Birthday Bonfire (3/3)

Writers: Heather, Iluva, Shawna, Sia, Yvonne
Date Posted: 12th February 2025

Characters: Cirina, R'fayne, Aydhara, Ketlyn, A'radess, Casmari, N'kayden, Kalavra
Description: Some meet cutes happen at Aydhara's birthday party.
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 4, day 6 of Turn 12
Notes: Any young adults need an excuse to party? You are invited to Aydhara's birthday

R'fayne

Behind the Dolphin Cove trio, however, a potential disaster loomed. “Oh, oh-- Hold on... Maybe I can… Tarvanneth, would you mind lowering yourself a little more?” The bronze obliged, but his attention and greetings did seem to be mostly reserved for visiting greens.

“Oooh, are you sure?” The girl groaned. “A’radess, this is a _new_ dress. What if it rips?”

“It won’t rip.” The weyrling assuring her wore a patient smile, all the while frantically trying to anticipate and shield the train from snags on her way down. At Tarvanneth’s wrist his hand was free and able to offer her help to the ground, only to get unceremoniously slapped away.

“I can do it, thank you.” She declared pleasantly. And so she did, finally smoothing her dress to the ground, carefully touching her hair back into place and beaming at her brother. “There, that wasn’t too bad.”

“Easy.” A’radess agreed. After peering into a cloth bag that was thankfully still beige, which meant all bottles had survived the rough trip, he shouldered his jacket, his bronze rumbling at the appreciative pat. “Thanks, buddy. Best behaviour tonight, hm?”

As she took in the other visitors with rapt curiosity, Kalavra added absently, “Yes, thank you, Tarvanneth.” Then she froze.

“Hellooo,” then she was angling straight towards them, a bright smile for her weapon of choice. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Kalavra, bluerider.” She extended a hand, her wrist glittering. “You’re all friends of Aydhara?”

R’fayne’s hand took hers before offering the flask. “R’fayne, Skadith. A few of us are stowaways, but I’m not sure yet whether that ruins or adds to the surprise.”

“Well,” her gaze swept over him, “as long as you aren’t here to stab any of our Weyrwomen?” and she handed back the flask.

R’fayne’s brow arched. “No, I don’t think that’s crossed our minds.”

“Excellent.” Kalavra beamed again. “We’ve had enough of that and I’m fairly sure Aydhara would _murder_ them herself.” R’fayne wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but it wasn’t her arm hooking into his and roughly dragging him toward the gathering crowd. “C’mon,” she called over her shoulder, “party’s this way!”

Casmari appeared by the lakeside as others were trickling in. Even though she had been with her fellow Weyrlings for several months now, she still didn’t feel as if she really… fit in. She had nearly talked herself out of showing up for the bonfire birthday part several times, but Sebiath had insisted that she needed “socialization.”

She was hanging near the outskirts, hoping not to be noticed too much when a loud voice behind her said, “Casmari! You came!” It was N’kayden, of course it was N’kayden, who clapped a hand on her shoulder and steered her further into the group. “Look everyone, Casmari’s here!”

He drifted from the female bluerider toward his sister. “And there she is, the birthday girl,” he sang, reaching out to pinch Aydhara’s cheeks.

"It's not too late to uninvite you!" Aydhara exclaimed as she tried and mostly failed to smack N'kayden's hands away. The boy was a minor inconvenience away from finding another amphibian in his bed. He was lucky he'd brought a pretty girl. "Casmari!" Aydhara pulled her into a quick hug and grinned, "I'm so excited to introduce you to my High Reaches friends. And my Dolphin Cove friend. Though we can lie and say you're a greenrider if you don't want all the attention."

Cirina wasn’t thrown at all by the sudden chaos of going from the middle of the night to the middle of a party and was grinning beside Aydhara. Leaning in just before N’kayden reached them, she said, “You’re sure your brother is off limits?”

Aydhara made a face. "Gross." She whispered back.

Cirina didn’t linger on that disappointing friendship rule, however, instead beaming at Casmari. “Oh! I’ve heard a lot about you! Nice to meet you in person.”

Casmari couldn’t help but smile at Aydhara's enthusiasm. “It’s okay,” she assured her. “I would never hide Sebiath’s color.”

A righteous trumpeting could be heard, presumably Sebiath saying something to the tune of, }:That’s right!:{

“It’s nice to meet you as well,” Casmari returned to the girl at Aydhara’s elbow. She looked between them, wondering what their connection was…

“Sorry I’m late,” Ketlyn said sheepishly, tugging at her best tunic. It looked a bit rumpled in the firelight. She smiled at Casmari and N’kayden, then hugged Aydhara. “Happy birthingday!”

N’kayden blanched a little at the sight of Ketlyn. He couldn’t help it. Whenever he saw her now all he could think about was their failed attempt to… Well… He cleared his throat a little and pulled at his collar.

"Thank you!" Aydhara squeezed Ketlyn back. "Have you met Cirina? She's from Dolphin Cove, too. We met at the Dolphin Hall at Turn's End." Then, with a mischievous look at N'kayden, "Don't the ladies look lovely, Nik?"

The brown Weyrling recovered smoothly, his smile covering whatever emotion had passed on his face earlier. “The ladies look _incredibly_ lovely. I am fortunate to be in their presence.” The words were said with their usual charm, but N’kayden carefully avoided Ketlyn’s eyes.

“You don’t look so bad yourself.” Kalavra purred as she joined the semi-circle, perfectly willing to catch the brown Weyrling’s eye instead. She had lost track of the bluerider but found a drink, which she sort of awkwardly balanced while sliding the shimmery bangle from her wrist. “Aydhara, Happy Birthingday! It's from me and A'radess.”

Not too far away, albeit closer to the blazing fire and steeped in conversation with a brownrider, her brother nevertheless heard the summons for what it was. A'radess came sauntering over wearing a smile. “I was supposed to wrap it. Tarvanneth and I are at your disposal tonight.” A low rumble somewhere off in the dark concurred.

"Oh Kalavra, that's gorgeous! Thank you!" Aydhara showed off the bangle to Ketlyn and Casmari, even as she eyed A'radess. He was cute, she supposed, in the plain way boys were. But she knew at least one person that was into that. "Do you know my friend from Dolphin Cove?" She asked brightly, nudging Cirina oh-so-subtly towards him.

Cirina immediately brightened, and she was quite happy to go over towards A’radess, “Who is this handsome friend you haven't mentioned before, Aydhara?”

A'radess’ expression tilted curiously between them. “No, I would have remembered that meeting.” He said with easy certainty. His green eyes lingered on Cirina, on her hair kissed by fire and firelight, his smile just as warm. “Aydhara's full of surprises. I'm A'radess, by the way, and that's my sister, Kal. My hotshot bronze is those two eyes staring over there. Is this your first time visiting Barrier Lake,…?”

“It is!” Cirina lied enthusiastically, “Such a pity I won't get a chance to see more of it. Your bronze you say?” She peered over as if she could see more than she really could at that distance in this kind of lighting. “But he looks so big, surely not.” As if Avicath the fire-lighter’s bulk wasn't also in that general direction.

“Careful, he might hear you.” A'radess laughed.

“I think I’m all ‘hot shotted’ out. You want to go grab a drink?” N’kayden murmured in Casmari’s ear.

The blue Weyrling hid a snort of laughter behind her hand. A’radess was certainly putting it all out there for the visiting Cirina, she thought. “Yes, let’s, lest she realize that Sebiath’s two eyes are also staring out from over there.”

“Yeah, I think Abe has his eyes closed, so, he’s not witnessing this glorious moment of love.” N’kayden then turned his attention back to his sister. “Catch up with you in a bit, twerp,” he said, while also squeezing her shoulder with sibling affection. “Kal? You want to go with us to grab a drink?” Kalavra beamed and was only too glad to join them, desperately trying to avoid whatever was happening in her brother's direction.

"I beg your pardon." Aydhara said in mock hurt, "It's my birthing day, I want a drink too. A'radess, you should go introduce her to Tarvanneth. She'd love to meet him. And maybe a tour of Barrier Lake; I've been _such_ a bad host." Then, as she looped an arm around Casmari's, she teased quietly, "Don't let Sebiath bat his eyes at anyone, Cas. It's dangerous."

Casmari felt a little flash of warmth spread over her in a tingling wave at the way Aydhara so casually touched her. Sebiath’s curiosity piqued at the feeling his rider was experiencing. “Yes, I’ve told him to keep his eyes _shut_, lest we dim any of A’radess’ glory.”

“It was a pretty smooth pick-up line,” N’kayden confessed.

"Aberath better get to work." Aydhara said, "Though his charm can only get you so far."

Last updated on the February 24th 2025

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Birthday Bonfire (3/3)