Cove

A saber's curl along the coast of the Azov Sea, the cove is a clash of green and black; where deeply forested jungles encroach upon the curving expanse of this tiny cove, found only past the rocky barrier that serves as demarcation between cove and beach. Lacking the softly ground sand of the beach, the cove is made up of dark, volcanic pebbles, making it trickier to navigate than the beach itself. Yet, what a surprise is given if one braves the less comfortable path that curves around a long-forgotten cinder cone to find the quiet tranquility of seclusion. Brilliant against the black pebbled beach, greenery is only enhanced by the purest of turquoise waters, warmed by a deep volcanic vent and churned by hidden currents that further feeds into the relative calm of the sea itself. A small school of rainbow fish and yellowfish swims around here.

A leviathan has been pushed up on the shore, that gap behind his rib plates rising and falling with precious breath. It's really a bronze dragon, Ahiardhath, voluntarily mired in sand. His limbs, buried in wet sand, look like they've been amputated or dissolved in some new grotesque avant garde art form. The waves are temperate today, lashing at the resting dragon with only some abandon. Surrounded by surf, perched on rocks elevated just out of the sea's reach, A'kehm spear fishes in the shallows. He's as static as his lifemate, one looking without senses, the other poised to use them all on a fish just out of lunge.

Ryott should have known. The pint-sized weyrwoman has been bristling being confined to the Weyr now that her lifemate's fairly steady glow, and she should have been suspicious when Wrayth suggested they visit the cove, about as far from the Weyr as she really should be going at this point. But the place has offered her solitude in the past, and so she decides in an instant to head out. But as she's coming down the rocky trail she can see the half-buried leviathan and rolls her eyes. « Well I never said it was unoccupied. » The gold says as she wings over from above, her brightly golden hide taking on the colors of the sunset as she gets lower and lower. Ryott's head shakes as she decides she can handle one other person if it means escaping the intense scrutiny she's feeling from all angles.

Ahiardhath, half washed but not really resentful about a job half done on his hide, is conserving energy he knows he'll require later. Eventually. His eyelid, the nictating membrane still able to be seen through, is cast up at the sky like a beached fish but after a form flies overhead, the eye lenses beneath transitioning more color. "Ahhhhv!" Frustrated by the direction of the wind and something spooking the resident fish, throws the spear and his whole body with it, breaking through the water up to his low chest and seething in spray. « Patience, wasn't that a virtue? » Ahiardhath rouses, at least lifting his head. Part of a sea plant is chuffed off his muzzle. A'kehm gets back onto his rock, using one arm to help draw himself out and crouch like a half-drowned savage trying to unsnort seawater.

It doesn't take long for Wrayth to make her way down to land in the shallows, making a show of furling pyrite wingsails onto her back. Lean body slinks then, over pebbled beach idly looking for a place to settle her slinky form while pointedly trying to ignore the still half-buried bronze. Trying and failing badly. The display is enough to make Ryott groan and think about turning back altogther and leave her lifemate to whatever it is she's attempting. But them she spots a somewhat familiar form jump into the shalow water and her interest is piqued. Deft feet amble in that direction then, shoeless so as not to make noise, hands stuck deep into her pockets, pants rolled up almost to her knees as she doesn't shy from wading into the water, probably disrupting the fish even more with her splashing steps. "Caught anything?" she asks indelicately as she watches him climb back up on his rock with mild interest.

Ahiardhath rotates his axis to go from lying laterally to putting his legs under him. He watches Wrayth try to get comfortable without any immediate successes then plants his head on his front legs to elevate his gaze so he doesn't have to move a lick. They can have an ignoring contest. So far, both dragons are well-matched. "Just lung congestion." A'kehm sees who's addressing him, drifts his bottom jaw over to one side when he sees it's Ryott, and then tries to relocate the slender shape of fish through refracted water constantly in some sort of motion. "Want to do me a favor and get slow into the water to make 'em veer this way?" If A'kehm's serious, he might truly not be.

It takes awhile for Wrayth to find just the spot to curl up in, and none too surprising, it's not too far from the bronze. She'll turns around herself a few times before finally settling into a tight curl, her head tucked under one wing. But in such a way that she can peek under it covertly to keep tabs on what Ahiardhath is doing, her sneakiness knows no bounds. Ryott isn't being very sneaky though, a quiet snort for the bronzerider's first before tilting her head at his odd request. The teen may be skilled in quite a few things, but fishing ain't one of them. "So…You want me to act as actual bait? Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen," she finally replies with a skeptical eye turned to the water.

Ahiardhath's wings lay derelict at his sides, half-covering his body like a sheet over a cadaver. His breathing style has been to take in silent gulps of air and spend them slowly, mostly facing the horizon and what few trawlers are cycling further out from shore. "Bait?" Kehm cocks his head over his shoulder, hair cut free of dreadlocks still long enough to reach his back, barely. A raised eyebrow resettles to be at par with the other. "Though a part of me would like to see something large enough to eat you existing, you just need to wade around and make noise. You're good at that, right?" He looks like he's truly asking her credentials.

Wrayth remains a bright golden coil for now, perhaps unexpectedly falling prey to a sudden nap herself, but it's hard to tell with her head so covered. "Yeah bait. You know, what people use for fishing and hunting to attract game," she recites a rather dry definition sarcasm dripping off it. His last elicits a dry chuckle as she scoffs with a roll of her eyes, "I'd like to see something try to eat me. I wouldn't go down without a fight." Shes cocky sure, maybe even more so with th4e aid of her lifemate's prodiness. But when he explains further, she seems to consider. "Actually, I'm better at stepping quietly, but it shouldn't be that difficult," she agrees to his task as starts to wade further into the water, moving around as she keeps her eyes on the water.

Two dragons behaving themselves. Or comatose. Either way, it's pretty zen. With sediment back to building around the bronze, Ahiardhath will do his best not to drown in low tide. "Think of it more like flushing them this way. Or driving. You've seen herding canines, right?" Seawater slick, A'kehm's tunic lies with his dragon and he stoops with one knee lower than the other. Zeus about to throw a thunderbolt. "There," daring not to move his head once his posture has been set. "Start to come towards me, thaaat's it." A knee is bleeding from where he rubbed it on a rock but the cut is nothing but a shallow divet. Maybe blood in the water will bring the bigger fish out.

"Oh so now you're calling me a bitch?" Ryott retorts after the talk of herding canines, but her uncharacteristic laughter that follows easily shows that she's joking. She continues to shuffle around in the water until he speaks once more, instinctively freezing before adjusting her course as requested. Her eyes finally drift upwards, studying his posture as he readies his spear with some scrutiny. « You're staring. » Oh shut up. Weren't you napping?" Her brow crinkles in response to the brief exchange with her dragon, her dark eyes dropping once more as she tries to ignore her lifemate, more than happy to have something to distract her.

Still static in place, Lynx's wingsecond conducts a look to Ryott, just a blink of movement. "Don't make me laugh, I'm trying to concentrate." Doubling back on the blue-black water about a foot below his stance, he invests in a millisecond of hesitation before hurling the sharpened stick of buoyant wood just left of center. A flash of white below the water. He jumps into the water to pull the three-pronged spear to him, fish attached. It's a little bigger than his hand. "If you don't cut it out as a goldrider, there's always flushing someone else's game. So what brought you down here barefoot? Don't want tan lines?" He starts a short wade back to land.

Catching that look her way, Ryott shrugs, making him laught had not really been her intention, but ok. At another time, she might have taken that as a challenge, but as it is, she merely continues to diligently play her part until he makes his catch. "Well done," she drawls dryly, before rolling her eyes at his next, "Well at least that's some comfort since I'm not even sure I can cut it as a goldrider." the confession is made in an offhand way before she shares her reason for seeking the cove. "Barefoot is best," she replies rather cryptically, best for what is left up to the bronzerider's imagination. "Wrayth suggested this spot after I was feeling a bit stiffled back at the Weyr," she finally elaborated in an honest to goodness straight answer.

"…until you step on a thorn and your toe gets infected and your nail falls off." With just bands of leather on his feet, A'kehm drips his way out of the water and pulls the fish off. "Don't ask me how I know." He analyzes where he left off on Ahiardhath, can't tell just by looking at the bronze, and thus gives up. "You'll feel stiffled a while yet. Best think of what you'll do after all that." There's a half-lean, half-sit low against the bronze's haunch. "But less stiffled than what you were before I take it…?" With M'kel and Treista back up north.

"I watch where I'm walking," Ryott counters easily, as she follows along out of the water as well. "Well yeah, it's definitely more bearable now that that lot is gone. I've just been a bit antsy lately, hoping that one will just get it all over with," she adds with a nod of her head in Wrayth's direction. For her part, the gold lifts her head from under her wing to shoot a mismatched glare in her bonded's direction. « You know what I could go for right now… » Ryott holds her breath, hoping she doesn't say apples. The Weyr's supply is already low because of her queen. « A couple of porcine with a caprine as dessert. » The teen actually look relieved for once as she returns her focus back on A'kehm as Wrayth un-coils herself, followed by a leap into the skies. "I guess we're going now…" she remarks with a roll of her eye, "Stay cool, A'kehm." She adds in parting before hoofing it back towards the rocky trail and eventually the feeding pastures.

The warmth from Ahiardhath's hide transfers into his rider cooled from the sea. "When dragon emotions are forced on you, make the most of them. They are an instant excuse for poor behavior." Well, mostly. His few items are put away, fresh fish won't stay fresh forever. Brushing away what blood trail lingers, Kehm's head pokes through his tunic and as he pulls it down his shoulders, finds Ryott and Wrayth moving on. "Things are as they should be." Meaning Ryott shouldn't worry so much. Ahiardhath, now probably with barnacles, starts to move in preparation to return to their weyr.