Corral
This part of the plateau has been fenced-off to provide an enclosed pasture and grazing area for the Weyr's herds. Grass covers the fields, rippling like waves in the wind. Herds of herdbeasts wander about, grazing lazily. To the north is the exit to the plateau, and from here you can also see the forests and beaches below the plateau to the west, as well as the ocean, stretching off to the horizon.
It is a summer sunrise. The sky begins its transformation from darkest blue in the west, to a fair golden pink in the east as the sun paints the sky with the colors of dawn. A seabreeze blows in from the south.
Bronze Sejith is here.

Marius slowly makes his way down to the corral. He leans against the fence, and watches as the dragons prepare to feed. Mar clears his throat softly, sounding harsh in the early morning air.

Sejith gains speed, the dawn breeze washing over his smooth hide as he dives silently toward the herd. A few more observant beasts alert the others and the herd begins to scatter; but for the dragon's chosen meal, it's too late. With a deft claw he snatches the furry animal, struggling and bleating in fright until a sharp snap sends him limp, dangling from the bronze's grasp as he's carried away to a ledge. With a start, T'rell turns from this show. "'Morning," his tone carries an edge of surprise as he greets the harper.

Marius's eyes follow the bronze and his kill to the ledge. He nods approvingly and something along the lines of "Good kill" escapes his lips. Mar's eyes flick away from the dragon as he starts eating, and focuses on the rider, "I thought we should talk before I went back to the Hall..."

"Thanks." T'rell nods appreciation for the compliment. "You're leaving, then." This seems to be news to the rider, though he just takes a sip from his klah.

Sejith proceeds to disembowl the herdbeast with his usual style; a sharp claw slices through the hide, revealing, for any longsighted enough to see up to the ledge, intestines bloated with partially-digested grass. These are discarded in favor of the more savory parts, the dragon tearing muscle from bone with casual ferocity.

"Aye. I've responsibilities back home. Apprentices running amock and the like..." Marius pauses for a moment as the large bronze seems to dive into his kill. His lips twitch slightly and he shrugs before turning back to T'rell, "I just wanted to explain...about Kaeryn..."

T'rell nods, not relaxed, per se, but open and ready to listen.

A loud cracking sound draws attention to the ledge, where Sejith busies himself by tearing the beast's well-fleshed limbs from the carcass. With bloodied muzzle, he gnaws a meaty leg.

Marius takes a breath before continuing, his senses involuntarily recoiling from the mix of the salty sea air and the odors from Sejith's early morning meal. He forces himself to go on, "I don't know exactly how to explain the two of us, but..." His jaw clenches and he just spits it out, "Shards and shells T'rell, I /love/ her."

"I know that, Marius." T'rell's tone is soft and resigned. "We've got that much in common." He takes another thoughful sip of his morning klah, then rests the mug on the fencepost beside him. "I think we all want what's best for her. Right?" There's just the slightest hint of challenge, there.

Sejith, oblivious to any non-hardened stomachs in his audience, slurps noisily at the still untouched meat on his breakfast. Satisfied that it's clean, he pushes it from the ledge with an offhanded swipe, watching just briefly as it tumbles to crash and clatter in a pile of similar bones below. Licking his muzzle for juices, he eyes the herd again.

Marius nods, "Of course we do." A sigh escapes his lips as a grimace crosses his face, "That's why I'm leaving. I'm not doing her any good here. I just..." His fingers pick at the fencepost, "I guess I just have bloody lousy timing."

T'rell relents slightly, his mouth curving into a wry smile. "At least one of us does." He briefly appraises the harper, his attitude, his stance. "Look, Marius," the rider begins, almost apologetically. "I know she -- loves you too." Difficult to say, but out it is. "It'd kill her if you just disappeared. Just..." He shakes his head, glancing up at his dragon, perhaps for support. "Just don't tear her in two, next time, eh?"

Marius gives the rider a long look for a moment, then he nods, "Aye, I'll try. I didn'a /plan/ for any of this to happen. It just..." He shrugs helplessly, "There's not much I could do t' stop it, even if I wanted to." Mar's eyes lock with the rider's, "I'm not about to just up and leave either. And if she or Brencia /ever/ need anything..."

T'rell nods solemnly, accepting both the explanation and the offer. "Seems like stuff like this just happens around Kae, don't it? And thanks. Really." He pauses, as if about to add something else, then just nods finally.

Marius can't help but laugh softly at that. He nods slightly, "Mayhaps it does happen around her more often. Mayhaps we just see it around her more often." He shrugs and pushes himself off from the fence and moves back toward the plateau. Almost as an afterthought, he turns back once more, "T'rell...take care of her. If anything ever happend to her..." He doesn't finish the thought, but then he doesn't really have to.

Sejith lauches from his ledge again, wings spread to catch the rising sun as he swoops in low to take the hindmost of the fleeing herdbeasts. Catching it with ease, his talons rake its sides to cripple the beast such that its own momentum sends it headfirst into the ground in a collapsed pile of limp beast. As the dragon sweeps around again to pick it up, its head and neck are already at an odd angle, as are two of its legs. Satisfactorially dead, it is carried again back to the ledge.

T'rell salutes the harper briefly from his perch on the fence. "I will." A simple, plain answer with no need of extra words to cloud or hide anything.

Marius gives T'rell one more terse nod, then moves back down to the Plateau.

Sejith rips noisily into his second beast, pulling T'rell's attention away from the departing harper. He smiles appreciatively, then drains his klah mug and waits for the dragon to finish his breakfast.

Marius clears his throat softly as he walks into the Harper's Area, "Kaeryn?"

Kaeryn pauses in her pacing around the room, bouncing her daughter in her arms in an attempt to sooth the softly crying child. "Morning, Marius," she says softly over the top of Bren's head.

Marius chuckles softly to himself, "Already hard at work, I see." He moves over and flashes a warm smile to the youngling, "And how are we this morning, Brencia?"

"I'm afraid she's going to be as emotional as her mother," Kae admits with a sheepish grin as Bren quietens as soon as Marius comes closer. "We've been awake for a while now, though, she decided against sleeping in, for some reason, and T'rell was lucky enough to be gone before she woke up." Bren's tiny pink fingers stretch outward in the direction of Marius, causing Kae to laugh a little.

Marius chuckles softly and offers the little hand a grip on one of his fingers. "I just ran into T'rell over by the corral. Sejith was hunting..." He looks up an winks to the mother, "She's definitely got the lungs of a Harper..."

Brencia's fingers stretch as far as they can around Mar's offered one, and squeeze closed around it. Kae grins and touches her daughter's cheek with her lips, a motion paused at the mention of T'rell and Sejith. "You did? Is there... anything I should know about? Sejith was feeding. T'rell didn't try to feed you to him, did he?"

Marius starts to laugh, but it's interrupted by a wince, "Aye, but she's got the grip of a Smith on her..." He gently unwraps Bren's fingers from around his own, "No, T'rell didn't try to foist me over the fence into the corral. We just...came to an understanding." He smiles slightly, "Actually, that's why I'm here this early. I'm leaving to go back to the Hall today..."

"She'll be a harper if I have anything to say about it," Kae grins as she pulls Bren's now flailing little arms back in toward her and shifts the infant to her other arm. "Good because Sejith wouldn't actually..." her teasing train of thought is halted as she realizes what he'd just said. "Leaving? Today?"

Marius chuckles softly and gives Kaer a bit of a wink, "I know /Sejith/ wouldn't. But the way he was tearing into the herdbeasts this morning..." Mar's eyes twinkle slightly as he nods in response, "It's time for me to get back to the Hall. My apprentices have probably run amock with Master Jeranium's records again. Besides...it's only a day's ride or so for me to get back here."

"Or a blink for me to go the other way," Kae nods, giving Marius a smile before her attention turns to untangling Bren's fingers from her curls. "But it was nice knowing that you were here, right down the hall, like you used to be, you know?"

Marius nods, "I know." He glances outside at the rapidly rising sun, "I'll come back when I get a chance. But if I don't leave now, I'm not going to..."

Kae shifts Brencia over into the makeshift playpen that rests near her mother's workspace, and moves over to wrap her arms around Marius in a hug, squeezing him close. "Don't be a stranger."

Marius squeezes her back, whispering, "I won't. Promise." Then he breaks away, gives Brencia a final smile, then is gone.

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