Difference between revisions of "Logs:Settling"

Living Cavern, High Reaches Weyr

Stalactites hang high above this enormous cavern like a jagged chandelier or an inversion of the Spires themselves, but shadows cling to them instead of light. Below lie great tables arranged in rows, each large enough to serve a fighting wing, while in the nooks and alcoves around the cavern's edge sit more sensibly-sized tables, from six- and eight-seaters down to intimate spots for just a couple of diners. The only really open space is around the kitchen entrance, smelling of food and rarely quiet, and by the nearby serving tables with their long buffet of the day's offerings.

Tapestries on the smooth walls -- some faded and others newly woven -- only slightly mute the sea of sound when a meal is in full swing, but they add cheerfulness augmented by the glowlight from wall sconces and the centerpieces of each table. Still, shadows always creep along the ceiling and into the mouths of the exits -- the myriad small hallways at one end of the cavern and, at the other, the twisting tunnel to the bowl near an array of coathooks and and hatracks -- and late at night, when the glows are allowed to dim, the chamber can seem very dark indeed.

It's evening, which means food, which means Niena's there. She has her usual mug of klah and a large bow of stew with bread to go along, and she's heading for the nearest empty table she can muster. A very tiny firelizard on her wrist is not making matters easier, chattering for food as she is.

While it's not /late/, it's late enough that much of Snowstrike has come and gone. Leova, stringy-haired and crispy-clothed after a dousing in the lake and drying in the sun, is poking at her piece of bread. In fact, she's ripped its insides out.

Madilla emerges from the Inner Caverns still in her active-duty apron, to join the end of the (admittedly, not very long at this hour) queue at the buffet, her nose sniffing appreciatively at the tureen of stew, and the bread beside it. She begins gathering her meal, to intent upon this to look much around.

Niena doesn't find any empty tables, but she sees Leova. With her usual keen misperception of danger, she asks cheerfully "Mind if I sit here?"

Leova's eyes lift. And she looks at Niena. And she looks at that bitty thing she keeps dragging around with her, or maybe it's dragging Niena around with /her/, one way or the other. But it's still a baby, so: "Go ahead." She points with her crust. There. Across from her.

Madilla's progression through the dinner queue is quick, and she manages to serve herself without too much delay. She tucks her cutlery into the pocket of her apron rather than balance it along with her mug and stew, and, this feat managed, shoulders slumped tiredly, she turns to face the cavern with a deep breath.

Niena sits down and begins eating, slipping bites to the little critter in between her own. She notices Madilla and nods toward the empty seats around; a tacit invitation. When she's eaten enough she asks conversationally "Did you have fun at the gather?" "Except for the last part," Leova says, mouth pulling to one side. "Or, no. Almost the last. It got better, at least," and why not, she confirms the invitation with a beckon of her own. Sometimes, it's /good/ to have a healer at one's table.

Relief floods over Madilla's face; finding an appropriate seat in a still-unfamiliar living cavern is an important step in every meal. Her apron clanpping against her leg with the weight of her spoon within, she takes several long-legged strides to reach the table in question, a grateful smile on face as she sets down her mug and bowl. "Thanks," she says, as she sits.

Niena nods. "I wish I'd gotten to the booths before they closed; there was some really pretty jewelry at one. Most of the dances were too fast for me to try, but it was fun watching. What all did you do besides dance?" She also looks more closely at Madilla. "I think I saw you there too. Did you enjoy it?"

"Which jewelry was that?" Leova wonders, even as she idly tortures the bread in the background. "Mostly... looked around, ate, caught up with some people. But. I don't know. Something about the Gather." She lifts her shoulder, lets it fall, distracts herself with a smile back at Madilla. "Yes, do tell."

Madilla rescues her spoon out of her apron, now seated, lowering it towards her bowl. Her cheeks flush, head bobbing, as Niena looks at her. "I was there," she agrees, glancing from one rider to the next. "It was fun. I'd never been to a gather before. A few girls tried to show me how to dance, and a bronzerider bought me a drink. I helped Journeywoman Delifa with some shopping, too."

Niena says helpfully "The things at the booth the Weyrleader and Persie were at. Just near where the firelizards hatched. I got so wrapped up in this one," she indicates the now-sleeping Rinata, "that I forgot to go look again." She listens politely to Madilla, then asks "What kind of things do Journeymen shop for?"

"Sounds like you took care of the whole list, if there were one, for everything girls should do at their first Gather," Leova says, putting a little admiration into her voice. She could go on, but: "Not helpful, Niena. What things? What booth?" Her glance will follow her wingmate's gesture to the hatchling, but quickly dart back. No more. Not after that threat.

Madilla's eyes flick towards the firelizard not with outright object-lust, though it's a close run thing. Instead of commenting on that, however, she turns to grin back at Leova. "I thought so. I just wish I'd-- I hadn't realised how important it would be to have marks to spend. Delifa? She-- bought some wool, and some sweets for her nieces and nephews, and a painted wall hanging. Very pretty."

Niena says "Lots of gemstones -- very shiny. And gold and silver jewelry. Some of it was already made; others I think they would make into things for you if you ordered it. The Weyrleader got some really pretty stones on something." There is no career for jewelry-making in this bluerider. She nods along with Leova's assessment. "It sounds like you had fun. What did the wall-hanging look like?"

"All those entrancing things, aren't there," says Leova with the sympathy of one who still scrimps and saves for what marks she has, if maybe not so short as an apprentice. She sets down a little ball of bread wadded up like a pill, moves on to the next. "At least dancing's free, some of the food, and looking.... well. Next time, hm? Maybe not something as shiny as what Niena's talking about, but I admit, don't have much of an idea of what apprentices get."

Madilla finally manages to get a spoonful of her stew to her mouth, which means it takes her a few moments to respond to the comments of her meal companions. "A mountainscape, I think. It may have been of High Reaches; I don't really know. She talked about getting it framed, but I don't know if she organised that at the gather or not. She sent me off to have fun, instead." Stirring at the stew with her spoon, she continues, "I don't-- well, yes, there's plenty you can do for free. We don't get much, and it's wasteful, to just spend it on..." Baubles and trinkets, her tone and expression suggest, though she doesn't spell it out.

Niena nods. "I suspect I will continue to forget to get back to the booths until after they've closed. It seems to be my regret after every gather. But someday I'll get something pretty to go with that gorgeous dress E'dre made for me. And it did turn out that the meat I bought was a good investment."

"It is," Leova agrees on a slow exhalation. "Don't mean it's not pretty, though, and something more to remember it by..." But then she pushes the wistfulness out of her voice, glances again at her friend's firelizard. "Is it all right, having her? Not too much of an upset, Masoth doesn't mind? At least you'll get to trade her eggs, if you find them, down the road. Who knows, a booth could reopen just for you." Fame and fortune, built on firelizard shells!

"The dresses were lovely, too," Madilla adds in, setting down her spoon to take a sip from her mug, cheeks flushed in reminiscence. "I will have pretty things, eventually," she decides, looking back at Leova and grinning. "But I can't-- it wouldn't be fair, to hoard my marks for them now." Niena's firelizard is given another appraising glance, and the apprentice asks, adding to the questions already asked, "/Are/ they a lot of work? I would've thought yes, but I'm sure I saw some Weyrlings with them, so..."

"Why wouldn't it be fair?" Leova asks, a genuine question. Only then she interjects, "In the candidate barracks they were a pain and didn't just wake up their owners, they woke up all of us, and..." Wait. Question for Niena. Not her. She stops.

Niena also looks confused. "Why wouldn't it be fair? They're your marks. If you want to save instead of spending on bubbly pies and the like, good on you." She has the grace to blush when Leova mentions noisy firelizards during Weyrlinghood. "They are a lot of work," she admits, "Though they really are worth it. Even if Cheri kept Leova awake."

Madilla's eyes widen slightly, as if hit with sudden understanding. "That might be the noise in the dorms, here, that I can hear sometimes, then. That explains a lot." Nose wrinkling, she admits, "That would be a lot of a pain. I--" She picks up her spoon again, looking at her bowl rather than at her companions. "My family need the marks more than I do. The Weyr, and the Hall before it, care for me. I don't /need/ anything more than that."

Leova's all agreement with Niena about that Cheri, there, but then she fixes on something else, amber eyes gone narrow in thought. "So you send part of yours back to your family." /Too/, it's all but said, her lips shaping it but silent.

Niena finally figures it out. "Oh." That's all she can say at first. "I guess it's different when your whole family is at the Weyr." she adds lamely. Then, after more thought, she says to Madilla, "Maybe when she's old enough to fly I can give you one of her eggs." At this rate she'll have given away the whole clutch before the lizard is a sevenday old. "I don't need to sell them, after all."

Madilla doesn't quite say 'all' with her deer-in-the-headlights look, her half nod, her embarrassed smile, but she might as well have. "That's sweet of you," she tells Niena, earnestly, grasping onto that subject with more enthusiasm. "Maybe. Though I'll still be in the dorms, so..." Perhaps not.

Leova's gaze remains on Madilla, very focused, just looking and looking for one long moment and then another. And then she nods, perhaps some sort of confirmation. Sits back. Swallows the bread-pills, one after or another, though at least she does chew. And then all's back to normal, a corner of her mouth lifting up as she glances between them and then sets her spoon back in the bowl.

Niena sits quietly, apparently unable to figure anything to say. Finally she gets up, picks up her klah mug, and says "Anyone need anything while I'm up?"

Madilla glances up just in time to catch Leova's nod, missing the rest of the greenrider's look in her pretended enthusiasm for her stew. Her response is mere curiosity, silent, but with an eyebrow just barely raised, though the moment passes quickly and instead, she turns to shake her head at Niena. "No - but thank you. Still going, here."

"A miner good at banging holes in rock," Leova requests, quite as though Niena might have one of those on tap. And then her voice drops considerably for them both, since the bluerider doesn't seem to have moved on for all that she's still standing, "Reminds me. Keep an eye on Satiet, will you? After the... accidents."

"Sorry, no-can-do" begins Niena in a joking voice. Then when she hears Leova's more serious request, her expressions bleakens and she nods, heading off to get her klah.

Madilla lets out a laugh at Leova's request, lifting mug towards her lips for a sip that is taken while the greenrider speaks the rest of her piece. "Accidents?" she repeats, all curiosity and no understanding whatsoever. "I'm not--?" Sure. Apparently.

Leova's nod to Niena is of like tone, watching her a moment before turning back to answer the healer's question. She continues to keep her voice down, though, this while affecting an easygoing elbow-on-table demeanor. "Just the deaths. The senior weyrwomen. Two in the space of... forget exactly how long, and how often does that happen? Had better not happen to /ours/."

Niena returns to the table, then adds "Not to mention all of Satiet's accidents." She sits down and fails to drink her klah, just swishing it around in the mug.

Madilla, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, finally nods. "I'd heard about, but I ha-- it hadn't really sunk in like that. I met Satiet. She seemed nice. I /will/ keep my eyes open." She punctuates this statement with a sharp nod. "Satiet's accidents?" she repeats, as Niena returns. "Is she prone to them?"

Leova's mouth compresses, eyes gone absent. "There's that." She nudges her spoon, doesn't rise right yet after all. And then she does look up, look between them. "She's... had a few moments. More fragile than a body'd guess by talking to her, maybe. Wrist. Ankle, was it, Niena? Something about her leg, anyway." She doesn't speak of the black eye, but other caverns folk might gossip of it. "They say... the one was sick. Don't know of what. The other, an accident."

Niena nods. "A lot of trips and falls from someone who strikes me as quite graceful by her own right." She's still swirling her klah, looking at it absently.

Leova's absent interjection substitutes, "Controlled."

"Huh," says Madilla, nodding her head, and, in a brief moment of levity, "Guess she helps keep us in business. Though after this morning," hangover remedies all around, "We probably don't actually need it. Poor Satiet. It must be quite embarrassing, actually." More musingly, she continues, "Sickness and an accident. Seems..." But what it seems, she doesn't specify, going back to her stew, instead.

"You know. Hadn't looked at it that way." But Leova's wondering tone implies that Madilla could after all be right. And now she does stand, takes her plate and bowl, even, only to be paused all over again. "Seems... what?" Before she goes.

Madilla glances up at Leova, even as the greenrider stands, apparently surprised at her tone, and her words, though she does nothing more than smile. "I don't know. Surprising. Bad timing? You'd expect more deaths /during/ a pass - or not-quite-pass. Not after it seems to be finished. So: nothing, really."

Niena finally begins to drink her klah, making a face after her first gulp, but finishing it nonetheless. "I think I should try to get some flying in before it's time to sleep. See you both around?"

Niena walks to the western bowl.

Leova's tone is thoughtful, "It is. Bad timing. And it can..." she pauses, smiling now, for Niena if nothing else. "Klah should help with /that/. See you for drills." She watches the bluerider a moment or two before tugging back at that earlier thought. "From what I hear, Madilla, it can really disrupt a place. If all goes well, the headwoman will keep the internal caverns running. So there's that." But.

Madilla nods after Niena, her hand half lifting to wave in farewell, though most of her attention is captured by Leova, even then. "It would make sense, that it would disrupt things," she agrees, frowning in concentration. "Different people do things differently. Change can be hard." This, fervently said. "I feel for them, in that case. Glad it's not here."

"Same." Leova's fingers shift around the spoon but they don't quite twitch, the spoon doesn't quite clink. "You talked to any of the Telgari yet, really? The ones transitioning in?"

"I talked to C'mryn," begins Madilla, frowning again. "But that was the day I arrived, and he didn't know yet if he was getting transferred or not. But I think I did see him the other day, so I assume he was right, and it's official, now. He didn't seem thrilled." She empathises, if her tone is any indication.

"He's in Glacier," Leova at once agrees and supplies. "Weyrleader's wing," which may be helpful. "Middle Flight," which may be less so. She regards Madilla, head tipped. "Is it like what you expected? Here."

Madilla ohs, managing to come up with, "N'thei's wing," though that's apparently as much as she knows on that subject, by her expression. "I'm not really sure what I did expect," she admits, pushing her bowl away to concentrate on her mug, though it makes it no where near her mouth. "The amount of people makes me nervous. But they're still just people. They have different-- /ideas/ on things. On how you should live, I guess. But the basics are the same. I don't mind it." Brave face. Overwhelmed face, trying to be otherwise.

"Don't mind it," Leova repeats, slowly and half under her breath at that. A little while later, "Don't know how much time you were given. To get used to the thought. Search... it was /right/ /then/. Candidate barracks got full of people, some used to it, some excited, some scared stiff. A lot... trying not to be homesick, or maybe just trying not to let it show."Her voice had gotten a cadence to it, sharing the story instead of asking the questions.

"A seven," Madilla provides on cue, though she otherwise stays silent to listen, her head tilted to the side, her expression one of utmost concentration, aside from a wrinkle of her nose at, apparently, the mere idea of having so little time. "But you /did/ get used to it. All of you did." Pause. "Right?" She adds, after a moment, "Satiet said she found it overwhelming, too. And you were from a Hold before, weren't you?"

"Lucky you," Leova half-teases, but only half. "Maybe if they gave us more time, we'd run? I don't know. And yes. We pretty much did. More or less... Those of us still here, anyway." More candidates than eggs, after all. She adds candidly, "Still a few things I'm getting used to. But that's more to do with Vrianth, and with the rest of the world. And right, out Tillek way."

Madilla admits, wryly, "Actually, in some ways it was really hard having more time. Time to worry about it; to realise you're going to miss things. When I left home, they told me the night before. Do most candidates who don't Impress go home? The ones I know all did, but they had-- crafts, really, to go back to. So." She looks surprised at the idea that Leova is still getting used to things, though she doesn't press the point. "Right. Tillek."

"How hard was it? Leaving home." With Madilla not pressing the point, Leova doesn't elaborate it, just answers instead. "Some of both. Not always those I'd have guessed, either," not that she troubles the healer with names of people long gone. A reflective moment, a smile threading through her voice all of a sudden, "Not that I /had/ tried to guess. Imagination never got that far."

Madilla twirls her mug between her hands, the stem of the handle sliding between fingers, capturing her gaze as she answers. "It was hard," she admits. "But it was exciting. I'd never been very far from home before, and suddenly I was going very far indeed, and for something I'd never dreamed I'd get to do. I suppose having had that experience made leaving the Hall easier, except for the sevenday's worth of anticipation. It's hard to know." She looks up again, a smile on her face, to add, "Not something, I imagine, that would come up, until it did. Would you have stayed, regardless?"

"And something real wonderful, too, and rare," Leova murmurs after her. "Something good to be going that far for." Her voice has gotten quiet, there at the end, but when Madilla lifts that smile she can't help but respond in something like kind. "Don't know! Might have done, our senior dragonhealer, the one I'm studying under, she talked about dragonhealing even then. And if L'vae had stayed... but if he left, likely I would have as well. It was like that."

Madilla just has a nod for that, fervent, if restrained. She takes her time in responding, evidently thinking her words through. "I suppose that makes sense. You can't make too many decisions in advance, because there are always other factors involved. People always seem to end up telling me what to do. That makes it easier. Much easier."

Listening closely, Leova can't help a low, sympathetic chuckle there at the very end, but at least she then explains. "Got to agree with you. L'vae, Louvaen as he was then, he couldn't see why... I was /happy/ doing a job, a good job, people would tell me what to do and that was fine. I'd do it. Not as though the stablemaster didn't know what to do, and better than me, hm? But he came from a different sort of world," and her voice can be a little indulgent, now.

Madilla, though momentarily confused at the chuckle, breaks into her own light laugh as Leova explains. "Lots of people seem to think that way," she agrees, smiling again. "But..." She shrugs. "If other people know better, then what's the problem? But. L'vae. He's a Wingleader, isn't he? So it's probably good he thinks like that, if he's in charge of people himself, now." Glancing down at her mug, she stifles a yawn, finally adding, "I should go wash up before bedtime comes around. It was good to talk to you again, Leova."

"Exactly." Leova follows that with a nod as Madilla goes on, agreeing, "Avalanche, Lower Flight, and he's one of the newest." And if her tone verges on proud, well, he's earned it. Straightening from that easy lean, that about-to-go that had been so minutes ago, "Suppose I should too. Good luck with the rest of the adjusting, hm? And I'm glad you liked the Gather." One more quick smile, and the greenrider's off, dishes and all.