Much of a dragon (open)

[ShadowReine]

"He's a brown. Browns are hatched sensible, be they firelizard or dragon," B'can pointed out. "Apolloth seems closer to a bronze in mentality. I do wonder, though, if tans aren't sort of a mutation of browns...violets of golds, of course, barreds of greens. But I dunno. The new colors..."

And then there was the white dragon, but he seemed to be, and to remain, unique. A special treasure all to himself, that one, tiny and gorgeous.l

"They confuse me."

Apolloth snorted at his rider. "Well, if you weren't here, I'd have got a bronze or a brown. If there were no tans."

Snort.

[Sparrow]

"Good point." Most of Kora's experience with Brown fire-lizards came from Lilac's mates- which had included Guess. But they had seemed more sensible than the average flitter. Dragons she knew a lot more about.

She shrugged as B'can continued. "It's possible. I guess they must have come from something... but violet isn't very near gold. More Tans seem to be closer to Bronzes in personality as well." Slightly more down to earth and sensible than the metallic males, but most seemed far more ambitious than the average Brown.

"Teals and Skies have some blue to them... but Charcoals are another misfit." Some Browns had a shade that could look almost red, and Nayarath had a bit of red herself... but so far only Violets had clutched Charcoals. "I don't know."

B'can was right; it was confusing.

[ShadowReine]

B'can shook his head. "At some levels, it doesn't matter. It gives us more variety in the wings, and more flexibility for the candidates. Used to be, there was no chance of a woman being a wingleader no matter *how* competent she was...used to be women didn't even Impress browns. I'm sure that wasted some talent. Now we have the skies, as rare as they are. And the in between dragons."

Like his...tans fell between browns and bronzes in size, stamina, flame strength, everything that mattered. They filled in a gap in the wings.

"And we're still seeing some fine greens and blues hatched, too."

[Sparrow]

"Yes. I like the variety they've added." They did a good turn for D'mas' new wing setup, although he hadn't quite gotten that into action yet. It had done something good for women as well... although Razuth confused that idea a bit. If a Bronze could Impress to a girl...

Well, she only hoped it wouldn't happen again. Kora scrubbed thoughtfully at the far side of Apolloth's tail while Nayarath watched from a halfway submerged position.

"We are still getting some fine examples of them too," she agreed. It was a bit of a relief that they were still getting plenty of the original colors. Kora didn't have anything against the new ones, but she didn't want the old ones, as some people were predicting, to disappear.

[ShadowReine]

B'can did not mention Razuth. "Some good looking browns, too, although Apolloth, of course, is more interested in the good looking females."

The tan rumbled.

"I know. Greens are too fast." Barreds, he had more of a chance with, and B'can thought Apolloth might have a chance with the sky. Of course, there was truthfully only one dragon he *really* wanted Apolloth to twine tails with at this point.

And it wasn't the one he had thought for so long it would be. Maybe that said something, but he wasn't...entirely sure what it said.

Something.

[Sparrow]

Kora grinned. "I'm sure." That was generally the nature of males, no matter their color. Nayarath rumbled as well.

Golds are too fast too, you know.

Kora shook her head. "Someday you're going to have to eat those words." Nayarath pointed out that she ate nothing but herdbeasts. Wuith had come far too close to winning multiple times now for Kora to doubt that at some point, a Tan was going to catch her.

Maybe not next time- she hoped not next time- but one day.

[ShadowReine]

"Different kind of too fast," B'can noted. "Golds are about getting as far as possible. Greens don't go very far and show off shamelessly the entire time." He studied Nayarath. "Not that I'm not sure Nayarath's a fine flier, but there's no way any queen...or a tan for that matter...can out-stunt a good green. Is what we keep them around for."

He wondered if the greenriders actually had to replace their fighting straps more often from the strain of their dragons' antics. Apolloth mostly flew in straight lines wherever he wanted to go...he was not one for trick flying.

[Sparrow]

"Not to mention the Weyr would be pretty dull without Greenriders." Nearly every Green seemed to have just as wild a rider. The Weyr wouldn't be the same without them.

That was probably what had protected her from Impressing a Green. Kora couldn't tell a joke to save her life, and probably didn't have the guts for all their trick flying either.

You got both of those right. Nayarath rumbled. After a moment she turned towards Apolloth. Are you nearly done? Laughing at her rider could only do so much to distract her from the fact that she was being kept waiting. Did no one else realize how unorthodox this was?

[ShadowReine]

I'm done. Apolloth promptly shook himself all over the gold. And, incidentally, both riders.

"Apolloth! You'll drown me!" The amount of water that could slick off a shaking dragon was, after all, quite impressive.

Dull without greenriders? He rather agreed there, but he couldn't exactly focus on the conversation with his hair dripping dragon-induced water.

"Dragons," was all B'can managed, eventually, in a loving yet exasperated tone. He made his dripping way towards the shore, shaking himself off on the sand. Not that he had not been pretty wet *before* Apolloth pulled that little stunt.

[Sparrow]

Finally.

Nayarath's mental sigh was hardly a sufficient warning and Kora was quite thoroughly doused by Apolloth's shake as well. She spluttered and wiped the water from her face. Not the most grateful finish she had ever seen.

Nayarath only rumbled and splashed her rider with her tail. He missed a spot.

"Right." Considering the Tan had managed to get Nayarath wet as well, Kora doubted she would have been missed anywhere. "Go avenge me on Apolloth if you want to splash." Soot had already returned to Nayarath and looked like he would make a ready teammate if Nayarath decided on that course of action.

Kora headed for shore and Nayarath turned a calculating eye on the Tan. Maybe. He had splashed her first.

[ShadowReine]

B'can was, at this point, fleeing the water. He could see the calculating look in the queen's eye. "I am *not* getting in the way of a dragon waterfight. Especially between two such large dragons."

And it did look like one might be about to commence forthwith, because Apolloth, perhaps oblivious to the queen's look or not caring was not exactly making any move to get out of range...of course, out of range of a queen was likely to be halfway across the bowl.

"Bad enough when its Jorindath involved, let alone Nayarath." The violet queen was big, but Nayarath was quite a bit bigger, as befit a true gold.

[Sparrow]

Kora winced when she saw B'can pick up his pace. Right. She had forgotten just what a big mess Nayarath could make. On second thought, don't do that. Knowing that Nayarath wasn't likely to listen to her now, however, she fled for the shore. Or, even better, the far side of the Bowl.

Nayarath, of course, was only bolstered by the terror the riders showed. She turned and pounced- only back into more water, but in Apolloth's direction, and it sent up a considerable spray. Soot had wrapped around one of her headknobs and chittered enthusiastically.

Kora sighed. "Sorry about inspiring that." If Apolloth thought it would do him good to fight back, the pair would empty the lake on she and B'can.

[ShadowReine]

And he did...queen she might be, but water fights were spelled 'f u n' in the mind of even the most dignified dragons at times. Tan wings swung to send a wave of water towards the queen...the two riders got out of there just in time.

"And that is why we have such a large lake...so they can't actually turn it dry when they do things like this."

Of course, Guess and Stare were now joining in...Stare having come back from wherever she went just for the game. They darted around each other, around the dragons, diving into the water as firelizards were prone to do.

"Crazy dragons," B'can added. "No offense." She should take none, given he was including his own lifemate in that assessment of the situation.

Dragon waterfights. Not something one wanted to be anywhere close to.

[Sparrow]

"Yep." Kora watched as Nayarath folded a wing over her head to shield Apolloth's return wave. Of course the Gold didn't care much if she got wet, but it seemed like the natural rules of a water fight were to keep it off one's face. Nayarath hardly waited for the water to settle before sending up her own surge with a mix of wings and tail.

At least she and B'can had managed to make it out of range. Or not. Kora sighed as Soot popped from between just to shake icy droplets off over Kora's head. "Keep it over there," she said, swatting hm away. Soot chittered and rolled cheerfully before heading back to the lake to join Guess and Stare.

Kora laughed. "Crazy fire-lizards too."

[ShadowReine]

Apolloth rolled under the water to evade...which was likely cheating, in a water fight. That or he was planning on torpedoing the queen. No...he emerged and then blew water out of his nostrils at Nayarath, in a massive wet snort.

B'can laughed. "I hope mine don't get that idea. Not that I'm not already soaked." He was, to the skin, head to toe. "I would hope we never get a Candidate who's scared of water...they'd have to get over it real fast before they Impressed."

His tone was amused at that. "No fear of water, no fear of heights. What else is a requirement?"

[Sparrow]

Nayarath tossed her head and snorted herself. Yuck. Soot popped his head out of the water to gurgle, and then his eyes whirled as he became part of the wave Nayarath sent at Apolloth with a wide swish of her tail.

Would a dragon even Search someone scared of water? Kora didn't know just what the Searchdragons picked up on when they went out... but something like that would definitely be a hindrance. She shrugged.

"No fear of giant animals, hard work, blood, odd hours, fighting Thread." She laughed weakly. "You're best off practically fearless." Not to mention they simply had to be capable of it all, and eventually compatible with a dragon. It was amazing they found any Candidates at all.

[ShadowReine]

B'can grinned, glancing over as Apolloth failed to dodge the massive wave sent towards him. Instead, he ducked behind his own wing, then used it to retaliate. The tan firelizard was probably in danger of hitting the tan membrane.

"I dunno. They found me easily enough, although I admit I wasn't sure about giving up the smithcraft," the young man admitted. "Apolloth is worth any sacrifice, though."

He was sure Kora felt the same way about Nayarath, for all the bickering that seemed to go on between the Weyrwoman and her queen. Sometimes, he thought banter and bickering were essential to any kind of long term relationship...but SOME dragon pairs really lived up to 'like rider, like dragon'.

It was so complicated, really, and hard to tell how it all worked.