Progression of life (Open)

[Jenth]

In the cool night air, Itunas watched or more heard his bronze scratching and poking around. It hadn’t been long since Sabre had left them, though why she would just get up and leave was beyond him. The wherlings were just maturing, and they too might leave on their own accord. A rather depressing thought, but he could understand. If Itusk hadn’t been in range to feel Sabresk in the days leading up to her run then he might be on the other side of Pern. Which is probably where she was by now…

From the darker shadows the man sighed, he never could get that woman to love him or even accept him. The child they had born together had been completely accidental, a result of their partners lust, and despite all his protests Sabre had given their daughter away to the Hold. Maybe in a few years he would petition to bring his daughter home and raise her up to share his way of life with whers.

((All I had))

[Sparrow]

Lyanni would most definitely not be any solution to Itunas' problems, but that wasn't the reason she had come within his vicinity anyways. It wasn't like she even knew, or particularly cared, that Sabre's disappearance had left him unhappy; she hadn't much liked Sabre, she didn't expect others to either. There was a new Goldhandler somewhere, it really didn't matter that the first had moved on.

But this wasn't at all what Lyanni was thinking about, she was just following Lyask as the Green blindly snuffled her way across the ground. The wher's small wings, as usual, flexed slowly open and closed as she walked, an absent habit that would be missed by most in the dim light. Neither had much to do just then, but Lyask liked moving around and Lyanni knew it was better to not let the wher go places unsupervised.

Lyask lifted her head and snorted a bit more irritably than usual when she noticed another wher nearby. Lyanni paused, raised her eyebrows, heard a sigh, and located Itunas. "Someone doesn't look too perky." Her voice was a bored sort of sarcastic, someone was there so she may as well say something, but she wasn't going to try and start some sort of intense conversation. If Lyask didn't linger, neither would Lyanni.

At the moment though, it didn't look like the Green had many plans to be going further than she had. With a soft thud Lyask dropped her rump to the ground, and then she made an uncharacteristic greeting sort of noise to Itusk. Unhappy situations had a tendency to put her in a vaguely better mood.

[Jenth]

Itunas saw Lyanni, Lyask first though, but had chosen not to say anything. It was sort of how the handlers of the Labyrinth went about things, keeping mostly to yourself. They also followed their partners pretty closely above ground, not that there was much out here the whers couldn’t handle. Especially a larger wher like Itusk, it was just keeping him out of trouble and not let him go too far.

A bored sigh had given him away, the man allowing Lyanni to see him in what better lighting they had available. “No, not really…” It was overall a variety of things, but mostly loneliness. Day in, day out, watching and talking to the bonded of Sabresk’s clutch made him feel old. Not to mention he no longer had Sabre as a love interest and he dreaded when the young greens would start their runs. He was only male afterall, and every man had his needs but the young girls he would never touch willingly. “Seen the new Goldhandler yet?”

Itusk looked up from his sniffing under a bush, having sworn he saw something run under it earlier. Whatever it was it was long gone now. Seeing Lyask he abandoned his searching to greet her, warbling and going so far to stretch out his muzzle to near touch her. Unlike his partner, Itusk seemed nearly unaffected but the absence of his queen. He was still the largest male wher, with only one other bronze for hours around. Even if Aylask hadn’t come to fill the vacant space, he had been left with a handful of greens to keep him content.

[Sparrow]

"I haven't even heard of a Goldhandler who goes out of her way to meet Greens yet." No one in their right mind wanted to visit Lyanni and Lyask anyways. They were both content with that too. "What about you?" Lyanni hadn't even heard much about the newcomer yet, just the obvious things. She was female, she was a Goldhandler, she was new. Maybe no one had seen her yet and that was why no rumors had managed to start.

Lyask raised a lip in a quiet snarl when Itusk came close, feeling that warning enough to the Bronze. She wasn't one of those Greens who just existed to keep the males in good moods, and the higher the rank, the less she liked any wher. Metallics all seemed to think they had the right to anything and everything and Lyask very much thought otherwise.

[Jenth]

Itunas shook his head, "She hasn't made much of an appearence yet. Itusk tried sniffing her out but he either was sent away or wandered off." Either were likely but it was the eariler more probable. The bronze strived to be a ladies man and overly flirtatious if given the chance. Sometimes the man thought the wher might be happier with a woman for a bonded partner.

Itusk withdrew from the green's snarl, but no more then a few steps. He was only trying to be nice, but had it thrown back in his face. After a few moments of just staring at Lyask the bronze gave in, snorting loudly before turning and returning to his bonded side. A gentle butt in the side was rewarded with an affectionate scratch on the eye ridge.

"You and me both, buddy. Maybe we should take our chances wandering the open roads again." The pair had only stayed because of Sabresk and the clutch, but now neither were left. There wasn't much reason to stay except for advising the younger pairs and providing the females more choice in their runs.

[Sparrow]

"Ah." That wasn't much of a surprise to Lyanni. Being new to anywhere never put things in good moods, and this was a female, and a wher; she probably wasn't letting anyone but her handler around just then. "Guess that's what to be expected."

Lyask rumbled conceitedly as Itusk backed away, pleased by her easy win. As the Bronze eventually just left, she got back to snuffling around. Something apparently caught her attention; before long the Green was digging, although it was hard to guess why.

Lyanni raised her eyebrows as Itunas spoke. No, he wasn't talking to her and her expression was probably lost in the darkness, but it didn't sound like a particularly intelligent statement. "You want to leave when a new Gold just came and there aren't really any other Bronzes about?" Yes, technically the Bronze from Sabresk's hatching was old enough to mate, but the chances of him catching a Gold when, as far as she knew, he hadn't even nabbed a Green yet, weren't very likely.

"That is, unless you have plans to chase Sabre down or something." Lyanni rolled her eyes. That was probably the worst thing anyone could attempt; obviously she hadn't wanted to hang around.

[Zen]

It wasn't that strange to be a wherhandler. No, being a wherhandler, though not as prevalent as, say, being a dragonrider or a person of the crafts, was still a worthwhile job. The woman had long since been a wherhandler, and she and her wonderful gold had been together for a long time. However, she had only come to this Weyr a short while ago. That in itself was disconcerting, strange. It seemed many people had already forged such strong relationships that accepting someone new was hard.

Ayla was new, so she had no previous relationships, and Aylask was very close to running. The woman pushed the longest pieces of her hair back from her face as she rounded the corner. There seemed to be two Wherhandlers there, conversing. Ayla blinked and swallowed. Aylask, who was following her bonded, snorted as she fixed her eyes upon the Bronze and Green Wher before her. She did not speak to Ayla--she rarely did, if ever--but instead sent her a picture of the two Wherhandlers and her speaking together.

But Ayla couldn't! Shyness--something that always struck at the most random and completely worst times--set in. However, Aylask had no intention of letting hers get away with doing anything stupid, so she stalked forward with feline grace. Aylask was a strange Wher, being nice to any Wher she saw. Thus, after noticing Lyask was searching for something, she, intrigued as well, set to watching the green. She was perfectly fine with just watching, and no green would dare shoo her away.

Ayla had no choice. Her gold had handled the situation for her, and in a way that she disliked. She stepped forward, and attempted again to brush her hair out of her face. Then, when she was close enough to the two gathered before her, she said, "Hello, I am Ayla. This is my Wher, Aylask."

(( Hope you don't mind me joining! ))

[Jenth]

((By all means )

Itunas laughed at the thought of chasing after Sabre. It was mostly of denial, but he was making his peace for that woman. "If I chased her it would only be the same. That woman fostered out her own daughter without a second thought, how far would she go for a man she hates?" No, he was letting it go. The bronze handler couldn't even remember what he had seen in Sabre anymore, but that's sometimes how love went.

Besides, it wouldn't be fair to the new gold handler and her wher afterall. Piyosk was bearly full grown and the only other bronze, but there was some more choice if adding the 3 young browns; Gorrisk Chloesk and Shiask. Itusk had sired them all, it was a good thing that so far inbreeding amoung firelizards, dragons and whers hadn't shown any effect on the younger generations as it looked that soon the Labyrinth would be completely decended from the same father.

Itusk noticed the gold stalk into veiw to watch the green dig. Lyask wouldn't like that very much, expecting conflict from which the green would come off second best. None the less, the bronze crept forwards reaching his muzzle out to Aylask in the same greeting he had offered Lyask.

"Ah! We were wondering when you would finally appear." Itunas spoke up. In his eyes though he was examining and judging their newest addition.

[Sparrow]

"I wasn't aware she hated you." Sure, Sabre didn't like the average person, but that was an idea Lyanni could compare too. But hating people was something completely different. Why would hate Itunas? His Bronze had sired a healthy enough clutch, the man himself siring a child really wasn't grounds in Lyanni's opinion.

But if she had, it was even better she left and hopefully they'd get a friendlier Goldhandler, even if it would probably make little difference to Lyanni and Lyask. Of course, right about then the new Gold showed up as though cued by the Greenhandler's thoughts, and Lyask paused in her digging to glower at the newcomer. What right did she have to watch her?

Jumping to her usual conclusion - the Gold obviously planned to steal whatever Lyask was after - the Green promptly sat down on her little hole and growled softly. This was hers, and Lyask did not, unlike the Bronze now sneaking up to try and nuzzle Aylask, have any reason at all to make the Gold like her. It wasn't like she needed to attract females.

Lyanni watched her wher for a moment, quietly pleased by Lyask's simple determination, then glanced up at Ayla as she introduced herself. "I'm sure we could figure that." It wasn't as if no one had been talking about the new arrivals to the Labyrinth. She gave Itunas a surprised look when he spoke, she hadn't been wondering one bit when Ayla would show up- hadn't even expected it- and he had been contemplating leaving.

Itunas was no better than his wher; both were all a person could really expect of a male.

[Zen]

Have you ever felt like you weren't wanted? Like you were there just because you had to be, because they needed something that you had, and they didn't have to like you for it? That's how Ayla felt, the poor woman. However, despite her momentary shyness, the woman began to act like a Gold wherhandler should. She gathered up all of the emotions that told her they didn't want her and stuffed them into a corner. A very old, dusty corner. She'd come here because she'd wanted to, after all.

She was pretty sure that the greenhandler didn't like her at all, but the bronzehandler, well, Ayla couldn't tell his thoughts. The woman smiled readily, "I know you probably knew, it's just nice manners is all." She prompted for the woman's name, though she was pretty sure she wouldn't get it any time soon. However, she turned to the man, for she believed she knew who he was. "Are you, by any chance, Itunas? You have the only full-grown Bronze of the Weyr? I had heard there were two, so process of elimination."

Aylask saw Lyask's hostile behavior toward her and huffed. No, she did not want anything that Green was trying to dig up, she had just been interested. Nevertheless, the gold turned away; she didn't want anything to do with a grumpy wher. Of course, she could have told Lask to give it all to her, but she was a benevolent queen. Instead, she turned her attention to Itusk, whom had just nuzzled her. She growled happily in reply, and nuzzled back before moving away from Lyask. If Lyask didn't want to be nice, Aylask would ignore her.

[Jenth]

"Ay, I'm Itunas. And this is Lyanni, we're the senior Handlers of the Labyrinth." At least Ayla was polite and civil, something Sabre had very rarely and in small doses. Despite what Lyanni might think he was not concidering the appearence of the Gold Handler, Itusk being the most likely suitor for Aylask one thing will lead to another no matter what he thought. Besides, he would like some time to clear his head of one female at the moment.

Itusk chirped and shrilled happily, shadowing the queen closely. Would she like something to eat? Lyask wasn't going to share and he was more then willing to find something for her. Spreading his wings which were large for a wher he was going to take flight before a sharp whistle stopped him. Itunas didn't want to bronze to go off hunting unnessesarily, having not even waited for a responce. With a few more whistles the bronze sank back down again.

[Sparrow]

Lyanni shrugged, and Itunas introduced her before the desire to do so herself even got a chance to consider triggering. Manners weren't a big thing in the Labyrinth, and the usual anti-social attitudes a lot of wherhandlers developed from living in the dark mostly with just their wher was strong her. The good manners Lyanni had grown up with had faded not long after Impressing Lyask; as far as she could tell, no one expected anything from people with Greens of any sort anyways.

Listening to Ayla go on about how she had figured out Itunas was Itunas didn't do much for Lyanni's opinion of her either. Of course it was obvious, and so were the reasons. She didn't need to be told them. "Tolerant Gold you've got there." It would have been more interesting if some sort of fight had broken out between the females, but probably better that it hadn't. For all of Lyask's age and strength, she would still probably lose to a queen.

The Green huffed right back as Aylask turned her attention to Itusk, then set to digging again. This dirt was more interesting than a pair of metallics. She did notice when Itusk started spreading his stumpy wings, and had no idea what that had to do with anything. ((I thought whers didn't really fly - well, except for in Dragonsblood. xP But I don't trust anything Todd says. x.o)) All the whistling irritated her and she growled at Itunas next. Lyanni didn't stop her; she wasn't a fan of whistling either, and Lyask wasn't hurting anyone.