What He Would Do...

Writers: Dana, Eimi
Date Posted: 4th September 2005

Characters: Ar'lis, Gaiya
Description: Ar'lis helps a worried Gaiya locate her feline
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 7, day 20 of Turn 3

Gaiya had looked everywhere! Under the bed, on top of shelves, in the toilet, under blankets... everywhere! No Pepper. One of her fosterlings must have left the door to her weyr open when they had come to her room after harper classes. That meant the black rogue could be _anywhere_ by now. She had to find him!

The young woman flew out her door and straight into a bronzerider. Falling back into her weyr and landing painfully on her tail-bone, she looked up at the face that belong to the body she had so clumsily tried to walk through in her haste. "Ar'lis! What are you doing standing outside my door?" she asked accusingly.

One brow rose as he bent to help her to her feet, trying to keep a straight face. "I was going to knock on it."

"Oh yes? Well, I wasn't going to be home," she said as he helped lift her from the floor. "I'm sorry, I have to go! My feline is missing! Who knows _what_ kind of trouble he'll get himself into out there!"

"Well slow down, sweetheart! It's not going to help if your panicking... Let me help you find him, hmm?"

Hope flickered in her eyes as she looked up at him. With a nod she said, "He likes sand."

**He _likes_ sand?** Better not to question her. Better not to grin, either. This feline was, after all, important to her. They made their way quickly down the corridoor, and Ar'lis kept his eye out for black feline. "Maybe he's outside..."

"That's what I'm afraid of, Ar'lis," she said as she pulled him towards the entrance faster. "The wild felines are _much_ bigger than he is! They could eat him alive!"

"I don't think he'd go out into the jungle, Gaiya. Weyr felines aren't stupid creatures..." And he sure hoped Pepper wasn't an exception! "And the wild ones wouldn't dare come so near a Weyr!"

"Oh, there are any number of things that could get him out there!" she cried as she picked up the pace yet again. "He could get trampled by the herdbeasts, stepped on by a dragon, eaten by a canine! You have no idea how scary it can be for a feline all alone in the outside world!"

Soothing her was not going to help right now. "You're right, we humans have no idea, do we?" Better to agree than disagree. The poor girl...so distraught over a _feline_! His long stride kept up with hers easily enough when they finally ducked out into the afternoon sunlight.

"Oh shards, now where should we look?" she asked as she looked around the Weyrbowl. There were trees and grass and sand a plenty for a feline to get lost in. "Pepper! _Pepper_!"

"Let's start over here first," he said, pointing to the left. "Come on."

Gaiya grabbed his hand and all but sprinted in the direction he had pointed. "Pepper! Where are you?" she called. "Do you see him?"

No, but he could see people looking in their general direction. It's not every day here in the Weyr when a young woman suddenly sprints down the greensward, shouting the word 'pepper'. Even if it _is_ a feline's name... Since her back was to him, he allowed himself a brief grin. "No, I don't see him..." His tone was deviod of the humor he felt. "But we'll find him, sweetheart. See those trees? Let's go over there."

"The trees?" she asked as she followed his eyes. "Oh shards and shells, Pepper, not the trees!"

He squeezed her hand before pulling her with him. "Come on."

Gaiya followed obediently, a look of terror on her face for her poor, helpless feline. "Pepper!" she called again. "Pepper, where are you?"

Indeed, where _was_ that feline? His eyes scanned the area until he happened to glance up into the thick boughs of one of the nearer trees. Wait... "Hey, Gaiya..." Ar'lis pointed. "Is that him?"

She gasped as she looked up into the tree. "Pepper! Oh you sharding feline! How did you get up there so _high_?" Gaiya grabbed Ar'lis's arm, all but yanking it from it's socket. "Oh Ar'lis! The poor baby! He's so high up! He would die if he fell out!"

Trying not to wince - her jerking him around hadn't exactly _tickled_ - he firmly took hold of her arms and looked down at her. "If he got up there, he can certainly get down, sweetheart. Felines have claws for a reason. And they have amazing balance!"

"No," she moaned, shaking her head and eyes filling with tears. "He's so high up, Ar'lis! What if he lost his balance even for a moment! What if a preditor came! He would have nowhere to go!" Gaiya's gaze was fixed on her feline, stretched across a high branch. Pepper looked completely unconcerned with the fuss he was creating and after a few blinks in her direction, yawned and started cleaning himself in hard to reach places.

"Oh, I cannot watch!" she wailed as she grabbed Ar'lis' tunic and buried her face in his chest.

More than a little taken-aback, he wrapped his arms around her for a moment before he leaned back. Gently he tilted her face up to his. This whole situation was. Shards. He couldn't even find the right word to describe it. He knew what he needed to do. It was a good thing he had been a mischievous weyrbrat growing up. Mischievous weyrbrats liked to climb trees. Resigned, he slid his hand down her arm. "Do you want me to go and get him?"

Hope shown through her eyes as Gaiya said, "But, Ar'lis, it's so high? I cannot ask you to risk yourself..."

"Gaiya, it's a _tree_. I think I can handle it." He gave her a saucy grin. What he would _do_ for this girl, he swore... But how could any person, man or woman, resist those questioning eyes anyway? He let go of her and walked over to the trunk.

He looked up. Way up. Damned feline. Why did it have to be so _high_?
He rubbed his hands together, then glanced over his shoulder and winked at her. "Catch me if I do fall, will you, sweetheart?" he joked before reaching up to swing onto the first branch - and got his first mouth full of leaves.

Gaiya could feel a lump in her throat. That Ar'lis would risk himself for her... Good, strong, brave Ar'lis... For a moment the feline was completely forgotten as she watched his swing up into the tree. She politely failed to notice when he was thawacked in the face by the smaller branches. "Oh Ar'lis! Do be careful!"

Muttering to himself - after he had spit the leaves out, of course - he continued to climb. Carefully. Ar'lis didn't really feel like falling. He didn't really want to break his arm.or his leg.or any other body parts that he deemed very important. Grasping another branch above him, he heaved himself up. Ah. There was the feline. "C'mer, Pepper," he soothed him. "Come on now." Like the feline would actually listen.

The feline at least _heard_ the man as he approached along the branch. With an indignant cry the creature sprang from his perch and grabbed a lower branch, showing his extreme displeasure at being disturbed with an angry hiss towards the man.

"Do you see him?" Gaiya called. She had lost sight of the bronzerider between the branches.

"Yes!" he called back while glaring at the furry animal. "I think you and I are going to have a _serious_ disagreement," he growled in a lower tone at Pepper. Sharding fuzz of an animal... "Now come on...don't be difficult..." Ar'lis swung back down to the lower branch, keeping his gaze fixed squarely on the feline.

Undaunted, the feline escaped the rider's dangling legs by running back up the trunk of the tree and returned to his favorite spot. He flicked his tail at the man and he settled back down, free of intrusion.

"How's it going up there?" Gaiya called up impatiently.

Not good. "Fine!" he called back. He was _so_ tempted to yank on that black tail... "_C'mon_, Pepper. Gaiya needs you to come down. _I_ need you to come down. You _need_ to come down." Shard it all. He was pleading to a _feline_. "Sharding..." He was closer now...

"Oh, I can't watch," Gaiya said shaking her head and covering her eyes. Now they were _both_ stuck and would probably fall to their deaths or at least certain injury and Pepper and Ar'lis were never goig to be whole again! And surprisingly it was even more upsetting for her to think of seeing Ar'lis hurt and bleeding than the feline...

Enough was enough. Ar'lis, a _bronze_rider, was _not_ going to let some mere feline get the best of him. "Come..._here_!" With a swift lunge, he sprang up, catching Pepper almost completely off-guard. He let out a triumphant snarl as he held the feline by the scruff - like a dominant mother or papa feline would.

Pepper was having _none_ of that! _He_ was dominant in his household, afterall! Four feet barred retractable claws like steely knives and aimed them all right at the face of the man who _dared_ yank him from his restful perch in such an undignified manner! Luckily, Ar'lis' lightning fast reflexes allowed him to escape harm, save for a scratch to his wrist, when he hurled the angry black beast away from his unprotected face. The bronzerider watched him tumble through the air, righting himself just in time to catch the last branch with his claws, before falling to the ground.

**Oh, _shards_!** Ar'lis stared, completely mortified, down through the leaves. He couldn't see Pepper! Had he killed that damned feline? Shards, shards shards.... Gaiya was _never_ going to forgive him if he's killed that damned feline...

"_Pepper_! You're back!" To Ar'lis' relief, the cry was anything but distressed. "Oh, you wonderful, beautiful beast! Did you miss me? I missed you! I missed you so much! Thank the Egg you are safe!"

**Thank the Egg indeed,** Ar'lis thought darkly, both amused and disgruntled. Sliding quickly from branch to branch, the bronzerider finally made it to the lowest branch. He sat there for a moment, his feet dangling over the edge as he watched the girl with her pet. **As long as it makes her happy,** he thought. Better to have her happy than to have her mad at him.

"Ar'lis! Come down, I've got him." She turned eyes filled with gratitude towards the bronzerider perched up on his branch. "He's safe, thanks to you."

**No thanks to _Pepper_... Sharding feline.** But he grinned at her and jumped easily down from the branch. "Hold on to him tightly, sweetheart. I don't want to go chasing him up the tree again."

"Don't worry, I've got him," Gaiya said, beaming up at her feline's rescuer. She grabbed Ar'lis around the neck and brought his face down close enough to kiss his cheek soundly. "Thank you so much! I don't know what I would have done without you!"

It was amazing how quickly her moods changed, Ar'lis thought once she released his neck. He grinned down at her, completely ignoring the feline. "You're welcome, Gaiya."

Last updated on the September 4th 2005

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