Harmless Flirtations

Writers: Anna, Erin Smith
Date Posted: 19th August 2006

Characters: Kirranna, Vir'en
Description: Kirra and Virnoren meet in Candidate Classes
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 13, day 3 of Turn 3

**I can't _stand_ these classes sometimes!** Kirra huffed as she made her way to a candidate class. **After the third hatching the stuff is just burned into your brain! And why does it have to be so sharding _early_!**

Kirra sighed as she finally sat down at one of the desks in the back of the classroom, she sometimes got sick that early in the morning and had to excuse herself. After adjusting herself to her seat she looked around and noticed that there was a new candidate, and he was sitting right next to her.

"Hi there, I'm Kirranna, or Kirra for short." She gave the young man her hand and smiled warmly.

Virnoren shook the proffered hand. "I'm Virnoren. Shorten it how you will." For once, he was on time for classes, and hadn't snuck in late to sit in the very back. **Hm... apparently people actually notice you're here when you come in on time.** As Virnoren had stuck primarily to the Woodcrafter's barracks, and was quiet in classes, he had very little contact with the other Candidates. **Even though,**
he thought to himself, **I've been in these classes FOREVER.** He recognized the girl as one of the more attractive ones in his class, although he avoided taking a tumble with his classmates. "I don't think we've been in classes together for previous Hatchings." At Dolphin Cove, there were always many candidates waiting to stand, and the candidates were separated into several classes.

"Hmm," she said his name with a bit of a roll on the second 'r', "Vir-nor-en, I like it the way it is." She smiled her naturally dashing smile that had always made Z'al forget what he was doing or saying. "So you're a beastcrafter?"

Virnoren was taken aback for a moment by the way the other candidate rolled his name over her tongue, almost a purr. "A woodcrafter, actually." He replied, fishing out his latest creation. It was a wood carving of a Hatchling, just breaking shell. He had completed it just that morning.

Kirra's face lit up at the beautifully exact depiction of a hatchling with it's mouth open and little wings making their way out of it's shell. She unconciously reached out to feel the little wooden creature's head. The smooth wood with few imperfections showed just how _good_ a craftsman Virnoren was. "It's _amazing_!" she whispered, she then realized she had made a social fault and apologized, "Oh, I'm soo sorry I misread your knots!
Your talent obviously lies in a craft that takes much more _skilled_
hands."

Virnoren grinned mischievously. "Don't you fret one instant about it.
Woodcrafters, beastcrafters... we all are athletically built and tanned... I can see how one could make the mistake." He leaned in, conspiratorially. "And you would hardly be the first young lady to mention something of my skilled hands... although I believe that wasn't all they kept me around for."

Kirra blushed deeply as she realized what she had said, what he had implied, and then because she was recalling Z'al's skilled piper's hands. Seeing Virnoren's grinning eyes though brought her back to where and with whom she had been talking, "Oh, I'm sure your hands have kept most young women quite satisfied, but I would prefer getting to know the other things about you that they kept you around for first." She realized she had given him the wrong idea about how interested she was and figured that to straight off tell him she _wasn't_ interested at all would be more harmful than helpful.

Virnoren mocked surprise. Kirra was amusing to him, indeed, and quite attractive. Something was on her mind, and he was curious what precisely it was. He leaned back in his chair, studying her. "Oh come now, Kirra, you can't expect a man to give away _all_ of his secrets right away, do you?"
something seemed off about Kirra's demeanor. Her flirting seemed insincere, as if her mind was somewhere else.

It was her turn to act surprised, "I would never dare to want to know your _secrets_ right away, but what you're _like_, that's what I would like to know." she poked his shoulder playfully, but hard, to emphasize her sencerity. It wasn't like she didn't want to get to know him at all, she did, but she just didn't want to know him the way he thought she did.

Virnoren nodded, thinking for a moment. "What I'm like, eh? I'm a woodcrafter, who's been trying to Impress for 6 turns, but has been largely unsuccessful at said pursuit due to my incredible inability to open up and accept other people. I'm stubborn, I've been told I'm emotionally tense, and I think committed relationships are for holdbred and hidebound fools. I think that about sums it up." He finished up with a grin.

Kirra had smiled indulgently at his moderately amusing and sarcastic words of himself but her brow furrowed for a few moments at his last bit about committed relationships. She decided not to say anything about that and commented on something a little more safe but still intriguing, "Well I don't know what you mean by not being good at opening up to people, I think what you just did was very un-"emotionally tense."

Virnoren ran his hands through his hair. "Yeah. I'm trying to get away from that. I'm hoping this time I won't leave the Hatching Sands alone." The other candidates had began to joke around, stating that his closed off personality had "scared off" all the dragons at hatchings prior. "So what about you?" Virnoren asked, feeling suddenly very selfish. "Tell me about yourself."

Kirra wondered what she could tell him with out scaring him off, but decided that she would just tell him about _herself_, "I'm 16 turns old. I've been here for about 7 months. I have a bronze flit named Sunny cuz he brightens my day. I'm from the Dolphin hall so I've never really gotten homesick. I've never really had a craft. I knew I wanted to be a dragonrider when I saw a bronze flying over the hall and was enchanted by it. I'm my parents only child and so when I saw that other kids were getting picked on I pretty much adopted the little ones as my own brothers and sisters and led a few 'campaigns' against their tormentors."

Virnoren grinned. "I don't know if I have any siblings, but I pretty much did the same thing. Except me and the other weyrbrats liked to cause mischief about the Weyr." He grinned. "Dolphinhall though? I've always loved dolphins." He fidgeted in his pocket, handing over a small dolphin he'd carved and stained with leftover wood. "There so sleek. Really fun to carve. He handed the dolphin to Kirra. "Here, why don't you keep this for good luck?"

Kirra smiled sincerely as she took the little carving of the dolphin, "Thank you, I'll keep it just for that, good luck." She admired it for a few moments before she noticed the instructor come into the room, so she put it away in her hand bag nodding once again at her new friend in thanks.

Last updated on the August 20th 2006

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Harmless Flirtations