Late Night Studying [OPEN]

[kitsuneko]

Iskra was settled back in a corner of the library where the clutch records were kept, going through some of the older records. She had two main reason for doing so. For one thing, she was looking through the records for references to any of the three new colors that had hatched from Loraketh's clutch. Even if it was just a reference to a similar-looking egg that had never hatched. She was having absolutely no luck so far, but well, you never knew what you might find.

The other reason she was going over records involved Maeleth's flight. She knew the gold's flight would be happening soon, if not exactly how soon, so she was also taking the opportunity to look over the pedigrees of Trelis's bronzes, and not only to see who sired the larger clutches and the most high-ranked colors. A queen egg in Maeleth's clutch would be a real boon, but which bronze would be most likely to sire one?

It made sense to Iskra that bronzes who had already proved themselves by siring queens should be favored in flights. Perhaps those who had hatched from clutches that had a queen egg as well would also sire one? Iskra wasn't all that well-versed in genetics, so her conjectures were little more than guesses at this point. Still, she supposed it was no worse than choosing a bronze at random. It wasn't like she was expecting to spend much time with the rider once the flight was over.

After pouring over the records for a while, she sat back and sighed. She wasn't sure how long she'd been in here, but she knew it must be getting late. She wasn't ready to go to bed yet, but she still rubbed her eyes. Darija was perched on the table in front of her, and the forest huntyre was already asleep with her head tucked under one wing. Maybe she should take an example from the huntyre after all...

[Zero]

“Oi, you overgrown hatchling!” The tall Rider playfully swatted at the brown flitter swooping around his head, sending His images of his earlier antics. “I know all about the little clutches. Keep rubbing it in and I’ll make it a point to forget to impress one of the hatchlings when the time comes.” That final threat seemed to quiet the overly active firelizard and he soon settled high on S’vals shoulder, quiet for the time being.

Eyeing the brown, S’val shook his head lightly as he continued on his way down the darkened hallway, hoping the antics of his little brown hadn’t woken the entire weyr. Unfortunately it seemed Reign had a little life still left in him as the soft glow from the library drew a curious chirp as he left S’vals shoulder and swooped into the room where he skittered across a table, nearly sliding into the sleeping huntyre in his haste.
Chittering his apologies and annoyance at the slick surface of the tabletop, Reign wandered over to the end of the table before hopping to the back of the nearest chair, no doubt messing more then just a few of the Junior Weyrwomans papers.

Jogging the rest of the way down the hall, S’val skidded to a halt in the doorway just in time to see a piece pf parchment hit the ground. Scratching at day old stubble, the Wingleader quietly slipped into the room, knowing damn well he was going to get an ear full for his flitters antics. “I don’t know what’s got into him lately. Just give me a moment and you’ll have you’re quiet back.” Speaking low, as he didn’t want to disturb the young huntyre anymore then his flit already had, S’val bent and picked a few pieces from the floor and set them on the corner of the table before moving to try and convince his brown that his shoulder was a better spot then the chair he was currently clinging to.

[kitsuneko]

Iskra was startled by the appearance of an exuberant brown fire lizard, but she recovered quickly. She thought she'd seen this one around the Weyr before, and sure enough, she recognized the rider that followed in the flitter's wake. S'val, one of Trelis's bronzeriders.

The fire lizard had woken Darija with his antics--nearly bowled her over, in fact--and she hissed irritably at the brown, her eyes rapidly turning purple as she came awake. Iskra's first action was to comfort the huntyre. "Hush, Darija, everything's alright," she told the forest chick in her best soothing tone of voice. Only once Darija had settled down a bit did she address S'val.

"It's alright, I suppose it's time for me to take a break, anyway," the goldrider said as she started straightening the records again. Truth to tell, she was a little annoyed, but Maeleth's flight was coming up, and S'val's dragon Solarith seemed like a fine bronze, by all accounts, so now did not seem like the time to annoy his rider.

Once they had gotten the records into some sort of order again and the rambunctious brown seemed to have calmed down a bit, she turned to S'val again. "I was just going over some of the hatching records. Did you go to see the fire lizard eggs?" Iskra had been meaning to take a look at them herself, though she hadn't yet had a chance. She wasn't sure if she was going to try to Impress one, though--Darija was enough of a handful for the moment.

[Zero]

He let his dark gaze briefly wash over the faded parchment he had plucked from the floor after successfully managing to convince Reign to hop to his shoulder before he returned the loose document to the Queen Rider. “Yes in fact I did get a chance to see them. From what I saw, as they’ve already drawn quite the crowd, I think there might be a gold egg in the clutch along with another odd looking egg.” S’val paused and gave his tiny companion a light scratch under his chin, still hoping to calm the troublemaker down. In response the flit sent His an image of a roasted wherry on a spit even as the young huntyre hissed at the large brown.

“If we keep getting more clutches that yield these mutations I’m going to start thinking there’s something in the water.” Yet another scratch was given to the brown as the creature wound his tail around His’ arm, a clear sign that he was settling in and finally calming down. “Any thoughts on the new colors from Lorakeths first clutch? I sent word to my contacts at Telgar to see if they’ve had the same mutations at any of their recent hatchings, but no word back as of yet.”

Pulling out a spare chair S’val took a seat, reclining back slightly as his tired body welcomed the break. He knew they were probably the only two souls awake at this time of night and had half a mind to call down to the kitchens for some klah and whatever leftovers there was from the nights dinner. Glancing towards the doorway, S’val toyed with idea for a few moments before dismissing the thought with a huff and a lazy hand ruffling his hair. “I have heard talk from a few other bronze riders that you’re Maeleth is due to rise in the near future which I can only assume is the reason your combing these old records. Now us riders have our own plots and bets on the next generation and whether we’ll see a pink spotted dragonet next. So what’s your hope for when your gold eventually goes to clutch on the sands?” He knew he was making idle chatter but at this time of night there wasn’t much else to do. Reclining back even more in the chair till he was balancing nicely on its two back legs the wingleader shot a quick look her way, quietly waiting to see whether Iskra would return his idle, late night conversation or ask him to simply continue on his way. Reign spread his wings partway in order to catch his balance, chittering in soft reprimand at the man, not trusting His to stay upright on such a contraption.

[kitsuneko]

Iskra took the document with a soft "thank you" and shook her head. "I've been looking, but I haven't seen anything like them before, and so far as I can tell, neither has anyone else. I sent out a few letters myself, but I don't expect to hear much of anything useful from the other Weyrs." She gave a shrug, and with Darija calmed down, took a seat with the huntyre on her lap to make sure she stayed calm. "We should hope it's something so simple as a contaminated water supply, but I doubt it. Anyway, I suppose we'll see; these new colors may still be useful to the Weyr."

Iskra gave a warm, if slightly tired, smile as the talk turned to her dragon. "I don't want to worry too much over whether or not mutations will appear in Maeleth's clutch. Either they will or they won't, and since they haven't appeared in any of her other clutches, I would say the chances are against it."

She gestured at the records she had been going over. "Mostly, I'm hoping for a Queen egg in her clutch. It would be nice to have another Junior weyrwoman around to help share the work load and provide more clutches, with Thread coming soon. I was trying to figure the best ways to maximize the chances of her laying one. A long flight and a bronze mate, I know, but beyond that?" She gave antoher shrug, as if to say "who knows?".