==== January 1st, 2013
==== Zannen, Zalara
==== Zalara finds Zannen at the Lake, and the two discover the Mirror Cavern.

Who Zannen, Zalara
What Zalara finds Zannen at the Lake, and the two discover the Mirror Cavern.
When Afternoon. There are 3 months and 27 days until the 12th Pass.
Where Lake, Mirror Cavern; Igen Weyr

Zannen1.jpg Zalara-Bonnie.jpg


igenlake.jpg

Lake
The crystalline focus of the westward stretch of Igen's activity chases frequent, colorful sunsets that sprawl over sparkling azure waters, throwing back Rukbat's brilliance in breathtaking pyrotechnic displays. Clean, crisp waters run still and deep, providing a transparent view of Weyr Lake's aquatic residents and their rocky home below with startling clarity, right down to the tiniest pebble. The glasslike qualities grow murky, however, near southern shores and the inevitability of runoff from the pens and their occupants. To the north, streams flow in a controlled rush downwards into the dark depths of the water caverns, the constant babble echoing through the neighboring ruins of Igen's abandoned complexes, disturbing naught but the tunnelsnakes that call that area 'home'.


Who says it's autumn? It's all relative at Igen. It's also fine swimming weather, according to one Seacrafter. Zannen shuffles along the sandy lakeshore wearing only a pair of off-white board shorts and simple leather sandals - a clear indication of his intended destination. Flipping a towel off a tanned shoulder into the sand, he slips his sandals off on top of it and proceeds to take a practiced arc into the crystalline water, smiling absently as he surfaces. Ahhh, water! It's like his second home. If it weren't for the lake, he might feel completely lost here.

Zalara comes out to enjoy some sun and some water. She puts down her towel and she takes off her pants and top. She's wearing a two-piece bikini underneath and she spots Zannen. "Hey, Zannen!" She waves to him and swims out after him, as she loves the water too.

Being the tall, water-bred guy he is, Zannen is already a good way out into the lake and getting further by the second. Long, easy strokes pull him across the lake with ease, and Zalara's lucky he even manages to hear her over the water rushing by his ears. He stops, treading water and glancing about until he spots the girl, and he waves back. "'ey! Zalara!" he calls, swimming in her direction to meet her halfway before stopping again and swiping water-logged hair back from his forehead with a grin. "Been a while, eh? How're ye doin'? Yer flizzards alright these days?"

Zalara smiles brightly as she swims up and goes to give Zannen a hug. "Yah! It's good to see you; how have you been? My firelizards are doing great. They decided to stay at the beach." She lets him go to tread water. "So, how long are you going to be here?"

A bit surprised by the hug, Zannen falters slightly before his legs take up the slack left by arms that return the gesture a bit uncertainly, and he chuckles. His grin strays into goofy territory; she caught him off guard, shardit! "Good! Good," he answers as he lets her go, squinting toward the beach as if he might be able to spy the firelizards. "Just had m' turnday," he confesses nonchalantly. "Kya brought me up here fer that. Think I may be about fer a while this time. Trainin' to help you lot on ground crews, fer when Thread comes back." He nearly scowls at the thought - not at working on the crews, but at Thread. And what it almost did to his sister and her dragon. "Bet ye been busy with that yerself, eh?" he questions, trying to lighten his tone.

Zalara smiles as she lets him go and she ohs. "Happy turnday! If I had known I would have gotten you something. Is there anything you want that I can give you?" she asks and nods. "Good. I'm training on the ground crew too, and learning how to make and repair the flamethrowers."

"Thanks," Zannen returns, an eyebrow dancing upward as he rubs the back of his neck. "'s kind of ye, Zalara, but 's alright. Th' hug'll do fine." He offers up another grin, then starts to pull himself slowly along, back out to deeper water. Moving at a languid enough pace that she can follow him, he gives a nod. "Oh, aye. Makes sense, bein' a Smith. We're busy enough down at th' River Hold, too. Gotta get covers made for all th' boats, so Thread can't get at 'em, either." On he swims, every now and then checking over his shoulder to make sure he's not getting too far ahead of the Smith girl.

Zalara smiles. "You are welcome. I'll try to remember for next Turn." She swims with Zannen. "I can only imagine. What do you cover them with that the Thread can't get them? Usually Thread eats through everything but metal and stone.”

"Metal," Zannen answers, stopping again to look around and spying the mouth of what looks like a cavern in the near distance. "We get th' Smiths to make us some big sheets a' thin, light metal, an' we bind 'em together an' lay 'em across the tops. After we unstep th' masts, o' course," he explains. "An' that's just fer the boats we can't find shelter for. So not too many. But it's work, all th' same. Ah…" He waves it all off, a bit rueful. "Sorry. Got me goin' on my own craft; ye don' wanna hear about boats. I don' wanna hear about boats; I jus' wanna swim." Another grin, and he gestures off toward the mouth of the cave across the water. "Do ye know where that goes?" he asks. "Is that that 'mirror cavern' Kya's told me about, maybe?"

Zalara ahs as she listens. "Well hopefully I can help make that metal sheet one day. I don't mind listening to you talk about your craft. I wanna hear about you and what you like." She smiles and looks off to the cave. "Sure. I'll race you." She takes off.

Zannen gives a very puzzled tilt of his head, blinking. "Err…ye do?" Why anyone would be so curious about him is quite beyond his comprehension at the moment. "'m just a sailor. Nothin' special here." And then Zalara is taking off. "’ey! Warn a guy!" And he follows quickly after…though he lets her stay ahead. He could overtake her easily, if he wanted to!


igenmirrorcavern.jpg

Mirror Cavern
Cordoned off from the lake under a cape of stone is a sheltered grotto sized like a dragon weyr. Running water dribbles over the entrance not in any great torrent but lesser strings of liquid. Within, isolated waters assume a perfectly protected calmness pitching prisms of refracted light onto the walls and dome-like ceiling. How they flash when the pool's crystal clear surface is disturbed, serpents of light scattering like tunnel snakes from a lantern. Surfaces are naturally unfinished which explains the varying depths, 2-12 feet, and ability to be comfortly seated. As with any small cavern sounds have a way of being amplified be they swim strokes or nuggets of gossip.


Zalara laughs as she dives under to get to the Mirror Cavern. She comes up and oohs as she looks around. "It's a lot more pretty then I heard about."

Slowing considerably to follow after the girl, Zannen ducks under and comes up with hair flopped over in his eyes. Again. Muttering a few choice words (but minding his company), he shoves it back and glances around appreciatively. "Oh, aye. No' bad at all. Bit loud though, isn' it?" He gives an experimental slosh to the water, listening to the intensity of the echo before venturing further in and climbing up onto a shelf of rock. "Wouldn' wan' to have an argument in here, fer sure."

Zalara swims over to one of the shallower parts to have a seat and she looks around enjoying the light as it plays over the cave walls. "No, you wouldn't," she says keeping her voice low. “But it's very beautiful." She gives Zannen a smile.

Pacing along the outcrop with a hand against the wall to keep his balance, Zannen glances down at Zalara and gives a lopsided grin in return. "Alright, yeah. 's beautiful, I s'pose. I can see why people like it so much." Peering into the water, he finds a spot with some good depth and launches a picture-perfect dive right into the midst of it, coming up a few seconds later and saving himself some trouble by emerging with his head back. No hair in his eyes this time! Then he swims over near Zalara, wades up, and plops down in the shallows a short distance to her right, leaning back in a lazy sprawl. "Think I might like spendin' some time here a bit more often, m'self. Good find, fellow explorer!" He sticks his hand out toward her with his palm flat. High five!

Zalara watches as Zannen goes to dive in and she gives him a high five. "Thanks. Hopefully we won't have to fight off any tunnel snakes, although this time I have two firelizards ready to tangle with them." She says with a grin, "Although Narcis is the better hunter."

Zannen scrunches up his face a bit and shakes his head. "I don' think they'd come in here," he says. "Though if they did, then we've both got help, yeah? 'ey! Mazu!" His last is called to the air, and in the midst of the echo his voice sets bouncing about the cave like an errant ball, a small, sea green body pops into the air above them, trilling curiously. "Have a look around fer us, would ya, little'un?" Mazu obligingly takes a trip around the cave, and Zannen grins over at Zalara. "You got the hunter, I got the guard flizzard. Ye'll be safe from tunnel snakes with me, eh? Though," he frowns, "I s'pose I was the one who said run tha’ time. Ah well." He shrugs, and Mazu comes down to light on the rock beside his head, chirruping happily. All clear! And into the water she goes for her own swim.

Zalara smiles, "I'm sure we'll be safe." She watches Mazu fly around and she nods to him. "Thanks, Mazu." She moves back into the water to swim around and she floats on her back. "Mmm. This is nice - just to hang out and swim around."

Zannen flicks an amused glance to his firelizard. "Ye hear that?" he asks the creature, and Mazu chirps, then croons at the girl floating in the water before turning attention back to her own explorations. "Yer welcome," the tall Seacrafter translates with a chuckle, watching Zalara as she floats. "Pfff. Yer so tiny it's hardly any work for ye to do that," he comments dryly. "I've gotta try harder." But he doesn't seem to be inclined to demonstrate for now, instead regarding the Smith girl thoughtfully. "When's yer turnday, anyhow? Or did ye turn thirteen b'hind my back?"

Zalara swims over towards Zannen, "I may be tiny, but it's all muscle." She sits up and flexes to show off that there is very little fat on her. She hmms. "Oh, not for a couple of months. No, I'm only 12, but I'm getting closer to 13. Why do you ask?" she asks as she moves to sit next to him.

Chuckling at Zalara's show of muscle, Zannen holds up his hands to show she's made her point. "No argument there, girl," he says with a grin. "Wouldn' want to get on yer bad side with all that. 'specially with Kya teachin' ye to fight 'n' all. Me, I got the same, y'know." He flexes his own arms downward to get his chest involved, giving an over-dramatic grimace and a grunt to go along with it. Such a boy, having to show off. "'s why I can't float as easy as you." Sprawling back again, he shrugs as he watches her come to sit beside him. "Just curious," he answers. Then he makes a face. "Why? You one o' those girls that gets touchy if a guy asks her age? Don' hit me, eh?" He brings up an arm and a leg and curls in on himself a bit, as if to guard against possible retaliation. And the face gets goofier!

Zalara nods. “Good." She giggles a little bit as she watches Zannen flex, although she does pause to admire his muscles. "True, you do have all those muscles weighing you down." She shakes her head. "Nope, I'm not. So you are lucky." She moves over and gently taps his shoulder with her fist. "Aye, you better be scared if I was really after you."

If he's getting admired, Zannen doesn't know it, and certainly doesn't expect it from Zalara because, well…it's Zalara. Or else is just that clueless about how to tell from her. Probably the case. He gives a small, high-pitched yelp at the bump of Zalara's fist, making a show out of looking wounded. "Oh, I'm warned, I am," he says, grinning and sitting up. He looks toward the entrance, giving a sigh as he shoves a hand through his hair again. "I'd better get back," he notes, shoving into deeper water. "Gotta go pick up a few things in the Bazaar for the journeymen." A quick waggle of eyebrows. "Race ye back to shore?" Maybe he won't be as nice this time…ah, who's he kidding?

Zalara smiles. 'Good. Yah, you wouldn't want to be in trouble." She goes to gently push him back while she springs ahead. "Sure, I'll race you back!"

Zannen lets himself get shoved, and while he doesn't allow her too much of a lead, he does let her beat him. He's so much bigger than her, after all; it just wouldn't be fair! From there, he grudgingly pulls himself from the water and towels off, working briskly at his hair until it sticks up all over and stepping into his sandals. "Alright then, Zalara. See y' around! Maybe we'll find somewhere new t' poke around next time, eh?" Then, with a jaunty salute off his brow and a sling of his towel around his shoulders, he's sauntering back toward the crafter quarters to find some decent clothes for those errands of his.

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