A walk to the trees {Jarshan}

[Marnark]

Jarshan sighed. Was this kid really from a society so bereft and shunning of dragon lore that he knew so very little? It was so very sad. And amusing at the same time. "Between is definitely something you're going to get trained in. It's like breathing, to a dragon, or a flitter. They do it. If you don't guide your dragon through to the other side, you'll likely never be seen again. That is where dragons and riders go to die, you know. Furthermore, it's a standard tactic in threadfighting. And I highly doubt they intend to let you sit threadfall out, if and when it comes along." So, logically, she assumed even the northern brats were going to get between training.

But really, why was he acting as if she was his co-conspirator in getting everyone home again, when she really didn't give a tunnelsnake's tail what happened to them? He was apparently deluded into thinking she cared simply cause she was telling him some rather basic information he really should have already known, if nothing else just from the histories.

"I don't know the mechanics of the thing of Golds being in charge. I just know it works. I think it is also basically a proximity thing. A dragon goes from Weyr A to Weyr B, they are going to obey the Queen at Weyr B." She answered, patiently. Really, was she a random nothern brat teacher now? "Dragons are more than just animals. They think and scheme and have desires too. BUT, don't go thinking they're human. They're not. For one thing they don't have the memory capacity for anything even remotely the same. Think of them as, oh, intelligent fish." Their memory was about as long, at any rate.

Clearly, he didn't understand how brainwashing worked if he thought most of his brother goons were immune to it. But Jarshan did not see the point in trying to explain it to him and further more was really not inclined to argue with him. After all, it seemed as if he'd entered a game of wits and left his equipment somewhere else. "You might be surprised how loyal some people aren't. Everyone looks out for number one first, remember that."

"D'ero." She acknowledged, with a very minuscule nod. But then she fell right back into the old misnomer. "Kid, no one has been able to stomach enough pain to try it that far. At least not that I've been made aware of. For one thing, if it did somehow happen? The dragon usually goes after the rider. It's hard to stop a large, determined, carnivorous flying lizard you know. Basically, it takes a Queen to do it."

[Ise]

D’ero wrinkled his nose a little at the thought of going to this Between place when he died. It was probably good for dragons to do that, trying to dig a hole big enough for a queen would take months. Still, it wasn’t something that he liked the idea of for himself. He wasn’t sure if he liked this idea of going Between so much anymore. It would be useful to just be able to pop around everywhere but he didn’t want to get stuck in some cold and empty place. He wondered just how dangerous this Between stuff was and how often new riders were lost in it.

This proximity thing was something to think about and try to learn more about. He was curious to know more about the kind of power that golds held over the other dragons and just how it worked, if there was any sort of explanation for it. He stopped though and raised an eyebrow as Jarshan compared a dragon to a smart fish. Of course he had noticed that Hourth did not have the best memory, especially when it came to random names. But he never would have thought of a fish.
“So the dragons are just big fish. With wings. Have you uh ever told them that?”
He had a feeling Jarshan had never said anything like that around a dragon before and couldn’t help but snicker a bit as he tried to picture the reaction a dragon would have to being called a fish.

“Like I said, some of the little lordlings are too stupid to be loyal to anywhere but home. For them to give up on the North, everyone here would have to bow down and praise how wonderful they are. I’m pretty sure you’d stab N’var in the gut before doing anything like that to him. Too many of them won’t be able to adjust to life here. They might be able to tolerate it but they’ll never like it enough to give up their old life. And now that they have a dragon, they can be heroes at home. Here they’ll always just be an outcast.”
He shrugged a bit, maybe over time he would be proven wrong but he didn’t think that all the Expedition members would ever start to think of the South as home, it was just the means to an end.

He didn’t say anything as Jarshan went back to calling him kid. At least she knew his name now, though that didn’t mean she would remember it in a candlemark. He did wonder how far he could get from his own drake before it would start to hurt. Right now he didn’t feel anything, he could sense that Hourth was still resting but that was it. It was probably a mental pain as well instead of something more physical. He had dealt with bad physical pain before, few things hurt as badly as getting kicked in the chest by a runner and having ribs and breastbone cracked if not broken. Every breath was agony, lungs forcing healing bones apart, rebreaking them in the early stages of healing. Still, he wasn’t in a rush to start testing out the bond between him and Hourth, his brown was still young and he didn’t want to hurt him.

Still, D’ero couldn’t stop himself from grinning a little bit.
“Large, carnivorous flying fish. No, I would not want to get in the way of that.”

[Marnark]

Jarshan arched one eyebrow at him. "Told them that? Why in the world would I bother to talk to a dragon?" She asked. "They don't have anything to say to me, and I don't have any use for talking to something that is going to forget that I talked to it in short order." She stated, simply. "And yes. Fish. They fly through the air, like a fish swims in water. They both have this really weird textured skin, and lay eggs. They keep their genitals in their tails, they eat meat - basically whatever doesn't get away fast enough. Not really smart enough to know when something is too big to swallow, and have really really short memory spans. So, yes. Dragons are like fish. Only with more personality."

Rather obvious, really. But ... she had to admit. Never before had she told anyone the analogy before. Much less a rider of one of said dragons. But then ... he hadn't grown up in the society of the dragon, so it really wasn't as much of an insult to his pride as it would have been one of the weyrbrats. Clearly, he even thought it was funny.

A few points in his favor, there. He had a sense of humor, under all that doom and gloom and plotting and worrying over what between was like.

"Lordlings, eh? So some of them really are such pompousness as that? You know, the Weyrs used to dictate who came into power. If any Lord got too big for his britches, the Weyr did something about it. I imagine that's rather what put the Lords off of the whole Weyr idea when thread got scarce." She shrugged. It wasn't like she really cared. She was born and raised south, didn't know the North, and certainly didn't miss it. "I am not at all likely to knife them, unless they are doing something the warrant such an action. But you are correct in assuming that I am not going to kowtow to them, either. They are not different to me than any of the other riders. Merely just another annoyance to ignore."

She eyed him for a moment. "What are you going to do with that stick?" Jarshan was not at all alarmed in any way over the stick ... it was more a curiosity to be indulged, to her. Of what use did a weyrling have for a random stick?

[Ise]

D’ero thought about pointing out to Jarshan that dragons didn’t forge things quite that fast, or at least the younger ones didn’t, but decided that she still wouldn’t care about that. She clearly didn’t care for dragons but he didn’t think she hated them as much as she tried to make it seem. After all, why would someone protect something they hated so much? If one person had a dislike for the dragons and the dragon riders, then it was likely other people did as well.
“I wouldn’t say all of them have more personality then a fish…”

He nodded a bit about the lordlings being pompous. Not all of them were so bad, Essa had always seemed nice enough and Osaris and him got along as well. But then there was N’var and K’dyn.
“Well if you ever get trapped with N’var for a few hours, I don’t think anyone will blame you if you end up stabbing him. Repeatedly. I don’t think anyone really likes him, they just tolerate him. At least he’s only a green rider now. Even I’ll get the chance to boss him around sooner or later.”
Not that D’ero ever would. He preferred N’var to never really noticed that he even existed. Much easier that way.

He looked down at the wood in his hand then looked back up at Jarshan before shrugging a little.
“I like trying to carve. I’m not very good at it but it gives me something to do with my hands. And it’s something that I can do anywhere so long as I have a knife and wood. I didn’t have any more wood though so I figured I’d come out and get some more pieces.”
He was terrible at carving and knew it. But he continued to work at it, slowly getting a little better. You could now tell that most of the things he carved were creatures and not just messy lumps. Still, most of the things he carved ended up just being tossed into the fire. He did it just to relax and take his mind off of things.

[Marnark]

Jarshan gave the youth a strange look again, and then laughed a bit. "You think so, huh? Well, I won't disagree with you. I was trying to be polite and not be completely down on dragons, you know. But you are right. Some of them don't have that much personality." She agreed. It was rather strange, to encounter someone bonded to a dragon who wasn't all googly-eyed over them and could say nothing bad about any dragon. But then, he was also not raised here. He was northern, that was probably making all the difference in the world. Maybe it gave him a more objective take on the situation, despite having one leeched onto his mind.

"N'var, huh?" Jarshan asked, making a note to remember that name. If nothing else, just to be warned about his apparent personality. It probably would not go over very well with the Leadership if she started knifing weyrlings out of exasperation. Jarshan had a pretty decent level of patience, but warnings were taken in stride. Apparently this N'var person was going to need some extra helpings of the stuff. "I'll remember that. If he's a green rider, he had better get used to getting a bit more than just ordered around." Jarshan said, soberly. "Greens are kind of like cannon fodder. There's so blasted many of them, and they're fast enough, that they're the first to get sent into thread. But they also ... ahhhh ... well, do Green things."

"Carving, huh?" Jarshan asked, sizing up the hunk of wood he had, with a new eye. "Well, then you probably want a different bit than that one. That one's got a soft core. You can tell by how the stubs are from where branches used to be, but busted off. They're recessed." She pointed at it. "Most of the wood you're going to find just laying around out here is there because it rotted on the tree and fell. It's also still here because it's not any good for even burning in the stoves." She pointed a thumb over her shoulder at the forest. "Only wood worth having, especially for carving, is going to be out there."

But what really interested her was to know that he had enough interest in blades to practice using one on wood. She knew that being master of a blade did not necessarily mean being a proficient warrior with one. Being a master of the blade meant that a knife was the extension of one's body, regardless of how it was being used. Carving wood, carving meat, fighting, pitched battle ... it was all the same. If he had that spark ... he might be worth training. "The only way to get better is to practice." She commented obliquely.

[Ise]

D’ero shrugged a bit. Dragons were dragons. They were interesting creatures but they weren’t perfect. Being Impressed to one didn’t suddenly make him a better person then he had been before hand.
“Why would I get upset if you don’t suck up to dragons? There’s no reason for you to have to go around praising them all the time. Anyone who expects you to do something like that needs a good kick. Dragons are handy to have but they can’t do everything.”
D’ero just couldn’t wrap his head around the obsession that so many people had around dragons. Wit the dragon riders he figured it probably had something to do with the fact that they had a dragon while most people didn’t, the dragon was a status symbol for them. All he knew was that he didn’t feel any more special by having Horuth, he just had a different set of responsibilities to take care of now.

The young man was glad to see that Jarshan seemed to be taking his warning about N’var some what seriously. Hopefully she would be able to avoid the lordling, or if the two did somehow manage to cross paths, maybe N’var and his green would be able to behave themselves. The last one was too much to hope for though in D’ero’s mind. He did chuckle though as Jarshan started talking about greens.
“I know the greens have more flights then golds. For N’var’s sake I hope when that starts to happen that one of the blues ridden by a girl is the one who wins. I don’t think N’var would… enjoy his time with another male. I know I’m at least going to avoid getting involved in that. Though I hear riders don’t always have much control over things like that.”

He looked at the hunk of wood he was holding as he listen to Jarshan talk about it. He didn’t expect to find any great carving wood right here, he didn’t need anything perfect. But he didn’t want anything that was rotted or soft in the middle. He wouldn’t be able to carve anything like that and would be more likely to end up hurting himself. A frown creased his lips as he looked deeper into the woods.
“Shards.”
He muttered the curse as he tossed the now useless hunk of wood behind him. He had come out all this ways and didn’t want to go back to the Weyr empty handed. But he wasn’t dumb enough to want to go into the forest by himself. He looked over at the Shield woman, giving her a little half smile.
“Since you’ve tolerated me for this long would you mind helping me find something more suitable to carve? You know your way around these woods far better then I do.”

[Marnark]

Now that ... that was something she had never even dreamed about hearing come from a Dragonrider's mouth. Never mind if he was only a weyrling. Anyone affiliated with a dragon in any way. Jarshan just looked at him for a moment in silence, though the surprise was well hidden behind her well schooled face. She was not at all accustomed to being surprised by anything, but when she was, she made a point of not showing it at all. Surprise was a weakness after all, in her line of work. "Well, I am glad you have the sense to realize that. Maybe you can enlighten some of your fellows somewhere along the way." Jarshan suggested.

"Greens do fly often, yes. But that's not what I meant. Being termed a greenrider has more meaning behind it than just someone who rides a green dragon." But if he didn't know that, maybe she would just leave it for him to find out. She didn't exactly feel up to ... explaining ... that. "But no. Riders have no control over their dragon's flights at all. The dragons are going to do what they do. There is no way to influence the outcome, really. For you, or for him. All you can do is hope for the best, and get over any preconceived notions you might have. You'll be happier the sooner you realize that." Really, though ... shouldn't all this be being covered in his lessons? "Someone's gotta win them flights, after all."

Jarshan quirked her mouth off to one side as he first considered the wood and then tossed it aside. That ... hadn't quite been what she'd meant, but eh. Whatever. His follow up request, however, surprised her. Shards, but he was good at that. Very few people liked to spend more time with the Shield than they had to ... even those who fully understood what the Shield was all about. It was even more surprising, considering that not too terribly long ago, she had held him hostage at threat of dire injury. To have him want to be any where near her was shock enough ... but to request it ...?! She shifted her weight to her other foot and considered his face carefully. "Are you looking for dead fall, or just regular old wood?"

[Ise]

D’ero let out a little snort. Like any of the other Weyrlings would listen to him. He didn’t think he’d be able to change any of the Southerners minds about dragons, their whole life here revolved around dragons so it didn’t surprise him that they thought there was nothing else in the world but the giant flying beasts. He couldn’t fully understand why the Expedition had gone so crazy for them though. It was a new and unique experience, one that still surprised D’ero at times, but just because they had dragons didn’t mean they were suddenly going to save the North from destruction and civil war. The dragons were helpful but they weren’t the answer to all their problems.
“If only. I’m pretty sure you get threatened with the gold dragon eating you if you try to imply that dragons aren’t the only thing to live for.”

The young man raised an eyebrow slightly as Jarshan talked about the greenriders more. He wanted to ask what exactly she meant but held off. He would probably figure it out sooner or later, but it didn’t sound like a good thing to be called a greenrider. He also didn’t like the idea of Flights either. He had known they were intense things even before he Impressed but now that he had to actually think of going through them himself? There was something about losing control of himself like that that D’ero didn’t like. Of course he could always lock himself in his room during flights. It wouldn’t be much fun for him but getting blue balled couldn’t be that bad.
“I’ll find a way to deal with it once I understand flights better. It’s hard to understand what you’re getting into until you actually have a chance to experience it. At least I don’t have to worry about that for a few more turns.”

He looked at Jarshan before looking deeper into the trees.
“Dead wood. It won’t shrink and crack if I do manage to carve something good out of it. But if you’re willing to help me out I’m not going to get picky about it. I just don’t want to go back with nothing. But I’d appreciate any help you can give me.”
He glanced back at Jarshan, wondering if she was actually going to help him out. He was a bit surprised that she would be willing to do that, after all he had been bugging her and probably annoying the hell out of her since he had shown up.

[Marnark]

Jarshan actually laughed. "A gold dragon, huh? I don't think so. Dragons don't eat people. They might snarl at one, but eat them? No. Dragons don't hurt people. They can't. Not unless it's like a Queen guarding eggs. That's the only time Dragons have been known to knowingly cause damage to a person. Don't ask me why, but that's just how it is. However, I will warn you, weyrlings will sit on you. Breaking them of that as they get bigger is a trick. So I hope you never put your baby dragon in your lap?"

"Good luck with that." was Jarshan's only answer to his dealing with Flights and things of that nature. She had a slight notion what they were like from her having a flitter. A bronze flitter at that. But the word around the place was that flitter-lust was a drop in the bucket compared to dragon-lust. And flitters could make a body quite amorous! "If you're lucky, you might remember bits and pieces of your first experience. Or any of the following ones. It's waking up the next morning that's the kicker, I'm told." Jarshan added, with a final shrug. She wasn't a rider, and never would be. She also could honestly say she had no desire to be one.

"Dead wood. There's plenty of that. Most of it is easy to get, too." Jarshan turned about and moved off into the forest. Purely out of habit her movement was completely soundless and stealthy, even though she thought she was just casually strolling under the trees. "Keep up." She cast over her shoulder, resting one hand on the hilt of one of the knives strapped to her waist. Just in case.

[Ise]

“So being eaten by a dragon isn’t a real threat anymore. Good to know. Wonder if the others I came with know that yet.”
He knew that a gold dragon with eggs was likely to be very violent if anyone tried to mess with her eggs, but then again what mother wasn’t willing to use violence to keep her babies safe? Hearing that dragons were otherwise unable to hurt humans was interesting though. Was it just something they were taught never to do from an early age? Or was it breed into them, like their need to suicide if they didn’t Impress. D’ero let out a little snort at the idea of someone letting a dragon sit on their lap.
“No, my dragon is small for a brown but he would have been too heavy for me to want him in my lap like that. And I’m more use to animals being used for work and labor, useful things. Not being some lap pet for some lordling.”

D’ero muttered a ‘wonderful’ as Jarshan spoke more about the flights. He was in no rush to experience such a thing. Maybe he would get lucky and Hourth would be one of those dragons who turned out to be asexual. The flights probably weren’t so bad if the riders actually liked each other but D’ero was in no rush to find this out himself. Besides, there weren’t any female weyrlings that he liked like that. He didn’t know any of the Southern girls, and most likely they weren’t interested in knowing him. And of the Expedition members, he had only gotten to know Osaris and he didn’t know her enough to be interested in having a flight with her.

The young man was far happier when Jarshan turned and started moving between the trees. He was a little surprised that she was so willing to help him out like this but wasn’t going to look a gift runner in the mouth. He took a few jogging steps to catch up with her, loud and noisy before he tried to be a little more quiet. He wasn’t a silent as Jarshan was, he wasn’t use to walking in a forest like this, but he no longer sounded like a heard of dragons stomping along. He watched her movements and tried to mimic them as best he could. At least his clothing wasn’t going to hamper him, nothing he wore was lose enough to catch on the shrubs or trees they went by. His own hand rested near the hilt of his knife, if they were attacked by some wild animal he trusted Jarshan and her skills to take care of it, but it did make him feel a little better and a little more prepared to know he at least had some sort of weapon on him.

[Marnark]

Jarshan sniffed. "Considering how much dragon lore you Northerners have missed out on? Probably none of them. You really should look into doing some rather deep studies. I am sure you could find someone to teach you." She cast a glance back over her shoulder, mostly out of habit to stay aware of all of her surroundings. But to see him watching her and trying to mimic her motions amused her greatly. A smirk graced her features for a moment, before she went back to watching everything else, too. He was smart, she had to give him that. Ignorance could be cured. She wouldn't tell him that it would take many Turns for him to master what he was taking a gander at right now ... not yet anyway. There was a time and place for all things, and she wasn't about to say anything to someone that might squash their inclination to better themselves.

"Lordlings keep pets nowadays?" Jarshan asked, coming to a stop beside the trunk of a massive old-growth tree. The branches broke from the main trunk just slightly out of reach, and were thick enough to be trees unto themselves. She looked at him again, and then gestured upward. "I trust you can climb?"

It also amused her highly to see him trying to mimic walking silent and hovering near his blade. Jarshan of course had no idea what his actual skills with it were, and was not about to judge him for it. She wasn't the type. But she did know that if he was shy of walking into the woods alone ... his skill probably wasn't very high. That or he was playing at something less than he was. She'd already noticed the spark for blade mastery in him, but she had no way of knowing how far along he was with it until she actually saw him use it. But she was not about to provoke any such usage; that would only garner artificial results. If he eventually proved worth teaching, she might consider making sure he got the teaching he needed. But she had yet to determine the true value of it yet. Indeed, she always looked the runner in the mouth, no matter what she was handed or how.

"Go on up." She stood back, crossing her arms over her chest and resting all her weight on one foot, hipshot, waiting to see how he handled himself in climbing the tree. They weren't far enough out to actually get him any wood, but she wasn't going to tell him that, either. Not yet!

[Ise]

“I’ve had the chance to look into the physical aspects of dragons but haven’t really been able to look at some of the other lore. When I tried to look at some of the documentation on dragons either I was ‘encouraged’ to find something else to do with my time or they were all being borrowed by another Northerner. Lessons are helping with some of it, talking to people helps fill in some of the gaps. But I should find someone willing to teach me a little more. It would help me make an ass of myself a little less.”
He spoke as quietly as he could, not wanting his voice to carry too much. There wasn’t much of a point in trying to walk quietly if he was just going to give himself away by yelling.

He stopped next to the tree with Jarshan, looking up at it. He took note of any dead branches he saw, wanting to avoid those. He could climb just fine but that didn’t mean that every branch was going to hold his weight.
“Lordlings always have pets of some sort. I don’t know about everywhere but I know that no one near my family could afford to have an animal that didn’t do something to earn its keep. No one wants to feed a useless mouth.”

D’ero jumped up and grabbed onto one of the higher branches, hanging there for a moment as he made sure that it was strong enough to hold him before he pulled himself up onto it. He wasn’t nearly as graceful as Jarshan was in a tree but he didn’t seem uncomfortable in it either. He moved slowly upwards, testing every branch before he risked putting his full weight onto it.
“I’m not seeing very many dead branches at this level. Or at least nothing big enough for me to use, I was hoping to carve more then just a toothpick.”

His hands were sticky with tree sap and other gunk on the branches while his forearms had been scrapped up when he pulled himself up onto a new branch. Neither bothered him much, the sap was annoying but it would come off and the scraps didn’t hurt yet, nor were they bleeding. He reached up and grabbed another branch, putting some weight on it before it snapped off in his hand. He frowned a little and looked down towards the ground.
“Look out below, would hate to drop this right on top of you.”
He dropped the broken branch and started to scoot around the tree, looking for a branch that would be big and strong enough to hold him as he went up a little higher.

[Marnark]

Jarshan watched him climb the tree, and smirked again. "Tree rat." She accused, even though it was not what she was actually thinking. "You might want to look into possibly getting yourself a pet, while you're here. They are not as ... useless ... as they might seem. Depending on what you get and what you want done." She suggested. They were also more liable to be free, within the Weyr, whereas acquiring a pet in a Hold could be quite costly, that she knew.

She stepped aside as the branch came falling back down toward her. Jarshan did not, however, allow it to fall all the way to the ground. Instead she snapped a hand out to catch it, and set it down on the ground gently. Looking up at where he was clambering around, she vaguely wondered where he thought he was going. She honestly hadn't expected him to go much farther up than the first level of branches. Gumption, he had. Apparently a lot of it. "Let me know when you can see your home." She commented. It was a joke, but her tone didn't betray it one bit, instead making it sound like a serious suggestion. Only logic would betray it for what it was.

"Toothpics are delightful things, though." She answered, somewhat amused and not above prodding at him for it. "But you're not going to find anything really carvable in this tree anyway. Just so you know. It's the wrong type of tree." Wood it had ... in massive quantities. But the wood was so very hard that it was a combination of brittle and very very difficult to get a blade to bite into. The next time he looked down, she went ahead and gestured for him to come back down again.

He needed teaching. In just about everything. But he was both young enough to be taught, and had the spark to make it worthwhile. She considered that for a moment, while deciding on whether or not she wanted to bother with it. She was, after all, a very busy woman. All of the Shield were. "Dead branches are going to be more prevalent in the lower third of any given healthy tree. I take it you did not have very many thickly wooded areas where you come from?"

[Ise]

D’ero let out a little chuckle as Jarshan called him a tree rat. He paused and rested against the tree a bit as he listened to her talk about the pets.
“I’ve thought about trying to get the fire lizards or flitts or whatever other names they have. They seem useful. And it’s not like I didn’t have pets at home. They were just pets that actually did work. I had my runner that I liked more the all the others and would go out of my way to pamper her a bit. But we never had one of those domestic felines that you just fed until it was too fat to move. The felines that we had were there to catch and keep pests away. But if I get a chance I’ll probably try to get a pet or two from here, it’ll be interesting to see how the fauna differs between here and the North.”

He let out a sarcastic ‘haha’ as she asked if he could see his home. He knew he was just a little too far away to be able to see any part of the North. And he wasn’t even in the tallest tree in the area. He thought of even grabbing a couple of smaller little branches so he could make Jarshan a couple of toothpicks since she liked them so much. He stopped and looked down slowly, letting out a little sigh as he started to make his way down the tree. He hit the lowest group of branches and jumped down, landing in a crouch before standing back up and wiping his sticking hands on the legs of his pants.

“No, Keroon was mostly plains. And the North itself doesn’t have a whole lot in the way of trees. No big forests, especially nothing like this. Even the older maps don’t show much in the way of trees. What wood I normally got to carve back home usually ended up in the fire sooner or later. I guess I won’t have to be doing that any more though.”
He walked to a near by tree, looking up at those first few branches to see if there was anything dead there. He snapped off a small dead branch and pulled out his knife and cut off one of the tiny little branches. He whittled it down and handed Jarshan a toothpick.
“If you show me where good wood to carve is, I’ll make you an endless supply of toothpicks, just for you.”

[Marnark]

Jarshan nodded. "If you get a flitter, you might want to try for a larger egg, not a smaller one. Simply because the larger flitters are more useful." She suggested. The smaller ones ... greens, some blues ... they were almost useless. Their memory was so very short it was painful. Trying to train them was usually a massive waste of time. Even if you did manage to succeed to hold their attention, all you could really get out of them were happy cheeps of curiosity. Clearly, they didn't have two brain cells to rub together. At least, not compared to flitters like Torc. A big, solid bronze, he was trained more ways to the Red Star than was funny. Torc was not just a flitter, he was a flitter of the Shield, and a tool. A weapon, even, if matters came down to it. "I wouldn't know how it would differ. I've never been to the North." Jarshan answered. It also went without saying: she likely wouldn't be welcome there either. But if half what she heard about the place was true, she wasn't interested in going either.

"Plains. How boring." Jarshan answered, walking with silent steps in a slow motion that had no real direction. For the moment she was more or less just observing D'ero as he went about whatever he was doing. "Indeed. We have plenty of wood." She remarked, before arching one eyebrow at his gift. Lifting a hand to take the toothpick, she stuck it in her teeth. Bobbing her brows in a quick and sudden motion, she turned on a foot and walked away into the forest again. "This way."

Silly lad! An endless supply? Just for her? Did he even realize what he was offering?