Disgusting Canines

Writers: Patrick, Vix
Date Posted: 13th June 2007

Characters: Saria, K'sper
Description: Saria meets K'sper and Bentith while on a walk
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 4, day 9 of Turn 4

Saria was walking by the lake again. It helped her to
relax, watching the water lap against the shore. Scout
was nosing his way through the rocks
and dirt and Saria didn't see him begin sniffing a
brown dragon with a purpose.

Bentith turned to look at the canine, his head lowered
as close as possible to the dog's level. }:My rider
says I may not eat your kind but that
does not mean I must allow you so near.:{

Saria chuckled despite herself. She couldn't picture
a dragon eating anything but herdbeasts. "Scout get
away from the nice dragon. You don't want to try his
patience." Scout looked at his owner before walking
off to a rock instead.

The brown's head swung so that he could study the
woman with the dog. In that laugh, somehow, he had
perceived a hint of what had amused her. }:You
heard me?:{

Saria nodded. "I did." She looked just as surprised
as the dragon was. It was a new experience for her to
know what the voices in her head were, but
she found solace in the fact that they didn't hurt
when they spoke directly to her. "I didn't mean to
offend you."

}:You did not offend me. You surprised me.:{

"It surprises me too sometimes." She said. "Who is
this rider who is so considerate to canines?" she
asked aloud, scared to use her own mind.

The dragon was silent for a moment. }:I have called
him. He comes.:{

"Oh I didn't mean for you to call him. I just wanted
to know who he was." She wasn't so sure that his
rider would enjoy the fact this girl could
talk to him.

}:It is alright. He was not busy.:{

"What do you mean I wasn't busy?" K'sper approached
along the beach, his eyes on his dragon. "Who are you
talking to?"

"He was talking to me." Why was it the one thing she
wanted to keep secret kept getting out?

The rider spun to look at her. "You?" He glanced at
his dragon, then back to her, his arm gesturing toward
Bentith. "Him?"

Saria nodded gravely. "Yes I can hear him and him me.
I can hear dragons." might as well get right to the
point this time.

"Any dragon? You can hear all of them?" K'sper cocked
his head to one side, regarding her with interest. "Do
they talk all of the time? Can you
always hear them?"

Saria nodded again. "They talk alot. And often times
I don't think riders hear them. They have so much
more privacy than we do."

**Do you do that?** he asked his brown. **Do you keep
things from me?**

}:You need not know everything.:{ Bentith replied. As
the dragon turned to address Saria, he included K'sper
in his comment. }:Now he will sulk.:{

"I will _not_ sulk," was the brownrider's indignant
reply.

Saria chuckled at the dragon and riders relationship.
It seemed so nice. "Don't sulk because of me. There
conversations can be very dull when they want to be."
She didn't mention the more interesting things she
heard the dragons talk about.

K'sper shook his head. "I know that they talk to each
other quite a bit, but I figured that some of the
conversations I only paid half a mind to because they
weren't addressed to me. I hadn't thought of him
chatting with others and not being able to hear."

"Oh no they do it all the time." Saria said absently
watching her canine. "Scout," She yelled at the
puppy. "You can't eat that. Get away!" The
canine looked at her momentarily before putting his
nose back to the ground to find something else.

}:He really is disgusting.:{ Bentith lowered his head
to observe the canine more closely. }:He would eat
that if not told to stop?:{

"Yes, well some find it disgusting to watch your kind
while eating," reminded K'sper.

"You also have to remember that his best ways of
telling what things are is his nose and his mouth. If
his nose can't tell him what it is, he'll
try his mouth." Saria told the dragon and rider with
a grin. It was moments like this that made her pain
almost worth it. She could barely feel her head.

}:Does he really eat anything? Or does he just taste
things?:{

K'sper opened his mouth to pass along the message, but
snapped it shut as he remembered that Saria could hear
the dragon.

"No. He just likes to make sure he's sure what it
is." Saria said as she snapped her fingers. Scout
came running back to his mistress to sit by her
feet.

}:He responds to that?:{ Bentith's eyes were fixed
upon the small creature.

"Perhaps you should take lessons from him," K'sper
remarked dryly.

}:Perhaps you should learn to answer to me instead.:{

Saria covered her mouth to keep the fit of laughter in
her mouth. When she felt she had her laughter under
control she said, "You too sound like
siblings with your bickering. Are all riders like
this?"

The brownrider shrugged. "I don't know. I guess that I
treat Bentith the same way I always treated my sister,
yet it's different. Whether that's
the way all dragons and riders talk to each other,
you'd know better than I would. I can only hear this
one dragon, so he's the only one I really know."

Saria blinked. "I suppose you're right." She said
absently. "But I only hear half of the conversation
most times. And I'm not very good at that." **Yet**
she told herself confidently. She hadn't let anything
stay her on her way, not the quake, not moving, and
she certainly wasn't about to let
this stop her.

"It'll get better with time," he assured her, "though
you'll probably never completely understand them. So
much of the time Bentith seems just like me and then
out of the blue he says something that is so different
from the way that I think that it takes half a day to
explain to each other what we mean.
I guess that's a reminder that they are separate from
us."

"That's a side you don't hear about in the Ballads.
And I know, my brother's a harper." Saria said,
picking up the squirming Scout to take the stick out
his mouth.

K'sper shook his head. "I don't know why. Maybe
because while a dragonrider is trying to explain to
the dragon he's too busy to write and when he
has time to set down words or to talk about it, he'd
just as soon forget it."

"That makes sense I guess." Saria said as she threw
the stick. Scout ran off like a mad beast after it
and came back trotting in victory with a different
stick, thinking it was the same one.

The brown dragon's head swung as he watched the pup.
}:Why does he do that?:{

"Do what?" The rider asked the question aloud staring
to figure out what the dragon meant.

}:Chase around and chew on things.:{ Bentith's eyes
followed the canine. }:He is not very bright, is he?:{

"He just gets confused." Saria said, wrestling the
stick from his jaws. "He likes the attention and wants
to keep it up even if he doesn't bring
back the same stick." Saria tossed the stick again
which sent Scout following it at a run. "And you
chase herdbeasts when you hunt. We just made it so he
doesn't have to hunt so he can chase other things."

}:That's not the same!:{ The brown's eyes were fixed
on his rider as he protested.

K'sper raised his hands defensively. "I'm not the one
who said it."

Bentith's head swung toward Saria. }:It's really
not.:{

"It isn't?" Saria asked the dragon with her hands on
her hips. "You don't think that because he doesn't
have to chase he'd stop? Would you stop chasing
things if K'sper caught all your meals?"

This made no sense at all to the brown. }:I eat too
much for my rider to catch all my meals. And it is not
his job to catch them - it is mine.:{

Saria could feel the dragons confusion and decided to
drop the point. He wouldn't get it before she had to
run off to prepare dinner. Speaking of which. "I'm
sorry K'sper, Bentith but I have to go. I get to make
the main desert for the wingleaders table today and I
can't get canine hair in it." She put her fingers in
her mouth and gave an ear-shattering whistle. Scout
came running up with another stick in his mouth.
Saria took a thin rope from her apron pocket and
looped it around the canine's head. "I hope to see
you two again sometime." She said happily.

K'sper nodded. "It's been my pleasure."

}:We will talk again,:{ was Bentith's reply.

Last updated on the June 19th 2007

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Disgusting Canines