A Casual Meeing

Writers: Dana, Elaine
Date Posted: 5th February 2006

Characters: Traelyn, M'kel
Description: Traelyn and M'kel meet for the first time
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 9, day 19 of Turn 3

Shards, but it was so _nice_ to be able to get out of the Weyr and just lounge on the beach. To just relax and enjoy a different view other than the rock walls of the Hatching Grounds. Every Turn after Nyith's clutch hatched, Traelyn told herself that she wouldn't take advantage of such seemingly small freedoms ever again - but every Turn, she forgot her own advice. Foolish goldrider.

She grinned at herself, lying back on her towel with her hands folded on her stomach. Nyith wasn't in such a...needy mood today, and had agreed, as she rolled one of her eggs over, that Traelyn should leave to the shore.

}:Hasaarth says the sun is warm,:{ the queen had said as she'd resettled herself in the sand.

And the sun was warm. Almost too warm, but Trae was going to give it a few more minutes. Closing her eyes, she sighed and stretched, digging her toes in the sand, and hoped she'd be able to just forget about certain problems. For now.

It was one of those beautiful days that dolphin cove so often had but M'kel rarely got to enjoy. But lucky for him he was finally catching up on work and could spare the time to stroll towards the beach. The trip soon proved more fruitful then he thought when he spied a lovely specimin of a women lounging in the sands.

**Asleep?** he wondered but he noticed as he drew closer he foot making wiggling motions in the sand. "Good day," he said, announcing his presence so as not to startle the women. "You don't, wish to be left alone, do you?" he asked, to make sure. He wouldn't want to annoy a lovely lady. If now was not a good time he could certainly find her again later. He did wonder who she was, perhaps a transfer, there had been so many changes to the wings while he lay asick in bed.

Traelyn shaded her eyes against the sun and sat up. "No, no...you can join me if you'd like." She'd never seen him before. Maybe he was a transfer. But why he wanted to approach her of all people, she didn't know.

"Thanks," he said, plopping down beside her feet, looking towards her face. "I couldn't help but notice your feet in the sand," he said, as his hands scooped up a foot. "Wriggling is nice, but I find a human touch a better way to scratch an itch, don't you?" His eye brows raised in question, the hand not cradling the foot just hesitating from massaging it.

A slow smile spread across her lips, and she shook her long hair back before easing down on her elbows. Her dark eyes flickered up into his, and she decided to banter along, not caring that he probably didn't know who she was. In a way, she was glad he didn't. "Mmm... But what if I wasn't itching? What if I was just enjoying the heat of the sand between my toes?" She wriggled them for emphasis in his grasp.

"Well, wait a moment then," he said, draping her feet across his lap. He then began rubbing his hands together creating friction to warm up his hands. He then took up her foot once again. "Is this better?" he said, first massaging her feat. He then began putting fingers between her toes, cleaning out the sand then gently wriggling them himself.

"Mmm... That feels nice." She smiled slowly at him.

"I hoped so," he said, as his hands began working a little higher, to her ankles, and slightly up her lower leg. "Are there any other places, that need to feel nice?"

A pale brow rose a little as she slightly shifted her leg until his fingers touched her foot again. "No... I think my feet are the only places that need...special attention at the moment, thank you." Her teasing grin was as slow as her smile. "But who knows? Maybe one day other places may need to feel just as nice."

M'kel took the hint and just concentrated on her feet. "I'll have to keep that in mind. Anything I can do to help." He paused a moment, "How will I find you again though, if one day you needed help making other places feel nice? I don't recognize you, for all I know you're an imaginary figment of my tired mind. Too lovely to be real."

"Oh, I'm quite real," she told him dryly through a small smile. "I'm Traelyn."

"Traelyn?" M'kel's hands dropped her feet in suprise. "Not our new Weyrwomen Traelyn?" He quickly recovered his suprise. "From what I hear, you have atrocious timing Traelyn. For instance, your dragon rising while _I_ was still laid up in the infirmary."

Despite herself, Traelyn flushed, and tried for haughty teasing to cover it. "I wouldn't worry _too_ much. She'll rise again, you know." Embarrassed because she was _feeling_ embarrassed, she dug one foot deeper into the soft sand.

"I'm teasing Traelyn," he said, with a deep smile that didn't quite support his comment. "Although Ragorath is quite put out."

She smiled back. "Now I know your dragon's name...but I don't know yours, bronzerider."

"M'kel, rider of bronze Ragorath, Cyclone Wing's Wingleader," he said having fun rattling off the entire title.

"Ah, so you're M'kel. J'darin has spoken of you." Again, she smiled at him.

"And what has he said," he asked, with a laugh, giving her foot a tickle.
"Nothing bad I hope?"

"No, no. Nothing bad," she reassured him with a grin. "He mentioned that you and Ragorath have been recovering well..."

"Well then," he said, thinking on it a moment. **I really shouldn't push, what does J'darin's private opinion of me matter anyway?** "It is nice to be noted."

"That it is," she murmured before sinking back down to her elbows.

M'kel carefully put Traelyn's feet down, and squished over. He lied down a few feet from her. "So, what do you think of this place?"

She glanced at him, a brow rising. "Of Dolphin Cove?" Shards...but that was a... tough question. Complex. But overall... "It's beautiful here. Reminds me of Far Island, which was where I was born and raised."

"Everyone remarks on its beauty. The setting is a little too perfect, don't you think?" He said with a sigh. He shouldn't pry further, but he had felt left out having been in the infirmary for so long. Perhaps there was a reason he met his new Weyrwomen like this, getting to know her as a person first? "What _is_ Far Island like? I've been at dolphin cove, Thayan peak since I impressed."

A faint smile touched her lips as she thought of her native Weyr - seeing it as she had when she was a little girl...not as when she'd been a foolish, passion-driven weyrling. "It's similar to Dolphin Cove. We were pretty close to the beach and surrounded by the tropics." She gestured with a hand to the lush, vine-covered trees towards the edge of the shoreline behind them. "The weather was harsher though. But hot summers just gave us more of an excuse to spend as much of the afternoon as we could out in the ocean." Traelyn grinned at that.

There was something in her tone. M'kel wondered if she missed her former home. It sounded nothing like where he grew up, in the Harper Hall at Emerald Falls. "It must have been a nice childhood," he finally said, breaking his own thoughts.

"It was," she murmured, glancing at him. "And yours?"

"Not nearly so exciting," he said. "My father was a farmer. I think I out grew playing in the field too quickly. I was trying to grow up too fast."

"The same goes for most children. We try to grow up just too fast." Her expression was distantly thoughtful. "It's a shame, really."

"Yes, I think it truly is," M'kel responded making sure regret did not enter his voice. He had been a prideful thing, even when he was young.
But why should he concentrate on the mistakes of his youth, so many turns ago.

Last updated on the February 5th 2006

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A Casual Meeing