.:: Busted ::. [D'seus]

[♥Rizu-Chan♥]

Hinuk && Thoran

We are to go straight to my weyr and not leave until D’seus arrives.

As the voice of the bronze entered his mind once more Thoran visibly flinched. Usually Zorometh was gentle and even playful, but at that moment there were no happy tones mixing with his messages. It was clear Zorometh, and therefore D’seus as well, was quite upset with tonight’s idea of the Brat Pack. Lowering his head just slightly the dark skinned lad simply held on to the limb as the bronze took off for the designated place, and once at the weyr proceeded to sit quietly on the edge of the bed he and Hinuk always shared these nights when they were with the Bronzerider and his bonded.

* * *

By Faranth, the thing was still alive an—oh shit, it was hatching.

As the thought dawned on the blond’s young mind Hinuk cursed, finally moving into actually helping the clawing creature out of the rather spherical egg that had been its prison until now. The color instantly put the boy off, if only for a few seconds, as he noticed the dull and almost sickly looking green hide; the odd angle of one of the wings showing it had been injured due to the fall. Still, Hinuk had no time to worry about that as the small hatchling dove for him, mewling for food as she went for the source of her annoyance and probably only savior in one package.

He fumbled with the bag at first, the mewling of the flitter turning to screeching almost as it seemed her temper got the upper-hand, eyes whirling red with hunger, pain and annoyance. No sooner he’d managed to fish out the first of the many bloody morsels the flitter dove at it, successfully biting Hinuk’s index finger first (earning a loud curse from the boy as she drew blood) before she finally snatched the right thing this time. Another angry little scream was given, followed by the snapping of jaws, as the blasted thing simply demanded to be fed.

”Alright already, you sharding thing, just shut the thread up.”
Another angry screech, before it was muffled down as the green inhaled another piece of meat.
”Of all the possibilities I had to get a shrieking menace…”

Soon enough the flitter was fed enough, having managed to make a mess of it all through her pushiness. Wherry ichor stained Hinuk’s clothing, as well as his skin and the hide of the new hatchling – which was now curled around his left wrist much like a snake, and continued to nip rather angrily at his fingers every now and then as she broadcasted her pain to her caretaker. It was his fault she was hurt, so he was responsible to make it bette—

You are to report to my Weyr immediately. No stopping, no questions and you better be here within half a candlemark.

Well, so much for actuallygetting that wing looked at. With an audible groan (even more pained sounding than the ones Shrieker had managed to extract from him) the blond simply abandoned the sack of wherry meat and stained cloth where they lay, grabbing the surviving Starry Night Egg in his right hand before beginning to make his way to D’seus’ weyr. Another protest from Shrieker was met this time by an angry glare of the blond, and for a moment it seemed that was enough to shut the thing up if just for a little bit. She was heavy with her first meal now anyways, and looked awfully groggy. Hinuk was sure his dad would call for a healer that specialized in the little thing once he saw the oddly positioned right wing – and really, it did saved him a trip down to the Infirmary and having to explain the whole thing to the people there.

Then again the thought of explaining all this to D’seus wasn’t that appealing either.

He arrived at the room before his father, instantly spotting Thoran sitting in the bed and looking quite sullen – as well as a not very happy looking Zorometh. Making a bee-line for his friend he silently placed the remaining Starry Night Egg in the boy’s empty hands, the sight of their reward for a successful plan (for once) actually doing wonders to lighten Thoran’s face visibly.

”Wha—you guys managed to get them after all?!”
“Sure did! Your stampede was awesome.”
“Whoa, it’s so big and pretty… Where’s your—UWAAAH!?”
“Shards, no! Bad flit, Shrieker, bad!”

It seemed the green had enough of the boys chattering, rising up on Hinuk’s left wrist and almost successfully striking Thoran’s hands. Thankfully he was quite the fast and reflective person, managing to react just in time to pull back and out of reach – as well as not drop his egg. He watched his blond friend scold the flitter, to which the green only seemed to hiss angrily before nipping Hinuk’s already wounded fingers once more.

Really, Thoran was actually surprised the boy hadn’t smacked the green firelizard back already, then again the odd shape of the hatchling’s right wing was probably the reason why his friend was showing so much restrain. While Thoran was sure Hinuk wasn’t too happy having a green flit, he knew his friend well enough to know he wouldn’t injure the creature willingly at all.

Try as he might to deny it, Hinuk was a softy deep down in his heart. Deep, deeeep, deeeeeep down of course.

[HG]

There were things in the Weyr that were considered horrible other than harming dragons. His son and friends had committed an act which was frowned upon and another which put too many lives in danger. The boys were leaders of their little group and while D’seus was pleased at their skills in leading he also found they had much to learn. As Hinuk’s father it was his place to make him see the gravity of what he had done. Even Zorometh, who often sided with the boys when it came to punishment, agreed they needed a wakeup call. They were almost thirteen and it was time for them to come to terms with what leadership really was and what it was not. He was going to have to be harder on them then he had ever been before.

Taking a deep breath, counting down from ten and then receiving a soothing message from his dragon he finally strode into his own weyr, where the two boys waited. He did not need to say anything to command the attention of a room, it was part of the reason he had made it so far as a dragonrider. Like his son, D’seus had a natural affinity for leadership. People looked to him for words of wisdom and advice. Now he would have to pass on some of it to the pair before him. Zorometh watched as his rider finally set eyes on both boys.

“Hinuk, Thoran.” He paused staring each boy in the eyes before continuing on. “I cannot begin to express my disappointment in you at this moment. You must be aware of the seriousness of what you have done or contributed to doing. I do not care whose idea either of the events were tonight. From what I understand you two are the leaders of the group of weyrbrats involved in tonight’s pranks. I expect more from you.” D’seus was clearly upset by everything that had happened however he managed to keep himself from pacing in front of the boys.

“Do you have any idea the damage you have caused?” He said sternly. “I don’t think you even have the slightest grasp on what has actually happened tonight. Thoran could be dead right now if it weren’t for Zorometh looking out for you both. And that is not even the half of it. We are already facing a huge decline in the number of beasts the adult dragons will be allowed to consume. We have two mature Queens, larger clutch sizes and to top it all off we are supposed to be helping provide resources to the Holders in the North.” He did not know if this was getting through to them yet but he was going to keep talking until he was done.

“As for Orlai, she might never feel safe with a clutch on the sands again and might not even let Emera know where she decides to have them. This will affect the Weyr as it will mean less firelizards we can use for important tasks such as communicating with cotholds and using them in the Dragon Shield.” The impact of each action now explained he was going to tell them why he was doing so. They needed to hear it, if they ever wanted to lead anyone to do anything ever again. “Being a leader does not mean getting whatever you want when you want it. It means trying to make the people who rely on you safe. To do that you must consider the consequences of your actions before you implement them.”

D’seus was done with the lecture…almost. “When the eggs of your little friends hatch, you will all be going to a class for Firelizard Training. No ifs, ands or buts. Tomorrow, you will be excused from all your lessons as you will be rebuilding fences and cleaning up fields. You will forgo your lessons for an entire month at which point I will speak to the beastcrafters and they will decide if you have worked hard enough to be excused from further chores there. At night you will have a curfew which will be discussed with your foster parents. Break curfew and there will be less appealing chores than helping fix the damage you have caused in your future. Do you understand me?”

He waited, knowing they were thinking he was being unjust and unfair. Why weren’t the other children being punished and so on and so forth. He had been one of those children for a while but by the time he was twelve, he seemed to remember being a lot more responsible for his actions. Granted this had been a hard Turn for both of the boys but excuses were for weak minded people which neither boy was.

[♥Rizu-Chan♥]

Hinuk && Thoran

Perhaps it was because the boys had been spending so much time since the last Holdless attack with D’seus, but for whatever reason it was clear that their demeanor towards the older man had changed compared to that night so long ago now. Were once Hinuk would have probably even seen him as an annoying adult, and more often than not back talked more than his fair share at him, this time even the blond was willing enough to focus his attention on the man as he strode into the room not too long after himself. Even Shrieker, the damn little thing, had seemed to pick up on the fact that something just wasn’t peachy at the moment; the little flitter actually quieting down once more as she hunkered as low as possible, having crawled her way up Hinuk’s shirt to nestle herself around his neck.

While Hinuk had remained standing since his arrival, the boy didn’t really think D’seus would be any happier if he got ichor all over the bedfurs, Thoran had basically bolted off the bed to stand next to his friend soon as D’seus was in sight; the Starry Night Egg held carefully in his hands. The dark skinned lad wasn’t able to hold eye contact for long, though, clearly heavily upset as their actions dawned upon him. With his father gone Hinuk and D’seus were all the “family” Thoran had left – and the fact of disappointing the man, as well as his Zorometh, was quite the painful realization for the boy.

Hinuk had managed to hold off better, ice colored eyes staring right back at D’seus as he spoke – though not with their usual defiant glare. At his father’s mention of just how close they had come to losing another Brat Pack member, not to mention another one so close to him, the blond couldn’t help but advert his eyes somewhere else for a couple of seconds before returning settling on Thoran besides himself. The loss of Evelys had already been quite the harsh reality blow for them both, the guilt especially riding high on the blonde’s shoulders each day. After all, he was the one in charge – and D’seus was right, he should have known better than to constantly be placing their little rag-tag group in dangerous settings. They’d already paid the ultimate price last time with Evelys back then, Hinuk didn’t even want to imagine losing Thoran as well.

He’d only wanted for one plan to go well, for the most active members in his group to get something that would help cheer them up after that horrible failed attempt of “protecting the Weyr.” The boy hadn’t really thought much outside of there and as his father explained each error in detail Hinuk couldn’t help but bite his lower lip in frustration. Worst of all he couldn’t counter any of it; D’seus was right word for word.

As the man went on to finally explain their punishment both boys silently stood and simply nodded their heads. A faint sniffle had even left Thoran, the boy hastily wiping his eyes as quick as he could; the action only managing to make Hinuk feel even guiltier than before, because the blond just knew that wasn’t due to the chores. Really, if anything both boys had expected to be in much more work than what D’seus seemed to be assigning them. No, the source for the upsetment of his much more emotional friend was the same Hinuk was having, the boys just had different ways of showing it. They’d failed, again, and put lives in danger, again, all because they wanted to get some firelizard eggs of their own this time around.

”Do you understand me?”
”Yes.”

The answer was almost forcefully extracted through his mouth by Hinuk himself, Faranth knew how much the boy hated admitting he was right, but there was no try to even try and argument with the man. For once Hinuk wasn’t going to try and debate his partly innocence in the matter with excuses; ‘cause in all reality the boy was well aware that this had been one royal fuck up on their part, especially him.

Besides him Thoran nodded to D’seus in equal affirmation, the lump in the boy’s throat preventing him from uttering a word. There was no amount of words to describe the utter shame Thoran felt at that moment, how completely disappointed and displeased the boy was with himself: not only had he failed to be Hinuk’s right hand by realizing their errors on this mission sooner (and stopping it) but he’d also managed to make D’seus and Zorometh angry in the process. It was all he could do to avoid breaking into tears right there and then really.

[HG]

He heard one of the boys crying and he instantly felt like a tyrant. Was he too hard on them? We need our mentors to be hard on us so that we learn and grow. They will be glad when they make you proud because you are hard on them. One day they may think back on this moment and it might help them lead. They do intend on having Bronzes like me. They need this lesson in order to ride a leading dragon. As usual, Zorometh was wiser than anyone D’seus knew. HE would be foolish not to take the Bronze’s thoughts to heart.

Now that the hard stuff was over D’seus had one more thing that needed discussion. “Alright well there is one more thing we need to talk about.” And though this had largely been forced upon him by the kids foster parents he kind of liked spending time with both boys. Maybe when he was really really old they would spend time with him in return. Or maybe not… besides by then he should be settled with a bossy old woman.

“This is up for discussion so you can both say no if you want to. I’m asking you both if you wanted to spend two nights a sevenday here rather than one? Your foster parents have made it known to me that they are overwhelmed and that you both are getting older and could learn more from me. I am inclined to agree. You could learn more from Zorometh and I about dragonriding than your foster parents.” He waited to hear their response. He was kind of hoping they would say yes, It was lonely in his weyr without them considering he had no steady lover in his life at the moment. Almost always his weyr was devoid of life except for himself and Zorometh.

After a moment of silence, he walked closer to the boys and looked at the egg and the firelizard. “We need to get that egg close to the fire.” He went to get a couple small towels and took the redfruit out of the basket in the center of his small table. Placing the towels inside the basket he looked to Thoran. “You can keep it in here and place it close to the fire but not too close. You want it warm but you don’t want to cook it for breakfast.”

He gently placed the basket next to the fire. Then he turned his attention to Hinuk and his flitter. “What have we got here?” He asked the boy though he could easily see the flit was green. “We need to look her over and make sure she wasn’t hurt.” He said. Zorometh told him what had happened that she had hatched and the others had not. The only thing they could do was to take care of any injuries she sustained and hope they were minor.