A Note of Contention

[Aftershock]

About a week following her initial meeting with Cainith in the kitchens, Ivy returned to her room in the Candidate Barracks to find a scrap of paper pinned to her door with what appeared to be a sliver of chicken bone, somehow driven into the wood like a nail. On the note, written in large, blocky script that appeared to have been written by someone using the feather of a tiny blurwing, it said:

"Dear Ivy,

After giving you time to recover from whatever might have caused you such distress at our meeting, and giving myself time to think, I have decided to ask you to speak to me again... in private, this time. I understand if you are reluctant, given your apparent dislike for Wastelanders, or Northerners in general, I'm not sure which, but I would truly appreciate you at least giving me another chance. Observing this past week the interactions between former Wastelanders and Selenitas people, I believe there is something I haven't been told, and would like to discuss such matters with you... hopefully without any prying eyes or ears. If you are agreeable to speaking with me again, please record a time and date on this letter and slip it underneath the door to my room."

A description leading to Cainith's room followed.

[Ivy]

Blue eyes poured over the note. Tugging it down she went into her room and sat - immediately becoming a perch for Eros in the process. The bright blue firelizard landed on her right shoulder and wrapped his long tail behind her neck to dangle over her left shoulder. Chirruping he tilted his head and looked at the paper then at her, when she didn't answer his obvious question he dove off her shoulder and grabbed the paper. Setting it on the bed he walked all over it, looking at it as if he could actually comprehend the words.

"Stop that Eros, you'll poke holes in it."

Glancing up at her he continued to do what he wanted - after all she was his, not the other way around and he would not take orders from her thank-you-very-much. As if to prove he was his own master, not hers, he took a talon and purposefully poked a hole through it. Hmph. That's what she got for trying to boss him around.

Ivy swatted him away and with a squawk he blinked between - probably to go rub up against some shiny until he got some prime pickings for dinner. Again she read over the scrawled writing and then stood. Slipping out of her room she closed the door behind her and then followed the directions he'd left. Making her way to where his room was she knocked - if he was there then they could just go somewhere private now instead of putting it off. If he wasn't... well maybe she'd go back to her own room and reconsider meeting with him at all.

[Aftershock]

Cainith started at the light knock on his door, putting down the chicken he was busy eating that he'd snuck out of the kitchens on his way in for the evening curfew. Wiping the grease from his hands on his shirt, he heaved himself up from his desk and plodded over to the door, cracking it open as he arrived to see who was there.

Spotting Ivy just outside, Cainith started yet again, thinking, "Shards, I didn't think she would respond at all, not to mention show up at my room this very evening!" Forcing a grin, he said, "Ivy, how unexpected." That much, at least, was brutally true. Lowering his voice (though with his voice, it still had a bit of volume to it), he asked, "I assume this means you got my message?" Glancing back in his room, and noting the strewn clothing, the unmade bed, and various other signs of a room no one expects anyone to see but themselves, he asked, with a slight tremor of trepidation in his voice, "Would you like to speak now? And if so, where?"

[Ivy]

Ivy looked up at Cainith when the door cracked open. A faint smile almost tugged at her lips but her face stayed mostly blank as she gave a nod and held out the note.

"If you're free, now would be best. I don't care where."

She couldn't see past his large figure inside his room - so the mess was unnoticed. Looking up and down the hall she was avoiding making eye contact with him. She was a bit uncomfortable around him, that much was obvious by her body language - she just didn't know if she could trust him or not. After all the things the others who had come from Wasteland had done... how could she trust him?

[Aftershock]

Noting Ivy's discomfort (not to his surprise, of course), Cainith offered, "Perhaps we can adjourn to your room? You seem uncomfortable, which I understand, and is part of the reason I asked to speak to you... do you think being in your own room might give you a bit of comfort, being in familiar surroundings? I want this talk to happen, and I will happily agree to anything that will make you comfortable for this."

[Ivy]

He honestly expected her to just say, 'Sure! Let's go to my room and talk.' Hmph. Looking thoughtful for a long moment Ivy shook her head, "No, its likely the Candidatemaster would find you there and say something about it being inappropriate."

She wasn't sure how true that was, she knew there were not real 'rules' regarding the more... private... aspects of a Candidate's life. But she also knew that Elisabeta seemed like the type of woman who was just itching to make everyone elses' lives miserable in some way or another. So it wouldn't surprise her if the Greenrider popped in and forced both of them to do more chores for some made up reason.

"The beach. The only ones who are likely to be out right now are the wherhandlers - but most of them should be on patrol." Being a resident of the Weyr for four turns had taught her where everything was in the Weyr, as long as the usual habits of most of the inhabitants. Turning she made to walk off then looked back at him, "Are you coming?"

[Aftershock]

Looking down at his chicken-grease-stained shirt, Cainith replied, "Yes, one moment..." Shucking his shirt quickly, allowing Ivy to see (if she looked) that his belly, though round, jiggled not at all, looking more like a slab of meat, and huge muscles rolled beneath the skin of his arms and thickly-carpeted chest. Slipping into a dark grey tunic, he moved out of his room, securing the door behind him and moved behind Ivy, his footsteps amazingly quiet for such a large man.