[PRP] Unsettled (Nadry/Goran)

[Meepfur]

Nadry glared down at the flour on her clothes, a fine dusting that had made its way past her apron and onto her skirt while she took her turn in the Weyr's kitchens. It wasn't much, and not even particularly noticable over the off-white and pale blue she wore today, but she could see it when she looked closely - she knew it was there, and she didn't like it. It wouldn't have been there at all if she'd been paying better attention to what she was doing, but instead of focusing on the task at hand, she'd been thinking about the Touching. For the last two days, she'd been able to think of little else, with occasional interludes of being profoundly irritated with her brother. He'd asked how it had gone, of course, and had been particularly interested to know what she thought of the gold egg, and more importantly, what the dragonet inside thought of her. Had she left a good impression? Did she think it might like her?

He didn't care at all about the rest of the clutch, and she hadn't even bothered to tell him about the other eggs she'd touched, sure he would disapprove. He'd made it abundantly clear over the last Turn that he didn't want his little sister on a fighting dragon - shards, he didn't want her on a dragon or in a Weyr at all! She could only imagine how upset he'd be if he knew what egg had consumed her thoughts, green-shelled and medium-large, surely a color that a girl should not Impress. Just one more thing a girl shouldn't do, but she was beginning to see now that there was no such thing. She had seen and treated as rules what girls like her were supposed to do and not do, say and not say, even after she'd left home for High Reaches. And all along, it had been the source of all her problems and frustrations. The realization was simultaneously empowering and terrifying, overwhelming and infuriating.

Other Candidates had been ensnared by the red egg, but not Nadry: she was obsessed with quite a different egg altogether. It was hard to think about anything else. Including where she was going.

Tsunake

 

[Tsunake]

Goran, too, had been hardly able to focus on anything since the Touching. Even copying letters, which he normally threw himself into with grit and determination, had fallen to the wayside. Oh, he still participated in his lessons, but his free time had him distracted and restless, his thoughts constantly straying back to the eggs currently incubating on the sands. He was not a man to share his thoughts, and with no family to talk to, he found himself taking comfort in the excited chatter of other Candidates. It was not often he found himself relating to his fellows, but this... this was an exception. Their whole lives could change in a few days--and he found that he was horribly impatient for it.

The big man rounded the corner, his thoughts still back on the Hatching Grounds with the dragonets--when someone smacked right into him. As large as he was, Goran wasn't staggered so much as he was surprised, and as his brain registered the small woman in front of him, is hands shot out to steady her if needed.

He grunted a wordless apology, stepping back to give her some space. A plain-faced girl, but neatly dressed and pretty. More importantly than that... she'd been on the sands. At least, he thought he recognized her.

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

It was like hitting a wall. A very large, very man-shaped wall who reached out to steady her before stepping back, leaving her blinking wide-eyed up at him. It took her a moment to formulate words, startled out of her thoughts and processing that not only had she bumped right into someone, that someone was a very large man. Burly was one thing, but good gracious, he was tall! Distinctive, difficult to miss, definitely a fellow Candidate, but she'd never properly met the fellow, nor truly registered the size of him. It would probably have been a bit less shocking if she hadn't just smacked into him. Into a boy. Oh, dear.

All of this flitted through her head in the space of a moment, until finally her lips moved from their surprised 'o' shape to form a horrified apology, "I am so sorry! That was so stupid, I should have been watching where I was going, not mooning over some-" Some egg, but she didn't finish the sentence, instead skipping over it in favor of asking, "Are you alright?"

Which was a silly question, she realized that the moment it left her mouth. What could she possibly do to him that would cause him any discomfort, step especially hard on his toes? But it was still the polite thing to ask.

Tsunake

 

[Tsunake]

Oh. Oh. He'd expected to be berated for not paying attention, which he would have conceded to such a point... but to be apologized to? She seemed fairly upset about it, and Goran awkwardly squared his shoulders as though that would stop the whole situation. When she asked him if he was alright, he cleared his throat before he spoke. "M'fine," A long pause. "Sorry. Wasn't payin' attention." Upsetting a girl was definitely not on his list of things to do.

Part of him wanted to ask her about the Touching, wanted to know if she was just as distracted as he was because of it.... but that also required feeling comfortable enough to speak, and honestly, he didn't.

Still, standing here like an idiot wasn't getting him anywhere. Goran took a slow, deep breath, mentally preparing himself. "...You saw the eggs?" He ventured. Of course she had. She was a Candidate.

Shells, he wished he was anywhere else right now.

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

That made two of them expecting to be laid into for not paying attention. Perhaps, if they had run into someone other than another Candidate, they might have been. Shells, what if she'd bumped into a rider, or someone carrying something? Those were worrisome possibilities. As it was, it was just rather embarrassing. During the young man's long pause after his assurance that he was fine, she ducked her head and fussed at her skirt. Stupid flour, stupid daydreams.

"I guess that makes two of us, then." Assured that there were no unwanted rumples in her skirt, Nadry looked up again with a small, uncertain smile. This was awkward, but hopefully salvageable, and he wouldn't think her some silly, clumsy mooncalf.

"I did," she answered then, her smile growing a little at the thought of the Touching. She looked off to the side for a moment, hesitating, before sharing almost like it was a secret, "They were wonderful."

Tsunake

 

[Tsunake]

Goran was not a man who often shared his thoughts, feelings, or emotions with anyone, but Nadry's admission of what she thought about the eggs? Well, he actually managed to smile back at her, because that truly was the only way to describe it. "I didn't know." He said honestly, his mood suddenly growing serious. "Everyone says all sorts of things about dragons, but I..."

He didn't know what it felt like to have one in your mind with you, knowing you and supporting you.

It occurred to him, suddenly, that he was speaking to a girl. Goran shifted his weight awkwardly. "Which ones did you like?"

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

"I didn't know, either. I thought maybe you'd just feel something, I never realized they'd actually talk, let alone move as much as they did." A little stirring here and there, maybe, but rolling themselves around? Causing that much ruckus?

"I only touched a few," she admitted. "I sort of got into a conversation with the bright green one, it was very nice and it seemed rude to just go." And yet, as nice as it had been, wishing her contentedness...was that what she really wanted, just to be content? For most of her life, the answer would have been yes, but now...

"I liked the darker green one best," the girl confessed, this answer given with a self-conscious dip of her head. She hadn't told anyone this preference of hers, since by the size of it it probably contained a dragon not meant for girls...which begged the question, why was she telling the young man she'd just bumped into? Perhaps she just really, really wanted someone to tell. If her brother Rykin were here, she could have told him - he wasn't nearly as insufferable as M'yk. Leave it to the youngest of them to be the ones who made trouble, even if that wasn't their intention.

Tsunake

 

[Tsunake]

His eyes snapped to her when she described the experience, impressed that she'd been able to put it into words so easily. There was an empathetic nod, and when she began to talk of the egg colors, his gaze unfocused as he tried to remember. He had only lingered briefly on the bright green one, but the darker green.... Yes, he remembered, and his lips twitched as though to smile.

"It felt... like a mountain stirring, when I touched it. ....It made me feel like I could do anything."

Goran met her gaze squarely even as she dipped her head, tilting his own to the side as though confused. Was she ashamed? Had it told her similar things? Vaguely, he remembered what Ichta had said, about how Metallics were often expected and aspired for by almost all. That egg certainly did not contain a gold.... If a dragon wanted you, did it matter what color it was?

"Did it make you feel like that?" He finally asked her, his voice low, but not unkind.

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

"It did," she affirmed, eyes darting back up when there was no judgement in his tone, no question why that one and not something more appropriate like the gold, or a little one that might have a green inside. With the relief, though, came a little bit of...jealousy that he'd felt the same thing as she? Concern? Nadry hastily swept it away before she could put a word to it. Getting attached to a certain egg was a mistake, an almost guaranteed let-down - she was no more likely to Impress that dragon than the Queen, if she Impressed at all.

But that feeling...now that she'd had it, how did she live without it? Could she do any of what it showed her alone? Suddenly aware that she'd been silent a moment or two too long, she licked her lips and added, "I wish I could have stayed with it longer, but that was right when Uridith got upset and made us leave. Do you know what any of that was about, who made that egg so upset?"

Two days later, it was still bothering her. Why had someone had to go and ruin the Touching for the rest of them?

Tsunake

 

[Tsunake]

He nodded slowly, but now he was looking at the small woman in front of him in a different sort of light. She looked so proper, so put together--what couldn't she do, with all the opportunities in her life? Did the dragon know about her life, too, as they had seemed to know about his? His hands clenched for a moment when she brought up Uridith's upset, remembering his indignation and despair at having to leave the sands so soon.

"No." Goran said slowly, but his thoughts strayed back to the large, striped egg who, its last thought that had confused him. They were both better than others knew. "But it started... with that red egg. Something happened." The anger that had pulsed forth...

And, thinking on it, that red egg. The way it had snaked around his thoughts, almost trying to drag him in even as he'd left... His lip curled without thinking, and the large boy shook his head with irritation. He belonged to no one. Not anymore.

"At least, at first. I don't know what happened at the end." He said grudgingly.

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

Nadry shook her head, lips pursed disapprovingly as she recalled the chaos. It wasn't fair that they'd all had to leave, but then, little ever was fair. She knew that well enough. It was possible a Candidate hadn't even been the one to cause the final upset, not directly. Maybe the eggs had just had enough, for one reason or another.

"I never got to touch that egg, and I'm sort of glad I didn't. Did you?" She couldn't help but be curious. The few she'd laid her hand on long enough to get any response from had been positive, the bright green and the gold pleasant and polite, and the dark green...well. But that a dragon could cause so much upset while still in its egg was disconcerting, to say the least. As active and, apparently, opinionated as the eggs had been, what might the Hatching be like? Not all perfect and pretty, that much she was willing to bet on, even if she had yet to commit to betting anything on the eggs themselves. She should.

Tsunake

 

[Tsunake]

His eyes narrowed almost dangerously as he nodded, but his slow-brimming ire was not directed at her. "I did." The words were forced, almost brittle. "It felt.... good. But false." Which made little sense, and he shook his head with frustration at himself. After a long pause, he spoke again. "Like it was trying to trap me to stay with it."

He hadn't had to be trapped to stay with the striped egg, or the dark green one. He'd wanted to. But he remembered the sensation of that power trying to tighten around him even as he pulled back, trying to force him to obey.

Goran didn't realize his hands were flexing again, the action both aggressive and anxious. "I'm not going to be used anymore." He heard himself saying, then realized his current company and came back to his senses with a jolt. Shards, but it was a baby dragon, wasn't it? What if he was just reading too much into this? Sharding deadglow...

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

Good, but false. A trap. And the way he reacted just thinking and talking about it this much time later... Nadry was very, very glad she'd never gotten anywhere near it. She had meant to, to leave it for the end and greet it for politeness' sake, but it was one of well over a dozen she hadn't had the opportunity to touch. The young man's assessment went some way towards explaining why Uridith had moved the egg away, and why a limitation had been put on how many Candidates could touch it and for how long. If the untimely interruption of the Touching had any upside, it was that it had prevented her from interacting with such a dangerous-sounding egg. She might not have expected that unhatched dragons could be so active or chatty, but she had absolutely never dreamed that they could be bad in any way. People could be bad, she supposed, so perhaps it wasn't so farfetched that a dragon could be...

Whatever it was, it had certainly affected her fellow Candidate. It was a tad unsettling to observe the large man's mannerisms, reading the undercurrent of aggression and anxiety clearly, and she felt bad for asking after the red egg, especially when he spoke his thoughts allowed. I'm not going to be used anymore. Anymore? One word that added so much weight to the statement it ended, and raised a host of questions. That anyone could use him in any way seemed absurd, just on account of his sheer size. Who would even try?

Nadry was left at a bit of a loss - as much as she wanted to know, she also didn't, and that would be prying terribly deep. She ultimately went with something that would acknowledge his impression of the egg, while also steering them away from what was clearly raw and personal if it was a topic he wasn't comfortable with. "It sounds awful, I can see why Uridith moved it. I hope it doesn't cause more trouble at the Hatching, but that's probably too much to hope for."

Tsunake

 

[Tsunake]

Deftly, she altered the conversation in a way that he wouldn't have to linger any longer, and Goran was grudgingly appreciative. He took a deep breath and let it out with a growl, forcing himself to focus. "There will be more drama." He muttered, almost certain of it. "But hopefully...."

Hopefully no one would be badly hurt, and the dragonets would find their companions without difficulty.

He lapsed into silence as he thought, and only after a moment did he realize he still didn't know who he was talking to. "I am Goran." He offered, and after hesitating, he held out a hand. Would she want to shake his hand? Shards, it was polite, he supposed.

"...The other eggs were much better." He said too, an afterthought. He would not allow the last, lingering sensation of the crimson egg spoil all the rest of his good memories.

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

Hopefully...hopefully no one would get hurt, human or dragon. The looming possibility of being hurt - even killed - was a part of Standing, but it was also one Nadry preferred not to think about. Surely everything would be alright, and if there were any injuries, they would be minor. No deaths, no going between. Things shouldn't happen that way. But with what little they knew about the young dragons so far...

For now, she was saved from dwelling on it when he held out his hand and introduced himself. Oh, shards. She had completely forgotten to itnroduce herself, and while that wasn't as bad as bumping into him because she wasn't paying attention, it was still rather embarrassing. One hand went to her mouth, and a second later the other gripped his for the offered handshake. She was usually one to curtsy, not shake hands, but, well, she was hardly going to reject what was offered. "Goodness, I am so sorry!" she apologized in much the same tone as she had earlier. "I completely forgot, how silly of me, running into you and then talking your ear off. I'm Nadry. Pleased to meet you, Goran."

"They were," she agreed with a nod.

Tsunake