Who

Halkarie, Keelie

What

Halkarie has a favor to ask of Keelie. He speaks in full sentences… a little bit.

When

It is the seventy-ninth day of Summer and 115 degrees. It is sunny and bright. White fluffy clouds drift lazily across the china blue sky.

Where

Docks, Southern Weyr

OOC Date 03 Jun 2016 04:00

 

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"Tal said you can help."


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Docks

In dark morn and dusky eve fog lies grim and humid against the still waters of Azov Sea. Only the noontime sun burns away the concealing clouds of man's height, revealing that which lies beneath the mist- an awe-inspiring stone pier that stretches far into the inland sea, to the east of the line of orderly boat-slips for the locals and larger, open spaces for transport ships. Fishermen are often as common as seagulls upon the pier's length in particular, ill-concealed and ill-clothed in the loose dun homespun of Southern's natives.


According to all the charts, Thread isn't going to fall like, for a while. So right NOW it is super safe to be on the docks. Today's chore… fish. Lots, and lots, and LOTS of fish. Halkarie's putting his big back to good use hauling all of said fish. He's also keeping an eye out for a particular red head because someone (they might have been playing a joke on him tho, to get out of fish packing duty) said that she MIGHT be somewhere in the vicinity later. Halkarie's the type to get super laser focused on something when it requires his attention.

Halkarie must have gotten his information from a good source, because a certain redhead is actually here at the moment, speaking to a ship captain about some kind of medicinal seaweed for the Serval wing. Healer supplies, they gets them. She is dressed for riding, probably having just gotten off sweeps, her long hair blowing about her shoulders, her helmet tucked under her arm. Gruffith is no where to be seen… unless one was to look way out into the still waters of the Azov sea. He is practicing his swimming, his humped shoulders appearing every so often like the back of some great brown whale.

Red hair… red… woah. Halkarie rescinds his belief that pretty much everyone likes to laugh at him and focuses on the figure upon the ship. He shifts his bag-o-fish on his shoulders and carefully evaluates how much more needs to get shifted before he can try to approach the rider and in a not completely weird creepy way to try to ask her a random question that will probably have her going 'what…'?

The ship captain sends the brownrider a smart salute - wether she salutes him back or not is difficult to tell from Halkarie's POV, but it's safe to say their conversation is over as the red-head turns and walks away. Lucky enough for him, it's in Halkarie's direction! Keelie's gaze sweeps across the ships, to the ocean's horizon, grinning slightly to see her dragon breeching with his wings. He must be having fun out there. She spots the gentle giant with his bag-o-fish and pauses in her step, shielding her eyes. "You are the man from the jungle." She marks him, not unkindly. "The one with the pile of wood."

THIS IS HIS CHANCE. Halkarie swings the bag-o-fish over his shoulder and settles it onto the cart just waiting to take those delicious fish parts up to the weyr for cooking and whatever else people do with fish. But, Halkarie sucks at this, and every prepared line he totally worked on goes right out of his head and instead… .yes. A nod. He IS the person that she met in the jungle with the wood. He glances downward at his fishy hands and quickly shoves them behind his back. But no, wait, he has to keep one out to salute the rider. Failure HAlkarie, failure.

Keelie is more than happy not to have to return salute; she isn't that kind of dragonrider, really. She smiles when he nods, and then tilts her head when he puts his hands behind his back. "Just relax." She caught that look of 'failure' on his face, and tries to reassure. "How are you doing?" She remembers her plights as a candidate all to easily.

But, like, for once he actually has something he REALLY wants to say, particularly to this rider. It's a favor though, and Halkarie doesn't ask those often. Deep breath, calm, slow. Halkarie forces himself to take a few of those deep breaths and visibly relaxes. She's LITERALLY a foot smaller than him and several years younger. It's all cool. ALL COOL. "Ok." A simple answer for her question as he fiddles with fishy hands behind his back. "Tal." Yes, totally the start of a conversation, but no wait, "you?" There. That's better.

With their height difference, Keelie has to look up at Halkarie, for sure. She waits in silence for him to speak, patiently, her hair whipping about. A nod for his ok. "Tal?" A quizzical look, it sounded like there was more words coming. "Fine." She smiles slightly, echoing back his one-word answers.

Slightly awkward pause as Halkarie waits to see if Keelie will add anything else. No? Um, alright. Halkarie can go instead. Fish goo fingers reach into his pocket and pull out a carefully pieced together bit of hide that has been sewn together to show the words upon it. They're blurry, and honestly, so poorly written as to almost be unreadable. Hopefully Keelie can make some sense out of them. Not so helpfully Halkarie will add, "Tal said you can help." (This letter: http://harpers-tale.wikidot.com/logs:selfish-dilemma)

Keelie reaches out a freckled hand for the piece of paper with another curious look at Halkarie. She turns it around and tilts her head, her lips moving as she sounds out each word. Her reading skills have improved greatly since arriving at the weyr, but it took a lot of practice, and to be honest she's a bit relieved that the note is so short. "Who?" She asks, as she finishes, her gaze flickering back to the man. "Where?"

"Who is this from?" Keelie clarifies, after a little giggle. "And where do you need to go?"

Halkarie shifts himself so he can see the writing on the paper and points to the overly elaborate B on the bottom. "Brittany." He says the name very carefully, making sure to say each of the sounds one after another. Brit-tan-nee. Because it's Pern name so it's not allowed to sound totally normal. "I…" hum, even if he's asking Keelie for help, Halkarie's not so very-very sure exactly how much to tell the rider. "lived with them," so not just this Brittany person, "turns." As for where, he turns, lifting one hand, and thus finger, to point in the direction of the jungle. It's a pretty dead recoking, without any doubt in Halkarie's mind. "Two day travel by foot." So… less by dragon. Hopefully.

"Brittany." Keelie echoes, calmly. "And you lived with her for a few turns. Is she your tree?" Brown eyes sparkle. "You must miss her a lot." When he points, she turns her head to look in that direction. She can't read his mind, really, but she can guess. "Is it close to the jungle?" She asks. "You would need to go by dragon. Being away for that long is not allowed. Better to go soon, too. Once the eggs are close to hatching, you will not be able to go anywhere. Not even as far as the beginning of the trees."

Tree? See confusion curl itself across Halkarie's forehead as he shakes his head at this. "Blond." Just in case Keelie thought for some reason that she really was a tree. For her statement though, he nods. And then helpfully, he'll point at her, adding a quiet, "please?"

"Girlfriend." Keelie clarifies, grinning at the 'blonde' comment. "Or family?" She shrugs, like it doesn't really matter either way. She just likes referring to relationships as trees. Because of reasons. When he points at her and says 'please,' she looks confused for a moment. Wait, what? Then, an ah-ha. "Would you like me to take you?" She glances out across the water - no sign of Gruffith at the moment. (He's under the water trying to follow and befriend fish that are, quite naturally, just terrified of him.)

Shake of head, two in fact, because neither statement is quite true. But even Halkarie gets how super confusing that is, so helpfully, "More like family." Just in case Keelie thinks he's trying to get her to take him on an illicit booty call into the jungle. "Yes." Deep breath, and full sentences Halkarie. "To check and see."

Keelie doesn't assume it's for a booty call, although it might look like that; Halkarie doesn't strike her as the sort of person to want to break rules. "Like family." She echos with another smile, which fades into concern. "To check and see what?"

Good person Keelie. Good senses there. It's not like Halkarie wouldn't answer a bootie call, he's a good guy after all, and if a lady wants it… ANYWAY… "Why." And again he'll let the words on the page speak for him. 'bring stuff'. "Should have enough, don't know why." And it's concerning to Halkarie. The worry is clear on his face as he looks downward. "Trader brought a seven ago." Which means it's probably been over two weeks at LEAST since Brittany penned the letter. Anything could have happened.

Keelie… ok. Right. Did not need to know that. "Right." Is said aloud, for completely different reasons. She notes the worry in his face. "Well, we can go soon?" The monster form of Gruffith appears, dog-paddling close and then galumphing through the shallows, sea water cascading off of his hide like some creature from the deep - seaweed hangs off his headknobs.

See that smile Keelie? You totally just make Halkarie's next like, seven or something. "Soon." Can't right now because Halkarie's kind of covered in fish-goo and it would be super awkward for him to be on a dragon traveling for a bit. Talk about the least sexy way to travel ever. "When you are free? Half day?" Because Halkarie can't give between coordinates (he's only learned about those in the classes candidates have to take anyway), and so they'll have to fly straight.

The brownrider returns Halkarie's smile, glad to have made his day. Gruffith, his feet still in the water, whuffs at them, spraying out seawater as he does so. He's far enough away that it doesn't reach, yet he startles himself, appearing perturbed to have done such a thing. Keelie laughs, then sobers, coughing a bit and trying not to laugh even more at the disgruntled /look// from her dragon. "Um. Tomorrow?" Lips slide to the side of her cheek as she thinks, trying to remember her sweep schedule. "Afternoon? We could meet just outside the bowl after lunch?"

Huh. Halkarie looks at Gruffith and takes in the information about the dragon that expression gives. He'll have to tel Tal at some point that dragons have emotions and stuff. And he was totally near one that didn't lick him, so maybe that's a lie. INTERESTING. As for the timeline, Halkarie pulls his attention from the dragon and puts it back on Keelie. "Will speak to <insert person responsible for candidates>." It'll probably be "Keelie says come." and bam, that'll be that. "Thank you." Clear sincerity in that.

Gruffith regards Halkarie with his intelligent eyes, which whirl a calm, contented blue. He is still a safe distance away, not having moved, and grunts at him once before turning his great head away, focusing on a ship that's sailing off from port. "He likes you." Keelie comments quietly. "Ok." Another genuine smile for his thanks. "We should get back." Meaning her and her dragon. "See you tomorrow."

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