.:.Dreaming Away.:. [Brat Pack]

[♥Rizu-Chan♥]

It had been a while since he had sneaked into the hatching grounds through the secret passages he and other members of his Brat Pack knew. Though at first Fiddles had been an annoying addition to his little "family" the male had eventually proven useful when he'd gotten his hands on a really old and rare map of the Weyr his father had possessed. Now turns later he had become one more of the gang, and all of them knew these passages like the back of their hands. A simple glow in a basket had been all Hinuk had brought along (well, with a sack filled with meatrolls too) and in the faint light he'd made his way to the sands with no problem at all.

"Shards, they're still scorching hot just like the past hatching..."

He winced, remembering to go along the wall and into the back of the stands where the sands were considerably cooler, before climbing his way up to the stands themselves. The last hatching he'd gazed at from this place, still a few sevendays too young to participate in it. But now he was finally twelve turns old... And along with having to eventually apprentice to a craft that meant he could stand as a Candidate, finally, soon as some sharding dragon eggs were finally in the sands.

"Watch out Pern, Hinuk -- rider of the biggest Bronze you will ever see -- will be flying the skies preeetty soon. Hehe."

From the wherhide sack he pulled out one of the meatrolls, taking a decent size bite out of it and almost finishing it in one go, before simply relaxing on the stands as he chewed away. Arrow, leader of the Brat Pack, was completely sure no dragonrider wold be coming along here any time soon -- or any other adult for that matter. They already had their hands full with the Holdless attack in Haven anyways.

"Hmm... Maybe we could make this place head base. Well, until that Gold comes to lay my big bronze's egg of course."

To be young and full of dreams and imagination...

[HG]

Seirsha came in through the passage she discovered and then shared with the others. She was as clever as she often bragged she was. Her reward: a higher place among the others. Seirsha was not in charge but she was close to the leaders. The blonde girl climbed out of the passage the way she had before and did a quick little somersault.

Hearing Arrow speaking to himself she decided to tease him, like any good friend would do. “Delusions of grandeur again Arrow?” She laughed as she stood all high and mighty before him. Her blue eyes large and innocent held a hint of contradicting sarcasm and mischief. No one ever believed Glow was part of some of the things she got involved in. She did seem to all a sweet young girl.
As she stood there, Mamma Cat came running after her. The little dear had something in her mouth. “Did you kill one?” She asked the white tunnel cat, who promptly dropped the dead tunnel snake at her feet. Smiling she added, “Brilliant! See how she killed it and brought it to me! She’ll help keep the tunnels safe from those pests.”

Scratching the tunnel cat where she liked to be touched in reward, Seirsha went on to say, “Where are the others?” Some of them were a bit wet behind the ears when it came to planning escapes from the adults in their lives. Seirsha’s mother was much too busy to care one way or another where the girl was. “Are you sure you want base here? Some people do come by at the most inopportune times. I already had to make a Candidate swear he wouldn’t tell anyone I was here.”

[♥Rizu-Chan♥]

“Delusions of grandeur again Arrow?”
"Hey! They are most certainly not delusions, Glow. They're reality, duh."

Though a pouted scowl adorned his features it was clear by the mischievous glint in his eye that it was all just a roose, Hinuk actually enjoyed this playful bantering that often ensued among his little Brat Pack group. Oddly enough, though his few of females wasn't the greatest, he seemed to somehow get along pretty well with those that were members to his little "family." Heck, a girl was his second in command, though no matter how many times Hinuk tried to question himself how that happened he always came up empty-minded. With a shrug he soon turned his attention back to the secret entrance thanks to the shuffling sounds coming through it.

"Another one of those snakes again?"

He mumbled, atching the small feline trot over to Glow and set the vermin on the ground besides her, purring in content at the scratch her owner graced her with.

"Well, I suppose clearing that tunnel of those things is a good idea -- it'd be kinda bad for all of us if any of the younger weyrbrats got bitten, especially since it'd probably be one of us. Might make harder the whole keeping these passages secret then."

Stretching over he too gave the feline a soft scratch along her chin and neck to praise her, before Seirsha's questioning reached him.

“Where are the others?”
"Beats me, haven't been around to hang with any properly these past sevendays. D'seus wasn't too please to find out my involvement in that last prank of ours to Emera..."

Still, the cheeky smirk on his lips told the whole world how much he had enjoyed that one -- it seemed tormeting the old Headwoman and her acquired golden flitter was a past time, especially for Hinuk. He was snapped away from his pleasant stroll down that memory lane by Glow's next remarks.

"I suppose, though with all the hussle and rummors about Holdless and Haven I doubt they'd be coming here more often. And didn't S'nuo got charged with the Candidates? I bet he'll have them so busy soon they won't be able to stroll in here no matter how many dragone eggs might be laid." He stuck his tongue out just for the hell of it and to try and tease Glow some, before continuing. "Besides, aside from the heat down there this place ain't too shabby -- and who would think we'd have a base, or at least partial of it, set in the Hatching Grounds of all places? They'll never see us sneak inside through the front entrace thanks to that little secret entrance we got."

Not to mention maybe they could spy on the next hatching through it -- though Hinuk was old enough to stand now some of the other members still weren't. He was sure they'd be delighted to have front row seats to the next hatching, whenever that finally happened. What could possibly go wrong...?

"You really think it might be that much of a bad idea, Glow?"

[wolflover1458]

Karevel skipped happily down the path leading to the Hatching Grounds. The passage itself was quite dark, but she didn't mind to much, and she simply couldn't be bothered to go back and get something to add some light to it. Even though she hadn't found the passage (and she never did find them) she had easily grown accustomed to it, even though she didn't go down it all that often. She was good at that kind of thing, and so was relatively confident that she wasn't going to run into anything. Which wouldn't be good, since she might have to see a Healer, who would ask her what she had been doing, and she was constantly told by the others that she shouldn't be telling anyone what they were up too. Which she understood, of course, since the adults always seemed to get annoyed with everything they did. Of course, most of what they did they did to try and annoy them, so it all made sense. But she did wish they would let up on her a bit more. Karevel always hated hearing about how no one wanted her to talk to anyone about anything. Well, she didn't plan on it, and she usually didn't let anything slip. Sometimes it was just hard to remember that someone else didn't know the things she knew, and thus she shouldn't be talking to them like they did.

Upon climbing out of the passage, she discovered Hinuk and Seirsha. Perhaps Karevel had been following them. She hadn't really been paying attention. Still, ever since that joke on Emera she hadn't seen a few of the others, and she assumed that perhaps they had gotten into trouble. Hinuk had been one of those, although his dad being D'seus probably didn't help. Karevel was pretty sure her parents were usually too busy to even notice that she was up to something, much less really worry about it. She didn't even see them all of the time anymore. But that was alright. She had other people to hang out with, after all. People her own age, who enjoyed playing pranks on other people. And finding secret passages. Karevel loved learning about more of them. She was pretty sure she knew almost all of the passages around the Weyr now.

And every time she went through this one, she enjoyed just how cool it was. Right there with the hatching sands. Definitely a cool place to be able to get to in secret. Well, she thought it was neat anyways. Although she had been steadily learning that not everyone agreed with her idea of what was neat. Which was fine, of course. At least, she was used to it.

"Hey Glow, hey Arrow," she said as a way of greeting upon reaching them. "So are we gonna keep coming back here or what? I think it's kind of neat. Having a tunnel right over here and all. It'd be kind of fun to hang out. So long as the sand doesn't get any hotter." There was once a time when she would have simply continued to talk, about how she was quite annoyed by the heat she was already feeling, but the place was neat enough to make up for it, unless, of course, it got even hotter than it was, but she had come to notice that when she did that, she never did get an answer, so she had eventually managed to stop herself doing that. Except when nobody answered. Then she forgot she'd even asked the question, until later anyways.

[Ise]

Fiddle quickly scampered down the secret tunnel, singing some tuneless song as he went. He wasn’t worried that someone outside might hear, the walls were stone after all. And heck maybe if someone heard they would think there were ghosts in this part of the Weyr. If people thought some of the Weyr’s hallways were haunted they wouldn’t want to be around there. That’d make it waaay easier for the Brat Pack to get in and out of the tunnels without getting caught.

The boy stopped his singing when he heard other voices, slowing down a little as he got closer to the others. Gibbon peaked out at the sands as he joined his friends. While the sands were currently empty and boring, when the next clutch came they’d have the best seats in the whole Weyr. Heck maybe they’d even be able to Impress from here like those two boys at the last hatching had done.

Finally turning his attention to his friends, Gibbon gave them a wide, toothy grin before he realized that there were only three of them. He looked around and scratched at his limp blond hair.
“I’m not last for once? I even beat Silvertongue here?”
Rarely did Fiddle show up to things on time, he was one of those kids who was always late for everything, no matter how early he tried to get there. He gave a little fist pump of victory though before he noticed Glow's cat and the dead tunnel snake.
"Aw man Glow, make your cat stop killing all the snakes she's catches. I wanna keep one as a pet. I didn't get one of the cats."

[HG]

Nodding sagely she added, “And I suppose you have ways of arranging these things.” As if anyone could arrange impressing at all let alone choosing the color of dragon. Boy would reality be a huge disappointment to him should he not impress to what he wanted. Although she supposed, not impressing at all would be worse. As for herself she had a couple of Turns yet before she even qualified to Stand. Seirsha liked dragons but they were not an obsession for her. They were part of her daily life. Now being a pirate. That was something!

She looked over at him as he asked. At least the tunnel cat was good for something. What was HE god for exactly? Other than ordering the rest of them around. One of them would be worse to him but if a smaller Brat went following the pack and got bit then they’d be in trouble. Better that one of their own get bitten because then they would never tattle. Not unless they wanted to be made fun of. Which she could arrange personally.

Seirsha grinned. He loved throwing his father’s name into things as if that meant something to the rest of them. It certainly meant nothing to her. A person was not bound to do what their parents did. She was her own person. Not a replica of her mother. Oh Faranth if that happened she might want to kill herself. Her life was meant for adventure, for getting to the bottom of great mysteries and in no way shape or form did that mean becoming a drudge and having baby after baby.

“Its not a bad idea… I am concerned that they might figure it out if we only have one Base. They’ll see us sneaking off. Someone who is not with us will try to follow and then we’re in trouble.” The whole idea of a base made her twitch. She did not like the predictability of the idea. Flitter entered, her usual demeanor a bit dimmed. “Heya Flitter!” Glow said with a friendly wave. The other girl had a good point. If it was going to be hot it would grow uncomfortable for the rest of them. Hopefully Hunik would take her words into consideration.

“Hey Gibbon. Can’t stop her once she starts. I suggest we steal flits from the next clutch instead.” She grinned mischievously. Tunnel snakes would be so much less fun that firelizards. They could each steal an egg and no one would be the wiser. Right? She knew Hunik wanted one badly enough that perhaps the idea might take off.

[♥Rizu-Chan♥]

"Well, considering its winter right now I rather like it in here more than out there. And hey, Flitter."

Sure, unlike the North, where it sowed and everything, the South had a more tropical climate to itself -- though for one used to the arid and humidity that was present most of the year these chilling breezes along with sporadic douses of rain really weren't welcomed by the blond brat. Right now he liked the warmth of the sands -- at least from over here behind the stands and whatnot -- though the twelve turn old wasn't stupid. He hadn't been leading this family for seven years now out of dumb luck.

"I don't mean a permanent base, that would be silly. But it's nice and warm in here, maybe we could make it a randevous point of sort... Along with two or three other places. You're right Glow, we do have to keep the grown-ups guessing -- it would be no fun if we made this easy for them."

By then Fiddle had finally joined them, to male taking a few moments to bump fists with the other male in greetings before returning to his leisure and relaxed pose, stifling a chuckle at Fiddles complains of Momma Cat killing every tunnelsnake in sight. Wearily he glanced back at the secret passage, a bit uncomfortable to see that so little members had shown up so far -- and both his left and right hand running the show were missing still too. It made him slightly uncomfortable, though the boy strongly worked to not let it show.

"I suggest we steal flits from the next clutch instead."
"Yea- wait, what?"

An eyebrow was arched as he turned back to gaze at Glow, having not really been paying attention to her conversation until the magical word of flits was mentioned. His brain took a few seconds to analyze what Glow proposed, before his confused expression gave way for a sly smile as his eyes glinted. He was liking the sound of this idea.

"Hmm... Didn't Emera's annoying Gold rose around the weyrhall recently?"

He took a few seconds of silence, eventually having the others confirm his suspicions before the male grinned and shifted, now on a sitting position as his elbows rested on his knees, fists drawn together and under his chin as he mulled the whole thing over in his head multiple times. Yes, he liked this idea. He liked it a lot. Not to mention it would be a nice little payback for their last failed prank -- that old hag was getting up to speed with their usual tricks lately.

"Perhaps we do need to step up our game slightly..."

His eyes turned back to Glow, before regarding the others and then back to her once more -- his signal that everyone should huddle up and start bouncing off ideas. Sure, a lot of members were missing, but they could put them up to speed whenever they arrived.

"Still, we're gonna have to play this one real cool if we plan on getting eggs out of it. How does trying out in the middle of the day, a day or two before whatever predicted hatching date the grown-ups announce, sound to you guys?"

He'd try to tag along with D'seus a bit more these sevendays, maybe he could get some more detailed info out of the bronzerider without alerting him to his new plot.

"Emera will be busy doing Headwoman duties and stuff, especially since Raelwyn and Aeriath are gone, and I'm sure we can outsmart a overgrown gold tunnelsnake with wings. Or at least distract her far enough from whatever basket they place her clutch in for one of us to swipe some eggs out of it. "

[kirensilverfox]

Megdela moved slowly and surely along the passageway to meet the others. She waited patiently for the chance to slip away completely unnoticed but therefor arrived much later then the others. She made a face seeing the tunnel snake in front of the tunnel cat. " Oh thats not good specially if someone ends up bit. " She arrived just at the time they started talking about stealing flit eggs. "that would be a fun adventure but we would have to think ahead on after it hatches who would get one and how would we hide it from the adults. baby flits need lots of care and how are we gonna explain carrying one around with us. Megdela known as Mirage is well known for her ability to hid and blend in with the environment around her. Though she wasn't sure just how to make a flit blend in and remain hidden but it was a idea worth exploring.

[Ise]

“Yeah, the stupid gold rose. I got wacked in the head by one of those lizards.”
Gibbon had seen part of the flight first hand and had even been close enough to get wacked by a tail. Aside from the fire lizards being rude little buggers as well as being louder then all heck, it had been neat to see part of it.

But the conversation had taken a turn that the boy liked. A pet would be cool, and if it was a flitter, even better. Maybe then he could become a fire lizard breeder and trainer. He could teach his flitters to do tricks and people would give him lots marks for it.

“Ohoh I know how we can get an egg or two! Though we’ll need to get some runners in the Weyr, a loooot of yarn, half a dozen tubers and a rock the size of Arrow’s head.”
He thought for a moment, scratching his head a bit.
“Wait wait no tubers, maybe just a few bubbly pies instead. Yeah, that’ll work better I think.”
He quickly shook his head, already seeing his plan come together in his mind. Not that anyone in their right mind would even listen to it, his ideas were always far more complicated and complex then they needed to be.

“Or hey you think D’seus would let us borrow his dragon? That’d be even better.”

[HG]

“A suggested secondary meeting place would perhaps be the stables. The dragonriders don’t go there because the runners are not too fond of dragons and the few grown ups around are quite busy.” They would never notice or care that there were a few brats hanging about. Course they would still have to change it up. Watching the passage after her fearless leader had she wondered where the rest were. Then again it had been hard on the leaders of the pack of late.

She smiled, as if she knew something they had not even begun to guess at. Glow watched as Arrow finally caught on to what she was saying. Fiddler and Mirage had made good points which she took a moment to reconcile with her own plan. “Where do Gold Firelizards lay their eggs?” She asked in a rhetorical fashion. “They lay them where they were hatched. Emera’s Gold was from Kyrah’s Gold Eve. She laid her eggs here on the Hatching Sands.” Seirsha’s eyes glinted then with the mischief they were all known for. “We have a passage no one knows about but us to the Hatching Sands. My feline has killed the tunnel snakes that would threaten the life of the eggs. We are in the ideal situation for a kidnapping.”

She laughed good naturedly at Fiddler. Such a kidder. Looking to Arrow a moment to be certain she could go on. “We should not include D’seus in this too much. Someone needs to become extra helpful to Emera. So they can get a good look at the Gold. We’ll be able to see when she’s starting to get egg heavy. From there it’s a simple matter of waiting till the Gold disappears. When she does we’ll know she has come here. Considering our situation it would be best not to hang around the Caverns till after the hoist has been completed.” Seirsha knew they were all wondering how they would be able to pull this off.

“We will be careful. I don’t know about you lot but I’d risk a bite for a firelizard of my very own.” She knew they all would; specially as this would be their most complicated mission to date. Glow moved on to address how they were going to pull it off. “The person at most risk will not be one of the people stealing the eggs. The person most needed to make this work will be the one cozying up to the Headwoman. We need someone to do this who can deceive the most knowledgeable and perceptive people in the Weyr. Whomever is chosen for this should not be a known tattle tale. Now the other part of the plan will require different sorts of people. We need one person to distract Emera, two to distract the Gold and three to grab two eggs a piece. So everyone involved in this gets an egg. People who choose not to be involved don’t get one.”

Looking around at the people surrounding her she asked, “What do you think? The details of course need to be worked out more in depth but the general idea is there…”

[♥Rizu-Chan♥]

Mirage's arrival was noted by Arrow, though he didn't made much of a signal aside of a faint nod to include her into their planning. It wasn;t until her comment about hidding the hatched flitters that he couldn't help but chuckle faintly before turning to th girl.

"Once they're impressed to us there's not much the grown-ups can do about it. It'd be liek sneaking into the sands on a hatching day and impressing a dragont by sheer luck -- once it's done there's no turning back, the most we'll get is an earful about how we shouldn't be doing such dangerous things and whatnot by some of the adults. And they're certainly not going to let us starve the poor things to death, so food and items to care for them is covered. The hard part is getting the eggs soon as they're hard enough for hatching."

He found it amusing Megdela would actually worry about something like that, especially in a Weyr were all the things they needed to take care of firelizards were available. They were, after all, like miniature dragons. And what did a Weyr had in abundance? Dragons. The resources for a flit were nothing compared to the resources needed to oil and feed a dragon -- and they planned on impressing these flitters so some people in the Weyr anyways.

Just not these weyrbrats exactly.

Fiddler's comment about getting whacked earned a smirk from Hinuk as he shook his head slightly. He'd also been around the halls that day and managed to duck in time to dodge a rather very large and scarred up bronze. Probably a wild flitter, shame he didn't win the flight though. As he went on listing items, which got weirder and weirder, for whatever crazy idea in Fiddler's head Hinuk rolled his eyes humorously, before turning to Glow as she spoke, sparing an "I don't think Zorometh's the type to go around snatching flitter eggs -- he'd probably blab the whole thing away to dad before helping us out." Really, that bronze could be so serious at times.

He listened carefully as she suggested the stables as another meeting point, the blond nodding slightly to signal he liked the sound of it. They'd hve to later figure out which days they would meet where and the like, but that would be later on -- were more of their little pack appeared. Their last endeavours hadn't been taken too well by the weyrfolk -- and no doubt a few of them were still stuck with chores and duties keeping them away from one another. It was moments like this when firelizards would be so very useful for communication.

As she proceeded with the rest of her ideas the male gave a nod to signal she could go on -- he was liking the sound of what he was hearing thus far after all. For a girl Glow was quite the little thinker really, and it wasn't uncommon for her to come up with good plans like this.

"Well, I'm obviously not the choice to cozy up at Emera -- she wouldn't trust me even if her life depended on it. I'm quick enough on my feet though -- I'm sure I can help lure that silly gold away from her brood so other's can snatch her pretty lil' eggs." He was confident enough he could handle a gold firelizard -- it's not like if the thing could maul him to death. Heck, he was sure he could distract it on his own if really needed. "I think, however, that Glow would be the perfect candidate for cozing up to that blasted old hag. I don't even think most of the weyrfolk even know you han around with us all the time -- and your innocent little face would throw them all off-course from our plans."

So that left Flitter, Fiddler and Mirage to snatch up two eggs each -- enough for all four of them and a bit more -- unless by then some of the other brats got physically involved with the plan as well.

"And agreed. You want an egg? You need to help out getting them then. Anyone that doesn't simply doesn't get an egg then."