True, but he's trying not to think about that part. -- Outside the Weyr

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Date Posted: 07:21:11 09/14/05 Wed
Author: K'vren & Notusith, Pell, Nero, Osko, Meki
Subject: True, but he's trying not to think about that part.
In reply to: Riddan 's message, "As if he's any better..." on 14:39:20 09/01/05 Thu

((Like I can complain. I'm NOT doing this at work, okay? Well, I am, but we're going to pretend I'm not. If I'm going to endure Neil-induced eyestrain, some of it had better be caused by something I actually enjoy!))

Clinging to both ends of the vine, K'vren holds his breath and watches anxiously as Riddan ascends. The boy's foot comes perilously near his fingers at one point, and he hurriedly lets his grip slide a few inches. His sweaty hand clutches convulsively at the vine when it starts to inch out of his grasp, stilling it again, and the bluerider sighs heavily in relief. He's sweating heavily, part fear, part exertion, and in small part the heat of the jungle, and his skin crawls with ill-concealed terror. Notusith is yammering at him, worried and anxious, and it's only making it worse. /Shut up!/ K'vren finally orders, almost viciously, and he can hear the startled mental squeak that precludes his dragon's silence. Unfortunately, even if he's stopped talking, Notusith can't keep his emotions from leaking into K'vren's mind (though to be fair, he wouldn't be so worried if K'vren's emotions weren't making the same journey into his own brain). While he's a fairly well-built young man, and used to heavy labor, this uses different muscles in different ways than his day-to-day life, and K'vren's arms ache from fingertips to shoulderblades. His firelizards latch onto his clothes and hover, as if trying to hold him up, and the young bluerider finds their attention absurdly calming; they can barely hold up a bowl of soup, as he knows from experience, but just the knowledge that they want to help relaxes him a bit.

Finally, though, Riddan reaches the branch, and K'vren quickly unlocks tired muscles and begins to ascend, inch by painful inch. Literally painful, but he's more worried about losing his grip than how much that grip might hurt. He has to be very careful to maintain a balance, one hand at a time, the vine sliding back and forth every time he takes one hand away. Speed is essential; if he lets go for more than a few seconds, even with Riddan helping hold the vine at top, it will keep sliding and quite possibly land him on the jungle floor. Not good. Finally, though, he can reach up and grab the branch. Abandoning the vine entirely, K'vren swings his legs up and wraps them around the branch, so he's hanging upside down for a moment, and then squirms about until he's on his belly. For a moment he lies sprawled on the thick bough, arms and legs dangling off the sides as he pants. Then the bluerider straightens into a sitting position and cautiously turns around before rising to a full crouch. "If we climb half a dragonlength up, my harness straps are hanging from my dragon, and we can use those to get onto his back. Can you make it up there?" he asks, pointing at the route by which he'd descended.

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