When Dreams Don't Come A-visiting (Ampara)

[Tsunade]

Like any who worked a job that involved shift work, especially shift work that involved nights, Tsunade was what you'd call an in-denial insomniac.

T'wasn't as bad as it had once been; she had J'raya to soothe her into something close to blissful sleep, holding her protectively in those large arms throughout the night, softening the blow of nightmares. She loved those times, when she could worry about nothing save teasing her man about squishing her if he rolled over the wrong way, or simply enjoy the time where she would relax her aloof, hard-headed appearance and let herself be cuddled and kissed and simply loved.

It never changed, hadn't for over twenty Turns (or thirty nine if you counted how long they'd known one another), and she was glad it likely never would. The thought that it might not be there one day was something she refused to even think of thinking about, though in their world of political strife and deadly silver rain, it was a very real possibility. So terribly possible, but it came with the territory when you loved a dragonrider. Particularly a man who was in a position that took him to the most dangerous heights in the skies during Fall.

Smiling forlornly, the Masterhealer leant down to kiss the scarred cheeks of her sleeping mate. The immensely sized bronze rider forever looked like the little boy he'd once been in sleep, caught in his own dreams, though he stirred when she stroked his hair fondly, mumbling something like an endearment before sighing and burying his face in the pillow.

Tsunade muffled a laugh when the same sigh was echoed by Gamath out in the large space of his weyr, shaking her head as she pulled her clothes and boots on, wrapping her thin little form in the folds of her riding jacket. A moment to gather up the hides she'd been noting and reading over before dimming the glows so J'raya could sleep, and she quietly made her way out of the weyr.

She couldn't sleep, that much was clear, despite whatever may have occurred in her day (and night, thus far). Still, her expression was unalarmed enough as she poked her head out of the weyr entrance, much like her firelizards. Her reasoning for doing so was clear; she'd noticed more than once that the lights of the Senior Weyrwoman's quarters not so far down from Gamath's weyr often burnt well past the sleeping hour, and she concluded, with amusement, that she wasn't the only 'night wherry' 'round these parts.

There was a possibility that the young Ampara might not like company, but the lights were on, and in the least, Tsunade could leave her with the notes she now held, inventories of the Infirmary and a note here and there on the newest Apprentices, few as they were.

The air was cold, though not icy, but she was still glad for her jacket as she picked her way across to the Senior Queen's weyr. To be frank, though she seemed larger than life with her personality, Tsunade's physical constitution was not the strongest that could be seen. Far from it, in fact; she hadn't had the best run in life physically, from her own birth to her child's birth. She was just very good at hiding it, and being a Healer, knew what to take to look after herself.

Still, she was slightly out of breath when she finally mounted Dysmeth's ledge, and she took a moment to regain some of her breathing to a more normal rhythm. As she did, she found herself with company - not just brown Naru (on one shoulder) and bronze Memnon on the other, but J'raya's green Muse, yawning widely as she curled around the arm that held the notes.

Rolling her eyes, Tsunade sternly warned them to behave before moving to the entrance. Knocking quietly, she stood in the entranceway, amber eyes immediately seeking out the form of Dysmeth, if not her rider.

"Weyrwoman? Are you in? ...Ampara?"

[Ampara]

Dysmeth, of course, made it her business to know everyone and anyone that was coming to visit her rider whether the visit was expected or not. It was with a simple flaring of her nostrils that she took in the familiar smells that she associated with K'ivan-not-hers, and she opened one eye, sliding back each sleepy eyelid once at a time, to fully expose the iridescent multi-facets. Tsunade only required a moment of scrutiny before the lids lowered halfway and the other eye opened to meet it.

You have company.[/color] Dysmeth told Ampara just before the calls reached her ears.

The queen yawned, averting her head as to not give Tsunade a dose of dragon breath, having a moment of silent rapport with her rider. It was without trepidation that she addressed the master healer. Dysmeth was unusually direct for a dragon, but then again her rider was quite the same.

You may go inside. Mine is waiting.[/color]

The great queen was resting on a couch meant for two as there was, a sense of vacancy remaining even though she had spread her limbs out as if reaching for the entrance. Past the resting gold was the door, a soft glow illuminated the entrance.

Ampara rubbed her eyes, preparing for Tsunade to come in. She moistened her throat with a sip of half-drunk lukewarm klah and her face contorted, not expecting it to have cooled so quickly, but then again she really hadn't been keeping track of how long she'd been up. The covers on her bed had been turned down, but she hadn't been in it even with the fire stoked for maximum warmth and coziness. She'd felt too wired. So up she had sat, curled up with a thick quilt around her shoulders. Ampara had lost track of the time completely, and she tried to collect her wandering mind so she didn't seem completely lost when Tsunade came in, stifling a yawn of her own.

No doubt she appeared quite girlish with her hair down and all wrapped up like she was attending a slumber party. She snapped to enough attention to shift the hides littered around her over to the table so Tsunade would have a place to sit. There had been a vain attempt to distract herself with work before she gave up; too tired to concentrate yet still too preoccupied to sleep. Might as well have some company if she couldn't be in bed.

[Tsunade]

T'was a good thing she'd been a Healer in a Weyr long enough not to be too startled by words in her head, though to be honest, she was rather too used to Gamath's slow, dulcet tones and thus, started just a little, blinking several times before processing the sweeter tone as Dysmeth's.

Thank you, Dysmeth, she said, adding with a playful little smile at the yawn, Sweet dreams, now.

Her little feet pattering over the cold stonework, she paused only to let Memnon drop from her shoulder. The little bronze cheeped happily a greeting to the golden queen dragon, his wings whirring like a hummingbird's as he made an effort to land ever so gently atop her foreleg, tilting his little wedged head up to peer into one of those enormous sleepy eyes.

Considering the time of night, t'was hardly an offensive matter that Ampara was less than decently presentable. Tsunade too, seeing the best and worst of all ranks as she had over the Turns when they were being tended by her upon a cot in the Infirmary, seemed to hardly notice the young queen rider's appearance, though the slight twitch of her mouth gave away that she had, at least, noticed the attempt to clean up in the scant minute it had taken her to cross the weyr to the sleeping quarters.

Indeed, she was far from her usual presentation herself. Still clad only in her night-gown, the riding jacket cinched loosely over it, and feet bare at that. Not only that, but her hair, free of its usual tight plaits and buns, fell in a sheet of deep honey gold not unlike the hide of the dragon sleeping out in the weyr to just inches shy of her waist. It appeared like burnt amber in the glowlight as it shifted on her shoulder and framed her face, and with those large almond eyes, it made the Masterhealer appear Turns younger again than she was.

"T'is a night where dreams don't feel like paying a visit for many people, it seems," she murmured, her tone tinged with its usual wry humour as she observed the unslept in couch, the hides that were still littered everywhere despite Ampara's attempts to clean it up. Clearly, something was on the Weyrwoman's mind, but Tsunade had learnt well by now that it was best to gently wait the younger woman out, and let her speak about things in her own time.

Chuckling quietly, the little Healer bent to pick up a stray hide, placing it on the table before letting herself be seated in the vacant chair, arranging her nightgown with feminine delicacy so that it covered her ankles.

"I was going to leave you with another set of reports, but..." Tsunade paused and waved the rolled up hide in her hand, her expression solemn. But on closer inspection, there was a decidedly wicked gleam in those amber eyes, and then the hide was swiped back out of reach in a half playful fashion and tucked back into her jacket.

"I think you've more than enough to mull over for the moment, Weyrwoman."

[Ampara]

Thank you.[/color]

Dysmeth blinked again as Memnon made his delicate landing on her foreleg, trying her best to make an inquiry of what the human he belonged to was doing up so late at night. The proper images were sometimes difficult to conjure up or string together, but she endeavored to communicate properly with the little cousins. Just because they were little didn't mean they were unimportant.

Ampara tilted her head, taking in the appearance of her visitor, wondering briefly if it was difficult to manage hair that long. She could only keep hers at a certain length lest it vexed her when it came to riding helmets, and then she realized that Tsunade didn't have to bother with riding helmets. Sometimes it slipped her mind that there were people she knew that were not dragonriders, though her weyrmate was one, maybe she did know the aggravation.

She smiled at Tsunade's words. She spoke the truth.

Ampara had begun to reach for the hide before it was hidden away again in a flash. She gave a mock pout.

"Yes... what a pity." Her face was solemn a moment, but light in her eye and the lightness of the tone made her regret mocking.

She had promised K'ivan that she would mull less and sleep more, but she was having difficulty with the mulling part. As Dysmeth was sleeping peacefully she didn't think that her worries were too intrusive, and while she had been having a better measure of success tonight it seemed she was doomed to wait herself out.

"I think leaving them here would be a bad idea anyway." Ampara surveyed her mess, and had a twinge of guilt that she really hadn't kept things to her standard of tidy. A weyrwoman's weyr ought to have some measure of neatness shouldn't it? Of course, it was also her personal space so she mostly used that as an excuse to avoid making it more than organized chaos. The living space anyway. The bedroom she kept pretty shipshape if only so she could keep her clothes straight.

"Also I don't know about having more than enough to mull over. Isn't mulling a weyrwoman's job after all?" Ampara smiled; it was a bit of the job anyway.

[Tsunade]

Memnon cocked his dish-nosed head up at the Senior Queen, the appendage tilting backwards in that sinuous manner as his neck arched. It was a rather comical sight, even endearing in it's own right - at this level of closeness, it rather looked like that all Dysmeth would need do was inhale through her nose, or flash her teeth, and there'd be one less bronze firelizard in the Weyr.

Of course, dragons didn't eat their firelizard cousins, and even if some would only tolerate them and could not see the use of them, they would still humour the presence of the little creatures. Likewise, it hardly occurred to a firelizard that he was in a position of nature, and it showed in the way Memnom uttered a yawn that ended in a peep rather like a baby chicken's, shaking his little body and shuffling along until he could rest comfortably on his behind against the ridges of Dysmeth's forepaw.

Hm? Memnon tilted his head to the right when Dysmeth 'spoke' visually to him. Then he tilted his head to the left, as if considering the querying tone to Dysmeth's thoughts. Finally, he cheeped in a way both affectionate and faintly exasperated, conveying with a little more ease with his own slightly more developed memory the image of his female human back as she was, then of her again in the Infirmary, and finally, Tsunade again, but a much younger Tsunade. It was obvious enough - His just didn't sleep at times, and she worked hard. Too hard, at times. What he couldn't convey was the fact that even as a Masterhealer, Tsunade still did shift work, especially now, in Great Cliff's, where help was scarce. And of course, shiftwork just meant not sleeping at times.

The message was clear enough, though, and satisfied with his own careful recollections, Memnon set about doing what he did best when there weren't other males around to glower at - exploring. Carefully he slid down Dysmeth's paw, landing with a soft whump against the smooth stone and whatever else might make up her weyr-bed. Once there, he folded his wings to his back, and promptly began shuffling about, little nose to the bed in curiousity.

At least she wasn't fighting her on it. For that, Tsunade was glad; she rather didn't feel the idea of being at loggerheads with Ampara in any scenario was worth the stress. Though she was technically almost old enough to be the lass' mother, and certainly knew what was conducive to good health, Dysmeth's rider was Weyrwoman, and could hence overrule anything but what Tsunade might do should a patient - like herself - be in danger of any kind. Besides, even if Ampara would likely not admit it aloud, she had to need support from others in the Weyr, and the support of a Master of any Craft was as strong and stout as the same support from a Flight Leader, of that, she knew well.

That aside, it was good to see the young Weyrwoman maintained her sense of humour, even under the stress and tiredness she was no doubt afflicted with. It was an encouraging sign to a Healer who had made half of her profession studying psychology, or to the Pernese, "mental healing", as it meant the Senior Weyrwoman wasn't about to crack up and lose her sanity.

"I believe 'mulling' is barely a third of the job, my dear Weyrwoman." The diminutive blonde patted over her ample chest where her report was secured, before bending to straighten a small pile of records on what seemed to be a trunk of some kind, and then straighten the ones next to it.

"I believe I heard somewhere, when I was your age, perhaps...which was a looong time ago..." The normally stern Healer offered Ampara a hint of a grin, a playful glimmer in her gaze, "That the mulling and the thinking is perhaps...forty percent of the job, when you're a leader of any persuasion. Then fifty percent of the remaining sixty percent is actually 'driving decisions down'."

This time, there was definitely a glint of playul devilry in Tsunade's eyes, more plain when she straightened to face Ampara.

"And then there's the remaining ten percent, which is made up of the process of maintaining one's sanity while mediating amongst the bickering followers. Though...I do think they should have at least allocated five percent towards the process of 'sleeping so you can attempt to do the last two'. Mind you, I think a good part of this 'mulling' you speak of should also consist of 'talking' to other people."

Ampara might have heard something similar before, perhaps, or part of it, at least, if she'd been around the Flight Leader of the High Altitude long enough. It was, after all, one of J'raya's favorite phrases, though his rendition of it was slightly more satirical. A hand rested lightly against the Healer's hip, then, and she quirked an eyebrow, smiling a little wryly and nodding to the klah not too far from the Weyrwoman. Whether it was a hint that consuming the stuff was bad when one sought sleep or not, or whether her comment about talking was a gentle hint remained unseen, for Tsunade swiftly reached forward to stop another set of hides from toppling; they were stacked just a little precariously.

"I wouldn't worry for the state of your weyr, Ampara..." Tsunade paused a bit, still a little unused to the informality in the Weyr once formal occasions were aside, "I've lived long enough with J'raya and his blasted bad habits to not be too bothered, so long as I don't step in anything...unsavoury, we're still on the same side."

Her nose crinkled delicately at that, and she shook her head slightly, as if ridding her mind of some image or other she preferred not to have of days gone by with her best friend and weyrmate.