Recent Going Ons of Obsidian Weyr

[Oodles]

Seiryuth crooned with relief as her rider’s finger was bandaged and the blood had stopped dripping onto the ground. She noted that the woman held a fond smile at her worry and softly chided Raevn for being so amused at her worry; she didn’t want hers to be hurt!
Raevn had knelt down after Holden turned from her finger and began to pick at the egg with the knife. She found the bag tied lightly around her Fael’s shoulders and undid the straps and picked up her other bag. Seiryuth had picked up her own bag that held most of her homemade remedies and tools. Oh, such a smart dragon she was.
The mentioned fael though had been staring intently at the egg as hers had taken the bags over to a different counter and set them lightly in a way so that they wouldn’t fall. She heard Holden’s question and took a moment to think.
It was very hard. But, I am strong, so it was easier for me. She told him as she easily clambered onto the counter that the eggs were resting on. Her lithe body ‘slithered’ around them so that they wouldn’t be knocked off as she examined them.
The first one that Holden had been trying to get into had a stronger shell than the second egg, only by a little though. Seiryuth lightly put her claws onto the shell, the unsheathed blades latching onto the egg tightly, and she began to gnaw on it with her sharp teeth. It was only a minute or so before the fael had a small line of weakness running down the side of the shell.
“Nice job, Seir. Now back up so that I don’t hit you on accident.” Raevn said as she moved back over to the middle counter smoothly holding a small knife in her hands; other tools clinked gently in loop holes on the belt she had tied around her thin waist. “Here you go.” The Weyrling said to Holden as she held out the knife hilt first to the man. She didn’t want to rob Holden of the chance to examine the first body of a dragonet that he had the chance to. So, she’d end up laying back on the first carcass, and then stepping in a little more on the second one.

[Weaving]

Holden couldn't help but chuckle at the fael's words. "I suppose I should take that to mean that you are stronger than me?" He questioned Seir, winking at the hatchling to show that he took no insult at her words. He was glad that she was here, especially as she took over the task of weakening the shell. It wasn't long before a visible line could be seen, and he smiled brightly at the hatchling to show his appreciation.

"Thank you," he murmured as Raevn handed the smaller knife to him. It was clearly sharper and would better serve for what he was about to do. Holding the tool gingerly, he took a deep breath, placing one hand on the shell to study it. Faranth, he was nervous, his hands trembling slightly as he held the tip where the crack in the shell lay.

Carefully, he wedged the knife into the crack, the shell protesting and beginning to splinter more. Easy now. Trying to steady himself, he slowly began to slide the knife along the crack, widening it further. He wanted everything to remain as intact as possible and he certainly didn't want to harm the body inside by being too hasty.

Eventually the shell cracked enough that he could begin pulling bits away, inch by inch revealing what lay inside. The inside of the shell was coated with egg-slime. "Don't toss those yet. I'd like to study that if we're able, maybe see what kind of nutrients they live off of while in the shell. Perhaps we could use it to help those who are born sickly," he told Raevn while musing aloud possible uses. Then he continued, stripping away the shell until the body of the hatchling could be clearly seen.

[Oodles]

Raevn offered her help silently by taking the shell fragments and setting them in a large bowl built into the counter on the other side of the room; she used Seiryuth as a guide for much of her movements as she walked from one point to the other. Her soft footsteps falling surely as she carried out her task while she listened to Holden work.
It wasn’t long until she had carried away all of the fragments, and she felt the fluid that had coated the inside of each piece gathering in the bottom of the bowl. The woman took a small glass flask from another loop inside a pouch on her belt and dipped it slowly into the fluid. She felt it coat her fingers and took a soft, deep breath as she thought of this being what had kept her own Seiryuth alive when she was inside her shell. She had the life of another dragonet slicking her fingers…
Shaking the thought from her mind with a few comforting thoughts flowing from her dragonet, Raevn put a stopper in the flask that was now filled with the embryonic fluid and dried it off on her robes. She then slid it lightly into the pouch she’d taken it out of before and went back to Holden’s side by the counter. Her fingers longed to touch the hide of the unhatched dragonet, so that she could ‘see’ how it had grown and if it were anything similar to her own dragon. But, she had long since decided that Holden would be the one to touch the dead beast first, for it was without a doubt, one of the main things he had been looking forward to upon coming across live dragons.

[Weaving]

"My goodness," he breathed, gazing at the still lifeless form of the hatchling. It was extraordinarily tiny, though there were no physical deformities to be seen. The hatchling's hide glittered white, with an iridescent sheen. "It's like a perfect miniature replica. Absolutely amazing..."

Carefully, slowly, he lifted the dead hatchling from the egg, laying it out along the table in order to better study it. Gently, he rearranged each of the limbs, feeling for any obvious deformities that would have prevented the dragon from breaking free from its shell. Everything seemed to be in working order, leaving him to believe that it must have been some internal problem that caused the death.

"Raevn, you must feel this," he said, turning to his partner. Without giving her time to reply, he grabbed her hand, guiding it to the hatchling's body. "That there, is the head, feel the eyeridges? And if you go down, you can feel the small bumps, like what Seiryuth has and what I imagine will grow to be neck ridges at some point..."

He continued to guide her hand along the body, pointing out things like the shoulders, the wing bases and then the leathery membrane which made up the wing sails. He was utterly amazed by this opportunity and wished to share it, for he knew that Raevn had been excited about this as well.

"There don't seem to be any physical deformities, so I'm assuming that something must have gone wrong on the inside," he theorized, unable to think of any other way to explain the death of the hatchling.

[Oodles]

Raevn was startled that Holden had actually grabbed her hand and pulled her over to the counter to touch the dragonet. She’d never really had someone grab her, ever. But, the hide under her soft fingers and Holden’s hand guiding her own seemed natural as the man explained what everything was. She could begin to form a mental image of what the creature looked like.
“What color is it?” She asked as a break in the descriptions showed and she was able to slide her own hand away from Holden’s and run it back to it’s head; her other hand accompanied this time and she began to feel the details in the skull.
White. Seiryuth complied to her riders question. She’d jumped onto a counter not too far away and had settled down to watch the pair.
“Weren’t whites frail in the old days?” She asked Holden, hoping that he had read some of the old Weyr Records when he’d arrived. Raevn herself had been lucky enough to have the Weyrwoman read a few of them to her and then got to talk about what might have happened so long ago, and what the roles of each dragon might have been; after Raevn had felt comfortable that the woman wasn’t going to treat her any differently than the other candidates anyway.
“That could be why he didn’t get out of the shell. It was too thick and strong for him to break out. And the tooth here -” Raevn found Holden’s arm and ran her hand down it to his wrist and took hold and guided it to the head of the dragonet “- it’s underdeveloped.” She finished after placing his fingers lightly on the white beasts muzzle. “It probably drowned or suffocated when it couldn’t get out…”

[Weaving]

"If I remember what I've read correctly, yes, the white dragons were especially frail. Very few broke from their shells, and most had to have someone help break it open from the outside. The most famous of these recordings is the hatching and impression of White Ruth to Jaxom," Holden replied to her question. "If that is true, then it means that other than being too small to break the shell, we have at least one healthy specimen here."

Well, that relieved one of his fears. After all, he was still unsure of what the organs of a dragon looked like, and had been afraid that he would have been unable to spot any imperfections. That could have been detrimental to this entire discovery.

He was shocked out of his musings when Raevn grabbed his arm and led his hand to the underdeveloped egg-tooth. "So it is. Poor thing, though if the accounts of Ruth are true, then he or she would have called for their bonded for help. I suppose that they wouldn't have been able to survive for long at any rate."

He stroked the hide lightly, quietly mourning the loss of this potential life. Glancing toward Seiryuth, he found it difficult to know what the fael made of this.

"What do you think Seiryuth? Have you any comments to add?"

[Oodles]

Seiryuth pondered on the man’s question for a few moments; her eyes whirling a slow contented blue. She fanned her wings momentarily and then tucked them back comfortably before she spoke.
His wasn’t there. That is why he did not call out. But he would have been a healthy white if he had hatched. She said simply. Naturally she was sad that the white hadn’t been able to escape, but there was no reason to mourn if he had never known the world outside his egg.

Raevn held a tender smile as her dragon spoke. She was a kind dragon, and would be one of the best the weyr would ever see, surely. But for the task at hand.
“I’ve tools if you need them, Holden.” She told her partner healer as she moved to the other side of the counter so that the man would have some room to work on his own at first. Her belt clinked with the sound of metal on metal as she undid one of the clasps and pulled out the strap of leather holding all of her tools; she laid it down softly and listened for what Holden might do first. She hoped that she’d be able to work on the second dragonet, but it was really up to Holden since he was the first to check into this observation.

[Weaving]

"Tools? Those would be wonderful," he replied, carefully inspecting the tools she had offered before selecting a scalpel from the various choices. "I think we'll begin with an incision in the chest cavity to get a better look at the lungs and heart and then move down into the stomach region."

So saying he carefully began to make the cuts, verbalizing his every move to Raevn. They went on in this manner for quite a few hours as he carefully inspected each of the hatchling's internal organs, every once and a while taking the time to speculate on just how this or that aided a dragon during certain functions.

Faintly, the sound of music drifted into the room, finally catching his attention. Looking up, he realized that it had grow rather late and grinned sheepishly at Raevn. Then the sound of music caught his ear again, and realization dawned.

"You're missing the Hatching Feast. What are you still doing here? Come on, enough with this stuff. I'll not be the reason you miss your own Feast." So saying, he placed the scalpel down with a decisive clatter. "I'll even go with you. But we should hurry; it sounds as though the celebration has been going for a while now."

[Oodles]

“The feast?” Raevn frowned for a moment as she went through the events of that day. “Oh! You’re right.” She said with a small amount of surprise. Secretly she had actually been hoping that she would be able to miss the feast, large groups of people tended to avoid her for her blindness; she didn’t want to have to deal with that inside the Weyr. Besides, she had been enjoying listening to Holden examine the dragon, she was learning a lot about her own Seiryuth from his descriptions.
Mine, are you going to change? Seiryuth mentioned as Raevn started to move around the counter; the dragonet was referring to the fluids from the egg and small splotches of blood covering her riders robes.
“I suppose you’re going to make me,” the woman replied, directing Holden an apologetic smile as her dragon flicked out of the room. “Wait, Seir!”
It will take too long for you to walk back to the room and change in there. There is running water in here anyway. Seiryuth said as she flicked back into the Infirmary with a small bundle of clothing. Wait outside the door. The dragon added to Holden, the personality she would surely adopt as she aged becoming apparent as she prodded the man out of the room gently.
Raevn had been trying to figure a way to get out of dressing up for the feast; but none of it would have worked. She followed the directions given to her by her dragon stubbornly and found another large sink carved into the counter. The fael dragonet declared it clean enough to fill with water and instructed her rider to wash and get dressed.

It was only a few minutes later that Raevn unlocked and opened the door to the Infirmary and stepped out; Seiryuth sauntering out proudly behind her. Her white hair had been combed and framed her face nicely. It blended well with the top of the dress she wore- A strapless, cross top was white and then faded to gray, and then to a night black at the bottom. The dress only reached her knees, so her well toned and smooth legs were easily seen as she walked.
The most obvious thing about her though, was the missing blindfold. The cloth that Raevn used to cover her eyes had been wrapped around her right wrist, and her bright silver eyes sparkled in the light; they told the lie of sight as she smiled shyly at the place Seiryuth said Holden was standing.
“I’ve impressed a pushy little beast.” Raevn said to the man, running a hand nervously through her hair as she waited for Holden to say something.

((Clicky <--Her dress. Do ya wanna intro them at the feast, or shall I?))

[Weaving]

Holden chuckled as Seiryuth ordered him out the door, but did not put up a fight when she pushed him out. Once outside, time seemed to go by slowly, and it wasn't long before he was pacing the hall way, carefully counting out his steps. Why did women always take so long to dress themselves? One of life's questions that it seemed would never be answered.

He was somewhat surprised when Raevn stepped out into the hall way only a few minutes later. It certainly didn't like as though she had hardly spent any time cleaning herself up. In fact, Holden had paused in mid-stride at the sight of her. Now he quickly gathered his wits and finished his steps, ending up standing just in front of her.

"Ahem. Well, you look...lovely," he told her, a nervous blush creeping across his cheeks. He shuffled his feet, looking from his own toes to Raevn and back again. Her eyes especially held his attention, what with their gleaming brightness. At the mention of Seiryuth, he began to grin. "I must applaud you Seiryuth. You have done a magnificent job in cleaning up your rider."

That seemed to break the tension for him.

"Shall we be off then?" He asked, deftly looping his arm with Raevn's before beginning to move toward the Feast area.

((I can do it, since I'm here right now and all ^^))

[Oodles]

Raevn felt the wave of pride wash from her dragonet at Holden’s comment as she was led down the hall and towards the feast. She had acknowledged the man’s comment of her looks with a small smile and a soft flush to her cheeks.
See, aren’t you happy I made you change? Seiryuth asked her rider privately; there were some things she was gong to keep from Holden. Besides, the man didn’t even have a dragon! What was she to do with a riderless man?
The fael was trotting ahead of the pair as they walked, the light that her rider saw inside her dragon guiding the woman a little more than the feel of the air and Holden’s grip on her arm.
Cold air brushed against Raevn’s skin as they moved out towards the lake, and her hand tightened on Holden’s arm; no matter how she thought of her situation she couldn’t calm her nerves.

((Mmkay. Go ahead and edit your posty at the feast, then say something so that I can check it right away (once I get home). And I know that was short. XD.))