Fearless Men Live Here... Sort of.

Writers: AmajoS, Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 1st March 2019

Characters: A'nir, T'min, T'leri
Description: There's something going bump in the night in the boys' dormitory.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 9, day 28 of Turn 9

Anndil was almost asleep when he thought he heard it - a noise! He'd
been sleeping in the Candidate dormitories for two Turns now, but this
was a noise he hadn't heard in them before.... He whipped over anda
unshuttered the glowbasket nearest his bunk.

"Talerin? Did you hear that?" he asked, peering in Talerin's direction.

Talerin had been dozing off and thinking some very lusty thoughts
about a very pretty girl. He blinked and made a groan as a glow was
unshielded. "Ugh. Huh?"

Temmin listened to the boys' whispers from his bed, further down. He
hadn't heard the noise Anndil had mentioned, but he lay perfectly
still in his bed and tried to hear it. There! A rustling. A
scratching. He heard it too.

Anndil swung his legs over the top bunk, letting them dangle for a
minute as he scanned the darkened room, trying to pinpoint where the
noise had come from. "There it was again. Did you hear it that time?"
he whispered

"I heard it," Talerin confirmed. If everyone else was gonna get up...
"It's scratching. Means it has legs. Right?"

Now Temmin sat up and began peering around. Lots of things had legs
and most of them also had teeth.

Anndil spotted movement from another bed, "Temmin? Isn't that you? Do
you see anything?"

Talerin scooped a glow out a basket and held it in his hands, leaning
over and holding it out near the floor to illuminate.

"Yes," Temmin replied. He was about to say more when the sound of
something being bumped into and more scuttling cut him off. "I think
whatever it is, doesn't like that light," he said instead.

"Shells," Anndil muttered with dread as he dropped down from his top
bunk and searched about for some shoes. The last thing he wanted was
to step on something creepy or crawly in the middle of the night.
Anndil hated anything that had too many legs.

"So should I keep shining the light to make it run away, or hide it so
it comes back out, or what?"

"What do you think it is?"

"I don't know," Anndil murmured to Temmin, and then looked back at
Talerin. "Shine that light under this empty bunk," he directed,
steeling himself to look beneath it.

Talerin complied, reaching down to shine the light and see what scuttled.

Anndil slowly crouched, body tensed as he peered just beneath the edge
of the bed where....

"AH!" the Candidate shrieked, jumping nearly clear out of his skin
before turning and leaping into Talerin's bed. "Yep, it's a
tunnelsnake! Get out there and kill it Tal!" He looked up, "Unless
you're a tunnelsnake wrangler, Tem?"

Temmin grimaced, he hated tunnelsnakes. Nasty pesty things with way
more legs and teeth than should be allowed. "Not me. We always just
sicced firelizards or watch whers on them back home when they turned
up." He didn't think any of the candidates had a firelizard though and
obviously there wasn't a watch wher available. He began looking around
for something that they could use as a weapon, just in case.

Talerin tried to not feel smug about being unafraid of them. "I've
caught my share before. Hold on, and keep the glow held out. I have
something on my trunk..." if he didn't have a big stick he'd have a
boot.

"Thank Faranth there is a 'real man' in here to save us!" Anndil laughed
as he remained perched on Talerin's bed.

Temmin frowned automatically at the slight before his brain caught up
and he realized the older candidate had included himself in the
comment. He wasn't sure he would ever get used to weyrfolk. Still he
quashed the reaction and forced a grin, these were his friends now and
he couldn't afford to alienate them or he wouldn't have any friends at
all.

Talerin passed over the glow to Temmin and dug in his trunk. Hah!
There was a beautiful piece of driftwood from Dolphin Cove, solid and
gnarled in an interesting way he'd sanded down. It wasn't very long
but it was a solid club. "Okay. Let me try to kill it."

Anndil had Talerin's furs clutched up to his chin, "What if you miss
and it comes out angry?!"

Holding the glow as steady as he could, Temmin kept watch to see if
the nasty thing would come scuttling out. He had the same worry as
Anndil. There was a rack on a stand not too far from where he was
standing, for cloaks and so on. It could serve as a weapon if the
snake headed in his direction. If he could get to it quickly enough.
Hopefully though, Talerin would smash it good and there would be no
need to try. He was strong, but he'd never been particularly quick.

Talerin clutched the driftwood and waited. The tunnelsnake shifted to
avoid the glow. He called encouragement to have it moved. As the light
shifted, he saw the tunnelsnake come their way. He leapt at it and -
*smack* went the club and - it hit the tunnelsnake in the middle of
the back. That pissed it off, and the snake whipped around, sinking
fangs into Talerin's left hand.

"Shards," he snarled, loud enough to probably wake up others.

The candidate then swung the club again, striking it right behind the
head and knocking it clear of his hand. He gave it two more quick
strikes to the skull until it stopped wiggling.

"Okay, can you shine the glow here?" he asked.

Anndil peered out from the blanket, which he had hidden under during
all of the "smashing," and leaned over to look at the limp form of the
tunnelsnake that was on the floor at Talerin's feet, "I think it's
dead...."

Temmin leaned closer and held the glow out. The nasty thing did appear
to be dead, but..., "Hit it again. Just to be sure."

Talerin obligingly smacked it once more. It flopped. "It looks dead to
me," he repeated, shaking his hand. "Ow, that _stings_."

Assured that the beast was good and dead, Anndil came out from hiding,
and peered at Talerin's hand, "You should probably go have that looked
at."

Temmin nodded in agreement, adding, "They can be venomous."

Talerin winced, having that fact briefly slipped his mind while he was
playing the hero. "If I sit out this Hatching because I saved you both
from a venemous tunnelsnake, I want you to tell tales of my bravery to
all the girls."

Nodding gravley, Temmin replied, " I will save up all my marks until I
can commission a Harper to write a song about you." He was joking,
mostly, but he felt bad now. It really hoped Talerin wouldn't have to
sit out the Hatching.

"I guess I can't take those marks to commission a song about myself."
Talerin shook his hand. "I'll go take this to the infirmary. If the
bosses check curfew, let them know."

Last updated on the March 3rd 2019

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Fearless Men Live Here... Sort of.