Thoughtful

Writers: AmajoS, Bree
Date Posted: 17th February 2007

Characters: Narrala, Y'sani
Description: Narrala attracts some attention with her sketching and promises a completed drawing to the Weyrlingmaster.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 7 of Turn 4

Narrala carefully arranged a leaf of paper on the thin board sitting on her lap and clipped it down. She frowned at the sheet, running her fingers over the tooth. It wasn't quite right for charcoal, but that's all she had at the moment. She had a deal worked out with one of the Weyr's Woodcrafters to get some of his lower quality left-over paper, though he usually threw in some good stuff too. She wasn't about to waste her good paper today though.

This was the first chance she'd gotten in a long while to sit and sketch. Since the Harper Hall had come to the Weyr even her restdays were busy with studying and practicing and getting her learning in line with that of the apprentices who'd come and with whom she was now studying. There was a lot more structure to Hall learning, she'd decided, but less individual attention. She still hadn't decided if she liked it better or less, though she knew the attitudes of many of the boys and men who were now her peers and superiors left a lot to be desired.

Once she'd secured her paper and checked her supply of charcoal sticks, she began scanning the area around the Lake for a likely subject. There were, of course, a great many dragons, flits and people milling about, but none of them caught her eye. Just as she was about to settle on trying to capture an interesting outcropping of rock from the edge of a weyr above the Lake, one of the bronzes caught her attention. He was sunning himself and had stretched his wings into a very interesting position, composition-wise. Deciding the challenge of sketching a living model who could move at any moment would help her get back into the groove of drawing more than a still life, she picked up the stick and began.

She'd just finished a decent rendering of the dragon's basic form and had begun working on the detail of his wings when a shadow fell across her paper.

"Narrala, I had no idea you were such a good artist!" Y'sani was standing over her shoulder, studying the paper with narrowed eyes.

The girl looked up, shading her eyes a bit and smiled at the compliment, blushing. "Thank you Weyrlingmaster," she replied. "It's just a sketch. I don't really have the right sort of paper for a proper drawing." She none-the-less handed the board with the sketch clipped to it up to the standing man to get a closer look.

He accepted the sketch and studied it silently for a few moments.
"You've captured him well, for all that it is just a sketch. I'd love to see it when it's finished."

Her smile grew and she felt a touch of pride, "Thank you Weyrlingmaster." She glanced over at the bronze and added with a mischievous grin, "I'd almost say he was posing for me. It'd be a shame to not finish it." She hadn't come out with the intention of beginning a completed work, she was only sketching for the exercise of it, but the Weyrlingmaster had been so pleased with the sketch. She had some nicer paper back in her dorm to work with.

Y'sani grinned and glanced up at his dragon. "Well, if he wasn't before, he certainly will be now! He's unforgivably vain."

"Aren't they all?" She asked with a laugh. Narrala had yet to hear of a dragon who spurned attention and who wasn't sure they were the very best example of a dragon ever hatched. Even her father's brown had been that way, demanding attention and affection from both her father and herself. Sadness crept its way in along with that memory, but she brushed it aside as always.

"Would you rather have the drawing in color or charcoal?" She asked to change the subject, considering carefully, the amount of color sticks she had in her box of supplies back in the dorm.

"You're going to let me have it?" he asked, his voice expressing his pleasure. "I would be honored to accept it in whatever form you like, Narrala."

She blushed at his obvious happiness, suddenly nervous that her work wouldn't live up to whatever expectation he'd developed. "Well, I'm just an apprentice - a junior apprentice even. It won't be a masterwork or anything, and it'll take me a day or two to finish because I'll have to do it in my spare time... but yes. I'll be glad for you to have it." She decided then that she would do the drawing in color.

"It will still be a very thoughtful gift." He smiled down at her and gave her a tiny wink. "Most of your fellow candidates are too busy tip-toeing around me to do thoughtful things. It's nice to see that I don't terrify _all_ of you."

Narrala's blush deepened as she suddenly realized the Weyrlingmaster was a rather attractive man. She was so flustered by his charm that, not only could she easily forgive his thinking of her as a candidate, she also lost all the easy composure she'd felt before. She ducked her head and shrugged, "Well, I mean, it -is- your dragon sir. That I was drawing, I mean. If anyone should have it, it's you. And, I um, I hope you'll like it."

"I'm sure I will," Y'sani replied easily, ignoring the flush in her cheeks. He'd been working around young women for long enough to know how to deal with it, after all. "Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Narrala. And Luthinath thanks you as well. I'll leave you to your drawing."

She nodded, a shy smile still on her face. "I'll bring it to you when I finish." She began working on capturing more details in her sketch, her mind already on the drawing that was to be.

Last updated on the February 17th 2007

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Thoughtful