Talya staggers in, soaking wet and bedraggled.

Ierne Weyr: Living Caverns
The great complex which makes up Ierne Weyr's living cavern is not high ceilinged. A tall person could, in fact, probably leap up and touch it. But nonetheless it is huge, spreading out in a great arc from the central entrance, wide enough that to stand at one side would make it difficult to see the other. Low enough in the ground to be refreshingly cool, natural ventilation keeps the air in circulation, negating the stifling sense which caves often have. Long tables hold food brought from the kitchens, allowing people to serve themselves at any time. There are always people in the living cavern, at all hours of the day, and the ease of familiarity and good humour rests lightly in the air along with the delicious aroma of what the kitchen is preparing. While there are tables officially designated for different ranks of the population which will populate the Weyr once the pass begins, for now most people simply sit at the a cluster of tables near the kitchen.

Store rooms are to the north, the kitchen northeast and candidate quarters due east. A tunnel leading to the Weyrleader area is to the southeast, the entrance/exit to the cave area to the south, and a passage leading to the ground weyrs to the southwest. Resident dorms are due west, and the staff hall is to the northwest.

Contents:
Talya
U'thiel
Obvious exits:
Candidate Quarters Cave Entrance Ground Weyrs Kitchens Resident Dorms Staff Hallway Store Rooms Weyrleader Area

M'ko wanders in after Talya, sighing faintly. "Are you feeling better yet?" He wonders softly at her, before direction her to take a seat near the hearth.

Talya shakes her head. That's all.

Eshoth> All Dragons sense that Fahjeths mindvoice is churning more and more confused thoughts, a whisper of which escapes, loud enough to be heard by all the dragons at the weyr.

U'thiel is sitting at the table when the two come in. He's busy munching on a meat pie and has a cup of ale to hand. He smiles, lifting his head to note Talya's and M'ko's entry.

Talya flops her head on the table that she's also flopped in front of. "I'm so tired," she mumbles.

Eshoth> Fahjeth snorts, starting to pace back and forth, back and forth restlessly.

Eshoth> All Dragons sense that Eshoth's voice, oddly similar to the sound of fall leaves rustling in the wind, reaches to comfort the apparently aggitated young Green. << Be calm, young one... You've nothing to worry about. >>

U'thiel glances over at Talya, "Well, maybe you should just sit back, relax, maybe even take a nap." He suggests.

Eshoth> All Dragons sense that Yivreth eyes Fahjeth. << What is wrong, Fahjeth? >> His tail lashes the air.

Kamesa has connected.

M'ko gives U'thiel a glance, nodding briefly in greeting before sighing again at the Greenrider. He moves around her, then, sliding into the seat across from her. He turns to the bluerider again, then, nodding slowly in agreement. "Aye... Like I told you before, there's nothing to worry about."

Eshoth> Fahjeth stops her pacing to rise up suddenly into the sky.
Eshoth> Fahjeth launches and rises toward the sky.
Eshoth> Fahjeth has left.

Eshoth> All Dragons sense that Unferth lifts his head and looks out over his ledge, sending a dizzying perspective of the view and offers a snort. Very helpful. Yes, indeedy!

Eshoth> All Dragons sense that Fahjeth suddenly seems not to be able to contain these emotions, and almost as if she would burst, lets it out in one huge leap into the sky.

Talya blinks. "What's happening?"

Eshoth> All Dragons sense that Yivreth has the sudden urge to follow Fahjeth. Where's she going?

Eshoth> You launch and rise toward the sky.

**Eshoth's Travel Deleted**

U'thiel frowns and shrugs, awkwardly, "I don't know."

Eshoth> You head southwest.
Eshoth> Ierne Weyr: Feeding Pens
Eshoth> Obvious exits:
Eshoth> Out

Eshoth> Fahjeth arrives from the northeast.
Eshoth> Fahjeth has arrived.

U'thiel rubs at his chin after putting down his meat pie. "Um. Yivreth's very focused on Fahjeth." He says helpfully.

Eshoth> Yivreth arrives from the northeast.
Eshoth> Yivreth has arrived.

Talya looks around helplessly. "Help," it's squeaked.

Kamesa says "What's wrong, Talya?"

M'ko sighs heavily, mumbling a somewhat irritated, "...Grand timing..." Before sighing at Talya. "It's all right, just... Don't let her /eat/... C'mon." He grabs the greenrider by the hand, attempting to drag her after him -- toward the feeding pens.

Eshoth> Fahjeth eyes the beasts in the corral with a cold calculating glint in her eye, and then, as if having decided that this and no other will do, selects the biggest, most healthy looking beast, and descends on it, the force of her downward motion snapping its neck.

You head south.

**Travel to Pens Deleted**

Eshoth> Yivreth soars over the pen, wings vaning as his nostrils flare, catching the scent of both the beasts below and Fahjeth herself. A rumble emerges from his jaw, turning into a brassy bugle as he sweeps down, the urge to follow Fahjeth here becoming the lustful need to kill and blood. He zips down, neatly clasping his prey to his breast, his claws sinking into its flesh as his jaws snap its neck. Carrying it to the side, he settles down and begins drinking its blood hungrily.

Eshoth> Eshoth follows after the ever-so-lovely glowing green, landing in the feeding pens barely a heartbeat after, and, quite conveniently, on top of a herdbeast. He spares a glance Fahjeth-wards, faceted eyes wirling from a deep violet, to a surprising crimson, and back again. A clawed forepaw is raised, and dragged across the still-screaming creature's neck. Light brown muzzle lowers quickly to drink, even before a drop of the all-too-important crimson fluid has a chance to spill over onto the ground.

Unferth arrives from the northeast.
Unferth has arrived.
Unferth furls his wings tightly behind him, the crushed air seeming to snap like a bone breaking as it's forced out. Amethyst-tinged eyes scan around as a low rumble of warning issues from her throat. In the breath of a heartbeat a talon rakes out, ensnaring an unwilling wherry. Garroting its neck in a swift movement red lifeblood spurts out as he buries his maw to feast on the red sanguine fluid that pools around his talons.

Fahjeth drinks. Her maw reaches for the entrails, and then.... stops trumpetting furiously, head tossing, before going back to reddening her muzzle with the blood.

Unferth stretches out his wings in a flirtatious gesture to the green, hazy light reflecting along wingspars, their brown muting in the light. A rustle of aileron and a quick leap into the air, before he descends on a helpless herdbeast. A loud crack as a broken spine ends the animal's pitiable writhing, a thump of a foreleg smashing its head into bloody smithereens - splintered bone fragments and blood spraying like a fountain. Dipping his head, he rends the belly open with razor-sharp teeth, feasting on the spilled intestines that slip and slide into the green grass, as if someone had pricked their finger on a spindle and the blood had diffused through the wool.

Eshoth continues to drink, jaws clamping 'round the herdbeast's neck, and slowly but surely clamping tight. After the insistances from his lifemate, though, he refuses to eat, and continues to drain it's lifeblood before he rudely tosses the carcass away and waits for his second meal..err... Drink. A passing Wherry is unfortunate enough to run smack into Eshoth's thick tail, and before it is given a chance to run away, that tail is wrapped around it's neck tightly strangling until it falls limply to the ground. Formidable teeth attach to it's neck, and the smallish brown dragon continues to drink.

Yivreth stomps forward, stepping onto the carcass he has drained, the sound it makes under his feet is a sickening crunch and squish. Lurid eyes of ruby hue tainted with amethyst whirl with a wild ferality and lust. He growls deep, a savage sound that whisks away with the air as he speeds forwad, wings rushing through the wind as he pounces upon a herdbeast. The creature below him bleats helplessly as the ivory daggers of his teeth rend into skin, through muscle and sinew, blood dripping forth in crimson rivulets. The creature sags after making a last few futile kicks.

Eshoth> Fahjeth skitters that lifeless carcass away with a flick of her claws, then, the harbringer of death, she rises just enough above the ground to descend on yet a second hapless beast, her glowing form becoming brighter and brighter as she drinks this blood, yet again she wrestles with her lifemate's will, and once more, surprisingly is defeated. So, as if in defiance, the wherry that she snags next is almost rent in two as she pulls it apart with each of her foreclaws, its blood also replentishing her strength.

Eshoth> Unferth flicks his forked tongue over his muzzle, canting his magenta-laden glance around to weigh up the audacity of these other males. Snarling at one a little too close, he lumbers after another herdbeast, tail lashing as he turns to select one worthy of his attention. As talons rip holes into the tender flesh, he nigh on rips it apart, tearing the animal in two with his powerful jaw. Muscles rend, tendons tear, and bones snap audibly out of joint, offal splaying those around him and the grass as the animal comes apart. Eagerly he dines on the wound, lifeforce fueling his serpentine frame.

U'thiel rubs his hands through his hair, a nervous gesture of agitation. He looks back to Talya then to Leena and finally to M'ko with a dumbfounded, dazed expression on his broad, ugly face. He licks his lips, wetting dry skin as he begins, "I.. didn't think it'd be like this." He says, awed.

Eshoth> Eshoth raises his muzzle to get another look at the current object of his affections, tongue snaking out to crudely slurp away the already-drying blood dripping from his jaws. He gives a tentative, though seductive croon in her direction before his attentions return to the task at hand..Err... Claw. ..Or something. In a surprisingly gracefull movement, one hind leg kicks behind him, claws snagging what was once a particularly stupid herdbeast... That'll teach 'em to sit still like that. Herdbeast body is flipped up, landing in front of him and giving an audible *snap* as it's spine cracks. Once again, his head bends down, teeth ripping into the tender flesh of it's jugular vein, as he begins to drink the still-spurting blood.

Leena clenches her jaw, not even bothering to reply to U'thiel's comment, merely hugging herself tighter and keeping an eye on her lifemate.

M'ko's broad shoulders rise and fall in a shrug in the bluerider's direction. "No one ever does, U'thiel." Dark olive-green eyes flickering in Talya's direction. "/Don't/ let her eat..." He reminds, adding, "She'll get too heavy to fly...."

Eshoth> Yivreth's tongue flickers out to lick at the last vestige of blood trickling from the second herdbeast, then his head lifts as he gazes forward. Wings stretch back, blue membranes unfurling and extending, flexing as they caress the air around him, then he lights forward, wings making his body buoyant as he pounces on a third beast, capturing it quickly and digging his jaws into its throat. Blood splatters his body with droplets of rust-red that dribble down his throat and breast. His claws hold the beast still his mouth remains fastened.

Talya just stands there shivering, watching, giving no indication that she's heard U'thiel's comment. Her eyes fix on the blooding of dragons as though she just can't resist watching the bloodthirsty actions of their normally placid lifemates.

Eshoth> Fahjeth takes one last dip at the carcass of the wherry she's mauled to be almost unrecognisable, and then, with a defiant bugle, leaps off the ground, leaving the males in her wake.

Eshoth> Fahjeth rises higher and higher until she is no more than a green speck in the sky.
Eshoth> Fahjeth has left.

Eshoth> You rise into the highest part of the sky.

Eshoth> Sky High Over Ierne Weyr
Eshoth> Contents:
Eshoth> Fahjeth

Talya looks around wildly, she just seems to have no idea what to do, she clutches herself, hugging tightly.

Eshoth> Unferth rumbles, low and deep, a warning sound to the other males that surround him. Unfurling his wings, a shimmering ray of sunlight breaks over the horizon to embrace him, rippling light delineating the muscles tense with anticipation and fueled with vitality. Tensing hindmuscles, he launches herself into the air, quickly away, the only desire to leave these other pathetically, sniveling, miserable males far, far, behind.

Eshoth> Unferth launches from the feeding pens and rises higher and higher until he is no more than a brown speck in the sky.
Eshoth> Unferth has arrived.

Eshoth echoes that bugle, though his is given in torment as he realizes... Too slow.. He leaves his current...beverage and leaps after her. Deep, deep violet eyes never leaving the glowing hide of Fahjeth, the barely-risen Rukbat enhancing the loveliness of the ellusive green beauty. Semi-translucent, leaf-brown wings already beating at an exhausting pace as he rushes to get as close as possible.

Eshoth> Yivreth launches from the feeding pens and rises higher and higher until he is no more than a blue speck in the sky.
Eshoth> Yivreth has arrived.

Eshoth> Fahjeth is fleeing from her persuers, eyes whirling as her form gleams against the pastels of the dawn sky. Now and then, a ray of sunlight catches her hide, and it gleams enticingly. Meanwhile, in preference to dips and swerves, her path is a straight line away from the males, her speed, thanks to her small form, considerable.

Talya just looks lost, almost as if she's going to crumple on the spot.

Eshoth> Yivreth quickly wings his way through the air, muscles along his shoulders bunching, rippling with the effort that it takes to climb after Fahjeth. He is like the morning star, bright in the morning sky at the approach of dawn.

Eshoth> Unferth alternatively tilts the edges of his wingtips exploring the sky that welcomes the new day, searching for the presence of a climbing thermal, to aid his ascent, leading edges snapping taunt as wings pulse with vigorous down sweeps, setting morning mist to swirling in tiny vortices. Finding the thermal, he rises quickly on the heated breath of air, muscles undulating as he seeks for and gets the power to propel herself forward, heading for the beacon that is Fahjeth. Hazy light shimmers through the mist, conflicting with a form that glows with the intensity of Rukbat's light that remains just out of reach.

U'thiel spots Talya and starts to move over as he says "Here Talya, let me help you? You don't look so good." He's a bit dazed himself, and confused and uncertain. He starts to hesitantly reach out to the greenrider, then snatches his hands back as if remembering something.

Talya goes north.
Talya has left.

Leena edges a little closer to Talya, eyes narrowing as U'thiel beats her to it. Hand combs through her hair as she tries to hold onto herself amidst the turbulent emotions and then, she spins, following.
Leena goes north.
Leena has left.

Eshoth> Eshoth, though, billows along the breeze like a windblown leaf, swerving in and around the other males. His smaller size is a blessing, adding to his maneuverability, and helping him dart between the other chasers. Getting closer... And closer still... Another sweet croon escapes him, begging, /pleading/ for her to slow down.. To end this quickly and accept him.

Eshoth> Fahjeth neither goes for height or tight spots, instead, she just settles for speed, looking back just once to see the males chasing her. She shakes her head, as the sunlight gleams off one who had evidently been bathing when the call of the green reached him, hesitating for a moment as she attempts to recollect her bearings. A costly mistake perhaps, and she furiously beats her wings to attempt to correct it.

M'ko quickly follows after the other Dragonriders, but once inside the empty weyr, he falls behind the group, stopping to lean against one rocky wall of the weyr, and slowly, he slides to the floor. Knees are hugged tightly to his chest, as those feline-like green eyes stare at the greenrider.

Talya has obviously been more than forcefully dragged here. The battle with her lifemate about all she can sustain it would seem, she slumps where she is left, eyes glazed over murmuring "don't look back, way too close," over and over to herself.

Eshoth> Eshoth stretches his frail wings to their limit, soaring above a majority of the pack of chasers, earing him a bird's-eye... Err.. Dragon's-Eye-View of the speedy green. He mimics her flight pattern, now, remaing level where he is, and flying straight, after her, trying to regain the speed he lost in his venture upwards.

Eshoth> Unferth deviates slightly from his present course, seeking to confuse other males. In a heartbeat, at the sight of Fahjeth's mistake, he summons the energy, and with ichor pounding through his arteries and veins, fueling muscle and sinew, he increases his speed, hurtling past with augmented velocity like a powerfully coiled spring, finally released from its confines, closer and closer to the second rising sun that is Fahjeth.

Leena leans back, desperately seeking the stone she knows is there, somewhere, staying well away from the sleeping area, eyeing it with gross mistrust. Reaching it, she slumps backwards, attention not here, but elsewhere, soaring high with her lifemate, a faint smile lighting her face like a summer morning.

U'thiel looks a bit more relaxed than prior. As the flight continues, he seems to loose himself in the entire process. His face slackens as he stares ahead, presumeably at Talya, but his gaze is distant.

Eshoth> Yivreth levels at a height that is slightly higher than what Fahjeth would be in the sky. He follows her example, speed rather than aerobatics. Wings billow and flex with the air that brushes across the sensitive, supple flesh as he soars forward, manipulating the wind currents for his own use. He slowly nears the green, following her bright, green light like someone would a will-o-the-wisp, or a light in the darkness.

Eshoth> Fahjeth is now an arrow, making straight for her destination. What that might be, who knows? It would appear to be anywhere those males are not. Her wings are beating furiously. Surely, SURELY she cannot keep up that pace for long. Even now she's imperceptibly slowing, and the breeze that begins to blow in the opposite direction is more of a hinderance than ever.

Eshoth> Surely, if Fahjeth is the arrow, then Unferth must be the string from which she sprang, for he follows her with such determination that there can be no doubt. His wings beat with rhythmical strokes that thrum in tempo, like a Harper's drum or a dragon's greeting to new hatchlings, as he veers, making negligible alterations as he trades thermals still pushing forward like a stone rolling down a steep, grass verge.

Leena smiles, mostly to herself, moving past some of the riders to find a cooler piece of wall, her vision and thoughts not focused in this room at all, but way high, with her lifemate, soaring on the thermals high, high above. A delicately boned hand reaches up to wipe her brow free of sweat, gathered there in tiny beads of moisture.

Eshoth> Fortunately for Fahjeth, she is not the only one slowed down by that breeze. Eshoth struggles against it, and after angling his wings in an almost perfectly horizontal position, he regains his strength, and his speed, and his position near the front of the group.

Eshoth> Yivreth has more stamina than Fahjeth, but not much. He paces himself, stretching out his energy and lust driven strength so that his endurance will last longer. He watches, eyes gazing upon her gleaming, fleeing form, while she spends herself on rapid, strength and energy consuming flight. Cannily, he just does his best to keep up -- later, when he's still possessing energy, and she isn't, he'll try to catch up. He follows so closely, that he might even resemble a blue dyed feather fletching the arrow.

Talya just slumps on the ground, water puddling around her. She's a sorry and bedraggled sight. Perhaps one that may not be attractive under any other circumstances but this.

M'ko pulls his knees tighter and tighter against his chest. He squeezes himself a bit too tightly, then, and inhales his next breath in a sharp gasp. Green eyes, never moving from the sight of the fallen greenrider, unfocus and refocus over and over again.

Eshoth> Fahjeth has expended way too much energy in attempting speed. Way too much, and a sudden blow of that wind hinders her pace yet more. A moment's hesitation, a desperate flap of those wings, and suddenly she finds she's run out of puff. Tiredly she manages to stay aloft. Just. Her wings continue to beat, but suddenly just when she needs it, there's no thermal there to support her.

Talya just sits, curled in a ball in her puddle of water, shivering, muttering something about how it is all too late.

Eshoth> Unferth snakes after Fahjeth, aiming for her tiring form, aiming to support her descent. Like a rich brown thread, woven into a tapestry, he banks around other dragons, catching them up as if the sky were but a picture on a wall. Neck stretches out, accompanied by a tender croon, and wings stretch out to their furthest, attempting to include Fahjeth in a weaving of their very own.

Leena arches up on the balls of her feet, hands rising and then falling to clench into furiously tight fists, nails digging into the soft flesh of her palms. Fixated, now, she waits, breathing forgotten as other, equally base needs wash through her.

Eshoth> A serious of several graceless lunges brings him closer and closer... Then closer yet to the finally slowing green. He still has a few dragonlength's of height above her, and quickly decides that it is safe to dive after her, against the blowing breeze. Limbs, neck, tail, wings -- his entire brown body -- stretching to meet her. Yet another croon escaping him as he pleads with her to be the new spring leaf to his late autumn one.
Eshoth> Him being Eshoth.

Eshoth> Yivreth swoops in, coming from behind, exerting some of the last bit of energy that suffuses his body and warms his muscles. His intention is obvious as he dives toward a glowing Fahjeth, foreclaws sheathed and extended, wings sweeping back to add more gravity to his dive as he tries to get there first. He sounds a bugle, hoping perhaps to startle the other males with the noise of his approach. With the ending of dawn, so fades the morning star as it drops toward the green horizon.

U'thiel rubs his by now sweaty palms against his breeches, hands incessently moving up, down, up, down in a rhythmic fashion.

Eshoth> Fahjeth is still being blown back, back back, her resistance fading with her strength. And back into a blue dragon. It's not the most graceful of ways to be caught, but suddenly she finds herself wrapped up in Yivreth. And her croon compliments his bugle. Apparently, blue goes well with her hide.

Eshoth> Unferth bugles his distress, canting off from the pair with a slight tilt of his wingtips.
Eshoth> Unferth circles down to a landing in the bowl.
Eshoth> Unferth has left.

Leena blinks, rapidly, several times, then rushes out.
Leena goes southeast.
Leena has left.

Talya is still huddled in her wet pile, almost fearing, it seems, to look up.

Eshoth> Yivreth wraps his foreclaws along Fahjeth's flanks as his tail entwines with hers. Neck slides against neck as he lows a soft croon and wings stretch to either side, a gentle buffer for the rapid descent.

M'ko is quickly woken from his reverie, and hops to his feet, rushing with the rest of the crowd to leave.

U'thiel lets out a soft moan, eyelashes fluttering as he opens his eyes more widely, seeing what is in front of him -- and that person is Talya. He steps, one, two, three steps forward before he's roughly grabbing at her with his hands.

You head southeast.