a simple game [firebird]

[Zen]

It turned out that, after the woman strengthened her hand to be as good, if not better, than it had been before, she hadn’t needed much extra training to get her hand to cooperate like it had before. Granted, she now was more or less ambidextrous, but Ever didn’t go around announcing her ability to use both hands to do her jobs. Knowing some of the guards, that’d grant her more work. Luckily, right now was recreational time. Her hands hurt after tending to the low-lying plants the Weyr was growing.

Okay, sure, whatever, it wasn’t a ‘Weyr,’ but there was a clutch, and forever ago it seemed like, she’d stood for a dragon. She’d not Impressed. But most former prisoners had. That was so strange; there might have been perhaps one sole guard who’d Impressed. She knew for sure that a Harper had Impressed, but she didn’t care anymore. They’d grown up and would soon start Chasing and Flying. She was sort of wondering if the Opal, for that’s what they were calling Iiateth nowadays, would clutch, if she’d even Rise. She was such a gentle creature, it was hard to see her even being confidant enough to begin to Rise. Only time would tell, apparently.

“Jayne, fetch.” She said as she threw a rock high into the air. The brown firelizard attached to her shoulder disentangled himself for perhaps the millionth time from around her neck and shot into the sky. The brown’s form shot sinuously through the sky and he belched a small stream of fire from his mouth, courtesy a random firestone mine he’d found and, consequently mined on his own (he always had to be ready, for some insanely strange reason), and then quickly caught the still-red rock. He quickly betweened, simultaneously cooling the rock and making it back to Ever.

The rock plopped harmlessly onto Ever’s lap. Ever picked it up and tossed it in her hands innocently. Both of her firelizard’s eyes flashed as they followed the rock. Jayne had returned to clutching Ever’s neck. Bailey, Ever’s bronze firelizard lay beside her. The woman was on the ground, her back to the well of water. Several prisoners were watching her and her firelizards with interest. But none of them tried at all to try to take Bailey or Jayne; Jayne was known for being territorial, and Ever was his territory. Ever and, to a lesser extent, Bailey. Apparently, Jayne was waiting for another toss of the rock. Ever flipped it into the air experimentally, laughing as Jayne and Bailey’s eyes watched it sail through the air again.

[firebird]

Senar had been trying to relax among the grasses when he spotted the streak of fire from the firelizard. He hadn't been entirely successful at relaxing because of the presence of other prisoners, but at least trying to weave together bits of grass made for a good distraction. He probably would have just sat and watched the firelizard chase the rock if it weren't for his own brown.

When the brown in question let out a loud chirp and launched himself into the air, Senar scrambled up to follow him. "Desert!" he called in an exasperated tone, knowing it wouldn't do any good. The firelizard predictably gave no indication that he had even heard his name and fluttered over to the other two flits, cheeping when he got close. He seemed to be interested in Bailey's unusual markings in particular, and swooped down to have a closer look.

Senar scurried over to Ever, hoping that she wasn't upset about his inability to keep control of Desert. For that matter he hoped the firelizards weren't upset. "I'm sorry. He's not causing any trouble, is he? Desert, I told you not to just fly off like that." The brown cheerfully chirped in response.

[Zen]

It was Jayne who set up a low hiss in his throat as the strange firelizard zipped over. That rock was his rock; Ever was his Ever; Bailey was as much his as he wanted to believe, and here was this… this other firelizard trying to steal it away from him! The hiss was cut short from a wave of Ever’s hand. That didn’t stop him from glaring at the new firelizard, his eyes whirling red, his chest puffed out to about fifteen times its regular size. He glared at the brown with all the hatred of a guardian who was raised only taught to kill. But he didn’t move, only twisted his tail around her neck with unconcealed rage.

“Oh, no, he’s totally fine, Senar.” The woman said politely, her smile showed in her eyes. She hadn’t met Senar personally, at least not yet, so it might have surprised him that she knew his name. But Ever had been around long enough to glean information from the least likely places, and she certainly knew how to glean information. Besides, Senar was new and since her injury, Ever had helped out more and more with the Infirmary staff; he’d been through the same detox regiment as every other incarcerated person at Warden’s. She knew him from there.

“I’m sorry, I probably should introduce myself. I’m Ever. I’ve been here for as long as Warden’s has been here and I know how to find things out that some people might not know.” She said in explanation of her knowing his name. “Jayne, my brown, is highly territorial and usually angry at anything that moves near me, but he won’t attack unless I say, so you’re fine. Bailey’s almost just like him but he’s more reserved.”

She patted the ground next to her invitingly, “You may sit if you’d like. I find it’s easier to be here if you make friends early on.” She said and felt a twang of unease carry through her as she remembered Reeva. Reeva’s green had done this to her hand; now Ever had no pinky and a small bit of her ring finger left. It didn’t hurt anymore, but the pain of rememberance was still there.

[firebird]

Desert gave Jayne a polite chirp and dropped down to land near Bailey. After greeting the other with a high-pitched croon, he made no effort to do anything more than stare in fascination at the green streak on the bronze's hide. What a strange coloration! How lovely it was!

"Don't antagonize them, Desert," Senar ordered despite knowing that the brown wouldn't pay attention to him. He wouldn't even come when called, after all. So much for trying to train a firelizard messenger. "Are you sure it's okay? He's not very good at staying out of trouble."

Senar accepted the offered seat and turned so he could keep an eye on both of the browns. "So you've been here since the beginning?" he asked, mostly to keep his nervousness at bay. He didn't know this person, and while he knew that there was trouble in store for prisoners who got violent, that knowledge didn't do much to make him feel better. He was still subconsciously thinking that everyone was going to jump him and take his stuff, possibly after breaking his nose.

[Zen]

Jayne didn’t care what that mangy brown was doing; in fact, he could care less about what the brown was doing, as long as he was in no way touching or looking at His. The strange, obnoxious, wholly uncivilized creature had the worst habits. How Warden hadn’t culled him yet, Ever had no idea. Frankly, she was happy Warden hadn’t done so, for he had protected her once or twice. Apparently, that didn’t mean much for him, though, as he was still a creep and… well, no, that summed him up.

“It’s fine. Jayne, here, doesn’t stay out of trouble, either… at least until his mind is occupied by other things.” She answered; Jayne was a firelizard with the biggest one-track mind there ever was. “The only thing he readily does for me is giving me back this rock.” She said, showing Senar the rock in her hand, which was blackened by the fire that spouted from Jayne’s mouth.

Ever giggled at Senar’s question. “Yep; I was one of the first prisoners to come to Warden’s. I’ve been here for a very long time.” Though, really, three… four Turns wasn’t that bad of a deal. Considering the only place she could go after Warden’s was back groveling to her father, she rather liked it right here where she was.

[firebird]

Senar leaned over to peer at the rock, noticeably squinting. "I can't get mine to fetch at all. Not for lack of trying; Desert just doesn't listen." That firelizard was a contrary thing. Senar knew that the brown knew what he wanted; sometimes he would obey commands just after Senar gave up only to promptly return to ignoring everything. "How did they let you have firestone? I would have thought that any such thing would have been confiscated."

"I'm a recent arrival." Just keep talking. Conversation is good, remember? Don't just babble about firelizards; get some variety in there. "Still trying to fit in, but I'm not doing good at it." Wow, that was an awkward sentence.

[Zen]

"They didn't let me have it, so Jayne decided to go of his own accord and take some from some unknown source." Ever replied casually, as if it were a simple affair. For Jayne it sort of was. He always had firestone some way or another because he was always burping small bouts of fire. She had long ago stopped trying to figure out where it came from. As long as the Warden didn't see a problem with it, everything was fine. She hoped.

At Senar's change of topic, Ever grinned. "I know that. I believe I saw you when you were going through the detoxification process. How was that?" She asked, the grin never leaving her face. Then she shrugged, "It's always hard to fit in when you first arrive. I wouldn't stake much on it, you'll have friends here soon enough."

[firebird]

That sounded a little weird to him, though he supposed there could be a firestone seam somewhere around the prison. It probably wasn't particularly high quality firestone, in any case. Senar was pretty sure of it, anyway, though he admittedly wasn't an expert on such things. Pretty much all of his knowledge of the rock came from teaching ballads, and they never went into details as to where to find it or how to tell high quality from low quality.

At the mention of detox, Senar grimaced. "They didn't have to strap me to a cot like that. I'm not an addict! Just because I was caught delivering a package of Dust doesn't mean I'm addicted to it." That had been quite unpleasant.

[Zen]

Ever grinned. "Oh, I didn't mean anything wrong by it, Senar." She countered easily, "Everyone has to go through detox when they first arrive at the Weyr. I had to do it, too. It was unpleasant, definitely, but if there's nothing wrong with you, then they let you out early. There was nothing wrong with me, either."

But she could tell that this talk about detox was getting on his nerves, and she didn't want that. With her wounded hand, she pushed her hair out of her face. But her green eyes were looking at him earnestly. "Did you have Desert before you came here, or did you Impress him at the Weyr? Bailey came with me, but I Impressed Jayne here." She said, bringing the topic back to firelizards. That topic seemed to have gotten along better than the detox one.

[firebird]

Senar tugged a bit of grass out of the ground and began separating the roots. He didn't like talking about detox. It had been most unpleasant to him, though he supposed that Dust withdrawal would have been much worse had he been an addict. Back in Fort, he had seen addicts clawing at their eyes when they couldn't afford to buy any more. His partner had claimed to have seen someone claw his throat out, but then again she did tend to exaggerate. He missed her.

Senar perked up when the conversation changed to firelizards. He whistled at Desert to come to his arm, and was mildly surprised when the brown actually flew over. Admittedly, the flit attached itself to the top of his head instead of perching delicately on his arm, but even half-listening was a big improvement.

"The Weyrwoman hosted an egg hunt on the beach a while back," Senar explained as he reached up to scratch Desert under the chin. "I thought we were hunting boiled wherry eggs, so I was surprised when it hatched just as I saw it. Does she do that often?"

[Zen]

Ever laughed and shook her head in disbelief as he explained how he happened upon Desert. She had heard about that but had not even considered doing so; Bailey and Jayne were all she needed. “Doesn’t sound like what Leshta would do, no, but Semith certainly would make her do it.” She grinned then, remembering Semith’s egg-touching. It was a funny time, what with all the presents the gold insisted on having. “I don’t know how ‘often’ it happens, but there was a firelizard hatching in the Weyrling quarters some time back. Semith’s always different; I doubt she’ll even choose T’di’s Mordanth again when she Rises.”

Ever shrugged and threw the rock into the air. Jayne raced after it like a speeding bolt of pure energy and flamed the rock before catching it, betweening, and returning straight to Ever. The rock was cool when it hit her hands. Her green eyes praised the brown. Bailey just huffed. “I think it’s funny, the totally different personalities firelizards can have. Jayne’s gung-ho and Bailey’s just a loyal little bugger. Desert’s even more different than mine. I guess it’s sort of like humans and dragons. Perhaps whers, too.” Yes, Ever was talking just because she could; there was no rhyme or reason; she just wanted to fill up the empty space between conversations. Sometimes it made the people she was talking to feel better, other times it made them want to take off her head.