Catch the Thrill [Open]

[Sparrow]

Although Chan hadn't been very interested in getting caught up in the affairs of dragons, there was little she loved more than a good mystery.

As the rumors went, this Kelth's death was actually a pretty good one. Apparently there had been a bit more to the loss of Shador and Teval than an intoxicated trip at the head of the stairs. The reports from Healers had come back to say that someone else had physically ended their lives. Chan didn't know much about it, and so couldn't say how they had found the proof, but apparently the damage was different than that which stairs would inflict. Maybe the staircase simply hadn't been long enough to do it.

Chan had no idea, but she thought it was interesting, and had started making a point of listening to whoever seemed like they might have news to find out what she could. There were several ideas going around right now. The most popular, however, focused on Shador.

The guess was that Teval had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It had been speculated that this was the work of jealous lovers- it was no secret that Teval had a lot- but then, why kill Teval too? Rather, the guess was purists. Someone was so against the mutant dragons that they had killed one.

Maybe they would try it again, with another queen, or perhaps Wuith, since he had caught Nayarath.

It was all a pretty exciting business, in Chan's opinion. Bad- Danac needed a new Lord Holder and, well, the Weyr was probably affected- but thrilling, and she was getting caught up in it.

[wolflover1458]

"Get back here Flutter!"

The little Barred firelizard zoomed around and around, flitting from place to place and chirping happily, glad to be out in the open for once. Zipperacreous couldn't blame the firelizard for wanting to get up and about, especially when she had been staying silent with Petal and Shimmer for the last few hours.

But Zipperacreous happened to know that Flutter loved to explore things, which could get her into trouble. She didn't want her tiniest firelizard to get into any trouble. Something bad was going to happen to Flutter someday if she didn't learn to sit still. Why was it so hard for her?

Shimmer, perched on Zipperacreous's shoulder, cheeped at his clutchmate. His eyes were intensely focused on the loops and twirls of Flutter as she flew around. The Barred firelizard looked back at Shimmer, and then let out a chitter before flitting over to Zipperacreous and nestling on her other shoulder, making a little contented chirping sound.

Zipperacreous had spent the last few days going through everything she knew as a healer, and remembering what all the plants on Pern (that she knew about) were for. She knew that there was some commotion in the Hold, but she didn't know what it was. As soon as she gotten word about dragonriders she had been sure to stay far away, so she wouldn't have a chance to run into any dragons. It didn't matter what everyone else said. Dragons were scary.

Flutter, deciding she couldn't keep still, got up and zoomed away again. Zipperacreous watched her, but knew there was no point in calling her back. The little lizard would not be quenched. Petal, who had been carefully clinging to Zipperacreous's arm, took the chance to climb to her now-vacant shoulder.

[Sparrow]

Chan had been sweeping outside her house when a flitter whizzed by her head. Scowling, she waved her broom at it before returning to her work. Fire-lizards were not dragons, and thus she had a different reason for disliking them, but dislike them she still did. Fire-lizards were always hungry, and always trying to get into the food she was trying to sell. Luckily they were outside now and it couldn't, but just having one around... she didn't like it.

One day maybe she could get her hands on a queen that would guard her products. A tough Gold could have its uses, so long as it was obedient. Chan could hire a trainer for that.

When the flitter whizzed by again, Chan looked around angrily, and finally saw a woman with two more on her shoulders. That was most likely the culprit. "This yours?" She asked with an accusatory tone, pointing to the Barred.

She was glowering at the woman though, and felt her spirits lighten when she noticed the Healer's knots on her shoulder. A healer? That possibly boded well- a Healer likely had some information on the recent mishap. They were the ones who called it a murder instead of an accident anyways; likely very few people would have thought that if the healers hadn't.

But first that Barred needed to be gotten under control. Then they could chat.

[wolflover1458]

Zipperacreous had decided to head after Flutter, since it wouldn't be good to let her run amok. When she found the Barred, she was zooming around another woman, one that wasn't very happy about it. "Yes, sorry, Flutter come here" she urged the last part to the firelizard, who came back to find that Petal was where she had been. Annoyed, Flutter chattered at the Green firelizard, who didn't want to get in a fight but didn't want to move either. They started throwing chitters at each other while Shimmer watched them silently.

Before they could bicker too much, Zipperacreous grabbed Flutter and held her in her hands tightly. As much of a handful as they could be, she still loved them as much as she possibly could. After she'd manage to calm Flutter down, she turned to the woman she'd been annoying.

"I'm sorry about her, she gets excited," Zipperacreous apologized. It was a conversation she had had to make many times before. Ever since Flutter had been able to fly for any length of time, she had been little but a nuisance to almost everyone. Curiosity was not good for her.

Now that the firelizards had settled down, Zipperacreous had time to look at the person in front of her. She wasn't sure if she'd seen her before, but then, she'd seen a lot of people she didn't remember. It wasn't like she spent a large amount of time roaming around the Hold anyway. There were plenty of people here that she didn't know.

[Sparrow]

Very excited. Many Barreds were just like Greens in personality. Chan didn't understand why they couldn't have just stayed Greens. The flitter was under control now, at least- well, not so much under control as restrained. Flutter. Not the most creative name she had ever heard.

"Well, did you come by to buy something or were you just chasing your flitt?" Chan asked. Although she would have rather gotten to know the Healer first, she didn't ever sell anything if she started by chatting. She had to start with selling, much as she preferred the latter.

If she was lucky, even if the Healer wasn't here to buy, she would come in and get something anyways. Maybe she would be hungry, of course her fire-lizards would be, and Chan didn't mind selling something even if it was only going to be eaten by draconics. She knew people who did, but it seemed to her like pretty foolish business. Flitters ate a lot more than people ever did.

[wolflover1458]

Flutter wasn't very happy with sitting still, and she chirped unhappily. Zipperacreous tried to ignore her. She had different things to focus on. "I was just going for a walk actually, I've been inside for a while and they wanted to get out." At least, Flutter had wanted to get out. Petal and Shimmer could probably spend all day inside without caring.

Maybe taking a look inside wouldn't be a bad idea though, except that Flutter might knock something over, even if she wasn't trying. That was on thing that the Barred lizard was quite good at. It'd be so useful if she would know when to sit still and when she was allowed to jump around. Why couldn't she sit still right now? There were many other times of day in which she could jump and flit anywhere she wanted, but not right now!

As long as she was held down it wasn't much of a problem though. Flutter had finally decided to give up and just lay in Zipperacreous's hands with a little content, although her tail was still flicking back and forth. She didn't want to leave things hanging like this, so she decided to talk. It was always the second thing on her mind, if not the first. "So... what do you do here?"

[Sparrow]

"Oh." A walk probably meant she didn't even want to hang around. It had been a slow day today, and even Chan's children were out at the moment. Someone to talk to, particularly someone in the know, would be welcome, even if they had an annoying flitter in tow.

Her hopes brightened slightly as the woman asked about her work. Resting the broom handle in the crook of her elbow, she dusted her hands against each other. "I'm a baker. Breads, mostly. But if you're interested in something else and are willing to wait a bit, I can put other things together." Chan liked to view herself as being pretty versatile.

"Oh, I'm Chan by the way. You are...?" How odd, to know the name of one of her fire-lizards but not the woman herself. But they hadn't had much reason to get to that until now. At least they had; introductions usually led to people hanging around.

[wolflover1458]

Chan. That was an interesting name. Maybe not as interesting as her own, but a much better one. People could say it in one breath. "I'm Zipperacreous, but you can just call me Zip." That was always her introduction. No one ever wanted to have to say her full name, so she might as well give them her nickname when she introduced herself.

Shimmer was watching Chan with a wary look on his draconic face. Petal seemed quite content to stay where she was and only glance at the baker. Flutter was watching her with a more intense look, and she kept swinging her tail back and forth, as though it offered her some form of amusement.

A baker. She knew that firelizards loved food, and bread wasn't going to be any different, especially if it was fresh. "Bread is nice, especially fresh." It was always still nice and warm, which was better than when it had been cooling for a while. It seemed silly to talk to a baker about bread though, especially when Chan would know more about it than Zipperacreous could hope to.

[Sparrow]

Chan laughed. "Definitely calling you Zip." What a horrible name. Not sounding, it was interesting, but so long. As far as she was concerned, there was no reason for people to have long names. "Lets you just zip through your actual name, huh? Fits."

She glanced at the Blue flitter on Zip's shoulder, noting the wary look it was giving her. "Don't worry, all the food's edible," she assured the fire-lizard. No one was going to get sick eating her food. Chan didn't have a lot of money, but she could still make sure things were tidy and ordered. The biggest health risk in her kitchen were the rare days that Pebble snuck in, and that kagen was kept very clean.

Chan's face brightened. "I've got some that came out of the oven not ten minutes ago." As well as some rolls baking, but they had a while yet. Chan wouldn't step out if she had something near done. "You want to come in?"

[wolflover1458]

Shimmer looked at Chan, the look on his face changing for a moment. He decided that she wasn't really scary at all and brightened, now watching her with renewed interest. Flutter looked more excited now that food had entered into the conversation. She chirped happily and flapped her wings slightly as well as she could trapped in Zipperacreous's hands.

"I'd love to come in," Zipperacreous replied, happy that nothing bad had come out of Flutter having to much fun. She had gotten to meet Chan, and that could be considered as a bonus. Besides, she couldn't wait to see how Chan cooked things, and it counted as being outside, because it was someone else's house she was going into, and she wouldn't have to worry about being a healer then.

[Sparrow]

((I like the new sig ))

Chan noted the change in the Blue's expression. Much better. If she was going to have flitters inside, they had better be friendly towards her. Even though a nervous flitt would likely stay put, they had an annoying habit of putting their keeper's on edge as well. People seemed to think a lot of putting their animal's instinct over their own.

"Great." Chan smiled and held open the door for her. "Come on in." The room it opened into wasn't huge; Chan's bakery was the same building as her house, and it had been portioned to act as such. The kitchen, at least, could be used for both her home and her job, and lay between the two halves.

What would be visible to Zip would be a few round tables for people who ate in, a counter with windowed cupboards stocked with various breads and the occassional pastry, and a few shelves with various other supplies on them. It was a bit bland, but Chan preferred things to be easy to find over fancy. That was quite possibly simply because she couldn't afford the latter though. Chan definitely had nothing against pretty things.

[wolflover1458]

((I just had to change it. I couldn't stand the brown color.))

Zipperacreous followed Chan inside. The smell of bread was immediately apparent to her, and the firelizards smelled it as well; she could feel the excitement coming off of them. She saw some supplies, probably for cooking, on the shelves. She wasn't really sure what they did, and didn't think it mattered enough for her to investigate it. The whole place had the air of cooking food in it, anything with wheat really. It mostly smelled like bread, but that couldn't be all of it.

Flutter got a very renewed interest in being up and about again. She lifted her head up and strained to look around, not bothering to try and get free, but wanting to see everything around the place. It smelled like food to the little lizard, and she couldn't tell what direction it was coming from. Probably more than one.

Zipperacreous knew it wasn't hard to admit to herself that she didn't know to much about the different kinds of bread, but it interested her to think about them. They all tasted different, after all. She'd tried quite a few, but she really didn't know how many there were. "What kinds of bread do you make?" she asked with a slight smile on her face. The place just made her want to smile.

[Sparrow]

((Artemisth is still abhorred /brick'd))

Chan took putting her broom away as a moment to consider Zip's question. "Well, I make lots of kinds. Mostly wholemeal, some fruit breads. My kids are partial to sugar bread." Which figured. Most kids enjoyed sweet breads over wheat. At least it made for an inexpensive treat. Chan had a garden out back, and sugar beets grew well there. They were useful for a lot of things.

She shrugged. "So, some that are more like candies, sugar buns. And rolls and the like." Whatever she put her mind too, really. Chan hadn't found anything she couldn't manage without a little practice yet. "I can fry a mean egg too." She laughed. Less important, past for her few friends that treated this like a diner instead.

"What about you? You're a Healer, right? For animals or people?" Her husband had been a Healer, so of course she was interested. He had worked with animals though. Although he could stand a scrape or cut, human injuries had often made him queasy. Chan could understand that well; she was far from the best with the blood of any creature.

[wolflover1458]

((Poor Artemisth. D: I think she's funny. ))

Zipperacreous listened to Chan's explanation of all the breads. It fascinated her in the way, and satisfied a curiosity about just how much there was to cook. Usually she figured that bread was just bread and left it at that. Now she was discovering that bread was all sorts of different kinds of bread, and that only trying one kind was cheating yourself of some very interesting experiences.

But Chan had asked her something. She'd better switch to the now and answer it. "I'd have to say people, although I sometimes feel like I now more about what can heal than how to heal." Zipperacreous didn't feel like she really had a large amount of experience in healing people. She knew enough to be able to solve most health problems, but she'd never really been in a situation where something was going terribly wrong.

And yet she knew most all of the procedures of what to do by heart. She'd spent the last few days on that. Practice was a lot different from preparation though. Zipperacreous could only she wouldn't run into a really bad problem until she was ready to handle it.

[Sparrow]

((I think we'll have to get Hearth and Artemisth together again at some point. ;P))

Chan leaned back on the counter and nodded. There was definitely a lot more out there that could be healed than there were ways to go about doing so. Especially in her very limited experience with the job. Palton hadn't talked a lot about what he did, preferring to leave his work with his work and be able to just have a family at home.

"Did you have any involvement in the incident with Teval and Shador then?" It had been a MasterHealer, of course, that made the announcement about their cause of death, but surely journeymen had been there. High-ranking ones, anyways. Zip didn't look very old though- she likely hadn't been at the scene. But no one hadn't at least heard about what had happened, and a Healer ought to have some particular details.

There was little else being talked about now; the loss of a Lord Holder and queenrider in one fell swoop was big news. That murders were an extremely rare thing in Danac only added to the morbid excitement.

[wolflover1458]

((Definitely. I love how they get along. ;D))

What had happened to them, exactly? Zipperacreous knew something bad had happened, but she'd been busy hiding the whole time in case dragons had shown up. Now she wished she'd bother to ask exactly what had happened. "No. I was... busy. You probably know more than I do." No way was she going to admit she'd stayed inside so she wouldn't have to see a dragon. It wouldn't be good for Chan to think there was something wrong with her, especially since she had three firelizards.

It sounded to Zipperacreous like it must be big news, and she had the inkling that someone had died. How else would everyone seem to know about it? Everyone except her of course. Naturally, she preferred now knowing to being outside when there was a dragonrider at the Hold, but it was still quite pathetic that she didn't know what was going on. At least she could probably guess pretty well. If there were a lot of Healers involved, and there just might be, than it had to be something huge.

[Sparrow]

((Well, whenever you want to do another one... xD))

"Too bad." Chan thought about it. "Well, it's lucky for you, really, I'd think. I sure wouldn't want to be attending a murder scene, or dead bodies. And when they're of Lord Teval and a queenrider? Definitely not. I'd stay out of that." It would be way too much for her. Healers couldn't even be really trained in that- perhaps some could deal with cadavers while they trained, but it definitely wouldn't happen often.

"I'm a lot more worried about Teval. No family, it puts a new line up for Lord Holder." She shook her head. Likely nothing bad would happen with the new man, and Chan hadn't even been entirely fond of Teval and the things she heard about him. But it was change, and that always got her worrying.

[wolflover1458]

((Definitely))

They'd both died? That was even worse. Zipperacreous hadn't exactly expected that to be it. One less queenrider meant one less huge dragon to her, but no Lord Holder was a problem. What would Danac do about that? There were probably plenty of people that would want to take advantage of that. Zipperacreous knew that she was going to keep out of that whole business.

"I hope getting a new Lord isn't a dreadful process," Zipperacreous said softly. "And I hope the new Lord is up to the task, without taking advantage of it." There were good and bad things to being Lord. It had it's own set of quirks, and Zipperacreous knew that getting involved in it would not be a fun business in the slightest. It was lucky that she wasn't going to have to worry about it personally. Leave that to someone who would know how to handle it.

[Sparrow]

Chan shook her head. "It shouldn't be too bad, but it will be a little time consuming. What I've heard is that all the Lord Holders from nearby Holds have to get together and decide who his successor will be. Probably another person high up. Hopefully with a family this time. I really don't like the idea of a man without even a wife ruling." There had been rumors about why he didn't have one, but they were of the sort Chan preferred to avoid.

"The new one will probably be someone well known for being able to work without it all going to his head. High ranking. I'm not making any guesses now, but I expect the other Lords to make a good decision." She had to trust in the authorities. Now, if it was dragonriders in charge, she wouldn't feel the same. They had the tendency to put the vainest people in charge. But normal people were generally fine.

"So long as no one decides to start conquering." She laughed weakly. That was unlikely, and would be stopped quickly. Pern was not in such a state that they couldn't stop power-hungry people.

[wolflover1458]

Well, as long as the other Lord Holders were prepared to think of something, Zipperacreous didn't have to worry about it. "I'm sure other Lords should be capable of picking a new Lord. I hope it doesn't take them to long. This place will get better the faster there is a new Lord. It's about time we had a Lady Holder too." Zipperacreous still wasn't sure how Teval could have ruled without having a wife at all. Shouldn't he have been thinking forward a little? The chances of something happening to him were pretty high after all.

If the other Lords could pick someone good for them, a high-ranking person who would know how to take care of the Hold, and then maybe everything would just work itself out. Zipperacreous didn't know how much could go wrong with this, but it might not be very much at all. There must have been other times in history when they'd had to do something like this. There were plenty of high-ranking people who might even jump at the chance if they got to choose.

Not that Zipperacreous really knew. She'd never been involved in that kind of a matter, and she never wanted to be.