Monaco Bay Weyr - Candidate and Weyrling Barracks
Huge in its own right, this series of interlinked caverns is the complex that houses both candidates and weyrlings. Fashioned out of a multitude of hollows, it serves as a central gathering area as well as classroom. A number of deep pockets have been laborously smoothed to provide comfortable dwellings for the young dragons and their riders away from the weather of the central area, and affording them some privacy but not much. Above, the cavern opens to the sky, holding out the worst of the island's weather but allowing an aerial exit and providing natural lighting to the area. Branching off from this cavern is an opening that leads to the exercise yard, and another carved passage that leads onto the hatching sands - though this entrance is typically closed tight to prevent mischief.
Garouth hungers! His is a mighty hunger, and it will not be denied. Good thing there were buckets of chopped meat, waiting and ready! Other weyrlings are feeding their dragons pieces, one at a time, but… Garouth has shoved his head entirely into the bucket, his knobs tapping against the metal and making the bucket slide on the floor as he snaps up the pieces of meat and gobbles them down. D'lei? Well, he's… standing there, yep. The better lighting here makes visible the red splotch on the white of his robe, as well as the details of those dragons beyond vaguely shadowed shapes.
"Yes! This is called food, of courase you can eat it, don't be silly." K'lar has his own hands full, but the weyrling looks to be rather chipper, that ever-wide grin plastered upon his face. Obviously he is already smitten with his colorful little green, "No, it isn't particuarly a good idea to eat it whole. No, see, you've got to eat /this/ stuff. I can't exactly go fetch you something else."
Quinn is probably one of the last to join the feeding ceremony, as her Kith has been bombarding her new lifemate with question after question. Each one is given an incredulous expression, or a laugh and a smile. It's difficult for the once-guard to keep that strict composure now that her beautiful green companion has entered her world. "You have to eat because it helps you grow." The blue eyes whirl in excitement as Kith issues her charge with another question afterwards. "Where does it go? Uh.." Lost for words, the young woman secures a bucket of meat and sits on one side of the barracks alongside the rest of her fellow riders. ".. Here, eat first, ask later-.. Yes, you have just as much as she does." Quinn chuckles, offering piece after piece of succulent meaty parts to Kith, whom eagerly gobbles it up.
Garouth is most definitely eating /his/ food whole. That doesn't mean it's actually a good idea - an over-eager gulp gets one stuck in his throat, head lifting from the bucket to cough a few times. D'lei leans in, worried. "See, that's why you're supposed to slow down…" he says. Another cough clears Garouth's throat, and D'lei looks relieved. He reaches for the bucket, intending to take it and meter out his bronze's eating… but Garouth's having none of it. He growls, a warning sound, and lunges to bury his head in the bucket once more, pulling it from D'lei's hand to pin it to the ground with a lean of his hatchling-bronze weight. Chomp, gulp, devour!
"You were eating." K'lar says, pointing at the bucket as the green stops in the middle of gulping her food down, "See, it's right in front of you." K'lar ambles forward to lift the bucket so the green can see., "Did you forget already? That's why you are so hungry." And after a moment he sets it down, tilting his head to the side as he makes sure that she resumes. He gives a worried glance over to D'lei as he hears the bronze choking. "Is he alright?" A glance to Quinn to make sure she is getting on well, "they ask so many questions!"
Each piece is taken slowly and there's a pause between as Kith's attention wanders to her siblings and the surroundings between each bite. It's as if the little green is both taking time to savour her first meal, and throw the additional question to Quinn each time. "No, I have to feed you.. I don't have any servants for that sort of thing." The woman glances up in time with Kith as Garouth begins choking, but as the matter clears itself up, Quinn is immediately assaulted with another question. "It's because he's eating much faster than you are, Kith." She responds, glancing over to Kell-.. no, K'lar. "They do.. And some of the questions are so strange!"
D'lei lets out a sigh, the expression of concern shifting into a crooked smile as he reaches out to rest his hand on Garouth's shoulder as the bronze devours his meal. "Yeah," he says, looking up to Kellanar. "He's okay." A twitch of one corner of his mouth, like he's amused by something, and then he tilts his head at that question, glancing to Quinn to see her answer. "…huh." He looks back to Garouth, who… "He's a bit more, uh… eat first, wonder later." The bronze /is/ going to get around to wondering, right?
Making sure that Zeleth is eating dutifully, K'lar runs a hand through his hair thoughtfully. "The others? You hatched with them, They've been here the whole time, you were just the last to hatch." He laughs quietly as he watches the green finally finish her bucket, her overly large head having a hard time fetching the last few scraps. "I don't think we're quite allowed to go on an adventure yet, And you're tired, I doubt we'd get far." Indeed, the green seems to be fighting off the edges of sleep, awkwardly moving across the area only to slowly slump as sleep starts to claim her.
"He's going to keep you on your toes more than I did." Quinn remarks to D'lei with a raised brow, still offering piece after piece to Kith, who in turn is still taking her time with her meal. The questions seem to have stopped for now, and Quinn is more than happy to adopt the mutual silence between the pair as she casts a rather loving gaze to the content, crooning green. With her lifemate eventually finished, Kith turns her head towards Zeleth, then back to Quinn. "What's-.. Kith, you can't ask that. That's.. Not appropriate." The woman remarks with a sudden look of surprise, glancing over at the sleepy green. Whatever answer is given to Kith falls on deaf ears though, as the little dragon has a mind of her own and is already picking out a couch for herself - one of the larger ones, in fact. Following after her, Quinn waits until Kith is settled before laughing at the reason given. "Yes, you deserve the best spot."
Thunk. That's Garouth's muzzle, finding the bottom of the bucket. D'lei hehs to Quinn, fingers moving on Garouth's shoulder as he nods. "Yeah. So on my toes, I'm going to be airborne." He grins about that, and then… grins a bit more, as Quinn responds to that question from Kith. Or… doesn't respond, really. "And she's going to make your life interesting?" There's a few more thuds as Garouth catches up the last bits of meat, swallowing them down and licking his plate to get every last trace, and then he lifts his head again. His attention goes now to D'lei, meeting his gaze. "…heh. You've got a bit on your nose," the weyrling says, and Garouth's tongue curls out to lick that blood off, receiving a nod in reply. The bronze's tail shifts, a curl up and then a settle back down as he steps forward, to pad around D'lei and then sit with his head up high to survey his surroundings. "Yeah," D'lei says to the unspoken question. "For now, anyhow."
"I promise we'll be out seeing everything as soon as possible,: K'lar tells the green with a loud laugh, shaking his head at her stubbornness despite her tiredness. "Of course I'll be here when you wake up. I won't leave, promise, and we'll share a grand time once yu get up, ans answer as many questions as you want!" He pauses, hearing the bitt from Quinn, arching a brow. "What does she want to ask?" He glances between his green and Quinn, confused.
Kith is quite content in her newfound spot, resting in a position befitting of some kind of regal feline. Head is arched proudly and wings are fanned just enough to give the impression that the green may well be posing. It's not quite right though - one of her wings is slightly lopsided. With her attention drawn to Garouth, Quinn is given plenty of time to nod to D'lei and then look to K'lar. It's an awkward expression as Quinn bites her lip, but with a little mental nudging from her lifemate, she resigns with a slight sigh. "She asked the question 'What's wrong with her?' about.. it was Zeleth, right?"
Garouth… takes it all in, his head turning slowly to look from one side of the caverns to the other. His attention pauses on each of his siblings, as he finds them, and they may feel the brush of his mind as well in the form of a cool breeze or passing shadow… or maybe that's just drafts and darkness in the caverns. D'lei watches him watch, then looks over to Quinn with a tilt of his head and then a slight grimace at the question as relayed.
K'lar turns his attention to Zeleth, as if completely baffled by the question. "Wrong? With her? Nothing, she's perfect, isn't she? I mean, I think so." A hand awkwardly brushes the back of his head. "She's just tired, and wants to go on adventures, and wants food from the kitchens because the meat wasn't quite good enough. And she wants to know why she needs sleep when there's so much out there to experience and…" A moment too late he seems to realize he's rambling, coughing loudly. "Nothing's wrong with her."
Maybe it's better that the question is given the response it is, for Quinn can breathe a small sigh of relief. "Sorry." She mutters, running her fingers through the mess of blonde hair and looking back to Kith now with a softer expression. "You see? She's-.. what? I'll sleep after you've slept." The woman barely has time to speak before there's another mental barrage and Quinn can't help but reach out to embrace the green hatchling's head in her arms and allow it to sink down upon her lap. Her slow-swirling eyes still remain fixated on her brothers in the caverns though, and each one in turn would feel a warm and smooth brush of curiosity hinting at their minds. Quinn, however, is happy to let Kith rest for now and she takes a moment to gather her own thoughts - not that they're private anymore.
« We are not perfect. » Garouth's mindvoice is cold, sounding almost stern as he addresses his clutchsibs with his own opinion on K'lar's answer. « We are good. We will /become/ better. » D'lei tilts his head to look at his dragon, with a crooked smile as he shifts his arm around the young bronze's neck. "Yeah." He looks to K'lar. "There's nothing wrong with any of them, they're just… all coming into things differently. Like we did, being candidates." His glance to Quinn finds her again buried under questions, and he smiles.
K'lar ushers his green into one of the unclaimed cots, reaching out to brush bits of eggshell off of her hide. The green wraps herself possessively about K'lar whom can't help but smile lovingly at the green. "Nothing to apologize about, Quinn." He mumbles distractedly. A swath of pink color brushes the minds of all around, «What was it that we were talking about? K'larmine said there is /peoplefood/! I cannot wait to taste it all.» A soft chuckle escapes K'lar's lips, shaking his head at the green. "You eat meat, silly, remember? Meat is much better than what we eat."
The response received from both clutchsiblings is met with a calm, cool wave of curiosity, which soon returns to that sweet and enticing warmth which brushes again across the minds of her siblings, yet still moreso for her brothers. Kith may be listening, but paying attention? Perhaps not. It's a silence which Quinn seems to embrace again wholeheartedly as the woman sinks into what can only be described as a moment of deep contemplation between herself and the green nestled in her arms. Unspoken words are undoubtedly being exchanged, and it's a long time before there is a sudden mindvoice which softly speaks, gentle and delicate despite what questions may have been asked earlier. « Must we sleep? Mine insists that we must. »
Shadows loom past where the pink of Zeleth's thoughts reach, and Garouth considers a moment before he answers her. « Food is good. It fills the hunger. My hunger is… was… for meat. Now, I am full. » Those same cold shadows meet Kith's curiosity, his own a watching from the darkness. He considers her question as well, consulting with D'lei before he reaches his conclusion. « Sleep fills the tired. Are you tired? » D'lei leans lightly against Garouth, petting his neck slowly as he rests there… and takes a little of the weight off his injured leg.
«I don't want to sleep.» Comes Zeleth's reply, K'lar has shown me so many new things! I want to go out there and see it all.» Excitement tinges her voice in bright pink swaths that envelop the others minds. Warm as the green's voice on a bright day. «Did we eat? I bet we can go sneak something from somewhere!» But it is clear that the green is slowly subduing into the slumber that is growing around the edges of her mind, her thoughts becoming slower and less frequent. K'lar can't help but laugh, "Silly. You just ate, remember? And there;s no way you;re going /anywhere/!" His fingers idly rub against her hide, glancing between the others, "What have we gotten ourselves into?" But he obviously doesn't mind judging from the loving gaze he gives his green.
« Why does she want to eat? If I eat too much, I will grow fat. » Kith's reply is spoken without concern for how it might be taken, and it seems to almost tickle at Quinn's mind, giving reason for the woman to smile. "Well, perhaps you'd prefer some.. beauty sleep?" Quinn helpfully suggests, earning a warm crooning response from her lifemate in return. As Kith settles in with eyes closed, an accepting, sweet warmth brushes across the minds of both Zeleth and Garouth, although it should come as no surprise by now that it may come off a little stronger to her clutchbrother. Yes, it would seem Kith is tired and yes, she will indulge in rest that will give her the strength to ask more questions tomorrow. Free for now, Quinn's attention is finally moved to the red splotch on D'lei's robes. "You're bleeding? Did you see a healer yet?"
Garouth rises to his feet, strolling over to investigate Zeleth's bucket. Her empty bucket. « You ate, » he informs her - though he lowers his muzzle to give the inside of it a few licks. She missed a bit of the blood, see. Not to worry, he's here to solve that for her. For Kith, there's a shift of the shadows, tree-branches swaying in darkness. « Eat just enough to grow, then. » He's… maybe amused? It's hard to tell. D'lei, without the dragon to lean on, winces just a bit as he takes all his weight on his feet again. "It's not too bad," he nevertheless claims. "But… not yet. There were, uh… other things." A vague gesture toward Garouth.
«Did I?» Zeleth raises her head to peer at the bucket, «When did I do that? Was it a good meal? I still think we should go out! I bet there is tons to see beyond this room, and I never want to be cooped up again.»K'lar shakes his head, "Sleep." He tells his dragon insistantly, "You should really get your leg looked at, D'lei. Maybe we can get one of the weyrlingmasters to look at it for you."
Quinn is almost ready to slip onto her feet once she knows her lifemate has passed into the realm of sleep, but a slender foreleg wraps itself across the woman's lap. A claim on this one, to be sure. ".. Perhaps the weyrlingmaster might be better." Quinn agrees, uncertain on how to proceed now that Kith was curled up with part of her form draped over her knees. Even in resting, Kith seems to maintain a near-perfect posture, with wings resting delicately to either side of her lithe body, and her tail neatly coiled up beside her. « I should eat enough to stay beautiful.. Do you agree? » Is the gentle, fading reply that comes from a tiring mindvoice, one which only graces Garouth's mind this time around. However, as Kith does slip into slumber, it becomes apparent that any answer the bronze might give would indeed fall upon deaf ears.
« I too wish to see, » Garouth agrees to Zeleth. There's a faint lightening of the shadows in one direction, a distant glow… « We will go. » D'lei, after a nod to K'lar, has gotten a few steps toward one of the weyrlingmasters further down… but he stops, for that, and looks back to his bronze. "Garouth…" …seems entirely unruffled, but the shadows in his mind darken once more. « Later. We will go later, not now. » D'lei nods a good-enough, and continues over to the weyrlingmaster. Is he limping? A little, but he can /almost/ hide it. Garouth remains where he is, unconcerned to have his human stepping away. « What is beauty? » he asks Kith, the darkness of his mind soft like a night for sleeping. « If it is your nature… you should follow it, whatever it takes. »
It is only with the bronze's reassurance that Zeleth finally allows herself to succumb to sleep, «Later» She agrees with clouds of pink folding over her mind as she drifts off. K'lar shakes his head at the dragon, leaning against her hide as she has him just as pinned with her tail wrapped firmly about his waist. "You gonna be okay getting there by yourself? I'd help but I don't think I can get up."
It takes a bit of effort, but Quinn finally manages to edge herself from beneath the sleeping Kith, giving her chance to finally stand and look over the couch that the green had picked. It was certainly more for a brown or a bronze-sized dragon, but Quinn wasn't going to try and coax her lifemate into picking another place. She was happy there, and Quinn was content with that. Of course, with no voice bothering her mind now, the woman was free to walk across to D'lei, offering him an arm or a shoulder to support himself on. "Here, I can put a bandage on it for now. That tour of duty in the Infirmary taught me something, at least."
"I've gotten this far, what's a bit more?" D'lei replies with a look back to K'lar and a grin that's only a little bit of a lie over pain. "You do look pretty stuck." And the weyrlingmaster is getting called away to someone else, but… he looks to Quinn as she comes up to meet him, and smiles as he reaches out to take her arm - lightly, mostly in a just-in-case his balance gives. "Thanks. I don't think it's that bad, honestly. Just a scratch." From a dragon-claw, so it's still enough to need a bandage and some antiseptics, but still. As his clutchmates get to rest, Garouth does a patrol to inspect each spot, with or without a young dragon, before he finally settles on one of his own - nearest the entrance, where he can keep an eye on the border.
K'lar ducks his head, looking abashed as he fiddles with his fingers, "Sorry I was not there to help with that, chores kept me incredibly busy, or I would have been right there with you. I regret that I did not participate." He says softly, eyeing his lap with a soft sigh.
Quinn shakes her head to K'lar as she assists D'lei to a seat, giving the other greenrider a reply. "It's fine. Me and Dashiel-.. D'lei, were picked out specifically. It was mostly because we were being punished." Quinn states as the bronzerider sits down. It's off to the weyrlingmaster's office and then back again within a few moments, a roll of bandages grasped in the woman's hand and a bottle of solution for disinfecting wounds in the other. She kneels down next to D'lei, gesturing for him to lift the robe enough to give her a view of the wound in question.
D'lei hehs, with a wry grin - and then a bit of a wince. "I mean, I was Dashiel at the time. Kinda still am? Just… also not." A shrug, and he sits back on the edge of a couch to tug up robe and show his outer thigh, where the scrape and pierce of dragon-claw marked him as Garouth's. "…we can go ahead and change out of these robes now, right?" Since he's got it half-up anyhow.
K'lar falls silent as he watches the others, nodding to Quinn's words as he absently strokes Zeleth's hide, looking useless. "I do believe we can change, we don't /need/ to wear these anymore. I'm sorry you guys were punished, though." He looks unsure of what to say, glancing off to the side and scratching the side of his head.
Quinn waves a hand in dismissal. The 'punishment' had already happened now and it wasn't worth apologizing for. She's busy now anyway, eyeing the claw wound had sunk into the flesh and drawn blood. "It's not that bad, I guess you got lucky." Quinn states, already stripping off a piece of the bandaging to douse in the medicinal cleaning liquid and beginning to dab at the injury. It might sting a little, but with the addition of numbweed the pain is gradually fading. "I'll have to change when this is over. My robe is covered in the mess from feeding and I don't really want to wake up to Kith licking me, or Garouth." the woman chuckles as she starts to wrap the banding around D'lei's leg, glancing over her shoulder at K'lar. "I didn't expect you to Impress green, though. Thought you'd be more of a blue, from what I hear of that colour."
D'lei just shrugs a bit about the punishment and such. He's got a slightly weird look, kind of awkward, but… probably just the pain of injury being poked at. There's a few winces around his mouth as Quinn dabs to clean and bandage, but he holds the actual leg still while she works. "Yeah, really," he says about the messy robes. "Smelling like food just… seems like a bad idea all around. Garouth gets hungry, or Zeleth gets distracted…"
K'lar glances to the green thoughtfully, "A blue? You think so? Well, I wasn't sure what color would be good for me but…she chose me, and that's all that matters to me." He flashes a smile at them both, laughing at D'lei's statement "She does seem a tad forgetful."
Quinn takes no more time than needed to finish the job, tightening the bandage around the leg just enough to keep it secure and to help stop the bleeding. It's not the most perfect handiwork, but it'll at least last until the morning. "There.. The Healers or Weyrlingmaster can check you over tomorrow." She confirms with a nod, rising back up and glancing over at Kith. Indeed, the young hatchling is sleeping peacefully upon her oversized couch, although now more sprawled out than before. "It's hard to imagine we'll be riding on them some day, isn't it? They look so small and vulnerable still." Quinn makes haste in returning the medical belongings and hurries back to her previous place beside D'lei and K'lar, glancing over the other new weyrlings who had joined them.
"Not that I blame her for that, to be sure," D'lei adds to K'lar. "I mean, I feel a bit like that myself right now, and I've had twenty turns to figure out who I am. Or start to, anyhow." He looks around for Garouth, grinning as his gaze settles on the bronze once more. A good distraction from the final bits of getting his wound tended, and he smiles to Quinn as she finishes. "Thanks." He rises up again, heading to… well, change, now that he won't be bleeding on his new clothes. "Yeah…" he agrees to her. "Your two especially, Garouth is… well, bigger, but he'll /be/ bigger, so…" Also, he's closer now, having padded from his couch to where D'lei is changing. The bronze leans his head down, sniffing at the bloody robe before he picks it up to drag back to his claimed couch. His now!
K'lar shakes his head as he leans back, wrapping his arms behind his head as he considers the ceiling. "I am still coming to terms with the fact that I am a rider now. I am almost expecting to wake up tomorrow with this being a dream. Not to mention that we'll be /riding/ them in the future." His eyes flicker to the others, "It's amazing though, isn't it? I can't wait to learn all the things they'll be teaching us."
Quinn is now back at her own couch beside Kith, a hand gently brushing over the delicate jade hide of her lifemate. "I know. I find it hard to believe as well. There's so much to learn in the next turn now." the woman agrees, watching Garouth dragging off the bloodied robes with raised brows. Once he'd settled she returns her attention to herself, picking herself up and heading across the caverns to where her candidate's belongings lay. She begins to wriggle out of her own robe, briefly turning away to preserve some modesty in the process and dressing herself as appropriate. With her things now gathered, firelizard included, she returns to the couch where Kith slept and begins to arrange her things there instead.
His prize dragged back to his couch, Garouth settles with it. He… sniffs it, mostly, examining the scents. Also licks it, especially that bloody spot. D'lei looks to that, and he /considers/ whether he wants to try doing something about it. The consideration is visible on his face, and then… nope. He doesn't have enough energy to argue that one! Instead, he follows Quinn's lead to gather up the rest of his things and bring them to Garouth's new couch. He nods to K'lar, too. "Yeah. I feel like… I almost don't know what to expect. I mean, I kind of do, I have been paying attention, but… it's just… wow."
K'lar lifts the tail wrapped tightly about his waist and wriggles free of his confines. Zeleth gives a little rumble in her sleep, K'lar pauses a moment to make sure she won't wake up. He then moves over to his belongings, grabbing up his clothes and moving to undres and put on his clothes proper. "It feels good to wear real clothes again," He mumbles as he stretches his limbs out, rubbing at his arms. He eyes the bronze with his new toy, arching a brow at the behavior. Apparently that's a subject he does not want to breach as he moves back over to his couch, plopping heavily upon the ground. "It'll be an experience, that's for sure."
There are some questions it's… okay, maybe not /better/ to avoid asking, but /easier/. D'lei notices that glance at Garouth from K'lar, but he just kind of shrugs a bit and doesn't bring it up either. It's all part of the experience, and he nods to K'lar. "Yeah. We… don't have any chores or anything right now, right? Other than, you know… them." Garouth looks like he's finally getting sleepy, at least.
Quinn goes to sleep on the couch beside Kith.
K'lar laughs at the look he is given, shaking his head in obvious amusement as he settles back down with his green. He sprawls out against his green with a yawn. "No, I think we just have to take care of them now, and learn when they give us lessons. It'd be silly to have us doing other things when we have needy dragons to tend to. I think we'll keep quite busy in the coming days."
D'lei nods, not with surprise but still with a certain amount of relief. "Yeah, that's what I thought." He grins, and makes his way over to join Garouth, who shifts sleepily and curls his tail in around - though with an adjustment of his tail when it proves to be over the injury first. "They're having the feast now, I guess," he says as the quiet means a bit of the sound from the caverns drifts in. "Suppose we could go see that…" He doesn't exactly sound enthusiastic, though.
K'lar turns his head towards the direction of the caverns, looking thoughtful. "I certainly wouldn't mind something to eat now that she's been fed I feel a bit hungry myself. Maybe I'll bring back something extra for her as a treat when she wakes up." He pauses, glancing at D'iel,, "Do you not want to go? I could bring you something back if you are still hungry,
D'lei looks from K'lar to Garouth, then back again. "Well, yeah, food would be good…" he says, and takes another look at Garouth. "Assuming he stays asleep." The bronze looks like he's dozing, but… not quite as deeply as the others might seem. "Aww, shells. Won't know unless I try, right?" And he carefully unwinds Garouth's tail to stand, this time without a wince. Yay, numbweed
K'lar pushes himself to his feet with a bit of difficulty, "Need a hand? We;ll be back quickly, I don't really want to leave her alone for long, either. She'll get distressed." He pauses, offering a shoulder to lean on, "We'll be back before they wake up."
"I'll be okay," D'lei says with a bit of a shake of his head for the offer of support. "Don't want anyone to get the wrong ideas about what happened, you know? And numbweed's good stuff." He does seem to be moving more readily, now. "At least we'll know if they start to stir, right? The mindlink… thing." Fresh and new as it is!