Sandcastles and Moats [Open]

To be fair, Indivara didn't know how she felt about the discovery of the eggs on the beach. No one seemed able to agree on what, exactly was in them - Mostly people agreed they were just some type of wherry egg, especially after those few who had been whispering excitedly about  firelizards had been swiftly silenced by a very angry B'jin - who, in Indivara's opinion, was hardly someone that she would ever label as 'scary'. But seeing the Weyrlingmaster threaten to throw the entire haul of eggs, and everyone that had been handling them in the centre of the lake via his dragon had almost been intimidating. Having Larrikith hiss and back up his threat had been a little more real, though Indivara knew she hadn't been alone amongst the weyrbred or bonded that had noticed the green dragons' amusement: eye colour was a dead give away, but most of the Northerners had bought it hook, line and sinker. If anyone was still whispering about firelizards, they were doing so well outside of B'jin's hearing range, and Indivara had warned one overly excited pair that Larrikith was a damned fine mind read; why did they think she was one of the best Search dragons?

Mostly, the girl found the whole thing highly amusing. They were just eggs and in all reality they should be eating them for breakfast. She had no idea why everyone had suddenly decided to keep them warm and safe, but that, too, was amusing. All the same, however, it hadn't stopped her from slipping into Kerrin's tent, kicking him awake, and dragging him down a length of the beach during the hours between 'lights out' and two am, both of them searching for eggs they refused to admit they were looking for. Firelizards could be extremely dangerous to the dragon population, and Indivara was no fool -- dragons were far more valuable than the firelizards they originated from would ever hope to be. She would rather drown all the firelizards and never see a live one (not that she ever had seen a live one) than risk her future dragonet getting sick and dying because of the little fuckers.

That had been the night before; Indivara had slept late after spending most of it a good several hundred lengths down the beach, enjoying the natural thing happened, resulting in an obnoxiously loud fight between herself and Kerrin that may or may not have been heard back at the Weyr proper, and they'd both stalked back to the campers, and into their own tents. Indivara couldn't remember what the fight had been about, but that was also pretty regular. She never stayed angry for very long and had woken up in a good mood, particularly since no one had decided to actively drag her out of her tent before she decided to. Getting herself breakfast and strolling down the beach Indivara had eaten slowly before finding a nice, quiet, sandy spot and after licking her fingers clean, had sprawled out on her stomach on the sand and lazily began construction on a sand castle.

R’nd was in an odd state of mind, but he was learning to accept that as the norm over the last turn with what he did and thought and continued to do despite what he used to find as comfortable and safe. B’jin had been angry over the discovery of the eggs and was convinced they were firelizard eggs back the creatures were back to rob them of the last surviving dragons. It was hard to think otherwise given the history and R’nd had been cautious around the eggs as well. Ayyonth had been ordered to stay away from anyone who had been in contact with them and to avoid searching about the area too much. He wasn’t sure exactly how true it was that firelizards had brought the plague to the original weyrs and had no idea if the little critters were still carrying it – after all, they were thought to be extinct as well yet here they might be – but he didn’t want to chance losing Ayyonth.

He knew, of course, that the Candidates and likely some of the wilder riders would still go searching for more proof and discuss it amongst themselves when B’jin wasn’t around. Just like he knew in the wee hours of the night that Indivara and Kerrin would go conduct their own search. How could they not? Those two were likely the top of the class when it came to mischief and curiosity and this was too good of a chance to pass up. R’nd hadn’t been surprised when sometime later he was awakened again by some scuffling and Ayyonth confirming that the pair returned, empty-handed and grumpy with each other.

Come morning, R’nd had convinced B’jin in his own special way to let any lazy Candidates sleep in a bit just this once. The excitement of the day before, whether it was of joy or fear, would have left many drained and they both knew any slip in attention could be disastrous later on with a dragon involved. They needed to learn sleep, in any condition, was important but a lecture later on still wouldn’t be a bad thing so they also knew they couldn’t get away with murder either.

He couldn’t find Kerrin that morning, which wasn’t too surprising since the brat often scowled when B’jin was near, but R’nd did see Indivara slip off on her own. He wouldn’t necessarily say they were friends but they got along well enough most of the time because of Kerrin. R’nd wasn’t sure why he was following Indivara’s path though when experience told him she never liked his advice or believed his flattery when attempts were made to boost her confidence again in areas of self-appearance. But there was a decent woman under all the judging and bursts of anger and R’nd was growing to actually like her as a true friend and not someone he put up with for one of his best friends.

Besides, he was curious about the search last night.

Quietly he came up to where Indivara had made herself comfortable and watched her work for a moment before finally saying something, “want a building companion, Indivara?” Crossing his feet at his ankles, R’nd lowered himself down to sit on the sand but didn’t make a move to start assisting before the permission came. He had no desire to eat sand today, thank you!

Indivara was generally a pretty observant young woman, so taking her by surprise could be considered almost impossible. It wasn't something that happened often; in reality, it so rarely happened that it was a true surprise when it did. R'nd managed to do just that, causing the young woman to startle and glance up at him with widened blue eyes. "Oh," Indivara blinked, her startled expression melting away to change into an almost bland amusement as R'nd seated himself. "Sure," a vague shrug was given as her gaze returned to the lazy beginnings of her sandcastle.

"Thanks for the sleep in." A sly sideways glance was given to the bluerider, a small smile pulling at the corner of Indivara's lips. The young dragonrider had a subtle smugness about him when he left B'jin that made Kerrin sick, but amused the fuck out of Indivara; she was pretty sure he was completely unaware of it. A few well timed Harper lessons had revealed the same sickening air around B'jin. The pair of them were almost depressingly oblivious to their own emotions -- but to miss their partner's? Indivara's smile grew into a fully fledged smirk. Men!

The girl began digging a moat, dumping the unwanted sand off to one side closer to the bluerider, so he could use it to continue the construction on the rather pathetic looking castle she had set the base for. "You can build the castle." From most people, it was probably an invitation to join in; from Indivara - well, it was more like a command. Mostly not to touch her moat. Her fucking moat. After a moment, in which she graciously allowed R'nd to begin construction, Indivara paused in her digging to twist slightly and lean on one elbow, staring up at the bluerider.

"We didn't find anything." She wasn't stupid, she had some idea what the rider was after - information! The girl didn't know if he was after it because he was going to scold her for even looking (never mind waking Kerrin and dragging him off to look with her) or because he wanted in on the next hunt. Deciding to go with the later, Indivara smirked mischievously and waggled her right pointer finger at the bluerider. "B'jin would not approve, you know." Her voice held a teasing lilt, and her expression was devious as she dug some more sand out of the moat, blue eyes bright and refusing to leave the hold on R'nd's grey.

From what she'd learned, B'jin wasn't exactly difficult to displease. He didn't mind snark, or attitude. He rarely got upset when his students didn't do their homework. He only got irritable at bad penmanship when it was clear the writer wasn't even trying to be neat, and that was because he was an obsessive prude. But Indivara was pretty sure if the bluerider even looked sideways at one of those eggs that the greenrider had heard one too many discoverers whispering to be firelizards, he would probably dump R'nd on the spot.

Which, to be fair, would be really skilled of him, since she was well aware of their shared opinion that they "weren't together" - even though it had been well over a turn since their first hook up, the entire Weyr considered them Weyrmated - and they were completely oblivious to how mushy they were with one another. Completely oblivious!

It was like watching pre-teen weyrbrats dancing around one another!

R’nd had been forced to spend time around the female weyrbrat far too often to think the order to build the castle was anything but that. Indivara didn’t ask you to do something and she very rarely added manners to anything she said. She gave orders and expected to get her way. Sometimes he would fight her will since it wasn’t good for her to grow up thinking she would always have what she wanted without being questioned or challenged but it rarely worked out for him and in this instance, building a castle wasn’t really a hardship. In fact, Indivara likely didn’t know that he was a champion when it came to building sandcastles. He grew up on the shore of the ocean after all and a kid had to occupy his free time somehow. So little Orwind had taken to shaping and sculpting the damp sand into creations of his mind or the traditional castle-shape. Even during the exile, some of the time was spent reliving his childhood and playing in the sand. He had to have something to do!

Sadly, they didn’t have much in the way of buckets of varying shapes and sizes or any sort of tools but their hands but R’nd would work with what he had and silently took up his task and began working on the walls. “For that sleep in… consider this your lecture about responsibility and all of that,” he said a moment later, after wondering if he should let her off the hook or give her to B’jin for proper lecturing. Indivara grew up around dragons and riders and knew better than most of the others in her class what was expected of her and the dangers of not paying attention. He didn’t need to go into the details now but the warning that she had just been spared would hopefully earn him some points.

He laughed when Indivara beat him to the punch and answered the unspoken question hanging between them. Of course she knew he knew what she had been up to. It was hard to sneak around with several dragons napping all over the beach and Ayyonth had probably been a cheeky bastard and spent some time pestering Kerrin and tagging along mentally. It was almost disturbing how easily those two connected. When, not if, Kerrin Impressed, it was going to be interesting to see how Ayyonth and the dragon got along and if his blue would back off. “I didn’t think you had. Kerrin’s not that good at keeping secrets.” The third wall was being smoothed out when R’nd’s gaze shot over to the girl wagging a finger at him as she teased him. It took him a moment to realise what she was thinking B’jin wouldn’t approve of and R’nd gave an appropriate scandalised expression. “I’m not interested in finding eggs! I’d be happy if they turn out to be small wherries or a new type of bird.” He ended that conversation with a large and playful pout before going back to the pile of sand slowly being moulded into a castle.

Indivara wasn't overly fond of the beach; that was to be expected after one was almost drowned by Larrikith. But Indivara had also been a sickly child that spent a lot of her time needing a solid dose of healer administration, bed-rest and warm clothing, despite the heat of the Southern sun. Swimming had not been on the list of to-do's for the child, or for her mother. Catching a chill for Indivara could have been far more life threatening than it would have been for any other child. Indivara blamed her illness for her extreme lack of height, though it was not something she went out of her way to remind people about; being sick was a weakness and Indivara didn't do weakness.

Beach trips were rare for Indivara, to lake, river or elsewhere, though she spent a lot of time in the warmth of the bathing houses. The beach was cold, and sandy and miserable in comparison to the clean, tidy warmth of the Houses; she didn't like sand on her feet or between her toes when she was meant to be clean. She didn't really like the cool water when bathing was meant to be warm. It also brought back bad memories from before Katila, and Indivara disliked them enough to avoid the triggers that caused remembrance. Warm days and sunny sand weren't really on her to-do list, even at the best of times.

Indivara raised an eyebrow, looking at R'nd in mild amusement as he 'lectured' her, rolling her eyes at him disrespectfully and returning her attention back to the moat she was digging. Indivara was an intelligent girl, and as R'nd suspected, she was well aware of the dangers that came from not taking a life involved with or around dragons seriously; it was written across her face in blatant scarring. Additionally, she'd had to fight tooth an nail to be granted the right to Stand for the clutch she was currently enrolled in; she sure as fuck wasn't going to go out of her way to screw that up. If she didn't Impress this time, she was pretty sure D'ren would refuse her right to stand until she popped out a baby. And that, that just was not happening. Indivara wasn't sure if he knew how many trips between she'd taken to be sure she never got pregnant, but she was also pretty sure the Weyrleader would be the only person to frown at her decision.

No one that knew Indivara, wanted her to reproduce. Especially not Indivara herself. Children were not on her to do list. Not for a long, long, long time. Probably not ever. D'ren's stupid demands weren't going to change that, not if she had her way, and if sneaking onto the Sands every time was how she had to go about Impressing - than fuck Faranth sideways, that's what she'd do! He could try and stop her - undoubtedly, he would - but Indivara had grown up in Katila Weyr and while he had been shuffling papers and being all Weyrleader-y, she'd been learning every damned nook and hidey hole the Weyr had to offer. Hiding from the dragons wouldn't be nearly so easy (especially if Grith took to the search) But Indivara would have her dragon. Damn it all - her bronze dragon.

Indivara laughed, watching as R'nd took to building the walls of the castle. "If they are wherries..." Oh, but that would be so amusing. Some of the more impressionable Candidates were strutting around like they just won the dragonet lottery, their little eggs in pots and their chests puffed out like they were the Lord of the Hold. Seeing their precious 'firelizard' eggs hatch into wherries would be just beautiful. "I hope they are." her smirk was pure devious delight at the idea.

In the process of building the castle, R'nd will take to using new sand, not just that which Indivara was dumping for him. As he digs through it, he will come across nine eggs, sprawled in the sand. Further searching will not reveal anything further, not even broken shells.

Hatching:
x2
- 1 PC
- 1 NPC

Left behind:
x7 (no, they won't be discovered or Impressed by anyone. R'nd is a party pooper.)

They fell into silence as they worked on Indivara’s castle, which was often the case with them. They were friends because of Kerrin. Often when they were near, it was to pick on the other or on the rare times R’nd didn’t like seeing the young woman hate her appearance he would try to give her pep talks which ended in pain – on his end. Usually R’nd preferred the silence.

So when he reached for more sand off to his side, having depleted the pile Indivara had given him from her moat, he frowned when fingers hit something hard. Thinking the stone he found could work as a tool for carving out details in his design or perhaps be used decorative, R’nd started to dig it out and froze in terror when he saw it wasn’t a stone, or even a rock given the size. He swore under his breath and hilariously scooted back a couple of feet to get away from the eggs most of the camp was searching for. He knew his reaction grabbed Indivara’s attention and there wouldn’t be any chance of hiding them again so he thought quickly on his feet – technically his bum given how he still sat there staring wide-eyed at the next – and decided nipping in the bud the desire the two weyrbrats he hung out with had for finding their own eggs would be best.

“Still wanna find out if they’re wherries?” R’nd found his voice, though it was soft, almost whisper-like, as he glanced at Indivara. He felt like they were committing a heinous crime by even looking at the nest given B’jin’s anger and desire to have everyone shut up about the eggs and to stop looking for them. But he knew Kerrin and Indivara. They didn’t find anything last night and had already proven they would sneak out to look anyway so it was obvious they would continue to do so. Unless, of course, they were each given one.

“Pick one for yourself and give Kerrin,” R’nd scanned the nest, looking them over like he knew what he was doing and could tell what was inside and what colour it would be if it happened to be a firelizard and finally pointed at one, “that one.” He didn’t want to touch them. He had been there when the plague hit Benden Weyr and lived with a bluerider in exile that believed, like most, that firelizards brought the plague to the dragons so R’nd was being cautious around the new discovery. He hoped that would be enough to sate their curiosity and need to be a part of the so-called exciting discovery.

Glancing again at the young woman that, along with Kerrin, was going to be the death of him, R’nd decided she needed something to help carry and conceal the eggs and stripped off his shirt, tossing it at her. He was known for showing off his body and was an obvious beach bum so strolling around the beach in any weather without a shirt wouldn’t be seen as odd.

Once both eggs were grabbed, R’nd would bury the nest again and hope no one else discovered it. Even still, he had a bad feeling about all of this.

Indivara enjoyed the casual and companionable silence that often came with R'nd's presence. It was an enjoyable change to the bitching and bickering that came alongside Kerrin, though she wouldn't swap the older Weyrbrat for half the dragons left on Pern (not that she'd tell anyone that - especially not R'nd!) and enjoyed the fighting as much as she knew Kerrin did. He wouldn't come seeking it if he didn't! R'nd, on the other hand, tended to come in peace and bring quiet peace along with him. It helped that he sided with her as often as he sided with Kerrin when they had fights. She liked having someone insist to Kerrin she was right... She liked it less when he tried to convince her Kerrin was right (especially if she knew that made both men right!).

The quiet swear word would have been lost on Indivara, who was rather swept up in digging out the moat and wondering if she would be able to steal a container off someone to fill it with water, or if she would have to dig a trench all the way to the lake's edge, though in truth it wasn't all that far away. Maybe if she dug a few more inches it would fill itself up? The girl's thoughts were interrupted and she blinked as R'nd skittered toward her, shifting to sit up properly she eyed his expression suspiciously, a sly smirk weaving onto her lips as she did so. Pure terror, who would have thought R'nd was afraid of beach critters. "Dig up a 'snake, R'nd?" She teased, even as she leaned over the castle to peer where the bluerider had been digging. She burst into laughter when she spotted the nest full of eggs sitting there harmlessly. Blue eyes sparkled with devious amusement as she counted them.

"Wait, what?" A scowl transformed her features into a rather horrific array of frown lines and furrowed scar tissue as she glared at R'nd irritably. "One?" She gestured at the nest in irritation, though the girl did oblige and pick up the egg R'nd took such pains to pick out for Kerrin. Putting it aside, Indivara peered at the rest that were visible, quickly snatching one about the same size as the one R'nd had picked for Kerrin before the bluerider began burring the nest once more and she giggled, amused by his expression. "Don't you want one," Indivara cooed mischievously, waving her egg carefully in his face. "They're most likely tunnelsnakes of some description." Oh, the terror she would wreak upon the Weyr with a baby tunnelsnake hatching! Indivara smirked deviously, sitting back and popping the eggs together in her lap.

"The dragons only survived because of their riders. Do you honestly think that firelizards had enough brains to keep themselves alive?" Indivara had never seen a firelizard - they'd all been long dead before she was born - but she'd heard stories, especially since the first egg was found on the current expedition, and had very little faith in the intelligence of the creatures. The answering shirt thrown in her face made Indivara laugh more, and she removed the eggs from her lap to spread the shirt across her knees ("Oooh, it's still warm!") with a sideways smirk and top it up with sand. Then she placed the two eggs in carefully and covered them with a little more sand. Tugging up the edges of the shirt, her smirk grew as she tied the short sleeves together in a knot to hold the entire thing secure.

"Are you going to finish the castle?" The eggs were put aside, and Indivara stared at R'nd with an upraised eyebrow. Abandoning her current task wouldn't make the eggs go away. It'd probably keep her twitching companion happier knowing the nest was within his sight and out of sight of everyone else. Indivara grinned impishly and emptied a handful of sand on R'nd's head.

“If you w—In.Di.Va.Ra!” R’nd choked out her name in punctuated syllables as the sand trickled through his hair though, naturally, most stayed within the sandy locks. He couldn’t believe the brat just dumped a handful of sand on him! That was one of the dirtiest tricks she could do to him and R’nd was torn between pouting, sputtering, and plotting revenge. Unfortunately for the young woman, the sputtering took place as revenge was plotted. He wouldn’t say where or when he’d strike back but it’d be good, oh yes, it would be. In fact, it would likely start with doubling back to their creation later on to destroy it, though that was more because their little project was serving as a nice marker for where a nest of eggs lay buried. R’nd didn’t need Indivara dragging Kerrin back to clean it out in the night.

He closed his eyes, shook his head, and ran fingers through his hair to help get more of the sand out but R’nd knew it would take a bath or two with a lot of scrubbing to get every last stubborn grain free. A grin appeared as the bluerider recalled the flight with B’jin on the beach and how much clean up that took. He thought B’jin would murder him by the time they were both convinced the greenrider didn’t have a grain anywhere. “You know you only gave me a reason to drag someone into the bath with me, right?” He winked at Indivara, but they both knew he wouldn’t make a move on her. Since she started a career out of flight-mothing, R’nd had been cautious about where he landed when he lost but since Ayyonth didn’t chase much anymore, it hadn’t been too big of a concern. Which was a good thing; some days he felt like Indivara was an annoying sister he couldn’t get to stop tagging along. He swore she was around a lot before he Impressed but after Ayyonth, the girl was always underfoot.

Eyeing the castle’s progress for a moment, R’nd wondered what else he could do to embellish its amazingness given the lack of tools. Another handful of the damp sand was scooped up – from his other side this time so as to avoid the nest – and the construction of another level of the castle began. “I don’t want to say the eggs are firelizards and I’m certainly not encouraging any theories,” R’nd began with a quick glance around them, convinced B’jin would appear from between, dragonless, because he sensed the foul creatures being discussed, “but what if they actually did have the same idea the Weyrs did and came South, away from the plague?” His voice was quiet, something that seemed to affect a lot of the survivors that lived through the exile. R’nd didn’t like to talk about his time and sometimes even carried extra guilt because he was just a tag-along and didn’t have to care for a dragon, keep a dragon grounded, or worry he would wake to the pain and emptiness of his dragon leaving him. He was often able to battle that guilt, however, because he knew he had been company and a connection to another human for the dragonrider that brought him South.

“But you’re probably right and they’re just tunnelsnakes,” R’nd tossed out in a chipper tone that was bordering on being too chipper and fake; an obvious sign he was steering the conversation away from the exile. “Not that I should have given you or Kerrin an egg if that’s the case. You two are little terrors enough on your own!”

Indivara giggled wickedly as R’nd reacted with the expected array of scandalised horror at the sand in his hair, the girl’s bright blue eyes sparkling mischievously as she leaned back, watching the reaction with delight. Laughter rippled from her lips as R’nd spoke, and she stuck her tongue out playfully. “I’m sure you will get no complaints,” she said cheerfully, knowing exactly whom the bluerider was referring without any need for additional information.

“Of course not,” Indivara drawled, eyeing R’nd sideways with a smirk, “wouldn’t want your bath buddy to hear about anything like that.” Ginning innocently, Indivara made sure her little collection of eggs in R’nd’s shirt were safely put aside before sprawling out on her stomach and absently adding to the growing building as she listened to the dragonrider’s words. “What if it started here and they took it North?” Indivara countered, raising an eyebrow questioningly.  It didn’t seem that out there to her, after all, everyone knew all the original shit had started in the South, not up North where they’d all moved to for whatever reason. Something to do with the heat, probably; Indivara wasn’t really one to pay over attention in class, except to call her teacher out on random phrases.

“We do our best,” Indivara replied sweetly, fluttering her lashes as she looked up at R’nd from where she was building a small tower on the developing sandcastle. She wasn’t unaware that R’nd would quite likely destroy their creation to avoid return trips for eggs, but Indivara was less inclined to believe they actually were firelizards, and more inclined to go with her assumption that they were merely a pest creature. If that were the case, the amusement of simply hatching one would be more than enough to keep her satisfied. She had no intention of lugging around a nest full of tunnelsnake eggs.

Ugh, sorry. I felt like I was going around and around in circles >>
This can probably be a closer unless R'nd has something up his rhetorical sleeve. xD