I Spy With a Dragon's Eye...

Writers: Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 13th March 2019

Characters: D'kere, Talwynn
Description: D'kere finds his weyr has a new guest.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 10, day 6 of Turn 9
Notes: Mentioned: Talerin

A long day. A really long day. That's what it had been.

While D'kere enjoyed his work with Weyrlings and Candidates, but it was always taxing the sevenday before a Hatching. As he entered the weyr he shared with Talwynn, he noticed a couple of hings, that there were only a couple of dim lights on, and that there
was yarn and string littering the floor.

"Tal?" he called, wondering what was going on.

}:I smell a visitor in there.:{ Kenirath said with a huff.

**A visitor?** D'kere's brow furrowed.

But then he saw it, a bit of reflection. Crouching down, D'kere peered
beneath their dining table to look down into the very luminescent eyes
of a feline.

"Talwynn," he called, louder this time.

"I'm here," came a voice from the bedroom. Talwynn came out just in
time to say, "Vivace, no -"

The bright-eyed feline looked at D'kere and crouched, wiggling her
tail once, twice, and then sprung out from under the table and to
charge at D'kere's boots.

"Uh."

D'kere looked down at the feline, who had her paws wrapped around his
left boot, her little teeth were gnawing viciously at the laces, while
her hind feet kicked with vigor. The bronzerider looked up at his
weyrmate, and without moving to dislodge the small creature, pointed
down at it with his left and, "Explain."

"Talerin has had Vivace for Turns and he can't keep her in the
weyrling barracks of course if he Impresses, she'd need somewhere to
go. Our mother doesn't want to do it anymore," she explained. "I said
I'd give it a try for a sevenday and see how we get along. If it
doesn't work out we can try someone else, but...look at her, she's all
sand-colored and cute."

"Hmmm," he replied as he bent and captured the squirming feline by the
scruff of the neck. He held Vivace up, forefinger and thumb holding
the bagging excess of skin as the mother feline would have done to her
young. The feline's back legs drew up, revealing a white belly, as she
froze, watching D'kere with big eyes again. "I don't know if I would
say 'cute' or not." He extended the beast to Talwynn.

Talwynn reached out her hands to accept the feline. Vivace let out a
loud noise and wriggled around in the greenrider's arms, but Talwynn
caught her before she dropped to the floor. "How is she not cute?" she
asked, trying to cradle the feline to her chest and not managing it
very well. The bright gold eyes were glittering and seemed fixed on
D'kere.

"I don't know how you can ask me that question with a straight face
while she's clawing to break free from your hug." D'kere pointed out.

Talwynn had to admit the bronzerider had a point. "I don't know how to
interact with felines," she admitted. Finally she resorted to what
D'kere had - gripping the neck scruff, then flipping the feline onto
her back and then admiring the cute belly, cradling here. "Aww."

D'kere sighed a little, knowing that the creature was going to be
living with them, at least for the next little while. "Is it even box
trained?"

"Yes, it's over there." She gave a point to a small sawn-off crate
with wood shavings and other debris in it. "He's had her several Turns
and she's been so good," she cooed, being more gushy than she'd been
over anything but Riveth, or D'kere.

The bronzerider stared at his weyrmate, wondering what had come over
her. He'd never seen her this way, so openly affectionate. She wasn't
typically a sentimental person, it was something he'd accepted about
her when they'd first started seriously dating. "And where will it
sleep?"

Talwynn pointed at a small pillow, which had a partial yarn ball which
was unraveled, explaining where some of the scattered yarn came from.
"He gave me the pillow, so, I assume there."

Vivace took advantage of distraction to leap out Talwynn's arms and
start chasing after some speck of string on the floor.

"Good, I don't want it sleeping in the bed," D'kere said, trying to
imagine sleeping with all of that hair shedding everywhere.

"I'm sure she's very well behaved," Talwynn said, optimistically.

"I guess we'll find out," he said, although he wasn't sure if he'd
ever met a well-behaved feline.

"Did you ever have a pet when you were younger?" she asked, suddenly
wondering if D'kere had wanted or had one.

"A canine," D'kere said, the first hint of a smile coming to his lips,
"his name was Chunky."

"Did you have him before you Impressed?"

"I was a weyrbrat still living with my mother when we had him. She
didn't really care to have a canine but I brought him home one day and
she let me keep him." D'kere's voice was tinged with fondness.

"Fell in love, huh? Did you have him many Turns?"

"Aye, until his face turned white." He shook his head, not wanting to
travel down that train of thought. The bronzerider realized he was
still in his coat and shrugged out of it.

She reached out a hand to offer to pick it up and hang it. "So, how
are the Candidates?"

"They are... a handful." D'kere said honestly. "It's always hectic at
this point, making sure they're prepared to go out on the Sands,
contacting families and arranging transports, and so on."

"And then they Impress, and you don't even get a break from the
business because now you have to train them as weyrlings, and someone
has to comfort the ones who doesn't make it." She shook her head.
"Working with the weyrlingstaff showed me that you do more work than
wingriders, for sure. I'm impressed by your energy."

D'kere raised an eyebrow, eyes twinkling, "I feel like I'm being
buttered up into accepting the feline."

She snorted. "Do I look like I'd do that?"

"Well..." he trailed off with a grin.

She snorted again, and swatted at his arm. "I'm too blunt for that, and you
know it. I'm just saying, I don't think I could have kept doing it as
work full time, and I'm impressed by you, all of the time."

D'kere smiled. A compliment from Talwynn didn't come lightly. "Thank
you. Sometimes I do consider doing something else, but I'm not sure
what that something else would be... Besides sitting on dock fishing,
maybe."

"In all the copious free time a fighting dragonrider has? Please," she
said, rolling her eyes. "I can't imagine you without rank. You could
be a Wingsecond instead of a Weyrlingmaster's Second."

"That's true," D'kere admitted, but the only Wingsecond position at
Dragonsfall was the Weyrleader's second, and he wasn't quite sure he
was ready to ask for that kind of responsibility. That was a little
too close to Weyrleader for his liking.

Having hung his coat, she sat next to him and snuggled into his side.
"Well, if you ever want to chase a position here or elsewhere, you
know I'm with you."

"I'll keep that in mind," he smiled.

Last updated on the March 22nd 2019

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

I Spy With a Dragon's Eye...