Of Feathered Wings, Of Life Songs Bring (Open)

[Itoshii]

75.08.19, Early Afternoon

The skies above Rainbow Mist were clear and sunny, dotted with gleaming hides and the occasional muted, but no less colorful plumage of Dragon and Lifewing. Whether for joy or business it was truly a wonderful day to be in the air.

One such pair, however, was playing it much more cool. in a shallow area of the beach, a little further away from the general hubbub of bathing dragons or splashing weyrbrats. A brilliantly colored lifewing fluttered about in the meager ripples of the calm day, making croons and peeps of joy, and not very much unlike the children down the beach. On the shore, just above the sand-line, and under a conveniently placed shade tree was his rider.

No less eye-catchingly clad in a harper blue tunic with a slightly darker vest and softly tanned wherhide pants (Decorated with multiple colored threads, beads, and even a few feathers of course), a look of concentration was plastered across his usually graceful features. A guitar in his lap, he was obviously having problems with something. Lifting it to his ear and giving it a gentle strum he shook his head and fiddled with the tuning knobs before trying it again and sighing. "At this rate it'll never be ready for the Hatching!"

You'll figure it out, you always do. The Lifewing in the water paused briefly in his merriment to regard K'ris with a well managed serious look before returning to his antics in the water.

[Shoki]

“Stupid, sharding-“

Language

“-Thread bait!” Cr’wean was stomping to the beach to vent at the sea again. Kiyosh followed him, doing her little hop instead of gliding over him. She didn’t always like him being so grumpy, but currently she found him awfully adorable. “AND I AM NOT ADORABLE!”

Kiyosh looked amused as she followed her rider. No, today he was more complaining because the person he had to patch up had almost ended their days of walking and he hated to think about that. As it was, Cr’wean had patched them up right and the Vulture had seen to it that everything as aligned and healing. She took pride in Cr’wean’s ability to set bone perfectly. Today she could see past his grumpiness and complaining for what it was. He was just stressed out over what could have been. He was still in the mood for yelling, so she wasn’t quite ready to try and relax him. So when she spotted a colorful Lifewing, she glanced at Cr’wean and hopped that direction. She didn’t truly like the sand, it got into the feathers on her legs. However, one got used to preening it out.

Hello Axolzash. Enjoying the water I hope? Mind if I stay here with you? Your human looks busy, and Cr’wean is…burning himself out so to speak. She observed K’ris for a moment, looking a bit curious as to what he was up to. He did however, look busy.

“Burn it all!” A more distant yell was promptly ignored by Kiyosh. He still had some more yelling to do.

[Itoshii]

"Maybe if I just-" angry shout in the distance made K'ris jump a little, twisting the knob more than he had intended and he groaned, looking about to see where the distraction had come from. He noticed another Lifewing hopping along the sands towards Axolzash, and assumed the fuming figure beyond it was its rider. He racked his brain for a moment, shuffling through his harper files. Ah yes, Cr'wean and Kiyosh.

Well good afternoon to you Kiyosh! Axol paused again in his enjoyment to hop towards her, Of course you can, come enjoy the water! It's a lovely day for a bath. He ruffled his feathers and shook the excess water from himself before settling everything into place.

K'ris strummed the guitar again, fearing the accidental knob turn would have completely thrown him off. He cried out in joy and jumped to his feet, playing the chord again. "Axol! I've got it!" The giant gird turned his head to look at him, amused I told you you would, didn't I?

[Shoki]

Excellent! Let’s see… Kiyosh went to the water and tested it briefly, looking rather peculiar with water. Not too good with it, and she was not a creature of the water. Her head swiveled when K’ris made an exclamation of success, and she observed the instrument in his lap. Is he making music? A bit of water washed over her feet and she suddenly jumped, making a raspy cry. It was colder then she had expected. It was very hard to imagine that music could come out of that beak with that odd cry, but as far as she and Cr’wean had been able to figure, her kind were not made to be pretty or pleasant sounding. She thought she looked lovely though.

The yelling had stopped, though Cr’wean was still fuming a bit. He stomped along the beach, eventually looking up when he heard Kiyosh. Mucking about with the ocean was she? That never ended well. He stomped vaguely back in her direction.

Kiyosh recovered and fluffed up, her head seeming to retreat into her brown feathers. She took one step toward the ocean and stopped, letting the water splash on her. Looks like she was not going to be more creative than that. Cr’wean eventually wandered into comfortable talking range and he had and small, smug smirk on his face. He thought she looked ridiculous. Kiyosh clearly didn’t care what she looked like, she did what she wanted.

“Heh.” Cr’wean glanced over at K’ris, and not really sure about the other man nodded his head as way of greeting. Kiyosh was good at getting him to calm down, being exactly who she was. So he didn’t look more than normal Cr’wean grumpy.

[Itoshii]

Axolzash crooned in amusement at the awkward way that Kiyosh entered the water before fluffing up in a kind of shrug. He has a weird process. he replied. He makes magnificent music, it just takes... time. And he is easily distracted. He hopped closer to the vulture before jumping at her raspy cry.

On the shore K'ris jumped as well, again startled by the sudden noise. Why was he so jumpy today? Maybe because he had to get this song done. It wouldn't do to not have something to present at the Hatching feast, especially if he had any intentions of becoming something more than a Journeyman. Not that being a Journeyman wasn't fun or anything, traveling Pern was wonderful, but a little more... oomph would be- You're rambling to yourself again. Go talk to Cr'wean. You don't talk with other people enough.

The man blinked a few times, straightening from the slouch he often took when zoned out. He grinned at the other Lifewing rider and waved as he approached, trying not to wince as he was reminded again of how tall he was. I wonder if there's a way to make one's self shorter... there were rumors of making yourself taller- a grumble from Axolzash kept him from going into thought again. "Greetings... Cr'wean, yes?" he barely paused long enough for the man to respond before continuing "I don't believe we've actually met before, I'm K'ris of Axolzash." he indicated the brightly colored bird in the water (as if it wasn't obvious enough) with a grin.

[Shoki]

Is that right? I guess it makes sense. There are songs everywhere after all. Still, I would like to hear his work sometime. More sea water washed over her feet and she took some more step to the water. The feathers on her legs were already wet, but she supposed that wasn’t really taking a bath. K’ris seems very colorful. Kiyosh noted in a matter of fact way. Clothing wise I mean. Such an adorable human. It wasn’t surprising for her to say that. She thought most humans were cute, in the same way a person regarded felines. She also loved their songs, but of course she had a particular fondness for Cr’wean.

Cr’wean regarded the other Lifewing rider for a moment. He was certainly different. Harper from the looks of it. Lifewing riders didn’t have to be either Harper or Healers, but those seemed to be the types of people that were attracted to the great birds. He himself was in the latter category by trade. Hence spending so much time at the Weyr patching people up. And visiting his sister obviously.

“Yep, that’s me.” His voice was not too rough, at least less so than usual. He pointed at the Griffon Vulture with a quick jab. “Kiyosh is the feather duster playing at being a mop.”

Aw, bless. Cr’wean made a joke.

Cr’wean ignored Kiyosh’s teasing, not even paying attention to how it moved his ire from the world to at her.

[Itoshii]

Well, he plans on having a new song to sing at the Hatching feast, if you and Yours plan to attend. He fluffed his feathers up proudly, And it's going to be about we Lifewings moving to our new home! He watched as she slowly waded deeper in the water, he really needed to show her how to have some fun in the sun, as humans would say. He is very adorable. He's always trying to get weavers to try and match my colors, but I don't think he's succeeded yet. There was a hint of smugness in his tone at the fact. Come on now, it's better if you just splash right in. he fluttered his wings in the water making small splashes as an example.

K'ris chuckled as he watched Axolzash and Kiyosh in the water, it was hard to believe they could be of the same species for all their physical differences. "She does seem a bit awkward out there, but I guess not all of them can be part fish like Axolzash." He looked back to Cr'wean, grin still comfortably in place. "So what brings you out on this wonderful day?"

[Shoki]

I plan on attending, but it’s hard to say if we can actually be there. As much as we plan shifts for healing are rather impossible to cancel. I’m guessing I will be able to come though. Cr’wean has even odds. Of course, even if he was free, he wouldn’t necessarily want to go. That was usually her job, to make sure he went out and about. She would convince Cyan to help her. Yes, that would work. Well, at least they do try. And it’s not too bad if you don’t compare it to you. Kiyosh sounded amused at that, but tilted her head skeptically when Axolzash made mention of how to properly play in the water. The beach, though a place her rider loved, and his family also, was a place she could not feel comfortable at. At Cliffside, that was different. The high cliffs overlooking the ocean, well, something about that resonated with her. Normal beach didn’t seem natural. She tended to expect it to be colder as well, not that she complained about the current weather. She didn’t know why she thought this way, it was simply the way it was.

Nah. This is fine. Despite appearances, she was relatively content with the current arrangement. Besides, she usually stayed clean, even with her messier eating habits. For some reason her head feathers tended to keep themselves clean. It was handy. Looks very natural for you though.

Cr’wean observed Axolzash for a moment, before turning his attention back to K’ris. Interesting creature. Lifwings had a wide range of features, but he was pretty decent at figuring out the general feel of a Lifewings by two features. The first was their feet, the second was their beak. It told a lot about where they perched and what they ate. So he was a little interested in what kind of trouble K’ris had gotten into with linking with Axolzash. Well, at least the colorful lifewing didn’t get positively excited for dragon flights like Kiyosh did. Figures he got a scavenger.

“Venting.” His eyes sort of narrowed, before a mental throated cleared. Kiyosh didn’t want him being too down. Like he could help it. That was his natural state. “And it’s a closer ocean to the Aerie then flying out to Cliffside.” He did visit with some frequency though.

[Itoshii]

"Makes sense. The water's edge is good for all sort of things." He agreed, glancing at his guitar. "I've been staying here until the Hatching, can't miss a moment, so I'm out here a lot." He grinned, a spark of excitement in his eyes. He did so love a Hatching. And a first hatching was always interesting.

I suppose you're right, the colorful bird conceded, looking from his own color to those the Harper wore without actually comparing them. The thread colors are quite lovely if you only look at him. The Lifewing had never thought of it that way. He straightened back up from his flipflopping, clawing at the water to make little clusters of bubbles. It always felt neat on his midnight-blue legs to feel the little bubbles run up before bursting at the surface. Ahhh the simple things.

"Speaking of the Hatching-" the Harper perked from his thoughts on his own this time, his mind invariably back to the music at hand. "What are your thoughts on something good musically for the Feast? A lifewing song for general entertainment later into the festivities, or try to make a song about the Hatching itself between it and the Feast?"