When the Rain is Still Falling |Post Debrief|

[Jay Kitten]

The girl was fussing with her hair, tying it back with a small bit of twine that she had produced from her bags, and she was so distracted that she hadn't noticed his reaction to her actions right away. But when she did, she looked over, throwing him a glance, and seeing the red tint covering most of his face as he looked away from her. She frowned, had she done something wrong again? As he went on to state that she had, Elraishsa's eyebrow shot up again with that cat-like curiosity that seemed to always pervade her. What was he talking about? And then, she was neverminded. With a bit of a scowl, she looked up and down her own body, not quite understanding why he was so upset about it.

"I am not naked," she stated, her mother had told her never to reveal herself fully unless she trusted the person completely. So far, the only person with that kind of trust or respect, was dead. And unfortunately, before she died she hadn't had the chance to explain to her the manner in which men conducted themselves around women, or the attractions between the opposite sex. It was a topic completely unknown to her, and for good reason, for to know such a thing currently would have meant having bad memories of people indeed. "Never mind, what?" she questioned, though she trailed off with it, assuming to herself that he was uncomfortable now. The girl didn't seem to care for putting on more clothing. Besides, she was comfortable.

It was considered rude by her mother not to look at the person she was talking to, but due to his discomfort in seeing her like this, she didn't mention it. Instead, she listened to what he said about the event, that same curiosity springing to life behind golden eyes. Elraishsa decided it best to hold her comments and questions until the very end, and so as soon as he was done talking, she started.

"RogueWings?" she began, not knowing what they were, "People in my jungle?" She frowned, that sounded familiar. She had seen a few humans moving about, but had assumed them from a nearby settlement, not in unauthorized territory. This news was rather disturbing.

"Seen them, yes... Know about them, no."

Her discomfort on the subject was obvious by the way she nervously began to twirl some of her wavy locks about a finger. Not a good sign, not by any means. She needed to figure out who was in her jungle, surely R'le could help with that?

[Shoki]

R'le's eyes snapped up to the woman's face after she spoke. She couldn't possibly be serious. She had no idea what he had been insinuating. His jaw dropped and he couldn't even think. He had no clues. Not one idea of how this could be. There was nothing to guide him here. Then one single thought that came to him was that he wished she knew what he meant.

No. No. NO. He was not going to so this. Shard it, he was not going to give her 'the talk'. He wasn't her mom, and he could not figure out how someone her age didn't know this. If he'd been a girl, maybe he would have been able to try his hand at explaining, correctly, how this was not right. Sadly he was only a guy and therefore would give a very unsatisfying answer.

"You aren't naked but most people take that as an indicating that you are on the path to that and rather quickly. Just, gah, you are very distracting to people as is. Actually forget I said that." R'le was in a bit of a spot here. The man was frustrated, rather clearly as he returned his face to his work. His skin turned a darker shade of red as he spoke. "Unless you are familiar with the other meanings to it, just please don't walk around like that in front of people." This was agonizing.

Lucky for him Elraisha was actually curious about other things, namely the stuff in the jungle. That he could manage easily.

"RougeWings are just former DeathWings that couldn't cope with being LifeWings but didn't want to be DeathWings anymore. Lots of people thought they couldn't have eggs, but I'm not an expert. I just heard things. Either way, they are big birds. I always kinda wondered what sorts of songs they would have. Maybe they don't sing at all..." He pondered that while finally getting the leather off the handle and putting it on the table to dry. then he started wiping the knife down.

"Hmm, that's unfortunate. If we find out who they killed we might be able to figure out where they came from but otherwise we have to find them somehow." He put the knife down and checked on his hand, noting that the pressure had done some good, the bleeding had slowed. Lucky it hadn't been a bad cut. He didn't want to go crying to a healer now. "Of course the Weyrwoman will probably be cautious about sending people on foot and dragons can't see much from above." He sighed. "What do you think?"

[Jay Kitten]

Again his words were lost on her. She was so certain though that he was uncomfortable, and thought for a moment that maybe she should put something on, but... There was nothing to put on. Her clothes were all soaking wet, save for what she was wearing currently. His discomfort was even more evident now than a minute ago. But it would have to wait, if she couldn't manage some form of clothing until her own dried more. What he had said wasn't true, though, she wasn't on the path to becoming naked. With a frown, the girl moved closer.

"You have to wrap it," she stated, pointing to his finger. She grabbed her bag from the table as she moved by it, and moved closer to the man, standing before him now in all her wild glory. Elraishsa then produced from her things a small roll of crudely-made yet effective bandages, not as good as what the Healers might have had but she knew a thing or two about first aid. Reaching over to grab his wrist, she bent down a little as she examined his wound. It was a blade wound, so cleaning it wouldn't be necessary, his blade wasn't rusty after all. The blood would have already pushed what little dirt may have been on it out, also. She instead isolated the wounded appendage in two of her own fingers, and carefully began to wrap it, twining the bandage about his finger a few times before she ripped it with her teeth and tied it off. The roll of extra bandages went back into her pack, and she smiled down at him as he continued about the DeathWings.

"Large birds? I have seen those," she admitted. They were a rare sight, but they were out there. "Big and colorful." She nodded. LifeWings, it seemed she was talking about, not DeathWings. "But the people... I have not seen much. Mysterious." She tapped her chin, and placed her hand on the side of R'le's chair, leaning on it to balance her weight. "This is not good... We will find out, yes?" Turning her gaze back to R'le, she also spared a glance to Quiorith, as though she were hopeful that the pair could help rid her jungle of whatever it was that was plaguing it. If people were turning up dead, of course she wanted to stop it. She may be cautious and wild, but she still didn't kill without cause.

[Shoki]

His thoughts had mostly been on the situation until Elraisha got closer to him to bandage him up. He was about to look away again when he predictably got distracted by her movements. His head was still down so it meant that he was staring at her legs. It only lasted until she grabbed his wrist, which he instinctively looked at. He had noticed before, her nails were longer then most and sharpened. It was part of the reason she had got the healer bleeding so easily. He was somewhat impressed that she had made some bandages herself, though he imagined it came form necessity. Still, he watched her wrap him up without comment, always glad those hands were not aiming to harm him. She bit off the remaining bandages as R'le realized he was staring right at her. See, this is why he had to turn away. He did so, while testing his finger carefully. "Thanks. You're really good at that you know. I mean making things that work well." R'le voice sounded cheerful per usual, even if he was still stumbling over not staring at her.

He nodded a bit to her observation on Lifewings. For the most part though he was worried about the people in the jungle. The chances of them being related to a 'Wing in his mind was low so he wouldn't bother explaining more. When she mentioned putting a stop this R'le smirked a little. He glanced sideways to the Cloud dragon who had been mostly impartial to the embarrassment and conversation. The dragon nodded in response now, very much wanting to get this stopped. R'le himself glanced at Elraisha, trying to figure out where was safe to look, finally looking at her face. And nothing else. "Yeah, we're gonna figure this out."

R'le suddenly got a thought and turned toward where Quiorith was, looking past the dragon. The cloud looked behind as well, staring at the rain still falling. "Hey, do you know where they might have gone to get shelter from the rain? It might give us a good starting point, I mean for later."

[Jay Kitten]

The girl was a bit bothered by the fact that he would act so strangely now, but as she went about her bandaging he soon looked away from her. He was staring, something her mother told her was rude to do. She couldn't help but wonder why, though. He had never done this before. Maybe it was because she had taken off her leathers, like he mentioned before? That did seem to be the thing making him so uncomfortable. She scoffed at him inside her head. Whatever, he wanted to act weird then he could. She was fine just how she was, thank you. But soon, she commented on her ability to make things, and the tables turned, and now it was her who was blushing.

Her cheeks were red.

"Thank you," she said, it hadn't been something she expected to hear from a civilized man. All of his modern tools seemed so much nicer than his own... Like those metal knives. Her stone ones paled in comparison, ever since her obsidian knife had broken so long ago. Her mother had made it for her, that was a sad day...

He looked back at her, and Elraishsa quelled the burning in her cheeks, at least enough that she hoped she was presentable. While she didn't have much training, she still did want to be lady-like. But his gaze had stopped shaking so much and was back to looking her in the eye, which she was a lot more comfortable with. "I can only hope," she mentioned.

"The rain?" It was a legitimate question, and of course she would be somebody who knew about that sort of thing. Tapping her chin again, her eyes rolled up slightly as she thought about it.

"Many places free of rain... Cliffs, caves, even volcanoes..." Oh, she had taken refuge in a dormant volcano once. Best home she ever had, it came with it's own heat source! That winter was an easy one... Until of course, it erupted the following summer. She had nearly lost her life, and had definitely lost a few things... Such a home had to be wisely chosen. A cave system that worked it's way toward the volcano's rim was a bit of a better idea, and the heating could just come through the walls.

[Shoki]

R'le didn't notice Elraisha's face when he looked at her. But Quiorith did. This woman was very different from all that the Cloud had met before, and she certainly kept both him and his on their toes. Still the dragon didn't quite understand why she had gotten red. It wasn't that surprising though, he only really understood R'le. It helped that they were in each other's heads. Still Quiorith started paying a bit more attention to the conversation going on. Maybe he had just missed something.

R'le glanced at Elraisha while she thought, but only for a moment. He didn't want to risk staring again so his eyes returned to his knees. This was just like when he was a kid and had done something wrong. Just stare at your knees until it was over then get into trouble immediately afterward. He hoped that wouldn't be the case though. When she spoke of good locations he thought about it for a second. It sounded like natural cover would be the best but that meant...

"Okay, that gives me an idea, just tell me what you think..." R'le got up and went to get some parchment and quill. He had a small desk for writing, not that he used it very much. He preferred giving verbal messages whenever possible. He got the required materials then started giving a pretty decent sketch of the valley, viewed from over head of course. "Alright, so let's say this is about where the camp is, just a bit southeast from where Quiorith landed. Figure they were there this morning, but had taken down everything and were gone by mid afternoon at least, since that's around the time we hoofed it back. Maybe left a scout or two, but basically gone. Assuming they knew even a little bit about the Valley, they were closest to the east edge here." He pointed on his sketch. It was not perfectly accurate, but It got the point across well enough. "What's over here? Anything of note?"

[Jay Kitten]

The girl followed him over to his desk, leaning down and looking over his shoulder, one hand on the back of his chair and the other on the corner of the wooden counter. As he went about explaining his ideas, she nodded, recognizing the layout similarly to how he had drawn it, though it was very different from the ground. She took the paper and held it up, twisting it and turning it until it looked more like the Valley she knew, which meant it was practically upside-down from the way he had sketched it.

The area he had pointed to... She had only been there once or twice when hunting took her out that far, and of course when she had migrated into the area she had passed through. She thought about his question, though, and then nodded.

"Caves. Big ones," said Elraishsa, and she set the paper back down on the desk, making a mental note to ask later about the thing he had used to color the paper like that. She knew about paints, but she had always drawn things by hand, not with instruments like he had used. But for now she ignored that, instead furrowing her brow.

"Also clear... Less trees. Less jungle. Not home." Biting her lip, the female looked out of the entrance of the weyr at the rain that fell. What was his point, though? Why would somebody migrate toward those caves? From what she knew, the bigger a cave, the more there was a chance that something unwanted inhabited it. She stayed out of the big caves, preferring cozy, small, secluded ones high up on cliffs and away from the world. Turns ago, the big birds he spoke of used the large caves as nests, she thought, since they always came from that direction when she had been north of those mountains. It was the only thing that really made sense to her regarding them, but now there were no birds and the caves simply stood as unfriendly reminders of how unsafe her home could be.

[Shoki]

R'le smiled a little when his drawing got turned upside down but was otherwise serious as she examined his drawing. After her reports he frowned a little bit. So less jungle and more caves. He wasn't sure what he had been hoping for but he wondered about it now.

"Hmm, I can't be sure if they would be there or not. On the one hand, seems like a fair place to get a shelter if they had need, and it wouldn't be in the open. On the other hand, when they headed there it would be much more likely they could be spotted from overhead, and I had just found them to remind them that dragonriders were a thing." He sighed a little bit but added, "I still think they couldn't have gone that far from where I found them. After all, they had plenty of things to pack up and even at that they left someone to scout or something. Even with it being faster alone without stuff to carry I doubt they would be as fast as you." R'le flopped into the chair that sat next to the desk, looking thoughtfully at his rushed map.

"Well, where do you think they would have gone? I kinda figured they would have gone to some edge of the valley or something." He shrugged at little bit at that. He hadn't traveled much before becoming a candidate, even if made a few jungle excursions after becoming a weyrling. He figured that someone more used to traveling on foot would have a better idea of what one would look for as far as shelter went. As he thought about it he almost forgot the state of his guest, before glancing at the ground and getting a glimpse of her legs. He looked back at his map, keeping a dead straight face. Quiorith laughed a bit in the back of his head before R'le frowned and gave the Cloud a look. Stop enjoying my torment.

Never.

R'le chuckled at that, all anger at his friend instantly lost. Quiorith's eyes whirled with amusement, always pleased to have fun with his rider. Even when it was at his expense.

[Jay Kitten]

The girl puzzled over his ramblings, thinking to herself what she would have done given the circumstances. Well, in her opinion, she would do something completely different from some Hold-born fellow with the bad sense to tresspass on Weyr territory when he wasn't so stealthy as she. Her mind buzzed with trepidation; there was a killer out there that neither of them knew where he could have gone. But that was when it struck her that maybe he hadn't fled anywhere, but nowhere at all.

"What about a dragon?" she questioned, raising an eyebrow as R'le seemed to tense up for a moment, before he laughed. He must be talking to Quiorith about something, she thought, and rubbed at her chin. Perhaps the one who had burried those bodies had fled on dragonback? But then why wouldn't she have seen said dragon? Perhaps they had fled on foot, only to take to the skies at a later time? She hadn't tracked anybody from the clearing, save R'le, since she had been so worried. But...

But weren't they looking for more than one person? In that case, a dragon wouldn't be practical for many people, and many dragons would have been easy to spot or track. She sighed and rubbed at her temples. What was R'le getting at? He seemed to be more knowledgable than she about the way people acted in general. She just knew the topography of the area.

"Maybe not a cave... A canyon?" She pointed at his map, to a place further off in the direction he suspected. "Goes to another valley." A canyon that went through the mountains, a pass into the next valley over? But to what purpose? Why were they even on the Weyr's land in the first place...? She didn't know.

[Shoki]

R'le considered her words, but looked skeptical. Was there any way a dragon was involved here? He didn't think so.

"I doubt it, they mentioned deathwings for one. It would be kinda stupid to mention something else that flies, that just gives people a reason to be looking for a flying creature. Besides, even if one person did get away it would take forever to get that many people out on a dragon. Especially to fit in some of the nearby clearings. Some of them are small enough that Quiorith can't land in them." The clearing that they had picked before was the closest one to the area, though there was one other one that couldn't hold even a White. The rest were father and still as small. Jungle tended not to have a lot of clearings for dragons to land in.

As she pointed on the map he got lost in thought. If he was in their position he would have two objectives. The first was the practical matter of getting somewhere safe from the jungle and rain, and the other was escape. These people had to have guessed that eventually they would be found out, so they had to get away. That being the case, Elraisha's canyon idea held a great deal of merit. It would be covered for the most part, hard to see from dragonback. Depending on the state of the canyon there might be a fair amount of cover to get shelter too.

"That actually sounds perfect. If they wanted to get out of Rainbow Mists' area that would be perfect for lying low once they got out." A wide grin spread across his face and he looked enthusiastic. "If they were trying not to be seen, I bet they went through here. I bet we find something if we go look. I think you found it." He took a deep breath and relaxed into his chair. For some reason this seemed very tiring. "Man, I need a nap. This day has been way too eventful." Quiorith nodded in agreement, settling down as well.