[SRP] Just a little crush (Chluaith & Feslengenth)

[Princess_Feylin]

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Chluaith landed heavily, his meal clutched in his foreclaws thudding to the ground just before he did. At his age and size, few gainsaid him when he went for a larger animal, which was nice. It felt like he was always hungry. He'd visited the dragonhealers several times when he was was younger because in his rush to eat he'd bitten his tongue a lot.

He was about to settle in to begin on his latest meal when a sparkle of green across the pasture caught his attention.

Of course, there were greens everywhere, but Chluaith would know this green anywhere. He had noticed her before at the hunting grounds and been deeply impressed that a green would be so fierce in her hunting and so determined to take a large portion of food. He also liked her powerful build. She seemed like she was probably a hard worker. He liked that in a person, be they human or dragon.

He watched her bring down her kill and then heft it into the air, admiring her determination as she wrestled with the large beast, feeling a warm buzz in his hearts that briefly turned into a panicked stutter when he realized that she was hailing him and about to land opposite him with her kill.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Feslengenth was usually a hungry dragon. In her long-ago youth, she'd thought that overeating would cause her to be larger as an adult, and to an extent she'd been correct. She was a sturdy dragon with a generous swell of stomach. The dragonhealers had recently told her to mind her diet, citing practical reasons that nevertheless gave offense. Wingstrain! Increased surface area for Thread to hit! Hearts problems! She'd been so irritated that she'd made a point of bringing down the largest animal in the herd everytime she fed and eating the whole thing. No human was going to tell her how to manage her body.

While circling the herd she'd felt eyes on her, and taken a moment while bringing down her prey to figure out who was watching her, and from where. It turned out to be a large brown from the Weyr's most recent hatching. She'd never interacted with him before, but if she strained she could remember that he was one of the dragons who had helped to organize all the male candidates into a funny line. The memory of how silly that had been brought a happy blue gleam to her eyes and she decided impulsively to join him in his meal.

Hello! she called down to him as she circled above. I hope you don't mind me joining you.

Before the younger dragon could object, she had dropped her kill a few yards away from his own and then landed with a good bit of delicacy for a green. As she did so, she realized that this brown was nearly as large as she was already. Impressive. He might grow to be as large as a bronze by the time he was done. Not that there was anything inherently special about bronzes, but they were inarguably big.  

[Princess_Feylin]

There was barely time for Chluaith to say anything, let alone object, in response to the green's salutation, but he wouldn't have refused her at any rate. In the time it took her to land, his hearts had regained their regular measured beating. He had noticed her, and now she had noticed him. It would be good for them to do something about that noticing. Like talk. There was nothing to get worked up about.

Hello, he replied. I'm glad to have you join me. I'm Chluaith. My rider is T'nori.

Up close, closer than he'd ever been to this particular green, he saw that she had vivid green curlicues here and there which had probably been the reason her hide seemed almost to sparkle under the sun. It was a pleasant effect. He knew and was glad that no part of him could ever be said to sparkle. Sparkling, really, should be the province of bronzes and golds, though it might not be fair to begrudge a green a little flash of it now and then. He'd seen how hard his sisters worked, and it could not be said that they were unworthy of appreciation, as long as they didn't take it into their heads that they were deserving of more appreciation than their golden mothers.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Fes settled down and began to pick her beast apart. It was so nice to be a dragon, she reflected. Humans couldn't really speak and eat at the same time, because both activities required pretty much all of their mouth area. Being a dragon meant she could eat with her mouth and converse with her mind. She shared this thought with Noska and got a very deliberate impression of teeth masticating something green and leafy.

Good to know you, Chluaith, she replied as she selected the leg she planned to start with. She preferred to deal with the large bones first, and work her way to the more fiddly ones that made up the torso, neck, and head. I'm Feslengenth, bonded to Noska. We're in Trespassers Wing.

She gave him some time to absorb the information before starting in fearlessly: So, why were you watching me? A young brown as large as you, clearly you know enough about hunting to keep yourself fed without having to learn by watching others. Though I notice you've yet to take a bite...?

In the back of her mind, Fes could feel Noska shaking her head at her boldness. Noska was a brave young woman, but when it came to interpersonal interaction she had a long way to go. Though she'd come a long way, too. Sometimes she and Fes would stage conversations in the exaggeratedly florid language Noska had used when she first came to the Weyr, and it never failed to amuse Fes, who was a much less stiff and formal creature than all that.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Chluaith was quick to reply politely to Feslengenth's introduction, saying that it was a pleasure to know her, wishing her bond good health, and remarking that he had heard good things about her wing. His response was, perhaps, a little stiff and formal, but Chluaith preferred to begin with formality and doing things the proper way, and then relaxing a bit once he knew which way the winds were blowing, as it were. He knew that there were those in his clutch who felt he was a stick-in-the-mud, but he was completely unbothered by their estimation. He knew the way things ought to be done, and he did them that way. He only wished more dragons would do the same.

The draconic equivalent of a blush rolled across the color of his eyes as he realized that Feslengenth was correct, and he had not been doing justice to his kill. He buried his muzzle in the dead thing's throat and responded to her question with complete honesty and without a hint of embarrassment at his words.

I was watching you because I was impressed by the size of the beast you'd chosen to pursue, and I wanted to see how you managed with it. Greens, I've noticed, sometimes have a tendency to overreach themselves, and I would have stepped in to help, had that proven to be the case with you. Though I've seen you hunt before, and it didn't seem likely that you would have any trouble. You are wonderfully strong for a green.

If it occurred to him at all that Feslengenth might take offense at all the "for a green" talk, he probably would have been confused. He intended his words as a compliment, after all.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Fes's eyes shifted to a less pleased shade of blue and she stood up, her partially-eaten prey rendered unimportant in the face of this young brown's idiocy. Or at least tactlessness. Either way, this was a teachable moment.

Was that supposed to be a compliment? she asked. Because if it was, you're terrible at them.

She waited to see the effect her words had on Chluaith. It looked like...confusion. Well, that was all right. Fes was actually kind of pleased by it. Confusion meant that a mind wasn't completely closed and made up. Time to make an impression!

I'm sure you'll get better as you get older. The thing is, you probably didn't know that when you compliment someone by saying they did better than you expected them to do based on some kind of silly stereotype - like the color of a dragon's hide, for instance? - it's actually not much of a compliment, because it also included an insult to that person's group. Also, any time a compliment ends with the words "for a something-or-other," you're still kind of saying that that something-or-other is generally not very good, so the person you're complimenting has exceeded expectations that were unnecessarily lowered. Which makes it kind of an insult!

Fes's mindvoice was as chipper and cheery as any creche worker playing with a child would be, because she was pretty sure that Chluaith simply hadn't lived long enough to realize how someone might interpret his compliment as a kind of insult, and she didn't want to make him feel bad about trying to give her a compliment - she loved to be complimented - but she also wanted to make sure he didn't set his standards too low.

I bring it up because, as you pointed out, I'm green, so when I hear people say things that imply greens are less capable, I can't help but be a little disappointed. After all, greens are truly the gems of any Weyr. That's why there are so many of us. We're really useful dragons, given how fast and flexible we are fighting Thread. And, of course, the fact that we're small has absolutely no bearing on our intelligence or other skills and personality traits. For instance, I'm actually a really great problem solver!

She paused, giving Chluaith time to catch up and maybe agree that she was completely correct and thank her for broadening his horizons.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Chluaith, now that he had begun to eat, did not stop eating just because Felsengenth had stood up, though his eyes did follow her. She really was a very nicely proportioned dragon, he observed, and she certainly had a lot of thoughts on the subject of compliments. It had never occurred to Chluaith that there was that much thinking to be done on the matter. He'd just said that he'd wondered if she would be able to manage such a large beast, and then told her she was wonderfully strong for a dragon of her size. He thought that he'd said exactly what he meant, but now she was implying that he was actually insulting her, which he knew he hadn't intended, and that he sounded like he didn't think very highly of greens. At least if he understood her correctly, and he wasn't sure that he did.

So what you're saying is that because I noted your size relative to the size of the herdbeast you killed, I'm being insulting? he asked, speaking slowly to make sure that he definitely said the words he meant to say, and that the meaning behind them was clear. He was not trying to challenge Felsengenth or argue with her. He just wanted to make sure that he had understood her. "I didn't think that would be an insult. Is there a better way I could have said it, so that you would feel complimented instead?

With another part of his mind he snagged T'nori's attention and asked him what he thought. T'nori gave the mental impression of a shrug. He tended to speak even less than Chluaith, and it was rare that he delivered compliments more complicated than "good job" or "nice work," which were pretty hard to misconstrue. He suggested that since the green in question seemed willing to explain herself so far, Chluaith might be best served by hearing her out.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Fes's tail slashed back and forth as she reminded herself to be patient. She had decided that she was going to make this a teachable moment, which meant that she would have to remain pleasant, even if it was frustrating. At least he didn't sound combative when he asked his questions, just genuinely confused. Now she began to wonder, though, if that genuine confusion was because he was actually incapable of getting his head around the point she was trying to make. She that wasn't the case. He seemed like a nice young thing. But if he was already embracing the Weyr's dismissive attitude toward greens, that wasn't good.

It is a little insulting, she confirmed. Because the way you said it means that you don't really expect very much of me to begin with because I'm small. But also, you didn't really say anything about my size. You talked about the color of my hide. And when you said that greens - like me - have a tendency to overreach, well, that's a pretty broad generalization. I don't think overreaching is a trait solely associated with greens. I've seen dragons of all colors bite off more than they can chew, and some of them were able to deal with it without help, and others needed a little assistance. Not all of the ones who needed assistance were green dragons, or even chromatic ones. Some of them had shiny hides. So maybe a better way you could have put it was just to say that you were impressed by my hunting abilities and my strength, and leave my hide out of it completely.

She shuffled her wings and settled back down, confident that she'd been clear and that Chluaith would thank her any second now for helping him to see that a dragon's color needn't limit their accomplishments.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Chluaith really did think about what Feslengenth was saying, and he could see where he had erred in supposing that because she was green she would be less capable, and especially in reminding her of that fact. It might even be true that in the matter of overreaching, any color could do it, but a green could overreach with much more modest ambitions than, say, a brown, or even a blue, to say nothing of the astronomically unrealistic goals a dragon with a bronze or gold hide would have to set themselves for it to be beyond them. It honestly made sense that she might prefer to have color left out of it completely, but the fact was that in his head, Chluaith really did think that greens were at a distinct disadvantage in most aspects, and he didn't understand why she wouldn't want to hear that she was more impressive than other dragons like her. He didn't want to fight about it, though.

I will keep that in mind, he told her politely, and he would, too, until he forgot about it, which probably wouldn't take too long. You care a lot about this.

He had yet to find anything that he cared that strongly about except getting bigger and stronger so that he could be his best when the time came to fight Thread. And T'nori, of course, but that wasn't the same sort of thing. He would have to pay more attention as he went about his days. There surely were things he cared about as much as Feslengenth cared about the way greens were treated and spoken to. He just hadn't noticed because he'd never thought about it before.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Fes was a little disappointed that the younger brown had not instantly understood what she was saying and professed his conversion to her way of thinking, but it seemed to her that he was at least thinking about it. She supposed she could be satisfied with that for now. He was young, after all, and in this Weyr he was almost certainly being fed a steady stream of information which justified placing metallic dragons at the top of the hierarchy in his lessons. She remembered her own lessons had contained a good deal of that. It wasn't until she and Noska had graduated that they weren't constantly being told how relatively unimportant they were in the Weyr just because Fes's hide was green.

I do, she answered him. It took a colossal amount of self-restraint to stop herself there. She wanted to go on, talk about the better ways Western did things, and all the opportunities a dragon like him would miss out on here simply because his hide didn't shimmer in the sun, but she reminded herself for the second time in as many minutes that he had only heard one perspective on this from adult dragons so far, and that she couldn't hope to completely convince him in one go.

She concentrated on her meal and hoped that he would ask her more questions about what she'd said to him, but Chluaith seemed content to be silent and devour his food. If you wanted to talk about dragons being impressive, Chluaith's ability to put away meat was astonishing. Fes enjoyed eating as much as any dragon and more than a good many, but she didn't think she'd ever eaten with such gusto in her life. It was a wonder the brown didn't bite off his tongue in his haste. Several more minutes passed with neither dragon speaking and Fes concluded that Chluaith wasn't going to say anything more to her.

It was good to meet you, Chluaith, she said eventually, having eaten her fill. With his ravening pace, Chluaith had consumed nearly his entire kill in the time it took her to eat about two thirds of hers. I hope we meet again.

So saying, she stood up and ambled off, too full to fly right away.  

[Princess_Feylin]

It was good to meet you, too, Feslengenth, Chluaith agreed when his companion got to her feet. I would enjoy talking to you again.

Chluaith watched the green depart and wondered briefly if she had expected him to say something more, but it had seemed to him that they had both said everything that needed to be said on the subject of her greenness and his failure to compliment her to her satisfaction. He was content to be silent and companionable, although he was true that Feslengenth was practically buzzing with energy and possibly unspoken things, but he was not one to pry words from a person. If they wanted to say something, then they would have to convince themselves to say it, and if they couldn't then they couldn't. Chluaith never had a hard time saying what was on his mind.

In any event, he had been glad to have the opportunity to speak to the green he'd been admiring and to let her know that he admired her, even if he'd been clumsy in his attempt. This was a good afternoon.