[G] [C] 739.06.05 | Congrats to Us

Bedith’s flight had been unimportant to Indivara, but upon a summons from the Weyrleader on the afternoon of the Fourth, Indivara was both delighted and awestruck to be told she would be in charge of the upcoming Weyrling group. Apparently B’jin had vouched for her, and despite her pregnancy – and the fact that her tiny parasite would be born approximately two months after the Hatching – the Weyrleader was happy enough to let her take charge of the clutch, especially when she made it quite clear she’d be giving the child to an already-arranged foster parent. She didn’t mention who, but left well enough alone. She wasn’t sure the Weyrleader would approve if she told him Rhaedalyn was due to pop out her own child anytime now.

Heading home after the meeting, she’d thrown herself at V’ler in estatic delight and gushed about, well, how excited she was to be able to boss around the upcoming Candidates and then the Weyrlings that would follow. In her good mood, neither of them mentioned that the sire was clutch-brother to the sire of the last clutch. Indivara honestly didn’t even think about it, and V’ler was too smart to bring her good mood down with such a dire topic. In the end, Indivara had spent most of the day preparing notes – which meant stealing V’ler’s desk and his not-best parchment and quills – and eating a continuous cycle of food, since she’d found constantly having something on the way to her stomach prevented her puking.

Morning of the fifth, Indivara had woken relatively early – mostly because her nausea kicked in with a sudden ferocity – before making her way to the kitchens and begging both breakfast and her first pile of snacks; dried fruits and nuts, mostly. With her little carry bag filled with her treats, Indivara made her way towards the Goldrider’s social spot, poking her head in to look for Mulrissa. Not seeing her there, she’d frowned and pondered where the goldrider might be. It was Venseth who finally told her the pair were down examining the Hatching Sands, and Indivara snorted. Wouldn’t they both see more than enough of it over the next few months?

Regardless, Indivara shrugged to herself and walked in a leasurly way to the Sands, which is why it was on the crest of lunchtime when she finally arrived (she had been side-tracked at several points by friends and familiar faces, and she was in no rush so whatever). Letting herself onto the Sands, Indivara looked up with a slight smile as Venseth winged in, having abandoned Veeth to come and see the Sands he’d be, if not guarding, at least spending a lot of time around. Honestly, the blue was as excited as his rider to be the upcoming Weyrlingmaster!

“Mulrissa!” Indivara called, before popping a half-handful of dried fruit and nuts in her mouth, chewing as she trudged across the sands. Indivara wasn’t sure how many people knew she was pregnant – she and V’ler hadn’t advertised the fact, but they also hadn’t hidden it. Indivara didn’t really care who knew, if she was honest, she just didn’t want to be quizzed about it. “Congrats,” She said mildly, feeling particularly social in her own good mood, and she stopped beside the taller woman. “Thought you’d like to know I’ll be taking on this Class.” Indivara turned her shining face up at Mulrissa, positively radiating smug satisfaction.

Hello, Bedith! Venseth said cheerfully, landing in the middle of the Sands and looking around curiously. He’d never actually set food on the sands before. They were so warm and squishy! Not at all like the beach! That was only warm from the sun, this seemed to radiate heat from within! Lowering himself suddenly, Venseth set about rolling onto his back, wings spread and legs in the air, scrubbing himself into the hot sands with groans and grunts of pleasure. Indivara turned to watch her dragon with a bemused, resigned expression, shaking her head at his antics.

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Note to self: 13 weeks.

True to form, Bedith wasted no time in deciding to lay claim to the Hatching Grounds, despite the fact that she wouldn’t be laying her Clutch for months yet and Okalinth would have it as hers for over a month between then and now. Mulrissa didn’t understand it, and was sure she would be hearing plenty of complaints about Okalinth in the next few months; you’d think Okalinth was the junior queen of the two of them, the way Bedith acted.

Still, it was more effort than it was worth to convince Bedith not to investigate the Hatching Grounds that morning. The gold hadn’t been on the Sands at Telgar before, though she had been in the stands for other queen’s clutches. Since the Sands were unoccupied and, as a gold, no one really questioned their presence there, Rissa sat on the edge of the Sands and let Bedith poke around the place to her heart’s content. The warmth lulled Mulrissa into almost a doze, though she was still awake, but to a point where she wasn’t really thinking or paying attention to the world around her.

She looked up when she heard her name, turning to see Indivara crossing the Sands. “Hello, Indivara.” She said, momentarily surprised to see her. It seemed unlikely that Indivara frequented the Hatching Sands for fun, and they were not particularly close friends. Her confusion was cleared up when the bluerider said she’d be teaching the class for Bedith’s clutch.

“Oh, that’s wonderful, congratulations.” She said, genuinely pleased for the other woman. Mulrissa could tell how much it meant to Indivara to teach the class from how pleased she looked, and from hearing B’jin talk about how seriously she took her Weyrlingmaster training. “I’m sure you will do a fantastic job. And if there’s anything I can do to make your life easier, let me know.” Rissa wasn’t sure what exactly she might be able to do (other than try to keep Bedith from being too difficult) but it never hurt to offer. She was also fairly confident that Indivara was pregnant, and knowing how that was from her own pregnancies and helping her sister through hers, Mulrissa didn’t want Indivara to overwork herself. From what she knew of Indivara, however, Rissa felt that overworking herself was likely. She also probably didn’t want Rissa or anyone else making a fuss or asking her to work less. No, probably not. Rissa decided she would keep an eye on Indivara, just in case, but mostly trust her to take care of herself. Maybe talk to V’ler if she was concerned.

Mulrissa was distracted from her questions by Venseth, who was making a bit of a spectacle. “He looks like he’s enjoying himself,” she said, smiling at Indivara’s expression in the face of her dragon’s frolicking.

At the same time, Bedith blinked down at Venseth wriggling in the sand. Venseth. What are you doing? The blue was being extraordinarily undignified and Bedith would have been mortified to have been seen with him if anyone else were around. And she had to deal with him more once her eggs were laid? I hope you treat the Sands with more respect when there are eggs on it, she said primly as she sat nearby to better glare down at Venseth, delicately curling her tail around herself without disturbing the sand to make a point. She would not have some silly blue bring harm to her Clutch. Okalinth may have them next and be senior to her, but these were her Sands and anyone who threatened her eggs when they came to lay hardening on the Sands would face an enormous, enraged gold dragon. Better Venseth understood that as soon as possible.

“Thanks,” Indivara said mildly, as a catch-all response to the goldrider’s congratulations, compliment and offer for assistance. She wasn’t really sure what Mulrissa – or Bedith, for that matter – could do to make life easier for her. She supposed not invoking more paperwork would be a bonus, such as eating Candidates or whatever. But Indivara wasn’t really worried, she had been torturing Candidates with her scars for Turns and the idea of doing so as their teacher utterly thrilled her. Honestly, Indivara wasn’t even sure how many people knew what had actually caused her scarring; her stories had ranged from the mundane to the incredibly unlikely for Turns and while she was sure some had been corrected on what the truth was, she also knew most of her fellow ‘brats would get a kick out of the Candidates thinking she’d scarred herself for intimidation factor when she faced down eight wild Whers. Or… whatever the latest story was.

“He’s an idiot,” Indivara said fondly, shaking her head again. Venseth had done much the same thing when they’d visited the snow at R’nd’s sister’s home. Veeth and Vydoriath hadn’t been quite as enthusiastic, if she recalled, but Venseth seemed to have developed a desire to wriggle and roll on all the different ground coverings that he could. She’d seen him rolling around in the lush grass of the fields, the pebbled beaches of Ista… Indivara shook her head again, and watched as Venseth climbed to his feet once more and shook the specks of sand from his hide in a sheet of golden dust.

What is ‘respect’? Venseth asked, staring at Bedith blankly and with such conviction that Indivara burst out laughing. Her dragon’s deep amusement at teasing the gold echoed through to her, but he was doing a marvellous job of appearing to be quite and absurdly dumb. Indivara wondered if Bedith would believe he was as clueless as he was portraying, or if her unfortunate laughter would give away the game. Regardless, Venseth seemed to wait with baited breath for the answer to his question, ignoring the way his rider was laughing and gasping for breath at his antics.

Mulrissa laughed, watching Venseth shake himself off and stand. She thought it was charming how fascinated he was by the Hatching Sands, though the irritation rolling of Bedith indicated her dragon clearly felt otherwise.

This blue was an idiot if he thought he was being clever, Bedith thought sourly, gazing disdainfully down at him. Don’t be insolent. She sneered at him, barely controlling the urge to cuff his muzzle with her wing, managing to restrain herself only because Mulrissa held her back.

Please tell me he won’t be close enough to the eggs they’ll pick up the stupidity. The gold grumbled loudly, letting both Venseth and Indivara hear, and Rissa could pick up that she was actually at least partially serious. Rissa smiled, still laughing and reassured her disgruntled dragon. ’I can assure you that’s not how it works, but if it makes you feel better he has no reason to touch them.’

Good, because I would never let him. Bedith said before getting up and going to inspect another area of the Sands, pointedly ignoring Venseth. Rissa shook her head at Bedith, before looking back to Indivara.

“I can already tell they’ll get along splendidly.” She said, with a an amused smile that said she expected nothing of the sort.

“Don’t worry,” Indivara quipped back to Bedith, her tone flippant. “Their parents are plenty stupid enough to fuck them up, even if were possible for stupidity to be passed via being in the vicinity of the eggs.” Whether or not Indivara genuinely felt that was left in the dark. Once upon a time, Indivara had liked a gold; unfortunately, that gold had died, and the woman to whom she’d been bonded. Indivara, for her part, had kept her distance from making another female friend since then. Never mind that she was so prickly that not many women were interested in being her friend.

Indivara snorted at Mulrissa’s comment, and put some more food in her mouth, chewing idly on the fruit and nuts as she watched the two dragons. Satisfied with his causing Bedith some form of emotional and mental pain, Venseth had retreated to a spot not far away from Indivara and flopped down on the sand again, enjoying the warmth that radiated up from it, and wondering if Larrikith would know how they were heated; she probably would, he decided. The damned green knew way too much about everything. Indivara insisted it was because B’jin was a know-it-all and Larrikith stole from his stores of knowledge, but Venseth wasn’t so sure.

“Venseth and I are very good at making friends,” Indivara quipped in response, after a long pause. Not because she hadn’t been able to think of a retort, but because she’d been lost in thought and busy munching on her food. Using the hand not busy transporting food from her carry pouch to her mouth, Indivara tugged on the end of her long braid. She looked up suddenly, and towards the entrance, moments before Queenie and Saph came darting in, shrieking and yelling at each other, Saph carrying what was clearly a stolen meatroll, and Queenie demanding he give it to her.

Indivara watched them with amusement as they landed on Venseth’s head, still shrieking and chittering at each other, until Venseth managed to manipulate the situation until the roll fell into his mouth and he snapped it up, the tiny piece of food vanishing into his much bigger maw. The two firelizards paused in shock, before both of them turned on Venseth in outrage; the dragon laughed quietly to himself as he let them throw their tantrums. “He’s in a real mood today,” Indivara said idly, shaking her head.

There was a moment of panic where Mulrissa worried Bedith would genuinely hurt Indivara for her comment, as the gold whirled to stare at the other woman, eyes flashing orange (thankfully not the red of true rage), and reared up onto her hind legs, flaring her wings. However, it was pretty clear that Bedith was just trying to be intimidating, a display of ‘this is who you are considering fucking with, I advise otherwise.’

“I don’t think she’s impressed, dear.” Rissa said chuckling, relieved that Bedith wasn’t quite as pissed as she was acting. Bedith snorted, bringing her front legs back to the sand heavily, making an audible thump before she stalked to a point suitably far from this ridiculous blue pair and started digging an impression in the sand. Within a few moments she had a suitably sized dent and she moved to curl up in it, circling a few times before settling down on the warm Hatching Grounds and attempting to ignore everyone else there.

Indivara’s comment had Mulrissa laughing out loud. “I can tell,” she said, nodding towards the irritable golden lump that was her dragon. “I’m sure Bedith is your new best friend.”

The appearance of the screaming firelizards prompted a theatrical huff from Bedith, who curled around herself more tightly to cover her head. Rissa watched them vent their tiny displeasure on Venseth, once again reminded why she wasn’t missing anything by not having a flit of her own. The periodic intrusions by other people’s lizards was enough for her, thank you very much.

“There are worse moods,” she said, shrugging, more entertained by Venseth than anything. “I’d say Bedith was in a mood, but she’s always like this. I am not looking forward to how she’ll be when there actually are eggs on the Sands. She’ll be unbearable.”

I’ll be a perfect delight like I always am.” Bedith grumbled, and Rissa knew that if her dragon didn’t think swearing was beneath her there would have been at least one, if not two, instances of ‘fucking’ in that statement.

Indivara was both unimpressed, and unfazed, by Bedith’s show of outrage. She just stared up at the dragon, watching with a bemused sort of expression and a subtle smirk of success at getting such an obvious rise out of the beast. Indivara had spent most of her life surrounded by green and blue dragons; they were dramatic in their own way, and she’d certainly never been a stranger to proddy greens and their even more dramatic riders. Bediths’ show of attitude was neither impressive nor surprising. Golds were just somewhat more obnoxious and markedly bigger greens, in Indivara’s not-at-all-humble opinion.

“Neither am I,” Indivara shrugged, eating some more food as Mulrissa babbled about her dragon’s moods in response to her own about Venseth. Indivara snorted softly, and shrugged. “Whatever her attitude, she’s not above the requirements of tradition.” Unlike Indivara herself, bucking tradition with ever step she took; sneaking onto the Sands, Impressing a blue, training to be Weyrlingmaster, taking on Weyrlingmaster… Indivara was rather smug with her achievements thus far, honestly. “Although I’m rather interested to see if a dragon actually will eat a Candidate,” she smirked, side-eyeing Mulrissa in amusement.

That would certainly make for an interesting lesson! Though Indivara wasn’t sure if she’d prefer Val not be present (he had no stomach for gore) or actually be there (because she had no stomach for that type of drama). Oh well, it wouldn’t matter anyway, since Indivara was quite confident in the fact that no dragon ever had eaten a Candidate and she doubted Bedith would be the first. Not when doing so would redirect all the negative attention that came with Nadioth’s maiden clutch on to her own!

“Oh, goodness, don’t give her ideas. That would be an awful hassle for both of us.” Mulrissa laughed, imagining her dragon eating a Candidate. She knew Bedith would never do such a thing, of course, but it wasn’t hard to picture her doing it. The silly gold cared too much about her image to ever risk it by hurting anyone. And really, it’s not like Bedith would really have to deal with the consequences so much as Mulrissa would. Was there anything anyone could do to her if she ate someone? Would they stop a gold from rising? Could they? Rissa didn’t know. Not worth worrying about since it would never happen, but an interesting question to be sure.

“Firelizards on the other hand,” Rissa added with a droll smile, “are fair game for eating.” Honestly, Bedith probably wouldn’t eat a firelizard either, but it was much more likely than her eating a Candidate. Bedith huffed irritably and uncurled from her dip in the sand, and glanced dourly at Rissa. I think I am done here today. the gold said stiffly, moving closer to the humans so Rissa could climb onto her for their return to their weyr. Mulrissa laughed again and gave Indivara a friendly pat on the arm.

“It seems my queen has decided it is time for us to leave. I’m sure we will see each other again soon enough, Indivara. I have no doubt that between you and Bedith this class of Candidates will be properly terrorized into good behavior.” Rissa stood up to begin heading over to Bedith, pausing for a moment to smile back at Indivara. “You know where I live if you need me for any reason, and you’re welcome any time.” she said, giving Indivara a polite nod in farewell before walking the rest of the way to Bedith and climbing aboard the gold. Bedith gave Venseth one more grumpy look before she took to the air to leave the Hatching Grounds.