Oiling Onnyth

Writers: Ames, Emma
Date Posted: 15th July 2010

Characters: Cardella, Teseada
Description: Cardella helps Teseada oil Onnyth as part of her candidate duties.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 9, day 25 of Turn 5

Cardella

Teseada

Cardella was worried she was going to be late. She'd finished up her
tasks and knew she was to report to Teseada, the weyrwoman's second,
for her next round of chores. She was nervous and uncertain,
especially knowing she was going to be dealing with a gold rider.

"Good day," Cardella said as she arrived at designated location and
took in the brown haired figure. Why she didn't look at that much
older than Cardella herself. Even as she pondered the youthful
appearance of the rider, Cardella nervously twisted her hands
together, waiting for the weyrwoman to speak.

"Good day to you, candidate..." Teseada waited for the girl to provide her
name, she couldn't refer to her as 'hey you' whilst oiling a dragon. Not
when you could get as much oil on yourself by the end of it.

Cardella heard the slight pause, almost questioning and she realized
she had not given the weyrwoman her name. "Cardella," she sputtered
nervously. "I'm Cardella." She bit down on her lip, worried that she
wold be reprimanded for forgetting her name to someone so important.

Teseada nodded in acknowledgment. "You're here to help me with oiling Onnyth
today. Have you helped with this before?"

"No, ma'am, I haven't," Cardella replied, quietly. She glanced up at
the weyrwoman and noted once again just how young she looked. She
wasn't sure why that surprised her, but she'd always thought the women
who rode the golds would be older for some reason. Turning her gaze
back down to her hands, she waited to see how hard this task was going
to be.

"Right." Teseada picked up an oil paddle. "You take one of these," and she
waved the paddle gently, "Dip it into the oil pot, then spread it on
Onnyth's hide. You need to try and get an even coating all over, and
especially on itchy places. She'll tell me where they are and I'll let you
know."

Cardella watched the weyrwoman's motions and listened attentively to
her explanation. "Yes, ma'am," she replied with the courtesy that had
been drilled into her in her family's small hold. Reaching for a
paddle, she dipped it into the jar and turned to face the golden
dragon, Onnyth. Cardella gulped. She was immense. How was she ever
going to accomplish this task. She took a tentative step forward with
the paddle in hand. Without a doubt she was going to have to get used
to being around the dragons. Hopefully, that day would come sooner,
rather than later.

"I'm just going to oil you now," Cardella whispered as she approached,
not really sure whether she should speak to the dragon or not.
Deciding that the tail might perhaps be easiest first, as she surely
had no idea how she would oil Onnyth's back, Cardella used the paddle
to smear the oils onto the smooth dragon hide. She glanced to Teseada
to see if she was doing it correctly.

}:Tell her she can go a little harder,:{ Onnyth commented to her rider.

Those words were duly repeated to the candidate by Teseada. "She likes to
feel what you are doing," explained her rider. "She says that feels good."

"Okay," Cardella answered quietly, getting more oil on the paddle and
rubbing it into the dragon's hide with a firmer grasp. She watched in
case the dragon would swish her tail in anger or agitation. She didn't
want to hurt Onnyth.

When she was finished with the lower part of her tail, she glanced
back at Teseada, "Am I supposed to do her whole hide?" She asked,
figuring such a task might take hours considering how big the dragon
was.

"We'll do all of her," Teseada stressed the we part of the sentence. "It
surprising how quickly two pwople working as a team can deal with this
dragon of mine."

Cardella breathed a huge sigh of relief. She had thought she had to do
it all on her own. But instead she would actually get to work
side-by-side with the weyrwoman. Getting more of the oily substance,
Cardella worked it into Onnyth's hide.

"She's very beautiful," Cardella whispered as she reached out to touch
the dragon. She was surprised that the dragon's hide was not rough,
but rather smooth, almost like a sturdy leather. Cardella quickly
pulled back her fingers and ducked her head, uncertain if she should
have done what she'd done.

Onnyth turned her head to gaze at Cardella. }:Tell her thank you,:{ she said
to her rider.

"She thanks you for your compliment."

"Oh," Cardella looked at Teseada with a bit of shock on her face.
Then, she looked a bit sheepish. "I forget sometimes that they can
hear us. I wish we could hear them," she added the last wistfully.
What would it be like to hear a dragon speaking to you? The thought
had intrigued her ever since she'd arrived at the Weyr. Maybe, just
maybe, if she was lucky enough she would find out one day.

"I'm sure that one day, on the sands you will hear your own dragon call to
you, just as Onnyth here called out to me as we found each other."

Cardella's face held a wistful look. Perhaps what Teseada said would
be true. Maybe she would Impress a dragon. What a day that would be.
Cardella continued to work on oiling Onnyth's hide quietly as she
mulled over how her life had changed in recent times. Oiling the
massive dragon was not an easy task, but Cardella, who was used to
working hard, did not complain. As she finished the section she had
been working on, she turned to find Teseada.

"What next?" She asked, knowing they had covered a large portion of
the dragon already.

"We're just about done," the goldrider told her. "Just need to do under her
wings and then she'll want to head off and show the rest of the Weyr how
good she can look."

"Okay," Cardella replied quietly, even with a hint of smile on her
face at the thought of the golden queen showing off to the rest of the
Weyr.

Working diligently, she oiled under the right wing until it shone just
as golden as the rest of the dragon's body. It was hard to believe
that they had been working for so long, but as Cardella stepped back,
she was amazed that the job was nearly done. She stretched her
shoulders a bit to ease the slight tiredness of her muscles from the
hard work. It actually felt good to know she had helped with an
important task.

"What do you think?" She asked, turning to find Teseada.

"She's done," Teseada stood back, relaxing for a moment. "And that's us done
too. thank you for your help today Cardella. It has been appreciated, by
both of us."

"You're very welcome," Cardella added before cleaning the oiling
paddle and putting away the supplies. With a final glance and nod
towards Teseada, Cardella left to tend to her other duties.

Last updated on the July 17th 2010

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Oiling Onnyth