[G] [P] 744.05.15 | Something Wild

"You know we could pop right over to Ista or Katila. I bet the Ocean is a lot warmer than the lake." L'shan suggested as Harknith coasted down towards the weyr lake. [Harknith]"Oh it's not that bad. I won't make you go swimming with me....this time."[/Harknith] The blue teased as he circled lower, landing with a gentle thud and puff of dusty. He crouched down, allowing his rider to dismount, brushes and soap sand in hand. "Fine, you win. Go have your swim, but don't you dare shake when you get out." He warned, past experience making him tack on the stipulation on his dragon's behavior. The blue chuckled, swinging away with a playful swagger and wadding out in the water where he proceeded to dip and splash and appropriate distance from shore.

L'shan found a boulder to sit and wait on, setting his supplies nearby as he watched his dragon play in the water. When it was time to bath his dragon he did not envy the rider of the larger colors on these cooler days. Harknith fell at the smaller end of the range for his color, but on a day like this it was still quite a bit of dragon to scrub and oil. A bit of movement at his periphery caught his attention. The youngman wasn't familiar, but he assumed he was likely a candidate. Most were quite eager to engage with a dragon, and another set of hands would mean a task completed a bit sooner, plus someone new to talk with.

"Hello! Yes you. Care to help me bath Harknith?" He asked, smiling warmly at the young man as he waved a hand to catch his attention.

The lake was a perfect place to hang out during the day, as long as Ereben had completed his chores for the day. He still had his lessons and was currently working through them but honestly, he was just setting himself up for the excuse to be of use elsewhere so that he didn't have to learn how to read more. It was hard and he felt silly that he couldn't grasp it as quickly as he learned other things. But he wasn't going to tell anyone that of course. So here he was, at the lake, his gaze flickering from the squiggly letters making words that he struggled to sound out properly to whichever new dragon arrived at the lake.

His observant eyes caught the blue dragon arriving. He didn't see any reason to approach when the dragon ambled into the cold water and the rider sat down on one of the boulders so he went back to pondering over letters. Until he heard a, "Hello! Yes you. Care to help me bath Harknith?" and looked up to see that rider waving him over.

"Absolutely!" Ereben said, immediately abandoning his lesson like Thread twisting away from fire. With youthful speed, he ran over. "Harknith, you said?" Harknith, Harknith, he repeated mentally. He was determined to learn all of the dragons of High Reaches. "And you're?" Even he forgot the rider's name (which he usually didn't either because Ereben was good with details just not ones that involved reading), every dragon's name was unique so he'd always be able to find the pair again, right? Right.

"I'm Ereben," he introduced himself. His eyes flickered over to the dragon. That was a pretty dark blue shade. Like a deep blue ocean color. Just another reason why blues were the best dragons of the Weyrs, Ereben thought. They came in all sorts of colors, unlike boring browns and haughty bronzes. "You want me to do his back? I'm good at getting up there and I'm not heavy," Ereben offered. He had discovered that if he offered to do some of the more nimble tasks, the riders were pretty appreciative of that and it gave him a reason to be up on a dragon again.

Harknith continued to lazily dip beneath the cold water as L'shan drummed up a little help for his bath. The water was cold, but hardly comparable to the bitter cold of between. Though maybe not as enjoyable as lazing about in the warm Southern waters, it was much less unpleasant for the Blue than it would have been for a human. As he spotted the young man dashing toward the lake he swam back toward shore, always up for a little extra attention.

L'shan chuckled softly to himself at the boy's enthusiasm. His own time as a candidate hadn't endeared him quite as much to dragonriders. The first few months had been a difficult adjustment, one he didn't fully make until Harknith had chosen him. He was glad the kidnapping had ended and return to traditional searching had been made. At the very least it result in much more willing candidates who actually wanted to be at the Weyr.

"A pleasure to meet you Erben, I am L'shan." He pushed himself off the rock, striding off toward the bathing supplies as his feet hit the ground. Harknith exited the water with a friendly trill as he settled down on the shore.

"Well I can tell Harknith won't be the first dragon you've helped bath." L'shan grinned, tossing a brush and sack of soap sand toward Ereben. "That would be great, you do his back and I'll get all the other bits from the ground." He pick up a brush and sand for himself as he led the way to the Blue.

"Hello little one, up you go." Harknith crouched toward the ground, extending a foreleg so Ereben could climb aboard. He swung his head around to watch and make sure the lad was successful and to be in position to catch him should he slip climbing up. Harknith wasn't a massive dragon, but a fall could still cause injury.

L'shan started scrubbing the familiar blue side of his dragon, occasionally glancing up at Ereben as he worked the brush and sand over Harknith. "So how long have you been at the Weyr Ereben?"

Ereben's face split into a wide grin when Harknith crouched so that he could scramble aboard. He was still learning to be delicate, just in case a dragon was picky, but at least Ereben's footing was sure and he didn't dig into hide like some of the less nimble Candidates. Maybe this one would talk to him too! That was still such a weird thing to experience, like hearing someone but not hearing them with your ears. Really weird, but really cool!

Quickly, the youngster got to work. He had learned early on that dragons really liked it when you got in the little crevices and hard to clean spots. Ereben was good at that. Sand, scrub, sand, scrub. Easy. And L'shan seemed neat, for an older rider. Well, older than Ereben anyway. Ereben had only met a few riders that were jerks so far and they had been either way older than L'shan. Or girls. Women. Whatever. Ereben steered clear of goldriders and most bronzeriders on principle. He didn't want to talk with arrogance. He'd had enough of that in the caves.

So when L'shan asked him how long he had been at the Weyr, it was automatic that Ereben thought to come up with a cover story for his past, because he was still adjusting to the fact that nobody really cared that he had been Holdless, they only cared about what he did now that the dragons had said he was this Candidate thing. "Um...a few months?" he answered. "It still snowing pretty badly up here when I arrived and I forget how many days had passed since the new year and all that. Not that I'm not used to the snow or anything."

He cocked his head at L'shan. "You from here? Or somewhere else?" Not that Ereben liked history or anything but he was learning that most of the riders had come from a place called Katila, in the South. At least, most of the older ones. Apparently there was a lot of drama from back then and the dragonriders started reopening the Weyrs. Ereben had marked it in his mind to never go to Katila.