Run Run Run as Fast as You Can [Indivara]

Nejerc had paced the gathering square in one full circle. Every other minute he would turn and look at the large bronze who was still recovering. Gritting his teeth Nejerc turned on his heels sharply, no longer able to stand the sight and the thoughts plauging him he ran. His feet steering him without his mind having to tell them where to go. He didn't take this route often, and hardly EVER ran part of it. However Nejerc found himself in need of space, and clarity.

There was to much happening at the weyr to stay there any longer he needed away from the turmoil of the investigation, the sight of Ronarth, the thoughts of D'ren, and Talian pricking at him Nejerc tried to lose it all in the run as the air naturally resisted his need to rush past it. The rush of the wind as it resisted his push against it was a small comfort in the face of all that was shadowing Nejerc's every step.

All those thoughts were just a cover for a deeper more troubling pair of thoughts. Someone had actually attempted to kill D'ren, and S'kef had taken claim to leadership. Nejerc was no fan, not by a long shot. Normally Nejerc wouldn't judge a person by just what he heard without meeting the person himself, but there were things that had been said that could not be ignored by Nejerc. The man was too much, and with a sudden rise to the highest power a man could have in the weyr.. Saying Nejerc was uneasy was putting it gently as if telling a child.

This was followed by the thoughts of Ronarth, and Tsuen. Tsuen had chased away a healer, no matter that healer had been Talien, Ronarth had been injured and in need of tending! Yet Tsuen had clearly not sought out another healer, she HAD to have seen Ronarth's wounds but had done NOTHING. If Ronarth had gone much longer without tending... Nejerc shuddered to even think of what it would have done to the already very sick D'ren.

A D'ren who had almost been murdered. A D'ren who MIGHT still yet die. The thought bit at Nejerc. He hadn't been allowed to truly get to know D'ren. They had met once, and the weyr leader had proven to be a good man that Nejerc had taken to in his own fashion. He was honored to have known him even for a moment! With D'ren out of the picture things were quickly going down hill, showing just how much D'ren's mere presence had been a strength to the people of the weyr. Those who had needed protection.. Protection from someone like S'kef...

Indivara had gone out of her way, both to avoid any real contact with anyone actively involved in searching for the culprit, while also making sure to annoy any and all of her fellow candidates. Usually, such annoyances came with leaning over their shoulders and whispering dramatically ‘I know what you did!’ and watching them explode into self-defence. It hadn’t taken long to get boring, however, and a few days later Indivara was coming up with other ways to annoy her fellows. She probably would have taken to throwing false evidence at S’kef and his lackeys, but she was not prepared to end up on the chopping block by getting under their feet. Thus far she’d managed to avoid having a finger pointed at her, she certainly wasn’t going to colour herself guilty in their eyes by making up evidence!

So being said, Indivara had quickly become bored with the way things were rolling at Katila, from Ronarth pining after D’ren when he wasn’t wrapped up in his self-inflicted injuries, to the heated discussions about who was responsible to people’s obnoxious claims that it wasn’t them, Indivara was bored and irritable. To top it all off, Krypth was so egg heavy she was a pain in the arse, and Jada was just as miserable, wrapped up in Krypth’s delightful sharing of her pregnancy. Indivara was insanely pleased the golden beast hadn’t decided to share the pros and cons of being a gold dragon with her. She’d probably kill someone. Maybe that was why? Indivara snorted and sprawled out on her tree branch.

It hadn’t taken much to convince her mother’s green that flying Indivara down to the lake was a good idea, and the girl had a feeling her mother had practically told the dragon to take her down. The woman didn’t like Indivara going between without the actual dragon bonded up top with her, but Indivara had convinced the beast she’d be rid of her faster if she did so. Besides, Indivara hadn’t had a trip between for over a week, and she was desperately in need of the anti-pregnancy measure, since the last bluerider had flippantly not cared. Indivara had been furious when he’d refused to take her between. She probably could have gone to any number of other blueriders for the short trip, but she refused to be laughed at and she was pretty sure most of them would have laughed at her. Oh, they would have taken her on the trip, but they would have made her regret it.

One hand brushed her long hair out of her face, not noticing or caring about the stray twigs and leaves that had gotten locked in the strands. She was nibbling on a piece of fruit when both Blood Sucker and Shit Head suddenly started chittering excitedly, standing up and looking down at the path. Indivara was a fair way from the Lake, having walked half way home after a leisurely swim. She’d stopped to climb a favoured tree on the way back, taking a nap. The firelizards had woken her perhaps an hour earlier, and brought her gifts of redfruit. Indivara had been munching since, the two firelizards squabbling over the seeds.

Looking up the path, Indivara watched the puffing approach of one of her fellow candidates, her expression mild and unimpressed as he made his way closer. She probably would have shrugged and gone back to her eating and napping, but Blood Sucker had dropped the most amusing idea on the girl, and so she smirked wickedly as she gave the remainder of her fruit to Shit Head and adjusted her position on the branch, creeping along it to where it stretched out over the top of the path the man was running down.

Grinning deviously, Indivara carefully timed the distance he was covering, before leaping off; her intent to land on the man. The firelizards exploded into chatter, dropping out of the tree alongside their human, and scolded the man.

Wrapped up in his thoughts even as he tried to push them away by exerting his body. There was simply to much and he couldn't stop his thinking, even playing the drum had not been able to ease the current weight of his thoughts. It was something that had never happened before, and running away from them didn't seem to be working either! It was making Nejerc quiet frustrated though he would never allow another to know of it.

Firelizards! He heard their voices before he saw them, their voices drawing him up short even as someone crashed down right in front of him so close that he felt her hair brush his arm that had been in front of him at a ninety degree angle as he ran. The arm brushed by her hair settled back to his side as he came to a quick stop leaning over the person who'd appeared out of no where.

After a couple puffs to regain his breath he twisted slightly to look up, as that was the direction she had come from. Taking note of the over head branch he slowly straightened taking the female in with a quick gaze focusing on her instead of his thoughts. He was almost ready to attempt anything to make them stop for a few minutes.

He recognized her, having heard of her and seen her around repeatedly. He had no personal interaction with her aside from hearing her speak in candidate lessons or watching her run around the creche. He took a deep breath in through his nose as he regarded her and then very slowly despite how his lungs screamed let it out slowly. When he spoke he was very careful to not sound breathless though he'd been running on and off for quiet some time. He was only half way to the lake side and though he was a good runner he doubted he could have made it all the way to the lake just running.

“Up to child's play again Indivara?”

To him she was still a child, even though in all respects she was his equal as a candidate. He had seen and heard of the mischief she caused and had been lucky not to be a target of it, it seemed he finally was as apparent by her almost landing on top of him, for his sake and her sake he was rather glad she hadn't. If she'd landed on him.. What would he have done as a counter measure? It was hard to say, and now the time was passed and neither would know.

His gaze flicked to the fire lizards that were her new companions he listened to them but returned his gaze to the young woman. He wouldn't put it past her to retaliate in some way for his words, though he hadn't intentionally meant them as an insult, it was possible she would take them as such.

Despite her rather big attitude, and even bigger ego, Indivara was more than lacking on the physical side of things. Most people who had seen the child grow up within the Weyr (most notably those that had been members of the founding of Katila, as opposed to those that were Stolen) knew better than to poke fun at her; she was tiny, but she was full of teeth and claws and more than happy fists. Standing at barely 4’10, Indivara was lacking in a lot of ways, and often mistaken as a child by those that didn’t take the time to do a double take. With very little in the way of breasts, and even less in the hip department, the young woman still very much looked younger than her years, though she hadn’t had over many complaints from the flight lusty blueriders she’d managed to assist, though Indivara’s sexual exploits were few and far between when her partner was sober, a strong part of that being her own insecurities with her appearance.

Indivara had never been a particularly feminine child, and had never let much rest on her appearance. A lot of it was probably influenced by her sickly childhood in exile with her parents, and then quickly latching onto the older boys that were a part of the younger population to found Katila. Indivara had always been ‘one of the boys’, and while most of the boys at Katila took an almost disturbing amount of interest in their own appearances, and Kerrin had tried dramatically to get Indivara to wear nice dresses and pull her hair back in pretty braids, the girl just wasn’t one of those girls. Following up her general insecurities with the horrific mauling that bronze Hoth had completely destroyed the young woman; she had barely been able to agree to statements of ‘you’re pretty’, or her mother’s sentiment that she was ‘beautiful’ (obviously the woman was whacked.) but now Indivara was quite convinced she was a monster.

So she acted it. Brash and with a mouth that put most of the dragonriders to shame, Indivara kicked life in the shins when it was nice to her, and square in the nuts when it was being mean. Very little was actively shown to upset Indivara, though her temper was a frequent visitor to those that picked on her height or poked at her scars, it was almost always done in anger, the girl never daring to show how deep such words could cut her. She could count on one hand the number of times she had actively let loose and cry. She could wasn’t even sure she could count anyone that had actually seen her cry, her mother excluded.

Indivara was a tough nut. “What else?” She asked Nejerc, smiling sweetly as she straightened up and took a step backwards so her neck wasn’t quite at such a bone breaking angle in order to look the man in the face. “Oh, shut up you two.” She scolded the firelizards irritably, and didn’t display her pleasure in more than a flicker of her lips as both landed on her shoulders, tails twining around her neck like a blue and gold necklace.

“Where are you off to?” Reclaiming the redfruit from Shit Head, Indivara took a bite of it, gaze never leaving Nejerc’s face.

Either it was fortune or misfortune that he was encountering Indivara. Fortune that she might just distract him enough, and misfortune that she was trouble with long hair, legs to chase, and hands to grasp and claw. She was quiet WELL known around the weyr, and Nejerc having been a survivor of the plague and helping as much as he could knew quiet a bit about Indivara. He'd been there when she'd been mauled.

It had been a disturbing sight but it had been something he knew he could do nothing about unless he wanted to tempt his life and perhaps make hers worse even if his intentions had been good. He didn't look away from her face and though his gaze flicked over her scars his gaze focused on her eyes and he didn't so much as blink as she stepped back away from him to a more moderate distance. They didn't bother him, and by all appearances people picking at her didn't bother her either.

She had the marks of a fighter, Nejerc thought wryly as he folded his arms across his chest not daring to take his eyes off her. “You could start acting like the woman you are.” He said bluntly. Nejerc wasn't known to beat around the bush, and with his recent incidents with Talian he hadn't quiet learned yet from the experience that he should temper more carefully how he spoke to others. It was a fault that probably came from turns of not socializing openly with many.

Nejerc had not once actively sought out anyone, not for many turns since that rider had.. He clenched his teeth biting the inside of his cheek a moment to disrupt that thought from continuing. He had however run after that waif.. Aparicus recently. She'd freaked out at the sight of her name on a list of suspects, if he'd known her name was on that list he wouldn't have called out to her. Not because he suspected her, she'd clearly had no knowledge of the tansy before he had spoken with Talian. At least she had acted as if she hadn't.

“A rather ridiculous question.” He looked over her head on the path that clearly led in the direction of the lake. Looking down at her he quirked his eyebrows up in question that he didn't speak aloud. Why was she asking such a question anyway? She couldn't have seriously not known. The path was usually only traveled to take one to the lake. That was certainly all Nejerc had ever used it for. If someone else used it for something else... Well Nejerc could care less and dismissed the thought he had enough on his plate.

His gaze flicked to the fire lizards on either side of her shoulders again noting that they had settled at her command. Although a rather harsh command, they had listened and for just a moment they looked like well behaved fire lizards that could have passed for decorations on her shoulders but the moment passed and Nejerc returned his full attention to Indivara's face. “I don't see how, where I go matters to you.”

Indivara looked up at the man with mild amusement, calculating blue eyes brightening with the emotions, sparkling into life as she finally allowed herself to laugh softly; Indivara had never been overly skilled in denying her emotions or hiding what it was she felt. Her face, and open book to anyone that took the time to read it – luckily for her, most people tended to avoid doing just that, in order to avoid needing to risk looking at her scars. Almost two years later, and the vast majority of the population still had difficulty talking to her directly. Indivara still hadn’t figured out how best to abuse the given power; she was hardly the type to use her powers for good, but outright evil was pretty beyond the child as well. She liked to laugh at their misfortune, not bathe in their blood.

“I didn’t say it did,” Indivara purred lightly, her amusement rippling through onto her voice in the wake of her soft laughter. An eyebrow arched upward as Nejerc eyed her firelizards off, the attention causing Shit Head to preen where she was sitting on Indivara’s shoulder, though Blood Sucker was far less impressed and stared at Nejerc imperiously from his own perch on Indivara’s other shoulder. The girl raised her free hand to gently stroke the length of Blood Sucker’s spine, soothing the firelizard without conscious thought.

“I didn’t ask why you were going, I asked where.” Indivara pointed out with a droll expression. It was amazing how easily people would twist words! The girl shook her head, expression mocking in her disappointment, as if she’d expected better of the man.

Ugh, ew, sorry >>

Nejerc hadn't though his communication skills were that bad. Yet at Indivara's words he found that they must be. How else could two separate people clearly mistake his words for something else? The thought caused him to furrow his brows a moment before he shifted to the side in preparation to continue on his way. She was a distraction but she was not much different than Talian and he didn't need that kind of distraction.

“I did not mean to imply that you had.” Shards Nejerc was already beginning to become tired of having to explain himself to people. Suffering an internal sigh he attempted it, even though the attempt had utterly failed with Talian, Nejerc doubted his success with Indivara.

“To my knowledge this path is used for reaching the pond, last I checked. I was merely stating that I don't see where I go matters to you. Unless you've plans to stalk me clear to the pond and try to leap at me from more trees, or some other trick.” He lifted a shoulder in a half shrug, as he had no idea what could be going on in Indivara's head or what she might plan. He certainly hadn't been expecting her to leap at him from a tree.

“I think perhaps I was more wondering why you would be interested in where I go, not why I go.”

Indivara laughed a clear, feminine sound that generally didn’t suit her. Despite that, it was a pretty sound and certainly not one many people would assign to Indivara if they didn’t hear it first-hand, or see her let it loose. Blue eyes sparkled cheerfully as Indivara looked up at Nejerc knowingly, “Then you are behind the times!” After all, if he wasn’t aware that many of the thickets along the path to the lake were used for other purposes, than Nejerc was sadly lacking! Indivara smirked cheerfully while her firelizards chittered in amusement.

“Because I want to know.” Indivara shrugged, for to her there need be no more reason than that. She was an insightful girl, but she was also very much a busy body, and the goings on of everyone around her enticed the child. She wanted to know what was going on, where, when and by whom and – of course – why it was happening. She didn’t bother to explain any of that to Nejerc, because it was none of his business (and Indivara didn’t give two licks that that made her a hypocrite).

Nejerc found her saying that he was behind the times amusing. He actually gave a small smile before shaking his head. He was no fool to know what people knew what they did behind bushes, though he didn't understand why they bothered.. There was perfectly unused beds else where if they could not use their own beds for whatever reason. He simply didn't see that as a destination for him.

“Hmm, be careful that your nosiness doesn't catch the attention of the wrong person.” It was a warning he'd learned the hard way more than once. Some people didn't like being asked questions or lingered around when they were having discussions. “Now if that's all..” He moved around her and started to jog along his chosen path.