The Rabin siblings are well known around Blackstone as collectors of information as well as well trained in their subjects. The young men both have become adept with records keeping and tranferance of information. Ganjia on the other hand follows her mother's footsteps and enjoys engineering new strains of plants for food as well as other uses.
The three of them are usually seen together, when they are not working on their projects. Ganjia is a popular ... um, well, she supplies certain substances to people around the House and Dens. She often tests out her 'wares' on her brothers, before sending product out to her buyers. Esham has a pleasant singing voice and often sings to his siblings or at parties. Razzi... Razzi is the one who became a Blackbottom first, and often jokingly mocks their sister since she will not go for the drastic dye-job. Her hair is wild enough, thanks...
"She's taking her time, you should learn to do that too..." Razzi replied. "When she starts collecting herbs it's not something you want to disturb."
Chuckling, Esham hunkered down near Razzi and watched Ganjia. "I remember mother trying to get her to leave off that one time... Wasn't it when father had turned fifty?"
"It was fifty two, and yes, I remember..." Razzi smiled narrowly. The rain was due any time now. That much he learned from Shango when he was but a child, how to tell the storm clouds from the pleasantly passing ones. The chill wind told him more. "She's going to find something but we might not get to the weyr any time soon."
Razzi sat down near the small rock outcrop, tapping his foot against their wagon. The draught steed pulling it had served them well but was worn out. Esham rubbed the horse with a cloth, clearing off the shrubbery and dust from his coat before they settled down for the late afternoon. They were headed to Beach Shards weyr, ostensibly to get a new runner for their mother. What they might do with the old one...
Off toward a steep ravine, Ganjia had found exactly what she was looking for in the form of a clump of tall stiff reeds. Their blue-topped flower heads produced a broad grin on the agriculturist's face. "There you are... sweet bluefingers..." Ganjia plucked the reeds flowers off their stalks, and placed them carefully among others she had gathered. Because she was concentrating so hard on looking for new plants and seedlings for her collection, she hardly cared to notice that she was mere feet away from a tall crumbling dirt ravine.
When Ganjia called out sharply, both brothers as well as the horse perked up. "Was that--"
"It was her, what's she gotten into?" Razzi stood quickly, his brother had already bounded off toward their sister's voice. She hollared and screamed and cursed up a storm, almost enough to keep the big dark clouds above at bay.
Almost.
It was a few moments later when the first spats of hard cold rain began to pelt the ground, spattering infrequently at first, but then waves of large raindrops struck. Both brothers had to pull up quickly to avoid dropping down the same ravine their sister had found herself in. She had tumbled head over rear down the dark dirt, and was covered with it all over her pale clothing. Her hair was completely a mess, not as if it were ever neat... She glared up at her brothers from a half-crumbled grass covered ledge some dozen feet below the edge.
"Well!? Get me out from here! This dirt's going to drop any minute!" Her fingers had already gone cold in the dirt, clutching on with all her might. As the water began to pour down, the brothers were soaked in moments, their sister more so because the wind brought the rain down and she was unprotected. The far edge of the ravine was more than twenty paces away, and was quite deep, with a --
"The stream is rising already," Razzi muttered, "the rain must have been going for some time north of here..."
"Who cares about the rain, Raz, we don't have time! I'll get a rope..." Esham darted back to the wagon, but could only find the leather straps and tack, reins and gear which kept their old horse tethered to the wooden and tarp covered wagon. "Well, we'll either reach the weyr without our sister or without you Talby, and honestly you're about due for a vacation..." Esham said to the beast, whose ears twitched back with the rain. The horse's large dark eyes watched as Esham unharnessed him, then the horse stepped away from the wagon as Esham raced back to the ravine with the rope.
When he got back, Razzi had already attempted to help Ganjia up with his belt, but it was far too short, and even draping himself precariously over the wet and now muddy edge he could not reach her. She continued to swear and rant.
"Well at least there's no dimming her pleasant attitude," Razzi heard his brother mutter. He took one portion of the long leather reigns, and Esham the other. They draped the leather strap down the muddy ledge, but with both of them holding it it was too short.
"I'm not strong enough to hold this alone," Esham said, gripping Razzi by the shoulder. Ganjia screamed again, but this time in honest terror. The water had risen considerably, and it was not helped that the sides of the ravine upriver had collapsed and sent down huge plumes of mud and sticks as a wall before the water.
When the brothers were growing cold and Ganjia's voice had gone scratchy, Razzi felt something behind him. It was not a tree, they had tried tying the reigns to the stone but the mud below it gave way. Their sister was ever-farther away... Razzi turned to see the brown and beige muzzle of their horse, nuzzling his arm.
"Well, boy, you're going to help out anyway? Good for you." Razzi said. He took the reign from Esham's hand, and called to Ganjia. "We're going to hold this end, you tie the other around your self. I don't know how much length we can give you..."
Esham put the bridle back on Talby the horse, and attached the ring of the leather strap to it as securely as he could, what with the rain everywhere. All three of them -- and the horse -- were soaked through by now, and chilled to the bone. Ganjia felt the ledge below her feet giving way.
"Guys? Hurry..." She said, barely above the sound of the rushing water below. The worry on her dark face was plain, and any hint of bravery (via the loud swearing she'd been doing) had long worn away.
The bridle and reign now set, Razzi threw the end down to their sister. She fumbled for it, finally grasping onto it with a shaking, cold wet hand. She got it around her wrist twice, but that was as much length as it had, otherwise she could not even reach it on her tiptoes. She shouted for them to pull.
Esham whispered at the horse, "Okay Talby, let's go." He gently tugged at the horse's bridle and the mud colored horse backed up carefully. The leather strap gouged a deep cut into the wet ground, and chunks of it pealed away from the edge as they pulled. But Ganjia scrabbled herself up behind the pull of her arm, grasping onto anything she could with her left hand, while the other was dragged helplessly and quite painfully by the strap.
At last, covered in dirt from head to foot and drenched through, Ganjia rested on the relatively flat area near the wagon, panting hard and trembling. Her brothers stood shaking with cold, and Esham thought to remove the tight strap from his sister's wrist. Her hand was swollen, but the cold puddle it was laying in would surely stop any damage...
The storm continued. All night this trio and their loyal steed sat in the miserable cold rain, the wagon providing barely any real cover as the tarp had never been intended for weather like this. It was more for keeping sun off, and let a lot of water through.
Razzi raised his head when a bolt of lightning struck somewhere along the plain to the south. Many seconds later, the peal of thunder came. He thought that it might frighten Talby but the horse remained quiet, shifting from one hoof to the other. The eldest of the trio stood up out of the shelter, and grasped at his siblings' hands.
"Raz, it's freezing out there..." moaned Esham. He was echoed softly by his sister.
"I know. Stand here. Just come out. The rain will at least clean us up a bit. I'd rather show up damp and cold than damp and cold and DIRTY."
Chuckling at first, then laughing out loud, the trio let the pelting rain freeze their faces, washing any trace of the deep red mud from their clothing and hair. By the time the storm had cleared, it was almost morning and none of them dared sleep -- except for Ganjia, who still nursed her bruised wrist.
Rhe sun came up with another squall of rain. But the weather was bound to clear soon, Razzi insisted it would, and he was correct. So by the time the warmth of the sun broke through the dark clouds, the trio had hooked their horse back up to the wagon and begun moving again. It was very difficult now, with the road soaked and deeply run with mud. But somehow, they made it to the weyr.
"At least I did get those sweet-fingers," Ganjia grinned, holding up her leather pouch with herbs in it. Her only thought when she had fallen was that two hours of hard work bent over and picking at prickly plants would not amount to nothing! She could make quite a few people happy with the seeds and spores which she harvested. If they remained dry, which they had, they'd fetch a good price anywhere. She muttered to herself about soil conditions, while her brothers approached the weyr with more wonder.
"It's new, look at that. The walls aren't even fully carved out." Esham pointed out.
"But they've already got a stock of horses, look there." Razzi said, indicating a field where several steeds grazed on the wet grass. "That apaloosa there looks healthy. What do you say, Talby? You think he's a good replacement for you?"
The horse snorted, and tossed his head. The brothers laughed. When they reached the weyr's entrance, they were met by a woman who introduced herself as Headwoman Daseas. She bustled them through the lower areas, through to the stables. There, they were able to ditch their half-useless wagon, gather their supplies, and look at the grazing horses while their own Talby was tended to by the stable man.
"So what brings you to Beach Shards?" Asked one of the locals. "You three look like you've seen better days..."
They related their story, and Razzi ended the tale with, "we're here for a new horse, but I think Talby will be staying with us for a while."
They had haggled out with the stable man, about the apaloosa stallion. But before Esham had determined their price, the woman who had spoken with them about their arrival continued to stare at them oddly.
"What is it, miss?" Razzi asked, trying to look casual and remembering that his clothing was still rather chill and damp. Too damp. It made him uncomfortable, and he was usually so good with people -- women in particular. She blinked oddly and shook her head.
"Sorry, I've ... Well, I've been watching you three and my dragon has been as well."
"You're a dragon rider?" Asked the eldest Rabin. "Really?" He expected the riders of any weyr to be big burly types... But then he'd rarely assumed that women who did ride dragons would be wandering around without all their gear. A silly assumption, he realized.
"I am," she replied, with a bit of an amused grin. "I'm Zaera, and my dragon is blue Amenth. He's up there, see him on the low ledge?"
"The one scaring the horses?" Esham butted in, interested from the word 'dragon'.
"That would be the one," Zaera laughed. "We're search rider and dragon," she announced. That attracted the attention of the distractable Ganjia who had been looking at the small flowering plants which grew near the bottoms of all the trees in the area. The three of them stood and looked on as the blue dragon Amenth soared down over the pasture, scattering the steeds - all except Talby.
The dragon sniffed at the trio and seemed to relay something to his rider. She nodded, and smiled. "It looks as though your visit might turn into a longer one. He says you're good material for our current clutch. Gold Velaeth and her mate bronze Myath have a good bunch of eggs on the sands. And we're always looking for new folk to populate our weyr..."
"Well..." Razzi said, his siblings assuming their typical stance behind him with their heads close to his, "I don't know about remaining on for very long, but I'm sure we'd be allowed to stay for a hatching! It sounds wonderful... Zaera wasn't it?" Razzi got a hard finger poked into his ribs, and he assumed it meant for him to stop flirting. "We'll have to send word to our parents and guilds. Do you have a flitter who goes to Blackstone?"
Zaera looked rather stunned, "um... I am not sure. We'll find one. For now, though, make yourselves comfortable. Get out of those wet clothes," she said, realizing that her words might be misinterpreted by the dark-skinned Razzi, so she turned quickly away to 'guide' them to their dens.
Esham looked behind them, as Talby situated himself among the steeds with comfort. He looked a lot older than the rest, more worn, but since he hadn't flinched from the dragon's pass overhead, it seemed the other steeds knew he would be able to take on anything. Grinning, Esham followed his siblings into the Weyr.
