Esiah's Excuse

Writers: AL, Heather
Date Posted: 28th May 2014

Characters: Esiah, Meledei
Description: Esiah uses a clever excuse to see Meledei again.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 7, day 11 of Turn 7
Notes: Mentioned: Cyradis, Saibra, T'nom

Esiah

For three days Esiah had made up his mind to go talk to Meledei but
each time he had talked himself out of it. **You are just a journeyman
crafter, Esiah, she is a_goldrider_. Be realistic. She has just been
polite because of the portrait.**

The portrait! Esiah smiled as he snatched up the half finished
portrait and took off toward the goldrider's weyr. If she wasn't home
then he would just look like a fool walking around with this half
finished painting. He arrived at Meledei's weyr and knocked on her
door.

"Come on in." Yet again, Meledei's weyr lacked the chaos it had when
he'd first arrived so evidently such an occurrence was not the norm.
That time she was curled up on the couch, a book in her hand. When
Esiah walked in, she placed a mark in it and smiled over at him as she
set it down on the table. "Hey!" Her gaze shifted to the rectangular
item clutched in his hands and those green depths lit up at the sight
of it. "You finished?"

Esiah's beard parted to reveal white teeth as he smiled, "Not quite
but I wanted to show you the progress on it and see what you thought.
And, it would help me to sit and work a bit with you in the same room
so I can try to match up skin tone and coloring as closely as
possible." He turned the painting around. The stormy skies and ocean
had already been painted, as well as the tunic she had been wearing
and then golden tip of her dragon in the background.

"I thought I wasn't allowed to see it before it was finished."
Meledei admired the work in progress and nodded. "Lovely. I wish I
had that sort of talent. Alas, I wasn't well versed with a brush. I
look forward to seeing it finished."

"Consider yourself the exception, milady. I have never done it this
way before, usually I just finish up a painting by memory, but alas, I
have never painted goldriders before either and I certainly do not
want to become Elleth's next snack." Esiah teased as he set up his
supplies in order to continue capturing Meledei.

"Don't worry, she likes you and says she doubts you taste good
anyway." Meledei offered another grin, then settled a little
straighter on the sofa. "I guess that means I need to pose. Do you
want to go back to the place we were before?"

Esiah glanced toward Elleth's weyrcouch, "The weather is much nicer
today... We could probably even work in a nice swim too." He offered.

"Yeah. We could do that." Indeed, the clouds that had marred the
sky when they had first left to do the portrait had long ago
dissipated. That day was marked with brilliant blue, not even a
streak to hint at cloud cover. "I do enjoy a good swim - as does
Elleth."

"Lead the way then, milady." He smiled, thinking that his plan had
worked out rather nicely. Not only had he managed to get a little more
time with Meledei, but a swim as well. It never hurt to try, did it?

"Don't you need to get your swimming suit?" Meledei pointed out as
she rose from her couch, eyebrows raised. Most holdbred and craftbred
didn't care for swimming without one.

Esiah's eyebrows shot up and he laughed, "What? A dragonrider asking
me if I want to put clothes on before going swimming?" Most of the
time it was just an assumed thing that dragonriders swam with very
little, if nothing, on.

"Hey, I don't assume, okay? I'm fine going without, but I don't know
anything about your preferences. Crafters generally have a little
more modesty than most Weyrfolk. Not aways, but usually." Meledei
shrugged. "Up to you. We can go now if you want or you can grab your
stuff."

The man grinned, "I am only teasing." Esiah stood with the painting,
"I will go grab my stuff and be back shortly." It wasn't that he
necessarily minded being naked in front of others, but with a woman
like Meledei, he just felt it polite to be properly dressed in front
of a lady.

~*~

"Ah, yes, no fear of rain today." Esiah said from where they sat on
the beach. Sweat was beaded on his forehead as he filled in the
lighting that glinted on Meledei's skin.

She wasn't wearing the same clothes, but hopefully taht wouldn't
matter. Meledei had changed when Esiah had left and already had
Elleth's straps on her by the time he'd returned. Beneath her
clothing she had on a suit, but they weren't swimming just yet. She'd
allow him the luxury of working on his painting first. "Nope, it's
gorgeous." That was one of the best things about living in that area,
they had warm weather so often, though if it was too cool to swim,
they could certainly go to warmer places easily thanks to their
dragons. "This helpful?"

"Very." He lied. In truth, Esiah could have finished the painting on
his own, he had done both Cyradis and Saibra's that way and they had
both turned out fine. The extra time to get to know Meledei a bit
better was worth it though. Esiah just couldn't figure out how the
young goldrider fit into the scheme of things. He understood Cyradis.
She was a picture of a leader, firm, disciplined, but also caring.
Saibra was very much a Second in many ways, equally smart, and
disciplined, but with a much wilder side hidden within... And then
there was Meledei. He had heard sparse rumors here and there about her
and some rider named T'nom, but he didn't know much, and he didn't
plan on asking her about it unless it somehow came up in conversation.

"Did you always want to be a harper?" Meledei was not a dragon and
couldn't glean thoughts from anyone. Nor would she have entertained
the idea of sharing her sorrow with someone she'd just met. She was
blissfully ignorant of his musings and quite content to simply
converse in casual conversation. "And artist in particular?"

"Yes," Esiah answered, "my mother liked the arts. Of course, she could
never be a crafter,but she always encouraged me to do so. My older
brothers appeased my father's desire for heirs and men to take over in
his place, so I joined the harpercraft instead. Quite the
disappointment for a man like my father." He shrugged, "My mother was
very pleased with my decision."

"So you're the son of a holder?" That wasn't necessarily a bad thing,
though some people in the Weyr might think so. Meledei wasn't one.
"But why painting. Why not another area of the harper craft?"

Esiah lifted his shoulders, "Painting is what I do best. You would run
screaming if you had to hear me try and play a gitar or some other
instrument." He held up his hands and wiggled his fingers, "These
fingers know only how to old a paintbrush or a piece of coal for
sketching."

"Heh. I'm okay at the gitar. I sing okay too. My craft was
beastcrafting though - before I Impressed of course." And she would
have been happy doing so for she would have never known what she'd
been missing. Now, of course, there was no way she'd ever go back.

The man raised an eyebrow, "You were a crafter? Did you grow up at the
Weyr then?"

"Yep and yep. Born and raised. I started and Thayan and then moved
here after it was destroyed, so I'm an original original." There
weren't as many as there used to be, those who could claim to have
been there from the beginning. Not dragonriders, anyway.

"An original original huh?" Esiah smiled a little as he finished up on
the portait. There was still touch-up work to be done, but he wanted
to give it some time to dry while they went swimming. "Okay, Miss
Original, we can go swimming now if you would like."

"Sure. No offense, but I find that more appealing than sitting here."
She flashed a smile and then rose to immediately pull off her shirt.
Beneath was, for a Weyrperson, a fairly modest suit. She wriggled out
of her pants and shoes, then placed them on a rock along with her
shirt. That done, she took off for the water, her gold already
ambling into the gentle waves.

Esiah stood for a moment and just watched her go, admiring her
physique as she went. Yes, this had definitely been a good idea, he
decided as he pulled his shirt over his head, and shucked the trousers
he had on over his swimming shorts. Walking down toward the water, his
eyes were drawn to the gold dragon. Elleth made Meledei look like a
speck beside of her in the water.

"Well? How cold is it?" He asked, hands on his hips as he stood by the
water's edge.

"It's not bad at all!" Though for those who weren't used to being in
the water so much, they might think it chilly. Still, the day wasn't
that cool and the suns light was warm against her skin. "Come on in!"

Esiah stepped in, and found that the water had only a slight chill to
it, one he was sure would go away once he was fully submerged. Wading
out he dunked under and swam over to where Meledei was, surfacing near
her, "You are right, not bad."

"Do you spend a lot of time in the water?" Spending half of her life
by the water meant that Meledei was quite comfortable in that element
- maybe not as much as a dolphineer, but very comfortable indeed.

"I learned to swim in local lakes and ponds around the Holds where I
was stationed." He answered, running a hand through his damp hair to
comb it back from his face, "Swimming in the ocean is still a bit of a
novelty for me."

"You do have to be a little more careful in an ocean." Meledei
cautioned. Lakes and ponds were far calmer, but the ocean constantly
moved and it was easier if one just went with it. "Undertows in
particular are things to watch out for. There's a common mistake
people make when they get caught in one."

"Yes, apparently swimming with the undertow rather than against it is
the correct thing to do." Esiah had been told about them when he had
first arrived at Dolphin Cove. Luckily he had never had any first hand
experience with undertows.

"You got it. I'm glad you listened - some people don't." And wound
up in trouble - or dead. "It'd be a shame to see a great painter
swept away because he was careless."

"Ah yes," Esiah grinned, "I am not sure how the Weyr would manage
without me." He shook his head and touched a hand to his chest, his
tone facetious.

"Quite the ego you got there." Meledei smirked and smacked her hand
against the water to send a spray toward the harper. "So I'm assuming
you do commissions, right?" She asked quickly, as if to distract him
from her assault in order to dissuade repercussions.

The harper cocked his head to the side, one eyebrow raised, "Yes, I do
commissions. It helps if the person asking is a pretty woman, I must
admit." A devilish grin crossed his face as he quickly returned the
woman's splash with one of his own.

"Meledei turned away just in time to keep the spray from her eyes, but
she was still awarded with a shower over her head. "Well,
actually...I have an idea for a painting, but I'm woefully inadequate
in skill to do it myself."

Now Esiah's interest was piqued, and so he stilled his hands, for the
moment, "All right, I am listening."

"Well, I'm going to have to show you rather than tell you." Meledei
offered a rueful smile. "I'll not do it justice otherwise."

Being a male his mind immediately zeroed in on one thing, while his
good sense and reasoning told him that_that_ kind of painting from a
lady like Meledei was_highly_ unlikely.... **Still, one could always
hope.** He flicked his eyes back up to the goldrider, "And where
exactly would we have to go to see this... idea of a painting?"

"Oh, it's at the Weyr. Would you mind meeting me at my weyr tomorrow
before breakfast?" Meledei hoped he'd be interestedin her idea, but
she'd just have to wait and see.

Esiah smiled, "I will be there."

Last updated on the June 2nd 2014

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Esiah's Excuse