Beast and Beauty: Whers by the Lake (Samarsk?)

[redwerecat]

It was night, and REALLY cold. Actually, it was just about freezing, though the white creature snuffling at the lakeside didn't appear bothered.

A thick layer of fat and skin and muscle protected the White wher from the cold, though his...her...it's handler was not so lucky. While Sashask explored, Sasha remained behind, at the entrance to the small cavern...weyr...thing he had been given to stay in, watching his beloved as it got it's bearings.

Not that all would call Sashask so kindly. It was quite seriously a monster, huge and deformed, with thick jowls that had teeth at all angles, and no proper wings; an extra set of limbs acted as a new set of legs, instead.
And so was Sashask; the white wher dragged itself along the lakeside, happy and content to explore despite the cold.

[Samari]

Samarsk was out by herself on the cold winter's night. Samari had been busy during the day, and had passed out before the sun went down. She froze as she spotted the enormous white. She hissed slightly.



"You. White. What you do here? Why you here? You not sit well with Samarsk."[/color]



She scraped at the ground with her sharp claws. She did not like the feeling she got from the mutated white.

[redwerecat]

Sahsask's head snapped up, and the white gurgled uncomforatbly at the gold. It couldn't make her out well, and it- no, she, as it automatically took on a female role to challenge the gold- bobbed her head back and forth to get a better look.

The she hissed.
This Sahsask home. Come with her hyuuu-muuun to here. Sashask bored, explore. Why gold one be mean? The white finally shot back, cold and haughty. She raised her first foreleg, and absently bit at an itchy patch on her hide.

Think gold better than Sashask?

[Samari]

Samarsk snarled back to the white. She did not like being threatened on her turf. She approached the white with fangs bared.


"White Mistaken. Samarsk is GOLD. Samarsk far outrank white. Technically this Samarsk's home. You want fight me?"[/color]



Samarsk's muscles rippled powerfully beneath the shiny golden hide. No one would dare challenge Samarsk's rank and get away with it. She knew where the White belonged in her mind.

[redwerecat]

Sashask let out a hiss between her rows of fangs. She shifted her bulk into a defensive position, and growled. And even at only just barely her second month of life, the white was...well, quite large.

Gold is wrong. Sashask have home here. Sashalovely tell us so. Sashalovely say this home, and Sashalovely not lie. Gold must not fight Sashask. At first it sounded as if the white were backing down, confused, defensive. Then it curled it's lips away from it's teeth and practically hissed at Samarsk.

Gold not be stuuupid.

[Samari]

Samarsk screeched at the white. Now she had insulted Samarsk! She felt the white must pay.



"Samarsk is NOT Stupid. WHite WILL NOT Challenge Samarsk. Samarsk will MAKE you surrender!"[/b][/color]



The golden wher flexed her muscles again, giving the mutant white one last chance to back down.

[redwerecat]

Sashask lifted her head and reared back to make herself taller and more physically imposing.
White challenge who white want. Gold is not queen. White BIGGER. Big is strong. Strong is power.

The white's own powerful body rippled as two pairs of tree-trunk-like forelegs slashed at the air threateningly.

[Samari]

Samarsk snarled and raised up on her back legs effortlessly. The added muscle in her hindquarters made it easy for her to do so.



"Not anymore. Sashask has one chance left to back down before hurt. Please do not make Samarsk hurt."[/color]



The gold's claws were extended, and her eyes whirling red. She cared not if the mutant white were bigger. No one was going to challenge her place.

[redwerecat]

Sashask screeched and made it clear she had no intention of relinquishing her imagined power.
Gold is nasty. Samarsk want to fight? Fight. Sashask not scared.

The white taunted the gold without thinking of any consequences. She clearly beleived that she could defeat the gold. Fully grown, it may even have been possible; it was hard to tell how large the oversized wher might get. But right now, here, she was a baby to Samarsk's larger and more experienced self.

And she apparently didn't care. The claws on each of the four limbs she threatened Samarsk with were extended, growing out crookedly and assymetrically. She was prepared.

[Samari]

Samarsk bellowed and brought her front paws down towards the huge white. Her claws were extended, ready to rend flesh. This white WOULD learn her place.



"Samarsk will teach snarky white a lesson! Feel Samarsk's claws tear!"[/color]



Samari hardly stirred from her Gold wher's emotions. She was just that tired. Samarsk would prove her might over the white!

[redwerecat]

Sashask screeched and ducked away, though the gold's claws tore into her more-than-ample flesh. THe pain made her reel back, terrified. He eyes whirled red as she spotted the green ichor oozing from a rent along her bicep.

NO! Bad! Hurt! She cried, lashing out and unable to comprehend the pain. She snapped at the gold, throwing her full weight into a haphazard lunge at her tail.

Back in their cavern, Sasha seemed willing enough to let them fight. He'd never seen a dominance battle between any of the creatures of the draconic breeds, and he was a little curious. Even the battle between the bronze and the blue a few days ago had been an apparently rare sight...taboo, even, from what he'd heard.

So as long as Sashask was not seriously injured, he was content to let her fight. He simply closed his mind to her when she reached for him in confusion, urging the white to do as she felt best.

So Sashask did.

[Samari]

Samarsk roared as teeth met the tip of her tail. Now this was getting interesting. She used her tail as a club, swinging it at the massive white. Samarsk was once again on her hindlegs.



"White not get it yet? Samarsk is stronger. Samarsk WILL prove it."[/color]



Samari groaned and looked up from the darkness of her dig. She spotted Orn squawking slightly, as if enraptured by something. A mental prod revealed images of the bronze cheering on Samarsk against a MASSIVE white. Samari shuddered. Why was no one stopping this? Could Samarsk not force the white back?

[redwerecat]

The white was struck sharply by the gold's tail, and she stumbled back, groaning. She didn't like this. She was bigger, stronger, better. Why was the gold hurting her, then? It was WRONG!

The white shook her head, trying to shake off the pain from the stout thump to her rather weak skull.
Nasty. Pain. Sashask no like. She grumbled, heaving backwards to glare at the gold. Then she lunged again, making a surprisingly agile leap for something so painfully fat. She aimed to sink her teeth into the gold's tail again in retaliation, too young and angry to think of a better tactic than that.

Distantly, Sasha felt the growing twinges of fury from the wher, and he frowned behind his thick glasses. That was uncalled for- the white beast might get injured if she didn't realize she was no match soon. He set down his pen and snapped his notebook closed, trying to decide if it was worth going to the wher's aid.

[Samari]

Samarsk snarled and leaped into the air using her back legs. She then aimed to stomp on the White.



"Samarsk will prove. Samarsk won't let huge freakish White boss Samarsk around."[/color]




Samari groaned and flicked her flit on the head, urging him to quiet down so she could sleep.

[redwerecat]

Sashask screeched and got thrown backwards by the gold, landing on her side and getting pounded on by the strong hindlegs of the queen wher.
She cried out now in genuine fear, wiggling her legs in a futile way to try and get up.
No! Bad! Sashask stuck. Sashask pitied! Gold is cruel. Gold is mean. Gold fight against little Sashask.

It was only a few moments before the white felt a cool caress at her neck, and a soft voice murmured calming words to her in Russian.
"Uspokojtes', nemnogo odin. Be still."
Sasha leveled a completely calm and slightly bored glare at the gold wher, waving a hand at her absently as if shooing away a stray dog.
"Leave Sashask alone. She surrenders to you. Correct?"

The white rolled to her feet and huddled sullenly behind her human, peering out from past his legs.
Gold mean. Gold picks fights. She grumbled, licking at her shoulder with a long flat tongue.

[Samari]

Samarsk growled and stared down the white.



"You forced Samarsk to hurt. You would not listen to Samarsk. Samarsk is top wher. You listen to Samarsk. Tell hyuuuu-man that you invoked Samarsk's anger. You will listen to Samarsk from now on!"[/b][/color]



Samarsk snorted and looked up to the human. She grinned the best way a wher could; creepily.


"Teach you White manners. Sashask needs learn manners from handler. No wher challenge Samarsk. Samarsk is at top."[/color]


Samari had surrendered to the squawking and had bundled up. She made her way to the lake to see Samarsk addressing another human. A male. She saw the white wher from the images Orn sent her.



"Just what happened here?"

[redwerecat]

Sasha raised an eyebrow as Sashask hissed and generally made it clear she was displeased. He snapped his fingers and she immediately snapped her mouth shut, though the seething glare being directed at the gold was more than clear enough to get her emotions across.

Gold wait. Sashask listen now. But not always. Gold wait.

Sahsa turned on the wher and spoke sharply to her once more; obviously scolding her. When the gold bespoke him, he could only return the smile in turn; and it was just as creepy. Was she trying to intimidate him? How...cute.

"Little gold, please. Had I been here, Sashask would not have acted out. She is young, and still learning her place." He said, voice even and almost pleasant. When the girl approached him, he only folded his arms and waited for her to approach.
"Your gold, shall I assume? Konechno. Mine white was...misbehaving. It initiated a fight."

[Samari]

Samarsk snorted and mentally cheered when Samari made her appearance. She dashed over to her bonded and nudged at her legs.



"MineSamari, I tried not to wake. Samari is tired. Samari need sleep."[/color]



Samari sighed and stroked her wher's head.



"Yeah. This is my gold, Samarsk. She's kinda proddy, so if she was any trouble..."


She paused for a moment. Something about this man was unnerving.

"If she hadn't been so..dominant...Orn would have stayed quiet and I could have been asleep. Orn is my bronze Flit."

[redwerecat]

Shasha merely shrugged halfheartedly and waved one hand in a 'well, that's life' sort of gesture.
"Ah. I see. Then it is my apology for waking you, Madame. It is my white that must learn it's place."

Sashask hissed again, but meekly obeyed when Sasha ordered her to be still. She pawed at the end of his coat with the foremost of her claws, tugging at it like a child might. Sasha basently ran his hand along her misshapen head, and she sighed happily. Still, she seemed intent on following Samarsk with her pale, globe-like eyes.

"Ah...flit. The little ones, yes? Euclid is like that as well, though he tends not to be loud. Though he and my dog seem to enjoy howling at odd hours of the night."

[Samari]

Samari nodded and hugged her jacket closer to her. Samarsk laid down at Samari's feet, content with watching a critter scuttle around in the grass. Orn blinked into view and chittered quite happily, enjoying the fact that HisGoldWher had been fighting.



Samari stroked Orn on an eyeridge, causing the little bronze to croon.


"Yeah...Orn likes to be a pest to others though."

[redwerecat]

"Hmm. Really? Fascinating." Sasha said, tilting his head to one side and regarding the tiny bronze with some interest.
"I see. Perhaps Euclid is more calm because he disturbs Yanni instead of me. Or perhaps because last time he did something to Sashask, she quite nearly ate him..." It was slightly strange the way Sasha seemed half amused by this fact. "He never did try to accost her again."

Sashask flicked her tail, making it thump heavily from side to side, and warily watched the gold handler. LovelyoneSasha seemed happy, so she had to let the angry go away. But she still never took her eyes off the gold.

"Ah. I'm sorry. Is it proper form now for me to ask your name, or to introduce myself? I never was very good with social mores." Sasha said, regarding the red-haired girl cooly.

[Samari]

Samari smiled slightly and looked to Samarsk. She'd pinned the mouse under her paw, with no intention of eating it.


"Let the mouse go, Samarsk. My name is Samari."


She felt..unnerved by the man and his eerie white. She didn't like how the hulking albino kept staring at her wher.

[redwerecat]

"Drakov. First name Sasha. "
Was she uncomfortable? Tragic. That seemed to be the opinion of so many people he met. And to be quite honest, he'd only spoken to maybe one or two of the Weyrfolk...unless they traded stories with the Pernese Weyrs? That tale from Telgar was entirely NOT related to him. He'd not even been there when that had happened...

Though that incident with the wherries at Igen had sort of been related to him...but they'd been that way already. He was just studying them.
He shook his head, and watched as the girl- Samari (of course; it was the handler's name the beast's was based off) fidgeted slightly.
"...are you quite alright?" He asked, still as unreadable as ever. "Or does Sashask bother you? You would not be the first to regard her as...less than comfortable to be near."

Sahsask hissed in a pleased fashion, and skewered a small beetle on one claw, wathcing as it writhed the last bit of it's life away before crunching it down like a peice of candy. A tiny slip of saliva drippled past her chin, and she swept out her tongue toclear it away.

[Samari]

Samari shook her head. She'd seen more gruesome things happen at Benden Weyr. She almost regarded the mutant white as..beautiful in her own way.



"Not really. It's just kinda unnerving watching her stare at Samarsk like that. In fact, that's the hugest white wher I've ever seen! Actually...the first White wher I've ever seen."


Samarsk let the mouse free and looked up at HerSamari. Her details were only slightly flat. It was a good night for the gold.

[redwerecat]

"Truly?" Sasha began to sound a little more lively now. "I am gald you think so. There were those who called her a monster..." He said, running a hand along the white's thick neck. She sighed and leaned into him as he scratched an itchy spot by her spine. "But she is not. A throwback to a prior genetic path, perhaps, yes. But not a monster. Nature created her this way, six legs, gender oddity, and all."

"I do not know why she stares so. She...is an oddity in more ways then mereley her legs or her size." He said with a shrug. "White wher, I should assume? The woman of this Weyr rides a white. Though a dragon, of course." He sighed wistfully. "I would so be interested in studying the dragons of this Weyr. So many with such strange mutations. I wonder, perhaps, if they will ever allow me near them. Some seem to think I'm... off."

Which he wasn't. Really. Why did eveyone think the fact that he needed decent bone and hide samples to study the dragon's biology so strange? He'd never hurt one of the creatures without permission. Now that did sound a bit sketchy, he supposed, but what else was he to do? Not all of the procedures were going to be painless. It was a fact of life; Pain happens, and you deal with it.