Catch the Thrill [Open]

[Sparrow]

Chan nodded. "I don't know how men even survive without wives." Women were a bit more capable on their own, but leave a man alone and he will generally just collapse into wild, messy living. "But since all the other Lord Holders I know of are married, I suspect they'll find a married man to replace Teval." They all knew better. It had been no secret that they had been trying for Turns to get the old Lord Holder married either.

"I don't think things will ever get too bad with the running of the Hold, even while we're in limbo here," Chan added. "I'm more worried about the prospect of a murderer running loose. The guess is that he wanted to kill Shador, and Teval was just unlucky enough to be there, but I don't know." Chan was of the opinion that if someone killed once, they would do it again. There was simply no reason to only do it once.

"But if all the guesses are right, I figure he's headed for the Weyr, not hanging around here. So hopefully we'll be alright." That wouldn't be the same for the dragons, but they were... dragons. In the Weyr, they could keep track of who was coming in and out, keep an eye out for who was around. Suspicious characters would be dealt with. Shador had died because she was off doing something she shouldn't have been.

[wolflover1458]

Zipperacreous frowned and nodded. She didn't like the prospect of a murderer running around. If his goal had been kill Shador, then it made sense that he wouldn't hang around here. Going to the Weyr seemed like risky business though. The dragons would be upset that they'd lost one of their own, and probably be annoyed with any new person that showed up. Zipperacreous hadn't heard of a dragon killing someone before, but she always felt like it was inevitable.

"I hope this murderer doesn't stay here." If they had been intent on killing Shador, it had most likely been to kill her dragon. Did someone really have that much against the dragons? "I'm not a fan of dragons, but I can't imagine trying to get them all killed." Zipperacreous would much prefer to just stay out of their way. Besides, it somehow felt like killing them wouldn't be easy, and that eventually you'd get caught and have to pay for it.

That prospect was not an exciting one. It was best to stay here and hope the whole thing could just blow over eventually. It might take awhile, but once everything was fixed, and if they could find who did it, then it could be relatively forgotten. Until then, Zipperacreous wasn't sure what was going to happen.

[Sparrow]

Chan shook her head. "The guess, from what I've heard, is that it's a purist. We definitely don't have a huge amount of proof for that, but it was a mutant queen that was killed, and I don't think anyone could have enough against dragons to kill the original colors." The idea of killing a Gold was just... beyond her. Someone wouldn't do that. Violets were new and strange, and kept hatching more strange colors.

"But it's not like it's all that hard to kill a dragon, if you can get to their rider. They just kill themselves if their rider dies." It was something Chan didn't quite understand. Dragons were enormous and powerful; it seemed so silly that they were so incapable of caring for themselves.

Chan cupped her hand and swept some crumbs off the counter with her other into it. "So I don't think they're trying to kill all the dragons. Unless they wanted to destroy Pern, what with Thread falling and all. But they're... cleaning up." She dumped the crumbs into a basket that would later go to Pebble. "I don't really like the idea of the new colors, but I can't help but not approve of trying to get rid of them this way."

It didn't matter who you were killing, murder was wrong.

[wolflover1458]

Petal didn't like the way the conversation was going. She curled herself around Zipperacreous's neck, trying to comfort herself more. With Flutter still in her hands, Zipperacreous couldn't do much with Petal. She had other things to think about anyway. A purist? True, these new dragons colors were strange, but it was stranger to want to get rid of all of them. Was that even possible? If they hatched out of Gold clutches as well, it would be impossible to get rid of them all. "I don't think killing them this way would get rid of them all, not if the Queens keep clutching them."

Besides, a different color of dragon was still just a dragon. Zipperacreous didn't like Bronze dragons any more than Tan dragons just because they'd been around longer. They were both huge and scary. She didn't understand the aim of trying to kill the mutants. Maybe, if it was a purist, they were trying to get a point across: the original colors were the only true dragon colors on Pern, and the others should be gotten rid of.

It seemed a silly aim to Zipperacreous, and it was completely possible that someone had just wanted to kill a dragonrider and it happened to be the rider of a Violet. There were so many possibilities that it was impossible to think through them all. There were any number of ways in which the two could have died. "I hope they get some solid evidence soon. I don't like having guesses to go on, even if they're good ones."

[Sparrow]

"No, it's not going to stop anything. Particularly since a Tan won the last Gold Flight, and every time a Tan has won so far, there's been even more strange colors." Chan still didn't believe that someone would kill a Gold. It possibly put the Tan in danger- quite possibly, if all the guesses were right. It wasn't something she could do anything about though. Chan had no association with riders.

"It's stupid and cruel, but some people will go to desperate measures to make a name for themselves. If he manages to kill someone else, even if he gets caught and killed, he'll be talked about. Possibly put in songs- as a villain of course, the Dragonslayer, and whoever catches him'll be the hero but... he's got a good chance of going down in history." She sneered. "Horrible way to go about it though."

Simply disgusting, the whole idea. "But I'm getting the idea that you don't know a thing about all this." Chan raised an eyebrow at Zip. And if she had nothing to add... "And it isn't exactly cheerful chat."

[wolflover1458]

Zipperacreous sighed. "No, and it's not cheerful at all." It was interesting, certainly, but it wasn't cheerful in the slightest. The whole conversation didn't have anything good to it. Zipperacreous didn't care much for dragons, so if something happened to the Gold, she wasn't sure how much she would mind personally, but it would still be terrible. Most people would rather be forgotten then go down in history as a villain. Then some people...

If only the world were peaceful. There was always unrest. Always someone that wanted something different. Always someone willing to go to extremes to get their point across. It was a never ending process. There would always be troublemakers. Always. The only thing everyone else could do would be to try and isolate them before too much damage could be done.

And yet someone had just been murdered. Pern was so twisted that sometimes just existing on it could be hard. Nothing ever stayed the same. There were dragons, Thread, murderers, odd things happening everywhere. If things could settle down, be a little calmer, at least for a while, Zipperacreous would be much happier.

Too bad there was so little chance of that happening.

[Sparrow]

Chan tapped her fingers absently on the counter. "Were you going to buy anything then?" Not her most graceful switch, but she had been wondering about it the entire conversation. Of course, it had been her that distracted Zip from a sale. That was pretty usual.

"Where'd you get your flitters?" She added curiously. The Green had wrapped around Zip's neck during their talk, and Chan couldn't help but wonder how she would feel about that. She wasn't particularly fond of things around her own neck. A fire-lizard wasn't going to suddenly strangle its keeper, but she couldn't help but feel a bit uncomfortable about it. "And I guess I know your Barred's name, but not the rest."

Three flitters. Three small flitters. That would be a pain, even if two of them looked at least semi-obedient. And here she was, thinking about flitters and probably distracting Zip from buying again. Well, hopefully they would get to it eventually.

[wolflover1458]

The conversation had switched to an area that held Zipperacreous's interest a little more. "The Green one is Petal. I got her two Turns ago when someone brought in a clutch they had found. Flutter and Shimmer, the Blue, are from one of Petal's clutches half a Turn ago." The Barred and Blue firelizards were fully grown now, but they weren't very old at all. It was Zipperacreous's slight hope that Flutter might settle down when she got a little older, although at the same time her curiosity was sometimes adorable.

Flutter had renewed her interest in trying to find out where all the different smells were coming from. "I expect Flutter wants some bread," Zipperacreous commented. The little firelizard was looking around, and even if that wasn't what really interested her, she would eat it anyway. Flutter would eat just about anything that looked edible. The lizard didn't know about all the different poisonous things she might run into.

Zipperacreous tried to teach her about it a bit, but there wasn't to much point. Flutter listened to something when she wanted to listen, not when someone else wanted her to listen. Shimmer and Petal were much better at only touching things they figured were safe. Flutter would eat anything; the others ate what somebody gave them. At least she only had one lizard she might lose to poisoned food.

Assuming someone didn't decide to start killing off firelizards too. That might be a little easier than dragons, but there was even less point. They were everywhere.

[Sparrow]

"So the other two are only barely mature." That explained things some. Hopefully the Barred would calm down and the Blue ease up as they grew older. Young flitters would be the biggest problem with having them. They were like any other thing: undivided attention while they were babies, troublesome as kids, but useful as adults.

Chan smiled as Zip brought the focus back to the potential of her buying something. "Well, a loaf is a sixteenth mark, or you can get a bun for a thirty-second." A large bun, anyways, which Chan would always sell first. Rolls were smaller and less expensive, but no one only ever bought one roll. Even a little flitter could eat more than one of those.

"You know, I was so surprised the first time I saw someone feed bread to a fire-lizard," Chan said, moving behind the counter in preparation. "I always thought they were carnivores, but apparently not." She had heard that even wild ones, while pretty carnivorous on their own, would accept some non-meat human food.

[wolflover1458]

"They do look carnivorous, don't they? Especially dragons eat meat. I guess firelizards will eat just about anything." Flutter looked up and chirped happily, pleased that the talk had changed a bit. The whole place captured her interest, but she couldn't possibly look at all of it. Just seeing what she could see from where she was excited Flutter.

"I think a whole loaf would be good; the kind of bread doesn't really matter. They'll eat anything someone feeds them." Flutter would eat something someone didn't feed her too. It was best to keep her held down while they were surrounded with food. It wouldn't do for her to get loose in here. Even if she didn't eat all the food, she could still make a mess of the place. Hopefully she would learn what being calm was.

Zipperacreous carefully used one hand to keep Flutter down, not that she was too worried the flitter would just jump up and zoom about, but she didn't want to just leave her free either. She used her other hand to get the marks she had on her out. Flutter seemed to pick up on the idea of food; she chirped again happily.

[Sparrow]

Chan nodded. "From what I've seen, they will." They would be a lot harder to care for if they were picky eaters. Not everyone always had meat available, particularly not if the flitters decided they needed it raw like dragons did. "It's almost like they adapted entirely to be pets," she laughed. Most animals had to be domesticated, and some, such as wherries, never quite made it. But flitters? She was pretty sure they had always been what they were now.

Chan bent and slid aside the door of one of the glass-walled cupboards. She drew out a dark loaf and placed it on the counter. "This one's from Bulge-nut flour. In my experience, flitters have seemed more partial to the sorts with nuts in them." She was too. Bread made with plain oats was good, but there was something about that thicker texture and taste that nuts supplied that she simply liked. Bulge-nut grew all over in the forests around Danac too, so it was cheap to cook with and didn't need to raise her price.

A sixteenth mark wasn't a lot, but she could get some thread with it and fix up Akin's frock. That child was always climbing trees and tearing his clothes. It had been a relief when her daughter outgrew that phase, but Akin, being a boy, probably had a lot longer to go.

((Sorry I keep taking so long, I have to keep looking things up. xD))

[wolflover1458]

"I expect they'll love it," Zipperacreous remarked. She had managed to find a sixteenth mark and handed it Chan with her free hand. Flutter noticed the bread and, realizing she would get fed, squirmed to try and get out of Zipperacreous's hand. She held the flitter down until she could calm down. Letting her go when she was jumped up would not be good.

At least Shimmer and Petal stayed where they were. Their attention was on the same thing, but they didn't move. They were used to the fact that they would get fed eventually; there was no need to jump up and get excited. Flutter had yet to figure that out, or if she had, she either forgot it or ignored it.

When the Barred firelizard finally gave up and was calm, Zipperacreous placed her on the table gently. Flutter spent a second wondering if she'd really been put down before tearing off a chunk of bread trying to stuff it all in her mouth. After failing at that, she pulled it out and chewed at the piece more carefully. Zipperacreous pulled off two other pieces and handed them to Shimmer and Petal.

[Sparrow]

Chan smiled and accepted the mark. "Thank you. Flutter's looking pretty excited." It was hard to miss the fire-lizard squirming in Zip's other hand. Then again, she had been squirming on and off the entire time, but now it was particularly bad. Understandable, but distracting.

The other two seemed quite focused on the loaf as well, but far better behaved than the Barred. "Do those two ever leave your shoulder?" Chan asked as Zip tore off chunks of bread to offer the Blue and Green. She imagined it would get tiring to always have a fire-lizard riding there, even a small one.

It seemed very unlike them too. Chan had seen a lot of fire-lizards in her day, and there were definitely far more excitable ones than anxious. Hadn't Zip said the Blue was the Green's offspring? Perhaps he simply took after his mother then.

[wolflover1458]

((It's okay if you get something wrong. I won't know any better. ))

"Shimmer and Petal are much better at keeping still. I think Shimmer just gets nervous of new things. Petal doesn't like to do anything that might get her in any kind of trouble. When everything is familiar they love to fly around though." Zipperacreous grabbed Shimmer and put him on the table next to Flutter.

The Blue firelizard just sat there for a moment, watching his clutchmate chew at a piece of bread. He looked confused for a moment, like he wasn't sure what he was doing there. Flutter looked up and cheeped at him. Shimmer watched her for a moment, then he followed her example and tore off his own little chunk of bread.

Petal flew down to join the other two, deciding that if they were down there just fine, than it must be perfectly safe. Zipperacreous smiled. "If you coax them enough, they'll do a lot." Sometimes it was actually quite nice to have firelizards that didn't jump all over the place like Flutter did.

[Sparrow]

((But it bothers me. D: Anyways, I may as well learn it while I'm dealing with it. Mostly I just have to look up what kind of plants they have to make bread with, and luckily I found a good site for that.))

"I've never heard of flitts that didn't like getting in trouble," Chan laughed. If she ever got one, she could do with one like that. But also not entirely dependent on her shoulder. It took a lot of arm work to make bread, and a fire-lizard perched there would not be any help.

Chan watched the flitters for a moment, wondered absently if Zip was going to eat anything, and then remembered the rolls that would be ready to come out of the oven by now. "Excuse me a second, I've got something cooking." It wasn't intensely unlike her to forget, particularly when she had company, but she always hated it when she did. Chan hurried through a door and checked the bread. Just in time. Grabbing a towel, she slid them out, wiped some butter over the top of each, and carried the tray back into the main room.

"You want one? On the house." Chan started unloading rolls onto a thinner towel to cool. Later they'd all go into a basket, but not until the butter had dried a bit and they were more touchable. "Although you might want to give it a minute to cool." She was pretty used to the heat and didn't burn easily, but Chan doubted a Healer would be the same way.

[wolflover1458]

((That's nice. I usually hate it when I don't know if I got something right too.))

"Well, I guess I could eat one," Zipperacreous said. It was quite nice of Chan to offer her some bread, especially since they'd met by Flutter annoying her. Now that all her firelizards were subdued with the bread, she was free of them. Still, Zipperacreous wasn't about to give up on getting more firelizards. Maybe some people would think she was crazy for it. That's why she didn't tell them usually.

Flutter had finished her chunk. She hopped over to the bread happily, clambering halfway on it to rip off another chunk. It was smaller this time, and she managed to fit it all in her mouth at once. Petal watched her and chirped disapprovingly. Shimmer watched Flutter for a moment before deciding it was better to just ignore her.

[Sparrow]

"You don't have to," Chan added. "Business is just slow today, so I don't know if I'll be selling it." Loaves could wait a while before selling, but rolls were best fresh. Most likely, these would end up being supper that evening.

She glanced over at the flitters. "Even with as much as fire-lizards eat, you may end up helping them out with that bread. Or bringing it home for later, I guess." With flitters climbing on it, she may not want to eat it. Chan viewed fire-lizards as generally clean creatures, but they were still animals. It would be understandable.

[wolflover1458]

"They probably won't finish it, but I can bring it home for later. They'll be hungry again." Firelizards got hungry pretty fast, and they ate a lot for something that small. Sometimes it was amazing that they could possibly stuff that much food in their bellies. Zipperacreous wasn't really sure how they did it.

Flutter was still chewing happily on her oversized piece of bread. She started clinging to a part of the loaf, as though guarding it in case Petal or Shimmer tried to steal that part of the loaf. Neither of the other two firelizards seemed the least bit possessive over the bread at all. Petal was watching Flutter with a curious expression, as though wondering if she should be annoyed with the Barred firelizards behavior or not. Apparently ignoring her was becoming quite impossible for the Green.

[Sparrow]

"They always are," Chan laughed. How much they ate seemed funny, considering their size, but a lot of small animals ate a lot. It was strange, but it seemed to work out that, the smaller you were the, the more constantly you ate. The bigger, the more time that could pass between meals. She had noticed it with kagen as well as just small, wild animals. That probably only because her husband had pointed it out to her. Most likely she never would have thought about it otherwise.

"The Barred's looking a little possessive over there," Chan observed with a grin. "Aren't Blues higher ranking than Barreds? I guess Shimmer just doesn't care to stop her." She noted Petal watching the Barred as well. "Pity flitters can't enact motherly rights over their young." That would be a mess, considering just how many they made. Queens had that right, not Greens.

[wolflover1458]

"Blues are higher ranked, but Shimmer just goes along with whatever. I don't know if Flutter would stand up to a firelizard larger than her that didn't like what she was doing though." Zipperacreous hadn't really taken Flutter near any higher-ranked firelizards, so she couldn't be sure how Flutter would act around them. Chances were she wouldn't care what they thought, but she might just as easily do whatever they told her to do. She didn't do it with Shimmer or Petal though.

"The mother really don't seem to control their young though. I guess even the dragons don't really do that though. I think the lower ranks are just naturally subordinate to the higher ranks, and if the mother is high ranked, she kind of have some control over her young, but not because she was their mother." That was assuming the firelizards would actually agree to being subordinate of course. Zipperacreous still wasn't sure if Flutter was every likely to do that, or any other lizard like her.