*OOC: This can stand alone, or others can jump in. It's all the same for me. I'm just trying to get a feel for H'sen as a character. If someone wants to join him in the darkness, I welcome them. Though H'sen might not.*

H'sen, rider of brown Levunmensth, crept silently down the dark passageway. He'd been skulking about in the dark lower tunnels of the weyr for half a day now. He'd had a choice of tasks, as he hated to just stand about doing nothing. He could either help the womenfolk sort through old stores, or kill tunnelsnakes. All things considered, he'd much rather kill the vermin.
The brownrider was dressed in dark wherhide, as was usual for him, and he carried a heavy mallet in one hand, the bloodstains hardly visible in the dim light from the glowbasket he carried in his other hand. On his back was slung a large wherhide sack. From his belt hung a pouch of small stones and a strip of leather, as well as a large dagger. There were easier methods of killing tunnel snakes, but H'sen preferred to 'get his hands dirty'. He was far more bloody-minded than he cared to admit.

Something made a noise in the dark passage. H'sen froze and listened. The glowbasket cast only enough light for him to keep from running into a wall or tripping over debris, so his keen hearing was the best way of telling just where the enemy lay. Setting the glowbasket and mallet down, the brownrider took a rock out of his beltpouch and prepared his slingshot. He'd only get one chance, for the faint noise was getting closer.
H'sen swung the slingshot, visualized where the 'noise' was, and let fly the rock. He was rewarded with the sound of stone on flesh as he quickly took up his mallet and glowbasket. He listened. The noise had stopped.
Cautiously approaching the direction he'd cast his stone, H'sen held the mallet ready. It wasn't likely he'd killed the tunnelsnake with a single shot.
As the dim light revealed the long, thin body of the snake, H'sen quickly swung his weapon and smashed the creature's head. This one had been a small tunnel snake...only about six feet in length. The brownrider removed the heavy sack from his back and opened it, revealing the corpses of several tunnelsnakes. He took the dagger from his belt and sliced the crushed head from the body, making note of the small wound on the creature's spine where his stone had hit. Disabling wound, but not fatal, he noted. The corpse was carefully tossed in the bag with its fellows. H'sen slung the sack back over his shoulder, put away his dagger, and picked up the mallet and glowbasket. He still had time to hunt, though he'd likely not find more than one additional victim before he had to head back.
The man continued to creep along the passageway, alert once more for the sounds of tunnelsnakes.

The whizzing sound of a spear shot through the air just as a startled hiss interjected the movement of someone nearby, followed by the death writhings of a tunnel snake.

"Drat..." A womanly voice uttered, having missed the head. Being around the corner, she was obscured, but she cast shadows across the cavern with the glows she carried. She proceeded to unceremoniously bash the creature's brains in with a large, heavy ended bat, gingerly picking the thing up by the tail and throwing it in a bag. Then, she stopped, alert. "Is someone there?"


((This will be Ratina. If you go around the corner and see her, her info is in the character forum))

H'sen froze as he heard something that was definitely not a tunnelsnake. He noticed a faint light shining up ahead. Someone was in a connecting passageway, he realized as he made out the shadow cast by the glow's light.

"Is someone there?"

H'sen considered going back the way he'd come. He was down there to kill snakes, not meet people. But the owner of the feminine voice was, from the sounds he'd heard, down there for the same reason as he. It wouldn't hurt to see where she hadn't already been...better chance of finding more tunnelsnakes to smash.
He quietly moved to the connecting passageway and rounded the corner. Upon seeing the woman H'sen recognized her face as familiar, but couldn't place it. But then, he'd never paid much attention to the other inhabitants of the weyr. He could recognize most of the dragons, but almost never could he name a person on sight.
The brownrider spoke, his voice serious with just a hint of suspicion.

"I am H'sen, Levunmensth's rider. And you are...?"

"Ratina, of Forgoth. If I had known someone else was doing this, I would have left you with the work. I had enough to do in the kitchens." Though the words held potential to be quite sour, she said them in a lighthearted tone as she set down her bag for a moment to lean back and pop her back. "Hey, you're a brownrider, yes? I figured quite a few of you dragonmen would be waiting around for Iolath to rise. I hear the bronzes have been blooding their kills today."

Looking to the man with a grin, she awaited the response. So, what would it be, a weyrmate to stay faithful to, a dislike for queenriders, or maybe a brown that was unwilling? Such questions could stir up quite a few interesting emotions at times, even if most of the time they were simple and pretty uneventful. Still, the ever prodding Ratina would be here to ask the dragonman about this, unabashed no matter how personal a question may be.