Awww...the snow is going away (Max and Keith)

Max had decided that he was going to go outside and enjoy the last of the snow.He bundled up as best as he could and left his sketchbook inside for once.

He quickly exited Caldera and plowed right inot what was left of the snow. There still was quite a bit, but he was sad to see that most of it was gone.

"Aw....The snow is going away. Well Better make the best of it. I miss all the snow back home. But i hope this stuff is good for maing snowmen and stuff."

He quickly set to work, trying to get as much enjoyment from the snow as possible. He made a few snowangels and threw snowballs at trees. He din't notice anyone watching him and even if someone had been, he wouldn't have cared. After he stopped throwing snowballs, he went to work building a snowman. He was half finished when he stopped for a break.

"phew, This is hard work, but a lot of fun. I wonder what people will think when they see my snowman?"

Keith sat quietly, making patterns in the snow at his feet with his foot. Three years. Three and a half days since it...happened. Thread. Timothy. His parents. Three whole years. How could he not have thought about it during th esummer? How could he have...forgotten? Too busy, too caught up in his own life to even stop and take time to remember his love? Why had it taken him months since the - he didn't want to call it 'anniversary', because it was not a happy occasion - since the marking of when Thread fell first to think about it? He couldn't believe it. He'd actually...forgotten. But he remembered now ,fresh and strong...and he was certainly making up for lost time now, deep in thought about the past. About Timothy, about that day that changed everything. He sat on a natural bench in the wall of the Caldera, and thought.

Where are they now? Timothy? Long, long gone, passed beyond the threshold of death's door three years ago. His parents...he had no idea. He had never seen them in the Caldera, and that is the way he wanted it, though it chilled him to think so. Nobody should have to hate their parents and in all honesty Keith didn't hate them - he didn't think he could ever hate his parents, no matter how they treated him.

Maybe that made it worse. Could love that meant nothing be more painful than well-earned hate? He thought his parents loved him...or at least, he thought they had loved him. They'd always tried to give him what they thought was best for him, even if their ideas of what was best were different. He couldn't agree with anything they'd put him through, but he thought, he hoped, they'd done it out of love. Keeping him from Anna. Insisting he hide his sexuality from everyone. Turning him away when they learned of Timothy...turning him away the same hour Timothy himself had been stolen from him. He thought most, if not all, had been done out of love. Maybe, possibly, they'd turned him out for what they thought was his own good as well as theirs. He could only hope. They loved him.

He could agree that his parents had loved him, and he could admit that he still loved them back. But loving is not the same as forgiving, and...Keith didn't think he could ever make himself forgive them for what they'd put him through. No child should have to go through their parents looking at them with something that was almost disgust and clsoe to despair - despair for the perfect child they had so hoped for. Keith had not been their perfect child. No child should be told their love was so wrong, and be abandoned for it. Why couldn't they have understood? Why couldn't they understand that Keith's love was exactly the same as theirs? Why did they think it was so different? Why did it matter at all?

He'd never understand it, why anyone thought that he was different somehow, even wrong, but loving whom he loved, but he supposed it was something he'd have to get used to and endure. He knew there were others like him...Timothy had been like him. Beautiful, wonderful Timothy, with the dark, shining hair and the bright eyes and the soft, musical voice. Three years. I miss you. I miss you so much. When he'd known the boy, he'd been convinced he was his soulmate, and he still thought that might be true...even if he was gone. Keith still loved him, though he hadn't seen his face outside his memories for so long. He still loved him, a terrible, wonderful ache in his chest...he hadn't found anyone yet to fill that void. Maybe someday.

That was why he hoped for a dragon so much. Not to fight Thread ,though that's what they were supposed to be here for. To have someone to fill that dark spot where eTimothy's love had been, to love him back and not leave him. Dragons were soulmates, Lifemates, the key to the sky. He ached for one. Galateath had Risen and clutched...her hatching would be soon...maybe. Maybe then, he would find that one to fill his heart and mind. Soon.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Keith looked up, distracted by the thumping noise coming from nearby. He twisted, and saw a boy several years younger than him throwing snowballs at a tree. There was no anger in his movements - he was just doing it for fun. Keith watched, happy to have something to distract him from his depressing thoughts, as the boy stopped throwing snowballs and started making a snowman, making the best of what snow there was left. Not bad - he obviously had experience with snow. Where Keith came from, snow was a rare and wonderful thing, and everyone ran out to play the entire day, and came back in flushed and wet and begging for hot chocolate. Even Keith had - jt was one thing his parents had let him do, though he did it alone in their own large garden, not outside with the neighborhood kids. That was okay though; it was still fun, and Keith had never really minded being alone.

He'd taken advantage of the snow as well, after the large blizzard had ended, playing in the snow an hour or so every day or two. Not so much after it had started to melt, the snow becoming slush as it was. This boy probably had a good idea - getting a last run in the snow before it melted entirely. Slowly, Keith stood up, and took a step towards the boy ,then another. It was a good snowman he was building, well-structured. Maybe he'd let Keith join in, That might be nice. He'd almost reached the spot where the lad was when the boy stopped, and Keith heard the words he said to himself.

"They'd think a dragon had bit his head off," the candidate said - quietly, as was his way, and a little shyly - in answer, smiling slightly, and indicating the snowman, who had the body piece son but not the head, given that the boy was only halfway done. Then, feeling a little awkward, he cleared his throat, stepped around to face the younger lad, and intruduced himself. "Erl...hi. I'm Keith....ah, would you like some...help with that?"

Max jumped when he heard the voice behind him. He whirled around and saw a guy older than him standing behind him. He smile right away and nodded his head.

" Of course! It is the last snowman, since the snow is almost gone. My name is Max, Nice too meet you Keith. Hmm.. Good point, he does need a head. I love the snow so much! I Used to live in a Northern canadian town, lots of snow all winter. So what brings you outside, besides the snow?"

He chattered cheerfully, and patted a bit more snow onto the body of the snow man. He was happy to have run into someone out here, and the guy seemed friendly enough.

"So, What do you think of pern? I don't mind it, Although its kinda lonely..My family died awhile back.. year 8 when the thread fell. It was sad at first, Bu then I realized that they want me to be happy. And since then, I haven't stopped smiling. Sorry if im chattering, I do that sometimes"

He looked away embarrassed at hogging the conversation. He hoped that he hadn't made a bad first impression.

Keith was gratified at the quick smile and easy response he got from the boy, though slightly startled by them - he wasn't accustomed to hyper personalities that were so unlike his own. The boy was cheerful, though, and quick to accept Keith's offer to help. Friendly and...very chatty. And more than a little cute, as a side note. Keith's smile grew through the long chatter the boy provided, amused despite himself. Max, as he introduced himself, asked plenty of questions but didn't really pause long enough for the candidate to answer. Eventually Keith decided just to wait till he stopped for breath.

Max finally seemed to realize he was babbling, and stopped, looking embarrassed. It was an expression that Keith was quite familiar with from looking in the mirror, but just now his own embarrassment had faded away; Max seemed easy to be with so far. So cheerful and quite willing to fill silence, he could tell!

"That's all right," Keith answered in regards to the apology. "No harm done." He knelt down, and started forming a snowball in his hands. "It's nice to meet you too, Max. As for your questions...." For a long moment he paused, running through them all in his head; he had a feeling that Max's twenty-questions chatter was going to have him talking a lot more than he usually did. "I came outside...to remember." Hie expression was unreadable at that; he didn't want to sink back into sorrow, not in front of this so determinedly happy boy. "I enjoy Pern a lot. It's wonderful." He's always been fascinated with it - and always enjoyed it so much more than he'd enjoyed Earth. The only bad thing had been leaving Anna behind, but even as a small child he'd understood that he wouldn't have been able to be her friend any more either. Once his parents decided something, they had a way of making it happen.

"I'm sorry about your parents." He was indeed; he was always sorry to hear about any loss. Keith kept his eyes on the growing snowball in his hands, shy of looking up at Max as he spoke. "I haven't seen my parents in years ,though they're not dead....I think." His voice faltered for a moment, then pushed on. For the next part, he did meet Max's eyes. "That's a good way to think. A very good way." Much better than sitting around moping, he berated himself somewhat harshly.

"Here," he offered, gesturing to the large snowball. "You want to do the rolling? And then I'll put it on top."

Max took the snowball and began to roll it, making it bigger and bigger until it was the perfect size.

"Yeah, Its a nice planet, But I miss earth at the same time. So, Are you a candidate? I am, I can't wait til the next hatching. I dont think I'm going to impress, so I'll go just to sketch the baby dragons."

He handed the snowball back to keith and grinned. This was really fun. He loved the snow and he had met someone new and interesting.
He heard a happy emotion in the back of his head and a few seconds later, His Dragonet Shinrin flew into him and sat on his shoulder.

" Oh, Shinrin you silly thing. I told you to stay inside..."

"Yes, I'm a candidate." A candidate that failed Impression two times. A candidate wondering if he was capable of Impressing after all. But there was a hatching coming up, he mustn't forget that. Maybe his dragon was there. He'd keep trying. Keep trying, keep trying, keep trying until he made it or couldn't try any more. What else was there for Keith to do?

"That's a bit pessimistic for someone who never stops smiling," he pointed out quietly, a bit surprised when Max admitted he didn't think he was going to Impress. "But I can't really say I don't feel the same...This will be my third hatching. I'm starting to think I'm not up for the job after all." Wanting to change the subject, he asked, "You sketch?" He didn't really have any artistic ability, though he knew there were several artists around the Caldera.

He took the snowball back, decided it was quite big enough, and stood to put it on top of the snowman. For a few moments he worked in silence, then he commented softly, "There's not much I miss about Earth, really," going back to the topic Max had brought up then skipped over. "Not all that much to miss. The only thing I regret is leaving my best friend behind."

There was a fluttering of wings, and Keith saw a green dragonet appear, coming to sit on Max's shoulder. So he had a dragonet? She looked quite cute. As if her appearance had triggered it, out of between came Static, who practically dropped out of the sky once he had appeared, landing in Keith's hands with a large thunk, then grumbled at him as if it had been the candidate's fault he was too lazy to hold himself in the air. The bronze firelizard did perk up a bit when he saw Shinrin, and started chattering animatedly to her, still slumped in Keith's cupped hands. The young man sighed, knowing if he tried to put Static on his shoulder the bronze would go all limp and then get angry at Keith. Lazy little bugger making everything harder than it needed to be. "This is Static."