A New Start (Open)

[ceridawn]

  77.06.11 Evening

  Dalanna walked into the dining hall, hoping to grab a quick meal. Both her eggs had hatched the previous night, and now she had two baby flitts demanding her attention. She could feel that they were currently asleep, but who knew how long that would last. It would be best to eat quickly and return to them. There would be time for exploring tomorrow.
    She quickly grabbed a seat and some food and began to eat. She wasn't really paying attention to what she was doing, thinking instead about her new little friends. They were both such pretty things. She could not wait for their personalities to develop. 
    Dalanna was so deep in thought that she did not notice someone approaching her from behind.

[Shoki]

R’le was finally free. He dashed out before anyone could possibly give him more work, Burn clinging to his back as his master displayed all the pent up energy he had been hiding. He was finally able to do what he wanted. And what he wanted was a meal.

He calmed down somewhat when he got away from the offices, merely displaying a spring in his step rather than dashing down the halls. What would he get tonight? He hoped there was something like stew, though he wasn’t sure if he would be so lucky. As he found, he was lucky. He added a roll on the side, and some klah to round out the meal. As he went to sit down, he found one table with something interesting. Burn peered out, observing the same thing R’le was looking at. That being, baby firelizards. He had to take a look.

“Looks like you got some cute pets there. Then again, little ones are always cute, aren’t they?” R’le flashed a bright grin at the girl who they belonged to. He didn’t know her, but that never stopped him from a conversation. Probably a candidate then. Burn judged the entire situation too noisy for himself, and went back to merely clinging to the man’s shirt rather than watching. R’le’s grin twitched up even more. Heh, that was Burn for you.

[ceridawn]

    Dalanna turned around to see a man with a flame firelizard attached to him. She smiled a bit nervously, unused to talking with people she didn't know. Still, she should try to be friendly. It is what Kiarak would want. Besides, maybe he could give her some advice for how to handle her new friends.
    "Yes, the midnight is Zarack and the purple is Kili. They just hatched yesterday. My name is Dalanna. What should I call you and your little buddy?" That was polite, wasn't it? Kiarak was normally the one to handle things like this. One more thing she would have to get used to about her new home.
            

[Shoki]

R’le peered at the firelizards as she introduced them. Cute indeed. His dragon’s mind was creeping in to take a look too, and R’le showed the Cloud what was going on. Always interested in the little ones.

“Nice to meet you Dalanna. I’m R’le, of Cloud Quiorith. The one latched to my back is called Burn.” The Flame peered out at being referred to, before starting to chew on R’le shirt. R’le frowned. “’Scuse me.” He balanced his tray in his left hand while he fished out a hunk of sappy bark, which immediately was snapped up by the watching firelizard.

“Sorry ‘bout that. Good names for your pair though.” R’le settled back to carrying his tray with both hands. Burn went about chewing on the hunk of plant matter he was given. “I can’t say I’ve seen you around before, did you come here recently?”

[ceridawn]

    "I just got here a few days ago. I am from Melisong, and this was all very unexpected. I am still working on adjusting. This finding the dining hall was a bit of an adventure." Dalanna looked down, unsure about what else she should say. Luckily, Kili decided that would be a wonderful moment to chime in. The little girl turned around and started to chitter at Burn. 
    Dalanna had to smile at that. "It sounds like Kili is interested in Burn. May I ask how old he is?"
There, a good way to continue the conversation without awkward personal conversation. Dalanna could talk about pets for a while. It was people that gave her a problem. She rubbed Kili's head in thanks.

[Shoki]

“No kidding? I’m from there myself. Been a while since I’ve been back though.” He wondered if his harper friends weren’t still there. He might have to jump on back some time, if only to visit for a moment. He wasn’t sure if he would have time in the foreseeable future though. “Well, hopefully it was a fun adventure.” R’le chuckled. He liked adventures, for the most part. But that was just who he was.

Burn poked his head out, and watched Kili, but remained quiet as he chewed on the bark. He listened for a time before making a sort of chirp noise, but it was garbled because his mouth was full. Burn chewed the plant matter regardless. R’le stifled his amusement.

“How old? Hmm, I guess he’s about three turns now. Time sure flies.” Not that R’le had been able to completely work around Burn’s curious habits. Still, most of his shirts went un-nibbled now. Firelizard teeth could do quite a number on them.

“He can be a bit of a handful, but he sure keeps close. Do you mind if I take a seat?” R’le motioned to another chair at the table. The smell of stew was rather tempting, especially since his go-to snacks were all of the dried variety. Old habits died hard.

[ceridawn]

    There was no really thinking about it, there was only one acceptable response to that question. "Sure." Dalanna replied, a polite smile on her face.
    Kili was still chittering away happily at Burn, so her reply would have been the same even if she could not stand him. Luckily that was not the case. It was nice to talk to someone, even if Melisong was too busy for her, she found herself missing some of the noise.
    As R'le sat down, Zarack awoke. Now both of her babies were up. Zarack, however, did not seem as enthusiastic as Kili. He was just staring at R'le. Dalanna was hoping that this introduction did not go poorly. 
        

[Shoki]

“Thanks.” R’le took a seat, settling the tray on the table. Burn was being… well as social as Burn got. Which was still fairly quiet. One of the firelizard’s virtues he supposed. R’le took a bite out of the roll he had grabbed and considered if Burn had ever got proper mad. He couldn’t remember if that was the case. Still, he was a Flame. It could happen.

R’le became aware as the other firelizard awoke and began to stare at him. R’le grinned. He never minded a little attention. Call it his own personal opinion or blame it on the harper hall, he didn’t care. He put his left hand up on the table and merely wiggled his fingered for the firelizard. A little attention without being loud. When he realized that this was something he would also do for Yinaire he chuckled to himself.

“Well there goes all chance of looking cool. Still, not too bad trade for hanging around new friends and new firelizards, eh?” He relaxed in his chair and continued to eat the roll. He rather wanted his left hand free to eat the stew.

[ceridawn]

    Dalanna smiled a bit as she watched her little ones interact with new people. Kili seemed thrilled to chirp away at Burn and Zarack was happy enough watching R'le. Nothing made her happier than seeing those she cared about happy.

     "New friends and firelizards, huh. Well I have to agree with you that both of those things are indeed good." She was not sure she would call them friends yet. It would take more time for her to give out that title. However, she did feel a bit less lonely. This is what Kiarak wanted when he sent her with both eggs.

    "Any interesting stories or advice you could tell me?" She could at least try to be social. It is what her dear friend would want.   

[Shoki]

R’le paused at her question. Advice, huh? Most of the things that came to mind were probably not the best advice a rider like him was supposed to give. Well, maybe he could tweak his advice a little bit to be correct.

“I’d say if there is one thing that you should do around here it is look for adventures. I don’t know if that’s what you mean though.” R’le grinned. “Adventures mean lots of people you might not have met before, and it’s pretty fun. It’s how I met some of my best friends now. Not sure if it’s good advice, but it’s what I did, and I’ve never regretted it.” A half a dozen little adventures over some rather eventful turns.

“As for stories, well, I got a million of ‘em. Maybe you wanna hear about getting Burn? Kinda related.” He shrugged.

[ceridawn]

    Look for adventures? Well, that might stop her from getting bored. She might not even have much of a choice in the matter. Kili seemed rather energetic so far, if she stayed that way as she got older, Dalanna would probably get pulled into all kinds of things. Besides, what is the point of dreaming if you never make time for life.

    It was decided. She would go out exploring soon. Maybe go see the beach or the bowl. It would be possible to have fun, and there probably would not be too many people. She would bring her two little ones and see what she could find.

    "Sure, I would love to hear about how you got Burn" It might be an interesting tale. Besides, while she may not be used to talking to many people herself, she had always loved listening to stories.
        

[Shoki]

R’le grinned and collected his thoughts to tell a story. He had been getting better at it, with practice recently. Still, he would tell it in the same way as he told his friends what he was up to. R’le had never really been formal, his stories were often the same.

“So it all started when I took Quiorith to the beach. Now I have never known a good dragon artist, but he gave it a good try with his claws and wet sand as a medium. Well, after, er, we’ll say critiquing his work I decided to leave the artist to his work.” Quiorith’s amusement was plain in the back of his head. “Guess I stepped to it and found this neat little place where there was a big ‘ol group of firelizard eggs. I bring ‘em back to the weyr and I swear, I have never seen a more attentive foster father then Quiorith. I check for two second on these eggs and he’s just hounding me for updates. Once they start to hatch? He just is telling every person who ever wanted to know that they should go on and look at the eggs. And of course my reward to looking after the eggs for him is a firelizard that decides his first meal is going to be the collar of my shirt.” R’le laughed at that.

“But there ya go. You never know what’ll happen at a hatching.”

[ceridawn]

"That was a wonderful story. Thank you so much for taking the time to come and talk with me. I think I will take your advice and look for an adventure tomorrow." She looked at her new friends, Kili chattering away while Zarack seemed to have gone back to sleep.

"I am sorry to cut our conversation short" she said while gently picking up Zarack, "but if I am to go on that adventure tomorrow than I need to rest, as do they. It was very nice meeting you R'le." 

[Shoki]

R’le chuckled as the girl picked up her sleepy firelizard. Oh he understood that. Indeed he did.

“Of course, don’t let me keep you. It was nice to meet you Dalanna. If you ever need more interesting stories told, come and find me. So long as I’m not drowning in work…Or even if I am. It’s not a secret I play hooky too much.” Probably not nearly as much as he claimed, what with Retny right next door… “Have a good night then.” He gave a friendly wave, since of course, her hands were about to be fun of sleepy flitters.