Fort Weyr - North Bowl
The northern end of the bowl can be an intimidating area, being that Fort is the largest weyr. The far north wall contains the gigantic opening to the hatching caverns, and to the west of that can be seen the sprawling ledges and carved stair cases that mark the way to the weyrleader's complex and junior queens ledges. The west cliff wall towers up, dotted here and there by darker openings that mark individual weyrs before it tapers to a point at Tooth Crag. At ground level on the western wall is the opening to the weyrling barracks, occasional glimpses can be caught of newly paired mates. On the eastern wall of the bowl is the entrance into the living cavern, the heart of the weyr.
Hester strolls into the bowl from the direction of that nice ground level entry tunnel yonder, her arms swingly subtly at the sides with her stride. Today.. Today is a travel day. And as such, she most likely looks like any other passer through. That assumption helped of course by the fact that she rarely ventures into the Weyr itself. But here she is. Aren't the Fortians lucky? She's on a slowly weaving path towards the Weyrleader's complex.
A'mar is sitting just outside the living caverns, trying to balance a bowl of stew on his knees and eat from it at the same time. A short distance away is Caldoth, the young blue staring right at his weyrling rider. Either the boy is used to the staring by now, or he just hasn't noticed it, but either way, he's quite cheerfully eating as though nothing is out of the ordinary.
Hester doesn't leave things alone if she's of a mind not to and since there's an unattended youngster in the bowl.. with a shrug she diverts. Though first inspection isn't the boy but rather the weyrling blue, casually circled as Hess looks him over. It's as if she inspects dragons all the time. But again, considering her mode of dress.. unlikely. "Fair."
Caldoth is distracted from watching A'mar by Hester's inspection, and he swings his head around to see the woman. This, A'mar reacts to. He can tell that something is not as it usually is, so he looks up. "Um, hello." he says, frowning slightly in confusion at Hester.
"No.. appealing. Yes. That suits." She murmurs to herself, coming to a stop near A'mar and crossing her arms over her chest. "Hmm?" Her attention finally dropping to the boy. "Hello indeed. Is he one of Izelth's spawn or was he of another sire? In any case, very interesting." That could be assumed to be a complement. One can never be precisely sure in Hess's case.
A'mar frowns slightly at Hester. "Appealing?" he asks, still rather confused. "He is one of Izelth's, yes. His name is Caldoth." the boy says, nodding to the blue. "Interesting? How so?" he asks, glancing to Caldoth. The blue rumbles softly, and watches Hester, seeming only slightly less confused than his young rider.
Hester hmms and nods a bit, finally looking down at the boy, "I merely appreciate his aesthetic. That doesn't happen particularly often.. under these conditions." And on another subject entirely, "I've seen you before. You were still a candidate. Good thing that nonsense is over for now. It means .. well it means I can stomach a trip into the fray to terrorize the weyr-dwellers." She leans closer to inspect him now, "Bit young though aren't you. Mating flight is going to emotionally scar you something terrible." Mm-Hmm.
A'mar frowns at Hester, and would probably stand up if he wasn't still trying to balance that stew on his lap. "I'm old enough." he says, with a childish pout. "Girls are icky, anyway. Cal wouldn't do anything to upset me." Ha, sure. That's not really something A'mar is going to have any control over at all. Or Caldoth, for that matter. "I'm almost thirteen!" he adds, then blinks at Caldoth. "Alright, alright…" then he turns to Hester, I have to introduce myself now. I was Talmar. I'm A'mar now, though."
Hester bites her lower lip, letting it slide out from between her teeth absently before responding, "A'mar. Improvement. Then again.. I don't like the letter 'L'." As for the rest of it.. she let's it drop because well.. if she upsets the weyrlings too much she might get a stern talking to and then she'll have to belittle X'an. And she doesn't want to do that.. currently. "Well A'mar, Caldoth isn't nearly as ugly as most dragons. And I'm sure you'll grow up to be.. interesting all things considered."
A'mar frowns at Hester. "Dragons aren't ugly. Especially not Caldoth." he says firmly. "Interesting better mean good." he adds, with another frown. Caldoth gets his attention for a moment, and then he giggles. "Cal thinks you're interesting." he says, with a little bit of a smile. He adds completely randomly, "I was an apprentice potter before I was searched. And I'll be going back to that as soon as possible."
Hester nods again, her expression distantly thoughtful despite looking right at the boy, "Their eyes are bulgy and they've no hair. They're not exactly what I would call attractive in teh loosest sense of the word. I don't fear them by any means. I was even a candidate once when I was a bit older than you. I hit myself in the head with a boot. Impressive shiner too." She shakes her head a bit and sighs, "That was a life time ago feels like." Anyway. "Atleast you have a plan. A plan is good. After all.. you have a very large dependent now that you'll have to keep in meat and oil for teh rest of your lives. You don't want to be a leech on society do you? Of course not. That's why you've a career in mind. Are you an artist or are you a functional potter?"
A'mar shrugs. "I like to make stuff that looks nice," artist, "but I can make useful stuff as well." and functional. "I'm still learning though, I'm only an apprentice. Master Jopier was teaching me, but then I got searched and I was too busy for all the lessons I needed. I did still go to some lessons, though." he says, with a nod. He's eager to learn, and apparantly loves to talk about his craft. "I made eggs that looked like the eggs on the sands, to give to the new riders. I never expected I'd be keeping one for myself." and here he grins happily at Caldoth.
"Well obviously. You've a long way to go before I start selling seemingly functional fakes of your work." Hess is a business woman after all. "Only to the stupid of course. Intelligent buyers will know the difference. And until fame reaches you.. and after you have time outside lessons and drills and all.. Well I'd be happy to act as a liason for your creations should they be fit to sell or I find a market."
A'mar blinks slowly at Hester, then nods cautiously. "Um, well, that sounds… Wait, fakes?" he blinks, and Caldoth snorts. "You're right, Cal." the boy agrees, then relays to Hester, "Caldoth thinks that fakes," and here he mimics a Ruathan accent, probably because that's how Caldoth talks, "Aren't worth the dirt they're made of." then he lapses back into his normal voice. "Get it, because clay is dirt?" and he giggles.
Hester nods, "Well that is the point. To turn a profit from those that don't know any better and in the process destroy their guile and their pocketbook." The headgames are a delight. "Maybe even have them thinking harder next time beacuse really.. where's the fun if it doesn't more difficult. Sure sure.. consistant income is always something fluffy to have but not necessary. Especially not for me and my current hoard. Merely.. fun and fringe benefit."
A'mar nods slowly, although he doesn't entirely understand what Hester is talking about. He glances to Caldoth, as apparantly the infant dragon is already wiser than he is. "But, where does that leave the honest crafters? Broke? Can't craft if you can't afford the stuff to craft with. If everything is cheap and fake, well, that can't be good for anyone."
Hester lifts a brow. "I don't normally deal with crafters unless it's directly required that I do so to meet some end for someone else I'm liaising for. Which.. isn't often. But it happens. As for the goods themselves.. perhaps they'll be smarter next time. Or perhaps they won't. It doesn't particularly matter much does it? There's another fool born every minute." Entertainment value. Really that's what The Hess is all about. Entertainment value of others.
A'mar frowns at Hester, then glances at his plate of stew which is now empty, because he'd been eating it all the while. Except for when he was talking. "Uh huh. That's interesting…" he says absently, then glances to the living caverns. "Um, could you excuse me a moment? I have to take my plate back to the kitchens." Such a well-behaved boy.
Hester shrugs loosely, "Have all the excuses you can think up. I however.. have been side tracked shortly enough." The blue gets a index finger salute as she passes, headed for teh Weyrleader's complex again.
