Afternoon on Search [Tags: Syra and Radkaen!]

The Golden Galadrieth of Fort was soon to have a clutch ready for hatching, which meant that now was the time for riders to be busy on Search. Thus far on their journey, N'kai and his partner, where they'd split off from the rest of the Searchers to cover the broad area of Fort Sea Hold, had yet to run into any real opposition to their fulfillment of that calling, but the day was only little more than half done. The Bluerider had certainly been able to feel a small number of skeptical eyes on he and his temporary partner Syra, since T'lan was sick, but he supposed everyone was granted their own thoughts on the matter of Thread's Return and the role of Riders in the world. 


"We haven't been down this road yet. It looks like it may be headed into a different district -maybe more for the crafters to carry on their work."  Though that may have been the case, and they passed by a number of taverns who hosted to the many travelers that frequented the portside Hold, there were still some moderately run down buildings that seemed to have more permanent residents. Of course, the places looked in some disrepair and small enough that few would make it their habitation by choice. Still, as N'kai and Syra came up on one such two-story stone-hewn apartment building, the Searchrider suggested that they go in to knock on the few doors available. 

Outside of them, a small stone fence encircled the yard where a well was built to the side of the small property. It was apparent that at least three or four of the rooms inside were occupied seeing as outside their doors, there were a few personal possessions set, such as brooms and shoes, or clothes hung to dry in the afternoon sun. 

Though he didn't look right at her as he stepped through the opening in the low, stone fence into the dirt-paved yard, he spoke up to Syra "Do you think anyone's home?" Instead of eyes being on her, they were taking note of how the place could use a little cleaning up. It looked as though the hand-plastered walls of stone on the face of the building hadn't been washed or painted in decades, and there were stones falling out of the side of the watering well, leaving holes in it where dirt could get through, from under the wooden lid that capped it to protect it from becoming filled with silt. Though, knowing the holds, they should also have had some running water through many of their more heavily populated areas, seeing as holds tended to maintain underground aqueducts and sewer systems to channel water and waste to and from the innermost parts of the holds. Cotholds weren't lucky enough to have that kind of luxury and some minor holds also would not have the marks or manpower to spare for that kind of construction, but those that had been built especially closer to the time of the ancients, were filled with many such beneficial architectural conveniences in them.

Syra strode along beside N’kai, glad to be on Search for a change of pace. The time between weyrling classes was long and boring for a Weyrlingmaster, and she had been very glad to be asked to accompany him as a temporary partner. Her blue riding jacket, dyed the colors of her dragon and lined in warm fur, stood out in the area they were Searching, and none would miss the pair if they so much as glanced around them. Her boots rang out as they walked the roads. Around them Syra was aware of the people staring at them, probably a lot more at herself than N’kai, since she was a female bluerider, and kept her face in a neutral expression. She cared little, however, because she was proud to find Candidates for the golden queen of her Weyr and the clutch hardening on its Sands.

This place, however, seemed to be as dismal as she had seen in some town, but she kept these idle opinions to herself. One couldn’t always choose where they lived, but she certainly wouldn’t live here if she had the choice. When N’kai decided they should knock on the doors around them, Syra nodded following him quietly while forming her thoughts on the area they had descended upon. It wasn’t unusual for the inhabitants to distrust riders, she knew, but she wondered if they were even more dissuaded by the two riders because one of them was a woman on a fighting dragon. The woman didn’t care. She was Rasenth’s and Rasenth was hers. It was a bond she would fight over, tooth and nail, if she had to – and had in the past. “Hmm.” she murmured, turning to the stone fenced yard her partner had stopped at. Her grey-green eyes looked over the property, not critically, but with interest. "Do you think anyone's home?" he asked her, not looking toward her any more than she looked at him. It wasn’t the first time they had worked together, and she felt like they were a cohesive team when they did.

“I don’t know, but there are uncovered glows in the window, so someone could be within. Upstairs, anyway.” She responded, moving a pace backward to see if she could spot any movement in the room above. Her shortness didn’t help in these instances, but nothing was revealed to her when she returned to her original position. Syra walked with purpose to the door of the little house, and glancing back at N’kai, knocked a firm, loud, authoritative beat. “Hello the cothold! We are riders of Fort Weyr riding on Search, may we enter?”

Her approach to Search was usually much more pleasant than some riders, who simply would have walked in and claimed their right to Search the Fort Sea Hold as they pleased. Syra was more courteous than that. She would ask permission first, and go in regardless. At least then it seemed like she cared for the thoughts of those she was Searching, and that she was much less callous than some of the male Searchriders. N’kai was an exception to the rule, and she suspected that his usual partner, the sick T’lan, was as well. “I am Syra of blue Rasenth, and my partner is N’kai of blue Kaisoth.” There was courtesy in announcing a name as well, she knew, because of these other riders who were rude and condescending toward non-riders. Often, she was surprised to say, when she announced herself and a partner that was respected, they were welcomed much more agreeably than if the cotholders had heard of the other Searchriders who treated them like cattle for the branding. Turning to N’kai she smiled, “We’ll find out soon enough, I suspect.”

Radkaen was inside on the top floor when he heard footsteps and then voices. Putting his back against the wall beside the window, he leaned his head over very briefly to get a look at who it was that had come. One thing was for certain, these were not Dragon Venture guards. They were dragonriders. A male and a female. He did not have long to wait before the loud knock upon the door was heard and the woman called out their purpose and their names.

A Search?

At first he thought they were searching for criminals to punish. Then it clicked. A Search for them probably meant finding people dumb enough to go and stand in front of a bunch of eggs and waiting to get mauled there. Would he answer the door?

No way!

Be found as a criminal and killed or be brought to the weyr to get mauled. That wasn't much of a choice at all. He'd much rather avoid either option if he could. Besides, he reasoned to himself, it wasn't his home. So he couldn't go answer the door. It wouldn't be...um... proper. Right? Right!

Radkaen clenched his jaw tight and stepped away from the wall. And then promptly tripped over the cat that had been plaguing him for the last week. Swearing at the stupid thing that had scattered away in a scrambling of claws, he rolled over onto his back and swore again under his breath. His landing was very loud, and it hurt besides. He was mostly patched up but it still jarred him good. He just lay there for a bit with one knee up, his foot resting flat upon the flooring. One hand holding his gut. The other draped over his eyes as he waited for the ache to subside. The riders could just go away. And so could that stupid cat, whom he did not spoil with scraps from his dinner plate and he did not let sleep with him in his cot. He wasn't a softy.

Much.

Since no one was coming out to greet them, N'kai assumed it could be that everyone was away, busy at their work, but they needn't any justification to continue their search around the place just to be sure. It was just as possible that someone inside hadn't heard their call. So, looking in the direction of Syra, he seemed to give a shrug, raising his brows in a 'who knows?' manner, before leading them forward. 

Without any real preference for which floor they started on, N'kai went to the stairs carved of stone that led up to the second level, where four or five doors lined the visible outer corridor. Stepping up to the first door, N'kai listened for any sounds from inside for just a moment, as he'd thought he'd vaguely heard something a few moments earlier, but then there was nothing. Passing it off as his imagination or that those inside simply hadn't heard the Riders come, his knuckle raised to rap on the entrance to one of the apartments.  

After knocking again, no one greeting them at the door, he moved on to the second, which unbeknownst to him, would have been the weaver Zerjna's place of residence. But again, there was no sound coming from within.

A quiet sigh and idle shake of his head came in show of his disappointment before moving on to the next door. It just so happened to be the door occupied now by Radkaen. When his hand came up to knock this time, it would have sounded much louder to Radkaen's ears as the door loosely quaked on old hinges. 

The Bluerider sounded, "Is there a master at home?"

Was there a master at home? This door they knocked on now did have a master of sorts. Him. Was he home? Yes. Was he going to answer the door? If it meant getting up off the floor right now, then the answer was no. He'd rather lay here for another minute thanks very much.

"Go away. I ain't home." Radkaen growled at the door. They could have fun with that response however they wanted. A slight twitch on one corner of his mouth after he had said that was his humorous smile trying to peek through. Would they leave? Would they huff in disgust at his rudeness? Would they make some snarky comment before their bootsteps headed away?

Laying their on his back, his shirt untucked and his hair held away from his eyes with a sash around his forehead with one knee up was how he looked now. His one forearm was still over his eyes. His other rested upon his aching gut. It would probably pain him for the rest of his life healed or not.

He waited there upon the floor to see what the rider's would do.

With a glare at the door for the rudeness of the person within, Syra schooled her expression into one of calm collectedness and took the voice as invitation to enter. Weyr Searchriders were permitted wherever, it was true, but most took courtesy as a way of life - or if they didn’t they should have. With a little grin, the woman caught the eye of the other bluerider and pushed the door open carefully. Within the room her eyes took a moment to adjust to the change in lighting from the outside to the inside of the room. Syra had been courteous enough, she thought, with her kind greeting.

Once her eyes had adjusted, Syra looked around, not immediately noticing the man lying on the floor. “Hmm.” she murmured, motioning to N’kai that the place was safe enough at her estimate. Her roaming eyes made they way lower, over the possessions in the room and finally fell on the man. “Well. There’s the face for the voice,” Syra quipped, not letting her annoyance seep into the words but maintaining her calmness. The man seemed sick, injured maybe, if his current position said anything to the woman. Holding his gut, a knee cocked in the air, he seemed as if his stomach pain him. Immediately, Syra wanted to help where she could - her handy pouch of herbs would easily help an ill stomach, but if the man was more hurt than that, she couldn’t do much for him but leave him to suffer.

Striding over and kneeling by his side, she looked into his face. It didn’t seem to be sweating over-much, and she couldn’t smell vomit on him - so it was possible it wasn’t an ill stomach that was bothering him, “Are you injured? Do you need a Healer?” Syra asked, concern lacing her tone. The bluerider had chosen to ignore the fact that he had been rude in his comment to the door. The man was lean, muscular... In any other light he could rather strong, but at that exact moment, he looked like he needed help, and Syra’s own compassion for the injured wanted to find him someone of skill to aid him. Waiting for him to answer her, though rather expecting a snide comment from the way he had behaved previously, Syra tried to let her mind wander and ‘feel’ the man. Rasenth, can you sense the man near me? she sent to her blue, imaging a picture of the man on the ground for him. I can; he is interesting.  

‘Interesting’ her dragon had said. She wondered if that was a good interesting, or a bad one. He is 'good' interesting. Rasenth put in, picking up on his rider’s thoughts and filling in with the word he had pulled from her. Good it is then. she replied, grinning absently at their conversation. The man seemed the confident type. Maybe not always where it mattered, but stubborn to boot. Beneath that... She sensed that he was underhanded in a way, but couldn’t pin it down. “Hmm.” she murmured again, thinking that he could make a good brownrider if given a chance. Rasenth rumbled an agreement from his perch with the other blue dragon.

“N’kai,” she called, turning to look at the sire of her son, “I think we have a live one here.” It was a double meaning, one only the man would understand through their connection to each other. It was an idiom that Syra often used, and it meant not only was the man living (clearly), but that she thought he was a possible Candidate for the Weyr. His customary response to her comment would indicate whether he agreed or disagreed with her sentiment. Her attention went back to the man, “You know my name. What is yours?” she asked, her tone changing to one of authority as it often had to in order to hold up her rank and defend her womanliness within it. “I’ll know if you lie. And you won’t like if if you do.”

Though N'kai understood Syra's phrasing about the room's occupant being 'live', as he stepped into the studio-sized apartment behind her, able to note the man lying on the floor, a number of wry responses rose to his lips. Before speaking however, he seemed to take measure of Radkaen's physical condition, seeing as he did look in pain. But, if N'kai were any judge, he'd be more likely to believe that the grimace there on the other man's face was one of mere discomfort, not of fresh injury. That being the case, he didn't worry over-much. 

Reaching into the pocket of his flight jacket to take out the glasses that he preferred wearing in public, the Bluerider put them on to change his appearance.  For one, N'kai had always hated when outsiders tried to fit him into the typical Bluerider stereotypical mold, but he also found that by altering his appearance -even just with the use of glasses- tended to make people perceive and approach him differently. It was all psychological tricks, but people tended to feel less intimidated by a studious and perhaps socially awkward appearance than by the image he might otherwise have worn. 

And though it was a blatant lie in the face of those that knew him, making himself seem less provocative in a sensual way also helped in the case that those they were searching happened to be female. Mothers and fathers were always leery of the stories they heard about apparently endless sexual escapades of male riders -as though they did nothing else with their time. 

Sometimes he wondered just how ridiculous Syra thought him for wearing his glasses every time they went out on search -even if she had come on to him after returning from the first search they ever paired up together for. Anyway, everyone had their odd little fetishes or at some point wanted to experiment with something different. A different look for him just granted one of those opportunities -but they had also been weyrmated at the time.





Looking down at the man who laid on the floor, N'kai was in the same process as Syra, consulting with Kaisoth about Radkaen. Though, his initial impression of the man was slightly more wary than that of his former weyrmate. N'kai seemed to hold onto that odd feeling of distrust about him, even though Syra was correct in the rest of her assumptions about the man.

Kai, tell me what you think about this one. 

Adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose, N'kai hid the skepticism behind his eyes, shuffling in place and then glancing perhaps a little nervously back toward the door to see if anyone else was coming. 

The Bluerider was all attention back on Radkaen then, thinking that he'd rather be in closer proximity to the man instead of letting Syra sit there within reach. With a personality that seemed so testy, it could be hard to tell if he was just that kind of person, or if he had something against Dragonriders and might actually lash out at one of them.

Sensing that Kaisoth was taking a few moments to collect his answer, N'kai knelt beside Radkaen, where he felt a little more comfortable about being able to interfere if the man decided to act out inappropriately. "No need to be alarmed. We're just here to do a quick Search. I think if you get to know us, we're not so bad. Could I help you sit up?" He tried to offer supportive hands so that Radkaen could sit up against a nearby wall at least, but didn't move to actually touch him until the man said that it would be alright.

In that time, Kaisoth had come back to him with commentary, Even if you don't trust him, I think we should consider him.

The dragon's voice quieted for a long moment, continuing to consider the man.

He feels hard to reach, but there is more underneath.
.