No Distractions [Shasta]

[PhazonDragon]

Stress reared its ugly head for the weyrling. Lawrence found himself slipping away to the library, where its silence would be a calming force in his nerves. So much was going on, and he felt so conflicted. First the disruption at the hatching, with the egg thefts, and then there was the fire lizard hatchings that Elonverrilth had convinced him to attend. Unwillingly, he bonded to two new flitters, Vincent and Glitch. It was here, in the tall shelves of the library, that the bronze weyrling tried to hide from the rest of his charges. He ducked behind a shelf, his eye trailing on the spines of the books. One caught his eye--a book on optical illusions.

He pulled the book form the shelf, and flipped through it interestedly. He recognized a few of the pictures, but most of them made the weyrling tilt his head in confusion. The distraction was all that was needed for the fire lizards to find Lawrence’s mind, and appear out of between by the young artist. “Hey,” he frowned. He didn’t want to be bothered. Glitch landed on his shoulder in an instant, nuzzling his cheek.

“Fine,” Lawrence sighed. The green flitter he could put up with. She tended to listen to him, and was the more gentle of his three fire lizards. Vincent chirped from where he circled above Lawrence, and Boomerang had found a perch on the top of a book cart. “Only if you guys are quiet. This is a library.” The weyrling tucked the book under his arm, and weaved through the shelves towards a small group of chairs. He dropped his body into one of them, and instantly sunk into the soft black fabric. Glitch crooned, her yellow-ringed body crawling to the armrest of the chair. Vincent landed on the other arm, and Lawrence raised an eyebrow at the light blue fire lizard.

He chuckled. “Are you interested in other artists?” the weyrling wondered, whispering under his breath towards the blue flitter. Boomerang played the watchful father as he kept an eye out for people walking by while Lawrence browsed through the optical illusions.

[phyrstyr]

Shasta was walking down the hallway, trying to remember where the library was. She had been told by a fellow weyrling that there was a book she needed to read, and she had finally decided that she should check the Weyr library to see if it was there. She looked down at the paper in her hand again to remember what the title was. 'The Care and Maintenance of Dragonelles: A Practical Guide To Keeping Your Bonded In Prime Condition' Such a long title! Why do all technical and informational books have titles that take up the whole cover? The weyrling was musing over this when she bumped into a wall. "ouch!" she exclaimed, as her forehead collided with the stone, "Who put that there."

Turning to see where her feet had lead her, Shasta found that she was at the library entrance. Forgetting the pain in her head, she murmured, "Oh! well isn't that convenient!" and stepped into the vast, shelf filled room. Assuming that the book ordering was similar to a regular library, she checked her paper again for the author, she found 'L'fan' and decided to start with that. She roamed the stacks of scrolls and books in search of names that started with an 'L', peeking around shelves and peering into alcoves. After a while of this she realized that she was thoroughly lost and began trying to locate the exit, all thoughts of finding her book gone.

Eventually, she found what looked like a common area. And, lucky her, there was already someone there. Maybe he could help her find a way out of this maze-like place. She saw that he had three firelizards, two quite young. She felt that she had seen him before. Maybe they had been at the same hatchings. She stared at him for a few moments, arms crossed and a slight frown crossing her face. The Green Weyrling was trying to recall who this young man was, she knew that she knew. Suddenly his name came to her in a burst. "Lawrence!" She stated with pride. She remembered! Not realizing that she had spoken out loud, she continued in her head, thats who you are!

[PhazonDragon]

Vincent was particularly adamant about looking at the pictures and illustrations in the book that Lawrence had pulled off of the shelves. The blue flitter nosed his way down Lawrence’s arm and sniffed at the thin pages of the book. As if understanding, the young fire lizard chirped a quiet protest when Lawrence tried to turn the page before he was finished. “Alright, alright. Calm down...” the bronze weyrling murmured. There was a short silence before someone called out his name.

”Lawrence!”

The weyrling’s head shot up, eyes wide, and he glanced around the room. They were in a library! Didn’t they know to be quiet? As the initial shock of the sudden outburst wore off, Lawrence’s eyes narrowed. Really now? Vincent squawked at the weyrling’s lack of interest in the book, though Glitch was content to nuzzle closer to Lawrence. However, he sat up, twisting in his seat, and spotted the owner of the voice that distracted him. “... Shasta.” There was a distinct frown on his face. He didn’t want to be disturbed. That’s why he hid in the library.

And again, he felt Elonverrilth’s intrusion into his mind. No doubt to tell him to be nice. The bronze was always watching out for him--it was starting to get on his nerves. Yet Lawrence knew that if he just listened to Elonverrilth, he wouldn’t have these problems... Inhaling deeply, Lawrence forced his face into a smile. “Hi Shasta,” the weyrling managed to spit out.

As if feeling the annoyance from His, Boomerang circled down from his location in the air, perching on Lawrence’s shoulder, and crooning soothingly into his ear. Ignoring Vincent’s attempt to nip at the weyrling’s fingers, Lawrence reached up to pet the bronze flitter’s head, more for his own comfort than the fire lizard’s.

[phyrstyr]

Shasta suddenly realized with horror that she had, in fact, shouted the other weyrling's name for all to hear. Hands flying to her mouth, her face reddened. And he was frowning at her! Oh no! what had she done?! had she disturbed him?! Did he want to be alone?! She hadn't meant to bother him! Maybe she should just leave, after all odds were she would find the exit eventually on her own. Shasta felt Quith's mind gently wrap around her and send soothing thoughts. Partially bringing her out of her insecurity and paranoia, Quith tried to make Hers feel better. It made her sad when Hers felt this way. Shasta knew that her fear upset her Green so she bucked up. She shouldnt let Lawrence's dower mood get the best of her.

Oh, but now he was smiling. Did he mean it? Probably not. He probably just wanted her to leave. But he was being very nice about it. She dropped her hands to her side and smiled back nervously.

“Hi Shasta”

Realizing that she was doing nothing to make the situation better by remaining awkward and nervous, Shasta tried to make her smile more genuine. She was, in fact, very glad to see another person in here. Raising her hand in a little wave she said, "Hi." She moved closer to where he was, trying to keep her voice down. She WAS in a library after all.

Before she got to asking her question, the Green Weyrling thought it would be good to try to melt the ice. Her dragon HAD after all been trying to get her to make friends. And who knew, maybe he was just glum because he didnt have anyone to talk to. Maybe there was something in his life that he was trying to work out. She knew that when she felt that way, silent comradery or light affirmation of her worth always helped. Though every person was different, she thought that maybe a little of that would help. If she were even right in the first place.

As if subconsciously trying to find some way to distract from her awkward silence, Shasta noticed the book that Lawrence had been reading and said excitedly, "Oh! is that!-." She stopped as if suddenly remembering to be shy. Alternating between looking at the floor and him, she murmured, "I really like those kinds of games..."

[PhazonDragon]

Shasta had returned Lawrence’s greeting, and he thought that was that. All she wanted to do was say hi, right? Then he could be left alone again. However, they both fell silent, and Lawrence felt the force smile leave his face. He paused in his petting of Boomerang’s head, and watched the green weyrling for a moment. Still, nothing was said b between the two, and Lawrence glanced down at the book in his other hand. He looked back up, as if wanting to ask the other weyrling to leave, but to his dismay, she was looking at the book in his lap.

Lawrence bit his lip. He was getting dragged into something he didn’t want to be a part of. Figures. He let the silence sit between them for too long. Shasta had moved closer too, and Lawrence found himself clamping down on his tongue to keep himself from saying anything, just to get out of the situation. However... At her comment on ‘games’ he just had to say something.

“Not merely games,” he started, glancing downwards at the simple pinwheel optical illusion on the page. “Works of art too.” Waving Vincent off of the book, Lawrence flipped back a few pages, to well-known drawing he recalled seeing. Landing on the page, Lawrence’s hand smoothed out the paper delicately, showing much care towards the hard-cover book. “It takes a good artist to get everything right,” the weyrling explained, lifting up the book by it’s covers, and tilting it so that Shasta could see.

The page rested open on Escher’s Relativity, a particularly interesting piece that illustrated what Lawrence meant. He pointed to various parts of the drawing. “See, if your perspective is off in one place, it doesn’t look real, and that breaks the illusion. One has to be a meticulous artist to get this correct.”

[phyrstyr]

Surprised by Lawrence's seeming interest in conversation, Shasta thought that maybe she had hit on a point of mutual interest. While he talked about the complexity of optical illusions, she deemed it necessary to get a better view of what he so enjoyed. Leaning forward on her toes, The Green Weyrling exclaimed, "oh! Golly Gee! I've never seen that one before!" She was genuinely surprised at how awesome the image was. Shasta shot a glance at Lawrence and then continued looking at the book with an enraptured expression. "I see what you mean about it being art." she murmured distractedly. "I wonder how long it took to make this." She turned her head first one way then another, trying to see the image from every angle. She was greatly intrigued, as she always was by optical illusions.

Shasta suddenly had a thought. Excitedly, she asked "Hey, do you have the one with the lizards in there? By... uhhh..." She looked at the page and saw who had made the image that he had shown her. Her eyes widened and a grin crossed her lips. Shoving her finger onto the name, she exclaimed "That guy! Escher!" A light gleamed in her eyes as she looked at Laurence with pride. "That's an illusion too, right?"

She had completely forgotten the reason she had bothered this young man. All thoughts of her being lost were pushed from her mind as she became more and more intrigued by Lawrence and his book.