Eggs Sunny Side Up (Orena;Kaius)

[Requiem]

"Zip-a-dee-doo-da, zip-a-I-may, my oh my what a wonderful way. Plenty of columbines on the way, zip-a-dee-doo-da, zip-a-I-may. Mr. Laddie's in my pocket. He's happy, I'm happy, the whole world's-" She broke off. Oh, she'd forgotten the words. Ximesk (from his comfortable stone couch, of course) was amused. Had she really remembered any of it right? The girl shrugged it off, though, and started whistling instead. Couldn't mess up lyrics that way! She sniffed at the columbines she'd picked on her way down to the dining hall, perhaps entirely too happy compared to the rest of Selenitas. The girl couldn't really find a reason not to be.

She was still whistling as she half-skipped into the dining hall for a wherhandler breakfast of awesome. It was just on the tail end of the dinner rush for the daylighters, and Ximera glanced around at all the new faces cheerfully. It apparently didn't occur to her that her happiness didn't really match the atmosphere, no more than the tune she was whistling. The girl bounded over to the drudges with a wave, presenting her mother with the prettiest of her flowers. Xelena gave her daughter a tired smile and filled up a plate for the girl, handing her a tray and quickly pressing a kiss to her cheek. "Take care of yourself, Xixi," she whispered.

Ximera turned and looked over the gathered people, eyes flicking over faces in the search for someone...oh! What luck! She barely suppressed a squeal and pattered over toward the girl she'd met awhile ago that she liked so much. And if some food kind of...floated free and landed on a few not-so-happy dragonriders, she didn't really notice. Nor did she stop to set the tray down when she threw her arms around Orena from behind, some of the food splattering up and onto her shirtfront. Ximera didn't notice at all, instead rubbing her cheek against the weyrling's. "Orena! I never got to say congratulations to you. I'm so sorry. How are you?"

Now that she'd greeted the girl that she already considered a good friend - even if they'd only met once before - the wherhandler slipped around the table to sit across from her and shoveled a forkful of yummy eggs into her mouth. When she looked up, though, she saw some of the food on Orena and couldn't help but giggle. "My, but you're messy, aren't you? Hungry tonight?" Then, she abruptly pulled out one of her columbines. "Want a flower? They're very pretty."

[dragon]

Orena was people watching after she had finished eating her dinner. She was, all things considered, blatantly bored. Her sister was missing, no one knew where she'd gotten to. Orena couldn't figure where her twin would have gone. She wasn't back at home, she'd already checked there. Most people she asked just gave her a blank stare and then said something about not being aware she had a sister. Ho hum, a little too much doubling had been going on, apparently. No one seemed to know the difference between Isori and Orena.

On top of that, Riavorth wasn't going to be going anywhere any time soon. The young green was a tad beat up and bruised. She was laid up and resting. So, with both of her mischief partners more or less taken, Orena found herself bored. Getting into trouble wasn't nearly as much fun when she was left to do it by herself! Rattling her fingers on her chin, she occasionally smirked as she watched people move around, dreaming up all the stuff she could do. But ... no fun when alone.

When a young lass came bursting in like a cloud of rainbows and lollypops in the middle of the otherwise sober group of people, it naturally snatched Orena's attention. Hey! She knew that girl. Or ... sortof. She'd met her once. Back ... back before the hatching. What was her name? It was something funny, with unusual letters in it. Ummm ...? She had that blue thing that had been with it. A wher. A blue one ... what was his name? Weren't wher names similar to the people's names? Orena got distracted trying to remember what the girl's name was, and almost missed it when Xi came hurtling back toward her. She saw just in time to straighten reflexively, narrowly missing bonking her head off the other girl's initial tackle.

"Oh! Hi! I .... oh my!" She said, lifting her hands and looking first at them and then at her clothes. "Oh my." Orena looked at Ximera, and then giggled. "Me? Hungry? Oh, not really. I just ate after all. Apparently I'm going to get to taste your meal, too, through osmosis!" She giggled, and stuck a finger in her mouth experimentally. "Hn!"

"Oh, thank you! Things did get kinda busy there for awhile didn't they? It's okay, really it is. Were you there? For the hatching I mean? There were so very many people, I'm afraid I didn't see anyone I recognized! Other than my sister I mean. Of course I recognized her, she's kinda hard to miss ... well ... I miss her a lot actually. I can't seem to find her. I don't suppose you've seen my sister around have you? I bet not, she doesn't tend to go ... um. Places." Orena wiggled a hand limply on her wrist to indicate the world in general. "Which is why it's so weird I can't find her now, I can't figure where she would have gone." Orena shrugged and tasted another finger.

"I'm doing okay though, lessons are a lot different all of a sudden. Our new lesson leader is a really cute fellow, did you know that? He's got this funny little smile, when he bothers to use it! But I don't think I like the new lessons ... I mean Ria tends to get all kinds of ... um ... violent ... and all that. I don't know what I'm going to do with her you know? And and! I don't know if you heard, but there were some people offering to teach some skills to people. Like healing and all that? I went and asked about it and now I get to train for it! I haven't got to do much but watch so far, but I do have to say it's certainly different from anything I've done before and ... oh pretty! A flower! Did you bring that all this way for me? Thank you!" Orena completely interrupted herself and derailed her whole thought train, totally shiny thinged by the flower. She accepted it delicately by the stem, and lifted it to sniff, never realizing she was getting food all over the stem. She inhaled delicately, and fluttered her eyelids. "Ooooooh! What did you say this was called? I heard you call it something, but I missed what it was. My it's pretty! Where did you find it? Are they local around here or did someone grow them special in a plot? My but it's pretty!" Orena gushed.

[Requiem]

"What's osmosis?"

Then, of course, she realized that she'd sprayed her food all over her friend, and Orena wasn't actually just a really messy eater. This brought on the obligatory flurry of giggles, effectively drowning out any response the weyrling might have given to her question. Ximera calmed the giggles enough to actually listen to Orena, her dark eyes wide and attentive. Oh dear, had Isori been one of the ones to disappear into the jungles that morning? How sad! The bluehandler would have missed her brother terribly if he'd gone, and they weren't nearly as close as the twins were.

She was just getting absorbed into the talk about new skills and wondering if maybe she couldn't learn something new, too (dragons getting violent was a scary thought and made her worry about her brother so she didn't care to think on that at all) when Orena abruptly changed topics again. Ximera forget all about asking her new friend if she coulod go with her to watch the healers in favor of the columbines. Beaming, she responded, "Oh, do you really like them so much? Here. Have another, then. They're columbines, and they grow right above the waterfall, though lots of times they like to grow near bushes, so they can be hard to spot. Their Ximesk's favorite. Every time he goes out that way he just has to stop and smell them, the silly thing."

A moment was given to collect her thoughts, and then she commented, "Lots of people escaped." Well, maybe not lots, but it was more than a few, anyway. "I heard that Emoyan was trying to get all the candidates out, so maybe she went with the other dragonriders and weyrfolk?" Ximera suggested hopefully. "You can always come visit me when you get lonely, though. Well, not during the day when I'm sleeping unless it's an emergency, but before your curfew. That's why I didn't see you Impress; I was sleeping. I always love to to to hatchings," she concluded a little wistfully. The wherhandler perked right back up, though, biting into a redfruit and making yummy sounds.

"What are you doing tonight? I have a little time before I have to go back, and I don't think Kostya and Tekivix really want me around when they're together anyway."

[dragon]

What was osmosis? Orena paused, thought about that for a moment, and then started to answer. But her mouth only formed an O, before she burst into peals of giggles as well, completely tickled by Ximera's mirth. She was such a funny little girl! She gratefully accepted another flower with a wide grin. "Oh, aren't they so very pretty! I love them! You'll have to show me where they grow some day." Orena said, setting the flowers down on a clean patch of table for a moment. "What do you normally do with them?" She asked, reaching up to the back of her head and taking the loose bun that sat at the nape of her neck down. With a few expert twists of her fingers in her hair, she had the curly milk chocolate locks twisted up in a whole new do. Snatching up first one flower and then the next, she twisted the stems into the twists of hair she was creating, before finishing the whole thing off and holding it in place with her bun-pin. "There!" She decided, happily, grinning at Ximera. Instead of a plain, hastily-done bun, she now had two complex twists eating up her hair as they traveled around the sides of her head, and twisted into a hair-flower in the back, the two blossoms held in place by their stems just over each ear. By the speed in which she'd gotten it accomplished, it was pretty clear that she'd done it many times before ... though usually in her sister's hair. Orena was pretty sure that it wasn't as neat as it should be, but hey. She was working on her own head and with no mirror! "They have some awesome color, they really do. And they smell so pretty! I can see why Ximesk would want to stop and see them all the time. Oh, I have a question for you, too. Why is your wher's name the same as yours? Or, rather, not the same, but so very similar. I mean ... well, you know what I mean. Why? At first I thought maybe it was supposed to be, but then I got Riavorth, and Riavorth's name is nothing like mine, and mine is nothing like hers, so maybe I thought it wasn't supposed to be that way maybe it was option and ... " Orena abruptly stopped, and looked at Ximera expectantly.

After all, it would be rude to talk over any answer she got, and she really did want to know!

"What am I doing, tonight?" Orena asked, slowly, as if that was a question she had never expected to get. "Ummm ... I don't know? The usual I suppose. I was told I do have to stop breaking curfew. I told them I'm too old for curfews, but they didn't want to hear it, isn't that terrible? Maybe they don't believe me that I really am as old as I am, despite having recently impressed a dragon. Isn't that silly? I mean, I don't look like a little wetling do I? Surely not!" Not that any of that mattered of course. Orena had hardly ever obeyed any curfew instilled upon her, regardless of who had done it. Curfews were just ... so boring.

[Requiem]

Ximera watched Orena curiously as she wound her hair up, rather disappointed that she didn't have a better view of the back to see just how it was done. Oh well. There would be other times for that, she supposed. She smiled brightly, nodding at the hair-do in approval. "Well, I like to keep fresh ones in a vase in my room, since Ximesk likes them so much," she admitted, her espression turning just a touch shy at the admissiont. It was rather sentimental, after all.

Now, the girl might have answered the question posed to her, but she couldn't right away because she had to think a little, and by the time she wrapped her mind around what she wanted to say Orena was already off again, talking about curfews. "Well, um, the weyrlings have always had curfews, you know, just like the candidates. I think it's to make sure you get enough sleep and don't get into too much trouble? Anyway, it's not that bad, really, is it? I'm sure it doesn't have much to do with your ages."

Ximera munched on her breakfast a little longer before she realized that she'd let Orena's question go completely unanswered. Her cheeks flushed slightly with embarrassment. "Well, whers are not really exactly like dragons. I mean, dragons hatch knowing who they are already, so no matter what your name was hers would always be Riavorth I suppose. Whers match their names to their handlers. The longer their names, the closer the bond is. And um...well a handler can die, and a wher can still live, you see. Even find a new handler and take their name. The Impression is strengthened as long as they blood so it's really not a problem. I guess whers also have the handlers' names cause they don't really talk like dragons do. They kind of...think ideas and emotions at you, instead of speak. Some send pictures."

The girl shrugged. "But anyway, I don't sleep all day, you know. I usually go to bed right when Rukbat starts rising, but I'm usually up in the mid-afternoon and evenings. It really wouldn't be hard to find me."

[dragon]

Orena grinned in obvious pleasure when Ximera admitted to liking her work on her hair. "Do you have any more flowers? I can do yours for you, too." She offered, with a small gesture towards Ximera's own hair. Straight hair was easier to work with, too ... it didn't tend to get knotted up when a body tried to pull locks past other locks. "Ooh! I bet that's pretty. How do they fare without any light though? I can't imagine they'd last too well in the dark like that. But I do think that would make your room smell so very pretty! For a little while anyway. I think I would like to put flowers by my bed, but I am afraid someone would steal them, you know? I guess I will have to wait until I have a real space of my own. I should think I would get a place of my own, since I have Riavorth, don't you think?" Orena asked speculatively. "I mean, all the other dragonriders have their own homes."

"Oh! Urgh. I don't like curfews, though. I never have." She didn't plan to start either. "Curfews ... blargh." It was clear what she thought of them. "I do my chores, I do my lessons. Why does it matter to them what I spend my nights doing? I mean ... it's really none of their business." She griped, clearly unhappy at the very prospect. But then a but of curiosity showed in her expression. "Did you have curfew?"

It was with greatest interest that Orena listened to what Ximera had to say about whers, a small frown pursing her lips slightly. "So ... you're saying that Dragons name themselves, flitters get named, and Whers steal your name? That's just absurd." But the whole concept of thinking ideas at people was something that stole her imagination. "Thinking at you?" She had this really silly image of an idea going flying from the wher, and smacking into a human and knocking them over. Something like a canon ball. The whole thing made her bust out in peals of giggles. Which was promptly followed by the idea of a wher mailing a drawing to a human, and the human staring at the image and trying to guess what it meant. Kind of like those games people played at parties, where they tried to convey an idea via scribbling drawings on a parchment (or rock if they were poor). Which resulted in even more giggles to the point where Orena had tears running down her cheeks. "Whers ... he he he ... are silly creatures." she giggled, trying very hard to be coherent.

[Requiem]

Orena was moving too quickly from topic to topic for her to keep up with all the questions again. Moreover, Ximera was beginning to get uncomfortable with the direction this was going. Though her face had brightened immediately upon mention of doing her hair for her similarly, the expression waned into a small frown when the weyrling shifted to the topic of curfews. Then she began pushing the food around on her tray when Orena started laughing. Sure, Ximesk could be quite silly, but that wasn't what the other girl was laughing at. Tears were beginning to gather in Ximera's eyes. "Stop that," she whispered.

Naturally, though, Orena certainly didn't hear anything uttered so softly, and the helpless laughter continued. Suddenly she stood up, her voice rising. "Stop that! There's nothing wrong with whers, and there's nothing wrong with Ximesk! You don't know anything. You didn't even know that dragons choose their own names before they choose you! I didn't laugh at you, though, or call you stupid. Of course we don't have curfews. Whers are up at night, so what would we need a curfew for? You're stupid. So...stupid." She wiped at her eyes with a sleeve, reaching for her tray blindly.

"I know that flowers die without light. But he likes them so I get them for him every other day. He's very, very sweet, and he loves me so it's the least I can do." There was a note of defiance in her voice as the girl picked up her tray. "I don't want you touching my hair." She turned from Orena, hunching her shoulders and scurrying off to a table a few rows away. An empty one. Making sure that her back was to the weyrling so that the girl couldn't see that she was still crying, Ximera's fingers curled in a fist around her cup. "Why do people have to be so mean, Laddie?" she whispered to her ladle. "Ximesk never did anything to her."

[dragon]

Orena got really silent really fast, just staring as Ximera yelled at her and stormed off. She was more than a little confused, sitting there watching the girl sit down at a different table. Maybe people didn't like having their hair done, here? It had never occurred to her that it might be culturally taboo here ... she and Isori had just ... done what they'd always done.

Her mouth twisted off to one side in a small knot, her brows crawling together as she frowned slightly. She didn't like that she had upset the other girl at all, she also didn't like not understanding exactly why Ximera had gotten upset. But would it make matters worse to go over and ask? Orena suspected it might. But leaving it like this was just as bad. She didn't want Ximera to never talk to her again, she liked Ximera. She even liked Ximesk.

Getting to her feet slowly, Orena scratched at her cheek for a moment, watching Ximera. She sounded like she was talking to somebody under her breath, but Orena couldn't tell what it was she was saying either. Which was probably a good thing. Leaving her place, she stepped carefully over to where Ximera was sitting, and reached out to touch the girl's shoulder but hesitated before contact. Curling her fingers, she withdrew her hand again without having ever touched her. Instead she stepped off to the side, around just forward enough to see Ximera's face.

"Xi ... Ximera?" Orena asked, quietly. "I ... I'm sorry." She didn't understand what she'd said or done wrong, but she was sorry she'd upset the girl. Much less so very badly so very quickly. Apologies couldn't go too terribly wrong, could they? "How can I make it up to you?"

[Requiem]

“No, I don’t think I overreacted at all,” she retorted angrily, though her voice was barely above a whisper. “Ximesk is the best thing that ever happened to me. No! I don’t care if she probably didn’t mean to be cruel. She still was. He’s not stupid, or silly. What does she know? Probably thinks she’s better than all of us because she got a dragon. Dragons aren’t better than whers. I am ca-” Suddenly Orena was right beside her, the small girl gasping and covering a small squeak behind her hands. The cup she’d been holding rocked and spilled over. Ximera didn’t even notice it in her lap at first, though. She was too busy being mortified that the other girl had seen the tears on her face.

Turning away from the weyrling, she rubbed at her eyes with her sleeves, then finally seemed to notice the cold liquid feeling all over her skirt. Oh, ew. She scrambled up and looked for something to blot it dry with, still not meeting Orena’s gaze. It was just too embarrassing. Why was it so easy for her to cry? The girl wiped at the stain with a cloth napkin, then sighed. Her eyes went to the older girl, their dark depths serious and not very warm - for once. “My wher is more important to me than anything or anyone. Why would you make fun of him? Why would you think I’d be okay with that? Dragonriders have always acted like they’re better than me, and they always were. Still are. But Ximesk is just as good as any dragon.”

Her chin lifted in a rare show of stubbornness, and she went back to trying to get the moisture out of her skirt. The girl closed her eyes, wiping her arm across them one more time. “If you really didn’t mean it…do you think you could please get me another drink? Mine’s…” She gestured vaguely toward the table and the overturned cup, the liquid still dripping off the edge of the table.

She rather hoped Orena would do just that. Not because she was thirsty, no, but because it would give the wherhandler time to compose herself. Ximera was positive she was blushing an awful shade of red right now between her clumsiness and the crying. The girl chanced one more quick glance at the weyrling. “I don’t really think you’re stupid. You really don’t know anything about the Weyr and all the creatures though, do you?”

[dragon]

Orena flustered for a moment upon hearing what Ximera was saying ... to who? ... and then at the accusation leveled directly at her. "I didn't make fun of him!" She fluttered a bit again, somewhat upset over startling Ximera all over again, and at the notion of what Ximera thought she'd done. She'd never insulted her wher! Or at least ... she hadn't meant to ... "I'm sorry! I ... I don't see why he wouldn't be just as good or better than dragons? I mean ... can't he see in the dark? Dragon's can't! Can they?" Of course as she went along she sounded more tentative, not sure when she was crossing into territory where she just didn't know enough to be speaking up.

"Oh! I'm sorry ... sure, I'll.... I'll do that." Orena hurried away to go fetch Ximera a new drink. It only occurred to her after she got to the kitchen that she had no idea what it was that Ximera liked to drink ... or what it was that she had spilled on herself. So she made a random grab for something to drink. Fruit juice was a pretty safe bet, she supposed. Snatching up a few towels from the drying-rack next to the sinks, she hurried back again with her drink delivery and peace-offering of towels. "I hope that doesn't stain your clothes." She apologized.

But then it was her turn to blush. "No, I don't." She admitted. "At home ... we never really even gave much thought to the Weyr beyond making sure our tithes were made. We didn't learn anything about dragons at all. And ... and ... I barely got here before I Impressed, myself. I ... haven't had a whole lot of time to learn much." Isori was so sharding lucky. She was the one getting all the classes in the proper order.... or had been. Now, she had no idea where Isori was or even if she was still alive!

[Requiem]

Ximera was grateful that the girl was gone. Her fingers curled at her side. "No, you're not right just cause she said she wasn't making fun of him. She laughed at him. All of them. Mom said that it doesn't mean anything when you don't know what you're doing." She then shook her head vigorously. "I know. I'm not...no. Please don't." The girl scrunched her nose. He was right of course. Orena was trying.

She looked up at the weyrling tiredly. A small smile was spared the girl at the towels. The wherhandler took the towels to finish the job of blotting the liquid, setting the cup on the table in the process. "Thank you," she uttered softly. Her eyes flicked toward a spot on the ground away from Orena. "It's not a problem. I have more." She actually didn't have that many clothes. Wherling pay wasn't great, either. Orena looked so contrite, though, that she couldn't bring herself to make any more of it than she already had.

"..." She squinted slightly at Orena. "You've been here almost six months, haven't you? Maybe they don't teach much about whers. But...don't they teach you about your dragons, at least?" From her tone of voice, it was clear that Ximera couldn't quite believe they'd be so remiss as to neglect that important detail. "I know some about dragons. If you want to know more, though, my brother is a dragonrider. X'rx. I can ask him to talk to you. He knows everything about everything."

The girl attempted a small smile for Orena's sake. She finally gave up on the towels and simply resigned herself to finding more clothes. This probably was not going to come out. Ximera sat down again and nodded toward the chair across from her. She wasn't sure that she'd quite forgiven Orena, but... "You really shouldn't laugh at what you don't understand simply because it sounds weird to you." Her eyes flicked to the weyrling. "Whers are wild creatures. The ones that don't bond to people live on their own and hunt people, just like felines sometimes do. Our whers make it so you can go outside around Selenitas and not have to worry. You shouldn't laugh at them."

[dragon]

"I have some spare clothes." Orena offered. 'Some' was probably an understatement. She'd never had a small wardrobe, and right now she had hers and Isori's. Benefits of having a tailor and weaver for parents, and the same skill sets all her own. Some of them were kind of bizarre, but it was still clothes. "Though ... they ... probably are the wrong shape for you." They were rather tailored to the twins' builds, to be well-fitting. "But I'm sure we can find you something." She promised.

"I have." Orena agreed. "I meant I didn't get very many of the candidate lessons, see. And I'm having to fly by the seat of my pants with the weyrlings lessons. There's so much I don't understand because I don't have the proper foundation behind it. You know? And ... and ... well ..." She trailed off, not sure if she should admit that it was kind of scary to try and ask questions of the people who had come in and turned everything on its ear. And all because she wasn't understanding everything she was told. They would probably think she was a cretin, and that would only make matters worse. "I ... I think just the basics would help a lot." She said quietly, with a small nod, grateful for the offer of help. "I'm really sorry." Orena repeated, in earnest.

"But ... I wasn't ... ohhhh! Never mind. I am sorry you misunderstood me." It would be pointless, she figured, to try and explain. It would only make matters worse. So she would just take the hit for what it was, apologize instead, and hope that the 'least said quickest mended' held true. It didn't always. "I am grateful ... I like not having to worry about being eaten by wild things. I promise I'll never laugh again." She swore, sliding slowly into the seat that Ximera indicated. She really really hated that she'd managed to somehow so upset the girl that was the closest thing she had to a friend. She certainly never wanted to do it again.

[Requiem]

"Really." Her smile was slightly sheepish. "I'm fine." The girl didn't know why Orena was insisting on finding her some clothes when she already said she had spares. Was it so obvious that she was half-lying about it? Well, even so, the weyrling should probably have been nice enough to pretend that she didn't recognize the lie for what it was. Ximera wasn't particularly proud, but it didn't mean she couldn't be ashamed about how little she had compared to the others sometimes.

The bluehandler took the other girl at her word and nodded. A small smile touched her face. "Well...I can tell you a little about the basics I think. Dragons all have their own names and they all end in 'th. They also give the males new names. Some male dragons give their females new names, too. My brother's name was Xerxes but now it's X'rx. Golds always always choose girls who are interested in guys. Bronzes always always choose guys who are interested in girls. Browns mostly choose guys. Blues choose guys more than girls but you'll see a fair amount of female blueriders. Greens choose girls more than guys. Greens and golds fly, blues, browns and bronzes chase. That's the real basic stuff anyway. I don't know all the other stuff that they teach you. It must be really cool to get to flame Thread though. I like to watch when I can."

There. She'd helped Orena a little bit. Now she went back to her meal with a vengeance. If she didn't finish eating all of this up she would be hungry when she started her shifts yes. Ximesk pressed at her mind insistantly. Bring him back some milk, pretty pretty please? The girl couldn't help but smile at that. "Um, are you still willing to put up my hair? Yours looks really pretty."

[dragon]

"I ruined them, the least I can do is replace them. You shouldn't have to work to mend my folly." Orena insisted, quietly. "I want to."

Orena looked on and listened to everything that Ximera said about dragons, sitting quietly with her fingers laced together. Most of that she knew already. She had had a few lessons after all, and she wasn't stupid. But she wasn't going to say so either. She was just grateful for anything Ximera offered. After all, somewhere in that might be something she had missed somewhere, and if it didn't make sense to what she already knew, she knew she could ask Ximera for more detail without the risk of being set up as a target for practice flaming. She wasn't used to sitting still, or taking orders easily, but for Ximera she'd do it.

She waited as Ximera ate, knowing that the girl had to be absolutely starved-feeling, to be eating like that. But it also made her feel a little better. Emotional upset usually ruined an appetite, so if Ximera was eating so voraciously, she must be feeling better. Or ... were some people the other way 'round? Ate more because they were upset? Faranth, she thought to much. She was thinking herself into a hole! Best to not think about it. Food was food, keep it simple yes. But at the question on hair came up, and Orena visibly brightened, straightening in her seat. "Of course I am! I'd be delighted to. And thank you! Come, follow me. I have some proper ties and pins and things, and we'll find you some clothes to go with. You'll be the talk of the wher-folk!" Orena encouraged, eager to do up Ximera's hair and make her pretty. Getting back to her feet, she took two steps toward the door before stopping and extending a beckoning hand to Ximera. "Come on! You just wait till I show you what we have to work with!" Ximera's hair was kind of straight, it didn't have the natural curl that Orena's own hair did. Which meant she would need more pins to make any kind of do stay up. Her mind was already awhirl with what she could do with Ximera's hair, all the different styles that would look marvelous with Xi's hair type and color. She was certainly eager to begin!

[Requiem]

The girl shrugged at Orena's continued insistence. It seemed that there was really no point in continuing to argue with the weyrling, who seemed deadset on pressing her point even though it embarrassed the wherhandler so. Ximera was more than willing to drop the topic if it meant her blush would die down some.

Well! That had certainly been the right thing to say, if the other girl's response was any indication. The bluehandler found herself a little bewildered at how quickly Orena's mood changed, but she didn't worry about it too terribly much. At least Orena didn't seem to be all upset anymore. (Ximera had been quite upset, of course, but that didn't mean she wanted to cause it in anyone else.)

"Umm..." And here she was blushing again, though she accepted Orena's hand without hesitation and climbed to her feet as well. "I don't really...know about being the talk of the wherfolk. They might just laugh at me. We're all about getting dirty and stuff, you know." But Ximera trailed behind Orena anyway, trying to hide the excitement the words had generated.

The wherhandler really didn't have much in the way of nice things. She was also one of the only wherhandlers who made a habit of going about in a daydress. (Granted, most of them were male and wouldn't anyway, but it still wasn't highly appropriate to their line of work.) The girl rather thought everyone would be a good deal more cheerful if they didn't dress so raggedly all the time.