Directions, plz? [[tags Rowana]]

[absinthe]

“Ummm… let’s see. Is it… no, not that way. Er…”

Amelie paused in the main hall of the Weyr, a very confused and slightly worried expression on her young face. The fourteen Turn old girl turned a full circle before shaking her head of dark, curly hair. “I guess I’m lost.” It did indeed seem that she was hopelessly lost but then again she had an excuse. She had been at Selenitas for perhaps half an hour; a senior apprentice healer, she had just transferred from Healer Hall. The young girl had been to her room and set her things down and managed to find her way to the main hall (but only because she’d had to come here for all the official stuff first) but from here she had no idea where to go. She needed to get to the infirmary so she could speak with her superiors and find out how things worked around here. But that was a bit difficult when one couldn’t FIND the infirmary.

“Oh! Excuse me! Miss? O—kay. Hm.” Having just been completely blown off by a passing female who could have been anything from a drudge to one of the gold riders for all she knew, Amelie glanced around for someone else to ask. She’d been walking around the main hall for a while and she was about to leave and try a different area. Maybe people were friendly in the candidate barracks. Imagine that; no one else was in the halls. Sighing, the girl made her way into the dining hall where there would hopefully be someone willing to help her. It was early afternoon, too late for lunch and too soon for dinner so there weren’t a lot of people there either. Frowning at the inconvenient lack of help around here, the apprentice cast about for someone who didn’t have their face buried in food as if it were the last they would ever eat in their lives.

“Hey! I’m sorry, but could you tell me how to get to the infirmary, please?” Having spotted a drudge carrying a tray of dirty dishes the girl quickly blurted out her question before the older woman had a chance to turn away or blow her off. Looking irate that her work had been interrupted, the drudge gave a few curt directions that anyone who had been at the Weyr longer than an hour may have been able to follow but to Amelie they were just words. Before the girl had the chance to explain that she didn’t know where anything was, the drudge had continued on her way toward the kitchen with her burden of dishes. Frowning, Amelie propped one hand on her hip, looking quite unimpressed. Were people always so… unhelpful around here?

[Rowana]

"Are you lost?" G'tor asked the strange girl. She certainly looked it, not to mention a bit frustrated. G'tor on the other hand made a fairly odd picture. He had come down to the kitchens to fetch Star before the Headwoman decided to go ahead and bake the pie with her inside it. Held out in front of him in one hand was the salamandyr in question, now died lilac instead of white and sleeping off her latest gorge. He sometimes wished Star couldn't between to places without him. It would be so much easier keeping her out of trouble.

Tervain was sitting on G'tor's shoulder and hanging on to his dark hair. She watched the girl with interested and intelligent eyes. She was new, so she warranted some assessment to determine if she was friend or foe. So far, Tervain hadn't decided. Ruskeath prodded his bonded's mind. Did you find her? Yes, she's fine, the greedy guts. G'tor replied with a laugh. I'll be back soon. Good. Ruskeath yawned and stretched himself out to sun himself. As long as the little ones were safe.

[absinthe]

Amelie jumped a bit; she’d been trying to decide what to do next and had almost given up on getting any help from anyone else. She’d been on the verge of going off on her own to find the infirmary. However upon hearing the man’s voice she turned to face him with a relieved smile. “Well… I know where I am, but I really need directions; could you please tell me how to get to the infirmary? I’m apprentice healer Amelie and I’ve been here all of…” here she glanced around as if trying to gather the time from the air “an hour, tops. So I don’t know where anything is.” The young girl gave a quiet laugh. “One of the drudges tried to give me directions but she was using reference points I had no idea where to find so they didn’t really help me a whole lot.”

She paused in her prattle long enough to finally notice that the dragonrider was carrying something. She peered at his hand for a moment, blinking. “What is that?” If the apprentice realized she was being a bit rude she didn’t give the slightest indication. One, she’d never seen a salamandyr before; never even heard of them, so as much as she wanted to call the thing in his hand a firelizard she just couldn’t. Two, it was a strange… bluish… purplish color. “That color isn’t… natural, is it?” The girl was quite plainly confused and couldn’t make heads or tails of the tiny little creature. It was only when she glanced up that she saw the green firelizard clinging to the brownrider’s hair.

“You have a firelizard! I haven’t seen one in ages!” The sight of the little green made the teenager smile brightly. “She’s lovely.” She was getting distracted of course, but she hadn’t really forgotten about directions. It would likely come back up in a minute. It wasn’t too terribly important that she be at the infirmary right now or anything; she just liked to know where to go. Especially if she was working there. And she liked to meet the people she’d be working with, for sure. But for now? Amelie was content to pester G’tor about his companions.

[Rowana]

"Ah," G'tor nodded in understanding. It was easy to get lost when you'd just arrived. "I can show you..." He stopped and blinked when Amelie changed subjects so quickly. Wow, she could talk fast. It would take an effort to keep up with her in a conversation, he could tell. "Star? No, no," he chuckled. "She just likes her bubbly pies a little too much." His eyes widened as he realized where this was going to go next. "Oh, I should warn you," he started quickly, "...not to call Tervain..." Too late...

Tervain shrieked with indignation. How dare the foolish girl call her such a demeaning thing! She must be punished. The green took off and dove straight at Amelie's face. G'tor reached out widely, but it was impossible to catch her and not drop Star. He managed to get a hold of her tail and yanked hard. Tervain pulled free and crashed into Amelie's head instead, getting tangled in her hair. She sqawked and squirmed, trying to crawl her way free.

"Shard it, Tevain!" G'tor swore, trying to get her free without hurting the girl or dropping Star. "Are you alright? She's impossible when you call her things like that."

[absinthe]

Alas, before Amelie could even respond to anything that G’tor had said thus far, his green loosed a shriek that had the apprentice healer visibly jumping. That… was definitely unexpected! But not nearly as unexpected as what came next. The green launched herself from her human’s shoulder and actually attacked her! Instinctively the girl threw her arms over her face, curling her hands over her head to keep the angry flitter from gouging out her eyes and hopefully getting stuck in her hair. The sound that the girl uttered wasn’t so much a scream as it was simply a noise, more of an ‘eep!’ than anything else. While her face didn’t sustain any damage from the flying claws, her hair wasn’t so lucky; she felt Tervain impact her head before becoming tangled in Amelie’s curls.

Once the creature had calmed down a bit, the girl carefully took her arms away from her face lest the little green begin flopping about and clip her eye with a wing or something. Exhaling sharply, Amelie tried to get a look at the flitter caught in her hair. It was somewhat amusing, she had to admit, but instead of laughing right now she saved that for later. “I am sorry; I didn’t mean to offend you!” The words were obviously for the green who was still squirming about in the apprentice’s hair. How many people would have apologized to the very creature who’d jumped in their face then gotten tangled in their hair? But Amelie was sincere even if the situation was a little absurd. “Let me help.”

Ignoring the possibility of being bitten by the angry firelizard the girl reached up and gently pressed Tervain against her head instead of letting her pull away. Little by little, her other hand helped to untangle the green from her hair strand by strand. It was a good thing her hair wasn’t very long or they likely would have been stuck there for hours. Calm and collected, Amelie didn’t even seem upset that Tervain had attacked her; instead she seemed more concerned about getting the firelizard untangled without harming her which was easier said than done when she couldn’t look at what she was doing.

The first thing out of the girl’s mouth when the little green was finally free was “Is she all right?” and the concern was there on her face to match even as she ran her fingers through her hair. It looked like she was worried about getting it to not stick up but she was actually checking for any scratches on her scalp. Once a healer.... When she was sure that she was intact, Amelie shook her head and grinned at G’tor. “No harm done. I really didn’t mean to offend her. I’ll have to make it up to you sometime.” The last was directed at Tervain herself before the teenager looked once more at the dragonrider. “You said you could show me to the infirmary? That would be great.”

Glancing down at the sleeping ‘mandyr in the man’s hand reminded her that she didn’t know what the strange creature was and Amelie indicated Star once more. “I’m sorry but… I don’t know what sort of animal that is.” She smiled somewhat sheepishly at this. “Could you tell me about… her? What is she?”

[Rowana]

Tervain wriggled free of Amelie's hair and hands to flutter back to G'tor's shoulder. She curled around his neck and glared at the girl from behind his hair. She would punish her later, foolish human. G'tor breathed a sigh of relief that neither Amelie or Tervain were injured. "She's fine," he assured the girl, trying to reassure her. "She takes offense to a lot of things. Please don't worry about it. Are you sure you're alright?" She looked fine. Tervain had been too busy trying to get free to really harm her.

He opened his mouth to agree, then smiled. "Oh, Star is a salamandyr." He poked gently at her bulging belly, but the little creature just rolled over and curled around his thumb. "Here, I'll tell you about them and show you the infirmary at the same time, shall I?" He waved towards the entrance to the main hall. He walked that way slowly, glancing over his shoulder to be sure she was following.

[absinthe]

Amelie nodded once more at G’tor’s concern, giving her fingers one last run through her dark curls. “I’m fine, really. Not a scratch.” She smiled at the man and nodded again at his suggestion that they head to the infirmary while he explained about the salamandyrs. It was a good idea, and the girl hurried to keep up with the man’s longer stride (even if it was slow; she was quite short), curls bobbing around her face as she peered again at the sleeping creature in G’tor’s hand, then flicked her gaze up to him. “So she’s a… a salamandyr? Are they like firelizards? What do they eat? Besides pie.”

While they walked, the apprentice continued to glance toward the sullen green wrapped around the man’s neck. “You know, I don’t know that much about firelizards but… I’d really like to make it up to Tervain. Is there anything I can bring her sometime that she likes? A toy maybe, or… or food? Does she have a favorite food?” Talking seemed to be one of the girl’s strengths; she shot off questions like she couldn’t get them out fast enough. But her intentions were really for the best. She did feel bad about offending the little green firelizard even if there was no way she could have possibly known what would happen as a result.

Even as they were walking and talking Amelie was paying close attention to the route they took, noting any ‘landmarks’ and which way the turns went. She really didn’t intend to beg directions from anyone again. Everything else she could find on her own, and would in time. Whenever she had a spare moment the girl intended to go exploring. It wouldn’t take her long to have the Weyr mapped out. Fortunately she already knew the way to her room and the dining hall, and now the infirmary (or soon anyway) and those were the essentials for right now; she’d worry about the rest later.