness - and the fact the she's sitting on the /ground/ whilst D'rian towers well above her head.
D'rian doesn't look the least bit threatened. Amused, maybe, or like someone trying to make sense of the utmost confusing puzzle in the world...but not threatened. "Yes," Flatly, he reaches out a hand, offering it to Lili as a form of assistance up from the ground, "That's exactly what this is about."
Lili frowns some more, lines appearing in her forehead as her brows join in the expression. With some effort, she manages to haul herself up without using her hands, or D'rian's. "I can get up just fine, thank-you." Her tone is still biting with accusation. "I don't get it. Why're you spyin' on me, so's I don't go drowning again? And who else besides A'der have you got workin' with you? Does mister J'lor know about this?"
"Tell him if you don't like it," D'rian suggests as he eases off her cot and stands before it, his arms folded casually across his chest, just over that tear he'd meant to repair, "Won't stop me from watching you." Unaware of the number of ways /that/ can be twisted, the weyrling adds, "Trying to keep K'tric from knocking you upside the head or worse. Guy is sick even if you don't want to see it."
Lili's jaw drops open as the bronze weyrling retorts, and promptly snaps shut as she finds herself unable to fault his logic. Innocent mind here, lucky for D'rian! She mimics his arm-folding action, albeit a little more animated. Huffy. "What do you mean, he's sick? He seems perfectly healthy to me. He keeps up with everyone just fine."
"Sick. In the head," D'rian taps his own head to emphasize the source of the problem, "So just stay away from him, Lili." D'rian doesn't give an excuse. She is a woman and a greenrider to boot, therefore not needing of an excuse. He does, however, emphasize his demand with a potent stare.
"Oh." Lili's expression changes to something a little less peeved, though she's gritting her teeth as her eyes slide to the right for a moment. "Wait a second, you can't tell me what to do! Not yet, anyways, I got just as little rank as you. And I like K'tric, he's nice. Friendly-like. And he doesn't spy on me. Shouldn't I be stayin' away from /you/, since you're the one bein' all suspecty-like?" Her hands settle defiantly on her hips.
D'rian doesn't take long to counter her statement. "No. I'm not the one that's gonna hurt you. He will. He's /too/ friendly." There's a particular way D'rian states that which is meant to carry more then what words don't. "I'm just trying to keep you safe," A small allowance, genuine in earnesty, "Someone's got to."
Lili's eyebrows rise, her skinny fingers digging into the material around her waist. "He's /too/ friendly," she repeats warily, mulling this over. "Keep me safe... huh. What're you tryin' to say?"
"That." D'rian responds, "You don't even see it. You're too you." Struggling for a definition, D'rian settles with the easiest. Dropping his arms and turning away, he heads back to his cot to pick up the dropped sewing kit before settling on the edge and opening it. A needle and thread are removed, the former threaded and then the tear on his shirt assessed before he proceeds to mend it.
"What don't I see?" Lili persists, her own sewing left behind in favour of pursuing D'rian over towards his cot. "I don't understand what you've got against K'tric, D'rian. He's nothin' but nice, to both me /and/ you, that I've ever seen." She probably causes a disturbance to his mending as she scrambles to climb atop the cot next to the bronze weyrling, on all fours. "Huh?" That's a challenge, right there.
D'rian weathers the resultant bounce, stilling his needlework until she's settled and then resuming it. "Nice don't get you sent to this place, Lili. Don't forget that." Looking aside to re-enforce his point, D'rian adds, "You can't do it for yourself so I have to."
Lili digs the heels of her palms into the cot to steady herself, sobering as D'rian makes his ominous comment. Her shoulders drop some, and she has to re-steady herself again, meeting his eyes with hers unblinkingly. "Not everyone's here for bad things, but." She pauses, and settles back on top of her calves. "Do you know why K'tric's here, then?"
"Yes." Quite suddenly stubborn, D'rian doesn't say anything more and makes every effort to avoid looking at Lili.
Well, obviously, she's going to press for more information. "Why?" Lili counters D'rian's avoidance of her gaze by leaning forward to peer at him, intruding on his personal space. Possibly intentionally, for once.
D'rian stiffens, once more stopping his needlework but /still/ not looking at the other weyrling. "He did things." Intentionally vague, it is none the less followed with a pause, "Ask him. You'll think I'm just lying."
"/What/ things?" Lili cuts in during the pause, shaking her head as D'rian refers her elsewhere. "Come on, you can't do that. Just tell me, and then I'll go ask him anyways if I don't believe you."
"Not my business to tell." D'rian replies staunchly, "Can't answer his questions, either." Questions meant for him, in other words. "He's not a good guy, Lili. You think I'd lie to you?" The long-averted eye-contact is finally made.
"Well you'd spy on me," Lili points out as her head tilts to the right, eyes wide. "If you're so worried, why don't you just tell me and then I'll know and think the same about him like you do and then you won't have to worry about keeping track of me all the time anymore." A breath. Phew! "If what he did is so bad, like you say."
A blank stare follows a shake of his head, "You could trust me," D'rian says, countering her statement, "It'd be easier. Safer too."
"Or /you/ could trust me, and just /tell/ me," Lili snips back, clearly a little irritated. Even though she's the pesterer!
"Think about it." D'rian, settling in for the long haul, sets his needle and thread down - still attached to that one-stitch sewn tear. "What do folks get sent down here for doing?"
Getting frustrated, Lili's lips quirk and twist, and her eyebrows knit again, bringing those wrinkles in her forehead out again. "What does it matter what /folks/ get sent here for? They get sent her here for lotsa things! Bad things, odd things, things they didn't do, some of them. Just tell me what /K'tric/ got sent here for!" She heaves a sigh.
"You'll stay away from him?" D'rian asks, "After I tell you, you're gonna stay away from him?"
"If it's bad, probably yes," she agrees, flicking her hair as some of the drying strands start to stray down from behind her ears. Lili contemplates, and changes her answer. "No, yes. Yes I will." Surely she's convincing enough to get the four-one-one now?
"He kidnapped a girl. Girl he's in love with. Knocked her upside the head and tied her up and he's in love with her." D'rian, unable to supress the revulsion, scowls and shakes his head. "Did other things too, I bet." Things he won't say, nope.
Lili's quiet for a moment as she processes this, leaning back again. "Well." A pause. "Huh." More pause. "Hhhhhhuh." Her eyes take on that vagueness suggesting she might be communicating with Emieth, though more than likely she's simply retreating into her own mind to pass judgement on K'tric's crime. "Well, he's not in love with me, if he's in love with someone else, so do I /really/ need to be worried about him kidnapping me?"
D'rian looks rather disappointed in her reply. Picking the needle back up, he resumes his stitching activities. "Never mind, Lili. Go and spend all the time you want with him." It's not permission. It's resignment.
"I'm just /saying/," Lili shoots back, sounding as disappointed as D'rian looks. "I don't think it's a nice thing to do, it's pretty nasty. I'll be more careful," she resolves, to ease the bronzerider's mind. She starts to back off the cot, first one leg down, then the next. In a rather hushed voice, she adds, "You don't think he /is/ in love with me, do you?"
"Dunno," D'rian shrugs, once more playing the no eye-contact game, "If he is it's gonna take more then me and A'der keeping an eye on you to keep you safe." The tear is mended, D'rian snaps the last bit of thread off then tucks the needle in its case.
That response hurries along Lili's retreat, and sees her straightening quicksmart. Her eyes go wide once again, and she blinks disbelievingly. "Surely not, but... he has Kasvatuth now, doesn't that change things? He'd be in love with her, wouldn't he? Like me and Em, and you and Taikath, and A'der and Navasoth, and everyone else? Maybe we should be worried for Kas? Should I get Em to keep and eye on her?"
"I don't love Taikath," D'rian says sharply, "He's... just a dragon. Not a person," Nudging the case under his bed with his heel, he stands and moves toward the entrance, "Just watch him yourself, Lili. That's all you gotta do."
"I bet you do," Lili begs to differ, with a smug smile. She starts to pace back towards her own cot as he looks to leave, taking that little smile with her. "Okay, okay. I'll be more careful, I swear. And you... you should learn how to spy better. I knew all along, y'know."
D'rian scowls without much effort at Lili, though continues retreating for the exit. "You're just too smart for me, Lili," he obliges with a lofty wave of one hand, "Take care."
"I will, see you later!" Lili calls in cheery contrast to the bronze weyrling as she settles on her cot.