[PRP] What a Nice Weyr You Have (Fi'o/Norna)

[demon_pachabel]

"Oooh, lucky the first try! That's good. I wonder how many times I woulda stood if I hadn't...y'know..." Norna nodded towards Cheruth. Whites were a pretty standard impression story, after all; they needed a little help and usually looked towards the one who freed them. If Norna hadn't done it, would someone else have? Would she have moved on to stand for another dragon to choose her? "Well, I have her and she has me." She stretched as F'io did, finally pulling away from the very comfortable cuddle-position she'd settled into. A shame, because now she was a little cold.

"Both. 'Sorry we messed up your bed, we cleaned it up. Please drink to forget all about it'." Norna summarized the potential note before laughing at her own humor. Hey, at least one person had to find her funny, right?

i-It's s-s-so n-nice h-h-h-here, n-Nornamine! Cheruth kreeled again. Just a s-sevenday? S-stay and s-s-s-see the b-babies! Norna raised her brows. "Darling, love. If I give you a sevenday, you'll want two. If we stay to see the clutching, you'll want to stay through the Hatching and then want to wait until they graduate and then there will be new babies to see." Cheruth's head drooped. Clearly hers knew her too well.

xxMeepfur

 

[Meepfur]

"Shoulda been the second, but got myself stuck helpin' in the kitchens for the Feast instead. Candidatemaster didn't take real kindly to me pickin' fights," she reminisced with a chuckle. Hadn't mattered in the end, her dragon hadn't been there that day anyway, and that deadglow kid had deserved the broken arm. Anything but eager to do so, Fi'o removed herself from the bed and started on the necessary clothes-hunt, plucking up and tucking under her arm anything that was hers, while tossing the rest in Norna's direction. "Good thing y'do, can tell she needs someone to look out for her."

Which her own dragon was all too happy to do, desperate for a friend as he was, and relying on them to tell him how they felt and what they needed or wanted. He might have chased the gold, but it was the little white pressed up against his side who was exactly his type. Fi'o shook her head at it as she started to pull on clothes, pausing only long enough to laugh at Norna's suggestion for the note. "Sounds about right. Hope you've got better handwriting than I do, doubt they'd be able to read my wherry-scratch."

I want to see the babies! Ivanhoth agreed with enthusiasm. I only saw babies once, and it was such a long time ago! Please, myFi'o? We can stay and see the babies and then..just...stay?? It was so hopeful and full of longing, and that look he was giving her, worse than when he'd hatched, got himself bowled over by his tussling siblings, and asked her for a hug. Augh. Her stupid brown-sized gooey soft spot. "This is maybe not the best time for this discussion, Ive."

Why not, when we are here?

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Norna snatched up her clothes as they were tossed to her, pulling them on somewhat half-heartedly. Getting up was really the worst thing to have happened to her all day. "Maybe. I love her, though. She's exactly the right dragon for me," yet if she felt that was because of Impression or because it had actually been a right fit would be hard to say. Everybody's dragon became the right dragon for them whether it was or not, after all.

"I don't write with this hand," she again held up her maimed hand, "so should be fine. Gotta make my charts legible, after all." Half dressed, the young woman finally approached the white who practically began to vibrate as her dearest bonded approached, peeling her head off of Ivanhoth's shoulder to crane her neck out to Norna. She took the white's head in both of her hands and kissed the top of her snout. "Need to get into my stuff," she said, walking her way down the white's neck to her riding straps to start going through her pouches.

p-Please can w-w-we stay and s-see the b-babies? Cheruth was beginning to echo her dear big brown friend, completely content to stay in his company. While Norna would eventually get the white pried away from her new friend, it was going to be a process she'd hear about for sevendays. "We can come see the babies in a few weeks once we have more charts and they're ready to hatch," Norna laid down the law. Cheruth wouldn't fight it, but the white's eyes whirled to a dull grey and she dropped her head down to rest on Ivanhoth's leg with a sad chirp.

The surge of absolute guilt that tried to bowl her over made Norna set her jaw sternly. She was trying very hard to not just ruin how they'd lived that far.

I w-want to s-s-stay with i-Ivanhoth, Nornamine. she warbled sadly as Norna smoothed out her papers to start writing. She looked back at the white with alarm. "What?" I w-want to s-stay with h-him. Norna nearly facepalmed. Well that was a development.

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

"I learned late and never did get real good at it," Fi'o admitted without any shame, "Haven't really needed to." Hadn't been much call for it in the line of work she'd chosen, so she hadn't wasted the time on it. Doubtless there were plenty of brats with better penmanship than hers.

"The wine part shouldn't be hard, maybe the kitchens'll part with some for the right price. If not, easy enough to pop back to Bitra and-"

No, Ivanhoth interrupted emphatically, drawing a stunned look from his rider, wobbling where she stood with only one leg in her pants. Never in nineteen turns had he outright refused to do as she said. Doubtful now and then, sure, but ultimately he'd always followed her lead. It was how they worked. It was why they worked. Fi'o opened her mouth, shut it, opened it again. "Y- Excuse me?"

I want to stay. I don't want to be alone anymore. I love you but I miss dragons and I don't want to miss Cheruth. He rested his head very gently over the white's with a low, sad sound.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"Hey, not everybody is writing letters of 'I am kissing your a** because I'm being made to apologize' or is the kid of some lord or holder or-'" Norna shrugged, clearly not judging that F'io was using her (very nice) frame for physical labor instead. Shards, she only had good penmenship because it was part of her Weyrling lessons and making charts had emphasized her handwriting.

"Checking the kitchens would be an easy thing to do if we sneak down for breakfast. Grab some fresh linens while we're down there," Norna cut off as it seemed her fellow Dragonrider was being interrupted by some thoughts from the brown that was practically wrapped around her sweet little white. It seemed clear that both dragons were having a similar series of thoughts. She looked to F'io with a slight frown, crossing her arms as her attention turned to the undividable dragon pair.

"Can't say I've had this problem before." Norna admitted as Cheruth just kreeled sadly, the same wave of complete sadness seeming to slam into her with hardly any effort. "We can't stay, Cheruth," Norna put her hands on her hips and the white sighed. y-you can't. b-b-But I'm s-staying right h-here. It was a weak protest, one that Norna knew she'd be able to out-wait in the long run, but.....

"Food and cleaning up first or do we want to figure this out now?"

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

Cheruth wants to stay, so I...I will help her stay! Ivanhoth decided, shifting to curl himself around the white as tightly as he reasonably could without causing her any discomfort, all but hiding her from view. This was his special tiny friend and he was going to keep her as long as she wanted him to, whether anyone else liked that or not. All that mattered was that she did. We will stay and see the babies together, and you will see that it is good and you will want to stay too, and we can be here always and not be alone ever.

"We got a job, Ive, we can't just-" Fi'o words gave way to a frustrated sound as her bonded shoved back mentally, fixing her with a baleful gaze that was entirely new on him. Orange was a rare color for him, and it mixed now with gray. The woman shook her head as though to shake off the foreign feelings coming from her dragon and shoved her other leg into her pants, then sat hard back on the bed to pull on her boots.

"Don't think they're goin' anywhere anytime soon." Fi'o grunted and shook her head again, disgusted and frustrated and maybe, just maybe, starting to feel bad. Had he really been that lonely all this time, and just not realized it until he had what he'd been missing? "Might as well get s**t done in the meantime."

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Cheruth was the safest, warmest, most comfortably white in Western Weyr in that moment, the tip of her nose sticking out from under the pile of brown that was just oozing support to the nervous creature. Norna shook her head. Finishing her task of redressing herself (which mostly meant pants), she turned her attention back to F'io who seemed about as frustrated by the situation as she was.

The downside to a clingy, loving dragon was when they found their own kind to cling to, unfortunately.

"Guess it's down to the kitchens, then. Pretty sure even if Western is a little backwards we can still navigate it as well as anyWeyr." Norna hadn't quite made herself entirely presentable, instead looking very much like she'd thrown clothing on in the dark of a room she was unfamiliar with, yet she obviously didn't care. "I'm sure if the owner of the room comes back these two louts will let us know and we can offer our gifts of apology in person."

Cheruth just thrummed contently in her safe, warm, brown-dragon blanket. This was the life.

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

If she hadn't been so irritated with her dragon at that moment (or so busy shoving down the guilt of inevitably breaking at least one of his hearts when they didn't all stay forever), the scene of the deep-dark brown with just the white snout of his newly-minted girlfriend peeking out from under him would have done things to her heart she would probably swear that nothing did. Ivanhoth heaved a deep sigh of relief for the reprieve, but suspicion held steady in his eyes.

As dressed as she needed to be, knowing she'd looked better but sharding sure she'd looked much worse, the brownrider stood back up and nodded. "Right, then, you heard 'er. They come back, you tell us and just...do what you're doin', they can't possibly get mad at that." Fi'o gestured to the pile of dragon. "And you make nice, Ive, 'specially if their dragon shows up."

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Norna pat the end of the tiny white snout sticking out, and Cheruth let out a tiny huff. It was perhaps the first time in the little white's life that she wasn't losing her absolute mind over the idea of having to sit and wait while Norna ventured out of sight. She hadn't been kidding about 4 minutes being her bonded's max. I'll be back. she assured and Cheruth gently sent her a wave of both absolute love and absolute sadness mingling at the same time. w-We'll b-be h-here. Ivanhoth w-will take g-good care of m-me. she insisted with absolute trust in the big brown. She curled her tail around the end of his and crooned adoringly at him.

Whether it was to make Norna feel worse or to just cement the two dragons' opinions on everything, both results were had.

Certain the dragon pile would be alright, Norna headed out the door, took about 4 steps down the hallway and sighed deeply. "Well I'm certainly not prepared to be living with a heartbroken dragon," she stated rather obviously.

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

With the humans off to do their errands, giving the dragons some peace and quiet and, most importantly, more time, Ivanhoth settled himself even further with a little wiggle and a deep, full-body thrum of both contentment and reassurance. He was also, in no small way, pleased with himself for standing his ground. It was the first time in his life that he'd truly wanted something different from his rider, and it was quite a strange feeling.

In the hallway, Fi'o echoed Norna's sigh and looked back at the door with a shake of her head. "I'm a lot of things, but I ain't quite that cruel." Another sigh as she shoved a hand through her already mussed hair. "Any bright ideas?"

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Shards and shells. Norna had known that Cheruth had wanted them both safely inside the walls of a Weyr, but the little (well, actually, she was bigger than any white she'd ever seen before...) white had never put up too strong of an argument for it - even when they'd been in exactly this same position. Was Ivanhoth just giving her the boost she needed to be stubborn for once in her anxious little life?

"My first would be to drink heavily, but that's not a helpful idea," Norna stated right off the bat as she continued to navigate the passageways. As she'd suspected, most Weyrs were laid out fairly similarly so outside of a wrong turn here or there, most paths would lead about where expected.

"Cheruth isn't suited to a Weyr, though. She may insist she'd be able to fight Thread, but most dragons do horrible things to her nerves and working in a group of them would likely give her a straight up heart attack." It was said both out of love and concern, but also as the truth. Cheruth was not a Thread fighting dragon. "We didn't even make it to graduation before I had to get her out of her birth-Weyr," not that it was something to brag about, persay, but Norna had known what was best in that case too. "So staying isn't really an option for her."

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

"Be a great fix if it were. Bottle for us, bottle for our gracious host, nothin' to worry about." Too bad that never in the history of anything had drinking heavily ever fixed a problem, because it would have been a glorious solution she'd have been more than happy to fall back on. Fi'o followed after the whiterider, as she'd not been in a Weyr in near on teo decades. 'Rusty' didn't begin to cover it.

"Right, that actually helps, if you think you can get 'er to own up to it. Ive'll believe near anything anyone tells him - she says she can't stay, he'll listen. Long as she says she wants to stay, though, he's not gonna budge. Not while he thinks he's helpin'." It was simultaneously his best and worst trait: tell him to do something and he'd do it, and usually she was the one he was listening to. Except for .01% of the time, apparently, when he was wrapped up in infatuation.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"She's wanted a Weyr ever since we left. I made the mistake once of not being prepared for Thread - but if anybody was actually prepared that first time, I'm not going to feel bad about that. But ever since then she's been losing her mind more than she does by default that we're going to die." She ran a hand through her hair as she turned another corner, pausing as she considered her next pathway and then again started to walk.


"I never take her anywhere that's expecting thread in the next two days....though that won't be a long term solution once it starts falling more consistently, but I can't let her know that." Where did she take a little white that couldn't fight Thread? "We do good how we're doing. I make sure current patterns follow the old records so nobody is caught surprised by the sharding stuff. She just..." she ran a hand down her face, as if a thought had struck her.

"Visits to Bitra will still be an option," though Ivanhoth hadn't felt that would be a good place for Cheruth, and Norna agreed to an extent. "I need to remind Cheruth that we're still helping. Maybe I can bribe her with promises of visits to your boy and..." Norna hated to relent to it, but... "and that I'll let her come see the Hatching."

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

Fi'o nodded along attentively while Norna spoke, taking her time to run over her own options in her head and formulate a response. Unlike Cheruth, Ivanhoth's clinginess was purely the result of his being, if anything, overly social...and evidently feeling deprived. She'd thought - and he likely had as well, or he'd have spoken up - that the company of humans was enough, but seemed now it didn't quite compare. Oh, he was a pampered boy, fussed over and fed anything his hearts desired (evidenced by the layer of pudge over his stocky muscles) by employees and patrons alike, as much mascot and attraction as he was deterrent for cheats and brawlers, but one night back in a Weyr and that wasn't enough anymore.

If they could pry the two dragons apart and convince them that there were other options to be considered and get his brown a** back to Bitra, would it work? Would he just settle back in and be content again, or had this stupid errand to retrieve Akaris ruined everything? Ohh, if that girl didn't need to look pretty... "If you can convince 'er to tell 'im that she doesn't need to stay, she'll come and visit, he'll buy it, no questions. She could be creelin' her head off all gray-eyed while she said it, he'd still believe it. Not the brightest glow, my boy."

If she could at least get him back to Bitra, they could have a much-needed talk about what they each wanted and go from there. What a sharding headache this has turned out to be! She couldn't quite say she wished they hadn't been here for the Flight, it had really snarled things up.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

An obviously happy Cheruth was the preference. Norna had never straight up forced the white to do anything, but it had always floated around in the back of her mind that she could. Cheruth was a little doormat for Norna but it felt wrong to be too overstepping of the clear boundaries her bonded needed. "I'll have to see what I can do with her while we eat. Somehow I think if I'm in the room while I'm bargaining with her she'll try to play her new trump card."

Being that she'd appeal to Ivanhoth to back her up. They really were a pair.

Finding the kitchens was about as difficult as had been expected, Norna having completely bypassed the dining area to start raiding more direct food sources. "Dunno if they have anything good wine-wise in here, but we can find some actual breakfast while we're here too." Hopefully.

It smelled pretty good, at least.

Meepfur