09.Jan.13, 02:28 PM
Ellaira glanced up when A'liran took a seat at her mostly empty table, raising one brow at him. He was a handsome enough lad, in a narrow and blond sort of way. But then, dragonriders seemed to have a damnably large number of attractive sorts among them. Even the plainest tended to have bodies to be envied by any caravan or Hold guard, a necessity for a man (or woman) who spent their days riding and tending dragons. It was not an easy life, and the south had done nothing to make their lives any simpler. Not for crafters such as herself, nor those who paired with the great creatures that made the Weyr a Weyr.
"Plague? Not likely," Ellaira said with a twitch of her lips which might have been a smile. She prodded the blue with one finger, tipping him over. He rapidly shifted himself, not once pausing in his consumption of the quail's wing to utter the most cursory of complaints. "For one, there were no adults around when this lot hatched out, and no known disease passes through the egg." She swung her legs down off the table as Warbler started crushing the hollow bones of the quail to smithereens.
"For two, they've been under loose quarantine for a while now, and not one has showed so much as a sniffle or runny nose." Ellaira shrugged. "I was a child when the plague struck, but our records show that young fire-lizards were some of the earliest to show the disease." She speared a quail breast with her belt-knife, resting one elbow on the table and her chin on her hand.
"Astoreth is, hmm, a green, no?" The beastcrafter smiled cheekily at him, taking a bite off her knife in a delicately barbaric fashion before setting it against her plate once more. She chewed and swallowed, then sipped at her fruit juice to clear her mouth. "I don't think we've met before. I'm Ellaira, the beastcrafter in charge of our avian populations. It's my birds on the table tonight, in fact."
"Plague? Not likely," Ellaira said with a twitch of her lips which might have been a smile. She prodded the blue with one finger, tipping him over. He rapidly shifted himself, not once pausing in his consumption of the quail's wing to utter the most cursory of complaints. "For one, there were no adults around when this lot hatched out, and no known disease passes through the egg." She swung her legs down off the table as Warbler started crushing the hollow bones of the quail to smithereens.
"For two, they've been under loose quarantine for a while now, and not one has showed so much as a sniffle or runny nose." Ellaira shrugged. "I was a child when the plague struck, but our records show that young fire-lizards were some of the earliest to show the disease." She speared a quail breast with her belt-knife, resting one elbow on the table and her chin on her hand.
"Astoreth is, hmm, a green, no?" The beastcrafter smiled cheekily at him, taking a bite off her knife in a delicately barbaric fashion before setting it against her plate once more. She chewed and swallowed, then sipped at her fruit juice to clear her mouth. "I don't think we've met before. I'm Ellaira, the beastcrafter in charge of our avian populations. It's my birds on the table tonight, in fact."