Treasures in Unexpected Places

Writers: Duskdog, Estelle
Date Posted: 20th April 2024

Characters: Ashela, G'zan
Description: G'zan helps Ashela with storeroom inventory
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 10, day 10 of Turn 11

Ashela

G'zan

Like anyone else, G'zan enjoyed his free time. But he also generally
didn't mind doing his regularly assigned duties, or even extra
assignments. It was all something to do, after all, and in the end, he
didn't really care too much about _what_ he spent his time doing, so
long as he was doing _something_. It was rare that he found himself
stuck with a chore that he actively disliked, though he considered
himself lucky in that regard, because nobody ever really tried to foist
things like counting or measuring or thinking too hard on him. He
_could_ do those things, sure. But why would he ever want to?

Thus he found himself assigned to help out the Weyrwoman's Second, which
seemed like a fine enough thing to be doing. She would be doing most of
the thinking, no doubt (he'd noticed that gold and bronzeriders usually
liked that sort of thing), and with any luck, he'd just be hauling boxes
around or something. But that was up to her. Sometimes people surprised him.

It was one of the things he liked best about people.

"Greenrider G'zan, reporting as ordered, ma'am," he greeted her, his
posture formal in an attempt to be properly respectful, but unable to
keep the smile from his face.

"Greenrider." Ashela looked him up and down with approval, pleased to
see that her request for a large, strong wingrider had been noted. "I'm
working on an inventory of one of the storerooms today, and I need an
extra pair of hands. This way." Without waiting for a response, she set
off, sheaf of papers in hand.

The storeroom in question was the one she'd left until last out of those
she'd been assigned. Ashela didn't object to looking over the supplies
with her own eyes to make sure they matched the Records, but she'd
certainly have left this one to the most junior goldrider if only she'd
been Weyrwoman. It was down at the far end of a long passage, and
perhaps being out of the way, it wasn't used as frequently as the
others. There were a few shelves stacked with worn-out rolls of tapestry
and cracked cookware, but most of the space was taken up with large,
wooden chests, festooned with spinners' webs and containing who knew
what. She'd taken one look at them and realized she'd hardly be able to
move them, let alone go through the contents, without getting more dusty
and sweaty than was acceptable for someone of her rank.

"Here we are." She unlocked the door and stepped inside, a tiny frown
line creasing her brow as she eyed the room. It really was just as bad
as she remembered. "We'll need to go through each of these, note down
the contents and try to match it to these Records."

"Aw, well that's pretty easy," G'zan declared with a wave of his hand.
Sure, it was a room packed full of stuff, but maybe there were at least
a few interesting things stuffed in with what he expected to be mostly
boring stuff. "I'll just grab a chest at a time and bring it over here,
and -- you want to go through 'em yourself and me just haul boxes and
try to organize this stuff as we go, or you want me to dig through and
just tell you each thing so you can... jot it down, or check it off, or
whatever? Or me dig through and jot it down myself, and just give you
the list so you can match it? Huh, it looks like there might be some big
ol' spinners in there. I'd hate to see you get bit. I got bit once, and
my thumb swelled up like a sausage!"

He held up his hand with the thumb extended, as if that would somehow
give her a visual that she didn't ask for.

"It was kinda neat though, so I don't mind 'em. But maybe you shouldn't
stick your hands in there. I gotta warn you, my handwriting looks like
sh--" He stopped himself. It didn't seem right to use that word in front
of a fancy lady. "Like wherryscratch. But I can try to make it real nice
for you if you want me to write."

"That won't be necessary." Ashela had been so appalled by the thought of
the spinners that it took her a moment to gather her wits. She was
definitely not going anywhere near those chests until the greenrider had
chased away any wildlife that might be inhabiting them. "I'll take care
of the writing. You can bring over each chest in turn, open it up, and
describe what's in there. Then we can look more closely at any unusual
or unexpected items."

She glanced down at her skirts, wondering if she should tuck them up so
that nothing could run up inside, or if that would be too undignified.
The sooner they were out of here, the better. She pointed at a chest
near the top of the pile. "Let's start with that one."

"Yes'm," G'zan said cheerfully, giving her a little salute. Carefully,
he grabbed the indicated chest and hefted it. Thankfully, no spinners
scattered at the movement, but his shirt was definitely going to need a
good wash after this, as dust and grime rubbed off on the chest and
sleeves as he hauled the chest over and sat it down near Ashela. He took
a moment to roll his sleeves up before crouching down to open the thing
up. A small cloud of dust kicked up as the now-opened lid dropped back
against the back of the chest.

"Whew!" He wrinkled his nose, waving the dust away futilely with one
hand. "This thing smells like a grandma! Huh. Looks like there's some
kinda scrolls in here. Oh, it's recipes. Well that's boring. Bunch of
ways to cook tubers in here. Tubers! Now, that's what you eat when you
got nothing else left to eat. All else fails, you can just boil 'em.
Sharding bland if you got no spices, but better than nothing, eh?"

"I wouldn't know," Ashela replied in her most proper and ladylike
accent, waving a hand to clear the dust in the air. When nothing
scuttled out of the chest, she took a cautious step closer and peered
around the greenrider's considerable build to look at the contents.
Reaching in, she pinched another roll of hide gingerly between two
fingers and shook it out. It was a list which she recognized as the
instructions for making up a strong cleaning solution, the type that the
drudges used on the most stubborn stains and encrusted pots.

She wrinkled her nose, the harsh smell of it coming back to her from a
time she'd much rather forget, and briskly rolled the scroll up again.
"I'll put this down as 'various kitchen records', if there's nothing
else of interest in there?"

"Don't look like it," G'zan replied, thumbing through the contents of
the chest quickly. He closed and latched it again, moving it to one side
so that they could hopefully neatly stack these things as they
catalogued them. Retrieving another box, this one heavier than the
first, he checked the contents. "Just old pots and pans! Lots of 'em,
though. The pots are all nested inside each other, like a little family
of pots! There's a daddy and a mama and some little babies!" He laughed.
"I guess somebody actually organized this one when they packed it. Good
to know that some of these might be all nice and neat, since none of 'em
really look like they would be. Oh hey, look at this pan! My ma would've
killed for one like this. You ever cook, ma'am?"

"Occasionally," Ashela said. That was true enough - the head cook at the
hold where she'd been Searched from wouldn't let anyone but her
assistants do more than scrub pots and peel vegetables. "I've more
experience with planning a menu than the actual cookery."

Despite herself, she felt her cultivated air of boredom and disdain
fading a little. There was something about the greenrider's
irrepressible good nature that was infectious, and it was a welcome
distraction from the dust and spinner webs. "Does your mother work here,
in the lower caverns?"

"No ma'am -- we were Holdless, so my ma was just kinda cooking with
whatever she could get ahold of, that wasn't too heavy to travel with."
G'zan put the box neatly aside and grabbed another. "She sure could do a
lot with a little, though. Never really knew what stuff we'd manage to
cobble together to cook, so she had to get creative I guess, but I never
really knew the difference. Planning menus is way outta my experience. I
guess certain stuff goes best with certain stuff? How do you know? And
how do you know how much is enough when you're feeding lots of people?
Seems like it's kind of an art, I guess?"

"If you're brought up to it, I suppose you just know. Good taste is an
instinct," Ashela said, as she noted down the contents of the last
chest. "But it can be improved by seeking out the company of refined
people and learning from them, no matter where you were born."

"You think so?" G'zan asked, actually considering this for a moment.
"That kinda thing seems pretty far out of what I could do... but I guess
it's true you can learn pretty much anything, if you set your mind to
it, and know who to learn from! I don't know if it'd suit me, though,
but it's kind of nice to think about. Gentleman G'zan, hosting a fancy
party! Who knows, maybe I'll pick up something from hanging out with you
here. You're a pretty classy lady, ma'am. Don't meet a lot of those at
the Weyr. That's not an insult to anybody or anything! Just that it's a
little different way to be, is all." He set that chest aside and went
for another. This time, three or four spinners skittered in all
directions when he lifted it. "Ack, watch out!"

"Eeek!" Ashela shrieked as two of the creatures headed straight towards
her and leapt back, dropping her notes and grabbing her skirts to draw
them up in horror at the thought of one scuttling underneath. She
_hated_ spinners! "Get rid of them!" Instead of leaping to safety on top
of the chests, though, she reached down, pulled off a shoe and began
whacking at the nearest spinner in a decidedly unladylike manner, while
the other hastily retreated back to the shadowy recesses of the storeroom.

"Don't you worry, ma'am, I got 'em!" G'zan put down the box he was
carrying and rushed to stomp the spinner firmly under one foot, only to
realize by the time that he got there that the sole remaining spinner
was already squashed and curled up by Ashela's shoe. "Oh hey, you got
'im! Looks like the other one's already gone." He looked around, just to
be sure, but spotted no more of the creatures. "Hey, that was some nice
whacking. You got a little bit of violence in you, huh?" he teased with
a grin.

Ashela tried for a moment to look dignified, but standing there, panting
for breath with her skirts gathered up in one hand and a shoe in the
other, she couldn't help it - she started to laugh. "I suppose I do.
Ugh! Horrible creatures. Nothing should have that many _legs_." She
turned over her shoe and made a disgusted face, then scraped off the
remains of the dead spinner on the edge of one of the chests. "There had
better be something interesting in that chest to make this worth it.
Heaps of jewels, at least, or the scandalous diaries of a long-ago
Weyrwoman."

"Ha! I sure hope so! I wouldn't mind digging through a whole bunch of
chests if I knew we were gonna find a spicy diary!" G'zan laughed. Then
he looked down at the chest that had sent the spinners scurrying, and at
the rest of the room they still needed to dig through, and scratched his
head. "Well... I guess that's exactly what we're gonna do, only without
knowing there's gonna be a payoff, huh? Well, that's alright. There's so
much junk here that we've gotta find _something_ fun, at least!"

"You have a very optimistic outlook on life." Ashela approached the
chest cautiously with her shoe in one hand, at the ready. She'd had the
sudden horrible thought that it might be full of a squirming nest of
spinners. Reaching out, she took the lid gingerly between her fingers
and lifted it in one quick movement.

Inside, instead of the tedious collections of kitchen utensils or dusty
scrolls that she'd expected, was something far more interesting - folded
clothes! On top was a pale creamy fabric with a delicately stitched
pattern of golden leaves and flowers, and beside it a contrasting dark
green in a shade that reminded her of the forested slopes of the
mountains around the Weyr. Ashela gave a little gasp of delight and
lifted out the light cream gown, holding it up to herself.

"Oh, dear - this is so old-fashioned, it's practically come back into
style." It was also made for a shorter woman, annoyingly - the sleeves
barely reached past her elbows - but alterations could always be made.
She twirled around. "What do you think?"

"I think it would look way better on you than it would on me, ma'am,"
G'zan answered, chortling. "But seriously now, that's a real nice dress.
It's such a nice color on you! And look at that stitching -- looks like
it's still in good shape, no picked threads or anything." He put his
hands on his hips, nodding in satisfaction, as if had picked out the
dress for her himself and was happy with his work. "Just a little bit of
work from a seamstress, and you'd have yourself a real gorgeous dress
that looks brand new. You oughtta have it, too, as a treat -- it's a
waste to let something like that just rot in here so the world never
gets to see it. I toldja we'd find something fun eventually!"

Ashela decided that she'd taken a liking to G'zan. "You did, indeed."
She folded the gown and set it to one side, then picked up the green and
shook it out with a little sigh of pleasure at the feel of the soft
fabric. "These are such good quality, we should examine every one with
the greatest care - we simply can't let them go to waste. Perhaps we'll
find something to suit you as well." She smiled. "You can wear it to
that fancy party of yours and show off your taste and sophistication."

"Taste and sophistication!" G'zan had to bite his lip to keep from
erupting into laughter. "Ma'am, if I show up looking tasteful and
sophisticated, my friends ain't gonna recognize me! But I'd sure like to
try it out, if we find something in here that maybe used to fit a guy
with shoulders like mine. I'll just tell people that you rubbed off on
me some, and now I'm all polished up, like old leather made all new.
Never been excited for fancy clothes in all my life, but now I think I
really am. Let's see what all else is in here. Maybe we can both look
slick at the next Hatching Feast!"

Last updated on the April 22nd 2024

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Treasures in Unexpected Places