Participants:
| Date: | 5th July 2010 |
|---|---|
| Location: | Eastern Weyr: Lakeshore |
| Synopsis: | Ciara comes to Eastern Weyr - again - seeking out Randi - again. This time there's more of a point to her seeking, however. |
| Rating: | PG-13 |
| Logger: | Ciara |
At present, this large scoop in the ground - which only grows larger each day - looks a bit odd. There's a string of makeshift fencing around the edges to try and keep those without business there out of the way. However, small wooden poles and three lines of twine are more of a suggestion than a deterrent, and weyrbrats can often be seen playing in the sections not filled with digging workers. A small sign hung on the highest bit of twine states 'LAKE HOPELESS' in forcibly fancy script, yet there's not a drop of water to be seen anywhere in the scoop.
-
Even for the wet season, this morning is cold. The sun hasn't yet risen over the high northern rock wall, but it's not difficult at all to pinpoint the brightly shining, very-near-to-glowing gold dragon who is currently … in the lake. Yes, that's right; Kaseth is sprawled out, wings spread to rest their tips on the ground, in the hole dug for the lake. Standing on the shore is a rider dressed in bright red leathers and shivering even with her fur-lined hood up over her hair. Boots make odd sounds as she stamps her feet against the uneven ground to try and keep warm. While it is just cool enough that her breath makes small puffs of cloud in front of her face, it's not nearly cold enough for full flight gear to fail - is it?
It's a good thing that Ciara's got long trousers and a jacket on, but she's shivering despite these. The fact that it's still dark in the Weyrbowl probably isn't helping with the fact that it's cold. The Neratian teen is ambling around, looking about…looking for something? Someone? She sees the figure in red leathers, but it's only when she spots Kaseth in the lake that she makes her path lead straight for the woman stamping about. "Weyrwoman Randi?" Ci calls out, just loud enough to reach the several metres distance she has left to cover before she reaches the woman.
Turning at the sound of her name, Randi's brown eyes take a moment to focus on the incoming Neratian. "Oh. Cialis, right?" At this angle, it's much easier to see the rather large skein she has in her left hand and though she doesn't sound drunk, she'd gotten the girl's name right last time. There's a gentle rumbling from the empty lake and a large blue eye - slowly whirling with more than a hint of orange - opens to stare up at the visitor. "Ciara. Sorry." Randi takes a not-so-steady step backwards and squints up at the slowly lightening sky. "Why're you here so early?"
The moment of delight at recognising the woman by her dragon wears off quickly when Ciara realises Randi isn't exactly completely sober. "Um," she begins when Randi gets her name wrong, but the woman's corrected herself before Ci can say anything. "Yeah. Oh…I…couldn't sleep. I was going to come here for something." She stops stock still, watching Randi's unsteady movements, and giving the gently-rumbling Kaseth a wary glance. What are dragons like when their riders are in this state? "It was something I wanted to ask you actually, but um…I can come back another time if now isn't convenient."
Her free hand is waved in a much broader sweep than it needs to be and Randi snorts. "No, don't worry. I'm not that bad." She holds the skein up to her face, weighing it for a moment before shrugging and taking a swig. "Only my third one." Hopefully she means third drink, because three skeins that size would be … a truly monstrous amount of alcohol. "Keeps Her Ladyship over there from clawing things to shreds." She looks over her shoulder at her small gold and grins brightly. A little too brightly, but at least she's not cursing at anyone. Or throwing things at their faces. "Makes her overheat, though." Which would be why they're here at such a ridiculous hour. "What'd you need?"
Ciara's eyes swivel and fix on the skein. Third? "Okay," she says slowly, looking unsure. Drawing her shoulders up, she tries to be more professional, even if there's still lingering uncertainty in her eyes. She looks at Randi's face at least, and tries not to notice Kaseth too much, especially after Randi's mention of the dragon clawing things. A slight shudder makes her shoulders move when the Weyrwoman says that. "I was wondering, ma'am, if I could come and be a part of your Weyr? I've lots of experiences working in kitchens, and I learn quickly." She doesn't offer any explanation as to /why/ she wants to move. She just stands there, straight and polite, expression now subtly anxious.
A good thing Randi's not keen on the details right now; that shudder could have meant many sevens of good ribbing. Kaseth, however, seems to notice; flecks of amused green join the blue and orange in her eyes, even as her gaze shifts to look more attentively at the almost-familiar girl. "You want to do what?" Randi doesn't look angry or upset; just confused. "Kitchens. Right. You mentioned that before, I think." Another swig. "How old are you, Ci?" See? This way she can't actually mess up the name! Genius at work. Sort of.
Ciara notices the subtle change in Kaseth's eyes and where she's looking, and forcefully keeps her eyes off the gold. Can dragons smell fear? Oh boy. "Um, seventeen, ma'am." She looks vaguely puzzled as to why her age is being asked, but mostly she just looks worried, no doubt expecting Kaseth to rip her to shreds at any moment. She doesn't so much as twitch a muscle as she stands there, watching Randi as closely as possible.
"Ah, right. So you're old enough to be striking out on your own, then." Randi takes a couple steps closer so that they're at a more conversational distance. "No offense meant, lass, but I'm about to be in hot water enough as it is to staff this place without adding 'sheltering runaways' to my list of offenses." She shifts to the left so that she can stand in a 'hole' of sorts in the ground and brace her right foot up on the edge. Another drink is taken from her skein. "What can you do?"
To Ciara, Kaseth's mind slithers ever so slowly around your own. It's an alien sensation - one very akin to a tiny wherry's egg must feel like when cradled ever-so-gently between large human hands. There's a great care there and a great restraint, but also a sense of massive power. The most prominent sensation, however, is one of inquisitiveness and the calming scent of hides and dust.
Ciara nods enthusiastically, the first real movement she's shown in a while. Her eyes flick to one side to check on Kaseth's position. She's no closer, so Ci goes on, looking more confident. "Oh um, I'm not a runaway ma'am, I promise." Her fingers fiddle with the hems of her jacket's sleeves. "I can prepare any vegetables and meats, cook some basic foods, keep spits running, run any kind of errands I'm needed for, clean - thoroughly…anything I'm asked to do, really." The next moment, her breath catches in her throat as Kaseth's presence enters her mind, and the girl swallows hard, eyes boggling. "Oh…." But there's no real feeling of fear in the teen, and her face shows wonder, more than anything else, now. Her eyes lose their focus as her mind tries to come to grips with the absolutely bizarre feeling of a dragon's mind.
At first, Randi listens in silence, almost laughably intent on the girl's words as she tries to shove her drink-scattered mind into some semblance of order. Then something seems to go wrong. As the girl trails off and goes a bit glazed around the eyes, Randi takes a step forward and reaches up as if to shake the girl out of whatever's gone wrong. An instant's conference with her queen nixes that plan. "Kaseth, stop that," she snaps out loud - as much for Ciara's sake as her dragon's. "That's incredibly rude. You come out and apologize right now." There's a moment's pause and a plaintive creel. "I don't care if you just got cool, you know better than to do that, now come here." Resigned and sulky, the queen lurches her frame from the ground and turns to trudge up the slope, wingtips dragging in the dirt for extra effect. Completely ignoring Kaseth's moving sulk, Randi turns to Ciara again. "Sorry about that. She's normally much better about asking things she wants to know through me. Now. What was that about spits? Did you use spit-dogs in Nerat?" Another swig goes down her throat.
Ciara doesn't even notice Randi getting closer, eyes looking through the woman. As soon as the rider speaks sharply to her dragon, Ci snaps out of her reverie, blinking wide eyes several times and trying to get a grip on herself. "Oh, oh, I'm so sorry." /She's/ apologising? She does look guilty as Kaseth gets a telling off and trudges off. Ci starts to cross her arms, but they go a little further and wrap around herself. "It's - it's fine. Honestly. Um." And now it's terribly hard to concentrate, after experiencing /that/. "Um, yes, quite a lot of them. We do a lot of outdoor cooking too, in the summer, with spit-dogs then as well." She's starting to gabble, almost out of desperation.
Probably not helping the situation any, but Kaseth is walking towards the kitchen helper now. As Ciara starts to babble, Randi shoves the skein to her, making sure her fingers are wrapped around the soft leather neck before letting go herself. "Drink," she commands softly. "It'll help." Alcohol; the Obvious Solution to Everything. At some silent command, Kaseth stops just short of Ciara's personal space and lies back down, her head on her forelimbs so she can watch both women with one eye. There's a soft, crooning sort of sound coming from her chest, and though it screeches and scratches, it's meant to be comforting. "She says she's very sorry," Randi translates while looking between dragon and girl. "She didn't mean to hurt you. She only wanted to know what had scared you so very badly. She forgets how much stronger her mind is than ours sometimes."
Ciara isn't going to argue with Randi's command, and takes a swig from the skein. It doesn't seem to immediately help, but after a pause she lowers her hand down, the skein still clutched tightly in it, she starts to look calmer. Kaseth's presence doesn't seem as terrifying now that she's felt the dragon's mind and seen that there's nothing threatening in it. She looks at Kaseth for a long moment, not seeming to be paying attention to Randi, but evidently she does hear the Weyrwoman. "It's - it's fine. I'm…not used to dragons, I'm so sorry, both of you." She takes a deep breath and then looks down at the skein, before proffering it to Randi. "Would you like your drink back, ma'am? Thank you so much for letting me have some." She looks more relaxed now, though the one swig has by no means made her tipsy.
At that, Randi can't help but tip her head back and laugh. "What, by the first batch of slimy, hungry hatchlings are you sorry for?" She barks out another laugh and then softens her smile, leaning against Kaseth's neck. "I don't mean to make fun, Ciara, but it was her that breached her manners, not you." Waving her hand at the offer of the skein, she winks. "Keep it. Not enough left in it to do you any real harm and you won't find finer white wine than that Benden vintage." But with all of that out of the way, Randi's mind is spinning back to the girl's previous request. "We've actually got enough women in the kitchens now, lass. Everyone needs to eat, so other things get put on the back shelf until we've enough staff to cover everywhere." The woman - not much more than two turns Ciara's senior - bites her lower lip and thinks. "You said you know the spit dogs. What about other canines? Or runners? You ever work with them?"
Ciara flushes when Randi /laughs/ at her! But she can hardly say anything, for all she looks like she wants to protest. Fortunately, the rider apologises, in a way, and Ci nods her head, still pink in the face. "Oh…." She looks down at the skein and guiltily holds it closer. "Thank you," she says softly, before her shoulders sag as Randi goes on. Now she's starting to look pretty desperate again. "My dad had some canines at our Hold - small ones for hunting rats and things. I haven't worked with runners though." Feeling like she's losing her case, she hurries on. "I'd be more than happy to learn something new. And I've been out with fishermen, I can identify any fish and I know how to cast a net and everything, if that would be of any use?"
"Fish, you say?" And now Randi - sobering ever-so-slightly in the slowly ebbing chill - seems genuinely interested. "Why didn't you say so in the first place, Ci?" And, for the first time in days, Randi's contagiously bright grin makes an appearance. It changes her whole face, making her appear much closer to her actual age. "Fishing skill is so much more valuable than being able to turn a spit." She pauses then, wrinkling her nose up in thought. "I dunno if the fish here are the same as in Nerat, but I'll speak to someone about getting you time in the AIVAS classroom to learn about them, if you'll promise to take notes and teach some of the younger ones." A good crew of weyr-loyal fisherfolk would go far into easing the strain of the hunters and farmers who were still so few in number.
The desperation in her frame eases, and Ci perks up when Randi's mood appears to change quite dramatically. "Oh, that would be so fantastic!" She reins in the exuberance. "Learning at Landing would be amazing…I'll definitely take notes and teach some younger people, of course. Anything." Little desperate there, missy. "Is there anything I can do now to prepare?" She saves asking about 'whens', already bright-eyed in anticipation and not wanting to look even more over-eager about the offer being put on the table.
Randi shrugs. "Have you got things at home you need to return for?" she inquires, reaching up to scratch at an itch behind Kaseth's jawbone. "People you need to notify?" Sobering further still, her eyes narrow just a little bit, sharp attention fully on Ciara.
"Yes, ma'am. Should I bring it here? Or to Landing?" Ciara glances at Randi's action of scratching Kaseth, intrigued, but tries to focus on the matter at hand, the one that could be life-changing. "I can go to my parents' cothold and let them know. They don't live far from Nerat and there's usually someone willing to take me out there. It doesn't take long." She's sort of rambling now, a feeling of elation sinking in and making her more relaxed, but talkative.
Randi grins. It comes on very slowly and quite gradually, but in the end must be counted as one of the most mischievous grins she's ever managed. "I'll speak with one of the Masters I know straightaway. Best get you in there this afternoon if we can. We'll save the run home for this evening." That scratch turns into a slow, almost methodical caress across smooth golden hide. "When you finish at Landing, return here and find Escaeth's L'han. Tell him I said he was to take you home and here a-dragonback and if he has a problem with it, he can have Escaeth bespeak Kaseth."
"Oh!" Ciara looks surprised at how quickly things are moving, now, but she smiles back at Randi - though nowhere near as mischievously as the rider. Hers is a delighted smile, of satisfaction with a conversation that's gone just the way she wanted it to. "Yes, Weyrwoman! I think I've met him before; hopefully he'll recognise me." She doesn't seem to care much that Randi seems to be implying he may have a problem with the orders. "I'll go ask the watchrider to take me to Landing now?"
Randi nods sharply. "You'll want to look for Master Jarvys when you arrive. As I understand it, he would be the best person to get you time with AIVAS, and you might be better off mentioning I said that, if you catch my meaning." Meaning what she's seen of Jarvys so far - while not necessarily bad - speaks to a man dealt with easiest by stroking his ego. "Here," she offers, pulling her knot from her shoulder. "Show him this and tell him I sent you so soon because we need the fish. If he has any further troubles, his little gold … " She stops and swallows hard here. " … firelizard should know how to find me."
Ciara nods enthusiastically, amusement dancing in her eyes at Randi's comment on Jarvys. "I'll make sure to be particularly careful to mention that," she says, and for a moment she grins, the expression bordering on sly. She wipes that away for a more innocent, polite attitude, taking the knot. "Okay!" And, noting Randi's pause and swallow as she speaks about the fire-lizard, already buoyed by success, Ci is bold enough to ask: "are there problems with fire-lizards, down here?" In a completely innocent fashion of course. One has to know about the place where one is going to live - right?
Ah, but Randi sees that sly smile, and it makes hers brighten that much more. It's dampened only by the scowl which twists her expression at the mention of firelizards. "If by 'problems' you mean that the sharding shit-farms are rarer than wherries' teeth these days? Then yes, there's a huge problem." Randi sighs and pushes her hood back so that she can run a hand through her hair. "The smallest, dumbest ones are easy. You can't walk down the beach without stepping in some abandoned green's nest. It's the bigger ones … the slightly more useful ones." She shrugs. "They have their uses, but I for one am glad we have so few here at the Weyr. We don't need them."
Ciara listens, with the odd nod for Randi's words. "Not with dragons around, I suppose? Lots of people don't like them at Nerat but…people still like searching for nests." She gives a little shrug of her own, as if nest-hunting isn't of her concern at all. She fiddles with the sleeves of her jacket again now, frame starting to tense up as though she's readying to move.
And Randi is ready for a nap, although with her returning sobriety, Kaseth is getting antsy again. Probably not going to get a nap in today either. "If you see eggs when you go fishing, tell someone, but unless they're the right kind, we just leave 'em." Yawning, she raises one hand in a shooing motion. "Go on with you, before you pop yourself Between." She points towards the stair entrance across the bowl. "Stop in the kitchens on your way, would you? I find the staff are much nicer about having my klah for me if I give them some warning before I walk in."
"Of course!" Did she sound too eager when she said that? Every trying to save face, Ci restrains herself, and her next action is a sedate nod. "If I spot any by chance, that is. Oh - it'd be my honour. I'll go there right away, and then I'll head to Landing. Thank you ever so much, Weyrwoman Randi!" The knot is tucked in a jacket pocket, and Ciara offers a polite curtsey before she walks off in the direction of the lower caverns.