I HATE TREES AND I HATE YOU (Open)

[redwerecat]

"COME DOWN HERE AND FIGHT LIKE A FLAMIN' MAN YOU ROTTER!"

A'gar's voice boomed out across the bowl in the early morning quiet. The sun had barely risen, and yet-

Midst the early-morning mist there were three distinct figures in the bowl. One was the broad-shouldered blonde A'gar, kicking at the trunk of a high Rocky-native Pine tree and looking pissed about something. He was shouting and pacing around the tree trunk like some hungry dog.

One was the long, leonine figure of Einherjath, coiled under the same tree, tail wrapped around his legs and head hung in what appeared to be deep disinterest. The dragon was examining his claws and paying no attention whatsoever to his rider, only acknowledging his presence by shifting just enough to let A'gar stalk past him in his circuits of the tree.

And the third? Much harder to spot. But every so often the tree would shake- L'iyr. The slender man was perched about forty feet up the tree, back against the trunk, eyes wide and bright. He had a sharp purple bruise high up on one cheek, and he was watching the ground below, occasionally hissing and spitting some caustic remark at A'gar.

"I'll come down when you stop thinking about beating my face into this tree!" L'iyr snarled. The tree shook some as A'gar kicked it again, but did nothing to shake the small dragonrider from his lofty hideout.

A'gar snarled again, and ran at the tree swearing, but knew better than to try getting up the tree. He was easily fifty, sixty pounds heavier than the dark-haired man, and L'iyr was high enough to make A'gar's efforts to follow him dangerous- which, really, was exactly why he was up there in the first place.

"You can't stay up there forever." A'gar threatened, shaking his fist in a furious (and rather silly-looking) gesture. "I WILL make you pay."

The tree boughs rustled again, and L'iyr looked down at him with a sardonic smile on his face. "I have an elder brother. A large, grouchy elder brother. You severely underestimate the amount of time I can stay up in this tree." He said. "Especially if you're going to hit me again."

A'gar growled, his brow furrowed, and L'iyr went pale. A'gar grinned. "Caught that, did you?" He said mockingly.

There was a loud sigh from the side of the tree and Einherjath threw himself down to his die with a dramatic flop.

Children... He sighed, and wondered when, exactly, someone with a lick of sense in their bodies might show up, since his pair of idiots were clearly beyond listening to him.

[Wolfy]

((Doubling as an introduction for W'yatt/Eyviilth and Chris....))

It had taken only a day or so to have everything packed and put into order after the council of Weyrleaders had decided W'yatt and Eyviilth's fate. It was heartwrenching, especially for Chris, when almost everyone seemed relieved to see them go; was not even one sad at thier departure? No, of course not. W'yatt had beaten most of them up at one time or another. And Chris, bless Faranth, was just the unlucky bastard that had got himself caught up in the entire mess.

W'yatt, mercifully, had not been allowed back near Monico Bay. After Chris had retrieved all of thier things from W'yatt's weyr and his own room, he had been taken back to the lonely cottage somewhere on the southern, volcanic islands. From there, the trio would be escorted to Rocky by a Bronze of reputable strength and calm nature. No one wanted an unfortunate "accident" before they had even left.

W'yatt saw, and his features tightened mercilessly. Hands clenched into fists, he turned away from the waiting man and dragon and helped Chris onto Eyviilth before mounting himself.

They launched, they hung in the air, and....they were gone, between, without a single hurried look back at the home that they had been all but exiled from.

Within but moments they hung above the air on another world, above a weyr that had become a standing joke among the Pernese Weyrs. The Weyr of Outcasts, better and more formally known as the Rocky Weyr.

W'yatt spat to one side, bitterly contemplating what his stay meant. Blast those fools, he snarled to himself. They know nothing! Landing in what must be the Weyrbowl there, he slipped to the ground with Chris and looked about, cold contempt written across his face.

The Bronzerider eyed thier surroundings with a similar expression, tainted with understanding and acceptance. "Don't get into trouble, boys," the middle-aged man grumbled as he sat up straighter, preparing to leave them behind. His task was done, and he wished no more of his time wasted. Almost immediately the pair were back in the air, and gone.

Before any could say anything to another, a voice boomed "COME DOWN HERE AND FIGHT LIKE A FLAMIN' MAN YOU ROTTER!"

Eyviilth and Chris both jumped, turning toward the origin of the infuriated shouting. W'yatt's cold gaze swept toward the noise. Eying Chris's now fidgeting hands, he sighed to himself and started off toward it. The resistance of fighting whatever it was Chris got his heart into was futile, at least it was to W'yatt. One way or another, he would be dragged to the tree to figure out why the two men were snarling at each other.

He stopped with his Brown not so far away from the scene and stood, waiting for something happen. Leaning against him, W'yatt watched as Chris slowly walked up to the Brown and watched the blonde cursing and kicking the tree as he walked around and around it.

"What in the name of Faranth is making you kick that tree? Are you trying to kill that guy or something?" Chris asked suddenly, frowning as he tried to understand the reason for it all.

From what had been said by the blonde and the reaction of the darker-haired man, they seemed to be bonded like a dragon and rider would be. But that was kind of impossible, right? Or maybe those rumors were true. Who knew? Really? Most of the rumors on Pern were just that: rumors of no consequence. Chris rarely paid any mind to them.

He watched the pacing man, waiting somewhat impatiently for an answer.

[redwerecat]

Einherjath's head had shot up at the arrival of the brown and bronze, but the weyrling dragon did little but regard them with a mild stare and go back to watching the men by the tree. The brown was back to twitching his tail and trying to sort out his rider's thoughts, mostly disregarding the new arrivals- he figured Faizah or the as-of-yet unintroduced Weyrleader would take care of the newcomers- not that he would have minded making introductions, but he and his were barely more than a few sevendays arrived themselves, and besides, he had bigger things to deal with.

He looked up again as the bronzerider vanished again, and -

CRASH.

"DID YOU JUST THROW A BLOODY TREEBRANCH AT ME YOU RUATHAN PIECE OF SHIT-"

L'iyr was leaning forward over the Branch was standing on, eyeing the ground curiously. A thick tree limb had indeed crashed to the ground, and though L'iyr seemed pretty amused by it, A'gar was shielding his head from a few more stray pine needles and bits of leaf debris showering down on him.

Thus it remained to Einherjath to answer the human boy's question when it was posed.

Yes. He is trying to kick the tree. Yes, he is trying to kill mine L'iyr. They are rather displeased with one another this morning, and nothing I say seems to be making a difference. It turns out they can really feed off pissing one another off and ignore me quite nicely when they choose. Okay, that wasn't much of an answer, but to be fair, Einherjath was more than a little pissed off at the both of them. He hauled himself to his feet, shaking off like nothing more than a giant dog, and padded toward the new brown with a look of exasperation plain even on his elegant reptilian muzzle.

A'gar paused long enough to shake a bit of tree-dirt out of his hair and brush pine needles off his shoulders, and leaned forward, hands on his knees, just long enough to examine the two young men and the dragon who'd walked up.

"I- oh, hold on a tick, eh?" He huffed a little, and tossed his head back, picking up a pine cone and flinging it in L'iyr's general direction. He was rewarded with a shocked little yelp, and L'iyr's distant swearing. A'gar smiled in the most merciless way, and then gave a barely more civil grin to the three newcomers.
"Sorry, right, what was the question? Oh." He snapped his fingers and pointed at the dark-haired young man, the one who'd posed the question in the first place. "I'm kicking the tree to knock that little sharder out of it, and at this point, if I could kill him, I would be seriously contemplating it."

A voice from much higher up, muffled slightly by the tree, piped up. "Don't believe him, he's a homicidal maniac! I just wanted to be friends, and he- he-" His voice choked slightly, as if it were about to break, as if he were deeply affected by some emotion- "He's attacked me! Monster, he is! Maniac! Sent to this thrice-forsaken pit for murdering his weyrmate!" L'iyr was unfortunately a deeply convincing liar, and he was putting on quite a serious act. Einherjath snorted, but made no comment that anyone appeared to hear.

A'gar grumbled, and hefted another pinecone in his hand. He nodded politely to the two and the brown dragon, and hauled his arm back.

There was another worried yelp from the tree. "Stop throwing things!"

A'gar just contemplated the pine cone deeply and glanced at the two. "Sorry, I'm not much for conversation at the moment. Can I help you, friends?"

[Wolfy]

Eyviilth growled lowly as twigs and needles rained down around Chris, even if it caused no harm to the boy. He growled again in warning as the other dragon stood up; he watched blankly as his fellow Brown padded toward him and HisW'yatt. Not even his eyes showed much emotion, save the annoyance and boredom he was mirroring from his Rider.

Chris frowned up into the tree as he trailed the flying pinecone and heard the painful yelp as it made contact with - what did the dragon call him? L'iyr? That seemed right. Yes, L'iyr was trapped high in the tree, with the other obviously wanting to hurt him for some unknown reason, and a dragon that claimed L'iyr to be his Rider. Yet the dragon did nothing, and aside from the peeved nature of his words, showed no true alarm or worry.

W'yatt thought along the same lines, especially when the voice of fiegned fear and horror interupted. Eyes darkening dangerously, he fingered the place where his dagger would normally be; it had been taken away when he had been seperated from Eyviilth. No, he wouldn't have used it on these idiots - at least not now. He had no reason to assume they meant him any harm except the bloody smile of a furious man. If he had made a move toward them, it would have been a different story.

"Oh?" Chris called up to L'iyr. "If he poses a threat to you, why does your dragon do nothing? And besides, if he was a murderer, I highly doubt that he'd be permitted out of his room. And I'm sure I would've heard of a murder in a Weyr, of all places. Gossip like that goes around quickly enough." His face was wry; his voice, too. One with a clear head that was screwed on right could see the flaws in the man's story, no matter how panicked and fearful he might sound.

W'yatt looked at the blonde evenly. "We are not 'friends'," he growled contemptuously as he ignored the somewhat furious warning scowl Chris aimed his way.

[redwerecat]

Einherjath merely eyed the other brown contemptuously, giving the newcomer a withering sort of look. He answered the warning growl with a soundless snarl of his own, raising his muzzle slightly and pulling his lips back from his fangs. But it vanished as soon as it had appeared- it was more a response to the challenge presented than a real aggressive sort of action. Besides, he really didn't care. Threats were what they were, and if the other really wanted a fight he would get one- but Agar appeared to have a monopoly on the anger at the moment, and Einherjath was just too tired with the effort of attempting to keep his mind on his own track rather than getting too involved in either of his rider's petty squabbles that he was kind of zoned out at the moment.

Fine, then don't be polite. He remarked dryly. Eyviilth got a snort and a sidelong glance, and then Einherjath shifted back into his patient catlike sitting pose with his back to all the humans in a decided 'Eff all this shit' sort of gesture. I apologize if I am a little testy, but we have been at this since before sunup and I am a little irritated. DO not let my tone dictate argument, I merely am having my patience sorely tried. This was directed at the other brown and both of the new humans, a sort of apology for his greeting earlier.

Now if only one of his riders might listen.

L'iyr, up the tree, made a rather irritated sort of noise, and waved a hand in the air. "Ah, logic." He said, all traces of his worried, vulnerable act vanished into the air. "What can I say, I didn't have much time to think about that story. You make an excellent point though. Perhaps it wasn't murder then, and just unwarranted abuse to me? I mean, really, what sort of idiot throws pinecon- OW!" Another of the aforementioned tree-products had smacked him.

A'gar was having none of that. "He's lying, he always lies, he lies like normal people breathe air, and he's lying now. He's just trying to talk his way out of getting himself - and Einherjath- hurt this morning." He growled. Somewhere above, L'iyr muttered something rather rude about his heritage involving a goat.

"A'gar, darling, you know, I think I like the kid pointing out the flaws in my blatant lies better than you at the moment, can I keep him instead? You're beginning to get on my nerves, and you know, you keep throwing things at me." L'iyr was watching Chris mildly, but his eyes flicked to W'yatt as the man made a movement that was all too familiar to him- the move of a man reaching for a weapon. He tensed, but- nothing happened. Perhaps it was just a reflex... though he made a mental note to keep an eye on that one for the future. He let out a long breath, and resumed his taunting.

"And- excuse me?" A'gar's expression was one of deep bewilderment as W'yatt spoke, and he looked rather like a kicked puppy for just a second. Then, he scowled. "I was- do you not have Manners where you come from? I was trying to be polite. Would you rather I called you stranger?" He dropped his chin down, leveling a stern sort of glare at the speaker, and automatically hunched his shoulders forward slightly. It was always his instinct to answer to a challenge. "Or perhaps, 'jackass'?"

There was a bitter sort of laugh from L'iyr, who recognized the movement for what it was and was hoinestly curious to see what would happen in A'gar kept it up. "And I really like his friend." He said, leaning over the branch like nothing more than a giant cat to smirk at W'yatt after that comment of his. Oh, so one had a temper? He liked that. It amused him. "He's not really my friend either, so feel free to hit him if it strikes your fancy."

[Wolfy]

Chris and W'yatt both glanced toward the other Brown as he made his semi-apology. W'yatt could, in no possible way, relate to him. He had never had the problem of Eyviilth furious when he was not. He had the advantage of having Impressed a dragon that was always in complete agreement with him.

Chris on the other hand knew something of how Einherjath must feel at the moment. Being caught in the middle of so many fights and arguments and punishments and every other piece of drama involving his twisted family, one started to understand a lot of things concerning emotions and annoyance and everything else. Yes. Probable just a little confusing at times. "No offense taken, Dragon. And forgive them; they aren't in a good mood. Nope, not a good mood at all."

Chris gave the blonde an exasperated look as he threw yet another pinecone. No, he had no love of liars , nor did he love those that sounded so sharding good at lying. Yet was the man's entrapment and abuse not enough? It was not like L'iyr, stuck so far up in the tree, could do anything.

After listening to A'gar's furious speel about how much of a liar L'iyr was, and listening to L'iyr's taunts about how much he prefered Chris at the moment and his annoying complaints about being thrown at, Chris yelled, rather impatiently and just a littl loudly, a very annoyed sounding "Enough!" to the stil bickering men. "You're going to give me a worse headache than I already have..." He glared up into the tree at the shadow leaning precariously forward on one of the thicker branches before turning his gaze to A'gar.

W'yatt's eyes blazed as the man, A'gar he had been called, insulted him. With all that had already happened in the last few days, his temper was leashed with a silk thin thread; even though it was fortified by the fact Chris was not so far away, it was a fragile hold nonetheless. Eyviilth felt the boiling anger and reacted the only way he knew.

With a feral growl and hiss, one that drowned out his Rider's own, Eyviilth rose. A furious red bleeding into his eyes, he snarled and flared his wings while stretching his thick neck upward.

"W'yatt, don't!" Chris hissed before it could go any farther. "We haven't even been here ten minutes; don't get into a fight already!" When Eyviilth, after a few more moments, finally calmed his appearance and settled back down, the man turned back toward the scowling, furious-looking A'gar with a scowl of his own.

"Listen, maybe we all got off on the wrong foot? I'm Chris and that's my brother, W'yatt, and his Eyviilth. We just came from Monoco Bay." He motioned impatiently for his brother to relax just a little. W'yatt's face no longer held the easy façade of utter boredom. Instead, his face had taken on his more natural coldly-cruel expression. He was seriously beginning to consider L'iyr's suggestion to hit him; he would probably hit him much more than once, actually.

[redwerecat]

Einherjath just sighed and bowed his head in a nod. Thank you. Hr said politely, nodding to Chris. The other man got a long look down his muzzle, but W'yatt interested him very little. If he wanted to say something Ein assumed he would, like his own riders.

Then, however, his eyes flashed and he glanced up at the tree, between A'gar and L'iyr. W'yatt's comment had A'gar freezing and going still, and the brown knew that was a bad sign from him. He snorted, and tensed just enough to spring between the new pair and his own rider if need be, even when he heard L'iyr laughing and egging him on.

"Headache, see, yes, now you know how I feel all the time." The dark-haired man was snapping. But when W'yatt glanced at him had held up his hands, backing off and biting his tongue.

And all in the same second the rider of the brown was snapping again about being angry, and tyhe other brown was up on his feet, snarling and red-eyed. Einherjath immediately moved, leaping to his feet and answering the snarl with a deep-throated rumble of his own, and L'iyr and A'gar both froze, tensed, and made a motion toward their dragon at the same time.

Luckily, nothing seemed to happen, and as soon as Eyviilth seemed to calm, so did Einherjath, though he made no motion to relax, and instead crept slightly closer to the tree and his bonded. He had his head tucked down, and he rather tersely stretched one wing out just enough to make it seem as if he were backing A'gar, and one foreclaw pressed against the tree as he made note of where his other rider was.

L'iyr was dropping out of the branches quickly, all effort at continuing to taunt A'gar gone as he dropped the last few feet onto his brown's back and crouched there, running a hand along Einherjath's neck.

A'gar just kept up his steely glare at W'yatt, and only minorly relaxed his close-fisted, aggressive stance when the apology-slash-greeting came.

L'iyr took the opportunity to answer instead.
"Monaco Bay, lovely place, I'm sure." He said cheerfully. It was utterly a fake and completely forced cheer, of course, and that was obvious, but he was making the effort. Holder's son at heart, he was. Politician born-and-raised.
"I am L'iyr, and this man who was so rudely throwing pinecones at me, A'gar. I am from Ruatha's Minorholds, and he-"

A'gar growled at him, cutting him off. "I'm from Benden." He said, stiffly.

L'iyr rolled his eyes, and made an effort to continue before the anger he could feel bubbling under A'gar's thoughts came to the surface. It took both Einherjath and L'iyr glancing at him and mentally forcing their insistence on calm to him before he stopped growling softly- and he wasn't even a dragon, L'iyr thought.

"...And this is Einherath." L'iyr finished, still perched on the dragon;s back. Ein nodded again in greeting. L'iyr conveniently refused to introduce the brown as either rider's bonded- Ein was amused to note the connection still seemed to embarrass him.

"I'd say it was a pleasure, but truly, the circumstances would have to be far different for me to say such things."

[Wolfy]

W'yatt eyed the Brown and his Riders cooly. He had heard of these three, and while none had said a word about thier...condition...the way they had all acted when Eyviilth mirrored him had spoken louder than words. W'yatt had lived among dragons and riders for half of his life; he recognized the interaction and though it was a little odd with two riders, they were still fundamentally the same.

He glanced up, watching as L'iyr dropped through the branches and finally landed in a crouch on top of the other Brown. It amused him to think that he would quit in his quest to annoy and anger the man from above, just so he could play at being the peacekeeper between them all. I think, my heart, that perhaps we should play is safely for now. One of these days we will punish them for thier insult. Just not today.

Yes, W'yatt. I will be careful now.[/color] Eyviilth sank down and lay, his tail twitching in time to his Rider's thoughts. He watched the other riders as they gethered by Einherjath. Broadcasting to the others, he apologized with W'yatt's blessing. Please forgive me for my actions. I was caught in my W'yatts's thoughts and was carried away by his anger of the last few days. I will strive not to allow it to happen again. While the stocky Brown meant every word of what he had said. Chris and w'yatt, and eyviilth if he would stop pretending, knew that if W'yatt lost his temper, he would go along without much of a choice; his person#ality dictated that he follow his rider in all things.

"Yeah, I figured. We get that a lot," Chris sighed as L'iyr expressed his unhappiness at thier meeting, obviously disappointed in the way things had played out. These two were not going to listen to his explanations; they would write it all off as feeble excuses made to cover for a bad attitude. And while what W'yatt had was definately that, it was not all of the story. It was just the bare edges of it all.

"I'm sorry for all that. Like I said before, they aren't in a good mood. Or, at least, they're in a worse mood than usual. Or something like that." Chris glanced at the two Browns, trying to judge thier Rider's moods from how they were holding themselves in the antagonistic air. Looking at Einherjath's defensive stance, they all still thought of Eyviilth as a threat to them. Looking at Eyviilth's threatening stance, W'yatt was still pretty angry at the others, even if it was buried now beneath his other emotons and thoughts. And once again, Chris was the one that was caught in the middle of it all. "Eyviilth is really actually harmless, it's just W'yatt that's dangerous; you shouldn't have called him jackass, no matter what he said to you. He won't let that go, now."

[redwerecat]

L'iyr's mouth twitched up into a sort of bemused little smirk. "I did not say I didn;t enjoy it, just that the circumstances did not point it to being a lpeasurable encounter. Amusing, certainly. Interesting? Most certainly. Exciting? oh, quite. I do like a bit of danger in my life every now and again. I just did not find it, on the whole, to be an encounter I would describe as particularly ...pleasurable." He watched them from his place leaning along Einherjath's neck, eyes half-lidded and deeply entertained, like nothing more than a cat watching a bunch of mice and picking which to chase first.

A'gar glared at him, waving a hand and snarling some insult right back at him, and basically telling him to go jump in a lake. But L';iyr was far better at handling people screaming at him than anyone seemed to realize, and when that person was NOT A'gar and he wasn't feeding off the other man's anger, he really wasn't fazed by it at all.

He simply arched an eyebrow at the blond and went back to watching the rider pair and Chris.
"Oh, I've heard of you. The troublemaker. Rumors simply fly even among the Weyrs." He shrugged, and hopped off Einherjath's back to the ground, dusting off his sleeves as if it were some truly urgent task. Then he strolled up to withing arm's reach of Chris and W'yatt, and gave them a deep sort of bow.

"Consider my apology as the one true one amongst my partner and my dragon. A'gar has a temper on him, and doesn't take well to a challenge either. " He had straightened again, and was watching W'yatt carefully, trying to gauge his mood. "That's why I don;t let him talk. And why he has a bad habit of chasing me up trees." A sort of nonchalant shrug, and he acted as if there were nothing wrong.

"As for your...brother?" He was guessing here, but it seemed more likely than lover, and they seemed closer than mere friends. "It wasn't I who said a thing about him. If he so feels the need to hurt A'gar, so be it."

A noise of protest erupted from behind him, but he just turned and silenced the blonde with a look that clearly said something pretty important, as A'gar just shut up and hung back. he was clearly displeased about it, but conceding to L'iyr now.

L'iyr turned back to the rider and Chris. "But you should keep Eyvillth out of it. If they need to get into some brawl to settle whatever they have going on-" He held up his hands defensively. "And don't expect me to know what that is- keep Einherjath out of it. If you can promise that, you're welcome to him. But if Eyviilth would lay a claw on my partner, or on my dragon, I can promise you I won't let that go." He was stonefaced as he spoke, voice flat and unimposing. But he meant every word he said. "Other than that? I nor my partners have any quarrel with you, and we are deeply sorry if we caused you any dismay." All this last was spoken with a smirk, and a distinct hint he wasn't at all sorry.