Logs:The Lady's Rescue
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| RL Date: 13 March, 2013 |
| Who: Nicky, Vienne |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Vienne is surrounded by snow, and Nicky rescues her from it. |
| Where: Lake Shore |
| When: Day 23, Month 3, Turn 31 (Interval 10) |
| Weather: Steady, today's snowfall sticks, creating dunes on the bowl floor. |
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| Lake Shore, High Reaches Weyr The rest of the bowl may be barren, grass barely surviving at best, but here by the lake, it's brilliantly green in the warmer months: thickening and thriving in the silty, boulder-dotted soil just before it transitions to soft sand and thence to the cool, clear water itself. A large freshwater lake fed by a low waterfall, it not only provides warm-weather bathing space for humans and dragons, but has one end fenced off as a watering hole for the livestock in the feeding grounds. The water there is often muddier than the rest of the clear lake, whose shallows drop off abruptly several yards out into deep water, and whose edge undulates against the coarse-hewn bowl wall: here close enough to just be bramble-covered rocks, there far enough away that a narrow land bridge divides the main lake from a smallish pond. Between are several rocky outcroppings that form excellent makeshift diving points, though only one -- across the bridge -- has a set of narrow, slippery, quite possibly tempting stairs. It's morning, but not too early - somewhere post-breakfast, where activity for those who must go outdoors is starting to just build up. A watery Rukbat shines through the snowflakes that flutters down from the cloud cover above, and the whole Weyr looks frosted with the deep snow that's fallen and stuck overnight. The candidates are out in force, joining other weyrworkers to help clear pathways from the living caverns to the most commonly-visited areas, and Nicky's amongst those who've made it as far as the lake. The tall candidate is shovelling snow with ease, dressed up fully in his multi-hued matching woollen set (that looks rather like it's been knitted together - badly - from various odds and ends of wool); his method is easy, practiced, and efficient. The shore itself has already been trampled by a few dragons, but the great pits and ruts of their movement through the accumulated banks doesn't make for easy human passage, nor particularly easy shoveling. Vienne is not particularly suited to either climbing through the snow nor clearing it. It would appear that she's just hopped off Oswinth's back to stand in place and talk to one of her wingmates, who isn't looking terribly thrilled at the moment. The taller woman moves away without so much as a smile for a goodbye, climbing onto her green lifemate and taking off, leaving the small bluerider with a mitten held up to hide the concerned pinch of her mouth. It's a welcome distraction that the shoveling team is inching nearer and Vienne lifts that mitten to wave at Nicky, her smile friendly if a little tight and apologetic. "Morning." "M-morning, miss!" Nicky was shovelling at an angle to where Vienne is standing, but her greeting makes him pause long enough to offer her a casual salute, of sorts - mittened fingers touched to his temple, at any rate. He observes the situation and the snow around the petite bluerider, head canted thoughtfully to one side. "W-would you like me to, um, c-come d-dig you out of that s-snow, miss? Um... i-if you're stuck, I-I can be there in a j-jiffy." Vienne looks down as if she's only just now realized that she is, indeed, standing in the rather isolated depression of a broad dragon footprint, the masses of snow around her easily as high as her knees. She could get through, certainly, or she could climb back on Oswinth and let him carry her away, but the bluerider looks around with a laugh. "I'm stranded, sir!" He's shoveling anyway. They might as well make a game of it. Her mittens clasp together, held to her chest in hope of rescue as she grins at the candidate. Nicky laughs at the reaction he gets from Vienne, and starts scooping away snow as he heads in her direction. That smooth rhythm of his has him clearing a path in no time, so he's soon enough cleared a path, just for her! When the last bit of snow is hefted aside, Nicky grins, panting slightly from the exertion of digging so fast, and then bends at the waist in a deep bow, with his sweeping hand indicating the newly-made escape path. "F-free to go, miss." As he straightens up again he chuckles, leaning forward on the handle of his shovel. Vienne chuckles a bit more hesitantly as the young man goes to work. "You don't really... have to," she points out. Or maybe he does, if shoveling is his job today. "At least, not on my account." Oswinth peers his head over her shoulder to watch the candidate at his task and Vienne kicks her boot idly at the edges of her footprint island. "I get the feeling you've done this before," she chuckles, impressed with the speed he displays and trying not to notice the way he pants afterwards. She bows her head to him as she steps free of her snowy confines, onto the path he's just cleared. "Thank you kindly, sir," she says with a playful dose of formaily and the little bob of a fake curtsey. His breath comes back quickly enough, and Nicky grins. "Oh, y-yes, miss. Sh-shovelling runner m-muck or snow, it all p-pretty much the same thing, r-really. A-all in the wrist a-action." He gives a little demonstration: scoop, lift, flick. "Um, a-and we'd get snowed in e-every winter, b-back home, m-more than here. So, um, y-yeah. L-lots of practice." Nodding his head, he then offers mitten-clad hand to the rider, looking up over her shoulder at the blue dragon and giving him a gap-toothed grin, too. "I'm Nicky, miss. G-glad to have r-rescued you, th-though I'm sure it's, um, n-nothing your lifemate c-couldn't h-have done." Nicky's manner of speech strikes her and Vienne blinks at the candidate, head tipped to one side as she looks him over. He doesn't appear to be cold, in fact there's every chance he's steaming after all his hard work, and yet... "You must be freezing," she guesses with sympathy in her easy smile, a little dart of confusion tugging her eyebrows together. But the expression morphs into a brighter grin as she takes his hand, one mitten to another, finishing off the game of damsel and rescuer. "Thank you, Nicky," she corrects herself with a bob of her head. "Vienne. And this is Oswinth." Who hasn't moved at all. Maybe he's waiting for a rescue, too. Freezing? Nicky looks confused, shaking his head. "N-no, miss V-Vienne... Oswinth. I'm not, um, f-freezing." He adjusts his lean on the shovel, scratching at his chin ineffectually with his wool-clad fingers. "Um... a-are you cold? I could, um, l-lend you my scarf, i-if you need it?" It's long - long enough that even on Nicky, who's all of 6' and still going up, it hangs down near enough to his knees. "O-or I could help w-walk you to the c-caverns, if you'd pref-fer?" She doesn't actually say 'oh' as realization sets in that it's not the shiver of cold that's making Nicky stutter, but there is a quiet shift in Vienne's smile, a touch more understanding that deepens the curve of it. As for herself, she tucks her elbows tight to her sides for a moment, an approximation of a shiver, and laughs lightly. "I'm always cold. But I haven't been out too long. It hasn't gotten into my bones yet. Today." The mention of his scarf, however, make her smirk, eyeing it's excessive length. "Thank you," she says with a refusing shake of her head as she reaches out to take one of the dangling ends, checking out it's unusual construction. "It's so long. Did you make it yourself?" "Naw," Nicky says as he starts unwinding the length of it from around his neck, starting from the end not being held by Vienne; it's doubled up twice, which makes it even longer than at first appearance. Once it's all off and bundled into his arms with the shovel leaning up against his side, he holds it out for her to take. "My g-granma made it. The m-mittens and, um, hat g-go with it." It's kind of hard to tell as much, though - the only thing the three have in common is a lack of finesse and a badly put-together colour scheme, if the hodge-podge of woollen hues and types can even be called that. "Th-this'll wrap 'round you, um, p-plenty of times, so you'll be n-nice and warm." Vienne didn't really mean for him to give her the whole thing and a hitch of embarrassment is found in the twisted press of her lips, the hunch of little shoulders in her wool coat. But her arms lift to take the basalisk of a scarf, fumbling to sort it out. "That's very sweet," she says, probably about his grandmother but possibly for his generous offer. "Does she live here at the Weyr?" She tucks the scarf around the back of her neck, hair trapped by it, and begins attempting to loop the endless thing around herself, a laugh escaping as the loops just keep coming. Nicky is more than happy to lend a hand in the scarf-looping, if allowed to do so. He unfolds his coat collar to keep the cold off the back of his neck, and doesn't look any worse for wear, for losing his scarf. "Sh-she's back home, in, um, F-Far Reach, miss Vienne. A-all my family's there, um, except for my uncle. H-he's posted here. That's how I ended up here too, miss, until K'del asked me t-to be a candidate." Those three syllables are injected with as much pride as the teen can manage. Vienne certainly accepts the help, ducking her head to make it easier, at least in theory, since her head is hardly all that high to begin with. There's a laugh as the scarf slowly begins to become an enormous, dwarfing collar she can barely get her chin over. "Far Reach," she repeats, stretching her neck to try to make room. And then all the pride gushing out of the candidate breaks Vienne's expression into a bright, toothy smile. "Congratulations. Are you the first of your family to stand?" "Yup, f-first in a long time... n-no-one that I can remember's e-ever been Searched before. We d-don't get many riders at the h-holding, and, um, we d-don't r-really, um, t-tend to leave the holding either, miss Vienne," Nicky explains, giving the scarf a final plump before he steps back and lets the bluerider do any more adjusting she'd like. "Th-that's why my f-folks are kinda, um, a-angry with me. F-for being here, f-for accepting Search..." "They're angry?" Vienne questions with a sorry lift of her brows. "Not proud?" She pats her hands around the mass of the awkwardly knit scarf before her mittens all away. Her neck will indeed be very warm now. "Are you sure they're not just... I don't know. Missing you? Worrying about you? I think sometimes, when people are feeling something they're trying not to feel, it does create a certain tension. Perhaps it's not really directed at you." "I c-can't truthfully say why, miss Vienne. They've n-never been so k-keen on dragonriders, um, I-I think because m-maybe a generation or two ago,um, a d-dragon ate some of the f-flocks? I dunno, miss." Nicky shrugs his shoulders, with an expression that reads 'not my business'. "Plus they, um, th-think Weyrs are debau... deborchous? Debaucherous? N-not good places, a-anyway." A shrill whistle pierces the air, and Nicky turns to look at its source - a candidate who's trying to not only get his attention, but for him to go join them, too. "Um, m-miss Vienne? Um, E-Emmy over there wants to s-see me, and, um, I'd like t-to go, if I may?" "Debaucherous, yes," Vienne says, affirming the word that gave him trouble only to pause and laugh. "Well, not that they necessarily are debaucherous. Some people, perhaps." She rolls her eyes to the side, a wry curl on her lips like she can probably name a few more disreputable persons without trouble. The whistle catches her attention though, and she smiles quickly to Nicky, bobbing her head atop the mountain of wool. "Of course," she tells him. "Thank you for the scarf. I can leave it in the barracks for you." Oswinth is already moving off, taking a direct route toward the bowl while Vienne is left to take the longer path across the shoveled snow. "It was nice to meet you, Nicky." "And it was l-lovely to m-meet you too, miss Vienne... lovely to have r-rescued you." Nicky chuckles, giving the the bluerider a wink. "I-I hope you stay warm enough.H-have a good day, miss Vienne, O-Oswinth." Even though he's moving off, the dragon gets his farewell, too; Vienne gets another half-bow with a flourish of Nicky's hand - an echo of his entrance. Then, with his shovel in hand, the candidate turns smartly and wanders back along the pathway he's cleared, to go join his peers in digging out some more. |
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