Come Away with me... {Zero}

[Seven]

Come away with me in the night
Come away with me
And I will write you a song

Wing beats in the night, each a punctuation into the empty sky. Gold glinted off a wing as the starlight hit the gold of her wingsails. An orange-gold sheen shimmered along her sides as the light danced across the tones of her hide. Her spine was marked in a tone of gold as well. Her eyes, with their ever running tear drops focused forward. One... two... three... Breathe... another wing beat. Another caress against the night sky. Neither of them said a word. The dragon or the slight woman who road on her back, her hair braided and tightly woven up under her riding cap, her white column of a neck almsot appearing silver in the starlight. Her riding jacket was pulled tightly closed, though the cool night air was more of a relief than not. It felt wonderful against her face and neck. She leaned forward, laying her body along her dragoness' neck. She was so very dwarfed as she layagianst the golden neck, holding onto hte spikes in front of her, curling her body around them carefully before sitting up slowly, focusing her blue and hazel eyes on the slowly rising sun that lay before them. Just beginning to touch the earth with its own golden glow which paled the queen in comparison.

The sun arises. We should go back. Noraali frowned. No... not yet... Let's just fly like this for a while longer.

The Weyrwoman had been awake for several hours now. She savored this time alone with her dragoness. The usually snarky queen was so much more manageable at this time. She wasn't bothered with appearances or perfection. She was jut a dragoness and her rider. At least... until they landed. Then she was a queen - as much element as being as far as the gold herself was concerned.

And Noraali... well Noraali would become a leader. A leader that she hoped was as much an idea as a person - soemthing that would alst for the Weyr and not fade away when ehr time was over. She did her very best for them. She worked hard and tried to give the Weyr what they deserved needed. Even at cost to herself. She wondered if she had a true friend here or just people who were depending on her to lead? She tried to be connected with others but she couldn't help that needling bit of self confidence that poked and prodded her at the back of her mind. Noraali took time out of her days to help care for the young Kiira. She took the time to try to look out for and get to know each person in the Weyr. How could she expect to lead if she didn't?

You are thinking in circles again. The queen's tone was irritable and unamused as she informed her rider of that fact.

There was no response from the rider.

[Zero]

Both dragon and rider had been awake for a while now, in fact K’ien was almost certain they had sat out on that ledge the entire night. Not many words passed between the pair they just simply sat in silence, enjoying the others company before the rest of the Weyr woke and their busy lives started over once again. Hyorinmarth was the first to make a move with a rustling of wings and a yawn as he climbed to his feet and stretched. Come Mine, I want to stretch my wings. Nudging His with his snout, the large bronze crouched down so the man could climb up. Without a second thought, K’ien got to his feet and climbed up behind the dragons neck.

No straps?
You think I would let you fall?
No.

And without another word, Hyorinmarth sprang from his ledge and began to climb before moving away from the Weyr, just as the sun began to peek over the horizon. K’ien held tightly onto the neckspike during takeoff but as Hyorinmarth reached a comfortable height and leveled off, his grip relaxed and he fondly patted the neck in front of him. As he unzipped his riding jacket, so he could fully enjoy the crisp morning air, a flash of golden dragonhide in the distance caught his eye. Reading the mans thoughts, Hyorinmarth spoke up. Our Queen seems to have taken an early morning flight as well. K’iens jaw went slack. Out of all the people he could have possibly ran into up here, it just had to be the Weyrwoman and on the day he decided not to wear any of his riding straps either. But before he could tell the bronze to turn back, Hyorinmarth was already closing the distance between the two sets of riders.

Good morning, Queen Ehtyriath. The bronze offered his greeting as he fell in line to fly beside her. K’ien could have killed the bronze. Oh well too late to turn back now. Here’s hoping she doesn’t kill me for flying without all the gear.

“Mornin’, you’re up early.”

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[Seven]

Ehtyriath looked towards the bronze then circled down towards the ground. Good morning my handsome king. Come.... let us land so that our riders may talk? The queen suggested, though she was already in the process of doing just that. Noraali smiled and raised a hand at K'ien as he came into view. "Hey!" she called, a grin on her face even as her dragon started to spiral downward. It was always nice to talk to one of her bronze riders.... okay so maybe not always. But Ehtyriath certainly enjoyed it. The Gold landed on the beach below them, letting her rider slide from ehr back to he ground.

She smiled at K'ien, waiting for him to join her. She wondered briefly if he was going to be stickign aroudn for very along to talk with her or if he adn hsi dragon woudl tkae off the first chance htey got.

Come now... We shall take to the skies again and let our riders talk. The queen said, taking off again. She wasn't pleased that the yhad chosen to be so unsafe adn not wear straps. They couldn't afford to lose a leader now in a Pass!

[Zero]

Brace yourself, K’ienMine. Hyorinmarth rumbled before tipping his wings and starting a lazy spiral towards the ground. He had to take extra care with his descent so his rider wouldn’t fall off or, even worse, impale himself on a neckspike when they finally touched down. It may have taken a few minutes longer for the duo to hit the sands but it was better to err on the side of caution. With a gentle backwing, the bronze finally touched down and immediately crouched so K’ien could slide off.

Go fly, enjoy the morning. Stretching his arms above his head, he closed his eyes as Hyorinmarth kicked up a wave of sand as he took back off into the air. “Oh, I’m gettin’ too old for this…” K’ien grumbled, referring to riding bareback. However, his scowl was quickly replaced with a friendly smile as he began walking over to where Noraali stood. “I hope Hyorinmarth and I weren’t interrupting the two of you.” But before he could continue a small “pop” sounded and the air was suddenly filled with the agitated chittering of a brown flit. It was Reign, K’iens ‘lizard. He reached out a hand to try and encourage the grumpy brown to land on but Reign simply flicked his tail at the man before darting off and landing on a pile of driftwood.

Sighing, K’ien rubbed the back of his neck before shrugging and looking back at Noraali. “Guess he’s mad we didn’t wake him up to come along.”

Hyorinmarth took little time to catch up to the Queen before falling in to glide along side her. You and Yours are out early today…is something wrong?

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[Seven]

The queen seemed to consider the bronze's question. Only as wrong as it ever is. Her tone was dry. She is human. But she feels she must be more and so... such stresses often eat at her. She continued to fly. And what of you and your rider, Hyorinmarth? She turned softly whirling eyes on the bronze. He was a handsome one, that was for sure. She wouldn't mind seeing him around more. But of course Ehtyriath was a flirt. A Class A flirt.

Ehty.... shhh.... cut it out. The gold held back the urge to rumble in amusement at her rider's words. Instead, she was quiet, flying along beside the bronze. Noraali looked up and watched them. It was a beautiful sight. She waited until the bronze had taken off before walking towards K'ien. She laughed a little. "Maybe going bareback isn't such a good idea, eh?" she said, raising an eyebrow even as she pulled her helmet off and brushed stray pieces of hair back. She really didn't think much of the helmets. IT wasn't like they were that great of help. Well... maybe a bit against scoring, but if you fell from the sky of your dragons back, you were pretty much guaranteed to die. It was simple as that. The fall would probably kill you pretty quickly. If you survived at all.

She laughed. "He is a handsome boy... though it does seem he isn't happy with you." She looked him over. He looked every bit the dashing bronze rider. And he was the good start as far as she could tell. "How are you this morning?" she asked him, walking over to a piece of driftwood and sitting down on it, damp sand sticking to her boots as she did so. She placed her helmet down beside her. The wind was a bit chilly this morning, though not bad. Not int he least. IT was far too warm this time of year to really notice... except when you were flying and it was hitting you in the face. No... this wasn't that bad really.

[Zero]

Hyorinmarth rumbled in partial agreement with the Queen. Mine? He is restless as usual. With no Thread currently falling and nothing to fight, he struggles each day to find something to fill his time. The bronze huffed, spiraling up into the clouds before straightening out and slowly circling back down in a wide arc. It felt good to stretch his wings.

K’ien grinned sheepishly and ran a hand through his hair at her laughter. “Yeah, what can I say? It was a spur of the moment decision. He probably would have left without me had I tried to take too much time bothering with a harness.” Now Reign, having realized they must have been talking about him, took that moment to pip up with an inquisitive trill. The brown then scuttled over the driftwood and across the sand to where Noraali was seated but he was more interested in investigating her helmet than bothering with her.

“Exhausted, actually. Running drills most days then up till all hours of the night planning the next day’s exercises.” He undid his jacket and tossed it over one shoulder. Now that he wasn’t zipping through the air, clinging to a dragons back, he really had no need for it. The sun was barely up and already he could tell that today was going to be a scorcher, a miserable day for drills. But it had given him an idea. Grinning, he walked over to where Noraali was sitting and dropped his jacket on the sand by her feet before kneeling down to undo his boots. “C’mon, I bet that water feels great.”

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