Her hair is straight, shiny, a touch on the long side, and a beautiful dark brown in color. Bound and plaited, it's kept under fierce control -- if one ignores the wisps that slip out here and there, the too-short tendrils that are tucked primly behind her ears. She's about average in height, perhaps a bit taller than most her age, and rather slender in figure. Just touched with soft curves, she has the fair complexion of one accustomed to life indoors.

With the spotless attire of one who's used to taking care of her possesions, Deinha carries herself in an upright posture and moves with simple, unexaggerated grace. Her head is tilted marginally to the side, as if she's constantly listening for something, someone, and every now and then one catches her smoothing out non-existent wrinkles, flicking away specks of dust. Rather as if she expects to be scolded about it.

A tall young man about 17 turns of age. His earth-toned brown hair contrasts his emerald green eyes. His hair is just cut above hair length, and looks rather well on such a long faced person. His face is a fading light tan, and the color is allmost invisable unless it is in the right light. Riko's shoulders are wide, a long sleeved cloth overshirt protects his body from the cold of the north. Long well fit weyrhide trousers fit around his legs, with a little bit of room for comfort. On his feet are sturdy shin-high boots that have good traction when treading trough snow.

Cor is a very tall young woman. Her golden hair is caught back in a braid that goes all the way down the middle of her back, but is always trying to get loose. Deep blue eyes twinkle with mischief as she gives you a friendly smile. She doesn't have a spare ounce of fat on her, but plenty of muscle, implying she does hard work for a living. She holds herself with confidence, but not arrogance. She knows who she is, where she's going, and how she's getting there. Black workboots lined with thick, soft silver fur peeking over the top go up to her knees, over the ends of crimson suede trousers that fit her snugly, accenting her curves. A scarlet tie-closed long-sleeved suede shirt with slightly belled sleeves, accentuate her curves up top while deemphasizing her muscles, making her look, if not quite harmless, more inclined to be charming.

The walls of this building are lined with stalls, many with runners feeding placidly inside. At one end is a large open space where on the worst days runners may be exercised inside. There are sacks of feed open against the walls, and overhead you see a loft filled with hay. The runners blink at you, leaning out from their stalls and nickering for treats. There are fingerroots and dried redfruits in a bin nearby. You can feed them those if you want, but don't feed them too many.

Deinha enters with the slightly dazed look of one who's likely more than a bit lost. But, this expression is soon covered by another familiar look: a twitch of her nose, and then a faint, almost shy smile. Hesitant steps stop not far from the first stall, and she takes a moment to look about her.

Riko is busy oiling the leathers of the riding straps of his runner. He sits next to his runner in the allmost center of the stable, the widest part, his back turned to the door. Kard turns her head to look at the entering person, kard whuffles trying to get riko's attention. Riko looks up and notices someone walking in, he smiles, "Oh Hello there...."

And Deinha's smile widens just a notch before she nods, returning the greeting, "Hello." With a glance for the runner, she asks, "Do you take care of all of them, or is this one yours?" And then, half a moment later, she lifts one hand to interrupt, "Sorry, I'm forgetting my manners again. I'm Deinha, of Icevale."

If the nervousness is noticed, Deinha seems to pay it no mind, "Well met, indeed." Stepping further down the stables, she looks around the boy and towards the runner. "She...he.. it .." With a faint blush, she restarts, "You must be proud."

Riko seems to shake of his nervousness, "She, her name is Kardashina I just call her Kard." Kard turns so Deinha can get the full scope of her beauty. Riko chuckles, "I've known her since she was born, took me a few months to convince my folks to get her up here...."

Deinha smiles again, admiring Kard as she's meant to do, and then blinks, "Up here?" She gives a slight shake of head, brows drawing closer together, "From ...?" And her question trails off, replaced by the shadow of a grin, "I'm being nosy, aren't I...My mother always scolded me on it, but.." She shrugs, then smooths one hand down her clothes, "I can't seem to help myself."

Riko grins, "Oh, I'm sorry...left you hanging there......I used to live in a nice small hold in Lemos, I had a trader bringer her up here." He chuckles, "Nosey? Not really...people who ask questions are ususally better off."

Deinha nods, glancing at the ground before murmuring, "I don't think you'll ever learn some things without asking, but others might just say you're just not meant to know those things." When she looks up again, her eyes -- light blue -- have a hint of mischief in them, "I disagree, of course."

Deinha looks pleased, though she glances down again, briefly, before nodding. "I would, yes." And with that, she walks over to the stall -- just a couple of paces, really. Her head then tilts to the side as she looks not at Kard, but at her owner, "She's not inclined to .. to bite, is she?"

Riko laughs, "Kard? Bite? Never.....she is the most good tempered runner I've ever seen" Kard looks a bit vain for a runner and tilts her head up at the mention of her name.

Deinha flashes a quick, bright smile, then angles her head towards the runner, letting out a soft chuckle at the ... well, preening? "And a bit proud, it seems." But her tone sobers, "She is lovely, though. And ... strong-looking? Is that an appropriate word for runners?" The latest arrival apparently goes unnoticed.

Riko nods, "Stong looking would be a good word....just don't say that too her.....she's proud enough as is." The arrival of someone in the stables catches the corner of his eye, he turns, "Hiya there, Can I help you?"

Coriianna smiles at both strangers brightly. "Hello, there, I was looking for someone to help me, someone told me their name, but I forgot it since. I was told there were some runners here to ride. I don't have the marks to buy one, but I do enjoy a ride now and again."

Coriianna chuckles merrily. "Can't grow up in that little spot of nowhere in Keroon I come from without knowing how to ride, I'm afraid. It's a teeny tiny little runner hold, you see. I was mucking out stalls almost before I could walk."

Deinha just shakes her head slightly, being a visitor herself, and leaves Riko to speak. Striving not to be in the way, Deinha takes a slight step back to watch the exchange. A smile cracks her face at the other young woman's words. And then, a series of rapid blinking, "Ride her? Oh, I would like that, I think." She glances back at Kard, though, "If I can mount her, that is..."

Riko chuckles, "She'll be glad to carry you around for a bit, she needs the exercise anyways. Just give me a few to get her saddled up." He turns back to the person in the door, "You can have your choice of a mount, the ones that are in the stalls." He goes into the back to fetch the Tack for the runner.

Coriianna smiles. "Don't go to any extra trouble for me, I can certainly wait my turn," she tries to say, but Riko's gone already. She shakes her head with a grin, then looks over the runners appraisingly. Not the type she's used to, down on the plains, but she has a fair idea of what she'd be looking for in this terrain.

Deinha smiles at Cor, then, as Riko moves off. Little could hide the signs of an almost childish pleasure dancing in her light blue eyes, despite the more restrained smile. "Was it nice in Keroon?" comes the inevitable question, as she's apt to ask such things.

Coriianna smiles back at Deinha, an easy smile that looks like it seldom leaves her mouth for long. "It was okay, though I haven't been back in a long time. I apprenticed to the Smithcraft fairly young, and lived with my aunt most of the time." She speaks softly to the runners as she goes among them, checking them over, running a hand down a leg now and again. She nods as Riko comes out and nods to a particular runner. "This one looks like a good girl, she's tall enough that my height shouldn't bother, seems sturdy, and I think she'll take the trails well." She stands back, though, to see his opinion. Topping six feet, with inches yet to add, she's a bit tall for a girl, and thanks to her profession, a bit strapping.

Deinha just listens quietly, eyes following Cor's appraisal of each runner. The justifications, given Riko, get just as much attention -- as though the girl's just soaking the words up and filing bits and pieces away for later use.

Riko hands out the tack to Coriianna, "Here you go....Enjoy your ride." Riko seemed to make quick with the tack when he went in back, maybe he'd rather be alone with Deinha. He begins to walk back to Deinha.

Coriianna takes the tack and grins at him before making her way over to the runner. She doesn't need company for a ride. She'll saddle up and be gone another way from Riko and Deinha. She can take a hint, even if she's laughing about it softly.

Deinha looks glad to see Riko heading back her way, but then .. she doesn't have the muscle to heft the tack up herself -- or the knowledge. "I'm sorry to admit I don't know half as much about runners as she seems to." She nods towards Coriianna, expression one of simple acceptance.

Coriianna raises her head over the stall wall and flashes a smile Deinha's way. "You grow up where I did, you learn. Don't worry about it, I'm sure there are things you know I don't."

Riko chuckles, "It takes a few times, and alot of practice." He goes over and helps deinha pick up the tack. Kard glances over Deinha and Riko, then just willingly accepts the tack.

Deinha smiles at Cor, then back at Riko again. The runner's easiness with the tack has her lifting one brow at the boy, though, "And I bet Kard's been a part of much of your practice?"

Riko nods, looking down at the ground, "Yah....That was a few good years. Though when I left to find a new place, I had to leave kard for awhile." Riko finishes up with the tack.

Coriianna is completely occupied in her borrowed runner's stall, ignoring the conversation around her, talking softly to the runner, taking time getting her used to her new rider before getting on the mare's back.

Deinha nods, fingers lingering on Kard's neck, and opens her mouth as if to speak, then ducks around Kard instead. "Do you miss the people at home? I don't know what that must be like, moving away altogether." And then, to keep from seeming too inquisitive again, she offers, "I'm actually just here to visit a relative for a bit, and ..." There's a slight pause, then she smiles, "And get a dress, actually." Her eyes light with some inner excitement, but she leaves it at that.

Kard turns her head and nuzzles Deinha's hand. Riko smiles checking the straps, "Sometimes, I wanted to move.....parents would have driven me crazy. If you don't mind me asking, who are you visiting?." Riko seems not to mind all the questioning.

Coriianna sticks her head around the stall again. "I don't see how difficult it is to move away from home. Seems to me much nicer to be able to go new places and see new faces." A poet and didn't know it! Her sister would have a herdbeast!

Deinha grins at the runner, expression delighted, then slants her head towards Riko, "Who? Oh, Aewen, she's my...." She frowns, "Well, some long-down cousin, I suppose. We go back to ... my great-grandfather." Smiling again, she goes on in a rush: "I haven't actually met her yet, though, but I can't wait to do so. She's going to help me with my dress, for the handfasting." Unaware of what a line she's just dropped, the girl glances towards Cor, "You think? That's what Valien says..."

Coriianna nods, her head still suspended halfway around a stall. "I've lived it, so I know my opinion inside out. I'm a journeyman, you see. I travel a lot. I prefer it to being holdbound all the time."

Deinha nods at Coriianna, looking rather impressed, and then looks at Riko again, smile bright, "Oh, thanks. It's something our parents arranged, actually, but Valien's the nicest, really. And he's traveled so much, too." Still oblivious, she gives Kard another pat, and goes on, in a confiding tone, "I'm still a bit dazed, really."

Deinha blinks, then beams at Riko, "Oh, good. Which is the best place? You should probably lead, but I don't know if I could see, from behind..." She nibbles on her lower lip, then seems to notice what she's doing and stops. "I mean... what position do you think'd be best?"

Deinha looks at Riko a moment, then nods faintly, "Okay. Does that mean you first, or me? Because I might need a ... hand up? A leg up?" She fumbles with the phrase and finally smiles, "Help up, however it goes."

Riko chuckles, "Let me get up first, It will be easyer that way." Riko mounts kard with no problem at all, kard looks back at riko with a glare allmost to say, 'Is'nt she comming too?'. Riko Extends a hand, "Just put your foot in the stirrup and take my hand."

Deinha nods, more slowly this time, and sets her hand lightly in his, then grips more firmly as she brings her foot up to the stirrup and finally swings her other leg over. All together, not a very jerky job of it, and she didn't even tug him off the runner. She does manage to kick his leg on the other side, though. A wince follows -- one of her own -- and she leans forward to apologize, "Sorry, I guess this comes of not having so much practice, myself."

Coriianna leads her borrowed mare over, and, after one more murmured reassurance in her ear, puts a foot in the stirrup and swings her leg up over the runner's back, landing neatly in the saddle, while managing to ignore what's going on on the other runner's back. She gathers the reins and looks about, deciding her next move. "So, there much in the way of runner trails about here?" she asks.

Riko reaches down and rubs his leg to numb his leg, "It's ok...." He calls over to Coriianna, "There are a few, most of all of them go down from here, I wouldn't reccomend any of the up-hill ones...I stick to the downhill ones myself." He reassuringly pats kard on the neck, and he gently grabs the reins.

Deinha still looks a little flustered, especially as she now sets about trying to find the right place for her hands. The one -- reclaimed from earlier help -- clutches loosely at the fabric of her leg while the other hovers abover Kard's back in the space between her leg and Riko's. "Can we go on a trail ride, then?" Youthful eagerness, once more countered with a faint hesitation, "And I won't fall off if we start going up, will I?" She leans towards the side, and murmurs a faintly worried, "She doesn't really have much in the way of straps to cling to, like the dragons do..."

Long distance to Riko: Deinha laughs. Deinha's actually trying to cover up being shy about grabbing hold of Riko, so you can have him recognize that, or not, as you like. ;)

Riko chuckles at the thought as to have deinha fall off, "here.." he takes one of her hands and places it around his chest, "Hold there.....so incase you start to fall...I'll be there."

Deinha gives a slight start at the movement, then smiles, "Thanks." She scoots forward ever so slightly, settling in better, and wraps the other hand around as well, "There. That way, I won't be squeezing your ribs ever time we bounce a little." Loosely clasped now, her hands relax and she turns to smile at Coriianna, "Oh, will you? That would be nice." And her cheeks warm, suddenly, "Did I ... did I not introduce myself yet?" She looks ashamed at the notion.

Coriianna smiles. "Great. Don't want to get lost around here. Might meet something more than my borrowed runner can handle." She grins at Deinha. "Actually, neither of you have, I don't think. I'm Cor, a journeyman smith, temporarily assigned here to Starmount.""

Deinha smiles again at Cor's easy manner, and Riko's own. "And I'm Deinha, visiting from Icevale." Eyes sparkling, she adds the customary, "Well met, if not in such a timely manner as it should have been."

Coriianna grins and nods to Deinha and Riko. "Well met, both of you. As long as we knew each others names before the end of the day, it's okay." She laughs easily. Definitely not uptight.

Long distance to Riko: Deinha grins and decides to leave the laughter alone -- but I bet it felt funny, for both, what with Deinha's hands against Riko's belly when he laughed.

Cor's borrowed mount (name unknoown) follows Kard at the easy direction of Cor, who only holds the reins as a matter of course, and prefers to direct with her knees. Too much bareback racing with her cousins as a child, probably.

Deinha just does her best to stay balanced, yet peer around Riko to see it all. A beam is tossed to Cor, and then she's craning her neck to glance at the path behind them. But she's soon facing front again, head nearly pressed against the boy's shoulder as she looks ahead. "I hope so... You never get to see anything quite like this, any of it, in Icevale." She looks up at the sky, "It's wonderful."

Coriianna flashes a smile at Deinha and Riko in the process of looking about, too. "It is lovely," she agrees with Deinha's observation. She is warmly dressed, in lots of red, as is her usual wont, and the runner gives off plenty of body heat, so she's fairly comfortable, herself.

Deinha is, to be certain, enjoying it. But that thought causes her to frown, slightly, "I hadn't even thought about that -- I'm so used to everything being all heated and cozy." With a faint shiver, she muses, "But I don't think it could be so bad, not with all this heat from the runner, and ..." She trails off, then laughs cheerfully, "You're quite warm, too." This last addressed to Riko, of course.

Editor's Note: I had to delete a few poses due to some confusion concerning the IC season at the time. We started over repeatedly, and the poses never quite meshed perfectly, so I did, admittedly, due some 'creative' cutting and pasting at the end.