A Day For An Adventure [Dragon]

[Dragon]

Amaata was glad to hear that Dani was happy in High Reaches. So far she and Kuroth were, too, and it was nice to hear that other people who had somewhat untraditional pairings were happy here. Not that she and Kuroth were as untraditional as a woman riding a less-than-leaderly bronze, but if Dani and Bladeth could fit in here so could Amaata and Kuroth!

"I can't imagine being happy as a goldrider," Amaata agreed. "I'm perfectly happy fighting Thread and going out on Search, and Kuroth doesn't want more than that either ... although it's nice to be somewhere that we have the option of being 'more' than that. I mean, I don't think that I want to be responsible for as much as a whole Weyr, but options are nice."

It was good to think that if she and Kuroth had the urge to fill a position such as Wingleader or to go after a spot on the still ambiguous-to-them council that ruled High Reaches, they had the option to try. It was also nice to know that they weren't going to be forced into a position of responsibility that they did not want.

"I can imagine how hard it must have been for Bladeth in a more traditional Weyr," Amaata said. If Bladeth was as shy and skittish and anxiety-ridden as Dani said - and she had no reason to exaggerate - then she could see how he'd be more comfortable in a Weyr where he wasn't going to accidentally end up as a Weyrleader because he participated in a mating flight!

She thought back on her own Impression and weyrlinghood. She and Kuroth had very much kept to themselves between her own reticence and Kuroth's curious and watching nature, and so they hadn't really left behind many friends. They didn't intend to make the same mistake twice ...

"Life is definitely not what I imagined. It's better." She was so pleased with how things were turning out, and now that she and Kuroth weren't constantly being subjected to her father's judgment things were coming up roses.

[nineofswords]

"Do you think any goldriders are actually happy?" Dani wondered. "I mean, there's a lot to being one, even at a place like High Reaches. If nothing else, they have to deal with the stress of those giant clutches and don't get to participate in the really dangerous parts of threadfighting to blow off steam." It sounded truly miserable to her, she didn't know how people managed to do it.

"I love fighting thread," Dani admitted. "The adrenaline rush, the knowledge that I'm keeping people safe. There's nothing like it!" She smiled. "That's awesome that you and Kuroth are on the same page. Bladeth and I went back and forth for ages about whether we should be threadfighters or join the healer's wing. At the end of the day, we both wanted to help people and protect them, but sometimes figuring out the best way to do that is tough. I'll bet it was nice that you didn't have to try to negotiate what you wanted to do at all." She was a little jealous of anyone who had a smooth weyrlinghood, but not in a way that was bitter or resentful. "Still, having to argue with Bladeth made us grow closer in some ways, I think. It was rough at the time, but I understand him so much better now. Makes me a better partner for him."

"Options are nice," Dani agreed, crossing her hands behind her head. She didn't want to be in charge, she liked the freedom to do as she liked when she liked, but it was still nice to know she could go for something more if she ever felt like it. Honestly, though, the most authoritative position she'd ever go for would be candidatemaster or weyrlingmaster, and that would only be if Bladeth couldn't fly thread for some reason. Her place was in the air. She just wouldn't be happy in any other role, certainly not one that came with paperwork. But Faranth knew there were plenty of green and blueriders who had way more ambition than either of them, and they deserved to take those roles if they wanted them.

Dani shrugged. "I mean, it wasn't the worst for Bladeth back home," she admitted. "Mostly he'd just whine at me more than he does here. Since I'm the one who does most of the talking anyway, other people probably wouldn't have noticed a difference. Granted, he still whines a lot, but that's just how he is. I can only tell he's happier because we're bonds."

"I'm so glad your life is better than how you imagined!" Dani said, beaming. "Everyone deserves to know what that's like!" Dani herself couldn't say that her life was better than how she'd imagined. It was different, but just as good. Better in some ways for sure, but she also couldn't think of any changes that would make it better in every way, not without fundamentally changing the parts of it that were most important to her.

[Dragon]

Huh. That was some question. Were any of the goldriders happy? Amaata had never been close to anyone in that position, so she couldn't say for sure, but ... "I would assume that golds Impress to people who are suited to helping to deal with clutches and less suited to the sort of Threadfighting that you and I do," Amaata said logically. There had to be some people who were happy in the sort of position a goldrider found themself in - but it certainly wasn't Amaata!

When Dani said that she loved fighting Thread, Amaata nodded in agreement. "I always feel so accomplished when I finish fighting Thread. Like Kuroth and I are doing what we're made to be doing." They existed to keep Pern safe and to protect the people thereof. "We didn't have to think about the Healer's Wing because I've got no skill when it comes to healing - it's one of the few things I tried before I was a candidate that I was just not suited for." She had a lot of random skills that she'd picked up trying to find a path other than becoming a dragonrider, but ultimately her life had led her to Kuroth.

She was glad to hear that Dani and Bladeth had really found each other and what they were suited for too. She preferred Kuroth's subtle and curious nature to a whiny dragon, but hey, every dragon had their ideal match out there somewhere.

Well. At least most did.

Shoving away that depressing thought, Amaata turned her attention back to Dani. "Kuroth is pretty quiet most of the time, too. He prefers observing to putting himself out there," Amaata admitted. He observed a lot and he had a keen mind, for all that he had to have Amaata remember his observations for him because ... well ... he was a dragon.

The willowy bluerider glanced back up at the sky; Kuroth was really enjoying his flight at the moment. Amaata couldn't imagine dealing with a dragon that was afraid of heights and afraid to go fast. She and Kuroth raced and wheeled through the sky even more easily than they moved together on the ground.

"I'm glad that you and Bladeth have found your happy place. High Reaches seems to be really great so far." People suited to positions of power could look for backing to fill them, and those who didn't care to be political didn't have to be just because of their dragon's color. It was ... nice. Amaata would never want to be Weyrleader, but it was kind of nice to know that she had an equal chance if she decided she wanted it.

[nineofswords]

"You're probably right," Dani agreed. She shrugged. "I dunno. Golds are so rare, it's hard to get a handle on them and what they look for in riders. I've heard some people who maintain that they only like holdborn girls, which...I mean, that's obviously not true, but it's easy to ignore the exceptions that disprove your theory when there's never more than a handful of golds at any given Weyr. I'd hope they mainly look for riders that'll be up to the task of it, but I can't imagine they're the only color that'll pick a rider however they feel about being saddled with all that responsibility."

"Really?" Dani asked in surprise when Amaata said the healers wing wasn't for her. "I would've become an apprentice healer if I hadn't impressed Bladeth. I mean, it's the only other job outside of threadfighting where people's lives are always on the line." She clenched a fist, her eyes blazing with excitement. "There's so much about them that are similar! Both need steady nerves, sharp reflexes, and a keen eye! You have to trust yourself and your team, because second-guessing can be the difference between life and death! Both have you in proximity to injuries, so you need the stomach for that. Honestly, the only reason I didn't go in for the Healer's wing was because it doesn't have the same consistent, prolonged physical demands that threadfighting does. I hate sitting still, and unless you're moving a patient or restraining them, there's not much physical activity in healing."

Dani laughed. "I kinda like having a dragon who doesn't talk to other people much," she admitted. "Kinda like having a feline that'll only sit in your lap, you know? I know I'm his bond, but it's still kinda nice, feeling special like that." And it wasn't as if Bladeth wouldn't talk to other people. It just wasn't something he sought out. He'd chat with other dragons happily enough, though. "I wonder what it is that makes some dragons not want to talk to other humans. Do you think it takes more effort to communicate telepathically with humans than dragons? Outside of bonded humans, obviously." She was mostly just thinking out loud.

"Yeah! It's great here!" Dani said, with a bright grin. "And I'm glad you moved here so I got to meet you! I definitely need more friends outside of my squad." She'd clearly already decided that they were friends. After all, they'd jumped straight past small talk into some pretty personal stuff. Clearly that was a mark of friendship as far as she was concerned.

[Dragon]

"In theory, all dragons pick someone who is up to the task that they're set to do ... but you're right, golds are hardly common so it's hard to say anything about them for sure. There are what - two? goldriders at High Reaches, right?" There had been a similar number at Igen. One to three gold dragons per Weyr seemed to be pretty standard. "I suppose if we really wanted we could go ask the goldriders questions, but ... " She shrugged. Eugh, no. "It just seems kind of intrusive."

She shrugged again at the surprise Dani showed at her clumsiness when it came to healing. "I can sew, weave, tat, make baskets ... all sorts of things. But I couldn't seem to figure out the intricacies of healing." There was a lot to it. She supposed she could sew up an injured person in a pinch - her stitches on fabric were small and neat and even - but the whole thing with diagnosing illnesses and deciding on the proper cure was just beyond Amaata. "You're right, though - healing definitely matters! I really respect healers and always do my best to listen to them if I'm sick of injured, but I just don't have what it takes to be one."

Amaata had fought her fate when she was younger, but now that she was actually a threadfighting Searchriding dragonrider she couldn't imagine having any other life. "I love being active, too - that's part of why nothing else I tried worked out for me," Amaata said with uncharacteristic brightness. She didn't know what it was about Dani, but the other woman made the bluerider comfortable. "I needed something really engaging. I needed Kuroth."

Amaata smiled in response to Dani's laugh. "You're right, it is nice to have that special relationship with your dragon that nobody else has. Kuroth sometimes talks to other people, but not often ... although he does sometimes socialize with other dragons." She certainly didn't know what it was that made dragons unwilling to talk to humans that weren't theirs, but she could and did hazard a guess. "Maybe it's because we're not telepathic, so it's harder to speak to humans without the bond?" That made sense to Amaata at least.

And it was nice to have a new friend ... because that was obviously what was happening here. "I can definitely use some friends," Amaata said happily. She'd always had a little trouble making friends, but with Dani it felt natural.

[nineofswords]

"Well sure, in theory all dragons only pick someone who can handle them, but I don't know if that's always the case. I've heard stories about people who never really warmed up to whatever dragon they ended up bonding to." She shuddered. "I can't really imagine how that'd work, but it sounds miserable." True, Dani had never actually met anyone like that, but it seemed too plausible to just be rumor. After all, how many candidates threw temper tantrums on the sands when they impressed? They couldn't all grow up to be fine with things, right?

Dani nodded. "Yeah, there's two," she confirmed. She chuckled. "I hear you, I wouldn't want people marching up to me and start interrogating me about my bond with Bladeth. I'd just as soon not do that to other people."

"Oh wow!" Dani said, confusion swiftly being replaced with an impressed expression. "That's a lot of skills! Where did you find the time for it all?"[b] Dani was the sort who picked one thing to get good at at a time, but she admired people who could multitask learning their skillsets. [b]"But yeah, I get you. I never would've gotten very far as a healer, that's for sure. I'm more cut out for emergency medical attention. Triage, stablizing patients before the real healers show up, that kind of thing. Give me a broken bone any day over a case of the sniffles." A broken bone was straightforward, with a clear course of action to take. Sneezing could be a sign of any number of things, and trying to tease out which it might be was such a headache. Definitely not her wheelhouse.

Dani shot Amaata a sheepish grin. "Honestly? I'm not always the best at listening to healers when they tell me something. I know I should listen to them, but it's just so hard to sit still! I mean, I know it's important, but why does rest always have to be so boring?" She had never been a woman who found contentment in quiet pursuits, so being stuck in bed was almost akin to torture for her.

"Yeah, there really is nothing like a dragon to engage you and give you an excuse to be active," Dani said, smiling brightly. She let out a laugh. "Sometimes, I try teaching Bladeth some of the ball games my brothers and I used to play. He's too big to actually play with me, but it's fun to imagine dragons trying to kick balls into goals, don't you think?" It wasn't what they were built to do, which was part of why it made it so funny to think about.

"Oh for sure, Bladeth prefers to talk to other dragons more than people," Dani said. "He can be a little chatterbox when you get him going. But he's shy at first, mostly because he doesn't know if the other dragon will expect him to act like your stereotypical bronze." Dani tilted her head, considering Amaata's theory. "I guess that makes sense! Like...we kind of are, but only with our own dragon, and I guess that's why I didn't think about it like that." She gave Amaata a bright smile. "That's pretty clever of you!"

"Friends are awesome to have," Dani agreed. She was glad she'd met Amaata. She liked High Reaches, but without friends, it was hard for it to really feel like a home. This was a big step in that direction for her.

[Dragon]

"It sounds entirely miserable," Amaata agreed. She couldn't quite imagine it - sure, people didn't always get what they wanted in a dragon, but they always got the dragon that was right for them! - but it did sound plausible at the same time. It could happen, but shards, Amaata hoped that it didn't.

She was pretty sure that she felt worse for the dragon than the rider in that theoretical, though. The rider had chosen to Stand; the dragon hadn't chosen to be born a dragon.

Amaata hummed in agreement as Dani said she wouldn't want someone to come and start interrogating her about her bond. Someone might do research on what made a goldrider a goldrider one day, but it wasn't going to be Dani and Amaata.

Amaata blushed at the comment about her having multiple skills. "Well, I didn't become a candidate right away," she confessed. "I was trying to find something else to do with my life, but in the end, it was Kuroth for me." She could not fathom now a life without her dragon. She was a dragonrider through and through, and she loved her life fighting Thread and going on Search.

It sounded like Dani had a good head on her shoulders when it came to emergencies, though. "Stabilizing patients is a necessary step, even if you can't do the rest of it," Amaata observed. "Even being able to do that makes you useful in an emergency!" Amaata was useful, sure, but in different ways. She only could provide pretty basic first aide to someone in need ...

Listening to Healers was an easier prospect than being one. "I guess the only reason I ever survive being bedridden is that I know how to do things to keep busy that don't involve getting out of bed. You can lay in bed and sew or something like that, and the Healers don't get up in arms about you running around and setting their work back. But thankfully I almost never get sick and I'm not particularly clumsy." She'd be miserable if being stuck in bed was anything but a rare occurrence.

Being active was much more desirable, and Amaata smothered a giggle at the notion of a dragon playing ball. Sure, felines and flits and canines liked to play with balls, but that didn't really translate to dragons. They were huge. Even Kuroth, as small as he was for a dragon, was nearly a foot and a half taller than Amaata and a solid thirty feet long. "I almost want to try it, but we would need such a big ball for them to be able to play with it!"

As much as she enjoyed the mental image of Kuroth playing with a ball, she couldn't see how it was feasible. Instead of staying on that subject, she pondered the idea of their quiet dragons ... Kuroth and Bladeth could probably be friends, just like Amaata and Dani. "I don't think Kuroth will expect him to be at all stereotypical," Amaata said gently. "I think that they can be friends, too."

[nineofswords]

Dani shuddered. "Some people just like being miserable, though. I don't really understand it myself. I'd much rather try to find a way to be happy than just be upset that everything isn't going exactly my way." Sure, she'd had her rough patches with Bladeth, but it was much, much nicer working through them to figure out a way to be happy about it.

She smiled at Amaata's hummed agreement. She'd volunteered for a few candidate classes, to be a rider they could ask questions of. She knew how old that kind of thing could get, and how very fast it got old.

Dani let out a slight chuckle. "I always forget that not everyone steps right into candidacy as soon as they're eligible," she admitted a little sheepishly. "It was kind of a given for me. And everyone in my family. The only reason I got any training in the healing arts was because my mom wanted all of us to have backup plans in case we didn't impress. She wasn't a rider, and didn't want us to think that was all there was to life." Dani gave a sad smile, her eyes very far away. "She was a smart lady, my mom." She shook the reverie off and turned her focus back to Amaata. "So where are you from, originally? A hold, or did the idea of fighting thread just take a while for you to warm up to?"

"Oh, never fear, I know how important my skill set is in an emergency," Dani said with a laugh. "I just don't have any illusions that I could diagnose an illness or whip up something to treat it." She was good in a crisis, an emergency, but when it came to anything more than that for healing, she really was more useful as a dragonrider.

"Yeah, that's where I struggle," Dani admitted, rubbing the back of her head. "I can sew just enough to mend things, but it's not pretty. I'd rather just get it done quickly than good." She sighed. "I keep meaning to learn something useful like knitting or something, but I just never have the time. And when you're laid up in bed on the healer's orders, you don't especially want to try learning a new skill. Or at least I don't." She shot Amaata a smile. "Yeah, lucky for me I'm not too clumsy or illness prone either. Still, it does happen."

"Would you believe I thought using boulders might work?" Dani asked with a broad grin. "Luckily my dad caught me before I actually went through with convincing Bladeth to play catch with one, and explained why that was a bad idea." She laughed. "I'll admit, not my smartest moment, but..." She shrugged in a 'what can you do?' kind of gesture.

"Oh, I think they'd be great friends!" Dani agreed readily. "Especially since we've been talking. Bladeth tends to trust that my friends know what to expect from him, even if it's been three days and he's forgotten about them."

[Dragon]

"It wasn't fighting Thread that took me time to warm up to," Amaata said. "It was the idea of being Weyrwoman that I couldn't warm up to. My parents kept shoving it in my head that I was going to Impress Gold, and at Igen things are still done traditionally. That's where I'm from." She shifted a little. She knew that the chances of any given person Impressing a queen was tiny, but her parents had put a great deal of pressure on her. "I never wanted that. Fighting Thread suits me, though."

She wasn't a foreground kind of person. She was a supporting character. Riding blue, fighting Thread, going on Search ... that was her. She was glad that she had found her place alongside Kuroth, because she had been very much adrift until she had Impressed. "My whole life was a backup plan until Kuroth came along," she said wistfully.

She definitely agreed that Dani's mom was a smart lady for insisting that her children have backup plans, though. It wasn't good to put all your eggs in one basket.

"Both my parents were riders. Mother is gone, but father's still riding brown in Igen. They had aspirations for me, ones that didn't fit me at all. It was ... awkward." She didn't have a good relationship with her father as a result, and things with her mother had been tense until the older woman passed away fighting Thread.

It was good to hear that things weren't like that for Dani though. It sounded like she was close with her parents and that was wonderful. Amaata's parents had been more of the too-busy type, except for when they were pushing the idea of her riding gold one day.

She gave Dani a smile when the other woman admitted that she didn't have the patience for things like sewing. "I've got good focus, thankfully," Amaata said. "Almost all my skills require patience. It was a good distraction when I was younger ... still is sometimes." Amaata was awkward and frequently lonely ... killing time was a good thing.

Amaata grinned, looking at the ground, when Dani said that she had thought about trying to play ball with Bladeth with a boulder. "Yeah, that's probably a bad idea. But then again, they do chew on rocks ..." So maybe it wasn't entirely awful, just off-kilter.

"It's a pity that they forget things so quickly," Amaata said with a sigh. Of course, Kuroth always had her remembering things for him ... but it was sad that he had to.

[nineofswords]

Dani lightly hit her head with the palm of her hand. "Right, yes, you said your parents wanted you to be on gold. Sorry, must've gotten too much in in my own head." She gave a self-deprecating laugh. "You ever move so fast through a conversation that some details of it just fall out of your head?" She shook her head. "It happens to me way more than I like to admit. Everyone's always telling me that this is why I should slow down, and I never do listen." She offered Amaata a sheepish smile. "I swear, though, I am paying attention when you talk. Even if I'm bad at showing it."

"Igen, huh? How'd you like it there?" she asked. "I'm originally from Telgar, myself. It's not too different from High Reaches, weather-wise, so it wasn't too much of an adjustment in that regard." They were very similar. Occasionally, she caught herself expecting to run into her dad or older brother in one of the lower cavern areas.

"I know what you mean," Dani said with a huge grin. "I couldn't imagine what my life would be like without Bladeth, without getting to fight thread. Anything else would just be a backup plan, a fraction of what my life is now."

"My mother's gone too," Dani said. "It happened a long time ago, but...I still miss her." She offered Amaata a sad smile. "I'm sure it must be different for you, given how...awkward your relationship with your parents was. Still, I can't imagine that made her death any easier, even if it helped relieve some of the pressure."

"Oh, I have great focus," Dani said. "But only for really physical activities. Small, fiddly stuff..." She shook her head with a rueful smile. Too much focus for too little reward, in her opinion. She understood the value in things like sewing, sure, but the effort it took to produce a tiny, barely visible line of stitching was too much for her. "It's good that you like them as distractions, though!" Dani said. "My distractions were usually rough-housing with my brothers, so I didn't need to find other ways of entertaining myself."

Dani gave a start, then laughed, mostly at herself. "Oh Faranth...I thought you meant your Kuroth liked to gnaw on rocks, and not...not that he chewed firestone," she said, unable to keep the giggles out of her voice even as she spoke.

Dani shrugged. "I suppose it's kind of a pity that dragons forget things so fast," Dani allowed. "I just kinda see it as the nature of dragons. It's how they are. It's part of why they need to be bonded to a human, and why a wher doesn't."

[Dragon]

"It's all right," Amaata said with a small smile. It wasn't like she thought Dani was ignoring her - the other woman was right that the conversation was just tumbling out of control! They were talking about so much so fast that some things were bound to fall through the cracks. "Igen was ... fine. Warmer than High Reaches, that's for sure, but ... well, I wanted some space." And there was plenty of space here! She was feeling pretty good without the constant specter of her father looming over her and Kuroth.

She nodded when Dani spoke about everything else being a backup plan. "I might have fought becoming a dragonrider, but this is definitely what I'm meant to be doing. Kuroth is who I was meant to be with. And Skatha is the icing on the cake."

Amaata sobered a little bit as talk switched to their dead mothers. "I do miss her. All I have left of her is regrets and wondering if things could have been different. I understand that she wanted more for me than she had gotten herself, but being 'just a dragonrider' isn't a bad life. In fact, it's pretty sharding amazing."

The bluerider understood her parents. She just wasn't comfortable with them or with the pressure they put on her.

She laughed a little at the confession that while Dani had focus, she wasn't good with 'small, fiddly stuff'. "I don't have any siblings, but I grew up in the creche so I was never alone. But I like some quiet time, time to myself, which I guess is why I gravitated towards a bunch of fiddly stuff when I was trying to find something to occupy myself with."

The curly-haired woman laughed again at the mention of gnawing on rocks. "I definitely meant firestone! I mean, it's a rock, so ... but I've never seen a dragon chewing on any other rocks. I suppose you could play catch with some firestone?"

It was sad that dragons forgot things so quickly. "Kuroth has me remember things for him. He specifically tells me when he wants to remember something, and I remember it to remind him of it later. He's very curious. But you're probably right that the memory has something to do with why dragons need us ..."

Wasn't that a melancholy thought.

[nineofswords]

"Understandably!" Dani agreed. "Given how your father is, distance is probably good." Dani was very close with her family after all, and she still relished having a little space from most of them sometimes. She couldn't imagine how much of a relief it must be to have space from an overbearing family member.

"It's probably a good thing gold dragons are so rare," she said. "Your odds of becoming a gold rider were always slim, no matter what your parents wanted. It sucks that they made the prospect of impressing at all a stressful one with their own agendas, though." Dani couldn't imagine dreading standing, dreading the prospect of impressing. That had to be stressful.

Dani laughed along with Amaata. "Isn't it funny how different people turn out? I never know what to do with myself during quiet downtime, and you seek it out sometimes, yet we're both dragonriders who love threadfighting." She couldn't understand how anyone could find quiet comforting, but she knew some did. It was always so interesting how different people could be, even people who'd grown up in the similar environments of the creche.

"I just started imagining a dragon gnawing on a normal rock, and I don't know why, but it just struck me as stupidly funny," Dani said, still giggling a little. She wiped at her eyes. "Maybe they could!" she said in reference to dragons playing catch with firestone. "But the dust from it would get all over them. They'd need a bath afterwards, and I'm personally against anything that requires me to wash Bladeth more than I have to. There's just...so much of him," she said with a sigh.

"Bladeth doesn't have a lot of things he asks me to remember for him," Dani admitted. "He can get anxious easily, so in some ways it's easier on him that he forgets the things that stress him out quickly. He seems content to just live in the moment for the most part." It was something that Dani herself tended to aspire to. It seemed a happier existance to her.

[Dragon]

Well, Amaata certainly agreed with that. Things were nicer in the brief time since she had distanced herself from her father. Easier. So far her place in High Reaches with Kuroth felt natural.

She nodded when Dani said that it was a good thing that golds were so rare. Her father was traditional enough that he also didn't approve of Amaata Impressing Kuroth because he was blue, but she really didn't want to get into that. "It really was ... not great," she said instead of digging further into her issues with her father.

"It's all about balance for me. I work hard, I play hard, but sometimes I just need some time to rest." And since Amaata couldn't really stand doing nothing, she took her rest time while keeping her hands busy. She wouldn't be surprised, though, if Dani only rested when she was sleeping. There was a very go go go aura about her, and that was coming from Amaata who preferred being active herself.

The idea of dragons trying to chew on your basic rock was kind of funny but probably not safe. Who knew when you'd get a rock that would break a dragon's teeth ...

"I don't mind washing Kuroth, but he's much smaller than Bladeth" Amaata said. It kind of felt awkward when a candidate was assigned to help her with Kuroth. She didn't actually need help with the tiny blue. "He's really on the small side of things."

She could understand how it would be easier on an anxious dragon to forget things. Amaata and Kuroth, however, couldn't function that way. Kuroth's overwhelming curiosity was too much for forgetting things to be easy for him. Thankfully, they had things worked out so that he could remember what he wanted to most of the time. "There are some things I wish I could forget ..."

[nineofswords]

"Yeah, seems like it wasn't great," Dani agreed. "It's good that you don't have to deal with that anymore, or at least you can deal with it on your own terms." That was the nice thing about distance, it gave you more options for when and how to deal with the hard stuff.

"I'm the same way," Dani agreed. "I also work hard and play hard. Maybe I'm weird, though, cause I find play plenty restful." It was part of what made her so good at threadfighting, as well as so capable of being able to jump into emergencies. She truly did not understand why rest for so many people included sitting still. It was unfathomable to her.

"I don't really mind washing Bladeth," Dani admitted. "It's just such a long process, you know? I love Bladeth, but there's only so much to chat with him about before we run out of subjects, and any candidates who help me out don't really know how to talk to me either. So much of our conversation gets taken up with small talk that's me just getting them to loosen up, which is fine, but it makes it hard to really have a good chat, you know? Like of like the one we're having now," she added with a small smile.

"Yeah, I kinda get what you mean," Dani said. "Not personal things, of course, but there's a lot of sadness in the world, and sometimes it'd be nicer if I could forget about some of it for a little while." She'd helped with the mudslide at High Reaches Hold, and there'd been some sadness there. Yes, she was pleased she'd been able to help save people, but it'd be nice if that could actually overshadow the losses, the grief she'd also seen.

[Dragon]

On her own terms. That seemed really nice. Amaata didn't know whether or not she wanted to cut her father out completely, but she definitely didn't want to deal with him on a daily basis or have to try to avoid him. So here she was in High Reaches, living her best life.

"Play can be restful, but sometimes I just need quiet," Amaata said, glancing up at Kuroth. They were good at being quiet together. They were a good match.

She nodded when Dani explained that it wasn't about washing Bladeth, but rather about the amount of time it took ... and the lack of conversation while it happened. Amaata could sort of understand that, but she was also very good with companionable silences. "I do like a good chat," she admitted. She didn't have to be talking all the time, though.

Like right now. As Dani talked about there being times that she wished she could forget, Amaata lapsed into silence for a few moments. What would it be like to be able to forget your sadness? To let go of everything that weighed you down? That sounded strange and wonderful.

But she didn't want to focus on the sad parts. She wanted to focus on what was good and bright in her world ... like Kuroth. As much of a shadow as he was, he always made her feel lighter.

Amaata cast around for something to say and landed on the topic of family. Not hers, but Dani's. "So you said your dad and your brothers are all dragonriders? What are they like?"