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Esurienth had about all of the softness of a rock lodged at the face - something Sura noted idly for perhaps the thousandth time or more in her life as she watched her lifemate messily rend the beast she'd caught. Not that it had ever been a reason to not love her giant lump. It simply meant that some poor candidate had to clean it up if she didn't do it now. Even as she retrieved the necessary tools to scoop up the worst of the blood she could feel the familiarly distinct satisfaction of her lifemate. She had no shame in how she was, after all.

But she laughed as she climbed the fence into the pen at the distinct thought of But it would be good for the candidates to learn. "Perhaps it would be, my dear, but I would hope they never impress as messy of an eater as you," she teased affectionately. Any within a close radius would be blessed with the gentle mental touches of the older Gold - satisfaction, amusement. ((Open to anybody. ;P ))

Having worked with caprines for the majority of his life before coming to the Weyr, the necessary slaughter of the animals had never been anything that really fazed the young man. Likewise, dragons feeding.... well, it didn't really bother him. A carcass was just that--something so removed from what it had been that it was hard to even compare the two. Having already been on stable duty, he'd fully intended to clean any remnants out of the feeding pen, and was on his way over just as he watched someone--the gold's rider, no doubt--climb in to do it herself.

"Wingrider," He called, nodding to both her and the enormous gold devouring her meal. "I don't mind doing that. At the very least, I'd like to assist you."

Sura'd barely hopped the fence when someone called out to her. A quick glance over the young man was enough to identify the shoulder knots - Candidate. The formal tone Lauthisen had used only confirmed as much. "I'm sure you wouldn't mind, but I mind such messes being left for others."

The words were barely out of her mouth before Esurienth dropped the first carcass and reached out to snap up another one of the poor wherries, shaking it fiercely. Only when it made a disgusting snap did she drop it, wherever it would land was fine, and pick up her first kill again. Sura actually reached out to slap her dragon on the nose.

"She means to make sure we both have something to do."

He resisted the urge to quirk his brows at the words--only to pause and watch the gold snatch a wherry, savaging it like a canine with a bone. It was a brutal, but efficient way to kill, and Lauthisen silently watched the body fall with broken feathers fluttering. He quickly glanced as the woman smacked the enormous queen--and found his lips twitching into a smirk at the explanation.

"I appreciate it her thoughtfulness." Lauthisen said truthfully, grabbing the handles of a wheelbarrow-like tool that may or may not have an entirely different Pernese name and entered through the feeding pen gate. Better to have work to do than simply standing around.

While it had been all good fun until then, the moment Lauthisen passed through the gate Esurienth mantled her wings. Really? Sura sighed to her lifemate, who turned one orange and yellow eye on the candidate. "You're fine," she quickly assured the young man, then turned the thought on her lifemate to press it into her. He's a candidate. He's fine. Despite this assurance, the large gold shifted and leaned in closer to look him over.

Her mental touch would be like a rough hand, sifting over things to look him over. If she'd been so inclined to she likely would have been physically moving him to do so instead. Once appeased, however, she settled back into her previous position and abandoned the first wherry for the second kill as to not let it go to waste as only a body to be cleaned up. Apparently she too though he was fine. For now.

It was impossible not to instinctively jerk at the clear displeasure from such a large predator, but after a word from the rider had him quietly standing there. He wasn't afraid, but mentally chided himself for assuming like a fool rather than asking. As the gold drew closer, Lauthisen stood his ground and allowed her to investigate as she pleased. The sensation was strange, and left him feeling a little wrung out.

"Sorry." He muttered to them both, chagrined. "I shouldn't have just done that."

"No, she gave clear invitation in the form of..." Sura gestured to the wherry Esurienth was now pulling apart in a sickening display of how easily a dragon could rend flesh. "You're a stranger so she just got a little alarmed." Sura would bypass the notion that perhaps the wheelbarrow had perhaps been just enough of a change for the gold to suddenly be nervous in the few seconds she hadn't been looking at him.

Running a palm over her gold's snout again, she held out her other hand to Lauthisen. "Come. Introduce yourself. I am Sura and this is my Esurienth."

He left the tools where they were, stepping closer as the small woman introduced herself. "I'm Lauthisen." The young man gazed up at the queen, feeling quiet awe as he always did when seeing a dragon up close... especially such a big one. It made him wonder if Impressing his own dragon would lessen that awe, or simply enhance it.

Sura gestured him closer still. "Palm out, she won't bite," she assured - mostly as a joke before she really saw how chewed up he looked from previous experience.

The young man shot her a look at that, but it was hard to tell what he was thinking. Still, he obeyed, lifting a calloused hand to press it gently to that soft, warm hide. "She's beautiful." He murmured, struck by the almost creamy shades that faded into deep, burnished gold... While some queens were delicate and lithe, Esurienth radiated power. A force to be reckoned with, indeed.

Esurienth rumbled, eyes whirling between molten colors as Sura made the rather pointed introduction between boy and dragon before settling on a peaceable shade of blue, though some yellow still remained there. "One of many pride and joys in my life," Sura agreed, moving her own hand so Lauthisen could enjoy the moment on his own.

Now seemingly content, the gold pulled her head away to focus more intently on her second kill, a lash of her tail sending the other carcass rolling a few feet farther away from where it had been before.

Lauthisen watched, transfixed, as those eyes spun through the warmer shades to eventually settle on something cooler. As Esurienth swung her head away, he allowed his palm to drop, watching as she dismissively tossed the remnants of her first kill aside.

"Thank you." He said honestly, forcing himself to focus fully on the woman. She hadn't had to allow him that moment, but she'd done so anyway.

She'd almost half the mind to ask him why he was thanking her. While she never would have told him so, the moment had been for Esurienth's benefit - not his. But he seemed to have taken something from it, so she kept that secret closer to her heart. "You're welcome," Sura answered instead, allowing Lauthisen whatever treasure he had gleaned from the eyes of a mighty gold like Hers. For her part, Esurienth's mental presence simply seeped over the young man. Touching, holding.

"How long have you been standing then?" Sura asked, already stalking over the mess she'd been momentarily distracted from cleaning - feathers, bloody sand that would someday be clean again. "Three turns? Less?"

"Almost five." Lauthisen moved to take his own tools, using a shovel in preparation to scoop most of the bloody sand mixed with.... remnants and dump it into the wheelbarrow. He didn't sound particularly emotional one way or another. His dragon was out there. If it took longer than most, then that was just how it was meant to be.

"If I can ask, how long did were you a candidate until Esurienth was shelled?" Idle conversation was something he normally hated, but Lauthisen found he liked this straightforward woman and her queen.

"Just barely long enough. I was Searched for her clutch when I was..." she paused in her actions to give Lauthisen a long look, "a little older than you are now, I think. I almost didn't go." Sura looked at her dragon, smiling fondly. "It would have been the greatest mistake I would have never known I made," would she have simply not hatched? Esurienth knocked her tail idly into Sura for even wondering about it now.

"Five isn't too bad - especially while you're young."

Lauthisen considered that, switching tools for a rake to better comb up stray feathers and the like. Back then, the threat of Thread was apparently over. Dragons weren't needed like they were now. Logically, it made sense that someone might have chosen to instead do something else with their life. He nodded quietly, listening without saying anything even as his thoughts veered down a similar path. Would Esurienth found someone else?

"I've learned a lot just by being here." He agreed. "There's always something to do, so it isn't like I'm wasting my time."

"It takes a lot of hands per rider to keep everything going the way it needs to," Sura agreed. There was a lot of value in the chores that Candidates did, even if they weren't always thrilled in having to do them.

It seemed as though hardly anything had been cleaned up when Esurienth dropped the second carcass, this time closer to Lauthisen.

"The Weyr has too many needs to waste the time of able hands. This is a good place to be if you need duty."

Lauthisen continued to work, answering Sura on occasion and listening to what she had to say. It didn't take terribly long for the pair of them to finish cleaning, and once they were through, the Weyrling offered a slight bow to both woman and dragon before heading off to his next chore. ((Fin!))