Because we're friends (Shoki/B'ow)

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

3076.08.02 | Late afternoon

Hailreth-friend! What are you doing? Is yours there too? No sooner had Viarth emerged from between after practice, he was already angling over towards the lake. Sure it was winter in the Southern Continent, but at RMW that didn’t mean very much. Viarth was hot and sweaty and so was K’tarHis. Viarth meant to have a bath, and he meant to have fun too.

K’tarMine, we should land at the lake. Friends are there.

K’tar laughed. Sure, why not?

Bugling, Viarth descended towards the lake, fully intent on diving into it from the sky. It was a stunt he loved pulling, though it always resulted in soaked fighting straps.

Ready or not Hailreth, here we come! Viarth entered the lake with a splash. K’tar, releasing the fighting straps with the ease of long practice, floated up and away from his dragon as they hit the water.

As soon as his head broke the surface, he brushed his hair out of his eyes and waved, laughing, towards the shore. Hard to tell with the water in his eyes, but he thought that was B’ow over there.

[Shoki]

Hmm? Hailreth seemed to be distracted by something, probably his own thoughts. The Neon Purple was considering his latest project, but the words of Viarth were easily enough to shift his attention. Oh, B’ow is around. He lurks well. The tail of the Purple shifted, like a little pleased wag. He wasn’t actually in the water, since he was drying off at the moment, but he seemed to be most pleased to hear from the other Purple. He lifted his head to look up and around for B’ow, spotting him with a vial of…whatever he was calling the stuff. It was dark, very dark and he had spread some on a portion of his hand. Just a little on his palm, below his pinky. The vial was closed, and he was putting his hand in the water. Hailreth was about to speak when both the Purple and his rider looked up at a bugle from the sky. Well, that worked well enough as an announcement of intent. B’ow stood up, sighing slightly, and Hailreth looked excited. Viarth entered with a splash, and K’tar was most certainly doing the same.

Good landing, Viarth! The Neon Purple wasn’t dry yet, but he jumped back into the water, always happy to play. That figured. B’ow checked his hand, observing that it was still dark with his mixture before calling out to K’tar.

“So, you and Viarth needed a bath?” Dry humor was still humor.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

Viarth reared up as well as he could, using his tail and “downstrokes” (actually forward-strokes given how he was positioned) of his wings for balance. After a couple of the balancing strokes, he used his wings and forelimbs to push water at Hailreth’s head. Of course, this resulted in him losing his precarious balance and he fell forward with a splash.

Ha! Viarth exclaimed, already getting ready to duck under to avoid Hailreth’s potential retaliation.

“Now why would-?” K’tar’s call was cut off by a yelp as first the side bands of Viarth’s water wall and then the waves from the Purple’s half belly flop washed over his head.

Tossing his head around, he grinned across at B’ow. “You should come out here too! The water’s great!” Despite the words though, he started swimming towards his friend. Conversations were hard to have shouting across part of a lake filled with playing dragons.

[Shoki]

Hailreth seemed more interested in just getting wet rather than avoiding the same. So he jumped into the Purple’s water attack rather away from it. The water felt good, even though he should be trying to dry off. For now though, he held his breath and used his head to flick water at Viarth. He could get more range, but unfortunately it had a tendency to get water up his nose. Hailreth snorted after the ‘attack’ was done. Much better.

It always does that. Still worth it. Hailreth was not so restrained in his enthusiasm, though he was making an observation he was clearly having fun. B’ow on the other hand was watching K’tar and though he had a smile on his face, it was very restrained.

“I shouldn’t think so. I have things I would rather not get wet.” Well, K’tar was coming toward him anyway. “So, I take it you have been well recently?” It was sometimes difficult to say, K’tar had a reputation for trouble.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

Viarth was only partway under the water — the only true way to protect oneself from splash attacks was to dive under the water, a fact of which Viarth was well aware — when Hailreth’s splash attack hit him. He caught the water toss right on the front of the head.

Tossing his head around, Viarth snorted the water out of his nose and swam forward. He twisted, trying to splash Hailreth with his tail.

Why wouldn’t it be worth it? Viarth asked.

“Pretty well, yes,” K’tar commented, dragging himself out of the lake’s embrace. The water felt great, cooling his skin as the breeze danced across it. He wouldn’t have minded staying in the lake a little longer, but wrestling swimming dragons… he sighed and laughed at the same time.

“What about you? You doing ok? Been having fun lately.”

[Shoki]

Just because lot of water in my nose. Hailreth jumped into the splash from Viarth, in such a way that he then half dunked himself into the water. It really was a wonderful day for getting wet. It’s more fun when the water is around me, not up my nose. He bounced again, surprisingly energetically considering he was in the water. It was not surprising at all that he was a Purple.

I wonder if-

You come even remotely close to the shore and I will be on the other side of the Bowl by the time you get here.

Rather than getting disappointed, Hailreth rumbled a bit with amusement. He did so love his rider after all. Even if he did wish B’ow played more.

B’ow himself was mostly concerned with K’tar. He still kept a proverbial eye out for his dragon though. He loved Hailreth, but he didn’t have to agree with everything the Neon dragon wanted. Well K’tar didn’t seem to be hiding the fallout from a recent escapade, so it looked like things were relatively quiet. In response to the question, B’ow shrugged a bit.

“Busy, but that’s sort of to be expected. Planning half a million projects and planning what I need to have done before I graduate. What with…” He paused. He forgot if he had actually told K’tar about his plans. “Going to Waterfall Valley after I’m a full rider.” He looked up at K’tar, gauging if he had mentioned this before.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

Viarth swept his tail around again. Suddenly he stopped, staring at it for a few moments as if he’d never before seen the appendage.

Hailreth! Viarth exclaimed. We should totally swim around the lake, always going the same way, until the water develops a current in that direction. Then, we change direction. The water should make waves of its own then. His eyes were whirling blue-green excitement, so fast that they were nothing but a blur.

K’tar tracked B’ow’s words, up until the very last part. He still tracked them, but… they made no sense. “You’re going to Waterfall Valley? Why? For how long?”

[Shoki]

Hailreth stopped for a moment, pondering the suggestion given. He started to think on how well that would work, the effect they both would have on the lake in creating current. However, as was sometimes the case, he dropped the thought in favor of actual experimentation.

Let’s do it! Hailreth started moving, his excitement propelling him at a rate that he shouldn’t have been able to keep up for very long. Well, most dragons wouldn’t have been able to keep up for very long. Sometimes his energy seemed nearly infinite.

B’ow had clearly not mentioned this to K’tar before. He felt a little bad about not having done so, but they met up infrequently and never on a schedule. He probably should have gotten around to mentioning it before though.

“I want to learn more…about Azures. Actual records seem to largely not exist here, so I have to start looking elsewhere. I have to transfer because I don’t really know how long this research will take.” He looked at K’tar, wondering how he was taking it. He’d gotten a less then approving statement from his parents, but that was hardly the same thing. K’tar was his friend.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

Viarth bugled his excitement to the sky. Leaping forward, he joined Hailreth, the two of them racing in tandem around the lake. Sheer energy pushed Viarth, powering him at a pace that should have been unsustainable.

B'ow needn't have worried. Yes, K'tar was sad that his friend would be leaving, but it wouldn't happen for a while, and B'ow was going to be doing something awesome.

"That's awesome!" K'tar exclaimed. "Are you going to compare those records with what's going on here with Artemis?"

[Shoki]

Hailreth was having a lot of fun just bouncing around the lake. Feeling his pull on the water was rather fun, in and of itself. Viarth as well, his excitement was plain. Hailreth felt like maybe, just maybe Viarth was moving faster than he was. It would be more fun if this turned into a sort of race. So he tried to go even faster. It was rather hard with the water pulling them back, but what was water to an energized Purple?

B’ow smiled, just a little bit. Trust K’tar to have the same enthusiasm for the project as he had. Well, B’ow may not look enthusiastic, but he was very passionate about his work. He nodded briefly and went into a brief overview of what he was working on.

“That is certainly part of it, however I am also somewhat curious about what occurred at Waterfall Valley Weyr with the volcano. I hear that some of the records are somewhat scattered, what with the whole confusing mess, but I am pretty sure that I should be able to find something. I have…theories about the Azures but as of yet there is nothing to prove one way or the other. So, they are any other Queen right now.” He shrugged. He did have a theory, but the fires didn’t fit into it. The fires were more of an isolated incident, though rumors had them being ‘cursed flames’. Anyone who believed that would get an earful from him about thinking with their head. As Zabrielth was still very young, he was more inclined to trust the records of Atraiyith. Azures had been things of legend before, and those were the only records about an actual Azure, barring his hatching on.

“I also…I think I need to find out where Tundra went to. I’m not positive that its important, but a Weyrwoman disappearing is still really weird. Part of the legends have Azureriders being killed and the Azure killing those responsible, or anyone around depending on what you hear. Since no one seems to know if Tundra is alive or not, it’s hard to pin that part of it, either proving or disproving it. If it’s not true, well, that’s something to start telling to tear down some of the superstition surrounding the Azures.” He was pretty sure that someone before him might have tried to figure this out. If he was the first, well good one him. Still, he was confident that he would find something that others had missed. Perhaps because the others had too much on their plate. The time of the previous Azure had been a…tumultuous one.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

K’tar nodded slowly, the kind of gesture that indicates the person listening is tracking the conversation. Certainly it made sense that this was an interesting subject, although K’tar himself probably wouldn’t bother to. It didn’t really affect him at all, and he was always in favor of ignoring those things that didn’t directly impact him or his friends.

“You got any ideas for where to look, or just going to go through the records there?” K’tar didn’t envy his friend if it was the latter. Despite the interesting puzzle nature of the whole “Azure’s Curse”, he wasn’t sure he would be willing to dig around in records to discover it.

“Hey, if you discover where she went… you should tell me. You never know when you might need backup, and I’d love to go investigating with you.”

Hailreth was going faster. That was clearly true, because he was starting to pass Viarth. This would never do! Viarth started swimming harder, determined to pass (or at least stay level with) Hailreth. He would be faster! Swimming was fun! Racing and swimming was even more fun!

[Shoki]

B’ow sighed a little. “Since no one knows where she went in the first place, combing through records might be my only real lead. However, I am going to try to talk to anyone who knew her back then. Which is going to be hard. The only people I know of for sure would have been the Weyrleaders at the time. They would have at least been there. So I guess I have to ask them.” And find out if some of them were still around. For Queenriders it was easier, after all they tended to remain in the spotlight even after their tenure was up. For kingriders it was less so. They transferred, switched positions, went in and out. So he had to find out what to do about that.

B’ow got an actual smile on his face. A proper one, not the tiny little ones he was most accustomed to. He was vaguely reminded of a conversation he had with K’tar back after the incident with Chantrea. So he knew how to respond rather quickly.

“Of course. I’ll keep you updated. Who knows, maybe I’ll have a few toys we can use investigating. I’ll just leave out the tedious bits.” Probably best he try to keep things simple, he could drone on about things he found interesting. He’d learned a while ago that he should keep to the basics when talking about how he was doing in dragonhealing, probably similar rules here. He eyes his palm, which still had the dark stuff on his hand, it hadn’t run at all in the water. Good enough. Now he had to check if it came off with soap, and how well. He had a lot of things to work on, hopefully this one would get done before he transferred.

Hailreth tried to go faster as Viarth started to keep pace with him. Come on, just a little more! However, speed had a price, which he learned the moment his feet got tangled up in some rocks at the floor of the lake. Tangled feet meant that he fell over, creating a rather impressive splash and a little bit of a wave as the current had been created tried to push him onward a little.

Oh drat! Hailreth was disappointed, but he hardly got bent out of shape about it. Hence a rather lackluster display of annoyance.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

K’tar sighed. Interviewing sounded more exciting then record reading, but still… then B’ow continued. K’tar was grinning. Toys to use in investigating anywhere sounded like the most fun thing ever! “That sounds like an excellent idea,” K’tar said. “What’s that on your hand?” he added, gesturing towards the stain with a flip of his hand.

A splash soaked Viarth’s back, as Hailreth went down. Viarth knew a flash of worry for his friend, but the other dragon seemed ok. Besides, the splash had been fun. Viarth immediately decided that was the thing to do, and threw himself forward, trying to imitate Hailreth’s highly successful method. It wasn’t really a success, though he did manage to create a minor splash.

How did you get it to splash-wave-push? Viarth asked, shaking his head to get the water off of it.