Good Grief!

Writers: Ames, Len, Suzee
Date Posted: 22nd March 2011

Characters: G'wen, K'ale, Cardella, D'arvn, Two old aunties (NPCs), R'yal (NPC)
Description: Cardela and G'wen go to the bathing pools after working out and in walks K'ale and a few other men, much to Cardella's horror!
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 1, day 21 of Turn 6

K'ale

Cardella

D'arvn

G'wen leaned down on the wall, a dripping mess. Lifting weights
wasn't getting any easier, he mused to himself. If anything, it just
all seemed to be harder and harder. But after that poor performance
with the firesacks the other day, he needed to build all the muscle he
could. And he was sure it was no accident that he had been assigned to
fill the bloody sacks more often as well, no doubt as a way to make
sure he was getting a bit of muscle on his otherwise slender body.

"Cardella, throw down that dumbbell, let's go get a nice soak before
those greens of ours wake up." Ah yes, a nice bath would feel really
good. He looked over to the girl who looked like he felt.

She was hot, sweaty and tired and a bath sounded like sheer bliss.
Grinning, she nodded. "Sounds like a plan!" Unlike some of the others,
Cardella had no problems with the idea of bathing with G'wen. He was
like family to her, and being a greenrider like her, she knew that
their interest in each other simply didn't _go_ that way.

Dropping the dumbell back into place, she draped her sweaty arms
around his midsection. "Lead the way, my friend!"

He mock staggered out of the room and across the Weyrling commons.
"Hang on a moment," he said, stopping at the linen closet and getting
a handful of towels. Giving her his best innocent look, he piled all
of them into her arms and led the way to the inner lake.

There were only a few dragons about, getting washed by a new set of
Candidates. The boy led Cardella past them and into one of the narrow
passageways that led to a bathing pool. When they got to the steamy
room, there were only two older women on the far end of the pool.

"This okay with you?," the boy asked Cardella, buried as she was under
the towels. Feeling slightly guilty, he took them off of her and
motioned for her to turn away as he quickly undressed and slid into
the pool. Being Holder-bred, he figured she might be as shy around
fellow bathers as his other former Holder friends were. But the women
should have been familiar to her, both being kitchen workers. G'wen
smiled and nodded hello to them.

Cardella glanced around and smiled to the kitchen workers she'd knew
well. She'd tried hard to get over her shyness when it came to the
baths, but having spent turns being taught that women did not bathe with
men, it was still difficult at times. G'wen was different, almost like
part of her family. Still, she quickly glanced away while G'wen
undressed. Setting down the rest of the towels, she hurriedly stripped
off her own garments and darted to the pool of water as fast as she
could.

Once she was under the water, Cardella felt much more at ease. "This
is great, G'wen. I'm glad you suggested it."

"Isn't it?" He floated on his back for a moment, letting his sore
shoulders get a soak. "And to think, we have all this to do again
tomorrow." And the next day, and the next. He couldn't see how the
two of them would get out of muscle training anytime soon.

She loved the pool and since it was so empty of others she didn't feel
the need to cling to the side where she'd left her things. Pushing
off, she moved around the pool until she found one of the warmer spots
against the far wall. "This is a great spot, G'wen. I can almost feel
the heat seeping out of the stones here." She sighed as she sank down
in the water up to her neck.

He joined her and sighed happily as the extra warm stones worked on
his sore muscles. "Is there anything better than a good soak?" he
murmured happily.

K'ale had worked out hard too and was ready for nice hot water. He
made his way toward the pool nearest the weyrling barracks hoping to
find some peace and quiet. When he got there he saw a couple of older
women at one end and G'wen and Cardella at the other. He smiled and
sat down on the bench to take off his boots. "Hey guys. Is the water
warm?"

"It's brilliant," G'wen said. "Were you getting hot and sweaty today too?"

Cardella had looked up at the sound of footsteps and then nearly
froze in place. **Of _all_ people to come in,** she thought with a
groan. K'ale was one of her best friends, but in a different way than
G'wen. G'wen was like her, but K'ale, K'ale was good looking and... she
had to tell herself to stop thinking of her friend in that way.

She closed her eyes and stifled another groan at G'wen's words, even
as she watched K'ale remove his boots. **Good grief**, she thought,
**I can't watch this!**

"Yeah," he said and then his head disappeared for a moment as he
reached back and grabbed his shirt to pull it over his head and off.
It was damp from his sweat and probably didn't smell good either. He
draped it over the bench next to him and figured he wouldn't want to
put it back on after his bath. Weyr raised he didn't think anything of
disrobing in front of others in the bathing chamber.

He stood turned around dropping his trews and under garment and
putting them with the shirt turned and walked the few steps to the
pool. Slipping into the water he sighed. "Oh that feels good," he said
before he submerged. Then grabbing some sweet sand let it foam and
began to scrub watching the bubbles float away.

Cardella squeaked and quickly turned away. At least she thought she
was far enough away that he couldn't see her. She tried to smile at
the two kitchen workers who she was now looking at. They, however,
were busy admiring K'ale as he removed his garments. **Stop acting
like such a wimp,** she tried to tell herself. Gulping she chanced a
glance over to where K'ale was and _immediately_ turned away as her
cheeks infused with color. Even that one glimpse had been far too much
even in that tiny glance.

"So it's not just Ima who's big then, eh?" G'wen teased K'ale as the
boy completely disrobed. Being he had seen hundreds of naked
men in his life at the Weyr, G'wen wasn't fazed at the site of a naked
K'ale. Shards, he saw the boy naked most everyday in the barracks,
but he couldn't resist a tease or two when he saw that the two women
were looking at him like Lien did to a nice pastry.

K'ale was confused for a moment then "Average" was all he mumbled
before dunking to both hide his embarrassment and rinse his hair.

G'wen snorted, as one of the old aunties laughed and said something to
her neighbor about K'ale. Then he saw poor Cardella's face. "You
okay?"

She was going to reply when she heard more footsteps approaching.

Another man walked in, his arm draped over the shoulder of his friend
as he chuckled a bit loudly. "Ah, looks like we've got some company. I
think we'll be joining you! Name's R'yal." He said by way of
introduction as he turned and began stripping off his clothes to head
into the warm bathing waters.

Cardella stifled another groan and sank down lower in the waters. This
was turning into a sheer nightmare. _This_ was why she normally got up
before the others and hurried to the pools in the wee hours of the
morning. "I'm fine," she managed to replied though somewhat clenched
teeth as she looked away from the new rider who was carelessly removing
his clothing as if nothing could bother him in all the world.

G'wen sidled up closer to Cardella. He would have hugged her but
figured his naked body touching her's was the last thing she needed.
Instead he butted his head against her shoulder and whispered, "don't
worry, Car, you'll get used to it, in time." In a slightly louder
voice he reminded her, "we're green riders, remember? We'll never see
a weyr with our own bathing pool."

"I'm D'arvn," said the other blue rider as he too shed his clothes and
eased into the warm water. "Oh, glad it's warm." He was used to the
River Bluff climate and this whole place was just too cold. "I'm on
transport duty and am staying the night tonight." He looked around at
the faces some of them looked pretty young. "Are you weyrlings?" he
asked.

"Yes," said K'ale glad for the change of subject. He scooted closer to
Cardella to make room for the two new guys. He nodded to each in turn.

"I'm K'ale and these are G'wen and Cardella. We're weyrlings. Junior
Weyrlings," he added.

G'wen nodded hello to them, more than glad to let K'ale do all the
talking for them. He then turned back to the only young female in the
bunch and mouthed, "you're okay," to reassure her.

"D'arvn and I are good friends," R'yal told the group, "It's nice to
meet you all. So what dragons did you all Impress?"

Cardella gave G'wen a weak smile, even as she tried to find a means to
cover herself a bit better, which wasn't easy to do. How was she
_ever_ going to adjust to this? She smiled weakly over to K'ale and
then tried to answer the question the rider had posed, but found her
throat had gone too dry and nothing but a garbled sound came out. She
_really_ wished the water would rise up and swallow her even as she
tried to sink in a bit lower.

K'ale could see how stiff Cardella was but it didn't occur to him why
in that moment. "I got brown and Neath and Awenth are both green.
Though Neath will probably be the biggest green you've ever seen if
she keeps growing at her current rate." He smiled at G'wen.

R'yal nodded to them all, but he turned his attentions more to G'wen
and Cardella, "So you both Impressed green? I've a partiality towards
greens, being a bluerider and all." He winked in their direction,
before he looked directly at G'wen. "My preferences run a _very_
distinct way," he eyed the young male greenrider with a look of pure
interest.

Cardella swallowed with difficulty the moment the blue-rider started
talking and looked directly at her. Oh Faranth's sake, why had she
come here in the first place? When he turned his full interest towards

G'wen, Cardella couldn't help but scoot in the _other_ direction, as
far away from the blueriders gaze as possible. She bumped right into
K'ale's arm and gave a little squeak.

"Oh, really?" G'wen did catch the look he was getting but at the moment was more concerned with how to comfort Cardella. If only he had caught Odyne on the way out of the Weyrling barracks. That way poor Cardella would have had another young female around. And besides, he was only a scrawny ugly little thing, no one worth their salt would actually be interested in him.

D'arvn could see the girl was quite nervous in the company of so many men but that she'd scooted near the young brown rider. He smirked before turning his attention to the other young rider. He reminded him strongly of his own dear U'fouinn and his eyes softened.

K'ale looked over at Cardella and then at G'wen and back at Cardella. "Are you ok?" he asked.

Cardella didn't know _what_ to say now. "I'm fine," she whispered, glancing at him and then quickly glancing away before she _saw_ anything. Her cheeks flamed with heat. "I just wish we had more private baths," she muttered to herself, hating the fact that she couldn't adjust to life in the weyr as easily as some others. She was more embarrassed with herself than anything else.

R'yal scooted on the bench closer towards G'wen, all but ignoring the others. "So, G'wen, right? How close to reaching senior weyrlinghood are you?" R'yal smiled as his eyes raked a bit brazenly across what he could see of the boy's body.

"Just a few sevendays now," the boy answered, feeling a bit confused by the man's attention. He instinctively brought his knees up to his chest and hugged them, feeling a bit more covered up that way.

K'ale really wasn't fooled by her 'I'm fine." }:Awenth says hers is unhappy and a little scared. She is worried.:{ **I'll try and get her out of here.** he said. Finally realizing what was bothering her. He shook his own head at his lunkheadedness. He turned away from the girl and levered himself out of the water. "Nice to meet you guys" he said as he reached for a towel "But I'm tired." He held the towel strategically and tossed a second one toward Cardella. "You ready to go?" he asked.

She felt K'ale move and wanted to cover her face with her hands and sink low into the water. Then, thankfully, he tossed her a towel. She turned and caught it just before it landed in the water. Her eyes were full to overflowing with her thanks as she looked towards him. Her smile was genuine. "Yes," she stated, still a bit nervous, but feeling more confident now that she had a means to escape. "You coming, G'wen?" She rose and quickly wrapped the towel around her. She didn't care if it got wet, it gave her the protection and confidence she needed to get out of the pool.

The smallest of the boys watched her and K'ale get out with no small confusion. Should he stay and enjoy the hot baths? He really didn't feel like getting out at the moment, plus Neath was still sleeping so there was no reason to get out. But then again, he didn't want to be left behind by his friends. But...if he stayed then maybe it would give
Cardella and K'ale a better chance to become 'acquainted.' He hadn't missed the odd little looks those two had been shooting each other's direction lately. And if she hooked up with K'ale, then there would be no place for a guy like J'nev in her life anymore. But then again, this blue rider was eyeing G'wen in a way that didn't make him feel particularly comfortable. What should he do?

Out of the corner of his eye, one of the older women sighed and closed her eyes, saying, "there's nothing like good long soaks for these old bones."

That decided it. Those two blue riders wouldn't try anything dangerous whilst the two auntie's were around. "I'll stay. Catch you at dinner?" As he said it, he hid his lips and chin and part of his nose behind his knees and looked over to the two riders still in the pool close to him with big eyes.

Last updated on the April 26th 2011

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Good Grief!