Harbouring Grudges (Ren, Kenna)

[Ren Vikarson]

Ren couldn't quite understand why anyone would turn down a dragon of their own, or at least one that could be ridden. A Shovelhelm would've been a clear advantage right now but the odds of finding one weren't very good, then again any dragon would've helped. "I saw the beach from the boat when I was coming in, seemed a waste that no one had done anything with it. If no one else was going to then I might as well use it myself." Glancing over the area again he stepped over to the axes and swung one up onto his shoulder. "Alright, lets get cutting." Heading back up the track he came to the first large tree and took a solid swing at it lodging the axe deep into the wood before planting a foot on it and hauling it free. Looking the tree up and down before he took another swing he began to count up how many trees they'd need to finish this. "We really could use a dragon for this. We'll be out here for days if we work with just the two of us." Taking another swing he raised a foot again and gave it a solid kick. The tree gave a loud creak and began to lean before collapsing against another tree. "Think we could get a little spare lumber from Berk? Just so we can get the main house built up and have somewhere to rest." Hacking away at what remained of the trunk he gave it another kick and dropped it down to the floor. 

Glancing around them at the other trees he nodded to himself. They could do this, but it'd take a while without more help. Giving the log a few shoves he set it rolling down the slope and onto the beach. One down, they'd need at least twenty four to make the four walls, maybe less with a slanted roof, another ten for the floor. All of this was guess work but they'd be able to fix it up as they went. "Know anyone with time to help? Maybe a dragon?" 

[Kenna Sigmundr]

Kenna was slightly surprised the outsider had had the forethought to look at berk as he was coming in, rather than just work out what he was doing once he was on dry land, like most did. And no one was ever going to take this path of land...mainly cause of how needlessly risky the choice was. Even ignoring the possible future erosion or tides, this want exactly a defendable point if tidal dragons decided to encroach.

Once he was done, Ren suggested the start getting timber, to which Kenna agreed. The two headed back up into the forest and Ren immediately went to the nearest large tree and started hacking. Kenna followed suit, picking a decently sized tree (though not quite as big as Ren's) that was far enough away from Ren that neither of their trees could affect the others.

It was interesting cutting for Kenna cutting a tree. You think all the years in a forge would mean she wouldn't notice any difference, but there's quite a different swing in smiting than in lumber jacking. Not a downward motion for one. Kenna smirked when he asked if the would be able to supplement their supply. "Had you but asked when you'd met with Halldor he probably lying would have offered all the materials required as a sign of good faith...probably a couple of men to help...though given you current record not sure extra men would have made things easier," she commented, referencing earlier, "as it is all you have is me to help you get wood."

After a few more times she got the swing of it, whistling ad she worked. It wasn't long before she was able to (with some effort) push the tree in a similar manner to Rengar so that it fell. The Outcast asked her if she knew any person or dragon who would be able to help. She looked over to him and smirked, seeing behind him some which had been hearing her whistle. "I know someone who has the time..." she paused dramatically as she looked back at the work she had done to the tree, "...I'm not sure you'll think of it as help though. Isn't that right girl?" 

(OOC: Edge, please do not reply yet, Red needs to make a post in this now :3)

[Scratchet]

Scratchet was investigating a barrel of fish guts on the plaza when she heard the call. Not drawing attention to herself, she continued to sniff the entrails as she observed Kenna with some stranger by the house. When Kenna came back out, the Nadder took off, ready to follow them.

Being a tracker class, it was easy to be out of sight and sound, but not of smell. Knowing the forest over the years, she knew how to tread lightly for her mischevous needs, and they came in handy. She was curious about this new guy. Wasn't she with that dragon-stalker guy? She certainly hadn't seen him on Berk before. Maybe this was why Kenna called for her.

She hung back for now, just making sure she didn't lose the scent. She watched them as they started to get sorted. Scratchet wondered why he wanted to live so far away from town. By himself he was just making himself target for dragons, and on the beach, he'd be exposed to the terrible weather.

She kept back as the began to work, listening to Kenna's whistles to see if they meant any specific instruction, but they hadn't figured that out yet... Scratchet made note that they would need to sort out their organisation skills. The turquoise nadder almost got bored and figured Kenna didn't need her until she realised that the human was setting up her entrance. She appreciated her human for the gesture. A malicious grin ran across her face as she began to edge closer and closer to them, coming up from behind the new guy.

"I don't know what you mean," feinting outrage at Kenna's final comment, "I can be very helpful."

With a squawk she sauntered past the new guy, cornering around Kenna to greet her with a playful nudge. "Oh wowie, Med-I mean Kenna, I didn't know you had a new boy-toy! Have you told the dragon stalker yet?" Of course she was joking but she couldn't resist making jibes.

She then bounded over to him like an excited puppy now, inspecting him also in greeting. But unlike with Kenna, she felt free to knock him this way and that with her nose, pretending to be playful but it was intentional... Whilst she did so she could take his smell and memorise it for later. She nipped at his foreign clothing here and there.

She stopped to look back at Kenna. "So you guys need MY help huh? Wow. You guys must be desperate." She warbled cheekily. "I mean I'm not one to say no but.." She trailed off as she was excited to see their reactions.

[Ren Vikarson]

Ren didn't mind the nudging at first but when the dragon started nipping and shoving firmly he made a move to avoid her jaws. Raising a foot as her teeth came in again he planted his foot high on the dragons snout and shoved it back. "So this is supposed to help us?" He couldn't say he was overly fond of Nadders, prissy and bothersome as dragons went and from what he'd heard they were much more common on Berk than on Outcast Island. At least it was a sharp class, that had to be the right choice for the job. "Alright, I'll let you handle the dragon. Looks like the two of you know how to cooperate." Having no grasp of how to talk to dragons there wasn't much point trying to communicate with it directly, dragons could make a good assumption of what a human says but that level of familiarity took time and it wouldn't be built just by building a cabin. 

Turning to look down at the couple of logs they'd rolled down already he nodded to himself. No point waiting around idly when there was wood that needed cutting and without a Timberjack or similar cutting dragon they'd be cleaving them down themselves. Rolling his shoulders he lifted the axe and took a hard swing at one of the larger trees around them. "So how much are we going to need? I won't need all that much space with the overhang and the beach giving me plenty of cover. Just somewhere to sleep should be enough for now." He could always add stuff on in time, once he had his own dragon he'd probably be able to make plenty of improvements himself. 

[Kenna Sigmundr]

Kenna smirked when Scratchet finally spoke, “Like you where helpful with Boom when she was cleaning up the front of their smithy?” A story for another time, but Scratchet cackled at the reminder of that day. Kenna tried to ignore the dragons reference of Sven as ‘dragon stalker’.

The blacksmith winced slightly when Ren kicked Scratchet in the face. The nadder glared at Ren while standing up straight in her normal arrogant way. Kenna knew she would be out for payback for the slight. It didn’t matter that she was so invading his private space, her pride was attacked by that action and Kenna kind of knew the dragon was a bit too insecure to not rise to that.

“Her name’s Scratchet,” Kenna said in response to Ren’s ‘so this is supposed to help us.’ Both girls couldn’t help but snicker when Ren commented that she and Scratchet knew how to cooperate, “we know how to communicate,” she quietly muttered, smirking at the Nadder. Kenna knew they were not yet anywhere near actually having a proper level of trust.

Ren asked her opinion on how much more wood they needed for his hut. She looked over at what they had already cut then scanned the nearby trees, thinking about what would be a reasonable estimation for the job. Kenna told Ren her educated guess once she’d worked it out and the two continued to cut down the remaining needed trees while Scratchet…did her thing. The nadder didn’t want to do anything too close to Ren, at least while he was swinging an axe around, so she kept a good dozen yards away from the outsider.

Instead she just watched the two work, keeping track of the rhythm of their swings. Every now and then, whenever she felt it would affect Kenna’s work but when Ren was starting to swing his axe, the Nadder let out a sudden loud swark. It did make Kenna jump slightly whenever the Scratchet did it, but she was always between swings when it did so it never actually affected what she was doing. After a while though, Kenna decided to try and deescalate things, “Scratchet, would you kindly moving some of the logs down to next to the markings that have been made down on the beach?”

[Ren Vikarson]

While the first squawk made Ren recoil a little as if he was expecting to have to swat the dragon in the face, the following times he wasn't about to fall for it. "This is going to take hours just for one shack, but as long as I've got somewhere to sleep I don't mind taking the rest of it slowly." He could build any following furniture or structures on his own or just see about obtaining them from elsewhere, after all there were always abandoned structures on other islands full of all kinds of usable junk. 

Dropping another tree he sat down and looked around at the small spot they'd cleared out along the riverside. "So what dragons are there likely to be in these forests? I don't want to wake up and find Speedstingers all over my camp." Crouching down he glanced over the dirt around the river, he could make a good guess about what would be passing by but it'd be hard to say how recent or regular they'd be. Passing a hand along a worn and scarred old tree he nodded to himself before taking a look at the dirt around it. "Well there are a few tracks. Tricky to say what from. Similar to a Nightmare but the marks are from front feet." He was more speaking out loud to help himself think. "Maybe a Threadtail, or Snaptrapper." Any attention on the construction seemed a little stalled as he started focusing on what he did best. 

[Kenna Sigmundr]

When Kenna asked Scratchet to carry the logs down to the beach, the Nadder stood up in mock attention and then quickly scurried over and grabbed a tree with her beak and dragged it along the path. She had decided that today she would follow any order Kenna gave her but be mischievous at all other times if possible. The two humans continued to chop wood as she did so.

Kenna chuckled slightly at the comment about wild dragons, “There aren’t any Speedstingers here fortunately.” She listed of some of the dragons she knew were in the forest, all the usual suspects. She looked over at the tracks, “I’ll take your word for it,” she had no clue when it came to dragon, “All of them are possible, though Nightmares are much more common of those three.”

His comments about shelter made her think a bit, she quietly sighed, recognising she probably should make the obligatory offer. “If we haven’t made a secure shelter by nightfall, we could always come back to mine. My storage room has a bed in it which is currently unused after its last occupant got kicked off the island after he was caught stealing. It’s cluttered, but you would be able to sleep in it fine.”

While this was going on, Scratchet reappeared, having unceremoniously left the log down on the beach. She looked at the trees which had been felled by this point and chose one which she could actually pick up without having to drag it. The Nadder strutted over and picked it up and turned round to move back to the beach. As she did so her tail slapped the Outcast on his backside. Scratchet quickly moved out of immediate reach as that happened, as much as she wanted to mess with Ren, she didn’t want any direct confrontation (least while he was holding that axe of his).

[OOC: We should probably start working towards doing speeding up time a bit, so try to get bast the wood chopping phase in the next couple of posts xD]

[Ren Vikarson]

Raising a brow with a curious smile Ren leaned back against one of the trees. "You know Kenna, if you wanted me to stay with you then you can ask, its ok. I mean I still want my own place but I can come visit whenever you need some company." Viking dragon relations may have made a breakthrough over the years, flirting still seemed to be done the viking way. Recoiling a little from the Nadder when it jabbed at him he narrowed his eyes, if she kept giving him this kind of trouble he was going to get mean back. Glancing back at the markings some dragon had left he strummed his fingers, he knew he had to keep up the work if he wanted a decent home but the work was unquestionably tedious and he just wanted to go chasing dragons. 

Turning he gave the tree he'd been leaning against a hard swipe embedding the axe into it. "Or maybe a Hobblegrunt, Windgnasher." Hanging his head for a moment Ren turned back to the markings. "Dammit." Looking at each marking closely he ran his hands over the gouges in the wood getting a feel for them, the direction, depth, other things that let him guess at how high the dragon had stood when it made a swipe at the tree, how heavy it was, the size of its claws. All that time learning to hunt was storming around in his head urging him to find out what was here on his future doorstep and if he needed to worry about it. 

Dragging himself away from it he groaned at his own need to investigate even when work needed doing. Lashing out he toppled one of the trees beside him and began dragging it towards the slope down to the beach with an almost frenzied strength, it was all he could do to prevent himself going dragon hunting. Running back to the tree he'd started to hack at before he leapt at it tackling the half cut trunk and clinging to it as it began to slant and fall to the floor. 

[Kenna Sigmundr]

Kenna rolled her eyes when Ren flirted, “If I ‘wanted’ you to stay at mine I wouldn’t need to ‘ask’. I was just suggesting the option of spending the night in a secure house in the centre of my village rather than have to worry about some midnight surprise if we haven’t made a hut with four walls and a roof by nightfall.” I’d just be the one worrying about a ‘midnight surprise’, Kenna thought to herself.

She took a final swing at the tree she had been working on then pushed it so it would fall. “It’s just an option you can consider, especially since Haden’s been kicked off Berk...” She paused, “Who come to think about it was from your island so him happening so recently probably isn’t going to help your credibility on Berk.”

Kenna continued cutting trees while Ren got distracted by the dragon markings. He seemed rather fascinated by them, but seemed to force himself away and viscously attack the tree he’d been working on until it fell before he started dragging it away. Soon he returned and worked on another tree, the outsider was toppling trees at a much faster pace than Kenna, which was to be expected. She might be a skilled blacksmith, but a trained male warrior was always going to outclass her in strength and endurance. She smirked at that, So not something to say out loud, she thought, he would hear the innuendo in there.

The work continued a good hour before they had finally cut enough wood. Every now and then Scratchet dragged logs down to the beach, though she occasionally gnawed on some of them. While she was down on the beach she would take a swipe at a single point in the sand, subtly making an indent. As she went to and from, she watched the outcast, in particular the axe he was holding. She wanted to mess with him, but she wanted to save her more iconic trolling till he was no longer armed with that infernal weapon of his. All she had to do was wait for him to put it down, or leave it in a tree, or even just appear to not be keeping attention of either her or his axe, and her fun could truly begin.

[Ren Vikarson]

Grinning Ren glanced back, after all flirting was a better distraction than woodcutting and if they were going to get this work done then he'd need to restrain his urge to go chasing wild dragons. "Wouldn't need to ask? So you're a more hands on girl? Guess I should've expected that from a smith. You must be pretty use to sweating over things." Grinning a little to himself at the thoughts of what the two of them could get up to out here in a sheltered cove, especially after so much sweaty work. Still the wood needed cutting and though watching Kenna work was a pleasant distraction he couldn't let himself get too caught up in it. Returning to the wood cutting he kept felling trees over the next hour with occasional breaks to lean back and take a glance at the blacksmiths butt whenever she was pushing a tree over. 

Moving down to the beach and the collection of logs they'd assembled Ren rested the axe across his shoulders. "So who's this Haden? I can't say I know every other Outcast and if he's been out here causing trouble it may be worth knowing what happened." Setting the axe down he hoisted one of the logs over his shoulders and hefted it to where he'd marked out the outline for a decent sized shack along the upper end of the beach, well out of the tides reach. Looking over the stone cliff and the sand he began stroking his chin in consideration before returning to where he'd set his axe aside. Groaning a little under his breath the Outcast turned away and swung the warpick off his back. "Fine, but if I dull this then you're going to be making repairs." After a few blows he'd carved out a slab with enough space to lodge the log into it. "Looks like we can add some extra stability. Carve out a few ports in the rock and fix the log walls into the cliff face. The stone we cut out can give us a better flooring too." Turning back to Kenna he smirked a little. "Saves us making a back wall as well, and if I decide I need more space I can carve into it and hollow out some cave space." Half the people on Outcast Island lived in carved out caves anyway so it'd be a little more homely, and he knew how to keep it from collapsing. Turning back to the cliff he began measuring out the appropriate ports for the walls to lock into and began hacking away at the stone, 

[Kenna Sigmundr]

The blacksmith laughed at Ren’s description of her work, “Well, I sometimes have to change clothes after working because of how drenched I am,” she commented. As they worked Kenna did notice the occasional pause in Ren’s work, which always coincided with any time she pushed the tree she was cutting down, or otherwise did something that showed off her craftsmanship. When she noticed her co-worker’s habit she smirked and, without turning round, said playfully, “You can look but don’t touch. That’s one of the only rules I expect people to follow in my forge. Don’t anything to get broken.”

When they finally finished cutting the trees, Scratchet grabbed the last she’d cut down while she walked with Ren. “He said his name was Haden Blackheart, though for all I know he could have made it up. He was always a bit off; he never found me…distracting like you have been.” She decided to be coy on that point, “He seemed alright though. As it turned out he was a complete sociopath who pretty much emotionally blackmailed me into taking a ceremonial dagger he had in trade for letting him stay at mine. I felt sorry for the twit and helped him out quite a bit over the weeks, and while he was here a number of random thefts happened, but I didn’t put the two together.”

Scratchet put down the trunk she had been carrying, snapping off a sizable branch that was still on it and kicking it to one side before playfully gnawing it. “It wasn’t until I tried to sell his dagger,” Kenna continued, “to a trader his dagger that I found out it had been stolen from a shaman on a nearby island. It wasn’t long after that that I found his collection of stuff that he had hidden under the bed I’d let him sleep on. So, that night, when he went to bed I locked him in the storage room before he could realise I’d found out.”

While Kenna had been talking, Ren put the axe down to move some logs, which was the moment Scratchet had been waiting for. The Nadder swiftly darted to the unattended axe and picked it up in her beak. She then took it over to the hole she’d been digging over the past hour, dropped it in and started kicking sand over it to bury the axe. When she was done, she sat down on it and cackled towards the outsider, though she was fully prepared to flee if Ren came over.

Kenna rolled her eyes at Scratchet and was about to comment on what she was doing when Ren said she’d have to fix his warpick if it got blunted and started using it to carve out of the cliff. “Wowwowwow, wait just a second.” She interjected, “You were about to use one of my axes, ones meant specifically for felling trees, to cut stone? And then have the gall to complain about the possibility of your pick getting blunted. Just be glad you didn’t use my axe or I’d have held you in debt for the damage you’d have caused to them. Next time tell me you’re aiming on chiselling a wall, I’d have brought the right equipment.”

[OOC: Haden, in case you haven’t guessed, was a character made by a former member. It’s from years ago and he didn’t stay more than one post, but canonically he had arrived a bit over a month before this thread and the member and I had agreed that if they never returned Haden would have been booted off the island after a month, and I like my continuity (especially when it actually connects to topics covered in this thread xD) You can decide whether Ren knew of him or not but here’s the origonal app for your info xD (old BD ftw)]

[Ren Vikarson]

Taking a few more strikes at the rock face Ren grit his teeth a little. He'd always taken pride in being an Outcast and he hated it when someone brought the name down like that. Lashing out he wedged the pick into the stone deeply and closed his eyes for a few moments. "A thief, a liar, a cheat and not a lecher." Planting one hand on the wall he began hauling at the embedded weapon. "An insult to the entire Outcast tribe." Giving another heavy haul the viking didn't notice the water leaking around the weapon or the faint rumble behind the stone. Pushing off the rock Ren took a few stumbling steps back before swinging the weapon onto his back again. "I guess its lucky I don't know him. Otherwise I'd strike down on him like Gungnir." The look of defiant strength in his stance and expression looked all the more impressive for the eruption of water and rock behind him, for a few moments. Once the deluge had overshot him he was washed along the sand in the heavy torrent until it reached the ocean. After a few moments the wash died down leaving Ren on his back in the wet sand as if he'd been ran over by a pack of dragons. 

For a few moments there wasn't much to do but lie on the floor and groan in discomfort before he got to his feet. "Alright, this is getting curious." Moving over to the opened gap in the stone wall Ren peered inside. "Bring some light over here. I think we may have found something." Reaching into the rock the viking hauled himself inside. Feeling his way around clumsily he tried to report back what he'd found. "Its a cavern, the stones been carved out a while ago." Passing a hand over the smoothed grooves in the wall he paused a little. "Whispering Deaths, hopefully they're long gone." Turning back to the hole he gave it a few extra blows to open up the entrance and let some real light in. 

Now that the sun could reach into the newly opened cavern it was much easier to see around. The cave was little bigger than the average viking house and stable, just open stone around a pool of water that seemed to be flowing from a tunnel above it, probably what had filled the whole cavern until it was cracked open. Folding his arms Ren couldn't help smirking. "Well, this should give us some extra space to work with." 

[Kenna Sigmundr]

Kenna rolled her eyes when the outsider seemed to ignore her annoyance at the idea of using an axe to carve out stone. Typical, she thought to herself. The blacksmith did jump slightly when the water burst out of the wall and blasted Ren to the floor. She quickly undid her coat and flung it on the sand as she walked to the outsider. If he’d mined into somewhere flooded, chances were she would get wet at some point and it would be good to have at least one dry article of clothing to walk back to town in.

“You okay?” Kenna asked, they could hear Scratchet cackling in the background, still sitting on the spot she’d buried the axe. Ren had already gotten up by the time she’d gotten to him and had started back to the hole he’d created. He asked for some light Kenna smirked, snapped off a decent size branch from one of the felled trees and held it up in the air, looking at Scratchet as she did so. The nadder chuckled but obligingly shot a burst of fire, setting the branch ablaze. Kenna instinctively flinched as this happened. Even though she’d asked Scratchet to do it, having fire being intentionally fired in your direction was still risky. She didn’t want another burn mark now her current one was starting to fade.

Speaking of which, Kenna used her free hand to untie her hair so it could fall over her scars again since she currently wasn’t doing any work. Ren talked about what he saw and then started hacking at the wall from the inside to try to open the entry a bit more. Kenna moved away when he started doing that, not wanting to get hit by loose rocks. “Definitely a bit risky to live in a cavern connected to a Whispering Death’s tunnel network, don’t you think? Then again it’s risky to live below ground on berk full stop because one could burrow into your home at any point.”

Once the outsider had finished making a big enough hole in the entrance for him to be satisfied, Kenna stepped into the cavern. There was still an inch or so of water on the floor, as Ren hadn’t fully flattened the entry enough for all the water to escape, but her boots were waterproof so it didn’t matter. She looked around. The cavern was larger than she’d expected. It reminded her slightly of the little home from home her parents had made in the caves she used to mine iron ore. She nodded at Ren’s comment about space, “Yeah, only questionable thing is the hole in the ceiling,” she commented staring up at the tunnel above, “though I suppose you could at some point go up and see where it leads.” She was continuing to walk forwards as she talked, not noticing the deeper pool of water right below the tunnel she was looking at, “Try to work out how to stop any more flooding problems in the future...which will be a probLEAAAAM!”

As her speech implied, it was at that moment that her she stepped she’d expected floor but found a hole. Due to the wetness of the floor, her over foot slipped as she fell, wacking her left shin against the stone floors as she belly-flopped into the pool of water. Right on cue everything went spinning for Kenna and she splashed frantically to try to get above water, but found it hard due to how disorientated she was. Eventually she grabbed a stone edge and found her footing on the floor below, as the hole itself was only 3 foot deep.

Kenna stood up straight (at least as straight as she could given she could feel a jabbing pain in her leg), the world still spinning as she did. She sighed as she felt the new weight of her water logged shirt and trousers as they clung to her body. Shivering slightly from the coldness of the pool she’d falling in, Kenna looked up at Ren with an expression which was a mixture of annoyance and resigned acceptance, “Mind helping me out.”

[Ren Vikarson]

The interest in the newly opened cave was quickly diverted as Kenna found the pool in the centre. Shaking his head a little Ren stepped over to her and climbed in able to see how she was hobbling a little. "Alright, lets get you outside." The sun was still pretty high through breaks in the clouds and if they moved down the beach and out from under the overhang then they should be able to dry off quickly enough. Standing by her side he helped support her weight and walk her over to the edge of the pool before hoisting her up and out of the water. "Wow, your heavier than you look." Grinning a little as he stepped out after her he brushed some of the water off his body a little amused having taken the chance to squeeze at her butt for a few moments. "I mean in a good way, the right kind of weight." Looking around the cave his mind was still building all kinds of ideas for later. At the least he now had more than enough room for a dragon when he got around to finding one. 

Helping Kenna outside he sat on the shore and began to draw in the sand. A rough little outline of the cavern and a house built to its side. Realistically he could put it together in a few days on his own, half that with help, then he'd just need to furnish it. Leaning back he looked out across the water. "So why don't you have your own dragon? I mean a real dragon. I'd always heard that everyone in Berk had their own dragon. I guess I expected everyone to take the advantage of having their own dragon. I mean I'd have taken one myself but we don't get all that many on Outcast island. Most of them are war trained and...I guess a little passionless." In many ways the reason he'd held off this long was in the hopes he'd find a wild dragon with more life to it, something that matched his own wishes for freedom rather than the dragons that were happy to remain on Outcast island. Turning to look at the smith he tilted his head. "I mean there are a ton of dragons that would be useful around the forge. Even if you don't want to fly." 

[Kenna Sigmundr]

It was slightly surprising when Ren jumped into the water to help her out. She’d expected he’d had just offered a hand and pulled. But he waded in with her and gave her a bit of support as they walked over to the edge, which in all honest was more needed because of her dizziness than because of her injury which wasn’t much. He then got behind her and pushed her up onto the ledge until she was kneeling on it. As he did so Ren commenting on her weight gave a squeeze. She rolled her eyes slightly, So close to being fully gallant, and yet so far.

“You sure do know how to chat up all the ladies,” she said in a jokingly sarcastic tone, “next you’ll be saying the weight’s in ‘all the right places’.” As she talked, slowly got up and had to use Ren for support again as her vertigo kicked in even more. Even with all of the spinning, she did have enough coordination left to be able to grab Ren’s offending hand from the moment before tightly and lifted it up a bit, “Also, remember what I said about ‘touching’,” she turned and looked at him as she said this, given he was supporting her at that point their faces were actually only a couple of inches apart. She had a playful look as she said it but were she not in the middle of a dizzy spell she probably would have ‘playfully’ pushed him back in the pool.

Once Ren had helped her outside they both sat down in the sunshine. Despite the parting in the clouds it was somewhat cold, mainly due to the wind. But in reality the wind would probably dry their clothes faster than the sun anyway, just meant they’d feel freezing while it did. Kenna took off her boots and emptied out the water that now filled them onto the sand. Waterproofing is kind of useless once a boot’s been submerged after all.

The Blacksmith rubbed her top a bit as Ren started drawing out his plans for the cavern, hoping that the action might help get the water out of her shirt, it was rather uncomfortable how much it was clinging to her. She was definitely glad she’d taken of her coat though, her shirt was thin enough that it would dry out relatively quickly, her coat would have taken forever to dry. Kenna couldn’t help but groan when Ren asked why she didn’t had a proper dragon, He’s really not going to stop asking. He looked at her quizzically, commenting on the usefulness of a dragon even if she didn’t fly one.

“Fine,” she said exasperatedly, “I’ve never tried to get a dragon because I can’t fly, not just afraid to, physically can’t. I have enough balance issues with my feet firmly on the ground. All it takes is one sudden movement and,” she snapped her fingers, “everything spins for a minute. I never got a dragon as a teenager because I didn’t want to deal with the pressure of people expecting me to ride it and as an adult I’ve never felt a burning need to get one for ‘practical’ reasons.”

She arched her back slightly and tilted her head back until she could see the nadder that was behind them upside down. “Scratchet’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to trying to get a dragon, and even then we’re both in it to be ‘partners in crime’ not ‘dragon and rider’.” Kenna lowered herself and lay down on the sand, putting her hands behind her head. “I guess my balance crap has just inoculated me from the want.”