Too Late to Apologise

Writers: Jane, Kaysea
Date Posted: 26th January 2008

Characters: K'hetah, Xara
Description: Xara makes an awkward introduction with the new Cyclone Wingleader.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 8, day 13 of Turn 4

With her back to the door she pushed hard against it with her backside, hoping there was no one on the other side waiting in line for their meal. With a tray of piping hot wherry pies in her hands, she needed to set them down as soon as possible. The second sitting of the night always seemed to be busier than the first, and tonight was no exception.
She managed to manoeuvre through the doorway; but came a cropper as she turned towards the table and bumped hard into a towering mass of solid body.

Tray and pies parted company, the tray clattered to the floor, the pies small missiles thudding against the Wingleader she had bumped into. "Oh Sir! Oh shaffit! I am _so_ sorry."

She whipped the cloth from her shoulder and tried to wipe the small meat juice stains from his tunic, doing not much more than smearing them further across his chest and stomach.

"Hot," K'hetah said with a gulp. "Stop - stop." He gathered the woman's hands up with one of his and with the other pulled his tunic away from his body, wishing fleetingly for the heavier clothing he would have been wearing in his former home.

"Oh shards! I am so sorry Wingleader." Xara could feel the heated tears of embarrassment filling her eyes. "Please, let me get you some numbweed from the kitchens." she turned and fled back to her sanctuary in the kitchen, grateful for a brief moment of escape. "Spilled the tray!" she called out to Aveery with a grimace. "Need some numbweed, I scored some poor Wingleader."

"You know where it is!" he called back, and turned back to the tray he was putting into the oven.

It didn't take her long to retrieve the pot and make her way cautiously back into the dining hall. She flushed brightly when she took a good look at the man, he was the new Wingleader for Cyclone Wing, she remembered one of the other kitchen girls pointing him out to her friend when he first arrived.

K'hetah had got his tunic off by the time the young woman returned and was unbuttoning his shirt to survey the damage, though at least getting the hot meat and (he had to admit) very tempting looking gravy away from his skin by lifting the tunic should have helped. He certainly wasn't going to be scarred for life.

"I think I'll live," he said, peering at the red patches on his chest and stomach. "Though some people are going to go hungry now that I've ruined a whole tray of pies."

"The pies will be replaced very shortly." Xara shook her head, "Don't give them a moments thought. But you, Wingleader - shards, I'm so sorry." She still couldn't believe how clumsy she had been. She held out the pot of numbweed, "Use some of this, it'll deaden the stinging.
Though you may feel it again when next you bathe..." she finished awkwardly as a mental image appeared in her head of the man in his bathing chamber. She could feel the colour flushing over her face and dropped her gaze in confusion.

"Thanks." Left to his own devices he might have managed without numbweed but to refuse her help would only have embarrassed her more.
He used the wooden spatula in the pot and deftly smeared a light coating of the salve over the vividly red patches on his chest and abdomen.
"Much better." He looked down at the spatula in his hand, knowing that the kitchens probably just kept reusing the same one but his Turns of healer training made it impossible for him to just dunk the thing back into the pot. Cross-contamination. Instead he wiped it clean on the flap of his shirt (which would be in contact with the numbweed on his body soon enough anyway) and pushed it into his pocket.

"Can, can I get you something else?" Xara asked, pulling the fringe back down, the fringe that she kept meaning to have trimmed. Today though, for the most part she was glad to have the red curtain to cover her face, it went some way to hide the embarrassment she was feeling. "I'll bring you something to eat, if you'll just show me where you're sitting," she offered, still not willing to meet his gaze.

"I wasn't," the bronzerider said. "Or hadn't, rather." He looked down at the pie-embellished tunic and the stained shirt. "I think I'll go and change." Beyond his feet were the remains of a tray of pies and he probably wasn't helping by standing there. The sooner he moved off the sooner it could be cleared away. "Don't worry. I'll come back and grab something light before afternoon drills."

"Once again Wingleader, I do apologise," she said, as he turned to go.
She looked at the mashed up pies that lay smeared on the ground, and was relieved to see two drudges appear with buckets, pans, brushes and mops to clear away the mess.

She glanced across the room and watched as her 'victim' left the cavern.
What an introduction, she thought as she turned to return to the kitchen.

Last updated on the January 27th 2008

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Too Late to Apologise