Fort Weyr - Lake Shore
This lake shares many features common to mountain lakes — a brilliant blue jewel nestled amongst the rocks. The waters are crystal clear, and the north shore slopes gently before abruptly falling away into the depths. The water itself is usually chilly — invigorating is the term the residents use.
This lake does have one significant differentiating feature, however. The south shore of the lake is a tumbled mass of rubble, rock and earth of an ancient rockslide smoothed only by the elements in the intervening years. This rubble, as well as the rather sheer east and west faces, makes for the north shore to be the only one easily accessible.
People: Kessa Elara
Dragons: Wiyaneth
The afternoon is sparse with clouds rolling by, mostly white puffs that lack any promise of rain for the given afternoon. It's a good day to have free of chore, or at least to have finished chores off quick to find a spare moment to dabble in one's hobby. Today that hobby is kites. The young journeywoman freshly turned candidate for the second time of her short life is meddling with the string on the triangle kite. It's a fad down south where the winds are perfect for flying kites - regardless though, it should fly here at Fort due to the brisk wind in the upper air. The bright red kite with a white stripe down the middle is sprawled on the grass, with the four wooden slats all neatly binded together in the center, it's long tail curling with ribbons down near Kessa's feet. She's some what oblivious to those around her at the moment, since there's a knot in the string which is causing her great annoyance.
Elara walks across the bowl, getting an afternoon's exercise with her dragon. Wiyaneth lumbers, as always, just behind her lifemate, the small gold rumbling softly as the two converse. Elara giggles, and then pauses to catch her breath. For a Healer, she's always slightly out of shape. "Hello!" she calls, waving in Kessa's direction. Wiyaneth lifts her head and snorts at the red thing in the grass curiously.
Knots in any type of string becomes a frustrating ordeal, but in kite string, it is even worse to deal with - since the kite is at one end and the spool at the other. Kessa has a customary tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth, her brows lowered as she huffs with aggravation, just not getting any where with the knot. It's then, a welcome diversion when she hears a woman's voice call out, causing the dark burnette to cran her head over in Elara's direction. It's only polite to wave back and so her hand spikes up in the air as she waves in return, a smile forming on her lips as she catches the reaction of Wiyaneth due to the kite settled on the ground. "Good afternoon," she replies, drawing back on her butt to sit a little more comfortable but a little less graceful.
Kessa leans forward to grab the kite by the structure's center, to hold up the triangle for Elara to see, her other hand still holding onto the knot in the string. "It's called a kite. They started building them first in Honshu. I traded a hat for this." She points to the sky, "Kids love it, but adults can play with them just as well. They fly in the wind, some as high as dragons if you've got a good strong string attached. The hardest part is to get them up in the air high enough to catch the wind." She holds out the tail of the kite, "but once it's up, it's lovely to watch it dip and dive. I heard Honshu a kite festival now. I really look forward to seeing it some day."
Wiyaneth snorts disdainfully at the kite. That thing? Fly? Never. Elara also looks suspicious, but is more polite than her golden counterpart. "This is a common thing? I wonder why I've never heard of it. And you fly these often?"
Kessa smiles at Elara's curiosity and her expressed suspicion of the general idea. "Common enough down southn, around Honshu mostly. It hasn't really caught on much outside of Honshu. Some of the traders though really try hard to sell them." She looks sheepish, "But the first time I saw one fly, becaus believe me I was just as skeptical, I had to have one." She shrugs one shoulder up, "I forget the story behind who created the first one down in Honshu, but it had something to do with a book being found by the right person who saw a picture of one of these. Just takes the right mind to invent stuff like this. It's affordable too. Any holder's child can have one for less than an eighth mark." She adds, "As often as I can sneak a moment on a good breezy day, I do try."
Elara smiles, "It seems like fun. If it really does work," she adds, glancing to her dragon. Wiyaneth snorts and settles low in the water to watch, while a flair of firelizards attacks her hide with sand and scrubbing. "You traded this one for a hat, you say?" Elara asks, settling onto the sand and smoothing out her skirts around her.
"It is, especially with a child around," she laughs softly at the woman's 'if' sentiment, "It will. If I can get this knot undone. I get so frustrated by knots," she admits as she tries to pick at it some more with her finger nails. Flicking a strand of hair back, Kessa nods once more in acknowledgement to the question, "Yes. It's still easier for me to make trades with products than having to swap marks, especially since the twenty percent commission fee was added to our prices." A beat as she quips in, "Hats are my speciality and easy enough for me to make if they aren't too extravagant."
Elara grins, "I love hats! Don't have very many, though. They aren't very practical for a rider…but I do adore them. Those great Gather hats ladies wear…I just adore those."
The woman just stepped into Kessa's life's work, a topic that is very near and dear to the young woman's heart. "The Gather hats are by far my most favourite of them all. I love adding all the feathers, the fur, the flowers and ribbons. It just makes a woman look so elegant when she wears the proper hat. Not many weavers actually make hats these days," she remarks, her own head feeling bare for the moment since she lacks wearing one herself. This all followed by an abrupt, "Ah-ha!" as she successfully gets the knot out of the string.
Elara grins, "I love the ones with flowers. Tons of bright flowers." Have you seen Elara's weyr? It's covered - /covered/ - in random, bright patchwork pillows. The woman has no fashion sense at all, and loves it.
Kessa flicks her gaze back toward Elara, "Flowers are tough to work with, but I'm always scouting for new ones out there. But once you have all the right flowers together, certainly, a hat could be covered with a display of vivid colour." She leans a little toward Elara, eyebrows jutting up, "I could always design you a hat, should you ever feel the need to have a new one." Business women always use opportunities to market their product, and well, Elara seems the type to like the idea. In an afterthought, she adds, "The best flowers too, are around the coast lines. Big petals and lots of colour."
Elara giggles, "But I don't want my hat to start wilting!" Oh yes, she's already sold. Far sold. "Cloth flowers, that will stay vibrant for years and years. Can you do that? And a wide, floppy brim. I love those."
"I have a secret in preserving flowers. They look so much better real than the fabric ones. They will never wilt or crack. I usually use a mixture of both types though, since I an endless stock of fabric ones." She grins as she hooks the kite on her finger, "A floppy brim, yes. One with a double swoop perhaps." She stands then, dusting off her skirt with a pat of a hand, "It's about time I try this kite out," she winks at Elara, "did you awnt to give it a try first?"
Elara shakes her head with a giggle, "Oh no, I think you'd better go first." She gets to her feet, just incase something…she doesn't know, happens?
"Alright," she beams toward the other, "the first thing that one usually has to do is run so the kite catches air." At this point, Kessa looks around, making sure the ground before her is open and free of dragon or other people. The last thing she would want to do is run into someone. Grabbing the kite by the center still, she holds onto the spool with her other hand, starting to run alongside the lake, sandals digging into sand as she releases the kite. At first the kite bobs around hopelessly behind her. And it does take a few trips running back and forth before the object catches wind to go up and stay up. It bobbles in the air, doing a dance like a snake with it ribbon tail fluttering wildly against the breeze. Kessa screeches playfully when the thing takes a nose dive and she has to yank the string to keep it from hitting the ground - the kite veering back up to the height it was before. Thus, Kessa starts to run back some more, toward Elara, hoping with further wind under the sails of the kite, it'll go higher.
Elara watches with surprise. After all, the first time you've seen a kite can be mesmerizing. Even Wiyaneth watches, the dragon still suspicious. She huffs out some air, as though imagining blowing the dratted thing down from the sky.
It could be that the huff from Wiyaneth was more of a boon than not, as the kite jerks higher, ascending to a height just above Wiyaneth's head. Kessa cannot help but laugh, for it is something to do with flying a kite that brings forward a childish reaction from the woman, her eyes just brightening as the kite goes higher and higher, dipping and diving and looping in circles. "See what I mean! Isn't it great?" She holds up the spool, "You steer it with this and by tugging on the string you can make it dive. When you release the spool and let it spin in your hands," she shows by example as the spool begins to scuff Kessa's palms as the kite gets tugged on by the wind to ascend even higher, "you're giving it more string to fly with." She looks with an underlying excitement as she tries to pass it to Elara, "Would you like to try it?" Certainly everyone has to try it once in their life!
Elara giggles and shakes her head, glancing at her moody dragon, "No, I'd better not, this time," she says with a smile, "You keep at it, you're very good! What happens if a dragon flies into it, though?"
Kessa's smile drops as Elara asks a question she obviously never considered, her eyes flickering up toward the kite with a sense of worry for it, as if the thing were animate and had to be protected. "I sure hope a dragon doesn't fly into it! Because it wouldn't hurt the dragon but I'm sure the kite would be ruined. Probably a reason why it hasn't caught on in the Weyrs!" She admits, reflecting on the whole idea of a dragon tangling in the string that is nearly invisible the higher it reaches into the air.
Elara nods, "Might be a good idea to fly it a little lower, then, or in places where the dragons don't fly as much. There's a lovely clearing just outside of the weyr that might make a nice place to fly it."
"You do have a point," Kessa smirks as she starts winding it in, "Perhaps on my next break I'll seek out that clearing." The young woman starts to sinch in the string, wrists moving in a pully action that draws the kite ever so slowly toward the ground, "And by the looks of it any how, it's getting to the point that I should start back to the barracks." Indeed, there were afternoon chores to get accomplished before the day was entirely out, however, Kessa has to murmur to seal her deal earlier of a hat for the weyrwoman, "Would it be alright if I came by later to take some measurements? For your hat?"
Elara grins, "Absolutely! I would love that, thank you!"
It's with that permission to visit later in the evening that Kessa finishes winding in her kite. With a few more polite departing words, the woman gathers her things and makes the long journey on foot across the Weyr's bowl toward the barracks where her work clothes are waiting along with the notice of what her afternoon chore would be. And such is Weyr life, bustling with a brief speck in time to enjoy the simple things in life.
