Bath time (open)

[ShadowReine]

B'can would not have objected to assistance bathing Apolloth.

The tan had already had an ego, though, and since flying Jorindath he had been insufferable. And that meant vain. He was demanding to be bathed more often.

Once the eggs were hatched, B'can had been assured his dragon would likely return to normal...that is to say, not alternately puffing himself up and playing the solicitous mate towards the egg heavy violet.

Well, he could deal with it. It was the price of Impressing one of the larger males...if one was 'lucky'. Then there was Inolyn herself. He was getting more and more...used...to her company. He even had the thought that he would be far from unhappy if Apolloth happened to twine tails with Jorindath again.

For right now, he was trying to get the almost cream colored hide perfect. And there was quite the lot of it. And Guess and Flirt were being way less than helpful. "Grah. Firelizards!"

[trinn]

Loping down the grassy slope that led to the lake, Teodora idly twirled a lock of hair around an index finger. How was it that she had managed to run out of chores? The day was not over yet, and she had nothing to do! Teodora hated doing nothing. Her wandering steps had thus taken her down to the lake, where she spotted easily the large tan receiving a bath from his rider. She recognized the pair as B'can and tan Apolloth, Jorindaths weyrmate. Coming to a stop near the edge of the lake, some yards away from the pair, Teodora wondered if she should leave and let them be alone. They might not appreciate a candidate watching them go about their business. As she debated this issue, Teodora couldn't help but feel sorry for B'can. He had an awfully lot of dragon to wash. She smiled unconsciously when the firelizards came into sight. Wonderful creatures, in her opinion.

[ShadowReine]

"Watch out," B'can called from under his dragon's neck. "Hang around here idle with a Candidate's knot on and somebody might make you help bathe a dragon."

It was a semi-serious threat. He was half tempted to call the girl over to assist him. She had to learn how to do this task, after all, even though the statistical chances were that her dragon would be far smaller. Apolloth was a great beast, the size of some of the smaller bronzes...and a color that showed the dirt more.

Not as much as Tyrth. It was a good job, for Gwenduinne's sake, that the white dragon *was* so small.

Guess flitted over to the Candidate, and flew a circle around her, eyeing her shoulder. He knew that if he landed on B'can's with the rider stripped down for dragon bathing he would get into trouble. But this was a nice shoulder. A perfectly usable shoulder...but would she yell at him?

[trinn]

Startled out of her reverie by B'can's voice, Teodora flinched as if caught spying. At first, she couldn't spot the rider, until she noticed an arm by the dragon's neck. Apolloth really was a gigantic beast. Before she could think to form a response, one of the firelizards fluttered over, gliding about her head. "Hello handsome lizard." she said pleasantly to the brown, smiling up at it. What was he looking at, anyway? she wondered, seeing that his eyes had targeted something near her shoulder. Perhaps he wished to land? Hoping she wasn't being too bold, Teodora raised an arm to the lizard for him to alight on. As she waited for the brown to make his choice, she looked back over at B'can. "I wouldn't mind." she said earnestly. "I've already finished my chores and am quite lost as to what I should do now. If you've any task for me, I'd be happy to complete it." She looked at him expectantly, hopefully. If he had nothing for her to do, she'd be forced to wander about some more until someone gave her something to accomplish.

[ShadowReine]

B'can laughed. "Well, come on in, then, and I'll teach you how to properly bathe a dragon. You'll need to learn at some point, why not now?"

Apolloth rumbled a greeting to the Candidate, although he did not lower himself to speak with her. Unlike some of the blues and greens, Apolloth preferred the mental company of his rider and only his rider.

Guess did indeed touch down on Teodora's arm, chittering cheerfully to her.

"So. I'm B'can. This great hulk of a tan is Apolloth." A muzzle nudged right into him. "Well, you are. I swear you're bigger than a bronze or two. That brown there is Guess, and Flirt is flitting around somewhere."

He hoped she would introduce herself. Then he could get her properly in the right mental slot. She was, of course, a Candidate. And, thus, very important indeed. VERY important.

[trinn]

Glad to finally have something to do, Teodora came around the lake to be closer to Apolloth, holding her arm steady so she didn't unbalance the brown that had taken his perch there. She could feel the prick of his talons through her thin clothing, and knew that one wrong move might have him sticking them in deeper. Of course, any harm to herself would be completely her fault. "Thank you, rider B'can. I am most grateful, and pleased to meet you all." She gave a slight bow, as much as could be afforded with the lizard on her arm. "I'm Teodora, a very hopeful candidate." she gave him a smile while kicking off her boots. The next hatching would hopefully make her a rider, and Teodora was aware that Apolloth had flown Jorindath. It could be one of the tan dragon's offspring she'd be impressing. Transferring Guess to her shoulder, Teodora was able to roll up the legs of her pants and sleeves. Thus prepared, she waded into the lake to stand next to B'can. From this vantage point, Apolloth's size really was impressive. "Wow, he really is mammoth!" she exclaimed before she could check herself. "I mean, he's very impressive." she added, trying to amend her outburst.

[ShadowReine]

B'can laughed. "The golds are even bigger, although there won't be a gold in the next clutch. We're not sure on the chances of a violet. If you Impress in this clutch, chances are the largest the dragon could be would be a brown or a sky...they're female, and about the same size as a brown. Apolloth here is a longer tan, he's in the small bronze ranges."

He stepped around the dragon. "We use the sweetsand to bathe them. A dragon's hide is both very tough and very fragile at the same time. It's not just a matter of getting them clean, but of dealing with any patches where the hide might have become weak or stretched. This is particularly important with young dragons...a patchy hide that isn't tended can be permanently damaged. Very young dragons generally have to be oiled all over. A full grown beast like this only needs that treatment rarely...most of the time, we just spot oil."

Apolloth snaked his head around to fix one whirling eye on the Candidate. Clearly he was curious about her...but then, he was not forgetting (thanks in no small part to a rider who was far more proud than he would admit) that those eggs were his offspring. Of course, they needed the *best* candidates.

[trinn]

Teodora listened, intrigued, to B'can detailing the clutch hardening on the sands. She really wasn't too picky what color she got, only because she constantly reminded herself that their was a very good chance she would end up walking off the hatching sands alone. A depressing thought, to be sure, but one that had to be considered. "Any dragon's a good dragon in my mind, sir." she said decisively, before focusing on what B'can was saying about the bathing of dragons.

She followed B'can closely as he moved around his dragon, repeating mentally to herself what he said aloud. The water rippling around her legs was warm, she noted absently. A perfect day for a swim. She was a little startled when Apolloth brought his head around studied her in a rather calculative manner. The stare was a little unsettling, and she found herself suddenly nervous. Was she being judged? Teodora gave the dragon a small smile, unsure what to do under his direct gaze.

[ShadowReine]

B'can grinned. "I think he wants his eyeridge scritching," he noted as he moved to start to scrub the dragon. "Don't be afraid to press fairly hard...a dragon's hide can take Between. WE get cold. They don't. At least, they don't admit to it."

Her attitude was healthy, at least. Not a queen-digger...and Nyocia had had its fair share of those over the turns. She'd make a good...barred, he decided. She struck him as a barred rider. A little too steady to match well with a green. He wasn't going to voice it out loud, though.

"Dragons are also hedonists, for the most part. They definitely enjoy a lot of physical attention, from their riders...and often anyone else they can con into providing it."

[trinn]

At the mention of the soul-chilling Between, Teodora surpressed a shudder. If there was one thing she didn't look forward to as a rider, it was Between. She'd never transferred through herself, but she had heard enough about that frozen nothingness to construct a good idea of how it would be. Every time she began to feel nervous when thinking about it, she concentrated on the dragon that would be with her in that pitch black, if she managed to impress, that is. "Well, I'd be happy to oblige." she said with a smirk, reaching out for Apolloth's eyeridge with her fingertips. She was gentle at first, unsure exactly how to go about such affection, but, remembering B'can's advice, Teodora started scratching a bit more thoroughly. "Is that allright?" she asked, enjoying the scratching herself. The eyeridge was surprisingly soft.

[ShadowReine]

The tan let out a soft croon that might have some resonance in common with a feline's purr.

"I think it's perfect," B'can laughed, starting work on scrubbing his dragon's hide. "Do you have any preferences or desires...or expectations...about color. I personally honestly thought I was likely to get a brown."

But he had qualities, clearly...of course, in the days when tans had not existed, he would probably have bonded a brown, yes. He was not quite arrogant enough for bronze.

Apolloth was arrogant as any bronze, but it was, he had been told, different. Bronzes had their own...special...attitudes. So did greens, in a completely different way.

Guess flitted off the girl's shoulder to land on Apolloth's back, between his wings. He looked like a dark splotch on the dragon's almost cream colored hide.

[trinn]

Hearing Apolloth's purring, Teodora was encouraged and continued giving the tan's eyeridge a good scratching. She paused mid-scratch when B'can asked her which color she'd prefer. As she thought about it, she started again on the tan's eyeridge with less zeal as she thought over the rider's question. After a moment she finally gave a small smile and glanced over at B'can, "To be perfectly truthful, I haven't given it much thought. I suppose, in the back of my mind, I've wondered about it." Her smile faltered a bit as she continued, "It's not really the color that matters to me, but, well, the attitude." she paused as she thought of a better way to say it, flipping her hair over her shoulder with her free hair. As she did so, a small part of her mind was frustrated that she'd forgotten to braid the long mahogany locks. "I want a dragon that doesn't mind hard work, a dragon that enjoys the work she is given and appreciates what she has." Teodora frowned, having trouble putting her thoughts into words. "I want a dragon that I can rely on, and she on me." she finally said with a decisive nod. Then, remembering the rapture that controlled riders when their dragons mated, Teodora was quick to add, "just, maybe no males. I'd like a female." What she didn't say aloud was that she wanted any dragon because it would be a life-long friend, someone that would understand her better than anyone else. Teodora smiled again and renewed earnest scratching for the Tan.

[ShadowReine]

B'can nodded. "You strike me as too feminine for a cross-sex impression. Most of the female blueriders and brownriders have a bit of the man about them. Hard to explain. And the male greenriders, even more so. But there are likely to be quite a few barreds in this clutch. A green or two...the last tan-violet clutch had no greens, but that may have been a fluke. And probably a couple of skies. Hard to tell. For one thing, it's Apolloth's first siring."

Which might affect things. Odd stuff was going on with the various mutations. They were yet to determine whether or not skies were fertile, for that matter. Barreds, thankfully, were not. "And you can always rely on your dragon. Always. That's an unbreakable rule of riderhood. Don't worry on that front."

[trinn]

"I know what you mean." Teodora said, thinking about the woman who had impressed male dragons, and the men who had bonded to female dragons. The woman didn't necessarily appear masculine, but their attitude was what conveyed the sense of manliness. There was something in their stride, they way they talked, even their manners, one could tell. And, the same was true for the men as well, except they took on more feminine qualities. As B'can went on to describing possible colors of the clutch, Teodora started thinking about the odd mutations that had sprung up. What was the cause, exactly? The unique dragons acted normally, so far. And at least they could produce, as Apolloth and Jorindath proved. The more eggs the better, in Teodora's opinion. They needed lots of dragons to fight that cursed thread. Her left arm began to grow tired from scratching Apolloth's eye ridge, so she switched to her right arm.

"I am glad, that dragons and human can share such a close bond. I'm sure it makes fighting thread a bit more bearable." She glanced over at B'can, squinting in the bright sunlight.

[ShadowReine]

B'can laughed. "I'm pretty sure that fighting Thread would be *impossible* without the bond. Dragons don't remember, so they don't feel fear the way we do. They just run on this pure instinct. That's why we have to drill so heavily, though. It takes a lot of repetition to get something to stick in a dragon's mind...they *can* memorize things, but its harder for them than us."

He kept scrubbing at the dragon. "So, why don't you start working on that side?" Apolloth rumbled. HE did not want the girl to stop scratching his eye ridges.

"So. Green, barred, or sky, then. Small chance there might be a violet in the clutch, but I doubt it. We have almost too many queens for one Weyr as it is. If we could get the wing strength up, we could consider starting another one."

With Brylorea as Weyrwoman, no doubt, should such happen. At one point he would have wanted to go with her. Now...now he was not so sure.

[trinn]

As B'can explained a dragon's memory, Teodora looked thoughtfully up at Apolloth. He was so large, it was odd to think that his brain couldn't retain information the way human's did. She supposed, in the end, that it was a good thing dragon's didn't have the same memory hold that humans did, for the reason's that B'can pointed out. "Allright," she said eagerly, wanting to try her hand at dragon bathing. Giving Apolloth one last scratch and an apologetic smile, Teodora waded over to the side that B'can pointed out. Acquiring some of the sweet sand, she began scrubbing the massive tan the way she had seen B'can do it. She was distracted by the mention of another weyr, and paused to look over at B'can. "Another weyr? Why, that would be excellent, wouldn't it?" she questioned needlessly. "Another weyr means more fighting dragons, which of course means more protection against thread." Teodora smiled at the thought, and resumed her scrubbing.

[ShadowReine]

"Well, yes and no. Opening another Weyr wouldn't immediately give us more dragons. However, it might in the long term. Queens control their fertility instinctively. The more other queens around, the less they rise and the shorter the flights. Four is not too bad. If we get more than five queens, though, then it will definitely be time."

He kept scrubbing. "Moving the queens further apart at that point would increase their clutches enough to make the extra work worth it. Queens know what's needed, somehow. We don't really know *how* they do it. A lot of what dragons do is pure instinct. The reason part of the partnership is supposed to come from us."

Apolloth rumbled again. "I know. You don't always like to admit to how much you need me, do you, big feller."

[trinn]

Teodora was silent for a moment, considering all that B'can had told her. She had known that dragons weren't as analytical, as thoughtful, as humans, but she had not known that Queens could control their fertility. If only human females could do the same. she thought wryly, thinking of various weyrwomen within the Weyr. Of course, weyr morals were far different from hold morals, but, being hold-bred, Teodora had a hard time adjusting. She moved slowly down Apolloth's side, scrubbing all the while. After a few minutes she asked, "Do you know if the weyrleaders have found any decent places to start another weyr?" She was quite confident that, sooner or later, another queen would hatch and they would have need of a new home for the growing population of dragons. "If not," she added hesitantly, "Perhaps it might be wise to start looking?"

[ShadowReine]

B'can shook his head. "Honestly, I haven't talked to them. The only queenrider I spend any time with is Inolyn, and the only thing we've been talking about is the eggs."

He flickered a grin. "We keep arguing about what will hatch first." He kept scrubbing Apolloth. "Of course, this beast had the helpful opinion of 'a dragon'."

Apolloth snorted at his rider. He was not a dragon who talked to anyone but his rider, although he did keep peering at the Candidate rather curiously. B'can wondered what he really thought of her...he wasn't saying right now. "If we did start a new one, we'd probably send Voluspath." She was, after all, the only *gold* other than Nayarath.

And Apolloth would chase both of them. He'd gone after a few of the smaller females, too, but he had difficulty keeping up with greens.