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Chapter Two: Meeting Friends
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Myrixi exited the washroom at the back of the barracks, closing the wooden door behind her and shivering as her bare feet met the cold, stone floor. She'd wrapped a towel loosely about herself, and was hurrying across the intervening space to her bed--a real, honest to goodness bed--when she heard the door on the opposite end of the room creak open. She paused at the noise, and then wrapped the towel more tightly around her.
A small woman, fox-shifter by the looks of it, stopped short in the doorway as they exchanged stares. The newcomers ears turned back, and she said, somewhat quietly, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize there was someone in here...."
"It's alright," Myrixi gave a bit of a nervous smile, still she was clutching the towel around her. "I just got here myself. I'm Myrixi," she gave a very shallow curtsy, and then waited for the fox-woman to introduce herself.
"I'm Methiel," she answered warmly, smiling. "Are any of these beds still unclaimed?
Myrixi bobbed her head, her black eyes wandering across previously vacant room. "All but this one," she answered, gesturing at the raised mattress before her. "I think I was the first to arrive... or something."
The fox-lady, Methiel, smiled and moved a little further into the room. "Well, now you will not be alone." She dropped her bag lightly on the bed nearest the doorway, and glanced back over at Myrixi, who'd made it the rest of the way to her own bed.
The Pisqua blushed as she turned her back to Methiel, trying to hide her mixture of embarrasement and pleasure at having met someone who wasn't immediately suspicious of her or generally negative. Even base neutrality was something of a relief. "No, I suppose not." She riffled underneath the single pillow, searching for and finding a loose skirt and light shirt. Quickly, she flugh the shirt over her head, and snuck up the skirt under her towel to save the new arrival any discomfort. "Did you just get here?" she asked over one shoulder... meaning the Aerd, of course.
"At the Aerd?" Methiel asked, "Yes. I was led in by a rather poor example of my kind--I hope you got a nicer guide."
Myrixi shrugged, unwrapping the towel and tossing it over one of the knobs at the foot of her bed. "Nice enough, I guess." Her guide hadn't been nice at all, really... when she said she'd wanted to go to the Aerd, the rider had at first refused outright, and then after that had demanded payment of one sort or another before he and his dragon would take her. Not that anything had stopped Myrixi before... she was used to doing whatever it took to get what she wanted.
She realized a grimace had formed on her face, and quickly hid it behind her hand. "Do you know..." she tried, dropping her hand again when she'd composed herself, "are all riders so arrogant?"
"I haven't met very man, so I wouldn't know," the Vulpyr admitted. "I hope not--but," and she added with a warm smile, "if you bond, I expect there will be at least one who is not."
Myrixi's previous blush hadn't yet completely faded, and now her cheeks were red again. She turned away again, smoothing her already made bed as a distraction. "Hey," she changed the subject, "have you seen the hatching chambers yet? I haven't... we could go look together!"
"All right." The Vulpyr smiled again and rose from her own bed, dusting off a fine skirt of her own. She looked a little confusedly towards Myrixi, "I hope you know where it is," she said, "I haven't seen much other then the passageway in."
"I know... I haven't been here very long, either." Myrixi took a few steps towards Methiel, and the door. "But it can't be far, right? We're in the barracks, after all." She shrugged and grinned a little. "We can always ask someone."
"Then we'll just have to find someone nicer than a dragonrider," Methiel commented with a smile in return, and opened the door for her new roommate. Myrixi giggled and walked quickly through. Things were already starting to look up!
Chapter Three
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Mythicalae is copyright (c) Jen Carmen.
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