Sandstorm
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Kastaka, Paula
Date Posted: 18th March 2009
Characters: Aishara, Vasha
Description: Vasha helps Aishara wash her dragon.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 1, day 27 of Turn 5
With so few remaining Candidates, and everyone so excited about the young weyrlings, Vasha found herself spending more and more time just standing around staring into the weyrlake. There was dragonhealing apprentice work, and Creature to tend to, but she found she could do most of her hidework in the candidate classes that seemed rather pointless without any eggs on the Sands, and the small firelizard mostly just ate and slept, ate and slept.
}: Auymith! Watch where you land! You showered her with sand! :{ Aishara scolded her lifemate when she landed too close to the girl. Her wings created a cloud of sand. She gave the green's neck a thump. "Sorry about the sand storm! She still thinks she's a small hatchling!" she apologized.
After she'd finished shielding her eyes and knocking the worst of the sand out of her hair, Vasha smiled up at the rider. "No trouble at all," she said, "I should have seen her coming." She looked admiringly down the smooth emerald green hide of the dragon who just nearly landed on her.
"She really should have landed farther away," Aishara said and slid off from the green's back, her arms loaded with bucket, sweetsand, oil jar and brushes. Some of the stuff fell from her.
"You want a hand with that?" asked Vasha as she got a hand to the oil jar, steadying it before it could empty quite all of its contents on the ground, and picked it up along with the brushes.
"Yes, thank you. You wouldn't think you need this much stuff just a bathe a dragon," Aishara replied and sighed.
"It is a pretty involved process, isn't it?" replied Vasha cheerfully, following the rider. "Sometimes I'm glad I have skin and not hide, it seems to be much easier to take care of."
"Yes, it is," Aishara said. She glanced the girl. "Are you voluteering to help?" she asked with sly grin.
"Sure, it's not like I have anything better to do until Creature wakes up again." Vasha vaguely indicates the oddly shaped lump that she's carrying in a sling that appears to be made of wing-mending cloth.
"Creature?" Aishara wondered.
"Fire-lizard," explained Vasha. "I'm not very good at names," she added apologetically. "It's just as well dragons name themselves, really."
Aishara tried very hard not to laugh. Firelizard with a name Creature. "Well, Pepper and Butter aren't much better," She said, remembering some canine pups her father had allowed her to name.
"You have fire-lizards?" asked Vasha, misinterpreting Aishara's words
"No. My father is a beastcrafter and he breeds canines among other things, and he often let me invent the names for the puppies," she explained.
"Ah, right," replied Vasha, dumping the oil at the edge of the water along with the oil paddle. "Named after the fur colour, or something else?"
"Mostly by fur colour," Aishara admitted. "Butter was kind of butter-coloured and Pepper was black."
"Oh, I was thinking a Pepper would be kind of speckled." Vasha advanced into the water. "Where should we start?"
"No, it wasn't. Anywhere you want to."
**Go and get wet,** She told Ayumith. She watched the green to slid into the water with them. The green dove under water and returned, making big waves. Aishara groaned.
Vasha held her hand out for the sweetsand, unaware of the wave forming behind her until it crashed down over her head, sploosh! She spluttered a little and shook her head, grinning as she wiped the water out of her face. "She's a playful one," she commented as she got some sweetsand on her brush. "Anything in particular I should know about her before we get going?"
"She's still young. No, nothing special. Just watch out for the tail. She's tripped me several times with it when I'm washing her."
"Mm-hm." Vasha headed out to a flank of the dragon and started brushing. "How long have you had her?"
"A full Turn now. Faranth, how the time flies!" Aishara was surprised to notice how long it was since her Impression.
"Still not quite used to it, huh?" guessed Vasha, washing down the dragon's left flank.
"Especially since I didn't even Stand and had no candidate training!" Aishara said and scrubbed the tender spot just beneath the wing.
Vasha paused a moment to look at the rider again. Now she said that, she did look kind of familiar, although obviously weyrling training and flying Thread had changed her somewhat from the girl that Vasha had watched clambering down from the Stands to claim her dragon. Vasha had been too young to Stand that time, although she'd been trying to get her foster mother to let her.
"You've done very well, then," Vasha encouraged her as she looked over the green's hide. "Not a mark on her, hide as clear as the day she hatched. Not many riders that can say that after six months in the air."
"Thanks," Aishara said. She looked Ayumith fondly. "She is the one for me," she said. "And I know how cliche that sounds. But she is."
Vasha smiled with a trace of sadness. She hoped there would be one for her, some day. But for now she was happy to pitch in with helping people with their dragons anyway.
Last updated on the March 18th 2009