A/n: what did you people do to earn three new chapters? Oh yeah, you were wonderful reviewers! Keep it up and so will I! Disclaimer: DoP isn't mine. But the unnamed stuffed dragon is.
Oops
The next day dawned and found K'dra curled partially under K'vic, hugging his warmth close in the hours where it was actually cool. She was on her stomach as K'vic awoke, smiling down at the brunette in his bed.
His fingers played lightly over the Threadscoring on her shoulder, gently tracing smoothly raised skin, smiling softly as she shuddered even under that soft touch.
"K'dra," he whispered, allowing his smooth strokes to deepen.
"Hmm?"
"K'dra," he singsonged, growing steadily louder, enjoying himself immensely and this time allowed to touch and cherish her.
"Five more minutes," she turned over on her side to face him and burrow into his chest. Her right arm snaked under the sleeping furs to curl around his waist and pull herself closer.
"K'dra," he breathed her name softly against her ear, following the curve of her neck and jaw to nuzzle the hollow of her throat, tongue working.
"Hmm," he practically purred, his ministrations and chest rumbling, serving their desired purpose in teasing his new lover awake.
"K'dra," he growled, nipping the ear he'd been working on, flicking his tongue out to tease behind it.
She shuddered, gasping, as she came fully awake and inexplicably aroused. K'vic chuckled, his first objective completed, continuing this delightful torture, causing K'dra to laugh.
"What are you doing," she grinned, moaning the last as K'vic nipped a particularly sensitive spot, deciding not to make this so easy on him and ducking her head as he tried to capture her mouth.
Get him back! Don't be caught so easily! Terranth offered helpfully from her spot on the ledge. She had awakened not too long before K'dra, having slept light for being on an unfamiliar weyr ledge, but not minding, as her rider seemed so much more relaxed now because of this new person.
"Terranth!" K'dra gasped, stopping her counterstrike and K'vic's advances, shooting straight up despite the arm entangled around hers and the hand trailing down her back.
"Oh, Terranth, I forgot your bath last night. And your gear, you've been in them all day and night long!"
K'dra was cursing herself for neglecting her dragon, irritated as K'vic laughed at her dismay, kissing his way down her back, who found it an amazing sensation, but completely nonconductive to her problem at hand.
"K'vic," she started to protest, but his mouth was doing things that had her breath quicken for an entirely different reason.
I am fine, Terranth reassured her rider, enjoying the first rays of the sun from her new vantage point on Shimrath's ledge. If K'dra didn't know better, she'd have thought the dragon-child was amused.
Of course I am. Enjoy yourself some more. Shimrath's rider seems to enjoy you.
Indeed, that unperturbed man was once again on the move, and he pulled K'dra back down on the sleeping couch, giving his attention to her front now that he had completely explored her back.
Terranth…I'll get you both later.
K'dra's thoughts stopped there, and she was once again lost in sensual exploration as K'vic pulled a pop quiz to see how much she had learned and retained last night from his teachings.
Terranth and Shimrath joined in their riders pleasure, and the resulting four part echo was an added boon to an already wonderful experience. Now K'dra understood why so many dragonriders preferred another dragonrider as a weyrmate, all parties involved got something out of the joining.
"Good thing we don't have patrol today and it's a rest day," K'vic murmured against the soft skin of K'dra's shoulder sometime later after things had wound down some.
"Hmm.." K'dra agreed, passive but willing under his touch. She gave a combination of sigh and groan, twisting on her back to face her lover. Her lover. Strange, she never thought she'd be able to say that.
"I really have to take care of my dragon-love, now," she gently admonished, reach to stroke his cheek and move that unruly bit of hair out of his face.
"Aww," he pouted, then grinned. "Oh, all right, might as well. I need to give Shimrath a bath as well."
Oh, yes! The sandy brown warbled in pleasure at the upcoming bath. As much as he was glad his precious rider had enjoyed himself, now he was aware of all the grit and dried sweat from yesterday, and he was ready for a scrubbing. Perhaps the Weyr's firelizards would be obliging and scrub between his neck ridges. Outside, Terranth rumbled her agreement and anticipation of a bath.
She was in a similar mindset, but she was also more forgiving as almost two Turns worth of curiosity on her part of intimate human relationships was fulfilled last night and this morning.
"That means you have to get off of me," K'dra teased her tanned lover.
"You need a bath too," he wrinkled his nose at her in mock offense.
"You wherry!" she laughed, slapping him playfully but pausing long enough to lock lips and enjoy thoroughly kissing her lover.
"That's not getting into the bath," he managed huskily, pulling away with regret.
"Neither are you."
"All right, on three. Slate, hide, shears."
"Sharding tunnel snake," she made a face as she lost, giving him a playful shove and getting out of bed.
K'vic chuckled, leaning back with his hands behind his head, watching with fondness as she disappeared behind the screen to the bathing chamber. He smiled as he heard the sound of her splashing around, a range of visuals coming to mind he had to force down in order to function properly.
He grabbed some water from a nearby wash pot and started on a quick bath, knowing the cold water was the best for him right now.
The pair made it to the breakfast as they last breakfast round was being served. This was for all the late stragglers and this would be it until they started with lunch in a few hours.
K'dra didn't question her need to eat more food than usual; considering her activities this morning and prior, she was starving. K'vic seemed amused as usual, the pair dickering per their custom, so aside from the extra food, one couldn't tell this apart from any normal day.
"What are you doing today?" K'vic asked.
"Giving Terranth a bath and then getting back to the Weyr."
"S'gal and Sakura keeping you close eh?"
"Yeah…a little something about Terranth being close to rising so they want us to stick to where it's safer."
"I think that's a good idea. Think I'll stick around, too," he winked at her.
She laughed and tossed a grape-melon at him.
"You piece of dray spit. You have to stay anyway because it's the wings' turn to teach the weyrlings basic ground formations since the Weyrlingmaster is away," K'dra rolled her eyes, but she was pleased nonetheless.
They finished in high humor, leaving to bathe their respective dragons and join up with their wing. As one, they flew out of the Weyr, not having seen their Wingleader anywhere, but knowing he'd be out and about with the rest of the wing.
The found him, and the other nine members of Thread's Bane Wing, with their dragons and assorted weyrlings in the bathing cove. The cove was really more a large overflow into a mini lake, but the river kept going past this huge 'puddle' for lack of a better term.
It wasn't far from the Weyr, and the Feeding Grounds were only a few dragonlengths away. K'dra dismounted a ways away from the main group, starting to strip Terranth of all her gear.
"Sorry dragon-love for neglecting your bath," she hummed softly to herself. She winced at the dried sweat crusted on the straps.
"I'll clean these as soon as I can, and scrub you again," she promised.
Terranth angled her head to touch her muzzle against K'dra. Her eyes swirled the blue and purple of love and affection. She crooned a soft warble.
Do not worry, you did not neglect me. I told you it was okay last night instead of my bath for you to enjoy yourself. You've been neglecting yourself again, Terranth admonished, bringing to mind the time she took K'dra to her brother's hold for dinner.
The mini-green whuffled her hair, and K'dra laughed, hugging that muzzle close. For a moment, she closed her eyes and it was once again a world filled with just her and Terranth.
I love you, the pair thought together, mutual love and devotion flowing through their bond that nothing, not even new lovers, could ever surpass or break.
"Hey, you going to bathe your dragon or are you going to hug her clean?"
K'dra's head snapped up and she sent a mock glare in her wingsecond's direction. Though trying not to smile at B'yin was as effective as not laughing at K'vic: it was utterly impossible.
"You ought to try it B'yin, might improve your dour disposition!" she called back even as she motioned Terranth in.
That dragon child squealed in pleasure and dove right in, sending tidal waves in all directions, nearly swamping a few of the weyrlings bathing their own dragons, not long out of the shell themselves. The lakes' water was a deep blue-green color like the ocean at its deepest points, and Terranth loved swimming and submerging there.
You can't see me! Terranth was creeling in delight, rolling and lolling about in the water, before submerging all but her nose. She suffered under the impression that her hide blended in with the water, and K'dra gave a roll of her eyes.
"I'm surrounded by those who can't take anything seriously," she griped in mock exasperation, but there was a smile in place.
"I take things seriously!" B'yin laughed, coming up to her side. "And you seriously need to give Terranth a bath so join her!"
He picked her up and tossed her in the water in Terranth's general direction. She shrieked in surprise before hitting the water, which was chilly. Southern may get humid, and later in the day it would, but the mornings when the sun was still behind the mountain and everything was still in shadow made for a very brisk water temperature.
"Oh!" she spluttered, teeth chattering, and a real glare affixed on her face for her wingsecond. That man was laughing at her until K'vic pitched him in the water. K'dra ducked out the way, laughing and sharing a grin toward her lover.
'Thank you,' she mouthed at him, then swam to where the oddly lumped shape floating in the water that was Terranth floated. Taking a breath, she dived all the way to the bottom, grabbing handfuls of sand, and surfacing to set about scrubbing.
"So where'd you go last night?" B'yin asked, floating by on his back next to her, completely idle. K'dra fought the urge to roll her eyes again.
""Why, did you miss me?"
"Like a piece of Thread."
"Dung beetle."
"Hey, no names," the wingsecond laughed.
"Go clean your dragon. Poor Kalisth looks dirty."
"Nah, that's just his natural coloring," the wingsecond chuckled, eliciting a smile out of K'dra, who kept scrubbing her dragon. Fortunately for her, a fair of firelizards descended upon her dragon, chittering and squawking, tiny fistfuls of sand as they set about helping scrub Terranth.
"You going to help me or just float there like a bump on a log?"
"I'm waiting to hear about your night," the raven-haired B'yin pouted, but K'dra knew he was really curious. "You have that look about you."
"What look?"
"That look that says," the wingsecond paused, looking closely at K'dra. "That look that says you're not that innocent anymore."
"B'yin!" But she couldn't help the blush that confirmed the speculation.
"Who was it?"
"I'm not telling!"
"Come on, I'm your wingsecond, respect my authority!"
"Respect my privacy."
"We're a Weyr, K'dra, eventually everyone and their dragon and flitter will know, so just tell me now so I can get my jibes in."
"So?"
"So…tell me!"
"No!"
"If you won't, I'll start naming off names…" he let the threat hang open, and K'dra fought not to laugh.
"Oh, all right, since you're going to keep pestering me until I do," she cast her wingsecond a smile.
"Naturally," the brown rider agreed, inclining his head in a nod. She grinned and then dived, going under Terranth to surface on the other side. She laughed as she heard the shout from B'yin as she had left him, and she was still chuckling as she climbed upon Terranth to go after her back with a vengeance, smiling and greeting the firelizards.
"K'dra!"
The look on B'yin's face was like that of a spoiled child sulking, and K'dra laughed.
"You look like my niece and nephew when they didn't get their way," she giggled, smiling down at the pouting man. Before he could say anything, Terranth chose that moment to shift and B'yin was flooded.
"Terranth," he spluttered, much to both Terranth and K'dra's amusement. A few of the surrounding riders who'd seen it started laughing as the resident pest got what he deserved.
Oops.
Terranth's apology had K'dra laughing again, and she almost fell off she was laughing so hard.
"Terranth says 'oops'," she laughed at the dirty look she received from her wingsecond.
"Come on," he whined, enjoying the game as much as K'dra. He was another rider who had become her friend real fast, but K'dra had no allusions that he wanted her body or anything of the sort. He was just too nosy for his own good.
"Come on up here and I'll tell."
"Swear to me on Terranth's shell that you will and no tricks this time!"
"I swear, by the sun and the moons and the stars," K'dra grinned.
"On Terranth's shell!"
"All right, I swear upon my darling Terranth's shell that I will tell you about my adventures last night."
"Finally." The wingsecond pulled himself up so that he straddled Terranth's back, looking expectantly at K'dra.
"All right. I was with K'vic last night, in his weyr. All night and this morning."
"K'vic? Whoa," he whistled. "Going for the senior wingsecond there eh?"
"No," K'dra blushed. "If I had, it'd have been you I spent the night with, not K'vic. You're the senior wingsecond, not him."
"That is truth," B'yin nodded. He cocked his head as he looked at her, then started shaking his head.
"What?"
"Nothing…just that."
"What is it B'yin?"
"Did you really?"
"Of course I did. Does that create a problem? Was I not supposed to?" K'dra looked up at the man she'd come to respect and admire as one of her leaders.
"No for me. I'm glad you're adjusting so well, enough so you've taken a lover from our ranks. That's good for you and for Terranth, so when this beautiful lady here rises," he gave an affectionate thump to the dragon hide beneath him, "you won't be so inhibited or overwhelmed."
"I know that, that's one of the reasons why we came together in the first place," K'dra remarked, recalling some of the talk that she and K'vic had had in between their 'learning' sessions.
"The fact of the matter is…R'ahvin's not going to like this."
The way B'yin said it made it seem like R'ahvin had some sort of claim on her, and that no one else was allowed. For some reason, that didn't set too well with K'dra, who felt her temper suddenly snap and rise to the fore.
"And what does he have to do with anything?" she snarled, scowling and ducking her head down to hide the look in her eyes, staring at but not really seeing the soft dragon hide in front of her.
"Well, he did recruit you from you Weyr," B'yin began, warily noting the sudden shift in her mood. He casually glanced down at the dragon underneath him, but the water obstructed most of his view so he couldn't tell what color her hide was.
"And that gives him first dibs on my body?" K'dra demanded, anger a warm current rising and chasing away the early morning chill.
"No, but he also fancies you, so most interested riders have been giving you a wide berth until R'ahvin makes a move."
"He did make a move, back when I was a weyrling at Thread's End, and I turned him down," she snipped out, glaring defiantly at her wingsecond. The raven-haired brown rider raised his hands in surrender.
"But you're still attracted to him."
"So?" she scowled, and some of her rider's mood penetrated to Terranth who started to shift. The firelizards, having finished their work already, had moved on to other dragons who needed their attention. It was just K'dra and B'yin.
"So, every rider here respects R'ahvin and are willing to forego their interests until you are no longer in the running."
"No longer in the running, you make it sound like I'm something to be chased, to be possessed."
Terranth growled in response to K'dra's rising antagonism, eyes starting to whirl faster as she turned her serpentine neck around to better see the two humans on her back.
"No, you're not," B'yin was haste to soothe her, feeling the danger he was in from both females, but also wanting to try and make K'dra see.
"But anyone with two eyes can see the pair of you liked each other, and they didn't want to interfere. That's all I was trying to say, and just because you turned him down once, doesn't mean he, R'ahvin, is not still interested. In fact, I'd say he was too interested for someone who hasn't made you his weyrmate or come to an agreement yet."
"You think I don't know that? But what has he done in regards to…to that? Sure he came onto me at my home Weyr, and we've been friends, good friends, since. And there is definitely something between this, I feel it every time he looks at me, or smiles a certain way. But he's all but ignored me since bringing me here, and Terranth's going to rise soon as K'vic pointed out to me, possibly today or tomorrow, and I needed someone last night, needed last night, so I won't mess up, and R'ahvin left in a snit, he won't tell me what's going on, and K'vic was there, he was so wonderful, he understood, and I really like him…and, and…"
K'dra surprised herself and couldn't go on, she started to cry, and her clothes were too soaked to dry her eyes, and she didn't pay heed to the surrounding riders looking over at her in concern.
"It's okay, K'dra," B'yin awkwardly reached around one of Terranth's back ridges to haul the sobbing green rider against him. Their bodies swayed as Terranth lifted her head, angling it so that she could see her rider and try to see what was distressing her so. She gave an agitated barking rumble at her rider's distress, eyes whirling with anxiousness.
"Shh…calm down, K'dra, please," B'yin gave a watchful eye on Terranth and the weyrlings. He wasn't worried so much about the rest of his wing, they were well experienced and knew better than to get involved with a proddy dragon and her rider so near to rising. K'dra needed to get herself under control with Terranth and the weyrlings so near.
K'dra tried, but she'd been hounded with so much, so many changes, so many new expectations, so many disappointments…with last night and Terranth's feelings, it was too much. She cried against her wingsecond, heedless to the way their clothes stuck and clung to each other from their dunking.
B'yin was almost ready to have Kalisth interfere when K'vic scaled up Terranth's side and took the crying green rider of B'yin's arms and into his own.
"K'dra, K'dra," he crooned, holding her close. He maneuvered so he went over backward into the water, taking K'dra with him, keeping Terranth's bulk between them and the rest of the spectators.
Between Terranth, the water, and K'vic holding her, K'dra found herself winding down. Tears still streamed down her face, but she no longer was sobbing.
"It's okay, K'dra, it's okay love, shh…" he soother, murmuring in her ear, nuzzling her close. K'dra allowed herself to lean back into the rider's broad chest, trusting him to keep them afloat and calm her wild emotions.
"Too close," he muttered, and K'dra knew he was talking about Terranth. Only knowing her a few days, he already understood that the green dragon's unstable emotional state was affecting her in conjunction to so many changes.
"Yeah, too close," she agreed, even as her mind joined with Terranth's to reassure the still anxious dragon.
Too close, Shimrath thrummed to calm Terranth, humming in his throat as he eyed the little green floating in the water, watching as K'vic pulled her rider shoreward.
"Is she all right?" some of the weyrlings questioned, even as the rest of Thread's Bane wing were urging them and their own dragons to clear the area.
"K'dra will be fine as soon as Terranth rises," a blue rider, D'rik, reassured the hastily retreating weyrlings and their curious dragons, who craned their necks backward to get a look at the pair. D'rik's blue Tynth rumbled for the weyrling dragonets to hurry their pace, shifting in a gathering anticipation.
"Should be soon," I'bic, green Avath's rider, agreed, rubbing his chin as he eyed K'vic with his arms wrapped around the wing's newest recruit. "When my Avath was proddy, I was as emotional as any pregnant, hormonal woman."
I'bic, D'rik, and the rest of the wing ushered the weyrling to a safe distance, though those riders with male dragons hovered expectantly around the cove. Their beasts, blue and brown alike, hummed to some signal known only to dragon instinct, sending their riders on edge.
They got out of the way fast when R'ahvin, looking as if he'd had a terrible night, marched toward where K'vic was helping K'dra up the shore bank. The brown rider had an almost possessive arm around her waist, and he had to force himself to relax as R'ahvin approached.
"K'dra! What was the meaning of that!" the bronze rider flung his arm toward the water in an encompassing gesture that showed his irritation.
"R'ahvin," K'vic tried to warn his leader in a low tone but he was roundly ignored.
"Answer me, green rider," he snapped, glaring at the shivering K'dra. K'dra tensed at the slight and she raised her chin, the anger and tumultuous emotions that had been swirling about replacing her earlier sorrow and leapt on the chance to be let out.
"That was called venting pent up frustrations and being comforted by a friend. Healers recommend one do it often so as to have a healthy emotional well-being," she snarled back, barely able to keep her voice low.
K'vic's arm tightened about her waist in desperate warning, and she leaned in against the sturdy body she'd recently become so familiar with. Her gaze never broke from R'ahvin's, so she saw the irritation give way to anger, knew that he'd seen her lean in against K'vic and he didn't like it.
"If you need such restoration," he spat the word out, "so badly, green rider, then you must be unfit for riding Fall. I'll not allow impaired dragon pair actively in my wing until they are better. Once Terranth rises, you're ground from Fall until further notice!"
This little speech was delivered in a tight, clipped voice devoid of all mercy or friendship, a leader giving an ultimatum expected to be obeyed.
"Why you," K'dra snarled her emotions so enjoined with Terranth's neither knew where one's began and the other's stopped.
Terranth hissed from her place in the water, sensing the aggravation and anger in the air and her rider's fury. She rocked from side to side in the water, hissing and growling in time to the angry swirls of color in her eyes. All eyes flicked to the dragon and some widened as they caught sight of the glow that was beginning to flicker about the little green as if someone had lit a candle inside her.
Too close! Shimrath warned, trumpeting, eyes focused and whirling on the little green.
"K'dra," K'vic lifted his lover off her feet, pulling her in front of and facing him, arms wrapped about her tight. "Easy, lover, easy. Just think of all that time we could spend in…educational purposes."
He tried to soothe her even as he cast an angry glare over at his wingleader, who was overreacting in his opinion, and making things worse.
"Lover?" R'ahvin's voice lowered dangerously and he glared at the pair in front of him.
R'ahvin! Xenith roared, wings unfurling as he sensed the dangerous tones and knowing that his rider was in the thick of it.
Terranth gave a sudden roar and launched herself out of the water, sending a spray of droplets all over. Shimrath and Kalisth were just as suddenly in the air, blocking her from attacking the bronze rider, but she had already altered her course as another, more urgent instinct kicked in. She roared in pain and anger and fury all the way to the Feeding Grounds, her cries echoed to a lesser extent by her rider who was already deep in thrall with her green's mating furor.
"She blew!" B'yin shouted. He caught sight of some lingering weyrlings and shouted, "Get those weyrlings away!"
B'yin took over even as R'ahvin seemed to snap himself out of whatever fury had gripped him. His eyes were regretful, but were met with K'vic's disapproving glare.
"Don't let her gorge," the brown rider advised the halfway distant rider still in his grasp, but K'dra gave no sign that she had heard him.
This is could be bad.