Haunting the Hatching Caverns (open)

[HG]

The sands were abandoned during times like these. No one needed to use them so no one did. Since the last Hatching the Sands had been cleaned and then cleaned again after the blood had fallen on the precious birthplace of dragons. Seirsha was checking on the Sands daily to search for the clutch of Firelizard eggs that would surely show up any day now. At least that was the reason she gave the others for coming there.

It was early the sun having just begun to rise over the eastern horizon. The Sands were more likely to be empty early in the morning. After all her hard work the last thing she wanted was to get caught and then be in trouble. Being in trouble would prevent her from claiming one of those firelizard eggs which she was determined to get her hands on.

She was sitting on the Sands, cool from over half a Turn of abandonment, her head played back the gruesome scene where she lost her best friend. The sands absorbed the silent tears that ran down the blonde girl's face. Why did it have to be her? Why couldn't it have been someone else? But who? Could she so easily condemn someone else to the same fate and then let their friends and family be sad? The questions tugged at her mind as she struggled with her own morality.

The boys would laugh at her if they saw her so upset still. There were new adventures to be had and the oldest of the pack were expected to show more strength and confidence now then ever. She did not feel brave, confident or strong. All she felt was sadness and pain. Momma cat who notoriously followed the girl around since it was the girl who took care of her padded softly across the Sands to where Seirsha sat, dropping her latest catch, a dead tunnel snake, next to her. More death on the Sands.

[♥Rizu-Chan♥]

He’d risen at such an ungodly hour, not even Zorometh had stirred in his sleep as the boy had clambered of the massive Bronze dragon. It was the day Thoran and him stayed over at D’seus’ chambers, the boys having insisted to sleep with Zorometh for once (and the dragon along for the ride, apparently out of amusement more than anything else) and after some whining and pleading they had succeed. After all, it meant D’seus could have the bed back this night – though Hinuk doubted he’d allow this to become a permanent sleeping arrangement. A glance behind confirmed Thoran was still fast asleep, probably missing his friend’s movements after a full night of sleeping next to the heaving and resting of a breathing dragon’s chest. That usually made it hard for one to notice anything else going on in a room; Hinuk often liked sleeping with the dragon for this exact reason.

It was a lullaby sort of thing for him, even if he’d never openly admit it.

With turns of practice he managed to slip away from the chamber entirely after dressing himself, as quiet as a tunnelsnake really, and down into the lower caverns first. The sun hadn’t even showed hints of rising when he’d started prowling around, sneaking a couple of rolls and a cup of lukewarm klah from the few leftover in the kitchens for the Weyr’s night prowlers and Shield Guard. Biting into one of the two long cold morsels he focused on silently devouring his meal as he wandered around the various grounds of the weyr without a defined destination in mind.

He must have spent at least a good hour or two in such an aimless course, because by the time his mind came out of his spaced out status the first sunrays of Rukbath where already beginning to mar the horizon. Making a detour for the kitchens once more to abandon the now emptied mug of klah Hinuk decided to make his way into some very familiar passages. It was still quite early, the chances of other people being here of all places was close to non-existent, and as he navigated by memory through the dark corridor (forgetting to bring a deadglow for illumination) his body naturally made its way through the well known road without missing a single beat. Not even half a turn of avoiding this place had managed to wipe away the familiarity and comfort (along with a new feeling of remorse) this enclosed space, and the destination ahead, brought to his mind and heart.

Had it really been half a turn already since that shards infested day of the Holdless’ attack?

The simple thought made the boy freeze in his tracks at the still vivid memories: Evelys, while not as special to him as she had been for Thoran, was one of his two childhood friends; and also one of the three founders of the Brat Pack. It was her the one that had given direction to Hinuk’s and Thoran’s random escapades, turning them into more organized outings and slowly forming the social structure that had soon become the base in which all three had molded what the Brat Pack meant and stood for all its members. More than once had she managed to outwit him and even attempted to wrestle him to the ground (though never could quite manage it fully). While Hinuk had always considered women as inferior beings to men Evelys had been the reason his views had slowly been thawed somewhat – at least enough for the boy to actually allow female members into the pack.

He might still view them as weaker beings, but Evelys had definitely had enough of a positive impact on the blond male for him to realize that maybe not all girls were useless. And now she was gone, thanks to that stupid invasion for the Holdless’ lust of slaying the golden dragonet in the Weyrling Barracks. A stupid, worthless and good for nothing gold dragon that couldn’t even fly yet and her lame female bonded – the reason he’d lost such a special friend, the reason Thoran looked like he’d lost half his soul right there and then (not to mention the reason the dark skinned lad’s father and his Brown were now dead as well) was that good for nothing golden weyrling pair. The thought only served to infuriate the young lad as he gripped his hands tight in closed fists, the knuckles almost turning white as he suppressed the urge to punch something.Somehow the thought of punching a stone carved passage with his bare hands didn’t seem like a tempting enough idea; it’d probably do him more damage than good in the end to end up with bleeding knuckles, especially at such early hours.

With a sigh he forced his way to keep on moving, and as he neared the end of the path a faint scuffle made him stop once more in his tracks. No sooner he had, a few moments after, momma cat had appeared dragging a now slain tunnelsnake along as she ventured into the sands, his azure eyes following the feline as she reached her owner and laid her caught prize next to the girl. Though still far away he could define the figure enough (plus momma cat was a dead giveaway of the girl’s identity) to recognize it as Seirsha’s. A couple of steps begun to mark his way as he slowly closed the distance between them, before he could detect the faint sound of sniffling; lately he’d been rather tuned to the sound thanks to Thoran himself, especially the first few sevendays after the attack. Now, much like him, the lad kept a brave face among the younger members of the group – though it was him probably the one most hurt of them all by Evelys’ death.

And sure, while Hinuk might be an ass a good amount of the time he still wasn’t a heartless person. He could tell Seirsha had yet to notice him, so the boy changed his direction to an angle that might make her believe he hadn’t noticed her state at all – afterwards making sure to make some noise as he moved, enough for her to realize someone else had entered. He’d give her enough time to compose herself before he got into talking distance. Much like them Seirsha had also been keeping a bravado among the faces of the younger members ever since that day – he wasn’t about to pick on her for a few tears.

If anything he rather admired, however faintly, how mature Seirsha had been at handling the situation since then. While she might not be Evelys the girl had been a very close friend to her as well – and Hinuk wasn’t surprised at all to realize they both did share quite a few things in common personality wise.

Finally the distance had been closed enough that shouting wasn’t required in order to communicate with one another, the blond adding a playful tune as he spoke in an attempt to tease the girl ever so slightly. He couldn’t help who and how he was after all. ”Shouldn’t you still be in bed getting your beauty sleep like all the other girls, Seirsha?” Yeah, that was as much of a hello as the girl was going to get, though the good humored flicker in his eyes signaled he meant no insult or harm with his words.

[HG]

The cat began to circle the girl who stopped crying to watch. Sometimes momma cat made no sense at all. She thought petting the creature’s head. “Don’t suppose you know people who know how to fill a hole in your heart?” The girl said softly to the cat, grabbed her up, hugged her tightly and then let the now squirming, irritated cat out of her arms. Momma took off as fast as she could, across the Sands where she had previously entered.

Shaking her head at the cat’s exit she took her time examining the kill. Well she could bring it to the kitchens and see if it was good for anything, which she doubted but the tanners might be able to use the skin. Maybe in return they could make her some new boots. She had begun to grow again. Spurts were no fun because all the clothes she liked were getting to be small and she would have to wear in new clothes, or even hand me downs.

She nearly jumped at the voice of the boy and turned, ready to snap back an equally witty remark, “You only need beauty rest if all you care about is beauty. I’ve got better things to do.” She said swiftly before standing up. Her face was mostly dry and wiping it would only cause him to notice there were tears on her face. “Orlai has not clutched yet. I checked the Sands first thing to make sure I wouldn’t get caught. Should be any day now though. Unless she decides to be strange and not clutch where her mother clutched…”

Seirsha would take that as plan failure! The last thing she needed was another failed attempt to do something amazing. “Is Dash still sleeping? He’s been doing a lot of that lately.” The remark was meant as an observation more than a judgment but there was some of that in what she was saying too. In her young and biased opinion, there was something wrong with people who slept in. Didn’t they know they were losing daylight candlemarks during which they could be getting things done?

“What chores do you have today?” They should coordinate another meeting for everyone. Her chores were fairly easy and she nearly always rushed through them. She actually avoided the kitchens as much as possible when it came to chores. There were much easier things, like mucking stalls or mopping floors. Things that could be done quickly and not under the supervision of a dozen or so women which kitchen work often required. “We need to get everyone in on the plan.”

[♥Rizu-Chan♥]

Well, he had tried to make more noise so as not to startle her, though as Seirsha gave a jump the boy just rolled his eyes good humouredly. He couldn’t help it sneaking around was so second nature to him already. “You only need beauty rest if all you care about is beauty. I’ve got better things to do.” Witty and sharp as always, her retort gave him no surprise as he simply waited for her to stand up, soon being briefed on her look-out responsibility for that dimmable golden flitter’s clutch.

”Nothing yet? Man, either she’s just fashionably late or maybe that Dragon Guard flitter that caught her just failed at his siring duties.”

Of course, like the girl pointed out, there was the chance she might have just been weird and decided to clutch elsewhere, though Hinuk was trying to keep a positive tone about it all. There was no reason for Orlai not to clutch here after all, the brats ha made sure to only come around here at very early hours –the younger ones already informed to not come at all, no one wanted to spook the gold flitter away- and always made sure to cover up their tracks as best s possible. Plus, Momma cat was always around keeping the place vermin free – if that gold clutched elsewhere maybe he’d be better off not having any of her brood. They might all be infected with stupidity or something

Glow’s inquiry about Dash brought Hinuk back to reality, the boy giving a light shrug of his shoulders – though his eyes were suddenly adverted to something else other than Seirsha. ”He’s been having trouble sleeping lately, usually gets up feeling more tired than before. He seemed to be fast asleep this morning, so I couldn’t bring myself to wake him up this once.” Out of them all Thoran had been the one having the roughest time – not only did he shared their pain for the lost of Evelys, but he’d also lost his father and his brown as well. As much as Hinuk might bicker and look for ways to annoy and complicate his own sire’s on a daily basis the blond wouldn’t quite want to go through the process of losing D’seus (or Zorometh) ever really, if possible.

Of course, it would happen at some point, nothing was eternal (except dragons, and even they were limited to their human rider’s lifespan) Hinuk had just always assumed it’d be of old age or something silly like that. Watching what Thoran was going through, watching Evelys die at the hand of the Holdless and knowing that had been the Brownrider’s fate as well, it was all just a little bit too real; a slap in the face if anything.

Glow’s next remark about chores was a welcomed change of topic, and one Hinuk subtly jumped at eager to get away from the previous turn of their conversation. ”Dragon duty, at least with D’seus later in the day. He promised Thoran and me we could help bathe Zorometh.” He gave a nod of affirmation to her meeting idea, it was something they desperately needed indeed. Still, the boy was happy to have a change of chore and working place finally. Really, having been stuck in kitchen duty for the past couple sevendays had not been amusing. Apparently Emera had really been pissed from his last heist – her fault for leaving a cooked wherry unsupervised in the afternoon, his pack had young brats to feed after all. A smirk lighted his features at the found memory; the Headwoman’s look had been especially priceless once they’d been found out with their prize almost fully devoured.

”You know, I don’t think any wherry ever tasted as good as that one though…” A playful wink was given in Glow’s direction, she’d been the only one able to get out guilt-free through pretending to be trying to stop them. ”Still, the hag fell for the whole trick – which leaves you with more liberty to roam around in search for Orlai. I can’t wait to see Emera’s face when we get firelizards of our own.”

[HG]

“She better be here soon! I don’t think any of us have much patience to wait. We’ve been hoping for something great to happen. All the tough times and the pain cannot be for nothing.” Seirsha wanted to believe that out of all the bad, something good could come.

The firelizard clutch would be a welcome occurrence for more than one reason from Seirsha’s point of view. The younger of the pack were more excited for this than their birthingday presents and it would set a new tone for the Turn to come. She wanted the Pack to feel positive about the future. Maybe it would even help Thoran with his emotional issues. Detaching herself from people seemed to help her through times like this more than confiding in them did. She was good with people but interactions with them drained her.

Her nose scrunched up at his answer concerning Dash. She was not surprised but neither was she happy. They needed to do something. “It cannot be allowed to continue.” Seirsha said as strongly as if she were in charge of the world, which she most certainly was not.

“Arrow, it is not healthy. We need to force him to go and do things he does not want to do or does not care to do. Enough time has passed that he needs to learn to rebuild his life. We are all sad sometimes but being sad all the time gets in the way of living. If you could even call what he is doing living…” More like being a zombie which was not being alive but still walking the planet.

The blonde girl knew she might be overstepping her bounds but she knew quite a lot about how to deal with emotions since she often thought long and hard on anything that affected her. Losing Evelys among other friends had affected her more than she previously considered it might. Thoran and Hinuk were like brothers, if anyone could help him snap out of this slump he was in, Hinuk could.

“Your dad is so awesome!” She said approvingly and while she meant it in a truly admiring fashion there were plenty of other girls who would be crushing on the older man. Her main thought was why couldn’t she have dragonriders for parents? “He’s getting you ready for your big Bronze eh?” Seirsha asked teasingly. The girl knew how much Hinuk wanted a Bronze. Seirsha simply wanted to ride a dragon, color made little difference to her. She was still too young to Stand, maybe in a couple of Turns… she thought with a sigh.

Stealing food was one of the things the pack was great for. “It was delicious! Although I’m starting to wonder if Emera suspects that I’m involved in some of these pranks. I do try hard not to get caught. Our plan won’t work if I am. Although I think we might want to lay off the pranks until we have some eggs. Wouldn’t want you to be stuck in the kitchens with a clutch on the Sands now would we?” The blonde girl walked a few paces towards the exit. “Come on, we better get out of here before someone checks the Sands out. Those Shielders are roaming around in here all the time.”