An Arrival of the Most Casual Sort (Open/All)

[yaoiwafflez]

The skies were clear, despite the cold, and the very air they soared thrugh was crisp and clean, something that exhiliherated both of the lean dragon's passengers. The royal-blue hide of the dragon was hardly noticeable from below; both due to the altitude and the wispy clouds he darted behind, avoiding at all costs being seen from the ground.

A man sat at the dragon's neck, effortlessly in tune with the dragon's movments; nothing seemed to surprise him. The passenger behind him was of a different mind entirely, her arms wrapped in a vice-grip aroung the dakr-haired rider's middle.
"Oh, I don't think I like being this high." Lorelei moaned, burying her face in A'shan's shoulder as the spiraled to one side to duck behind more cloud cover. The world spun below for a split second, and she let out a soft meeping sound.

"Do not worry. Azulith is more than competent. You have nothing to fear. Ah. There, you see? Does that look right to you?" A'shan pointed to a small valley-area just ahead of them, surrounded by mountain peaks; it was almost impossible to find if you weren't flying.

Lorelei peeked out from under his arm, and squinted. "Um. I think so. Lemme check..." As if summoned by the mere thought, a deep green mini-dragon appeared by the woman's shoulder, gray-green with pale yellow markings. A coffee-colored brown dragon swooped in not far behind, and they hovered erratically around her. "Naga, Ryuu, go see if there are any others like you down there. Dragons, okay? Like the pretty big blue you like so much."

The mini-dragons (as Lore had named them) chirped affirmatively, and dived from the sky to the area she'd pointed to. She oly caught distant mumbles of their thoughts (and odd that was; she'd never yet found another species on Earth that could communicate telepathically that way...) and then the pair of mini-dragons was winging back up to her, chittering excitedly. Lorelei praised the little ones, and sent them off to re-join their brothers and sisters circling above the big blue dragon.
"There are more of them. It's hard to tell, because Ryuu wasn't paying attention, but Naga sent me pictures of some other dragons; some blue, like yours, and some green and brown, like my little ones...she even said she saw a shinygoldone? I don't know what that means. But if she got the sizes right, they're the ones we're looking for."

A'shan glanced over his shoulder at her, and shrugged. "There were big ones? Like Azulith?" He said, sounding almost wistful. He still didn't know why Lorelei seemed to be able to communicate with her little ones with her thoughts, while Azulith seemed content to settled for verbal cues and body language. Perhaps only the small dragons were gifted in such a way...he honestly had no idea. Not that that was strange anymore. He was starting to get used to having no memory...

Azulith rumbled a particular way that meant he was asking if he should proceed. A'shan jerked out of his thoughts and called out an affirmative, and told the blue to land somewhere they could escape from easily. He didn't know WHY all the suspicion, he just had an instinctive feeling dropping in unnanounced was not something anyone would be expecting.

Azulith angled downwards and drifted into a steep spiral down to a grassy field near a lake. He could hear Lorelei yelp, and HisA'shan console her, so he ignored the woman for the moment. It didn't take long, and soon he was leveling out in a long sweep over the lake to land in a clearing, touching down lightly and giving His a rumbling growl. That was their signal. When the blue crouched down, A'shan slid down his forleg to the ground easily, turning to catch Lorelei as she nearly fell over after clambering down.

"Eurgh. My legs hurt." Lorelei complained, rubbing one sore buttock unashamedly.

A'shan just rolled his eyes. "You'll be fine."

Lorelei stuck her tongue out, and whipped a pair of glasses from the heavy flannel jacket she wore. Balancing them on her nose, her mouthmade an 'o' shape as she gazed around, enraptured. The Australian woman was in heaven. The flock descended to all fight for a space on her shoulders, the six mini-dragons squabbling amongst themselves until finally the slender brown Ryuu screeched and wrapped himself around her shoulders. The others hissed in disapproval, but settled for hovering around her, except a sassy green who snapped at Ryuu until he let Tiamat curl up on her left shoulder.

A'shan shook his head; the flock of mini-dragons were...a handful. And if the noise was any clue, they wouldn't be alone for long. Then Azulith made a deep but muted bugle, trying to remain quiet enough to not alert the surrounding five miles of his presence, but loud enough to make sure they would likely not be alone for long.
"...Thank you, Azulith." A'shan said darkly, glaring at the blue. The dragon just made a shrugging motion and bared his teeth in what he passed as a smile.

[FaizahPandora]

Faizah and Surth had just left their Weyr when they heard a bugle. Faizah's head snapped toward the Lake, where Surth could see a Blue waiting. Without a second thought Faizah and Surth were winging their way over to the blue, to remind them to keep it down.

When Surth landed Faizah wasted no time in jumping from his back and approaching the two people. She began to speak. "Excuse me, but you know the rules keep your dragon from making any loud noises..." Faizah's sentence trailed off. She suddenly realized she didn't know who these people were. The blue was unfamiliar, as was the man and the woman surrounded by the fire lizards.

"I'm sorry. Are you from Pern? We weren't aware anyone was coming today..." Faizah felt like she was missing something big however. The woman just didn't look Pernese. And the man seemed lost...

[PhazonDragon]

Lawrence was spending the slightly cloudy day outside. Having nothing to do at that particular moment, of for the rest of the day, in fact, the bronze weyrling lounged against Elonverrilth’s hind leg. The bronze was getting so big in such a short amount of time--Lawrence was sitting on his dragon’s hind foot, and hunched over his sketchbook. His eyes were narrowed and staring at the paper as his right hand furiously sketched all over the material. Elonverrilth crouched, and snaked his head around to watch His. The only sounds coming from the weyrling pair were the sounds of Lawrence’s 4H pencil.

The day wasn’t too bad. The sunlight filtered down from between the clouds, illuminating Lawrence’s sketchbook. The bronze dragon shifted to get a better look, effectively blocking the sunlight from reaching Lawrence’s paper. “Elon…” the weyrling muttered from between pursed lips. Without a word, the crippled bronze shifted his weight around, getting his head out of the way of the sunlight. “Thank you.” Though the weyrling pair had made it out of the infirmary without a scratch, Lawrence had spent the last weeks holed up in his.. Weyr, was it? Those caves that the odd Pernese riders made their homes in.

Weyrs, Elonverrilth confirmed. The bronze looked up from Lawrence’s spastic hand to glance around the weyr bowl. They were off to one side, away from prying eyes. What are you drawing, Lawrence? he asked, peering down at Lawrence’s sketchbook again. His folded wings half-unfurled as the bronze tried to keep his balance on two legs. He was adept at it, having spent a good month or two working at it.

The weyrling grunted. “Nothing,” Lawrence frowned. Truth be told, he was still sore from the bronze carrying him away from the infirmary, marring his dignity in front of the Weyrwoman and the Greenrider K’ryn. And truth be told again, Lawrence wasn’t drawing nothing. He was sketching one of the dragons at the weyr. This one, a green, was nearly perfect in every way, quite different from his crippled bronze. A roar made Lawrence look up. He thought it was the unidentified green he was drawing, but instead a different dragon was approaching, this one a blue. “Who’s that?” he asked, stand up and closing his sketchbook, tucking it under his arm.

Elonverrilth tilted his head. Dragon ears weren’t as sensitive as human’s, but he wasn’t blind. The bronze followed Lawrence’s gaze to where the blue dragon was flying in, landing in the grassy field by the lake. I do not know who they are. It is a blue though, and he is carrying two passengers. Should we go say hi? the Cripple wondered, though he wasn’t going to wait for Lawrence’s answer. He saw White Surth going to greet the newcomer, and as long as they were in the area, they might as well. Come on, Lawrence. And try to be nice this time. Don't provoke either of them, and don't make the Weyrwoman angry. I don't want to carry you away again.

Flinching, Lawrence turned to glare at Elonverrilth. "That wasn't my fault. And I don't want to go say hi to them, especially if the Weyrwoman is going to be there," he protested, but his words fell on deaf ears. The bronze was already starting forward, waddling in his awkward but distinctive walk. "Elon!" the weyrling exclaimed, jumping forward with sketchbook and pencil in hand. "Fine, we can go, but don't expect me to say anything!" Lawrence followed the slow-paced bronze.

This is slow... I will hurry, Lawrence. And I expect you to hold your tongue, Elonverrilth said sternly. He halted in his walking, and fell forward onto his wings. The bronze snorted, but his pace increased, and now Lawrence didn’t have to walk at a slower speed to keep up with the dragon.

The weyrling pair approached the newcomer dragon and his charges. Lawrence noted the woman with a whole flock of flitters. This made Lawrence wonder where his own Boomerang was. Boomerang…? he silently asked, but didn’t get a response from the fire lizard. Lawrence and Elonverrilth came up from behind the weyrwoman and Surth, but stepped out from behind them so that they could see the blue.

[yaoiwafflez]

Lorelei could only make a delighted squeak as the enormous white creature swooped overhead, landing gracefully. A woman, young, definitely younger than either of them, effortlessly jumped from it's back and strode over to them with an air of confidence, or authority, at least.

Yeah, authority. She yelled at them a second for being noisy, or something, but she soon seemed to trail off into another topic entirely. Lore wasn't paying attention. The huge white dragon was far too distracting! It was easily double the size of Azultih, and it's hide nearly sparkled. White was chalked onto her mental blackboard of the list of colors the funny creatures came in; so far, blue and white were what was listed, though the dragon list was cross-referenced with one of the mini-dragon colors. Hmm. Naga and Ryuu had sent her images of shiny creatures, almost metallic-colored. There hadn't been much in the way describing any other mini-dragons.

A'shan flinched back at the scolding tone, then tried to remember why. Somethingabout the woman made him automatically want to obey her, but the big white dragon behind her put him off a bit. That couldn't possibly be right. Why would a white dragon be in charge? Then again, he- he? Where had the gender-defining pronoun come from? Well, why not. - He was far large than Azulith.
"I...am...not sure where we come from. Lorelei says she is from a place called Australia? And I apologize if we arrived unexpectedly. We were not even sure if you were here...it was all rumor and speculation."

Azulith locked eyes with the white, sizing him up, then very quietly- it was barely audible but for those in the immediate vicinty of twenty or so feet- bugled a greeting. Would the white ask him anything? He hoped not. That would cause ...problems. The blue very carefully bent his forelegs and gave the white a slight bow, inclining his head deeply and respectfully.

Azulith growled softly at the approach of a newcomer, and gave the distinct verbal signal of a tightly controlled growl that wavered an octave or so just breifly to alert his partner. Upon hearing, A'shan looked back at the blue, who just jerked his head in the direction of the approaching bronze and the young man. Azulith made the same very quiet greeting to the bronze, and the same half-bow as he'd used on the White.

A'shan just raised a hand carefully in greeting to the young man who appeared to be hiding behind the woman, then let his arm fall to his side as he stood rather awkwardly. Fortunately, Lorelei had enough greeting for the both of them, as she exploded out in a flurry of excited hand motions and spewed words that were almost incoherent at the speed she spoke and with the terribly slurred and heavy accent.
"Therearelittleoneswithmetalskinohmygoodnessandit'sevengotwingsthat-" A sharp nip on her ear made her stop as the bratty green mini-dragon on her shoulder physically informerd her she should be quiet.

Still, Lorelei scooted forward, eyes wide, though a sharp screech from one of the other mini-dragons (this was the whippy brown on her other shoulder) warned her off before she got too close. She made a happy noise and just stared at the dragons. The new one, the...well, it was metallic, brassy, kind of coppery but not? Brass would work for now- oooh, no, wait, Bronze! That was it.

The bronze was smaller than the white, but it also seemed to be built much differently; it looked younger, with the sort of subtle clues hinting at it's youth that she recognized from her mini-dragon's childhoods. But still, there was something odd...Oh! Lore spotted it, and pushed her glasses back up on her nose to have a better look.
(In the background, A'shan sighed wearily, knowing exactly what was coming. Azulith made a very sympathetic expression and made a slight shrugging motion to the bronze.)

Lorelei marched right up, and gasped. The smaller dragon was walking on it's wings! It looked like a pterodactyl, or the mythical Wyverns. Were all the metallic dragons built like that? Maybe that was what differentiated the species! The one with the metallic hides- yes, she checked, there were no scales on either of the big dragons, just like Azulith- maybe the metallic ones were a different breed?

"WOW." She settled for gasping out, looking like a child that had just walked into the world's greatest amusement park. "This is incredible, mate! I've never seen something so amazing...it's like you all stepped right out of a mythology textbook!"

[FaizahPandora]

Oh shit... Faizah thought to herself. This was not supposed to happen.

"Australia? Hmmm... Well, for now I suppose you have to come into the Weyr. Then we can figure out something from there." Faizah thought aloud. She swept her arm forward to indicate that they should follow her. At the same time she asked Surth to escourt the blue to the Weyrbowl where the two dragons could relax.

When Faizah turned around she noticed Lawrence and Elonverrilth. She smiled pleasantly. "Would you like to join us, Lawrence?" She asked, not really expecting any polite responce.

Surth nodded to Faizah before he turned to the blue. Follow me if you would. Surth said to the blue before taking to the air.

Suddenly Reyna popped into the air just above the other woman and her flock of flitters. Reyna eyed the strange fire lizards with suspicion, but then alighted on Faizah's shoulder. She wrapped her golden tail around Faizah's neck and continued to watch the others. After a tense moment Reyna chirped to them, telling them that this was her weyr, and they had better step lightly. Especially the greens...

[PhazonDragon]

The blue greeted Surth with a low bugle and a bow, at which Elonverrilth was confused. Why wouldn’t the blue just speak? The bronze would have said something, but that would be disrespectful to the Weyrwoman and the bluerider to whom Faizah was talking. Instead, Elonverrilth was content with asking Lawrence a few questions as he listened to the conversation between the two riders. Lawrence, where is Australia? Why does he not know where he came from? Wouldn't he be from Pern? the bronze wondered, his head turning slightly to look at His.

“Australia is a country in the Southern Hemisphere of Earth. It’s rather distinctive…” Lawrence muttered in a half-whisper, making it simple for the dragon to understand. “I don’t know why he doesn’t know where he came from. Maybe his memory was damaged or something? Why don’t you go ask?” he added in a sarcastic manner. When the bronze started to step forward, Lawrence had to put out a hand on the dragon’s leg. “I was kidding!” he hissed from between clenched teeth. “Not now.. Later.”

Elonverrilth made an annoyed whine but stayed put. When the blue greeted Elonverrilth in the same way he did Surth. In return, the bronze lowered his own head. Hello; welcome to Rocky, Elonverrilth experimentally ventured, half-expecting the blue not to respond, seeing as he didn’t greet ether dragon with words.

The bluerider raised an arm in greeting towards Lawrence. The bronze weyrling nodded, half lifting his arm in response. He would have said something, but the young woman who arrived with the rider suddenly burst out. Lawrence’s eyes widened at the onslaught of words, only quickly stopped by a green flitter near the woman’s head. “Yeah--um, wait… What?” Lawrence stammered, and took a half-step backward as the woman inched forward. “Umm...”

Seeing Lawrence fall back, Elonverrilth looked a bit worried. His eyes swirled with concerned yellow and orange. Lawrence? What is she saying? he asked, unable to decipher the woman’s frenzied speech either. I am not that strange, am I? What is a mythology textbook? The poor bronze was fairly confused as to why she was so interested in him. He wasn’t that peculiar, was he? Elonverrilth shifted uncomfortably, thankful that Faizah broke the uneasy feeling with her invitation into the weyr.

The weyrwoman also seemed to notice Lawrence and Elonverrilth at this time. She politely invited Lawrence to join the group inside, and the weyrling’s mouth opened a tab to allow a sharp retort to escape. However, the bronze dragon beside Lawrence wasn’t going to let a repeat of the Infirmary incident. He batted at Lawrence with his tail, reminding the weyrling of the newcomer’s large group of fire lizards. Casting an angry glance at Elonverrilth, Lawrence managed to spit out a curt “Sure.”

Elonverrilth watched as Surth leapt into the air. He had half a mind to follow the white and the blue, to learn more about the new dragon. Before he did that though, or even asked Surth if he could join them, he snaked his head down to glare at Lawrence with red-tinged eyes. Lawrence, you will be respectful and polite to the Weyrwoman... Especially with new residents here. Show them that Rocky is a civilized place, not one with a disgruntled group of weyrlings. He may not remember where he come from, but I'm sure he knows how to act accordingly. The bronze’s tone was one of firm command, and he expected Lawrence to listen to him. He wasn’t going to tolerate more trouble from His.

Turning to follow the white’s form into the sky, Elonverrilth called out, White Surth, may I join you two? He sat back on his haunches, doing his best to ignore the gaping woman, and lifted his wings gently, waiting for the white’s response.

Lawrence visibly shrank from the dragon's reprimand. Yes, Elonverrilth, he thought, regaining his composer. He was secretly thankful that his dragon had only broadcast that message to himself and Lawrence. Seeing Reyna curl up on Faizah's shoulders, Lawrence also hoped that he would have the company of Boomerang so he wouldn't be stuck with the despised weyrwoman, a confused rider, and a spastic woman.

[yaoiwafflez]

A'shan sighed tiredly, with an air ofhaving done this before. He gently put his hands on Lorelei's shoulders and pulled her back from the rather less-than-amused looking bronze weyrling, and hissed an order to 'be polite' in her ear.

The woman just laughed and batted at him. A'shan and his thing for manners. Didn't he know this was like christmas for her?
"Oh, right mate. Look who's all bossy now, eh? Heehee. My word, if I didn't know any better I'd say I was embarassing you!"

"You are embarassing me." A'shan said bluntly, turning his back on her to follow the white's rider. He stopped just a moment to gaze at the young man Lorelei had been accosting, and inclined his head. "My apologies. Her self-restraint could use some work. Please don't take offense; she's like a force of nature..." He sighed again.

"OI." Lorelei called after him, stomping over with the intention of chewing him out for his snark. Of course, she was imediately derailed by the apperance of the gold, her next sentence choking off into a delighted squeak. OH. It was GOLD. And...beautiful. The little metallic mini-dragon shone like pure molten metal. There was no mistaking that color for anything but true gold; yellow never even came close.
"Oh....miss, she's beautiful..." Lorelei sighed.

The pack of mini-dragons around her made their own varied noises of greeting; the two greens and the blue hovering nearby chirruped pleasantly, mostly busy playing air-tag, while big brown Bahamut grunted and swooped around the prettyshinygoldone's person to show off. The green on Lorelei's shoulder just made a disgruntled noise at the gold's authouratative tone, and gave a look that clearly was the draconic equivalent of rolling her eyes. Brown Ryuu hissed at Tiamat, and crooned to the gold, informing her it was in fact HE who was in charge of this ragtag band, and that he was happy to follow the counsel of such a very prettyone like herself.

Azulith let out a long sigh of exasperation as the four flitters no currently accompanying Lorelei returned to him, chattering excitedly. He snorted heavily, knocking the tiny green Tatsu back with the force of his breath (intentional, but playfully), and spread his wings to follow the white. He did pause to stare inquisitively at the bronze when he spoke, then inclined his head politely. He knew already he was going to come off as aloof or snobbish, but he really had given up on caring at this point. He crouched and leapt into the sky after the white.

[FaizahPandora]

((Had to remember this started back before Reyna's clutch had hatched. ^-^'))

Of course you may, Elonverrilth. Surth answered politely.

When Faizah heard Lawrence agree to joing them, and in a relatively polite tone, she was more than surprised. Shocked would have been a better word to describe her. But she just smiled and nodded. One step at a time with him.

Faizah scratched Reyna's eyeridge, then looked at the new woman. "Why, thank you." Reyna was pleased with the compliment, and showed it by spreading her wings to show the woman and giving a small and happy rumble. However, when the green seated upon the woman's shoulder retorted, Reyna hissed back and all at once became highly aggitated.

Faizah sighed. "I'm sorry about that. She recently clutched, and has been in a bad mood. She probably will be until the eggs hatch."

[PhazonDragon]

[ooc: I totally didn't see Faizah's reply here! D8 Sorry!]

Surth’s invitation to join him and the blue reached Elonverrilth’s mind as the white left, and Elonverrilth managed a toothy smile. Thank you, Surth! he replied, taking to the air and following the elder dragons. Be nice, Lawrence.

The flock of flitters was a bit much--Lawrence had to raise an eyebrow at them. Who would want so many tiny pests flying around their head? And people only have two shoulders for them to sit on. He did heed Elon’s warning though, and resisted the urge to lash out. He caught Faizah’s smile though, and the bronze weyrling wondered if Elonverrilth broadcasted the message to Faizah or Surth as well. Elon… Lawrence started, but stopped when the dragon snorted in his mind. Fine, he pouted again.

He left a bit out of place between the two riders. He was the youngest--definitely. His dragon was still a weyrling. Not to mention that Lorelei looked older, even if she didn’t act it. He didn’t have any business with the bluerider or the other woman either. He was merely passing by, and Elonverrilth wanted to greet the dragon. At least with the bronze, he could talk to the blue and the white. Lawrence didn’t have anything to say. As a weyrling, it was Faizah that was handling the proceedings. Why did she invite him then? Lawrence shrugged mentally, but imitated Elonverrilth’s example, and trailed after Faizah and the two newcomers.

[yaoiwafflez]

"Your little one had babies?!" Lorelei squeaked. The green on her shoulder seemed less than pleased by her enthusiasm and hissed, acting incredibly protective of the males, who just seemed happy enough to ignore her. Lorelei tugged on her tail, and Tiamat shut up, though she didn't look pleased.
"So, madame of the big ol' snowy. Explain to me just exactly what a Weyr is, why we ended up coming here, and just how it is there's a secret hidey-hole o' dragons in the Rocky mountains? You Yanks 've been hiding something massive, eh?"

A'shan sighed again, then made a face. That particular reaction was becoming increasingly common as the day wore on...he glanced at the young man with the bronze dragon and smiled faintly.
"You're awfully quiet for someone who so clearly has much he wants to say." He said after a moment, glancing at the boy with a completely blank expression. He'd adopted his rather awkwardly formal pose with his arms behind his back, standing straight and almost at attention.
"You can feel free to ignore the woman I am so unfortunately tethered to for the time being. She's mostly harmless, and telling her to shut up works wonders if she gets too...talkative."

[FaizahPandora]

Faizah smiled at the womans enthusiasm. Reyna glared and rumbled angrily at the snippy green, even though the others seemed nice enough. "Yes, Reyna has a clutch hardening on the sands now. Theres even a gold egg, although the sire is a brown."

Faizah continued to lead the group back to the weyr, hoping that there she could get a few answers to her questions.

"Not a secret Im happy to keep. But this Weyr, as the home of dragon and riders are traditionally called, was built for any dragons that arent acceptable on Pern. These mountains were chosen because of the range ad height. Helps to keep the dragons hidden." aizah stopped talking to see if she had missed a point. Finding nothing that se had missed, she turned back to the woman.

"Any other questions youd like answered?"