Violet Sunrise, Lavender Tiamath's Flight!

[Cerise]

It is time.

The dragon's voice resonated through Risuka's head early, earliest in the morning, before Rukbat had even made its way over the horizon. The petite woman raised her head, grey eyes shadowed with worry, and rolled from her bed - not as easily as usual, prominent as her belly was. She had kept to herself a great deal lately, but the senses she was getting from Tiamath proved that she could no longer do so.

Pale brows darted slightly downward, a frown forming creases in pale skin. How could the dragon remain so calm, in a time like this?

But for her, Tiamath was positively restless, her faceted eyes whirling a darker violet than her pale hide, shifting from foot to foot. Tail lashed out behind her, and she was perched on the ledge of their weyr, peering backwards, impatiently awaiting her rider to come along. So long as they did not go between, Risuka could still fly, and so awkwardly she clambered up to the lavender's back after dressing hastily in loose wherhide garments.

The dragon leaped, gliding swift and smooth towards the feeding grounds. She was patient as she allowed her rider to climb down to a ledge, but as soon as Risuka was safe on her feet, the lavender had launched herself again. Her lithe body was in perfect form, stretching into a dive down that snapped the neck of an unsuspecting herdbeast. The rest, finally alerted to the presence of a dragon in their midst, began to flee, but Tiamath was focused on the prey she had already caught.

Blood it only, Tia!

Do you think I do not know these things?
But the lavender's mental tone had taken on some of the wild arrogance of a golden queen, and Risuka found for the first time that she had to fight her lifemate's instinct to rip, to tear, to rend flesh. With a will born of her bolstered confidence and love for the dragon, she forced Tiamath to bend her head to the throat of the beast, to suck the blood from the carcass.

Then she sprang once again, chasing down the running beasts, outstripping them with ease. Another, and then another, fell to her talons and jaws, and both she blooded, Risuka keeping a firm hold on the usually-logical dragon. With the fourth, she left it empty and drained on the ground and leapt, rising straight as an arrow through the slowly lightening sky.

She was a streak of lavender as Rukbat rose to the horizon, jaws opening to emit a bugle that would wake the weyr.

[Imperial Obsession]

Kh'ril wouldn't have been able to tell you why at the exact moment he felt it, but the instant he awoke -- in the middle of what he would call the night, or in actuality early morning, nontheless -- he was uneasy. It was almost a need for motion, a discomfort in the still world of sleep, his being roiling in avid discontent at the fact that he was still in bed and had every thought in his mind that he shouldn't be. Eager to find some sort of calm, he reached out for Aideneth -- and almost recoiled, startled by how awake his dragon was right then.

Kh'rilmine. She Rises. You know where to be.

For a moment the Brown's words didn't register as the Rider's mind still found him hazy from being caught in the terrible, wonderful trap of the hypnogogic state and he rolled over to ponder the words a second more.

Then he was up. Up in a flash, pulling on clothes though he knew that there was no need in the first place. A brief second pang of pain on the part of the memory of his once lost Weyrmate, Nierah, took control and the young man stumbled -- he was on the floor and suddenly disgusted with himself for being brought to his knees by something so small.

Risuka. This was for Risuka, not Nierah, and that was that.

He could already feel Aideneth's Flightlust creeping in but for the moment the Brown was concentrated on blooding and nothing more; he didn't need Kh'ril to tell him to. Not this time. He ripped viciously through a herdbeast, blood splattering on his maw, faintly aware of Kh'ril's frantic flight down stairs and through passageways to get to the Feeding Grounds. The Brown had put off too many Flights for the sake of his mine's sanity but no more. Not this time. Not this time.

This time, it was time to move on.

Kh'ril wasn't ready when he approached at an all-out sprint by the Feeding Grounds. The combination of the morning sun, his dragon's emotions, and Risuka at an unsafe location (yet, at the time, safe, for she was unreachable at the moment) made the Brown Rider's head spin, as Aideneth blooded his third herdbeast. Probably excessive, but the dragon himself seemed not to care. In a flash the carcass was dry and he shot skywards, in the direction of Tiamath, the lovely Lavender ribbon in the sky that streaked across sunrise-painted clouds. Royally purple eyes, accustomed to her flight patterns since that day on the island, followed with a half-blind half-trained precision, never wavering from her glowing hide. A trumpeting bugle erupted from his jaws, to re-announce his presence and to give tribute to the Lavender who controlled the skies.

[Jana]

Al'kim, awaken. The great lavender Tiamath rises, and I wish to chase. The blue called out to his sleeping rider, Al'kim, who was deep in dreaming. At first, the rider assumed Tlemoth's voice was merely a part of his dream, until it came again. She bloods her kills. The brown-sized blue urged, his voice a bit more rushed as he reported this fact. Psht, he must be dreaming! Tlemoth would never chase a clutcher, blues simply didn't dream of it! Or... did they?

Suddenly wide awake, Al'kim took in the large form of the bright blue dragon on the weyr's ledge. The searchrider tossed on a freshly washed and tailored pair of trousers and donned his finest wherhide boots. And certainly enough, there was Tlemoth, watching Tiamath's every move from high above. You, what, you want to try to sire a clutch all of the sudden? The rider mused sarcastically, disbelieving the fact that his blue could possibly want to try to fly the rising lavender. Although the size of a small to decent sized brown, he was indeed a blue. His concern would be Tiamath's total denial of his participation. Surely there would be bronzes and browns in the air, too...

Tlemoth had no ears for his rider's negative remark. She is stunning. he only remarked, tossing his head forthe briefest of moments to catch Al'kim gaze. His eyes were whirling deep lavenders and were in such a humble state that the bluerider lost his breath for a minute. Well, perhaps Tlemoth could do it! But certainly not alone, the dragon would need his help.

Not waiting for Al'kim's further approval after sighting the first suitor, a brown, appear in the weyrbowl, he deftly lept from his ledge, flaring his. He dove towards the weyrbowl, backwinging sharply to come to a landing several dragonlength away from the blooding brown. His eyes whirled a mixture of reds and purple from the sight of competition mixed with flight lust. He trumpeted, his brassy bugle resonating through the weyr as he announced his participation in the flight.

The blue lowered his head like a viper, snatching one herdbeast. He needed no further instructions as he latched upon the still-alive creature's throat, draining it of blood in only seconds. By this time the rather shocked Al'kim was also making his way towards the weyrbowl, the emotions of Tlemoth now seeping through him. Of course the blue would chase! Tiamath was a prize, and her rider gracious, beautiful woman. By why was she in the feeding grounds? She must be protected, especially in her current state. It certainly wasn't the place to be when there were half-crazed dragonets draining corpses of blood.

As ghe reached the weyrbowl, he just caught the sight of the blue powering himself away from the hunting grounds. Tlemoth bugled once again, telling the rising lavender that he would give his all to the flight. He was more agile than a brown, and this would aid in chasing a more agile female. However, Al'kim was concerned for his stamina, although Tlemoth thought nothing of it. The blue went in with complete confidence, driven by the power of Tiamath's emotions.

[SaiDalTam]

V'ran hated mornings.

It was probably because he'd seen so many sunrises when he would rather be sleeping, but, quite frankly, he didn't think so. Sunrises were beautiful, even when he would rather be sleeping. Somehow, it seemed more likely that those first, grey, predawn hours were generally the herald of the nature of the day, and he found them all too often interrupted by something that he didn't particularly like.

A draconic bugle cut the air, and, before Jhamith even spoke, V'ran couldn't help but feel that today was to be no different.

:She is beautiful, Mine. Look at her,: the brown purred, lifting his head to stare after the dragon for only a heartbeat before wheeling on V'ran.

Much as he'd never liked flights - for V'ran detested anything that stripped his hard-won control - the brownrider knew the drill, by now, and was already on hand to take a swift note of exactly where he was going. Satisfied, Jhamith dove for a beast, blooding one swiftly, and then a second, before launching after the lavender. He was tardy, with two pursuers already in the sky, and it would hurt him, but he was strong, stronger than any blue, and pushed easily the scale of a small bronze. He would catch up.

As V'ran made his way with a controlled calculation keeping Jhamith's flightlust in check toward the feeding grounds and the lavender's rider, he, too, believed that his dear brown would catch up. Jhamith was strong, and he had stamina. He could sustain flight for a very, very long time.

V'ran reached the bowl rather swiftly, considering he didn't know the Weyr all that terribly well, and paused, glancing up, before heading toward the lavenderrider. He would be on hand. That was enough. Jhamith's reaching mind would claim his from him soon enough, and then, it wouldn't matter much. As Jhamith beat his powerful wings in pursuit of the lavender, he found himself in perfect agreement with his distant rider. This beauty... she was worth chasing.

(( So, it's 2 am, and if this makes no sense, I'm sorry. >.> Blame sleep deprivation. I'll read it over tomorrow, when I'm more alert, and fix it, if it needs. ))

[Cerise]

Two browns. And a blue, but that hardly bore mentioning - though the lavender in her more right mind had respect for every dragon inhabiting the weyr, she knew with a lusty instinct that a blue would not be worthwhile to sire a clutch. Still, she could not discount him immediately; that much of Tiamath's usual logic still existed, in a mind clouded by the driving urge of Flight.

Another bugle followed her first as she arrowed upward, calling more and more into the fray. For the moment her path was straight, lithe body breaking cloud cover as her wings labored, taking her up and up and up. High, wonderfully, impossibly high, a speck above the chasing males, daring them to catch up with her.

From a distance, she heard another dragon's cry, brassy and bold in the open morning air. Head turned, just slightly, to see a bronze form joining the chasers, and a surge of triumphant pleasure went through the lavender. A bronze, another worthier dragon to join the fray! She pushed herself to greater speed, too far above to yet recognize the later comer.

Risuka still held half a mind, though, and she recognized Vanyth's particular size and shade. The blue was Tlemoth, Al'kim's partner, the browns... Heartbeat sped for a moment, but the woman's momentary hope faded. Jhamith, who neither she nor Tiamath knew terribly well, and Aideneth, whom she had half-expected after her encounter with the brown and his rider out in Illian Island. And yet no sign of Gilgalath.

She supposed she should not have expected. As far as she was aware, A'gehri didn't even know of her condition (though how he couldn't when half the weyr did was beyond Risuka, though she had been avoiding the man), so why should he know of Tiamath's? Aside from the fact that the lavender was screaming her state to the skies, climbing higher and higher above Praesto.

Abruptly the dragon turned, a sharp curve in the sky, dipping sideways and downwards, back towards her chasers. But she was still at the beginning of her strength, flirting, toying; her rider's worries had no bearing on her mind as she flew.

[Imperial Obsession]

For a split second, the Brown wondered if it would be smarter to follow her higher or to wait until she came down. There were different rewards and different faults for each plan -- if he stayed with her there would be a chance that she'd enjoy his one-track train of thought on her, but he'd tire faster; if he waited he would last longer but might be at a disadvantage on knowing where that tricky Lavender would end up. Aideneth snorted, discontent for the time being, before holding back from shooting up through the clouds. If he kept his strength, there'd be plenty of time to impress Tiamath later.

Soon enough, he saw the Lavender dipping back down and he shot after her. The dragon kept a wary distance away. This wasn't a game of tag, and experience taught him that the females liked their personal space, the surge of freedom that they felt during a Flight. Then again, what dragon didn't? She was a lovely Lady in this Flight, and where all else would fail he'd be her Knight -- not Princely, like the Bronze Vanyth that suddenly joined the chase. Oh no. Aideneth crooned, welcoming her back to the lower element of the atmosphere from where she had once been higher than, in a place that he wouldn't dare infringe on.

Kh'ril vaguely held on to a bit of consciousness, eyes flicking back and forth from the sky to Risuka. She was too far for him to recognize her emotions, or the look on her face, but looking up at the chasers he shared one of her thoughts unknowingly: Where was Gilgalath? A'gehri?

The Rider shook his head. Now wasn't the time to think of those things. Aideneth's placement was more important than another suitor's -- but certainly this worried Risuka? She was certainly upset about a great many somethings the time they had met on Illian. Again, not truly a concern that should be plaguing him. But it did. This was a woman whose emotions and well-being suddenly rested on a Flight, a woman that Kh'ril found himself caring for, as foolish a thought as that might be at the moment.

[Jana]

Tlemoth followed, inclining higher. Even if hedid not succeed in flying the glorious lavender, he would climb theskies until his wings would beat no more. Simply being involved in this chase was more than enough... although at the thought of Tiamath's hide brushing his, a flurry of thoughts buffetted the blues mind. Yes, he would give his best, and if Tiamath would have him, despite being a lowly blue, he would know that he deserved it.

He was more agile than his bulkier browns, and therefor inclined much more quickly, able to fly neck and neck with the rising lavender. He crooner to her, letting her know that he was close by. He glanced back over his shoulderblades and beating wings to catch sight of Jhamith and Aideneth. But where was the other brown, Gilgalath? Al'kim had warned that this brown was the most likely to win, although he seemed to be absent from the flight. Well, this certainly didn't upset Tlemoth! It was no hide of his wingskins!

Then, by surprise, the lavender banked sharply and allowed herself to dive back towards the browns below. Tlemoth grumbled at his unfortune, making a wide arch in the sky as he followed after her once again, not quite diving as fast as she, slowing his pace by flaring his wings and letting himself drop to save energy. It was foolish to drop so far down and risk plummetting into the canopy below if the lavender veered away too quickly.

He stayed several dragonlengths behind her now, learning from his previous mistake of following to closely. She was flirting and undeniably free, Tlemoth certainly wasn't going to spoil her fun! She deserved it.