So Not Proper

Writers: Estelle, Miriah
Date Posted: 6th March 2019

Characters: L'keri, Paetri
Description: L'keri learns that Patri is not as proper as she seems
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 9, day 23 of Turn 9
Notes: Mentioned: Harki, Rorela, J'kri (not by name)

L'keri

Wiping dust from her nose, Paetri pulled off her helmet and felt the
thick brain fall down her back. The drill hadn't been too exhausting,
though the addition of a few new riders always made it unpredictable.
Stripping Camilth of her straps, she groaned a bit under the weight
and sent the green towards the lake with the intention of following
soon after.

The brown landing nearby caught her attention and she waved at one of
the new riders that she had just thought about. She wasn't exactly
sure of his name yet, but it didn't hurt to be polite.

L'keri climbed down from Rhalith's back and removed the straps, rolling
his shoulders as he did so to relieve the tension. The first few drills
with a new wing were always hard, and he'd had to concentrate more
intently than usual so as not to make a fool of himself by getting out
of formation or missing a throw.

** It'll get easier. ** He waved back to the greenrider, his eyes
brightening. ** And I have good wingmates! Who's that? **

}: That is Camilth's rider. :{ Rhalith rose from his crouch and shook
out his wings. }: I think I will go and bathe, too. :{

** Go on, then. I'll come and scrub you clean in a while. ** The
brownrider patted his dragon's neck, then walked over to join the young
woman.

"Hello! I don't think we've met? I'm L'keri, Rhalith's rider."

"I think we were introduced when you joined the wing, but it was only
in passing." Paetri smiled and offered her hand. "Paetri, Camilth's
rider. I've watched you during the drills. You ride really well."

"Thanks! I'll tell Rhalith. It's mostly due to him," L'keri said,
shaking hands with an easy grin. It wasn't often that he got a
compliment like that from a pretty young greenrider. His day was looking
better already. "We used to be at Dragonsfall back when the Pass began,
and it seems like he remembers more than he realises about flying here."

"Oh, so you're both already familiar with flight paths and how we
drill. Well, that explains some of it." Her smile was demure, but held
a hint of mischief. She glanced over at the two dragons. "I'll help
you with Rhalith, if you help me with Camilth. It'll get done
quicker."

"It's a deal. Though I feel I'm getting the better half of the
bargain, since Rhalith's the bigger dragon," L'keri said as they
followed their dragons towards the lake. He shifted the riding straps
on his shoulder and put on his best innocent face. "We'll have to
think of some way I can make it up to you. I wouldn't want my new
wingmates to think I was taking advantage of the greenriders."

"I don't mind helping." Paetri then laughed softly at his expression.
"I'm sure I'll come up with something, but you're not taking advantage
really." She tilted his head. "And no, I'm not falling for the whole
innocent look, I've seen it way too often." She immediately decided to
like him' he seemed as though he would be a fun person to fly with.

"But it's my special innocent look. Tried and tested over the Turns,"
L'keri protested. He put down the straps a safe distance from the water
and shrugged out of his heavy riding jacket. "I can't believe it's not
working. Not even a little bit?"

She responded with a giggle of mirth and shook her head, her eyes
twinkling as she set down her own straps. "Nope. My weyrmate is a
bluerider and I spend a lot of time with other greenriders. I'm afraid
that the innocent look stopped working on me after Camilth's first
flight." She stripped off her jacket and her riding leathers, leaving
her in short pants and an undershirt. "It was a good try though."

"Ah, well. As Rhalith would say, you can't catch every green," the
brownrider said regretfully. He'd have to work on that look. Dropping
the rest of his riding gear in a heap by the straps, he collected some
sweetsand and scrubbing brushes. "Right, where shall we start?" He
looked over at the dragons, now wallowing in the lake. "Ladies first?"

"Well, you have to chase better if you want to catch them." Paetri
quipped with a little grin. She glanced at Rhalith. "No, let's get the
bigger dragon first. By then we'll already be wet and Camilth will be
easy."

"All right then." L'keri waded into the water and glanced back over his
shoulder, unable to resist a final attempt at innocence. "Nothing I like
better than getting wet with a greenrider."

Paetri choked, blushed, stared at L'keri for a moment and then bent
over with laughter. She had to lean against his brown to try to catch
her breath. "You...are...so...NOT...innocent!"

"Maybe that's why my look isn't working." L'keri started to massage the
sweetsand into his dragon's hide. "You have to actually be innocent.
That's where I've been going wrong, all this time."

"That does help, I'm sure." Still giggling, she followed L'keri in
scrubbing. A short moment later, a blue flit appeared over Paetri's
shoulder; he crooned and shortly began to "assist" by flopping down in
the water and splashing the brown with all the might of his small
wings.

L'keri turned to watch at the firelizard at the same time as Rhalith
did, the dragon rumbling in amusement at his smaller cousin's antics.
"Hey, little fellow." He looked over at Paetri. "Is he yours?"

"Mmhmm." She nodded, stepping aside and away from the splashes.
"That's Marli. He likes to help when he's not mooning over greens
fifty times his size." The tip of her tongue stuck out as she she
concentrated on scrubbing.

L'keri grinned. "A firelizard with ambition. I like him already." He
paused to ask Rhalith to unfold his wing so he could clean underneath.
"If you don't mind me asking, where did you get him? Is it easy to find
eggs around here?"

"That's one way to put it. Camilth thinks its funny until she's proddy,
then he tends to mope around when she rises. My brother gave his egg to
me." She glanced behind her and then quickly dodged aside as Marli sent
another shower of water to rinse Rhalith's hide. "Not here, but if you
go around the Dolphincraft Hall, there's always clutches. That's where
Marli is from."

"Perhaps I'll pay them a visit." L'keri couldn't remember ever having
visited that Hall, not at its current location, anyway. "Or I could ask
around, I suppose, and see if anyone has a gold who might be clutching
soon. I was thinking of it for my son," he explained. "He's going to be
twelve soon, and he loves dragons."

She blinked and looked at him, brows raising. "You don't look old
enough to have a twelve turn son." She tilted her head to the side.
"You must have started really young."

"I was rather precocious," he said with a broad smile. "Well, I was
nineteen when I heard he was on the way, and it was a bit of a surprise.
Luckily, the Weyr had good foster parents to help me out, because I was
definitely not responsible enough back then to be in charge of a baby."

"Oh." She considered him again. "Well, you don't look that old. "
Returning to scrubbing, Paetri moved down to the hind quarters. "Some
people are never old enough." She'd certainly met her fair share.
"You're not weyrmated or anything?"

"Oh - no. Not me!" L'keri climbed up onto Rhalith's foreleg and let the
brown lift him up to his back so he could scrub between his neck ridges.
Pushing back memories of his too-brief experience of being weyrmated, he
smiled down at her. "I'm too young and frisky for all that."

"Hey!" She stopped, her hands going to her hips, and waded through the
water to get a better view of him. "I'm still young! I'm only twenty!"
She eyes him. " And I can be plenty frisky when I want to be!"

"Really?" He looked down on her from the dragon's back, his eyes bright
and teasing. "I'm not sure I believe that. You seem very proper for a
greenrider."

If he could have seen her foot under the water, he would have seen the
annoyed tapping. Having Harki and Rorela as friends, and knowing
their thoughts on propriety, she was pretty sure that it wasn't a
compliment. "Well, you haven't seen me in my birthingday suit, now
have you? Would you like to?" She decided to make a play from her
friends' book and began to lift her shirt. **Camilth? Be a dear while
he's distracted, would you?**

The green eagerly complied with her rider's unspoken idea. Waiting
until just the right moment, she reared back from Rhalith's other
side. Fanning her her wings through the water, the copious amounts
were aimed directly at the brownrider.

L'keri had been leaning forward, not quite believing his luck, when the
wave of water hit him from behind. Taken off guard, he lost his balance,
flailed, slipped down Rhalith's soapy side and landed on his backside in
the lake.

He spluttered and spat out water. "You...you...are so...NOT proper!"

Camilth gave loud snorts of draconic laughter as Paetri tugged her
shirt back down and waded to look down at L'keri with a wide smile.
Harki and Rorela would be proud of that when she told them. "Not any
more I'm not." She wagged a finger at him. "You want to see that, you
have to earn it."

He got to his feet, shook himself like a canine, and wrung out the hem
of his soaking shirt. "Well, then. I'd better get finished scrubbing
Rhalith so we can start on Camilth, hadn't I?" He returned her smile
with an irrepressible grin of his own.

"Oh, it'll take more than that, brownrider." Paetri replied, tucking
her shirt in and giving a smile of her own. "But maybe it's a start."

Last updated on the March 15th 2019

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So Not Proper