From:
Andre Oliveira <oliveand@bellsouth.net> Date: Thu Jun 20, 2002 11:57
pm Subject: [DL-T] A most talented apprentice
Mid Evening
Just outside the Dining Hall.
Hatching Party
Soucivi glanced at the reflection emanating from the outside window of
the dining hall. He could barely recognize himself. The expensive
clothes, seemingly causing his posture to straighten, and the attention
given to grooming... it was... it was so embarrassing!
Somehow, K'rvey had not only managed to talk him into dressing in one of
his fancy shirts, oiling his hair back, putting on a bit of cologne, and
shaving the few tiny hairs that had sprouted during the day, but had
also managed to convince him that a small haircut was in order too.
He grumbled as his hand went to tip of his slightly shorter hair. "This
isn't me..."
"Of coarse it is." K'rvey said behind him, "You're just so used to
dressing like a slob that you've forgotten how to dress like a decent
person."
Soucivi turned around as K'rvey affectionately patted his crimson
dragon's hide. He was about to comment that he did not dress like a
slob, but was interrupted as Nhorrit shot his head upwards and violently
sneezed, shooting globs of mucus and tongues of flames into the darkened
sky.
"Poor old brute..." K'rvey whispered as he pulled out a handkerchief and
gently wiped most of the globs oozing from his friends snout, "I think
you're getting worse..."
Nhorrit smiled as he shook his head and tried to prove otherwise,
inhaling deeply as if to give a modest roar but winding up wheezing
horribly as he did so, followed with fits of coughing.
"Yeah, yeah! We all know how tough you are..." his rider said gently as
he tossed his now dripping hanky aside and began stroking Nhorrit's head
once more, "Now go on you big oaf!" Pushing him towards the caves, "Get
some sleep before I knock you out myself!"
Nhorrit walked away, his head bobbing up down as he did so. The poor
beast looked exhausted.
"Stubborn brute..." K'rvey said as turned to walk towards Soucivi,
"Completely refused to let me watch over him tonight."
"Why?"
"Said he'd feel guilty about making me miss the party over a little head
cold..." K'rvey grinned a little sadly as he said this, "Now are you
ready to dance the night away with your lady friend?" he beamed.
Soucivi looked a bit befuddled, "Not really..." he said turning his head
towards the sound of the music as someone opened the door and stepped
outside. He sighted, "I don't even like to dance!" he groaned, "Why did
I say I would?"
K'rvey grinned, "Because, my young apprentice," he said putting an arm
around Soucivi's shoulders leading him towards the door, "she, like
every other attractive female in this world, has an ungodly gift" he
clenched his other hand into a fist, " of controlling young men, such as
you or even myself, twisting us and manipulating us into their submission."
Soucivi raised an eyebrow and half smiled, "I'm your young apprentice?"
"Yes, now be quiet and let me finish my speech, " he said quickly
resuming his previous tone before continuing, "Women are a curse!" a
small dramatic pause, "If either you or I had any wits between the two
of us, we'd stay as far away from them as we could, desperately trying
to keep loyal to our true masculine selves!" he grasped Soucivi's wrist
and began swinging him around in wide circles as he grinned like an
idiot, "Buuuuuuut.... that not being the case! I recommend that you get
over you're little paranoia and just have a good time."
Soucivi laughed as he grew dizzy and K'rvey swung him forcefully towards
the entrance, almost causing him to crash into the door. Opening it a
fraction of an inch, Soucivi peered at the multitude of people, all
dressed in their best, twirling on the dance floor, eating, and enjoying
themselves. His smile faded.
"I don't know," he sighted, "it... it just doesn't..."
"It just doesn't what?" K'rvey said peering inside next to him.
"It's that all the parties I've ever gone to... there's always those
people who you have no idea who they are, and yet they are always so
friendly... it just doesn't feel right for someone you don't even know
to be like that..." he sighted again and rested his back on the cold
stone wall, "I dunno, maybe I'm just weird."
"Jeez boy, you think too much!" K'rvey said grabbing his arm and pulling
him inside, the music overwhelming both men," Don't worry about people
being too friendly towards you," he said in Soucivi's ear, trying to be
heard over the music, "I doubt they bite!"
"But..."
"I don't want to hear it! You don't want to talk to the 'weird' people
who are friendly to you, that's fine! But you *will* dance with that
girl you've been swooning about, 'cause I don't want to hear you whine
anymore! Now get looking!" With that K'rvey gently shoved Soucivi into
the crowd.
The young man almost tripped over his feet as he regained his balance,
bumping into a few people who were in his trajectory. After excusing
himself from a dancing couple, he began looking for Tanda.
True, he'd probably step on her toes and look like a complete idiot, but
she was the one who asked for it... and he did want to see her after
all. Turning towards the refreshment table he spotted a person he had
met from the last party, Jason he believed his name was. He wondered if
he should give this 'being friendly and open' a try when out of the
corner of his eye he spotted the door of the building open and Tanda
walk in.
She wore a very pretty, dark blue dress that nicely showed off her
shoulders and revealed a modest portion of her legs with the slits cut
on the side of the long skirt. Her long brown hair, which had been left
down, was sleek and shimmering. Walking inside she almost immediately
spotted Soucivi and waved to him.
Soucivi smiled and waved back, beginning to walk towards her.
"Y-you look beautiful," he stuttered, "you didn't wear that at the last
party."
Tanda blushed and said, "Thank you, I went to the tailor after I had
finished helping with the decorations and he somehow still had a nice
dress that fit. You look really handsome too," she said as she looked at
Soucivi's hair, "Did you cut your hair?"
The young man immediately reached for the tip of his hair again and
flustered, "Does it look bad?"
"No, not at all!" Tanda said quickly pulling his hand away from behind
his head, "I think it looks a lot better than the way you had it before."
"Oh... I only had a little bit cut off... though..." he trailed off as
he noticed that Tanda was still holding his hand.
She smiled and said, "Come on, lets dance!"
Tanda led him to the dance floor and gently placed Soucivi's hand on her
waist, encouraging him with smiles to diminishing the space between
them. Soucivi gulped as Tanda gently clasped his other hand with hers
and tugged him to the pace of the music.
"Tanda..." he said, "I don't really know how to dance really well."
"Don't worry it's really easy," she encouraged, "All you have to do is
move with the music."
Easier said than done, Soucivi thought as he tried desperately to keep
in pace with the beat, while at the same time trying to avoid stepping
on his partner's toes. He wound up barely moving at all, his joints
acting like rusty door hinges.
"Oh come on," Tanda said shacking him mischievously, "loosen up!"
Soucivi tried once again to follow Tanda's advice but simply wound up
stepping on her foot like he had feared he'd do, instead.
"Sorry..." he blushed.
"It's ok," she smiled patiently, "it didn't hurt."
Soucivi tried again and again to move more gracefully, but simply
stepped on Tanda's toes two more times.
By this time he was growing irritated at his own clumsiness. Why
couldn't he just move like everybody else? He sighted and noticed a
shimmer of green from the corner of his eye. Glancing to his left he
noticed Ann. She and him made eye contact briefly until her face flushed
and she rushed out. "What was that about?" he thought to himself.
Turning his focus back to Tanda he said, "I'm sorry," he exasperated,
"if you want to dance with someone else, I'll understand."
"Oh," Tanda sulked, "You don't want to dance with me anymore?"
"No! It's not that I don't want to," he admitted, "I just don't want to
step on your feet."
Tanda giggled and said, "Well that is a problem now isn't it?"
"Sorry..."
"I think you're problem is that you're not relaxed enough," she said
after a few seconds, "Why don't you just close your eyes and imagine
that you're somewhere else?"
"But your feet?" he asked worried.
Tanda grinned again and said, "You worry about loosening up, and I'll
worry about my feet."
Soucivi nodded and closed his eyes like suggested. He began remembering
a sunset he had witnessed a few months ago by the Telnor Sea. K'rvey and
a few of his friends in the Beta wing had gone to go swimming and
hopefully come back to the warren with a few pretty lady riders in tow.
K'rvey had made him tag along, hoping that maybe he'd loosen up. True to
his fashion however, Soucivi had wondered off from the main group and
had found a nice quiet spot where he witnessed the sun set behind the
mountains across the large freshwater lake. It had been very peaceful,
the sound of people playing in the water; nothing more than background
noise like crickets or birds. Except this time, as Soucivi remembered
it, Tanda was sitting next to him. He smiled. It would have been nice if
she had watched that sunset with him.
"I'm such a little boy," he thought, "here I am thinking how nice it
would be to watch a sunset with a girl. How silly."
Soucivi continued remembering that evening, except that instead of him
standing up to leave after the sun had disappeared, instead he imagined
Tanda holding his hand and leaning to rest on his shoulder. He then
imagined himself leaning on her as well and squeezing her hand. Then, he
pictured the two of them looking at one another, slowly moving their
faces together, closing their eyes, and then finally kissing.
Soucivi slowly began to focus back on reality, noticing that he was
indeed more relaxed. The first thing he noticed was that the music had
slowed down considerably and that he did not remember stepping on
anybody's toes for a while now. The next thing he noticed, as he opened
his eyes, was that he had been holding Tanda a lot closer and that he
and her *had* been kissing for the last few minutes. Soucivi pulled back
from the affectionate touch and looked at her with a surprised look.
She smiled and said, "See how much nicer this is if you relax a bit."
Soucivi returned the smile and felt Tanda tug at him, trying to bring
him close for a second kiss. He began leaning in, when, from somewhere
behind him, he heard a boy's voice, "Well, well, you sure don't seem to
waste any time do you?"
"Konrad!" Tanda gasped as Soucivi looked behind him to see a young boy
with features that reminded him strongly of Tanda, "What do you want?"
"Oh nothing much," he grinned cruelly, "Just thought I'd meet the new
guy you were rubbing up nice with."
Before Tanda could respond, the boy squeezed between the young couple
and shook Soucivi's hand, "Nice to meet you! It's always nice to meet
one of Tanda's chumps before she falls for somebody else."
Tanda's face reddened and she reached for the boy's cuff, "Soucivi, this
is my pest of a brother, Konrad." She glared at her sibling, "He was
just leaving! Weren't you?"
"Maybe," he said as he slipping away from her grasp, "or maybe I'll just
stay here and enjoy the company of my favorite sister."
Soucivi turned to the boy and patiently said, "It's nice to meet you
Konrad," he gushed false politeness, "I'm sure you and I will be good
friends."
"Oh, but nowhere as good friends as my sister obviously!" he said
puckering his lips together and making irritable sucking noises.
"Toad!" Tanda shrieked reaching for his neck. Fortunately, Konrad
avoided his sister's fingers and ran away laughing manically.
"I'm sorry." Tanda said as her sibling disappeared behind the crowd, "My
brother's a pest."
"It's ok, I know the feeling." Soucivi nodded.
"Oh, do you have any little brothers and sisters?" Tanda said attempting
to make small talk.
Soucivi shook his head as the music grew livelier and conversation began
across the hall, making it harder to be heard, "Sorry, I barely heard
you!" he said into her ear, "Do you want to go somewhere and talk?"
Tanda smiled and nodded. She hooked her arm to his and began leading
them outside.
****
A little while later
K'rvey had been busy. Finding a few of his buddies, he found that they
had not only drained half of a beer keg together, but also had drained a
few mugs of good mead and a cup here and there of cider. They were
drunk. Really drunk.
"Sooooooooooo... so so... wha-cha shink of that one?" K'rvey said
swinging a mug towards the direction of a woman wearing a red dress.
"She'sss WAY too sh-shhh-shkinny!" his friend said leaning on him "I'd
break her... I'd bre-split her in HALF!"
K'rvey took another swig from his mug and said, "Thashs cause you don't
know how to PLEEZZZ 'em! J-you joo stoopid!"
"I'm ain't stupid!" the man said going into a fit of giggles, "I- I
think we're drun-k...K'rrrr vay!" the man slurred.
Finishing off his mug, he slammed it on the table and announced,
"No-nope... you're drunk! And I shoulds--" K'rvey blinked trying to
focus, " I should get-cha home!"
K'rvey stood and immediately fell down. Shaking his head, he again tried
to stand and managed to balance himself out by stretching his arms. He
smiled weakly as he regained some orientation and began walking, rather
poorly, in a circle, proving just how drunk he was to the entire gathering.
"Shee--" he squinted, "I ainnt...drun-k!"
"K'rvey," a second friend said, " look behinds ya! You shoul... you
should try to pleez that pretty over thahr.
Managing to turn around without falling, K'rvey spotted a very pretty
woman with red curly hair talking to a few people. K'rvey smiled and
pulled his pants up by his belt. Stumbling often as he made his way
across the room, he reached the pretty woman and said, "Hullo
beautifooool, are you lonely?"
The woman turned to stare at the drunken man with her hazel eyes.
"Excuse me?" she asked.
"Whachas yor name, ma pretty?" K'rvey said as he leaned against a wall
and showed her his best smile.
"Sarily-..."
"Shhh... shhh... shhhhh! Let me guess!" he sniffed his nose and pointed
to her chest, "Your name ishhh Misery right?... Well Mishary, I'm Companee."
"Uhh... nice to meet you Com-..." the woman said slightly confused.
"Nonono!" the drunken man interrupted, "No, sheee Mishary loves
Companneee," he laughed between slurred words, "sheeee its funny!"
The woman sighted and said, "Look, I'm pretty sure you're drunk..."
"No... no I ain't... oh come on babee!" he said leaning closer, "I know
you want some male rug-a-ness on yas, why don't you give me a kiiish?"
With that, K'rvey clamped his eyes shut, puckered his lips and stuck out
his tongue a bit.
*****
Tag: Jeanette
NRPG: Welcome to Telnor! LOL
*****
Meanwhile,
Tanda and Soucivi, walking arm in arm, had been wondering the trails of
the woods near the warren, and for the last hour or so, had been doing
nothing but talk.
"So you're family is full of riders now?" Soucivi asked looking at a
nearby hill that he was leading them towards.
"Yes, my older brother first, then my sister. Now Konrad and I are
here." She sighted, "But since we kind of left without our parents
permission, it's my job to look over him now. But I also have to take
care of Pepper, and it doesn't help that he won't listen to me."
"Oh?"
Tanda looked behind her at the luminous building where the party was
still taking place "I talked to him the other day about getting some
schooling done here... he basically spat in my face for sounding like
our parents."
Soucivi, not knowing what to say, kept walking in silence. After a few
minutes of being uncomfortable, Tanda began again, "So you said you knew
what it was like to have a little brother? Do you have one?"
"No, not really." He smiled, "Well sort of."
"What do you mean?"
"When I just came to the warren, I was assigned to be the roommate of a
rider here. His name is K'rvey and he's the biggest slob in the world."
He chuckled, "Do you know where he used to keep his socks before I lived
with him?"
"Where?" Tanda mused.
"He used to keep them in his coffee pot!"
"What?" she asked completely surprised.
"He said he had a hard time remembering to put them on before he left
the apartment, but he never forgot his morning coffee."
Tanda giggled, "That's disgusting!"
"I know!" he grinned, "I just hope he doesn't start doing that again now
that I'll be living by myself."
Tanda laughed a little more before she said, "So where are you from
originally?"
They had reached the foot of the hill and instead of answering, Soucivi
said, "Let me show you something."
He climbed a few steps up and handed his hand to help Tanda climb. He
pulled her up to a small rocky path that circled around the steep hill
and eventually ended at the very top. They climbed easily enough,
Soucivi at the lead and Tanda following behind him. When they had
reached the top, Tanda was surprised to find that the top, not much
larger than a small room, was scooped, like a giant had reached with a
humongous spoon and had decided to eat the tip of the hill. She was even
more surprised to find that there was a blanket, neatly folded and
stowed beneath a stone.
"I come here sometimes," Soucivi said reaching for the blanket and
beginning to unfold it, " you know, when I just want to be myself, or
when I'm stressed, or when I just want to look at the stars," he blushed
as he spread the blanket, "I thought maybe you'd like it up here too..."
Tanda smiled and sat down, modestly patting down her long skirt. She
reached for Soucivi's hand and pulled him to sit next to her. She looked
at his eyes and beamed, "So why this spot? Can you see the stars better
from up here?"
Soucivi felt his ears burn a bit, "W-well sort of," he craned his head
upwards and said, "In the w-woods its hard to spot a few stars,
b-because the trees can get in the way and in t-the warren there's very
little privacy. Here all you have to do is lay d-down and..." he stopped
as he noticed Tanda laying back.
She reached for his arm and pulled him down to lay next to her, "Are you
sure you brought me here just to watch the stars?" she smiled sweetly as
she put her hand on his chest, "You sure you didn't want to do something
else?"
Soucivi was having too much trouble breathing somewhat normally to
answer. All he could do was watch as Tanda tentatively wrapped her leg
around his, pulling herself closer and begin playing with his shirt. She
leaned closer and kissed him, trying to draw him to her. "Well?" she
asked seductively, her nose rubbing up against his.
The young man's heart began beating so violently that he felt like it
would beat its way out of his chest. True enough he hadn't brought Tanda
there to just watch the stars with him, but he hadn't been planning on
this either!
Tanda kissed him again and began to unlace the cords of his shirt.
Soucivi was starting to feel the usual feelings of panic.
"Tanda..."
Ignoring him, Tanda slowly rolled herself on top of him and began
stroking his face while she tenderly kissed him. The smell and warmth
emanating from her smaller body was soon beginning to intoxicate
Soucivi's senses, and he didn't even notice as his arms wrapped
themselves around her waist and how he began squeezing her closer to
him. He was also only momentarily aware that, as she pulled away from
him and finished unlacing the cords of his shirt, he had just been just
as busy unlacing her dress behind her.
Feeling Tanda's hands slide beneath his shirt and begin pulling it over
his head, Soucivi was beginning to wonder if this was really happening.
With a shaky hand he slowly began caressing Tanda's cheek, wanting to
make sure she was really there.
Tanda smiled at the touch and returned the gesture and leaned down to
kiss him. She began rubbing his chest, anxiously waiting for him to
finish unlacing her dress. She massaged just below his neck, moving down
to his stomach, then even lower touching the young man's belt.
That's when she noticed the scar. She rose, pushing herself off slowly
with both her arms, the straps of her dress beginning to peel off of her
shoulders as her eyes traced the long hook shaped scar from his chest to
just above his pelvis.
Her hands slowly traced the disfigurement, "What happened here?" she
asked as kindly as she could, "I noticed it earlier."
Snapping from Tanda's spell, Soucivi immediately flushed. "Nothing," he
whispered, "it's nothing." His hands feel flat on his side and his face
turned to the side, away from hers.
Tanda's hand went to his cheek and she stroked him, "It's okay if you
don't want to tell me." She went back to massaging his chest and she
began gently kissing his face, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned it."
After a few seconds of unresponsiveness, her hands went to his face and
coaxed it to look at hers, "Do you want me to stop?"
He looked at her, unsure of what he wanted to do, "I-I don't know..."
Sighting, she rested her head on his shoulder and her arm on his chest,
"It's ok. We don't have to do anything..."
Soucivi closed his eyes, feeling her breath on his ear, the touch of her
hands on his chest, the smell of her hair, the warmth of her body...
He turned his face and looked into her eyes. She stared back, curiously
studying his face.
Soucivi opened his mouth, like he was about to speak, but no words came out.
"Mmm?" she smiled, "What is it?" she moved her face closer, beginning to
slowly rub her nose against his again.
Whatever Soucivi had been about to ask her however, was immediately
forgotten as he felt her lips gently touch his.
Tanda was ecstatic as soon as she felt his hands behind her back again.
She couldn't help but smile while she pressed her body against his and
slowly slid her legs up and down over his, encouraging his actions.
Within minutes Tanda's dress barely clung to her body and she was about
to pull away from Soucivi to finally rid herself of it, when suddenly, a
low earthly groan made both of them stop their affectionate embrace.
"What was that?" Tanda asked suddenly sitting up and looking side to side.
"I don't know." He responded, equally baffled.
The groan was heard again and a small shudder rocketed between the young
couple. Soucivi then felt something sliding under his back and then he
felt a gap between his shoulder blades.
"Tanda..." Soucivi said with urgency on his tone and a look of confusion
in his eyes
"What? What's wrong?" she asked swinging around to look at his face.
"I think there's a-"
But it was too late. The gap underneath Soucivi's back grew immense with
the next groan, swallowing both him and Tanda into a dark abyss bellow.
After a second of freefall and occasional bumps against the rocky wall,
Soucivi felt hot water engulf him and then a sharp pain on his head
engulfed him in darkness.