Dinner for Breakfast [open]

[Dragon]

Gi had long since gotten used to eating dinner for breakfast. She'd been a wherhandler for five turns now, after all, and she'd been raised in a wherhandler's home to boot. Right now she was shoveling in some meat-stuffed rolls as she sipped her 'morning' cup of klah. Back in their lodge, Goranask was starting to stir and soon would want his own breakfast.

She looked up from her meal when someone sat down across from her, and Giana smiled at the other eater. "Hi! I'm Giana, nice to meet you."

[Windra]

Another night of duty, another night of aches and pains that wouldn't ease until the fellis helped her sleep at night day. Zinaida wasn't on watch tonight, but she would tend to much needed repairs in her personal sweatshop. And those errands required her motor to run with klah.

"Too early ... "

Sunlight was just tapering off. Zinsk was utilizing this time to doze a little longer, but her little green fire-lizard was eagerly warbling on her shoulder. Scone's little tummy was growling. No sooner did Zinaida materialize a mug to sip from had the green flung her way into the kitchen to harass whoever was on shift tonight. Clattering and shouts were heard. The older woman sighed, sitting down heavily.

A younger voice caused Zinaida to blink slowly until 'Giana' came into view. "Zinaida," she said blearily. "Yer far too chipper for this time of night. They didn't wear you younglings out with chores today?" There was a humorous edge to her voice. She'd no idea this was another wherhandler.

[Dragon]

"Nice to meet you, Zinaida," Gi said, eyeing the woman's knots. Ah, another wherhandler! "Nah, I'm just up. Do I really look that young?" She had a babyface, sure, but she was used to people seeing the massive wher with her and treating her like an adult.

But she didn't have Goranask with her now ...

Either way, Giana was amused by the clattering and indignation coming from the cookhouse. Ah, chaos. "Goranask and I just got here from Crom Hold last season." Not that last season was very long ago; spring had just barely sprung.

As for being chipper, Gi couldn't help herself. The demigirl was just a cheerful sort. "Can I get you anything to go with your klah, or are you the sort to drink your breakfast?" she offered. She'd been raised to respect her elders, after all.

[Windra]

Goranask?

That stirred Zinaida enough to make her sit a little more upright. She took a solid chug of her klah, turns of exposure dumbing down her senses to the way it seared across the soft tissue in her throat. "You're a handler?" It was more a proclamation than a question. "S'ppose that makes more sense but you're a lot more bright-eyed n' bushy-tailed than me. But then, I've only been at this handlin' business for a turn and I'm old. You definitely look a baby."

While it wasn't meant as condescending, Zinaida sometimes had errors with tact.

She raised a bushy brow and suddenly bleated out, "SCONE will ya leave our poor cooks alone?! Senshi's bound to make you into a meatroll at this rate!" Zinaida waved the demigirl aside, dismissing the willingness to serve. "Nooo, child, I can manage. I find eating before my duties makes me sluggish. Are you on watch tonight?"

She really ought to stir Zinsk soon.

And ahh! Here came Scone, blinking above their shared table with a meatroll shoved halfway into her happy little mouth. The pudge to her gut insinuated that she'd been in there eating more than just that.

[Dragon]

Oh, dear, she did look that young. How distressing. Gi was a real, actual adult, and here she was surprising someone that she was a wherhandler. "Yes, I'm twenty-three," Giana said with chagrin. "I've known Goranask since I was a baby - my father was his before I was. But we've been bonded for six turns now ..."

Maybe she needed a different haircut? Or more severe clothes?

Alas, it wasn't like Gi was wearing pigtails. At least, not currently. And they were both distracted from Giana's babyface by Scone the firelizard, who was harassing the cooks. Gi giggled a little at the admonishment, somewhat glad that she didn't have a flit of her own at this point. Flit's seemed like they got into things worse than baby whers, and she'd never even had to manage a wherling.

"We are on watch tonight," she confirmed, looking at Scone as she came out to their table looking like the cat that had gotten the cream. She was so fat at the moment ... "Well, well, it looks like Scone found something she likes."

[Windra]

"She's gonna put on a metric ton of weight if she keeps this up. You'd think she was egg-heavy," Zinaida snorted. But she yielded to stroke the green's soft little nose and the creature rewarded her with a full-mouth chirp. "I suppose you're brand spankin' new, huh? I've never heard of yer name before."

Couldn't help the eye bulge at the proclamation, though. 6 Turns? Faranth!

"Hey hey, it's not a curse! You know I'd like to look twenty turns younger'n I am now. You'll be kickin into yer 60s and still look spry." Zinaida broke off a piece of Scone's meatroll and held it above the green's head. She chuckled as the flit hopped to reach it but fell short just a few inches. "You'll like it here, I think. Humid as a wher den and lots of nasty cats about. And rain. All the rain."

[Dragon]

"Yep, we're brand new to Semaca," Gi confirmed. She and Goranask were still settling in and getting to know people. It wasn't surprising that Zinaida hadn't heard Giana's name yet ...

But the surprise at her being twenty-three with six turns of experience as a wherhandler was a little disheartening. Sure, she supposed that it might be nice when she started getting old to still look young, but man, it was hard to look like she should just have bonded Goranask a turn or two ago was kind of hard to deal with. She knew what she was doing! She was experienced! But she was still doubted by some because of her baby face.

"It sounds pleasant. And exciting! I've just started getting acquainted with spotties, and I'm looking forward to finding out what else is living in the jungle down here." She was really excited for her new life down her with Goranask.

[Windra]

Zinaida's grin was cheeky. "You sound like my kid. All you younglings have so much spunk. I wish I was as energetic." She swirled the remainder of klah longingly. "Gone are the days where I could mine and smelt and smith without feeling death creepin' up on me."

On cue, she lapsed into a harsh coughing spasm that rocked her entire body. Zinaida hacked into her hand, hastily wiping it on a kerchief that she tucked into her shirt. A keen eye might notice the fresh black splotch staining the cloth.

"Mizurka Squad?" she asked, yielding to Scone's demands and relinquishing the meatroll. The green devoured it like it was starving. "They're pretty heavy on exploration. My kid's a weyrling and been talkin about 'em day and night."

A stirring in her mind told her Zinsk was awake. It wouldn't be long before the brown would be upon them.

[Dragon]

"Weyr Guard, actually - although Mizurka wouldn't have been a bad fit. It's just Goranask and I are used to guard duties, and I didn't want to change everything on him all at once. He can be downright crotchety at times." He was only twenty-three, hatched right around the same time Gi had been born!

Giana frowned in concern as Zinaida coughed. It wasn't just a cough, it was a downright coughing fit! Was there something wrong with her? "Are you all right?" she asked as she watched the other woman putting away her handkerchief.

She was mildly distracted by the feeling of Goranask starting to wake up. It was an odd, stretching feel, but one that Giana was used to by now. It never stopped being odd but it was something that Gi was used to now despite the oddness. "Wher's awake."

[Windra]

"Coal mining," Zinaida expressed with less interest than she probably ought to. "Black dust tends to have not-so-good effects on ya. Been at it for a few decades. Glad to be done with it."

That wasn't an entire lie. Surely she missed it - feeling useful, feeling close to the others of her clan, feeling the touch of her husband. But ... Semaca wasn't all that bad, and she could do plenty here. Refurbishing the weyrs after the recent bout of flooding being one of them, and watching her youngest daughter grow into a fine rider being the other. Perhaps she could coax her oldest into bringing her kids here? That might be an aspiration.

While Scone curled into her folded arms, it became rather apparent that both of their whers would linger no longer in the realm of sleep. Zinaida could feel Zinsk's awareness of her long before the big brown turned into the dining hall. He was a big brute, but not so huge that he couldn't squeeze through the doorway. Whers definitely had some advantages over dragons ...

He swung his massive head over the table, resting his chin against the wood and awaiting the attentive scratchings Zinaida didn't delay in grooming him with. "Zinsk says 'hello'. He will, at least. Takes him a minute."

Zinsk slow-blinked. Just waking up. Evening.

"Is Goranask on the way, too?"

[Dragon]

Ah, yes. Mining had its dangers. She and Goranask had always been on the guard side of things, but some wherhandlers succumbed to the blights associated with mines and left their whers to the care of others.

Giana and Goranask would fit perfectly into the fabric of life at Semaca. It wasn't even that much of a change in routine for them. But others ... others were finding new uses for their gifts.

"Yes - ah, here he is." The big bronze was not so huge that doorways couldn't accommodate him, but with his big broad shoulders, it was a tight squeeze. "Goranask, good evening!"

Hello. New friends? He quirked his big head towards the other wherhandler and her brown, then - not to be outdone - sought similar affections from his handler that the other wher was receiving from his.

"New friends," Gi confirmed. "This is Zinaida and Zinsk." She complied in giving Goranask affectionate chin scritches, using both hands to rub and scratch under there. "He was bonded to my pa before we lost him. We've known each other since we were both little." Not that Goranask had ever been as little as she had been.

[Windra]

By Faranth.

Goranask was a shiny boy. Bronze, for sure. But that sheen on him almost made him look like candy! Zinaida had half a mind to touch his hide just to make sure it wasn't hard sugar or something. Zinsk rumbled disapprovingly at the thought.

The idea of Giana looking up at Goranask's immense size as a baby was truly startling now. He wasn't any bigger than Zinsk, despite his superiority in color rank (which really held no merit in Semaca anyway). And if she was, what, 23? That would make Goranask somewhere around the age of ...

Well. That was a good question.

"How old is he?" she asked, looking at both of them as if expecting either to answer. "30 or so? Sorry if ya mentioned it already. My memory isn't as great as it used to be." The wher's name made sense now. He'd plucked some from his old handler and from Giana, melding them into one. "Zinsk I met when he was already grown."

Wildwher, confirmed the brown, his voice drawling slow and steady. He did not rush his words, allowing them to catch up with his mind. Home in jungle. 5 turns. Give or take.

[Dragon]

Goranask was eye-catching, wasn't he? Fresh from sleep, the big wher looked positively burnished, although of course not as wonderfully shiny as he looked when he'd just finished being washed and oiled.

She could see Zinaida doing the math in her head, and Gi wondered what the woman's response was going to be to the correct information. "Twenty-three. We practically share a nameday." There was a little time between her birth and Goranask's hatching, but less than a sevenday. "We grew up together! He just grew a lot faster and a lot more than I did."

It was fascinating, though, that Zinsk had been a wild wher. He must really love Zinaida, to choose to change his life so much as an adult! "It must have been really interesting for the both of you to bond as adults!" she gushed. "And Zinsk, you must know all about fighting spotties if you lived in the jungle here!"

[Windra]

Zinaida glanced at Zinsk, not sure what kind of reply she expected from the big brute. She could tell from the fuzz in her brain that he was thinking. Selecting thoughts. Memories. Could whers recall a lot? The smith heard that only a select few could recall things from distant pasts. "Y'know, he's never really talked about it much," she admitted. "I always thought - "

Interrupted, briefly, by a very loud snnnoooore from Scone. The green was passed out from a full tummy. Zinaida carefully rolled the flit over onto her back and gave her bulging gut a good few scratches. Scone whined, happily shaking a foot, tongue lolling out.

"Thought whers didn't have good memories. Dragons too. I mean, they don't even seem to remember who hatched from the eggs they laid, 'cause they'll mate with their own children sometimes." They were creatures. Awesome, but still ... "He'll give off images from his dreams though."

Man, weren't those trippy.

Big cats. Yes. At times. The brown spoke slowly. Dull-witted, or thinking with his words? Taste like .... Wherry ... Hard iron ... He struggled, thinking of the word.

"Gamey."

Zinsk blinked, one eye at a time. What is game?

[Dragon]

Giana had never really thought about how much Goranask could remember. She didn't actually know if it was her who remembered her father or if they both did, for example. Smiling at the snoring flit, Gi continued talking to Zinaida.

"I'm pretty sure whers have better memories than dragons, but I don't know how much they actually remember," she admitted. Maybe she'd like a flit ... Goranask would definitely be good with it.

Little flyer? Yes good. Goranask grinned a watchwher grin, tongue lolling as he did so.

Gi smiled again, echoing Goranask's expression. The demigirl thought that was a path they might go down if the opportunity came up. She hadn't before because she wasn't sure how good her nocturnal schedule would be for bonding with a flit, but if Zinaida could do it then so could she.

"Gamey means it tastes like something wild. Not like the animals that we keep in pins." Giana had no issues talking to any wher that would talk to her and actually enjoyed the company of dragonkin. "I'd say wherry and hard iron sounds pretty gamey."