Smile (open)

[siobhan]

(This is set before the ordeal in the Dining Caverns in case major life- and psyche-altering things happen there!)

When you wake up in the evening and the day is shot
Find yourself complaining about the things you ain't got
Never goes just the way you want it to
Clichè of the day, c'est la vie, that's just life
It ain't easy, it's so tough, it's so easy

T'nan sat in the commons room of the Weyrling Barracks, pretending to mend his leather jacket. In reality, though, he was watching his lifemate, Zephyrth, who was enchanting in her own way. He had always been what others would call cautious, maybe even uptight. He was always afraid to step in the wrong place so-to-speak, not so much afraid of what kind of trouble he would get in or any injuries he might sustain. No, he worried about who he would disappoint and who would disapprove. He knew as well as anyone that sometimes it was who you befriended that got you places in the world. In any case, appearances were all-too-important, no matter how deceiving they could be.

Zephyrth had no such qualms. She, at the ripe old age of one month, already had mastered the art of living freely and without worry. She laughed (as best a dragon could do) and loved thoroughly. She was very curious about everything in the world, wanting T'nan to explain every little thing so that she could marvel at it like it was the best thing she'd ever heard of. Hers was a world of wonder, free from worry. She cared very deeply for T'nan, though, and that was the one thing she did not forget or take lightly. She was even a tad possessive over him at times and seemed to have taken his firelizard under the same kind of care. She was perhaps not the brightest dragon and her memory was shoddy, but she jumped into lessons with an unmatched enthusiasm.

Put a smile on your face
Make the world a better place
Put a smile on your face

Currently, Zephyrth was stretched out on the middle of the floor of the commons room, lolling about on her side. Hovering in the air above her was Kenna, a dark pink-red shape darting around the room. The firelizard would dive down to "attack" the green and she would raise her head to playful snap at the air or bat the wing that wasn't pinned beneath her. She would roll over onto her back and wave her legs in the air like a young canine, the very picture of innocence. T'nan wished he could be like that, carefree. But that was not the world that they lived in. He worried every day about the two basilisks that lived at the weyr. He tried to keep that worry from his green, but every now and then she caught it and asked him what was wrong. He changed the subject, distracting her and diverting her attention away.

[klinneah]

When Swifth had eaten her fill (which was more than Viril had expected) she was quite full and very sleepy. The green blinked slowly every few seconds and could barely stand. "Oooh, my Viril, your Swifth is sleepy. I want to sleep. Where can I sleep?" Viril looked affectionately at hers and said, "We can go to the Barracks. You can sleep there."

"Oooh, is it very far? You might have to carry me, I don't think I can walk all the way. So very full..." Viril laughed.

"I doubt I could carry you for any length of time. Come on, it isn't very far," she teased, mentally nudging Hers. Swifth snorted.

Swifth had come into her life not too long ago and completely changed it. A thinking, feeling being who cared about her, cared more than anyone else ever could, who didn't require anything more than the most basic of care (not that Viril would fail to give Hers anything less than the most tender and loving of care)? It was almost too good to be true, and yet, here she was, walking to the Weyrling Barracks with just such a being.

As they entered the Barracks, they saw T'nan and Zephyrth lounging about. She smiled, suddenly shy, then sprawled in one of the hardbacked chairs and watched Swifth stretch out on the floor, blinking a sleepy eye at the other Green before finally snoring.

((Edited for time frame durrhurr))

[Dragon Song]

((This is set a month after the hatching Klinneah ))

Finally. She'd managed to get everything done for now, thus had successfully freed up some time. And she was going to use it for something she'd been meaning to do for aaages: go and meet the new weyrlings. Well, not Kiara. She'd met that girl as a candidate, and she'd not been pleasant. However, there were plenty of the others she hadn't met.

Having plaited her hair up to keep it out of the way whilst she was bathing Sorbeth earlier, Mia now picked it free to let it hang down. She didn't know why she preferred it loose, she just did. And now that she didn't need it tied up she could let it blow about of its own accord. It didn't quite hang at it's usual level due to the fact that it had kinked from being plaited, damped during the washing, and then dried like that. Still, didn't bother her.

Sorbeth raised her head from her bed, yawning widely before blinking as Mia tried to slip past her without disturbing her. Where are you going? To see the new weyrlings! Where else? I've done everything I was meant to do, so it's only free time I'm using. The green blinked slowly once again, observing her rider. Then, with somewhat of a sigh she lowered her head back down onto her mismatched forepaws and closed her eyes once again. Fine. Just don't cause any trouble? Mia grinned. When do I cause trouble? When you have that noisy thing of yours about you. Well that's not me causing trouble, that's Inca who does that! And I don't know where she is, so it'll be fine! Sorbeth said no more, so Mia took it as a 'Go ahead then' type of thing. Silly Sorbeth, how could she cause trouble just by going to say hi to the new weyrlings?!

So, leaving her own dragon be the senior weyrling headed to their section of the barracks, pushing aside the curtain to be happily surprised. Not one of the new weyrlings, but two! She'd lucked out, she could meet them both at once!
"Hey," she called brightly, flopping into one of the vacant chairs after having avoided both of the greens on the floor. Not luminous, she noted.
"You're some of the new weyrlings right? From the last hatching? I'm Mia, glad to meet you! These must be your dragon's yes?" she asked looking at the pair again. So adorable!

[Spiffy]

It was good, this. The first time that he'd been able to talk to his brother in a month, on equal terms. Or more or less equal, he only being a Weyrling but it was one step ahead of Jareth now, his becoming a dragonrider had levelled the playing field like that. If it weren't for the fact that his brother's dragon had chosen the same time to feed as his own dragonet, even that brief meeting would never have happened. He liked Adakhanyth, but the bronze could never compare to Astaath - his Astaath.

He looked fondly down at the little brown, still barely the size of his blue clutchsiblings, waddling along besides him on their way back to the barracks. Dragonets were funny things. Their life went in a cycle; feed, sleep, play, feed, sleep, play, on and on. He felt as if his feet hardly touched the ground, even though in reality he wouldn't be leaving said ground for a good many months yet. At least the dragonets only needed feeding a couple of times a day now, instead of every couple of candlmarks.

Speaking of sleep, Astaath was looking very close to said state, his gait faltering and weaving from side to side, sometimes bumping into his rider's legs. K'mir had to reach out and grab his dragonet's wing to stop him walking into the rough wall. Are you sure you can make it this time, Astaath? he asked the brown.

I can. This time... I will, the brown replied, though with little conviction, the pause somewhat akin to a mental yawn. K'mir sighed. He knew now, after a sevenday of asking, that Astaath wouldn't admit defeat, even if he had consistently fallen asleep in the corridors every feeding time since his hatching. In the early days that had been fine, the undersized brown was by far small enough for K'mir to carry. But he'd grown alarmingly since then. At least he managed to make it closer to the barracks each time so that he didn't have to carry him so far.

He looked back to Astaath. The dragonet's head was nearly dragging on the floor now. With a sigh, K'mir began to count silently, watching closely. 4, 5, 6, 7... there ya go, he thought, reaching down to catch his unconscious dragonet, grunting at the weight. He lifted the little brown onto his shoulders as gently as he could. Astaath was getting so large now that K'mir was struggling, though he suspected that the exercise was good practise for the weeks to come of lugging firestone sacks about the Weyr. Thankfully though, he was only around the corner from the barracks.

Opening the door with his elbow and pushing it further with his knee, K'mir stumbled into the barracks, kicking the door quietly shut on his way past to the nearest free chair. Simultaneously he dropped Astaath over the front of his shoulder as he flopped back into the chair, lowering the dragonet the last two feet onto the floor at the base of the chair. He sank back into the chair, closing his eyes for a second as he did so. "Hey everyone, how's it going?" he asked whoever was assembled without opening his eyes, not having looked much on his way in. He'd seen a couple of greens on the floor, so he assumed that there was someone else there.

Astaath, wakened briefly by the sudden movement but unhurt, peeled open an eye to regard the others in the room. Well hello ladies, he said to his rider, before speaking to the two greens directly, if sleepily. Greetings Zephyrth, Swifth. I hope that you and your riders are well? K'mir smiled, chuckling silently. Ah Astaath, always the flirt.

[siobhan]

T'nan heard a voice echoing faintly in the hallway, gradually growing louder as the bearer of the voice drew closer. It must have been a fellow weyrling, then, for who else would be coming into the weyrling barracks? He didn't consider the possibility of other riders coming to congratulate him or to check to see how he and Zephyrth were coming along. Caring for his green and the lessons were not that much different from when he had only been a beastcrafter, as many of these early lessons were focused on the proper care of dragons, ailments common to them, and in-depth studies of their anatomy. The young man soaked up the knowledge greedily and was an ideal student, never stepping a toe out of line. If anything, he could make a little more effort to get to know his peers, who would be his future wingmates, but that was such a small thing.

The person rounded the corner into the commons room, her very own green in tow. He recognized her, as she was a member of the his weyrling class, and vaguely remembered her green...Swifth was it? The green's belly was absolutely distended with a recent meal and she promptly lay down, stretching out to watch Zephyrth in a manner that could have been boredom, but was probably sleepiness considered her full belly. The other green, T'nan's green, stopped her playing, looking over at Swifth excitedly. Her feet, still up in the air, froze for a long moment before Zephyrth lunged towards her clutchsister, righting herself in the process. The action did not completely bring her over to Swifth, though, so she crawled along her belly, dragging her hindquarters beneath her. Kenna stopped zooming through the air when she realized her playmate was no longer there, so she chirped at the green before making a low-flying loop, nearly colliding with the next person entering, and then alighting on T'nan's shoulder, making a great show of affection. Zephyrth nipped lightly at Swifth's wingshoulder before turning her gaze on her face, greenish-gray tongue lollin gout of her mouth.

T'nan was about to open his mouth to chastize his two beauties when the new person, whom he'd not seen entering, greeted the two of them. He glanced over in surprise and nodded. Mia. She almost looked familiar, but not enough to keep him from staring at her thoughtfully with his mouth hanging slightly open. Then he realized, a moment later, how foolish he looked and shut his mouth with an audible click, a soft blush forming on his cheeks. "Um, I'm T'nan. And that green there is Zephyrth," he said, gesturing to the blissfully ignorant dragon whose legs were stretched out behind her like two dead weights.

Not a moment had passed before another someone was joining them, this time one of the brown weyrlings that he'd been sure to learn the names and faces of. And with him was his brown...sort of. The poor thing seemed to be so gorged he had fallen asleep along the way to the barracks and was now hoisted up on the boy's shoulders. "Good," he responded promptly, not eager to let another awkward silence commence. Zephyrth glanced over at the brown who called to her and Swifth, successfully distracting her from the lick she was about to place on the other green's cheek. Hello Astaath! T'nan and I are very...well. He is still a worrywart, but I am having so much FUN!

Edited because Cheyenne is a lazy dingleberry and didn't check things when she was unsure of whether she had them right or not.

[Dragon Song]

Mia giggled softly at the blush she spotted on T'nan's cheeks, and at Zephyrth's actions too - so cute! Sorbeth had never played about like that. She'd been too busy falling over her own feet, even when she was a couple of months old. And she'd never been the hugely playful sort anyway, nor a massively good sport if she did ever get involved in a game. Besides, the pale green had been playing with the firelizard, one of those oddly coloured ones Mia noticed, and her green had never liked Inca that much from the start.

She realised that she'd fazed out again slight as she recounted some of the memories that she had of Sorbeth being in this very room; when she was much smaller of course. She she grinned politely, and somewhat apologetically for having zoned out again. Sorbeth had once said she needed a badge to warn people. She probably did really, something like 'I zone out, just poke me.'
"It's great to meet you T'nan, and Zephyrth," she finally remembered to say. "Zephyrth's totally adorable. Is she a bit of a handful at times?"

Then of course, there was another weyrling arriving, with another seemingly very full dragon. Must be about baby feeding time then! Mind, she'd stuck lucky today! She was getting to meet 3 of the new weyrlings all at once! The guy who had just come in was having to carry his dragon over his shoulder, which was an impressive feat to Mia. Then again, she was quite easily impressed. She'd never be able to carry Sorbeth like that! I'd be surprised if you could when I'm much bigger than them, was a muttered comment from the green. It caused another giggle from Mia - who lets face it was a giggly person.

Kicking off her shoes she pulled her legs up so that she was sat cross legged on the chair, as she grinned at the latest person to enter the room. The dragonet was the unusual one she'd heard of, or so she assumed. The Brown was was not a brown as such. She could see why. He had the most unique markings for his colour, easily the most so in his clutch. Excluding the strange colour mutations of course. And then, even Mia could tell that he was tiny for a Brown. He wasn't that much bigger than his two sisters he was beside now.
"Hey," Mia greeted his rider back, eyes sparkling with her happiness of meeting these new people. The other green's rider seemed a little quiet, but maybe that was because her dragon was sleeping. That could be it. "How are you guys finding weyrlinghood then?" she asked to the room at large, not any person in particular. It was always interesting to hear someone else's account of something you yourself had gone through.

[Spiffy]

K'mir blearily opened an eye to regard T'nan as he gave his short reply. "Oh really? Well that sounds exciting," he half mumbled to no-one in particular, single eye still focussed on T'nan. He'd not seen much of the green weyrling during candidacy, but he seemed to be pretty quiet, which was probably why. Normally K'mir would have been a bit more friendly to his fellow weyrling, but he was really too tired to carry a conversation with someone who obviously didn't want to talk.

"Hey," he said instead, replying to Mia's greeting. At her question he snorted softly, closing his eyes again and sitting deeper into the chair. "Tiring," he said eventually. "Oily, wet, an bloody," he went on, lazily waving his slightly blood stained, oil-softened hand in the air in front of him, as if that would explain his point better. It then occurred to him that her voice was not familiar, not as one of their group of weyrlings anyway. He peeled his eyes open again and turned his head to get a better look at her. Hmm, maybe she was familiar.

"You're one of them other Weyrlings, aren't you? Last clutch's lot" he asked at last.

Really? Well that does look fun... Astaath replied, voice getting quieter and fainter until he eventually tailed off, back into sleep.