Shelving and Duty [Open]

[sai]

Near the middle of the records room, in the late hours of the afternoon, a large pile of scrolls appeared to have grown legs. A second look, however, revealed the presence of a slight young woman behind the pile, moving carefully between shelves and plucking scrolls from seemingly random points in the pile to place in the small cubbyholes intended for their storage. Each scroll, however, was labeled at the end in small, precise script, and, having been assigned the duty of re-labeling and shelving the whole lot of them, Tanyl was more than familiar with which scroll went where.

One by one, the pile diminished, until it had devolved into a manageable armload of ten or so. Skimming the cubbyholes to locate the proper storage for these last few, Tanyl sighed. The dregs of any such assignment were always the most tedious part. The hardest to locate, most irritating to shelf, or most out-of-the-way scrolls were always the last ones left, for what could only be called obvious reasons, and they always took far longer than they should have.

As she mused on this, she caught sight of the appropriate home for two of the scrolls, up on the very top shelf. Tanyl wrinkled her nose, walking back to the desk near the front of the room, where she had been working, and placing the scrolls there before turning around to look for the requisite ladder, hands propped on her hips.

Most days saw Tanyl in the archives, as they had since her twelfth turn, and copy days were still the ones she hated the most. Compared to that, labeling and shelving were hardly worth noticing. Still, she very much wished she'd be allowed to create new records, at some point soon, rather than just copying the work of others. There was much more enjoyment to be gained from recording new information than there was to be gained from replicating old, after all.

[Rowana]

Farryl sighed deeply. She would much rather be outside right now. Peppeth was growing moody of late. Not being able to ride her own dragon when everyone else could was started to affect both of them. Despite assurances that the little green would grow large enough before graduation, Farryl still had doubts. If it turned out she could never ride, Peppeth would be inconsolable. She wanted to be spending more time with her, and not here with the dusty records. But her reading and writing skills were still abysmal and she needed to practice if she expected to pass classes. Sadly it wasn't all flying and strap making. If that were so, she wouldn't be here at all.

Farryl expected the room to be empty and was surprised to find another girl about her age. She didn't recognize her, but even now she hadn't met everyone yet. She could be a senior weyrling, or even a candidate. At least it was going to be better with company. Farryl cocked her head curiously, trying to figure out what the other girl was doing. "Are you looking for something?" she asked, helpfully.

[Kisha-Ra]

O’dan sighed and blew a stray bit of his blond hair out of his eyes. He couldn’t believe that the scrolls in front of him had been no help at all in investigating his current worry. Not that O’dan would ever admit to being worried about something, though the pile of scrolls he taken to the table for quick reading said he was, as did the slight frown on his face and the way he kept biting his lower lip. As well as these signs of concern O’dan occasionally jerked upright and looked nervously around the room.

It was a bit hard to keep something a secret from your dragon but O’dan was making the effort and, he hoped, he was succeeding. He eyes ran over the scrolls on the table, most of them to do with the maturing of young dragons, and sighed again. He was actually quite concerned about his dragon, but he guessed that Emerith, being female, wouldn’t appreciate his concern in this matter. To put not too fine a point on it O’dan was worried that Emerith hadn’t managed a single Flight yet. He’d know she was a little late maturing, after all other greens from the same clutch had been Rising for a while now but it was really Oquith’s Flight that had brought the point home. The other green was from a younger clutch and the fact that she had Risen before Emerith worried him. However Emerith didn’t seem worried at all, and rather than upset or offend his green O’dan had decided to do alittle private research first, research that was going nowhere fast.

He must be looking in the wrong place, he decided and got up to put back the things he had out. What he wanted to know was bound to be here somewhere. It was just a question of finding it...

[sai]

Tanyl had been nearly alone when she'd started this, other than a reader on the other side of the room, so the sound of a voice--and an unfamiliar one, at that--in her records room (and when she was the only archivist on duty, that was how she thought of it) startled her, and she spun. The sight of the other girl, however, complete with weyrling shoulder knots, calmed her swiftly, and she nodded, saying, "I've misplaced my ladder, is all. Is there something you needed?"

Canting her head to the side, she moved the scrolls she'd been working with out of the way. It was, after all, the most utilitarian place to put anything the girl might need. What a Weyrling was doing in the archives, however... Well. Perhaps it was for one of her courses. A number of the records were gone over during various lessons, after all, and if she'd had trouble with one of them, or been particularly interested, it was perfectly reasonable that she'd want to look something over.

Well, and after all, it wasn't like the Weyrling girl was the only one here for records today, was she? It did seem to be a day for greenriders, though. Perhaps there was something in the air that made them all particularly curious, today.

[Rowana]

Farryl shook her head and gave an embarrassed smile. "Oh, I don't need anything. Unless you have a way to put knowledge in my head without having to learn it." She chuckled amiably. Talking was much better than studying, but she would probably have to give into that before long. She started looking around for the missing ladder, though all she could see was O'dan. He looked fairly lost too. It must just be a day for losing things. "Are you missing something too?" she asked politely.

Hobbs, riding in his usually spot on her shoulder, eventually found the ladder. It was tucked away in a corner behind a shelf heaped with scrolls. He fluttered over to perch on top and chirp happily. See? He had found it! "Good job, Hobbs," Farryl congratulated him. "Is this the ladder you were looking for?" She turned back to the girl.