Chores and Chats

Writers: Leigh M-F., Mirren
Date Posted: 13th August 2015

Characters: Elona, A'kua
Description: Chores, chats, chances in the future, and other, everyday things.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 1, day 11 of Turn 8
Notes: Mentioned: Ilyssia and Gwynnyth, Lissath.

"He said 'Eri's the most precious gem, and she's the rarest flower,
I'll make my Eri merrier with every passing hour," Aluka sang as he swept out a small room that was being converted into another storage closet for cleaning supplies. "So she made a certain sacrifice, and as soon as they were through,
She said 'Your Eri loves ye, lad,'
And he said 'Eri who?'" Here he broke off to warn the other Candidates working in the hall, "Giant dust clod comin', watch out," as he shoved out a cloudy mess.

"Jays, where is all that coming from? The room's not that big!" another young man exclaimed.

"I have no idea, but there's at least one more on the way," Aluka said, getting back to work. "You don't know if a redfruit's rotten 'til you take a bite,
You don't know if there's breakfast coming 'til you spend the night.
She's sure to kiss her share of whers before her time is done:
The world is full of bastards, and she's courted every- eh- ah- Ahh-kkk-CHOO! Ow!" Apparently it was possible to sneeze so hard, someone could bite their tongue.

Elona snorted softly in laughter. "Are you all right?" She was sure they saved the worst jobs for the candidates. At least they weren't cleaning out animal dung. Yet.

"I think I drew blood," Aluka complained, poking his head out of the room. "That really fardlin' hurts. Does anyone have a kerchief they don't mind sacrificin'?"

Elona patted her pocket and realised she'd used hers to wipe Elonus' face before dropping him at crèche. "Sorry."

"Ain't kissing it better either!" Another candidate called out.

"Of course not," a female Weyrbred Candidate scoffed. "He's gone goofy for a greenrider, and you know holders and their monogamy."

Aluka wasn't ruffled by the remark because it was true. Besides, the alliteration was a nice touch. "Thanks anyway," he told Elona, and finished sweeping in a hurry, not wanting another sneeze attack. "Okay, that's it for this area. What do we have next?"

"I think we're supposed to head to the kitchen to sort dishes and silverware," someone answered. "I wish we were going to the hatching grounds instead. I want to see the eggs!"

"Me too," the young man from moments earlier said. "My blue is in there this time; I know he is."

"And Lissath is such a gorgeous gold," a girl sighed. "I bet she made some beautiful babies."

Aluka glanced at Elona and rolled his eyes at that statement. Pretty didn't matter in a dragon; the ability to fight Thread did.

"They're all beautiful," Elona said. "Except when they're walking past to pick someone else." Which she'd seen more times than she cared to count.

"Maybe they don't like 'em too old," someone muttered.

Elona's face turned pink.

"Hey, never comment on a lady's age," Aluka said sharply, and when he cracked his knuckles, a hasty apology was issued. (Okay, so that was probably a little hypocritical of him, but Elona had seemed genuinely embarrassed. That and some habits were hard to break.)

"Some people - " Elona muttered. "Can we just get to the kitchens." If anyone said anything about it being a woman's place, she might be tempted to deck them herself.

"We're going, we're going," the blue-seeking Candidate said, edging away. "See, this is us, walking to the kitchen."

Trying to change the subject, the girl who had admired Lissath's beauty said, somewhat lamely, "I almost wish female riders could elide their names. Mine's too long. I want a rider's name if I Impress."

"So change it." Elona shrugged, walking with the group toward the kitchens. "As long as your dragon knows what to call you then no one can argue. Right?"

The girl brightened. "Hey, that's right! Thanks!"

"I'm going to be I'den," the blue-desiring Candidate said proudly.

"J'rean!"

As more shortened names went around, Aluka rolled his eyes at Elona another time. Talk about counting dragonets before they hatched.

She smirked back. Any of them would be lucky to impress at all. "You don't have your name picked out?" she asked so only he could hear.

The redhead paused briefly. "I never thought about it," he admitted, pitching his voice for Elona's ears only. "There was other stuff to worry about." What could he call himself? Only Ilyssia was allowed to call him Luka, for instance, and L'uka would look terrible. That didn't leave a lot of other options, though. The question kept him occupied for a few minutes. "A'kua, I guess," he finally said. "Or is that ridiculous?"

"No." She shook her head. "It's nice." She was going to ask him what colour he might hope to impress, but she got the sense that he wasn't getting ahead of himself.

Aluka gave her a pleased smile. Even if she was just being polite, he was glad to hear the kind statement.

The group trooped into the kitchen and were directed to piles of dried cutlery, plates, mugs, bowls, and saucers. After some collective groaning, the Candidates got to work, sorting out the mass into coherent piles. "So why do you want a blue so much?" one of the holdbred girls asked curiously. "You don't really get a lot of room to advance in the wings if you ride blue, right?"

"Less dragon to bathe," the boy joked, getting some understanding laughs. "Besides, I'm okay with that. If we can fly together and do our job, I don't care if I'll never get a chance at wingleader or wingsecond or whatever."

"Any dragon is better than no dragon," Elona pointed out. To the girl she asked, "Are you going to be disappointed if you only impressed a green?" Some girls seemed to have their hearts set on impressing gold, even if it meant waiting turns for a gold egg to be laid.

"I don't think so. I mean, I know people back home think it's bad, but- but I like greens. One Searched me. She _talked_ to me," she replied in an awestruck tone. "It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard. She said I could fight and fly, so I want to. Is that silly?"

"No," Aluka said while privately thinking no dragon's voice could compare to Lissath's.

That got a relieved smile. "What about you- Elona, right? Will you be disappointed?"

"No, I've been standing forever." Elona sighed. "Maybe if I hadn't…" she trailed off.

The holdbred girl frowned at her. "Hadn't wha-"

Aluka cracked his knuckles again, and the question wasn't completed. It didn't matter that he was only stretching his fingers that time.

"Think maybe we'll finally get out of these kinds of chores if we Impress?" one of the younger Candidates wanted to know.

"No," a Weyrbred lad denied, shaking his head. "We'll just trade them for harder ones."

"It might be worth it," Aluka said. "We'll have dragons."

"Yes," Elona agreed, glad to have had the subject changed. "They say dragon poo smells better when it's your own dragon."

There was an explosion of laughter, some disgusted exclamations, and a few threats to toss things at Elona that no one followed up on partly because one of the kitchen staff asked them to settle down and get back to work. Aluka gave Elona a fanged grin in appreciation of the jest, and decided he liked the straightforward brunette. He found himself hoping she would get the second-best green in the Weyr (the first being Gwynnyth, in his entirely biased opinion) out of Lissath's offspring. If he had someone like Elona to trade snark with, the chores and exhaustion and hectic schedule might not be so bad.

Last updated on the August 20th 2015

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Chores and Chats