Odd Truth's

[.K.aci]

Did you ever know that you're my hero,
and ev'rything I would like to be?
I can fly higher than an eagle,
'cause you are the wind beneath my wings.

For some, love is easy. They find their true love fast – in their past life they must have done something right and someone rewards them for it. They find each other, they live together, grow old, have many babies, and then die together in their sleep. However, for others, love isn’t that simple. For some, problems may arise. Now, these problems may have something to do with the fact that the girl is emotionally scarred by a particularly nasty male and her own mother. Or, the problems could be because that girl has a fear of speaking to people and believes that she is as bad as some say she is. And then you could have it really be her quick to anger Green guardian, or her belief that she is the scum of the earth. Pick your favorite.

Love was a hard thing to find – true love is comparably easier, but harder to keep. True love is something that you have, and need to fight to make work… This is what we might have here. Reader, I don’t know – it’s hard enough trying to tell what’s going on then trying to figure out whether true love is sticking it’s ugly mug into places that it should have avoided. Like in this relationship, for instance. It had been all winter, and Toniandra, Green Rider of the Seablade Wing, had been slowly getting herself into a relationship. It wasn’t her fault, either.

Mosawyth had Flown – her maiden flight, leaving the poor girl in nothing but a men’s shirt coiled up against the wall in fear of the men staring down at her in pure dragon lust. Toni, afraid enough, had been nearly to suicide by the time that Mosawyth allowed someone to Catch her – And Catch her he did. Gryth was older than Mosawyth, and the Green had fallen for him instantly – he was Her’s and woe to the dragoness that try to take him away from her. Now, this was all fair and good for Mosawyth and Gryth, but the rider’s had found themselves in a problem. Toni had been attracted to the gentle rider, but N’yrl had ran off as soon as he had woken up. That would have been fine… But Toni had woken up also. They had been willing to separate out and pretend it had never happened, but… Mosawyth and Gryth made it clear they wouldn’t be leaving each other’s side, and they forced Their’s together. It was hard at first, and still was…

But over the winter, the two had become almost like a real couple thing. They hadn’t had sex, or even kissed – Toni would let N’yrl deal with starting anything like that because who knows, he couldn’t even want her – but he had brought her a beautiful necklace and they had seen each other throughout the winter. Toni had hid from him occasionally when she found a relationship with a man scary (more often than she liked to admit) but Mosawyth pushed her out, and she had followed around Mosawyth most of the time. The young woman had begun to talk – never about her history but about other things, sharing her views on the world. She wasn’t as naïve as people thought – being a quiet young woman people said things around her as if she didn’t hear them. It was funny, what she knew, and her odd dry humor was a wash of summer during the winter months as she often made small jokes that N’yrl seemed to get. She liked him – more than she would like to admit – and although she thought that their relationship was a secret thing, everyone had given them the title weyrmates.

At the moment, Toni was brushing her copper hair. It had grown out over the winter, almost down to her chin – it was long, for her. Peering out from under thick lashes, she avoided the hazel eyes and worked on getting the knots out of her hair. Only when she was convinced that it was perfect – gliding a thin toothed comb through it – did she dare to walk out of her room. She was wearing a sun dress, going down the knees – it was her way of welcoming the spring air. She had promised Mosawyth she would talk to N’yrl about where their friendship (how she thought of it) was going. The argument had been long and tedious, Toni trying to convince Wyth that the man only wanted to be her friend – something that didn’t happen to her normally anyway – and Wyth trying to convince her that N’ryl was a more than friends kind of guy. In the end, it was Toni promising her dragon that she would be a good girl and talk to N’ryl about the destination of their friendship – if it even had one. Wyth had snorted and swung her head around to look out to the ledge, waiting for Gryth, and closed the conversation. Just tell him I said you would talk – he should expect it out of me by now.

That much was true, so Toni found herself down in the dining room nursing a cup of klah and a meatroll, waiting for her life to be over. All she wanted to do was have a friend in this weyr… Right?

It might have appeared to go unnoticed,
but I've got it all here in my heart.
I want you to know I know the truth, of course I know it,
I would be nothing with out you.

[Cilnah]

You’re primping.

The voice that came into the man’s mind sounded utterly amused, and that just made him frown even more. “I am not,” N’ryl answered without taking his eyes from the mirror in front of him. That couldn’t have possibly been a grey hair, could it? He was far too young to be losing his color! Wrinkling his nose, he leaned further in, until his nose was almost touching the glass. There it was again… Just a trick of his eyes, he decided, running his long fingers through his equally long hair and turning away from the sight of himself. Of course, with Mosawyth around, anything was possible. Between the temperamental Green and her bonded, anyone was likely to get grey hairs. Across the weyr, the Blue snorted and resettled his wings.

She is waiting for you, Mine. You know it is impolite to keep your lady waiting. With that, he pulled himself up and lashed his tail twice, before turning and seeming to fall off the ledge, winging his way quietly down to the waiting Gold in shades of Green. Gryth greeted Mosawyth with a light rumbled in his chest, and pressed his neck against hers as he settled next to her. Good day to you, my Wyth. I hope you are having a pleasant day?

Back in the weyr, His was still dragging his feet about getting ready. He ran his hands through his hair again, idly thinking that perhaps it was finally time for a cut. He hadn’t done anything with it since long before winter had settled in after all. It must have been before he had become entangled with Toni, even. Finally, he sighed and cast his glance about his weyr one final time before turning towards the door. It was just as he opened it that a soft crackle sounded behind him, and a brown flit settled on his shoulder with practiced ease. “Ah, there you are Knight. I was beginning to wonder if you were going to show.” Of course he was. The youngster never missed the opportunity to get fed.

It was a few minutes more before N’ryl arrived at the kitchens, and he paused in the doorway to study the woman that had been labeled his weyrmate. He didn’t mind the title at all. In fact, just thinking of it made a small smile come to his lips, an unusual thing for him. But he knew that Toni didn’t think of them that way. To her they were just ‘friends’ and he somehow doubted they would ever be more than that, even with the bonding of their dragons. For some reason he had yet to figure out, this amazing creature had decided that she was not so very good after all. He couldn’t figure out why, and it didn’t help that she seemed terribly frightened of men, so he had never tried to broach the subject. Better a friend of her then nothing at all, he had long since decided.

Shaking his head to rid himself of the thoughts, he quietly stepped forward, crossing the cavern in a few sparse seconds, and slid into place next to her. “Hello again, Miss Toni,” he offered her with his usual small smile, the one that just touched the edges of his lips. At his shoulder, the flit kreeled his own greeting, then eyed her meatroll. “You’ll eat in a minute, you beggar.” There was something wrong, that much was obvious. She was tense and seemed unhappy. “What’s the matter, Toni? Did something happen?”

[.K.aci]

If there's a prize for rotten judgment,
I guess I've already won that.
No man is worth the aggravation...
That's ancient history - been there done that.

The cool moss green beauty waited, settled on her ledge and bathing in the sun. That was something that Toni envied about her dragon - the simplest things made her happy. The sun on her face, the secure knowledge that she had a pretty dragon winging his way to her... Looking deeper in her klah, Toni tried to find her happiness in the rich dark color. She even knew when Gryth had arrived, for the young dragon opened up a gleeful whirling eye. Her own happy hum matched his rumble, and she pressed her neck back against his, sweet in her comfort. Good day to you, my Wyth. I hope you are having a pleasant day? For just a second Mosawyth touched in on Her's - the silly girl needed to know that she wasn't going to leave her, ever. And Toni took that strength and borrowed it, breathing in deeply and trying to find that exuberant pride her Green always had. I am just fine, Gryth-Own. Mine is being silly, but that is normal. She bathed me today, and actually laughed - it was quite nice. I hope you have had a nice day?

Letting Mosawyth bask in her happiness, Toni closed the door in her mind slightly - no point in letting her panic taint her dragon's day. The opal bead necklace that N'ryl had given her was wrapped around her left wrist several times, and she clung to one of the beautiful beads tighter - if Gryth was with Wyth, than N'ryl would be coming down here soon enough. She just needed to keep breathing. Breath. In. And maybe out? Oh, that would come in a few moments.

She couldn't understand this man. It didn't make sense, in anyway she tried to piece it together. She had been taught that men were the ones to take charge, to be bold and lead (unless you were a Queenrider, of course.) And if you didn't have the man take charge, what happened then? Boys had only wanted one thing out of girls, was what she had been taught... And then she met N'ryl. Mosawyth at first had thought he was like some of the others, despite having bonded to the amazing Gryth - and it had taken both females a little while to understand that the man only wanted to be friends. He was content with that... And it was one of the only reasons that Toni could deal with him. Anything else, and she would be out of the door faster than a dragon going between.

But Mosawyth wasn't stupid. The green wanted Her's to have someone like Gryth, and she had realized that N'ryl liked Toni (with a little help from the Blue, of course.) She knew also that Toni liked N'ryl - it helped being in someone's mind. Now, the simpleminded Green figured, all that it would take was the two kissing and realizing what the other thought - maybe in that order, maybe not. Which was why she was prompting Her's to take the first step forward - it was simple enough, after all. Toni was like the Bishop in a game of Chess, and N'ryl a Knight - one moved only diagonal, and the other in the oddest L.... But it was generally Knights who caught Bishops.

Toni, meanwhile, had remembered how to breath out. And she was doing it, quiet happily. Just focus on her breathing, and - and then a warm weight was sliding in next to her, and she promptly forgot how to breath again. Nervous and excited, flustered and afraid out of her mind, the girl stayed focused on her klah and refused to move, the opal bead making an imprint in her hand how hard she squeezed. 'Hello again, Miss Toni.' He spoke, and his words made her glance upward in her odd way - out of the corner of her eyes, just enough that she could see the jade eyes and comfort herself that he was real. It wasn't the smile on his lips - his eyes smiled, and she took that silent joy happily. She didn't know if it was around as much when she was there - it probably was, she wasn't that interesting to make him happy - but she liked seeing his smile. And then her eyes locked on the Brown on his shoulder - she had loved the little creature from the moment he had Impressed him. She wanted one - but Wyth didn't, and that was the end of that.

'You’ll eat in a minute, you beggar.' A soft smile crossed her lips as she looked at the little creature, and scooped up the meatroll to begin shredding it for him. Maybe N'ryl would be oblivious, and they could get distracted... But he was speaking again. 'What’s the matter, Toni? Did something happen?' Well then, that started it. "Hello." She wasn't good at his name yet - but she had gotten over calling him My Lord. "Knight, my love. Would you like a piece?" She avoided the question for a moment, offering him the shredded meatroll gladly - anything for a few more seconds of respite. But Mosawyth had been paying attention, and nudged her almost angrily, leaving the girl with no choice.

"Errm, n-n-nothing's wrong. It's j-j-just..." She stammered through the first few words, and then, focused on the flit, rushed out the second part of her speech. "Ah, Mosawyth wants me to talk to you about where this -" an odd hand gesture in the air was 'this' "-is going, and I think it's kinda ridiculous, but she says that it's silly we've been friends all winter, and she says that, well, I think that we are just friends and that's the way you want it to stay, and she thinks that...." She paused now, her voice dropping with her eyes to the floor level. "She thinks that you are a m-m-more than friends kind of person, and..." Swallowing hard, she tried to finish her rather broken rant. "And sh-sh-she says that-t-t I should ask...." The last word barely audible. "You." Silence, for a few moments, and then she peered up at where his face might have been, bright red. "And she say's that... Oh, this is Mosawyth, not me, that you would tell the truth or she'd know why. I'm so sorry...."

Who'd ya think you're kiddin'?
He's the Earth and heaven to you.
Try to keep it hidden,
Honey, we can see right through you.
Girl, ya can't conceal it,
We know how ya feel and who you're thinking of...