Wher oh wher (open)

[shadowreine]

It was dark on the beach. Not that that was a problem for wher eyes as Teosk padded into the shallows. It did matter to human eyes, but Teonie was letting her wher tell her about anything that might cause problems.

In any case, she sat down on the shore, a bit above the lapping waves. Teosk wanted to play in the water. Teonie was less enthused about this idea, but was not about to stand in her wher's way.

She did wonder at certain things. For one thing, the russet appeared to be completely unique. Perhaps likely to remain so, unless his dam produced another like him. If 'he' was the right term for a wher that showed no more interest in females than the white dragon did.

Maybe they had something similar going on...she wouldn't say 'wrong', because she would never admit there was anything wrong with Teosk. Well, she would. But...only to herself. She did, of course, warn people about him.

"Teosk, either catch that fish or stop harassing it."

[Kisha-Ra]

Idara, mine, you worry far too much. The words, spoken in a tone of relaxed contentment were spoken by a gold dragon, who in the darkness was no more than one pale mound among a landscape dominated by pale sands, her metallic sheen dimmed by the lack of light.

You should be back at the Weyr Tuinth, sleeping. Idara replied without looking around at her dragon, her attention caught by some moving shapes further down the beach. You can’t see in the dark. As far as Idara could make out dragons were much like certain predatory avians, they could see sharply at great distances in the light but once the sun went down their vision was very bad indeed, Idara was glad she’d taken a weyr on ground level. There wasn’t a ledge for Tuinth to sun on but at least the gold would be able to land in the bowl and walk in.

So should you.[/color] The dragon pointed out quite reasonably. You should not be sat out here in the dark worrying about stupid things. How often must I say I will rise when I am ready? How much else will you worry about? All is well for now, let the past lie, wait for the future to come. Enjoy yourself for a change.[/color]

‘I guess I am a natural worrier.’ The pale girl admitted softly, as much to herself as her dragon. ‘But that doesn’t mean I’m not right to worry sometimes. Is that a wher down there?’

Probably.[/color] The gold lifted her head and gave the appearance of squinting at the dark shape.Where are you going?[/color]

‘To be nosy of course.’ Idara replied airily and wandered off in the direction of the dark shapes. Behind her Tuinth sighed as only a dragon could and rose ponderously to her feet. Idara needed watching.

[shadowreine]

Teosk growled as somebody approached, letting the fish go as he turned towards land.

"Teosk. Be nice." A pause. "I know. Not in your makeup." She positioned herself between the wher and the approaching woman for now. There was a dragon further up the beach. Hard to tell the color in the dark, and Teosk's heat vision, of course, did not distinguish. It was big, though. Likely...

"Okay. Which queenrider are you?" the wherhandler called, Teosk padding up to her side with feline grace. He was no longer growling, but his glowing wher eyes were fixed on the woman.

"Teosk. Stand down. I'm pretty sure she's an Allride queenrider."

Teosk snorted. Then sniffed and did relax, perhaps identifying Idara's scent as friendly. Silly wher.

[Kisha-Ra]

A growl could certainly carry a long way at night, Idara reflected as Tuinth appeared so close behind her that the gold was in danger of standing on her rider if the girl stopped suddenly. Idara did have to admit, however, that the wher, for it was indeed a wher, looked uniquely designed for hostile sounds. It wasn’t really big, or at least not to someone used to the scale of dragons, but it was heavily muscular, dangerously graceful, and moved like an incarnation of aggression. It was rather easy to see where Tuinth’s sudden apprehension had come from.

‘Idara.’ The pale girl identified herself, stopping some distance from the woman and wher and raising a hand to rest as high up Tuinth’s foreleg as she could comfortably reach while the dragon looked down with interest at the smaller beast. Allride queenrider indeed, there was no other place on Pern that would accept Tuinth, hatched as she was of the ebony queen. ‘And you would be…?’ She inquired before her thoughts led her into too lengthily a pause then turned her attention back to the now silent wher. Ah she’d seen him a few times before had she not? He was rather uniquely marked. ‘Very pretty really…’ She murmured absently, Tuinth declined to comment.

[shadowreine]

"Teonie. And that is Teosk. Be careful...he is not the nicest of whers."

Teosk took one step towards Idara, sniffing at her again, then sidled to his handler's side. He promptly gave the lie to her statement by nuzzling her for an eyeridge scritch.

"Unless you're me," Teonie clarified, regarding the goldrider. Idara. She did not think she had met that one. Maybe seen her around and, certainly, the young queenrider knew of the russet.

Everyone did...knew of him, of his appearance and his reputation. Not many would, Teonie mused, focus on him being 'pretty'. She agreed with the sentiment, obviously, but...

[Kisha-Ra]

Idara nodded solemnly, marking the name and face of the wherhandler in her memory, the wher she hardly needed to make a special note of, he was extremely memorable. I think you my have forgotten to introduce someone my dear one.[/color] Tuinth gave her rider a mental poke to go with the statement though outwardly the queen was still focused on her examination of the unusual wher. ‘Oh, this is Tuinth,’ Idara patted the gold foreleg with proprietary pride, ‘she wants me to introduce her.’

‘Is he really as fearsome as his reputation?’ the goldrider asked, examining the wher with the same interest as her dragon did. She’d heard of him and remembered it now that she heard the wher’s name, however it was rather hard to believe the reputation when the beast was shamelessly soliciting scratches. ‘He doesn’t really look like he’s mad.’ Cold and calculating yes, but murderously insane? Not really, not unless the darkness was concealing it, or he was a very good actor. Idara certainly hoped he was more discriminating in his targets than rumour would suggest, she didn’t really fancy Tuinth getting into a sight with the wher, it was entirely possible the gold might come off worse in a fight with the more agile beast, especially given that he was bred for the night and Tuinth was not.

[shadowreine]

Teonie smiled a little, "He's one of the nastiest whers around, although he can be quite affectionate towards me. It might have something to do with the fact that he apparently can't run a female...he appears to have as much libido as a white dragon."

She reached out to scritch the wher's eyeridges. "We're not sure, yet, whether he's a one off mutation or a new color. He might be something very rare like the whites, or we might start getting a bunch of him. Hard to tell...I almost think...I've heard that the charcoal dragons can be real pains."

[Kisha-Ra]

Idara shrgged and turned her gaze from the wher to the handler. ‘I wouldn’t have thought so, Purth seems to be very pleasant and he doesn’t mate, unless things work differently for whers, they might.’ Dropping her gaze back the beast again the rider shrugged a second time. ‘I have to say I don’t really know much about them, Teosk’s the first I’ve ever seen up close.’ Not that there was much reason for wherhandlers to visit a Weyr community, really this might be the only place where whers and dragons coexisted, particularly if their queens were as rare as dragon queens, or at least as rare as dragon queens were everywhere but here Idara remedied her thought.

‘So far as I can tell the dragon mutations are mostly breeding true.’ Idara mused, her eyes still on the wher. ‘The only ones that haven’t been duplicated are white, fire, and whatever they decided to call that male green that hatched from Malaracyth’s last clutch. Of course Purth is the second white to come along, rather a long gap though, and Renth hasn’t clutched again, she could produce a whole bunch of fires for all I know. Once again, not that really helps with whers, although I understand they’re distantly related. Really though I doubt we’re ever going to understand what’s going on, most of this musing is just to help me get my own thoughts straightened out.’

[shadowreine]

Teonie shrugged, running her hand along Teosk's eyeridge once more. "The only wher I really care about is this one."

Who knew what would come out of the next dragon clutch. As long as the hatchlings were healthy, though, who really cared what color they were? They might...well... Anything might happen. And there might, yes, be another russet or white. "I don't think we came up with a name for the male green, but I could be wrong...people don't always tell me these things."