The following is a log of roleplay from PernMUSH . The World of Pern(tm)' and 'The Dragonriders of Pern(r)' are copyright to Anne McCaffrey (c) l967. This is a recorded online session, by permission of the author but generated on pernMUSH for the benefit of people unable to attend.

10/22/02

You head in the direction of the shimmering lake, leaving the central bowl area of the Weyr.

Telgar Weyr Lake Shore

The vegetation thickens near the lake, becoming a meadow that runs along the edge of a narrow, sandy beach. The sands spill down into a crystal lake to the north, lapping against the crater walls to the north and east. A fence runs northwest-southeast, blocking off the lake from the feeding grounds. The grass has a clean green color and is tender with spring. The first water lilies on the pond are blooming in yellow and white, and pink, yellow, and white wildflowers scatter the field. The white climbs even into the trees, with blowing petals amid the new green leaves. The herb garden, still mostly cut back for the winter, is hemmed about with crocuses. The lake is cast into dark shadows, though it reflects the lights from the weyrs and the sky overhead, making a constellation in the waters.

You could probably catch a 'fish' or two if you tried.

Contents:

DRAGONS: Lysseth

PLAYERS: Kassima Cheni I'sai

OTHER: Irenyath, Time-Weathered Boulder

Obvious Exits:

Bowl Lake

Rather than taking her favorite place on her perching rock, Kassi's settled herself on one of Lysseth's hind legs, allowing the green's curved body to serve as wind-shield and convenient source of warmth; even with spring now here, the long black cloak with its red trim might not be enough otherwise. She's thumbing through a plain-bound leather book and seems momentarily oblivious, though Lysseth's lackadaisical rumble may be taken as a form of greeting.

I'sai wanders towards the beach with the lazy-eyed ease of a good dinner, keeping pace with the weyrling and cautious of her dragon, his gloved hands deep in jacket's pockets and sunset making red of his light hair. When they get close enough, "Evenin'."

Cheni wanders down the path after Irenyath who appears to be picking her way, avoiding mud puddles. With a smirk, the Weyrling shakes her head slightly, a snort of fond exasperation is given in response to Irenyath's mischievous croon as the tiny green becomes even more careful. Looking up to see whom I'sai greets, Cheni stops and whips out a well mittened hand to salute. "Wingleader, ma'am."

Kassima looks up, over--though the latter's not immediately obvious; she has to push back the cloak's hood first, the better to see past the cloth. "G'deve yourself," she returns amiably, as Lyss offers sun-bright hair a light whuff--perhaps its red tinge reminds her fondly of her own dinner. "Is, Weyrling--oh, nay. Don't be telling me Ursa's nay keeping the rule about nay ma'aming if'n you know a person's title?" She pulls an exaggerated grimace before offering the youngest pair a smile. "Never ma'am, Cheni; that's nay changed, nor will it. But g'day t'you both. Irenyath's looking quite well."

I'sai clears his throat noncommittally about _rules_, eyes bright, even as the whuff frees a single strand of fair hair; without bothering to push it behind his ear, he explains, "We're letting her - Irenyath - getting a bit of a stretch, and try a bit of ... looking-through-her-eyes. Well, Cheni here, not me so much. Did it take you long to adjust to Lyss that way, do you recall?"

Cheni pinkens and blinks. "I..I'm sorry ma'am." She frowns. "I mean Wingleader." She looks at I'sai, curious, but her attention is also on Irenyath who ploughs into the ice-free shallow area of the lake. "Visualization, you mean, Assistant Weyrlingmaster?" She eyes Kassima to see if she's got this right yet.

Kassima continues to eye that bright-eyed bronzer as if waiting for answer. Better: waiting for the answer she'll like. All the same, "If'n 'twere you, I'd be disturbed; would Taralyth be approving? Aye, I recall well enough." She trades a long glance with her dragon, which leaves her looking amused and Lysseth determinedly regal. "Once I got the trick of it, 'twasn't long--there's little we don't readily share, she and I. Save for the same opinion. About nigh aught. But 'twas difficult t'be getting the hang of it, learning how t'*stop* thinking mine needed t'be open for me t'see. T'know where in her mind t'go looking." So to speak. More of the amusement surfaces as she drawls to Cheni, "Just don't be making a habit of it. Visualization? Ah, nay. That's for *between*. This I'm thinking is something a bit different, aye Is?"

I'sai merely smiles sweetly, discreetly, and follows the verbal detour: "Tear wouldn't mind my -looking- so long as he got to see anything - and she didn't look through me, if you see. And right, not visualization: this is a little earlier, this is just getting a little more used to things. If you and Irenyath don't share opinions as they don't, Cheni, it'll be something you'll adjust to too, more or less, less is more, something like that. Anyway! Are you seeing much through Irenyath's eyes, these days? Smelling what she's smelled, tasting what she's tasted? What's that like?" and only at the very end does he add a brief, "Right, it's title-if-you-know-it, skip-the-ma'am-or-sir."

Cheni looks between Kassima and I'sai, utterly lost in their conversation. She smiles vaguely, letting the words wash over her until her name is mentioned again and she frowns, her brow furrowing as she tries to grasp what the AWLM is asking. "Well, since the beginning, since we impressed, it's hard to tell who is me and who is her. I mean, I've finally figured out that it's not me that's hungry." She looks down at her diminished frame. "Now the weather has cleared, I'm eating out by the barracks door, so that's better now. But I know when it's her hunger and I know that I don't like raw dripping bloody meat but I know I feel her pleasure when she eats it. Is that what you mean?"

"Ah, so 'tis other dragons touching *you* he's nay liking, nay you or he touching another? Interesting." Kassima closes her book, setting it against her lap and laying folded arms over the cover. "I don't know whether the sharing of opinions matters for how well you can see through their eyes. Might just be the nature of the bonding. But I'm thinking all riders *can*." At the footnote, she adds a muttered, "Thankee. Good t'be knowing." Then, "Methinks 'tis something like that, Cheni; certes feeling her pleasure's a good thing, and dividing your hunger from hers--there was a Weyrling in a class nay long after mine who had the hardest time with that. She nearly starved herself. But 'tis more the *senses* than emotion that methinks he's meaning--you feel her pleasure; do you feel what it *tastes* like t'her? The actual sensation of the blood in your mouth? Though that's taste, a'course, and less important than the sight since taste doesn't help you in Fall. Can't hurt in strengthening your bond, mind."

"Yeah, pretty much, Cheni - at least for starters," I'sai confirms after Kassi, not remarking at -all- on the not-eating, though his expression remains calm enough. And as she asks questions of the weyrling, he questions the Wingleader, "Kassi, we'll be talking and such; we won't disturb you, I hope? Beware, later on, might ask you to help out with giving Irenyath something interesting to look at."

Cheni shrugs. "Opinions? Well, we disagree on things but that's the nature of friendship, to have disagreements at times." She wrinkles her nose. "Only reason why I've lost weight is that I can't find food very interesting right now. Not that I'm starving myself." She quiets as she listens to I'sai again. "I might not be using the right words. I sort of 'feel' what she is eating, yes. I shut my mind inside when it gets to gruesome."

Kassima's own expression is a study in bland pleasantness: no needles or pricking here. "Oh, don't be worrying about it," she demurs, waving one hand. "I've the book if'n you need t'be discussing; you'll nay be rude t'talk around me, and 'tisn't as if'n I don't know what the book *says*, so you won't interrupt m'reading either." That same waved hand shifts, wiggling in the universal 'sort of' gesture. "Nay the nature of all friendships where dragons are concerned--some pairs seem t'be of like mind on nigh *aught*. But however it works out, it works out... you'd do better t'force yourself eat, though; you'll burn a great deal of energy in training, and if'n you haven't eaten your body will start cannibalizing muscle. Truth, 'tis. Gruesome, now, I could say you should get used t'gruesome, but methinks that's easier said than done; besides, I shouldn't be distracting you from your lessoning."

I'sai can't help but laugh just a bit, low but light, at the mention of what it'd do to muscle; "Ursa's keeping an eye on things," he assures, and recommends to Cheni herself, "Join me?" as he heads on over to that large rock, nodding to Lysseth along his way. "Irenyath doesn't have to, yet, if you're that close - it might make it easier in its own way - but this way you don't have to worry about falling over, see, if you've got the rock to lean against or to sit on, whichever. I'd like you to try..." he hesitates. "_Looking_ through her eyes. And telling me what you see."

Cheni looks doe-eyed at Kassima and blinks rapidly, about to reasure the rider until I'sai interrupts. Trotting behind I'sai, she chuckles. "Right now, she's more interested in the mud than much else." But her chuckle frown. "Fall over? But how?" Looking to Irenyath, she blithely rattles. "Well, there is mud, right?"

Kassima grins after the working pair before opening her book again, returning to her careful thumbing and occasional mutterings to herself.

"Fall over, if you were paying more attention to her than standing up," says Is, and indulges in an illustrative lean against the rock. "Tell me more about this mud."

Cheni frowns and whistles softly under her breath but she does as she has been requested to do. "The mud? She peers over, trying to see the mud in the gloom of the setting sun. "Oh, you mean, I look through her eyes." She clears her throat, embarrassed, then closes her eyes tight, like a child playing a game of hide and go seek. After a long moment, she admits. "I don't see anything but black."

"That's good, keep your eyes shut," says I'sai softly, matter-of-factly. "That'd help. And ask her to lift her muzzle well clear of the water, to open her eyes, just in case -that's- what's in the way."

Snarl is now listening.

Irenyath stops her minute examination of the rock that she was trying to dislodge from the mud and looks towards Cheni, croons, then steps back, putting distance between herself and the stone. The green's eyes whirl with slight confusion but she looks from that angle at the muck sludged stone. Cheni peeks at the croon, chuckles, shrugs as if to say, "Patronize me dear," and shuts her eyes again. "So what's to see?" She swallows, as she holds a hand up as if trying to stop herself from falling forward, in the exact angle that Irenyath peers at the rock a few yards away.

I'sai chuckles after her, though pale eyes are intent on her motion, on Irenyath - "You tell me. Does it have any blotches on it? Any cracks, crevices, critters crawling around it?"

Cheni shakes her head, enchanted by what she sees. "Nothing crawling, it's still frozen, the ice is rather pretty when you look closely. Much like Irenyath." She can't help but slip in a compliment about her subtly toned dragon. "No cracks, it's smooth like it's been rubbed against something else. Irenyath was curious as to what rubbed it so smooth. But it's got three colors, pale brown, darker brown and a gray tinge."

I'sai, not watched by -her- at least, can glint a grin in relative privacy; still, something of it slips into his voice, "There you go. That's exactly what we're trying for. Looking. Seeing through her eyes, as well as getting what she makes of it - if you like, look at it some more, and if you feel ready, ask her to lift her head." This early on, he doesn't walk over and check for accuracy; that'll come as the days progress.

Irenyath shifts her head, quirking it to the side as she tries a new angle and as she does, Cheni finds herself leaning over like a drunk sailor on deck on a rough sea. The weyrling pales and her eyes pop open as she gasps for a steadying gulp of air. "Shells."

"Take your time," says I'sai, gently enough. And he doesn't laugh. Not once.

Cheni nods as she swallows. Shaken, she places one hand on the huge boulder for an anchor and shuts her eyes again, murmuring to Irenyath who backs off even further, raising her slender neck up to get a dragonet's eye view of the surrounding mire. "I can see where my, I mean her, back leg prints are filling in with water, after she stepped out of the mud. The water is coming in clear then mixing with the mud, becoming brown and cloudy."

I'sai murmurs, "Very detailed. Nice. ...And, yeah, that's why we've got the rock - how does it feel, to be looking that way? Strange, familiar? Tear sees differently than I do, the colors are shifted in a way, but it felt right even when I'd get mixed up."

Cheni still holds that rock and shakes her head in Irenyath's direction, reassuringly. "It's alright, love, just..different." To I'sai, she nods. "Strangely familiar but off kilter, like how I felt when I was a child and got beamed in the head by a runner. I didn't see real clear for a couple of hours, everything blurred on the edges. Like it's.." She swallows. "Shells, like seen through slightly whirling eyes?"

"Not unusual," I'sai reassures. "Some get it, some - it takes a while, adjusting, it's strange because you've got to pay attention and relax at the same time, sort of. If your head's feeling clear, maybe ask her to look at Lysseth, see what she sees there, how Lyss is posed? but if you're starting to get a headache, we can stop. Should soon in any case. It's easier to learn at the beginning when you're giving it a try here and there when you catch a moment, rather than trying to spend, I don't know, five candlemarks straight."

Cheni nods and opens her eyes, grateful. "I'm feeling woozy. I tried this before, when she was in the barracks and I was carrying out muck, she wanted me to see what A'ran was up to, but I sort of got scared." She admits sheepishly. "But she looks through my eyes a lot, she wants me see places."

I'sai offers, "If you do get lost, it won't be forever," with nigh as much sympathy as dry humor. "Does it make you nervous at all, when she wants to look through you? Or is that easier?"

At mention of her name, Lysseth spares the two humans and young dragon a passing blue glance; when it seems she's not needed to pose, though, her interest's quickly lost and she returns her thoughts to wherever they dwelt a moment previous.

Cheni shakes her head. "No, she's curious, she's learning, all we see are the barracks and the bowl. She's curious what more there is. She wants to see what the not so stinky living cavern looks like. It doesn't bother me." She shrugs. "Why? Should it?" Her colour returns to normal. Backing up a tad in her thoughts she asks, as if afraid to ask. "Lost?"

"Nah, it's not as if it should, but it wouldn't mean necessarily that you were marred forever or anything if it did. Scare you, I mean," I'sai says, and then gives her a one-shouldered, not-as-bad-as-all-that shrug. "'Lost.' It can happen all the time. You're bored waiting for drills, you let your mind drift with your dragon, and suddenly you're greatly fascinated in tilting your wings just _so_ to catch what's left of the sunlight," a smile to Lyss, there, even if she's not looking, "...and not paying attention to the rest at all. Until May - _maybe_ the weyrlingmaster barks your name, or something. There're levels and levels."

Cheni swallows and looks over at Irenyath, a shadow crossing her face momentarily. "I suppose you'll help us, I mean, us weyrlings, figure that sort of thing out? The getting lost business, I mean. I sort of felt like I was her when we were looking at the little rock out there." She puzzles at the grammar. "I have to learn a whole new way of speaking." As Irenyath openly yawns, Cheni is instantly alert. "Permission to get a tired dragonet to her couch?"

"We will," I'sai agrees, careful with the pronoun for all that it's easily said. "And 'tweening, that's good and far away... yes, go on; we're close enough that I'll not escort you. Remember to practice on your own time and, Cheni, Irenyath? Good job."

Cheni straightens, encouraged by the praise but surprised by it as well. "I'll catch up with others, I'm sure, they seem more assured of all this than me." As Irenyath sleepily croons her thanks, Cheni yawns and watches as the tired dragonet heads up the trail. "Good night Wingleader." Nodding to Lysseth as she passes, she continues towards the barracks.

You head in the direction of the central bowl, leaving the shimmering lake.











*** Disconnected from PernMUSH ***

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