Feast and festivities

[Akki]

Hasima groaned loudly, well loudly for her anyways and looked down at Rimith. The yellow was the smallest dragonet in the clutch, but when she grew she'd want to be bathed and fed as much as any other dragon. Hasima hoped that Rimith didn't grow up too quickly then, she wasn't exactly looking forward to bathing something larger than her."Maybe we can teach them to oil themselves." Hasima said with a weak grin.

"I don't think any dragon rider would trade their title for another." Akki agreed with a grin. "I'm sure one day you'll seeing with the Weyr Harper. I don't think we have any Sr. Apprentice Harper's around other than you, so it most certainly would be a pleasure to see you seeing one day." Akki said honestly. "And Ebbeth sends his regards back.".

Hasima listened to Rhia and, alarmed, looked at Rimith who assured her that she was feeling fine. Breathing a sigh of relief, Hasima said "Thank you for telling us that. I'll remember it.". She was glad that Rhia had told them this before she had the chance to feed Rimith anything other than the meat. Hasima silently asked if the yellow wanted anything else to eat, but the small dragonet replied with a polite decline.

"Oh Rhia, when aren't flitts hungry? I was worried Sargon would cause a wreck, trying to get at the food that I didn't bring him along with me. I think the feast will be hectic enough without his help." Akki said with a snort of cynical amusement.

[Tenma]

Hali sat in her chair smiling and laughing with the rest of the new weyrlings. She didn't really say anything, she much preferred to listen but she was still having a really good time. Meanwhile, Orylith stood beside her mine. Her head turned this way and that as if she was a watch-weyr protecting her mine, her brand new match. Both listened respectfully to the Weyrwoman's words. Both were equally excited and extremely happy. Especially Hali, who never expected a day like this could come.
Five men walked into the room. Orylith alerted her mine, who turned to look to see who had arrived so late. The moment her eyes landed upon these five men, her face drained of all color. These men were her 'family' one of them actually being her biological father. She had never thought they would come, and the fact they did shocked and scared her. Hali stood up as an automatic reflex as the men walked toward her.
Orylith immediately noticed the fear coming from her mine. The confused dragonet turned to the five men, since it was obvious for her to tell it was these men her mine was afraid from. The mental bond they shared let details about these men slip into the miniature green dragonet's own mind.
Ignoring the others in the room, the men walked toward the table where the Weyrlings sat. "K'lor, seems you have impressed at this weyr." One man looked her in the eyes, causing Hali to look down.
Unable to withstand her mine's fear any longer, Orylith stepped up. She stood in between the man and Hali. She growled angrily, trying to make the man leave.
He looked down as a small dragon stood in front of him and started to growl at him. The man chuckled. "What is that?" He questioned Hali.
"That is the d-dragon I i-impressed." Hali said in a deep voice, stuttering slightly in fear.
"That?" The man laughed again. "Are you joking?" He waited for Hali to reply but when she didn't he knew she was serious. "What kind of werry-head impresses that runt?" He snapped angrily.
"Trev..." another man warned, this one was Hali's father. He knew that Trev, the leader, was angry.

*************************************

J'kel was watching Jorath sleep. He had been looking for his friends, but had gotten sidetracked when Jorath fell asleep in two minutes. He was watching the hatchling, randomly poking him to see if he would move or not. He heard someone stutter and looked up, thinking it was his yellow-rider friend. But the voice was too deep. He realized it was K'lor and he was talking to a man. The man looked angry but K'lor looked terrified. What was going on? He noticed that Orylith was growling at the man. Did he miss something important?
((Yes, he missed to whole encounter. He was zoned out.))

***********************

Miya was watching everyone, not really saying or doing anything. She noticed everyone talking, but wasn't in the mood. Reinath had finally stopped badgering her about talking to people and she was taking advantage of the queen's silence. Her eyes turned to the doorway where five men made a late arrival. She continued looking around the room until she heard a growl, drawing her attention back to the five men. She watched the scene unfold. She stood up angrily as one of the men made a comment about the green being a runt and having to be a werry-head to impress it. The Jr. Weyrwoman was slowly learning about the dragons' equality disregarding colors, even if she still had a few kinks to work out.

***********************

Nira watched in horror as these men yelled at a weyrling. They obviously knew him, but who were they. She gasped in horror at what he said about the green being small.

[Akki]

Akki was having a genuinely good time at the feast. She was meeting new people, new dragons and happily chatting away with them. It was a pretty darn good feast if you asked her. That was, however, until some men came up to K'lor and mocked him and his dragon. Akki angrily turned away from the meat roll she was about to pick up, fixed her dress and walked until she was beside K'lor. Her eyes narrowed coldly as she stared at the man who had insulted her friend and his dragon. Akki rarely got mad, everyone knew that, she was a pretty happy going person. It took a bit to get her mad. She was mad now, and it was obvious.

Her eyes returned to their normal state, and she said with a sweet voice that was underlined with a threat, "Excuse me sir. Family of the new weyrlings are indeed allowed into the feast. However, I think you have stayed long enough. I'm afraid if you don't part now, and leave K'lor and his fine dragon alone, I may feel obliged to escort you out. And I'm sure my own dragon will be only too happy to help me.". She had a smile on her face, but it was pretty obvious it was a fake one and her eyes were hooded as she spoke.

Only to happy indeed. Ebbeth agreed, his voice taking a rather cold tone as he let the men, K'lor and his green dragonet to hear. Akki straightened up a bit, getting a bit taller as she spoke once more, "By the way. If I ever hear you disturb K'lor and that green, actually make that any dragon, I will cheerfully leave my mark on your body. Don't take me wrong sir, this is no threat. Merely my way of telling you to respect all dragon riders and their dragons, just in a more blunt way. Also, I would not call this boy a wherry-head for impressing this so-called runt. Want to know why? Because unlike you, he has a future ahead of him and will make a nice name for himself. Now, if you want to quarrel with me about what I said, I suggest we take this outside so we will not disturb this wondrous feast".

Finishing her small rant, she gestured to the door, signalling that the five men should leave. She looked at K'lor, not sure if the boy wanted these men to leave even after that dispute about his dragon and mumbled a, "Sorry K'lor. But it may be best for the feast if they leave now and not cause any more disturbances.".

[Spirithawk]

Rhia started to comment about the flitts but she caught the comment about Orylith on the edges of her hearing. She too became furious, knowing that it had taken K'lor a while to open up a bit. She knew the reason why now.

The WLM went to stand behind her pupil and placed a supportive hand on the lad's shoulder. "Don't worry lad, if he causes trouble he will be out of here faster than a flitt can pop /between/." The brownrider whispered so that only the lad could hear.

Mneith, trouble. The brown looked through his rider's eyes and she felt him glide down from his ledge to land in the Weyr bowl, ready to come to his rider's aid. Rhia looked around for the WW and caught her eye.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Christae caught Rhia's signal and excused herself from Anassa's parents. The Harper apprentice's parents had come to speak with her while their daughter interacted with her new classmates.

She walked up, her gown flaring out behind her as she walked. "Is there anything wrong?" She asked, taking in a bristling Akki, Rhia standing with her hand on K'lor's shoulder and a rather angry looking, growling Orylith. It was plain to the WW that the newcomers were the cause of the uproar. She also heard a good bit of Akki's rant. "Akki, please step back and allow me to deal with this." Her voice held quiet authority. She would not chastise her rider openly but her tone implied that she would not be argued with either.

"I am Christae of Sr. Queen Kaith, Weyrwoman of Dark Moon. My Queen is clutch-mother to this fine set of dragonets. I take it you are K'lor's family? Then you should be proud of him. He has Impressed a very fine green dragon and I am certain they will make an excellent fighting pair."

[Tenma]

Hali's head turned slightly to the side when Akki walked up beside her. She grew worried at Akki and Ebbeth's actions. She knew that Trev wouldn't listen to Akki. Yet, she did have to fight a smile when Ebbeth offered to fight. And then Rhia walked over. The brown-rider also fought for her. Even the weyrwoman came to stand up for a weyrling like her. She would have smiled, but didn't want to anger Trev more. She was so glad they were helping her.

Trev smirked as he stared Akki into the eye. Then Rhia walked over before he could say anything, so he replied to both of them at the same time. Really? Your dragon is going to hurt me? It seems that that is all you can threaten with huh. A girl like you couldn't do anything on her own."

J'kel stood up and joined the others. Her wrapped an arm around K'lor's shoulder and the other around Akki's. "Being a girl has nothing to do with it. We are dragonriders and I can tell you these girls can sure pack a punch." He said with a smile, quickly flashing K'lor an even bigger smile. Meanwhile, Jorath stayed asleep.

"Trev..." The same man from before warned, the others were beginning to see how dangerous this was becoming. Even if those before them were women, the dragons certainly weren't weak.

Another man stepped forward as the Weyrwoman spoke. Trev shot him a warning glare, but the man glared back. They did not come down here to get into a fight. They all knew what could be here but Trev still didn't control his temper. The man bowed slightly. "I am Jiro, Kalor, well K'lor now right, well I am his father. This is Trev," he pointed to the leader, "Perie," the man that kept handing out the warnings, "Pillam, and Rokar," he pointed to the two men that had said nothing so far. (I may end up using these names later in case I need one for a character.) "I apologize for Trev's actions." He glared at Trev, who glared threateningly back. They stared at each other for a moment, obviously arguing silently.

[Akki]

As Rhia joined the little gathering that was happning around the weyrling, Akki cast a wink towards K'lor. One that was probably only fast enough for the boy to catch. And as Christae came forward, Akki couldn't hold back a faint blush that appeared on her face for a moment. She was pretty sure the Weyrwoman had heard her lovely speech, and the blue rider was expecting a talking to afterwards.

"I'd only hit you because you'd have done something to deserve it J'kel, you know that." Akki said with a grin, making it obviou she was just joking around. With that said, she flicked the top of his ear with her index finger and winked at the new blue rider.

She bowed her head as a greeting to the WW for a moment before stepping back as requested. But when Trev spoke his mind, she couldn't help but let out a small giggle. Ebbeth and Akki were basically one, so it really would count as doing something on her own. But even without Ebbeth's help, she was slightly sure she could make a fist come in contact with his nose. However, she kept that part to herself, after all, the WeyrWoman was there. She looked upwars, trying to hide the fact there was a tear of amusement in her eye.

Despite the fact Akki wanted to cheerfully hurt Trev for being a bother to K'lor, she couldn't help but reply back to Jiro as he introduced each person. He didn't do anything, so Akki wouldn't hold anything against him. "I'm Akki." She chirped to Jiro with a small, lopsided grin before falling into silence again.

[Tenma]

((I added Jakel into the middle of my last post.))

[Tenma]

Hali turned her head slightly, she saw Akki cast a wink toward her and held back a smile. A small blush crawled on to her cheeks but it could barely be seen. Hali was definitely not used to all of this attention. Normally, she would lurk in the background and listen to orders. She was used to being overlooked, maybe two people see her, but this was different. She just realized that she was now the center of attention, and even the Weyrwoman had come to help her.


J'kel smiled sheepishly and put his hand over his ear. "Aw, Akki, that isn't nice." He joked, momentarily forgetting the situation, but he quickly remembered and turned back to the five men that had recently walked in. "I am J'kel." He smiled welcoming.


Trev glared at the three women, and two young men that stood before him. He listened to them talk, but when that girl laughed at his threats he had enough. Angrily, he clenched his fist and launched it into the blue-riders stomach. The other didn't have nearly enough time to do anything, and even Jiro could only watch as disaster struck.

[Akki]

Akki watched as a small blush reached the boys face, but made no comment. She was pretty sure if she made a comment, it would probably jsut embarass him further. This could be the first time Akki was really that observant. "I'm not a nice person J'kel." She said with a grin at the boy.

She turned her head to look at Trev, and that's when it came to her. She just saw it, in his eyes, that he was about to do something. And she already acknowledged the fact there wasn't enough time to stop him. She just kind of watched as his fist flew from his body and made contact with her stomach. It wasn't exactly painful, the punch. It was more of the shock of what just happened that probably hurt more.

Akki didn't really double over, well she did but only very slightly as her hand fluttered lightly to her stomach. In her head she could hear Ebbeth roar angrily, and she was pretty sure the others could hear too. Now here came the funny part, she was sure everyone expected her to hit him back, after all, even she expected her too.

But instead, she looked at Trev and shook her head slowly, almost sadly. "It's sad. You proved myself right, about the whole 'K'lor will make a nice name for himself, unlike a certain someone' thing. How proud do you feel now, what name do you think you made for yourself?" She said, with the smallest hint of a smile, one that almost pitied him. In her mind, she was still expecting her to hit back. She shook her head once more and turned, and walked towards the table of food. Akki was pretty much thinking that if she had to see him for another moment, she might 'accidently' hurt someone.

[Tenma]

Trev glared angrily at the girl. "Why you..." He launched himself forward again, but this time the others had enough warning. Pillam and Rokar grabbed onto his arms and held him back. "You disrespectful, low-life female!" He growled angrily at her. Trev ripped out of the two mens arms and once again launched his fist at the blue-rider, this time not holding back.

((Short, I know. Okay, just want to say that I know everyone else is a dragonrider, but these guys are also skilled fighters.))

[Akki]

"Sir, I have walked away, clearly indicating that I want no part of this any longer." Akki said, turning her head as he hissed those comments to her. "I may argue with you, saying that I was not near as disrespectful as you, but I will not. The Weyr has enough troubles as it is and I rather not take part of making more issues." Akki said with sincere honesty as she turned her head back and was about to keep walking.

She heard the shuffle behind her, and somehow managed to hear the clothing rustle as the man launched himself at her. She spinned on her foot, but still the fist skimmed her side. It would probably leave a bruise there tomorrow, a big one. She put her arms up in front of her face. She wanted to hit back, wanted to feel her fist make contact with the mans face but she couldn't bring herself to it. It would give all riders a bad name. Well, one worse than the one she already gave them.

Enough! Ebbeth roared mentally for Akki and the group of men to hear. If you dare touch my rider again, I will happily and easily make you regret it. I may be too big to go to where you are, but I swear as soon as you leave the hatching I will rip you apart with my own jaws. Do not dare touch her again! Akki's eyes widened, her eyebrows raised. It was the first time she had ever heard Ebbeth mad, and you could tell this was no idle threat he was giving. You have ruined this feast, I don't think anyone would mind that I do carry out my threat. I do not care of the consequences, lay one more hand on her and you will pay. The blue dragon growled fiercely.

[Tenma]

The two men once again latched on to Trev's arms before he could attack again. They held on even tighter when Akki's angry voice echoed through their head. Trev struggled but all of the men knew how much danger their leader was putting them in. Jiro turned angrily. "What in Faranth's name are you doing?" He growled at the other man. "You are going to get us all killed and you are ruining the celebration. We agreed before we came here to act accordingly and you...are...not." Jiro said the last three words strongly.

Trev did not look deterred by Jiro's words. "I don't care. That girl has no right to interfere on our family matter and that girl is acting as if we are measly tunnel-snakes." Trev spat out the word girl each time.

By this point, Orylith had had enough. What is with you? What is wrong with being a girl? The weyrwoman is female and the weyrlingmaster is female and they are both stronger and better than you could ever be! The little green shouted at them.

[Akki]

"Shards Ebbeth, calm down a bit. You're going to burst something if you don't." Akki muttered under her breath. But the blue dragon growled for a moment longer before slowly subsiding, but his presence could still be mentally felt. He was letting the man know that his threat still stood if anything happened to his rider. I was making it known that I'm very protective of you. And making it known that I hold a grudge. Ebbeth said, his voice still underlined with anger.

The normal brightness in Akki's eyes seemed to dim a bit more when Trev spat out his comment. "I know I have given riders bad name by becoming one, I'm irresponsible and such but I have to say that I didn't interefere. I consider K'lor family, I consider everyone, especially the dragons, at Dark Moon family. That's what this place is, a big old family so when I hear you say those things to him and his beautifull dragon, I do what comes naturally. Stand up for my family. And this girl has a name if you don't mind, and it's Akki. And I'm not treating you like tunnel-snakes. No offense meant, but I'm not the one who was throwing the punches. I have a good opinion about everyone at first, and it only goes away if they do something to make it dissapear." The blue rider said with sincere honesty.

"And please don't say girl as if it is a terrible thing. I like being a girl. I enjoy being a female blue rider.".

[Spirithawk]

((dang it guys next time let me reply...this is a rather big event and both the WW and the WLM ARE in there))

Christae's face became livid when the man attacked her bluerider. "Riders of Dark Moon to me!" She shouted. Rhia stayed at the side of her pupil but the rest of the riders gathered behind her. By the time she was able to do anything the man had already

"How dare you assult a Rider!" Her head was held high and her face was crimson with fury. "If you think that you can deal with K'lor any way you wish then you have another thing coming. From the moment of Impresion, K'lor was no longer under your jurisdiction. He is now a Dragonrider and since he Impressed in My Weyr then he is MY responsibility and MY rider. Which means that you have no right to treat him or any of MY riders in such a manner. His green is a perfectly well-formed, beautiful dragon and my female riders can hold their own with the male riders. In fact, most of them can out-do the males."

"Akki let me deal with this if you please. Trev you will be required to offer a formal apology to my Weyr and to my bluerider. You will also offer an apology to Rider K'lor and Green Orylith. You will also offer an apology to the weyr for interrupting our celebration. Then I will require that you leave this weyr and do not come back until you can learn how to be respectful to all riders."

"The rest of you can stay as long as you do not cause any disruption in my weyr. I will not stand for such ignorant idiocy."

[Torva Anian]

(( Just wanted to note my charries are still around. Just not interfereing with all the family-ness. ))

[Tenma]

J'kel turned to Akki. "You are not a bad dragon rider. You do not give them a bad name. You are, like, the first full dragon-rider I met and one of the best." He smiled widely, his arm once again looped around her shoulders.


"I refuse!" Trev shouted angrily at the woman, still being held back by two of his own. "You are still one of us, K'lor." He snarled at Hali and whirled around, forcing the two to release their grip and walked away. The others obediently followed after him, except for Jiro who stayed behind. "I am so sorry about his behavior, but getting him to apologize will be impossible. I feel that I must apologize for his rudeness and this interruption. I did not realize this would happen." He bowed low before turning to K'lor. "Congratulations my son." Jiro kissed Hali's head and, after bowing one more time, followed the other four.

((Trying to rap this up before we have a repeat of what happened another time when there was a full out fight, burning stables, and injured dragon-riders.
Also, they are only heading toward the exit, so if anyone want to reply they can, they haven't left yet.))

[Akki]

It was then Akki had realized that she had never seen Christae fully mad before this, and part of her wished she never would have to see it again. It was a rather scary site. It sure made Akki glad that the woman was on Dark Moon's side, the blue rider was pretty sure she wouldn't want that any other way. She listened to Christae's words carefully, and the WeyrWoman made excellent points, all of them true.

Akki wanted to let Christae deal with this, she really did but when Trev started off in a flurry she couldn't help but blurt out to him. "I'm sorry. Honestly. I didn't mean to make you feel like tunnel-snakes like you said, I really didn't." She said rather quietly but loud enough for him to hear. She never felt hated before, she was fortunate enough to not have anyone really hate her. Until now, and she didn't like the feeling. She looked over at K'lor and whispered to him, "Sorry K'lor, I think I made things worse.".

You blame yourself, don't you? You think you ruined the feast. Ebbeth said to his rider as he silently debated whether or not to scare the man if he came anywhere near the blue with a growl or snap of his jaws. Ebbeth, you shouldn't read people's minds like that. Akki said with a bit of a frown because the blue was right. Ebbeth said nothing, only waited. I think if I could, I'd resign being a dragon rider. I'm not a very good one, I get distracted too easily and speak my mind when I shouldn't The blue rider admitted, only to recieve no response from her blue. For the dragon had a feeling he wouldn't be able to convince the girl otherwise, at least not tonight.

She grinned weakly at J'kel and said, "You're obliged to say that J'kel since we're friends.". It was the first time Akki had really felt dissapointed in herself, it felt like she was drowning in anger at herself.

[Tenma]

((I added a bit to my post again. I keep forgetting J'kel.))

[Kandarra]

((Sorry about the late reply, guys, I've been swamped.))

T'rin, who had been watching the entire altercation, forgot about Kia and swelled with anger with each insult that was hurled. He nearly jumped forward when the man attacked Akki. However, he checked himself and stood firmly in his place, keeping an eye on everything. Females inferior indeed! He'd never seen people with stronger spirits than women. Amparath, too, stood at the ready, waiting at the entrance with Ebbeth in case things got out of hand.

----

V'koran's eyes widened as the scene played out in front of him. He made sure that Verith stayed far back from the confrontation-- he didn't want either of them to be hurt. This was not a time for them to be involved. He fiddled with his tunic, nervous at the outcome. Verith was agitated as well.

They insulted my clutch-sister! he said angrily, but stayed where he was.

I know. We need to stay back so the big dragonriders can take care of this.

----

L'von shrank from the confrontation and went as far away from it as he could, practically huddled in a corner with Zalith. This reminded him too much of the men back at the hold..

What's wrong? Zalith asked, sensing her rider's worry.

I don't like it when people shout, L'von said, only partially telling the truth. The truth was that his brothers had acted much like this during a confrontation at the hold, and that had been the reason he left. I'll be okay.

[Spirithawk]

Christae lost her temper when the man refused to offer her guests and people an apology. She reached out to slap the man but her hand clenched into a fist as she swung at the man with all her strength. The man's head snapped backwards. She stepped back as the man's friends dragged him away from the quickly forming melee.

"You are a disgrace and do not deserve such a fine lad as K'lor. You are hereby banned from the weyr." Christae turned to Jio. "Like I said, you and the rest are allowed to return but Trev must leave immediately." The WW was still furious.

She turned to K'lor. "Think nothing of such ignorance my dear. Orylith is a perfectly beautiful dragon and there is absolutely nothing wrong with you riding her. We need all the greens we can get. Greens and blues are agile and they are able to twist and turn to get the things that the bronzes and browns can not. You no longer have to worry about that smokeless weyrlng, son of a Bitran." A few of the riders started. They had never heard their WW use such language.