Up late, or is it early? (open)

[shadowreine]

Teosk had already taken to his den, but Teonie could not sleep. Thus, the day folk, breakfasting, would catch a rare glimpse of Allride's...and as far as was known Pern's...only russethandler.

Most thought Teosk was likely a one off, some kind of mutation in the egg, meant to be a brown. Not a brown, clearly...no brown wher was quite that nasty and he was as asexual as any white. Teonie and her wher both had the reputation of snapping at people, and as she sat in a corner, it might well take a brave person to approach her. Even if she was very definitely wher free right now.

Teosk was a good wher in her mind, of course, and she forced her gaze to soften. The Weyr needed to hang together and even an anti-social wherhandler could not afford to make herself *too* unpopular right now. She even tried on a smile, but it did not look right. As if she had forgotten how to make one.

[Kisha-Ra]

At least the atmosphere had lightened somewhat, not too much but then there was still a mad greenrider on the loose somewhere (M’rim hadn’t actually seemed insane as a weyrling but it just went to show), however it was clear to Zamora that hope for the future, as provided by a gold Flight, did make people a little happier.

With a slight frown the brownrider noted that all her favourite tables were occupied, then picked one out and headed for it anyway. A soft but not particularly ladylike snort of amusement escaped the brownrider as the occupant of her chosen table tried a smile. ‘That really doesn’t suit you, you know.’ Zamora commented as she put her breakfast down on the table and gave it a mournful look, that being more or less Zamora’s natural expression. ‘Smiling looks about as natural on your face as it does on mine,’ she continued, ‘Which is to say not that natural at all.’ With that said Zamora paused and looked expectantly at the wherhandler.

[shadowreine]

Teonie snorted. "That's because I'm usually not around when its light enough for people to see my expression." She added, ruefully. "Can't sleep."

Her knot was an interesting orange color, the best they had been able to do to match Teosk's feline-spotted hide. That alone would mark her as the russethandler (so far, there was only one).

"Teonie," she added. "The crazy wherhandler."

She had that reputation...that she was only marginally more sane and less violent than a wher most thought was only held back from eating people by their bond. That had almost gone wild at hatching, for that matter.

Good thing, Teonie often thought, that he had not. She would surely have bonded a different wher; maybe even a bronze. But Teosk would have had to be destroyed had he gone wild on this island, for she knew full d**n well that what they said about her bond was true.

[Kisha-Ra]

Zamora canted her head to one side curiously. ‘So your expression doesn’t look like it belongs because there’s usually no one around to see it?’ She interpreted in a facetious tone. ‘That doesn’t explain away why my smiling looks unnatural. You might need to rethink that one a little.’

‘Are you really that crazy?’ Another facetious question, apparently the brownrider was in quite some mischievously facetious mood this morning. ‘You seem quite sane to me so far, although if you’re about to do something really insane I’d like a little warning. It’s early for us day people so I probably won’t adjust to you going from apparently perfectly normal to totally mad in one burst.’

After a slight pause that was more for breath than anything else Zamora recalled that she hadn’t actually let the handler know who she was yet, and although there was only one wherhandler Teonie could be Zamora could have been any old dragonrider. ‘I’m Zamora, the one with the brown dragon who can’t tell the difference between boys and girls, either that or no one told him he was supposed to pick a boy.’ It was a good thing Binagoonganth had decided to eat that morning and was currently dozing off a full belly or Zamora would find herself listening to an incensed dragon complaining that he did know the difference thank you so very much, and he had picked the right rider.

Zamora gave the other woman an interested look, of course she’d heard about Teosk, mostly from her brother who longed to get a proper look at the wher but was too shy to just approach the infamous pair, and aside from Z’mir’s observations rumours abounded about the pair. The brownrider gave a mental snort and turned her attention to her breakfast for the moment, she couldn’t say anything about the wher but Teonie didn’t seem to be losing her grip on reality, and Zamora couldn’t see a single baby on the wherhandler’s plate either, which probably meant she didn’t really eat them for breakfast.

[shadowreine]

Teonie smirked. "Not really. I cultivate the reputation...mostly to keep people away from Teosk. Because he IS crazy."

She settled back into her chair. "Almost went wild at hatching and the only person he tolerates at all is me. But he's also a d**n good watcher."

Except they should have been...no. Who would have thought that a *rider* could attack a queen, that a green dragon could so hide her rider's intentions?

Everything was getting pretty messed up, but the last people they had suspected were the riders of the lesser colors. Pern was, truthfully, not what it had once been.