A Checkup

Writers: Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 16th June 2017

Characters: Chaysea, L'pin
Description: Chaysea takes her firelizard for a check-up with L'pin
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 12, day 10 of Turn 8

Chaysea had patiently waited and tended to the firelizard egg she'd
purchased off a merchant, following the man's directions to the
letter. She hadn't counted on how exciting it would be when the brown
firelizard hatched. Chaysea had never owned a pet of her own before,
and so she had struggled finding a name to properly fit the handsome
brown.

She had settled on naming him Company, because that's what he was for
her, a companion. It made nights in her weyr seem a lot less lonely
with the brown firelizard chittering and sharing stories and images
about what the other firelizards were doing, and what he had seen some
of the dragons do that day. It made Chaysea feel _connected_ to the
Weyr in a way that she hadn't before.

That had been two months ago. Company was still growing like a weed,
demanding belly rubs and snacks from her throughout the day.

"Let's go, Ani," she called to him, using his nickname. Since Chaysea
only had a secondhand knowledge of things relating to dragons, she
took Company once a month to be looked at by L'pin, someone who would
know what a growing dragon, even a tiny one, would need.

Company zoomed over at the sound of his name and gave a screech of
panic when he realized he wasn't going to be able to slow down in time
to avoid colliding his human.

"Whoa!" Chaysea ducked and managed to get her hands around Company
before he crashed into her face. The firelizard flapped his wings
wildly to try and regain his balance, not realizing that his human had
already caught him. "Easy now," she soothed, stroking his head and
wings down against his back.

~~Fast. Too fast.~~

"On my shoulder," she said, lifting him to the leather pad there that
allowed him to perch without his talons piercing through her clothes.

Company stepped onto the leather square, still crooning worriedly
about what had happened as he rubbed his tiny, walnut shaped head
against her cheek.

"It's fine, love. Let's go see L'pin."

~~Chaneth. Blue. Chaneth!~~ Company was always excited to be around
the Weyrlingmaster Third's dragon.

"Yes, Chaneth." Chaysea left her quarters and walked to the
bluerider's office. "Why don't you pop in and see if he is ready for
us?" She kept trying to practice visualizing and sending Company
places and he was slowly getting better.

Company bobbed his head in understanding before lifting off from
Chaysea's shoulder and popping /between/. When he arrived inside
L'pin's office he gave an excited squeal at seeing the man, and dove
for the bluerider's desk, effectively knocking off papers and
knickknacks as he did. Company continued chattering excitedly at
L'pin, forgetting that he was suppose to go back out to Chaysea.

L'pin was surprised when he saw a firelizard pop from /between/ and
swoop straight into his desk, scattering items as he did. There went
some hides, a small carved knicknack, and- oh no, an inkpot tipped
over. He lunged for it and caught it before it could pour all over his
desk, but the cap was loose and he got some on his fingers.

Once he set it down and wiped his fingers on a rag, he looked over at
Company on his desk. "Hello there," he said, reaching out to scritch
the little brown's headknobs. "Are you bored by Chaysea or do you have
a message?"

Company groaned and put his wings over his head. He had forgotten!
Flapping away from the desk, Company popped /between/ and back to
Chaysea, who was waiting with an amused look on her face.

"I take it he's in there?" She noted the ink on the tip of Company's left
wing.

Settling Company back onto her shoulder, Chaysea knocked on the door
even as she opened it.

"Hey," she winced when she saw the scattered papers, knowing who had
caused it, "sorry about that. He's still working on on messages."

"He's fine," L'pin reassured Chaysea. "I was going to give him a treat
but he headed back out before I could."

"His job was to let me know if you were in here for our meeting. He
got a little excited and forgot." Chaysea smiled at the firelizard,
clearly quite taken with her new companion.

Company jumped back to L'pin's desk. The little brown looked forward
to these "check-ups" because they usually involved good scratches and
treats! And if he was really lucky, he would get to go see Chaneth!

"Well, he succeeded in checking on me," L'pin said with a laugh. He
pulled a small piece of dry meat out to tempt Company over into his
hands.

Like with a weyrling dragon, a young flit ate and grew big so fast
that the skin didn't always catch up right. There could be dry flaky
patches where the skin needed better oiling, areas where he'd bruised
himself, or even small cracks in the hide. He was carefully looking
for any signs of trouble.

Chaysea took her job as Company's caretaker very seriously, so she
watched L'pin's process with a serious expression, her eyes following
his every movement. "Well?"

"he doesn't have any cracks on his skin, but there's a few dry patches
here and here," he said, tapping one spot underneath where wing met
body and another under the chest. "Some additional oiling in between
bathing should sink in and smooth that out."

The Headwoman noted the areas with a sharp nod, "We'll take care of
those then. Won't we, Ani?" She crooned to the firelizard, who tilted
his head up at Chaysea in a look of pure adoration.

"He will love the extra attention and it will help you bond."

"No trouble there," Chaysea assured the bluerider, extending her arm
to Company who hopped along her forearm, elbow and bicep, until he was
settled back on her shoulder.

"It seems like he's learning more," L'pin said. "How has the
visualization practice been? He got here, but not back immediately."

"He can go to wherever I send him, but sometimes once he is at the
location he gets distracted and forgets to complete whatever task I
gave him." Chaysea reached up and stroked the top of Company's knobby
little head as he rubbed it against her cheek.

"That will take more practice on his part, and possibly also aging. We
don't train the weyrlings to /between/ until they're older because we
want to make sure to mentally handle it. They have the instinct at
birth but it doesn't mean they have control. I imagine firelizards are
the same way."'

"That makes sense." Chaysea said, even as she began receiving images
and emotions from Company.

~~Chaneth? Chaneth?~~ He sent repeated images of the blue.

"Yes, you can go," she chuckled out loud, causing Company to let out
an excited shrill before darting off to find the dragon.

"He's very excited to see him," L'pin said with a laugh.

"Any time your name is brought up Company remembers Chaneth and wants
to know if he can see him. Thank you for checking him out today. I
should get to my office, can't neglect my duties no matter how cute he
is."

"He's well, I promise," L'pin said. "Do you have time for dinner this
evening?"

Chaysea smiled, "I would like that."

"I'll see you this evening, then." He leaned over and kissed her
lightly on the lips.

Last updated on the July 6th 2017

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A Checkup