Where Are We? (Open)

[Akki]

“Are we lost?” The voice echoed through the corridors that lead to the riders weyrs.

Exarin was currently slowly walking through the corridor, his hand touching the wall so he could figure out his way around and so he could predict any turns that may come their way. He had arrived earlier that day after a long trip. He had ran into some traders on his way to Dark Moon and they offered him a ride, saying they were going past there anyways. He was eternally grateful - the trip would have taken him a long time otherwise. And Faranth knew how dangerous it would be for him, relying on his tunnelcats to be his eyes.

When he reached the Weyr, the original plan was to find the Weyrwoman; he wanted to ask for permission to transfer in and tell her what he could offer to the Weyr. He didn't want to seem like he was a freeloader because he really did think he could help Dark Moon out - especially with their tunnelsnakes. However, considering the Weyr was quite large and completely foreign to him, he quickly got lost trying to find her and was now simply wandering corridors.

To be fair though, Lirea and Tiano were doing their best to guide him but they too were not familiar with the place so they were simply leading their owner wherever they thought seemed like a good place to go. Lirea chirped and warbled, brushing her small body against Exarin’s leg in a small attempt to assure him that they weren’t lost, even though they were. Tiano, on the other hand, was dashing left and right – squeaking loudly as he explored the corridor. Exarin always had to grin at the different personalities his tunnelcats had - Lirea would refuse to leave Exarin's side while Tiano would go map out the Weyr on his own so he could help his owner later on with the layout.

This time though Exarin frowned, his cloudy eyes staring in front of him. “Don’t get lost Tiano, I won’t be able to find you again and I doubt Lirea will even bother looking for you.” The white tunnelcat made a noise which sounded like an agreement, a ‘He’s right, I really won’t waste my time for you’. The man adjusted the pack on his back and wished that he still had the long stick he sometimes used to help him figure out when there were stairs or walls in front of him. Unfortunately, it had snapped in half on the way here and he was left relying mostly on the tunnelcats before him. Not necessarily a bad thing, but he wouldn’t mind being able to help them out slightly instead of being more or less useless.

[Minajerie]

Besides lessons and taking care of her ne minty dragon, Blissy had chores. She had been lucky to receive the task of runner as her chore task. It let her get familiar with the weyr quickly, and it was something she was used to. Except messages didn't run away from you squealing with glee every time you got near. So, needless to say, it was far easier than taking care of children.

Blissy was enjoying the running part, it was a rush, but she really needed to watch where she was going as she turned a corner and belatedly noticed a feline, quick corrected herself so that she wouldn't step on it, then ended up plowing into a taller male presence. A skinny presence. And unfortunately for them both, Blissy was going fairly fast, and had some built up momentum behind her, so when she plowed into him, boy did she ever plow into him.

"Ack! Sorry!" She said in a most apologetic tone. She felt so bad! She was always the watcher! After running about with little ones underfoot, a feline should not have tangled her flight so! She had barely been away from her flock and already she was losing her abilities. Ah well, they weren't exactly important now that she was a weyrling...

[Akki]

Needless to say, Exarin quickly went down when he was plowed into. Maybe if he had his sight he could have been her coming but nope – there was no warning, just a body running straight into his. He quickly stumbled, effectively tripping over his own feet and fell onto the ground. Thankfully he fell onto his bottom; his head didn’t collide into the ground. He looked up, his murky blue eyes staring at where he could only presume the person would be. At least from the voice he could tell that the person was a girl.

“Are you all right?” He asked, his hand running over the wall so he could grab onto it and hoist himself up. He then let his hands run down his body for a quick second but didn’t feel any pain or anything that could be blood, it seemed he was a-okay. “Lirea, Tiano? I didn’t squish you two, did I?” He called out; slightly worried that he might have hurt the two critters. The tunnelcats quickly ran in front of Exarin, chirping to confirm that they were okay. Lirea stared up at Blissy, her back arched and her fur was bristled as she let out a hissing noise – the white tunnelcat wasn’t quite sure if this person was an enemy or not.

Exarin frowned and clucked his tongue, “Lirea, stop. It was an accident, I’m okay.” It took a few seconds but eventually she calmed down, however she still stood in front of Exarin as if Blissy would have to fight her off to come near.

[Minajerie]

Blissy, too, had landed nicely on her rump from the collision. But lucky for her she had a fair amount of padding there, or so the lads told her. She watched as the man she had knocked over stood with help from the nearby wall. She was still seated when the white tunnelcat hissed her fury at her.

"Forgiveness! Lirea, Was it? I meant no offense. I wasn't paying enough attention, almost stepped on one of you! That could have done much more damage than simply knocking over your master, here. And I am sorry about that by the way."

She raised her eyes to meet his to find that this male's eyes stared straight ahead. Yes, they were staring in her direction, but they weren't looking at her. Was there something behind her? She looked but saw nothing. Shrugging to herself, she raised her hand to the wall, pushing herself up using her support. Once on her feet though, her ankle gave a quick twinge. Did she twist it?- she wondered. After giving it a light shake and adding her weight to it again, the twinge dwindled. It must not be too bad then. She'd be fine.

"I hope I didn't hurt you... oooo- your tall." Blissy was quite used to looking up to people, but she never was too happy about it.

[Akki]

“They normally know to avoid people’s feet.” Exarin said with a slightly sheepish grin. He could only guess that the girl had been running (It would explain the force of the collision) and that was why Tiano, he assumed it was him anyways since he was always all over the place, got in her way.

He rubbed the back of his neck and smiled, “Sorry, I’ll try to be shorter next time.” He guessed from her statement that she was on the shorter side then. It was when he first met people that he vaguely wished he still had his sight – he always wanted to know what people looked like. If Exarin put his hands on their face then he could feel what they looked like but it wasn’t something he exactly did first time meeting them; that would probably be a little violating.

Exarin stuck his hand out, a little too much to the left. Tiano grabbed his pant leg in his mouth and yanked it to the right slightly. “Thanks T.” Exarin mumbled, shifting his hand a little bit over so it was in front of Blissy. “I’m Exarin, I just arrived today. The white tunnelcat is Lirea and the other is Tiano.”

[Minajerie]

She smiled and a note of amusement could be heard in her voice. "But how are feet to know to avoid them?"

"Oh yes, by all means, please be shorter next time. What are you, a hand taller, mayhap? I'd happily take the difference. Mayhap make my curves not so pronounced." She said this in the fashion of 'oh the sky is blue and the grass is green'. Such was the way of things.

Blissy blinked when the tunnelcat corrected his tad off the mark hand reaching. Had they been closer, things may have panned out in a bit more.... embarrassing way. But luckily she was just out of reach of those long arms- so no first meeting nono's happened.

Blissy grasped his hand and gave it a good firm shake. "I'm Blissy, Weyrling to Green Jespeth. And my, don't you bring to life all my mothering instincts! Boy you are far too skinny. I think I'll have to endeavor to fatten you up. Especially if your staying. You are staying aren't you? And hello Lirea, Tiano. Jespeth would be ecstatic to meet you if she were here, but she's not... and to be honest I'm not sure if that is lucky or not..." She stopped took a breath then held up a hand to her mouth. "Oh! Am I blathering?"

[Akki]

Exarin let out a laugh, grinning at Blissy. “I suppose you’re right. Everyone back at home was so used to having to dodge tunnelcats that I forget that it’s not exactly normal.” He had been raised with a large amount of tunnelcats always trotting at his heels; it was just what he was used too.

He was getting a rather good visual of Blissy now, guessing her to be around mid-height and she made it quite clear that she had a curvy hourglass shape to her body. He also had to guess that the girl was probably quite feminine, especially from the ‘Mothering instincts’ she had mentioned.

Thankfully, Exarin was blissfully unaware of the awkward social situation he had just managed to avoid. He let his fingers wrap around her hand and shook it before letting go, grinning. “You’re a Weyrling? Well, that must be something else.” Truth be told, Exarin had never seen a dragon. At least, not up close. He had seen them way up in the sky when they were just little blobs but other than that he simply had no idea what they looked like. Lokan Hold was a tiny little thing, there was no need for firelizards to deliver messages and quite honestly they had enough beasts around to take care of that no one really thought of getting a flitt. Someone did actually find a firelizard clutch but by then Exarin had lost his sight; the critters were still unknown to him.

“It’d be appreciated if you could fatten me up, my mom would love you for ever.” He laughed once more. His parents were always on his case about his weight. “We’re hoping to stay.” He grinned while Lirea and Tiano made a little warbling noise when Blissy said their names. Exarin used his hand to wave away the girls worries, “It’s nice to hear another person. While I love my tunnelcats, it’s practically like talking to myself.”[/center]

[Minajerie]

Blissy chuckled lightly. "Well, I'm certainly not used to that, though at my hold I took care of the children. They can be quite rambunctious and get underfoot... but I think they are much easier to predict and avoid than a flexible and free feline. Which these two are fine specimens of. Very pretty."

She nodded. "It is, I love Jespeth with every fiber of my being, and am soooooo proud to be a weyrling of my brothers first ever clutch!!" Near the end there, a slightly hysteric tone seeped into her words. Blissy took a deep breath to calm herself down. She didn't want to scare the poor man away! That would be no good, no good at all.

She smiled again, throwing out a hip in a very feminine posture. "You bet I will. Feeding people is just one of those instincts. I apologize in advance if I ever force feed you something you don't like." She gave a joking laugh at that.... though she had been known to shove a few meatrolls down a few peoples craws... they needed to eat. At least, so far she hadn't gotten any negative repercussions.

Blissy clapped her hands together at the admission. He wanted to stay, goody! More people for the weyr was always good. "Great! And double great! You can come talk to me anytime! I'm sure they would talk to you too if they could." She practically beamed. She would have given the man a hug too, if the white tunnelcat wasn't still looking at her like an unwanted tunnelsnake.

[Akki]

Blissy sounded like she was younger, Exarin was guessing her to be under twenty turns but could he have made a mistake? She kept talking about children and he didn’t know all that many younger girls who were willing to watch little kids. “Do you like watching kids?” He asked with genuine curiosity. Maybe it was a duty of hers and that was why she did it. Exarin couldn’t imagine watching a bunch of little kids, even with his sight. He had a tough time with Tiano and Lirea! He grinned at the girl, “Very pretty? You just won over Lirea.”

And it was true; the white tunnelcat seemed to relax suddenly, curling up on Exarin’s toes as she stared up at Blissy. While Lirea tried to act like the tough one, she was still a girl and she liked being complimented. Tiano, on the other hand, was completely unaware of the compliment – he had rolled onto his back and was simply staring at nothing in particular.

Exarin stifled a laugh – Blissy clearly loved her brother and was quite proud of him. Then he noticed something. He knew that the clutch that had happened was pretty recent and if it was her brother’s clutch then that must have meant… “Is your brother the Weyrleader?”. While Blissy seemed to be the nuturing mother type, what was her brother like? Exarin could only hope that he had the similar happy attitude – he didn’t exactly want to meet a Weyrleader who was extremely snippy and bitter.

“I’ll definitely come talk to you. I have the feeling that every now and then I might need a guide to show me where something is, if you don’t mind.”

[Minajerie]

Blissy chuckled. "I suppose you could say that. I've been watching children since I was one, and always... they always seem to flock to me, seek me out. I don't know why, but I'm like a child magnet. It's even happened here, where I know no person, except for my brother, and he didn't even know I was here until the hatching. I liked surprising him." She shrugged and squatted to get nearer the tunnelcats, the white one in particular she really wanted to pet. "But nothing is quite like child watching, never a dull moment, always surrounded by bundles of energy so pure and innocent like. Not that they actually are, they simply appear that way." She let out another laugh, and reached out her hand to Lirea, but didn't touch the tunnelcat, leaving the choice up to her if she wanted the attention Blissy was willing to give her.

"Weyrleader R'khol of Bronze Kegrith. My older brother by a few turns, yes. I'm so proud to be part of his family, to have one of his dragon's first children as my bonded. Did you know that twin queen's hatched? I think R'khol almost had kittens. It was adorable! They were adorable! This one rather hyper and slightly odd girl impressed the gold, while the um... I guess sombre girl? She impressed the silver. I'm told the new Junior Weyrwoman isn't normally as quiet and serious as she was during lessons, but that is the only part I saw of her, so it's hard to make assumptions."

Blissy looked up from her crouching spot and beamed. "Really? My! I find it rather humorous that I seem to be making more male friends than female, but still! Another friend. I shall happily be your guide to where ever it is you would like me to take you... that is, as long as I know where it is. I've become fairly familiar with the weyr as a whole, but there are still places that I find it hard to, well, find." She cocked her head to she side and let out some silly laughter.

[Akki]

Exarin tried to imagine what it would be like to watch a group of children but honestly just couldn’t picture it. He never really got the opportunity to do anything like that – losing his sight before he could reach an appropriate age to watch over little ones. He frowned slightly, maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. The man was pretty sure he probably wouldn’t enjoy it all that much. His frown disappeared as he laughed, “I’m sure there is nothing like child watching.” He knew of the shenanigans that kids often got themselves into.

Lirea took a small step forward, daintily sniffing Blissy’s fingers. However, she didn’t get a chance to decide whether or not she wanted to be pet because in a flash Tiano was rubbing himself against Blissy’s hand. The boy was a sucker for attention and especially loved have under his chin rubbed. His tail got bigger and bigger, looking all puffy – a clear sign of excitement at the mere concept of being pet. Lirea turned away from the fingers at that point, letting Tiano receive the attention.

“I heard about the twin queen’s and the fair number of odd colors. It’s hard to keep things like that a secret.” Exarin grinned, his eyes reflecting his smile for a moment. “I’m sure your brother was quite excited to see you Impress to one of his dragon’s children.” Surely it was nice enough to have family nearby but to have your sibling become a dragonrider like you? That must bring the relationship quite a bit closer. Or at least, that was what Exarin thought. He didn’t know too much about dragonriders to be honest, just the basics. When he was growing up he was caught up in his own little tunnelcat world with his family.

“This works out well, I seem to make more female friends than guy friends.” He was pretty sure that most girls befriended him because they fell for his ‘helplessness’. “And if we get lost, we can at least get lost together!” The man declared loudly. Who knew, maybe Blissy would even help him find a new walking stick.