Here be dragons (open)

[shadowreine]

Dang.

Well. Obviously the heights of the Rockies were the only place the government could put this and keep it on the QT. Loren Jae Thomas, bundled against the cold in heavy jeans, boots and a leather bomber jacket stood at the entrance to the Weyr.

A large, flat area lay before her, with the peaks above it. The altitude was enough that she knew she should take it easy for a few days...she knew she was not prone to altitude sickness, but they had to be about as high as Denver here.

"Okay. I believe there will be somebody to greet you soon."

She only glanced at her escort. Her father was not happy about this. He was not happy that she had heard anything. As far as HE was concerned, this weirdness was properly the governance of the air force, not the army. His daughter defecting to a different service...was a cause for both pride and distaste. She wondered if the Pernese had words for 'inter-service rivalry'. "Thank you, Sergeant," was all she said.

She was old enough to enlist. So, she was old enough for this, and she had been told they preferred teenagers as volunteers. She pulled her hat further down over her ears and scanned the bowl of the Weyr for dragons.

[redwerecat]

((I hope you don't mind me jumping in? So she's at the entrance to the Weyr proper [main cave, etc]?))

There was a distant sound, much like the very slow chopping of helicopter blades. A brown shape rose above the peaks surrounding the Airspace of Rocky, slowly gaining altitude. It didn't at first appear as if the brown dragon noticed the small gathering of humans on the Weyrledge, spiraling higher into the sky, but almost as it reached the peak of the spiral, it folded it's wings and dropped towards the bowl.

The dragon whirled for a moment, righting itself from it's backwards fall with a quick flip, rolling and snapping out his wings to glide over to the Weyr's entrance. The stripey brown touched down with a soft thump, dropping to all fours once he'd landed. It didn't take long for him to crouch down to let the young man off his back, either. Then the human turned around, and affectionately swatted the dragon on the nose.

The voice clearly indicated... that boy was a girl. The big brown rumbled happily, and licked her cheek, and she made a disgusted noise and wiped dragon saliva from her short hair. She turned and straigtened her long jacket, and raised an eyebrow at the assembled people.

"Oh. Um. New Candidate? Or something..." Arianne glanced around, and put her hands on her hips. "No dragons, so you must be Terran." She gave an unimpressed shrug, and turned to apparently converse silently with the dragon, who just managed to look annoyed, and drop off the ledge again to search out one of the Weyrleaders.

"So. New girl, you have a name?" Ari said quietly, choosing to at least get to know the new candidate before she went off to do...er. Whatever it was she had been intending to do.

[FaizahPandora]

Faizah was typing away on her laptop in her Weyr when she heard Surth rumble. She glanced at the entrance to his room before returning her attention to the laptop. Likely he was just adjusting on his couch. Faizah was saving her work, needing to go down and get breakfast ready, feed Reyna and check the eggs and what not, when Surth woke.

Gorth says Dracouth has spotted a new Candidate and her escourt at the Weyr entrance. We are needed to greet them. He had already gotten up from his couch and was waiting for her.

"Give me one minute!" Faizah called out to him. She quickly saved her work, shut down her computer, turned the radio off and adorned her heavy weather coat. It had cooled off considerably in the past days and flying was even colder. Quickly Faizah took her seat on Surth's back and they exited their Weyr. They enjoyed the brisk and frigid air for a few moments before landing. There Faizah immediately saw the new Candidate and Ari there as well.

"Hello, I'm am Faizah. Faizah Pandora. I'm the Weyrwoman here at Rocky. You are?" Faizah asked, extending her hand out to the new girl. Faizah completely forgot about the escourt there. "That is my dragon, white Surth."

[shadowreine]

The dragons caught Loren's breath in her throat. One was a rich brown color, the second was pure white. Of the two, the white seemed to be the larger.

And they were big. Big enough to elicit staring for a long moment. Both of...yes, both of the riders were women. Weyrwoman. From her briefing, that meant the woman with the white dragon was the one in charge of things here.

"Loren Thomas," she introduced, reaching out her hand to shake. Of course, she was wearing gloves...it being such a cold day...but she was not about to take them off. The dragons, of course, did not seem to notice any cold. They were not, she could already tell, scaly like most of the dragon pictures she had seen.

Instead, they had hide more like...some kind of water creature. Wings like a bat's wings, but slightly differently put together, and long, muscular tails that, no doubt, acted as rudders when in flight.

They were both very attractive creatures...did she consider them as animals or people? Perhaps it would be best to consider them somewhat like K9 officers...animals that had, by virtue of profession, certain rights. Of course, she had been told they were telepathic.

Ack. Maybe they could hear what she was thinking. Well, too late to worry about that now. Faizah Pandora and white Surth. She committed that to memory as best she could. Always best to keep those who could give you punishment duty in mind.

[redwerecat]

Ari couldn't help but snicker at the almost amazed look she caught the girl giving the dragons. Dracouth caught a bit of her amusement and looked between His and the candidate almost questioningly, rumbling a laugh like a deep purr.
She seems surprised, Mine Arianne. Why?
Silly dragon. Ari teased the brown. You should have seen me when the searchriders came. I was gaping like a fish, I recall. It's so stunning to see your kind for the first time, you know.
Is that true?
Of course. And every time after, you big lump.

Dracouth's eyes colored a deeply pleased green, and he bent his head to nuzzle his rider, nearly knocking her over. She just swatted his nose and scooted away, and he 'harrumphed' in an offended manner and snorted at her. Ari just made a shooing motion and lifted one hand to acknowledge the weyrwoman. Outside, Dracouth greeted Surth with a playful nudge, though it was certainly perfectly respectful.

"So, Loren Thomas. You like the dragons, I guess? Or at least I'd hope. Otherwise here would be not the best place for you." Ari finally said to the girl, though she paused a moment to regard the man that stood by Loren. He seemed far less interested than she...
"Oh. Um. I'm Arianne. The big brown puppy there is Dracouth. 'Couthie, be polite."

Dracouth snorted again and nodded his head in the candidate's direction. If he was to be polite, he would be. He lay his head down on his foreclaws and watched the newcomer to the Weyr with interest.
Greetings, candidate Loren Thomas! He projected, though he carefully kept the male human out of his broadcast.

[FaizahPandora]

Faizah nodded as she recalled the name. "The newest Candidate. Nice to meet you Loren." Faizah swept her arm out to indicate that Loren and Arianne should proceed her into the Weyr.

Welcome, Loren Thomas, to Rocky Weyr. Surth told her as he took wing, back to his weyr. Just because his had to do business, didn't mean that Surth had to sit out in the snow.

[shadowreine]

The girl blinked a couple of times at the voices in her head. Hearing the *word* 'telepathy' did little to prepare one for the reality.

Both were emphatically male, yet had qualities that seemed similar to the voices of their riders. She shook her head a little. "Thank you, Surth, Dracouth."

Both names ended in -th. A draconic tradition, perhaps? As the woman in charge did the arm sweep, though, she was only too glad to head for somewhere *inside*.

It was not warm out here, and she noticed the white dragon at least was taking off. Maybe he was going somewhere slightly warmer, too...although it would take a pretty big room to hold either of the beasts.

A hangar, she thought with a bit of a grin. Of course, hangars were hard to heat...