Aissa yelped in surprise at the scandal and stood up to chase after her canine. "Phenreyr! You horrible canine, give that back!" She laughed, chasing the husky around her small room.
Their gallavanting woke Tovn, however, and the days-old flitter hissed irritably as she began to screech for her hide to be oiled and her belly to be filled. Aissa held up the recovered pen triumphantly as Phenreyr hounded her heels, her tail whipping back and forth behind her.
Tovn creeled to get her bond's attention, and Aissa made her way past the excited canine to where the gold fire lizard lay crouched on her bed. "I'm sorry, Tovn, how ever could I have ignored you?" Aissa said, reaching out to scratch the gold's eyeridge. Tovn eyed her with whirling red-orange orbs, but as the girl began to scratch her itching back, she crooned forgivingly, and her eyes turned back to their normal green-blue color.
Aissa grabbed a bottle of oil off of a nearby table, and began to apply it liberally to the hatchling's flaking hide. Tovn purred in relief, curling up with her head on her foreclaws. Once her bond had finished oiling the soft hide, Tovn jumped up onto the girl's shoulder and rubbed her head against Aissa's cheek, silently pleading for food. Aissa laughed and carried the flit with her down to the kitchens to oblige.
Aissa frowned as she grabbed up her bowl full of sliced meat, which Tovn was already eyeing hungrily. A group of senior apprentices, all men, were huddled a short distance away, eyeing her tiny gold flitter with looks of animosity and jealousy. Aissa turned away, intending to ignore them, but her ears caught their words anyway.
"How'd a junior apprentice get a fire lizard, anyway? Much less a girl, and she got a queen!" One of them was saying to his companions.
Aissa froze, fighting down her anger as another piped up. "And how come we older harpers all ended up with blues and greens?" The man said indignantly.
Aissa glanced over her shoulder at the men. The one who had just spoken looked smug, and the other two nodded their heads sympathetically, though one of them had a small blue flit on his shoulder, not more than a sevenday old; probably from the same wild clutch that Tovn had come from. They saw her staring at them, and the first man held his gaze coolly, almost smugly.
Aissa gritted her teeth, figting to control her temper. If she blew up at the men now, she'd only end up being disciplined herself. She stalked past the men, and one of them grinned at her cheekily, which she ignored, with effort.
Tovn was not disturbed in the least, however, and as soon as they were back in her room and Aissa had set the bowl on a table, the gold flitter dived at the food hungrily. She licked her lips as she finished her meal, and climbed onto Aissa's bed, where she instantly fell asleep.
