Landing - Docks
The dock at Landing is ment more for riverboats than ocean going vessels and serves as a port of call for the supply ships that wend their way up the river from the southern seas beyond. The lake waters here are brackish enough for an occasion dolphin to travel, but seldom are the graceful creatures seen here. Usually, small skiffs that belong to the apprentices of Landing Craft Hall are all the vessels that are moored here.
It's about noon on a warm, clear day. There's a boat in from along the river, newly unloaded and bobbing in the water, but the docks are mostly empty for the moment, probably because the seacrafters decided to get lunch. They're not entirely empty, though; Najara sits on one of the tie posts, staring out across the lake with a distant sort of expression.
With a cold breathe of air, a green the color of jade appears in the air above the sea. She slowly circles downwards, opal eyes flashing bright blues. Gently, she slips into the water. Her feminine form weaves through the skiffs and ships moored in the area before pulling up next to the dolphin bell. Rhieyeth turns her head back to look at her lifemate, crooning sweetly before watching Miyan slide down and onto the docks. "Promise it won't be long. Master Hensen should be coming in pretty soon." Despite her words, the glasscrafter bites her lip and looks around uncertainly. When green eyes fall on Najara, she moves over. "You wouldn't happen to know if Master Hensen's come in yet, would you?"
Najara looks up at the appearance of a dragon, watching the green with the look of someone who's simply letting their eyes track without quite paying attention to what they're seeing. When she's actually approached, she gives herself a little shake before actually looking to the other woman, inclining her head in greeting and then tilting it slightly. "Master Hensen?" she repeats, then shakes her head. "I'm sorry, I wouldn't know. I'm only in from Paradise River on the Bluebell." She indicates the docked boat.
"Ah, sorry. Thought you might have been from around here." Miyan smiles a bit sheepishly before glancing around. Gaze shifts from the empty docks, to the unloaded vessel, and then over towards the waters once more. "Have you been out here long? You might have seen him…Master Hensen's a dolphineer." She lifts a hand, positioning it with palm flat and held several inches above her head. "About this tall, usually in a swimsuit…and he has a goatee."
Najara smiles, with a slight spread of her hands. "I suppose I've visited enough to not have the look of confusion anymore," she says, with a small laugh that trails off after a moment as she glances away to the water again. She hmms as this Master Hensen is described. "There were a couple dolphins accompanying us in, but I don't remember seeing a dolphineer with them…"
"Oh! You have? Then maybe you know where the dolphineers usually stay?" Miyan asks before glancing out over the waters once more. "Hmmm, maybe he hasn't come in yet. Or maybe he's already come in." The glasscrafter slips her hands into the pockets of her flight jacket, pulling out a small scroll and opening it up. By a quick glance, it seems to be a map of sorts. Lifting it to the light, she furrows her brows to twist it this way and that. Head tilts to the left, and then to the right. It's supposedly a map of Landing, but she can't read it very well apparently. "Maybe over….that way?" Head is jerked to the right.
"From what I've heard," says Najara with a smile, "Most of the dolphineers are either in the water, or at the tavern." She rises to her feet, taking a look over at the scroll… map, right, map. "Is that supposed to be the gather grounds?" she says while pointing to one part of it. "Because if it is, then… ah…" She looks up again, back and forth.
Najara nods, with a slight smile, then gets a considering faint frown as she looks back to the map again. "So, then that's over there," she says, and points on the actual landscape. "Not that you can see from here, but it's past that building there. So… I think it's there, yes." Her hand points the way Miyan first suggested, but then she purses her lips. "Unless that's meant to be the dock here, in which case…" She glances left instead. Hmmm.
Miyan sighs softly as she looks at the map. "I should've brought J'yn with me…." Trailing off, the woman frowns slightly before looking the way that Najara's pointed. "So…it could be that way. Or the other way." She turns her head the opposite way before turning the map over. Because that might help things? "Maybe I should just pick a direction and go with it." Miyan is apparently completely incompetent when it comes to maps. "You said you kind of new this area though, right? Would you be able to recognize places if you saw them?"
Najara frowns, looking at both ways. If only there were someone with more of a clue! "I might," she says, sounding rather on the uncertain side. "If only… ah." She pauses a moment. "When I was here last, I met a dolphineer with wet hair. She was coming from…" Najara closes her eyes, considering for a moment, then points. "That way."
You aren't carrying anything.
You have 10025 trundlebugs.
"So….the Tavern's that way?" Miyan glances over in the direction before giving the tiniest of shrugs. "Might as well try…" The woman spins on her heel to face Rhieyeth once more, working to quickly loose the straps holding up the wrapped piece of glasswork. It takes a minute or two, but the greenie does eventually get it down. "Umm…hate to ask a favor. But could you sort of…push it onto my back?" The rider looks over towards Najara, blushing sheepishly. It's no wonder she's having a hard time situating it since it's rather large.
Najara nods with rather more certainty than for the rest of these things about the location of the tavern. She steps back a little as the greenrider unstraps the wrapped package, then hesitates. "Are you sure you'll be okay with it?" She steps closer. "Perhaps we could carry it together or something… or, well, we don't even know where to… exactly."
"Mhm, I'll be just fine! As long as I've got the straps tied around my wai—" Miyan is suddenly interrupted by a loud snort that comes from her lifemate. Glancing over her shoulder, the glasscrafter frowns. "This is /your/ fault. Why did it have to be a water landing? If you carry it, it's just going to get wet…." Which the woman doesn't want happening. It might just be glass, but it's her baby. Though really? Her baby's looking kind of heavy for a woman that's a stick. And perhaps there's some sort of argument going on, because Miyan gets that far off look that riders get sometimes for a while. "Um, well actually….yes. Some help would be appreciated."
Najara's uncertainty gets reinforcement from an unexpected direction, and she looks to the green dragon with a slight widening of her eyes, going quiet for a moment as the woman and her lifemate argue things out and looking at the wrapped bundle instead of either of them. Her uncertainty is turning toward outright skepticism, looking at it, and then she glances back to Miyan and nods slightly. "All right," she says with a smile. "How about… ah… if you lift on one side, and I can do it from the other?" She moves to her suggested position, but waits to see if the glasscrafter approves before doing anything.
There might be a few quiet mumbles about how she's not /that/ weak under her breathe, but they're just barely audible. When Miyan does address Najara however, there's a soft smile on her face. "That sounds good to me…thanks." The glasscrafter moves over to lift the side of the piece closest to Rhieyeth and motioning to the bottom corner of the piece where the girl stands. "Um, just watch out for the corners…the frame's kind of sharp." Miyan takes a deep breathe then, "On the count of three. One…two…three!" And so saying, she begins to lift the rather heavy work.
If Najara hears those grumbles, she makes a pretty good show of pretending she didn't. She nods to the suggestion, carefully brushing her fingers against it to find what's a good grip, then breathes in on one, out on two, and… lift. "Oh, my," she says, though she seems to be capable of holding on, settling it to lean back against her shoulder somewhat. "What /is/ it?"
"Two…stained glass….panes." Miyan says through gritted teeth before jerking her head in the direction they'd planned on heading. She begins to step that way, but progress is slow to say the least. Especially since the glasscrafter is trying to take as much care as possible. After spending countless hours on them, Miyan would hate it if it broke. "Where…are…the crafters?" She asks breathlessly while looking ahead.
Najara does not mind slow in the slightest. Admittedly, she would like the being done faster part, but… this thing is heavy and unwieldy! She keeps being scared it's going to wobble forward from her shoulder and go swinging in a mighty arc that ends with… shattering against the earth, apparently, since this is stained glass. "…oh," she says, and tries to be extra careful. Nobody told her that one mistake would mean doom! "Ah, they…" She cannot point. "To the left a bit. The… the path with the gravel." Rotate, and, charge! …walk. …creep.
"Left…right. I don't mean right. I meant right that you were going left. Yes…that way. That way…" The woman tiny babysteps as they charge!…walk….creep their way over towards the gravel. Suddenly, the piece begins to slide from her shoulder, almost falling out of the rider's grasp. "No!" She cries. But turns of training have given her reflexes, and the rider luckily manages to catch it before her end heads to certain death. "Let's…take a break. One sec." How far have they gotten? About 20 feet. So
The left right that - oh no! Najara freezes as the piece starts to slide. By the time she starts reaching out, Miyan's already managed to stablize it. Good thing she was here, or else… the ground would be very pretty, and also very sharp. She pants a little, and nods gratefully to the suggestion of taking a rest, slowly easing the piece to a more stable position. "…maybe, ah… you could go find Master Hensen… or at least a wheelbarrow. I could keep an eye on it here." She glances to Miyan again, then adds, "Or your, ah, dragon could…" with a flitter of her eyes back to the green.
Miyan shakes her head. "No…no…it's alright." The words earn another snort from the green who flicks her tail in annoyance before swimming farther out into the waters. Rhieyeth is apparently having no part of this folly. The glasscrafter doesn't seem to offended though. Instead, she simply stands there, catching her breathe for a few moments. "Alright…let's go." With a soft grunt, Miyan begins to step forward again, watching to make sure that both she and Najara are moving at the same pace. "WHOA there little ladies!" A voice suddenly booms from behind Najara, causing the glasscrafter to slip a little once more. Impending doom? Please Faranth, no! Two strong arms, attached to an equally muscley man, appear and steady the panes.
Najara glances back to the departing green, then to the big glasswork and takes a deep breath. Right. Onward! She hoists it up again - her arms are definitely not going to be happy tomorrow - and starts off. A bit of mud makes her foot slide, but she catches herself before it goes too far and creeps onward to what is definitely not a doom. Strong muscley arms are pretty much the exact opposite of doom, and Najara breathes a sigh of relief. "Oh, /thank/ you," she says in heartfelt tones.
The newly arrived man looks down at Najara, having caught her slip. "You alright little lady?" There's a touch of concern in his voice before he's craning his neck and whistling to a small group that's just a few feet away. "C'mon boys. Take these things off their hands! And move them to my office." But wait, it seems that Miyan knows this man. "Master Hensen!" The glasscrafter says in relief as the group of dolphineers come and take the panes. "Neither of you should've tried to move those."
Najara smiles to the new arrival, nodding slightly. "Oh, fine," she says, then pauses as he calls for the rest. What? After all that, the bundle is being glassjacked by these mysterious men? Najara strived and strained for those panes, and she's got thirty feet of distance to show for it! She starts to straighten herself up, to achieve a ramrod spine from which to Register Her Indigna- ah. So this is, in fact, the mysterious Master Hensen. She deflates back to a smile, gratefully handing over that heavy beast of a glasswork. "Well," she says to the scolding, and glances briefly to Miyan before simply continuing on with, "I'm glad you found us."
"We could have done it on our own…" Miyan mumbles to herself. But apparently Master Hensen knows her well enough to not take offense. Instead he chuckles and gives her a pat on the shoulder. "I'm sure youcould. And your little friend here seems like she's packing quite the punch." Oh yes. He saw Najara doing that little puff up in indignation thing. He was WATCHING. "I'll go see that these are put up and be back in a few minutes. Don't wander off." And with a crooked grin for both Najara and Miyan, the Master Dolphineer and his men head down that gravel path. "Well…at least we were going in the right direction?" Miyan purses her lips, watching them move off before glancing over at Najara. A moment later, she's bursting into quiet laughter. "Shards, after all that effort."
Sure, they could have done it…by nightfall. Maybe. Najara is remarkably silent on the matter of whether they could have done it on their own, though she most certainly would have given them the sharp edge of her tongue if they'd been bandits out to steal glass. It probably would have been entirely ineffectual, too. Maybe if she got lucky, it'd make the theoretical bandits laugh long enough for them to sneak away - two, three hours of laughter, that's all, so maybe not. Regardless, she simply purses her lips for a moment at his comment, then shakes her head as it turns toward a smile. It's hard to argue with relief. As for wandering off? Hah! "I think my knees may be jelly," she confides to Miyan after the dolphineers are out of earshot, and chuckles ruefully as she looks down to her feet.
Miyan flashes a grin over in Najara's direction before giggling and looking down at her own legs. "Mine too…and I thought I was in shape, being a rider and all." The woman shakes her head before curling her hands into fists and hitting them lightly against her thighs. It's a way to relax the muscles. Sort of. "We might have made it…but I think we would've broken the panes in the process." And they would both have taken a shower in glass pieces! Joy and Happiness! It's every woman's dream, right? "Thanks though, wouldn't have even gotten this far if you hadn't helped out. Really do appreciate it."
Najara is not so aggressive with he own muscles. She'd probably break them. Instead, she just slowly stretches each leg in turn, then shakes her head. "Oh, no, I would not want to see those broken! And I hardly even knew them, but after all this distance…" she glances back. All this distance, indeed… well, she's just not going to look that way. Too discouraging. Instead, she looks to Miyan, and smiles. "Well, we've got to help each other out where we can, that's how I figure it."
Miyan grins, "Maybe you'll actually get to see the pieces that were inside one day. One of my better works, though I've still got plenty to learn." Letting her hands drop then, the greenrider glances off in the direction the men disappeared and then back to Najara. "That's a good policy. Makes a lot of sense too. But really, tha—" The greenrider is quite suddenly interrupted as a warble sounds from the water. Rhieyeth suddenly launches into the air, landing upon the gravel path and twitching her tail in irritation. She stares at Miyan and Najara, eyes flecked orange in slight irritation.
"Oh, I'd like that!" says Najara. If she carried the panes this whole… ten yards… okay, well, it seemed like more at the time. Besides, she's not looking back. In fact, right now, she's not looking anywhere but at the green dragon that just descended upon them. Her own eyes widen, and she forgets the jelly in her knees as she stares right back at the green. So big. Greens may be the smallest of the dragons, but… so big! "Ah…" A small brown firelizard appears over Najara's shoulder, takes one look at the green, and promptly flees. He seems to have forgotten he can go between, though; he's just fluttering away one wingflap at a time.
Rhieyeth flicks her tail once more, flaring her wings and snorting quite pointedly at the girls. What Najara can't hear however, Miyan can. The greenie gives a sigh and wrinkles her nose a bit. "I know, I was getting to it…you're so impatient." The glasscrafter turns to face Najara then. "Well, Rhieyeth tells me that just saying thank you isn't enough. So…" Pausing, Miyan digs into the pocket of her flight jacket and pulls out something that looks suspiciously white and knot-like. "So we'd love for you to stand for Tzavayth's clutch at Eastern." So saying, the rider breaks into a wide grin and offers the candidate's knot to the girl. There may not be lutes playing in the background, but Rhie's crooning is quite musical in quality. "Um, what's your name by the way?"
Flap, flap, flap, the brown firelizard beats his way not very quickly into the distance. Najara pays no mind to him, her gaze instead flitting back and forth between Rhieyeth and Miyan. What does this even… not enough? What? "Oh, it's no…" Blink. Najara glances down to the knot, then up to Miyan's face as if to make sure it's not a joke. She glances to Rhieyeth as well. Is _that_ what a dragon's 'you're welcome' face looks like? "Well, it would solve the fact I can't find a job," Najara mutters under her breath, then blushes as she realizes what she just said. Way to sound ungrateful! The things surprise does to a person. "Ah. I would be honored," she says in the formal tones of an attempt to regain her dignity, and takes the knot before Miyan or Rhieyeth decides she doesn't deserve it anymore. "I'm Najara."
Miyan laughs quietly at the look of disbelief on Najara's face. And to Rhie's credit, she seems quite pleased at the moment. Now that her rider's listened to her and made the appropriate offer to the girl. The glasscrafter does raise her eyebrows faintly at the job comment. "Well…there will be quite a few chores involved in candidacy." She doesn't sound too offended though. And when Najara takes the not, there's a fresh chorus of delighted croons from the milky green. "Great!" The glasscrafter seems equally pleased. "And I'm Miyan, green Rhieyeth's…though I probably should've said so sooner." Oops! "Umm…well, now that you've accepted, I can escort you back to the barracks. Well, we can after I meet Master Hensen and we collect your things."
"Oh, I didn't mean - I don't mind working, I've just, well, I don't have a craft, and there's only so many places for barmaids and such." Najara smiles, still blushing a little as she gives her assurances. She holds the knot for a moment, then reaches to pin it to her shoulder carefully. "It's nice to meet you," she says with a little curtsy, then ahs. "My things are at Paradise River, but I could just have them sent for…" She trails off. About that Master Hensen. "He said he'd be back… didn't he?"
Miyan smiles and shakes her head, "Don't worry, I'm not offended in the least. But I promise it you won't ever get bored once you're in the barracks." The curtsy is quite promptly waved off however. "Oh, don't worry about being formal with me. But it's very nice to meet you too. We can pick up your things on the way back to Eastern." Because dragons have that nifty *between* ability. "Yes…he did." The glasscrafter glances over her shoulder and purses her lips. Master Hensen /will/ eventually come. And they'll settle their fee, after which Miyan will be all set to set off with her shiny new candidate Najara!
Miyan grins at Najara, though a moment later her attention is taken away by the arrival of Master Hensen once more. "If you'll excuse me a moment." The glasscrafter nods at Najara before stepping a few feet off to discuss things with the dolphineer. It doesn't take long and soon the man is heading off and Miyan returning to Najara's side. "Well then, now that I'm finished with that….shall we?" So saying, the woman grins and begins to head over towards Rhieyeth. "You can sit on her tail, Rhie will lift you. Or just scramble up if you'd like."
"Of course," says Najara, and while Miyan and Master Hensen are discussing, she takes the time to pet her firelizard and convince him the dragon really isn't going to eat him. Then Miyan comes back, and it's time for Najara to convince /herself/ that the dragon really isn't going to eat her. "Ah…" she says, looking at that tail and that shoulder. She's not sure she likes either option, but… it can't be /that/ different than a runner, right? Gulp. "I'll, ah…" She's seen riders do this before. From a distance, admittedly, but… she reaches for a bit of harness, holding it for a long moment before trying to scale Mount Rhieyeth. Allium flutters his wings and squeaks protests as his shoulder-perch turns unstable.
"Alright." Miyan chuckles softly as Najara makes to scramble up the green's side. There might be a hint of amusement on the rider's features, but she hides it very well. Rhieyeth does keep her tail just below Najara at all times however, making sure that if the girl were to fall, it wouldn't result in injury. Miyan herself moves to the other side, nimbly making her way up and into the straps, likely before Najara. She turns from her perch, offering a hand to the girl to help her up.
Miyan giggles quietly as she helps Najara get up and into the straps. "Don't worry, there's a first dragon ride for everyone." A moment later she begins to strap and buckle the girl into place, checking and double checking so that there aren't any unfortunate accidents. How would she ever explain it to her Weyrleader? Well, I was bringing a candidate in love, but I lost her *between*…but I'm still cute, right? "Alright, this won't take long at all." Miyan shoots Najara one last smile before Rhieyeth leaps into the air, bringing them to higher skies.
"I suppose so, yes," says Najara with a nervous smile, and she runs her fingers over the straps. They do all seem to be secure, don't they? She triple-checks, just in case, then nods. "All right," she says, taking a deep breath and finding a place to grip on the straps before Rhieyeth's leap brings a squeak to her mouth. Flying! They're actually flying and… ooh, she shouldn't have looked down. Fortunately, the dragon's wings intermittedly block the view of the receding ground, but… shards, those are awfully little to be holding her aloft. They're big, and yet, for /flying/ on… her fingers hold onto the straps with something approaching a deathgrip as she closes her eyes and tries very hard for calm.
"Between we go!" Miyan shouts to Najara before chuckling after glancing backwards. This is first time flying thing provides a bit of amusement. There's no countdown or anything, suddenly they're between. Seconds pass…and then they're out an over at the Hold. Miyan and Rhieyeth will help with the gathering of Najara's things before taking her over to Eastern and then to the barracks!