Wasted Evening (January Chores)

[Ember]

Evening was officially the worst time to work in the dining hall. Not only was it busy but it was the time people started drinking and getting rowdy. One group in the corner was starting to get pretty drunk...and pretty noisy. At least, that was Dy'shi's opinion on the matter as he collected a couple of plates and started to wipe down the table. He was grumbling slightly under his breath. You'd think given the choice he would have picked a better chore.

As he tried to pass the group on his way to another recently vacated table a heavy hand fel lon his shoulder and he blinked. "Hey boy." Eww, hot stinky breath in his face! "Get me another drink." With that he was released and he hurried away, wiping the nasty man's spit from his face. Yet he didn't blame the person. Alcohol did terrible things to people. That example just renewed Dy'shi's conviction to never drink.

He slipped into the kitchen and dropped the plates off at the dishwasher's with an apologetic smile before turning towards where the wine was stored. He paused and decided why not do the men a favour? They're heads would already be hurting - though why people got headaches the next day he didn't know - and the guy hadn't specified which drink. As a kid he could just pretend to have misunderstood if they got angry anyways.

The young blueweyrling grabbed a pitcher of redfruit juice and walked back out to the group. He was actually a bit happier, believing he was doing something good for them but Chakraith was alert in his mind. Dy'shiMine, it is not a good idea to meddle in the affairs of others. He just shook off the warning. He'd done sillier things in his life, including getting into a fight to defend one of his siblings. Normally that would be called courageous but when the person was twice your size they just called it foolishness.

Dy'shi was aware there might be consequences - he expected a scolding in the worst case - but he wasn't entirely prepared for the man's anger. "What is this? Do you take me for a fool boy!?" The blueweyrling blinked and he was vaguely aware of a coldness settling over Chakraith. Her protective nature taking over he guessed. "W-was that not the drink you wanted? You should have been more specific..." Innocent act: failed. The man approached, arm raised to strike a blow while his fellows told him to stop. Dy'shi's bad day seemed to be taking a turn for the worse.

[tarra]

Evenings in the Dining Hall never appealed to Katar in the least. A solitary person by nature, she disliked crowds; and though the Dining Hall was a large and roomy structure, when crammed full of people it was to her no better than being stuck in one of those bothersome Gathers with guard duty and no marks left to spend. At Fort she had been obliged to attend to dinners at the main halls, though doing so invariably garnered scornful glances and whispered remarks. Not doing so would make her an easy scapegoat to the false rumours people spread about her secretiveness; it was the last thing any Fort rider wanted - to be accused of engaging in illicit affairs outside the 'normal' Weyr life.

But this was not Fort, and the day she had realised she could have meals in her weyr without reprecussion was the day she had began doing so. The set-up of the Weyr still obligated her to collect her meals from the Dining Hall (unless she wanted to strain her relations with the drudges by bothering them to deliver at their busiest times, which she didn't), but at least she need not tolerate the Hall at its peak times. The relief she felt at the new arrangement was so strong even Sonarth felt better about it.

The Hall was a melee of moving arms and elbows, as ever, but the bluerder made it through without any mishap. She found the moving line of riders and Weyrfolk awaiting their turn at the tray distribution and joined it. The flow of moving people swirled and ran along the line, some of them dodging through the queue whilst others opted to go around to get to the other side. Inching along, Katar espied a small boy dodging in and out of the crowds, carrying used plates and wiping tables. She watched him idly, more out of boredom than anything else as the queue moved at a snail's crawl. He looked familiar. She shifted back to allow a drudge to pass through the line, shot a dirty look at the rider behind her when he almost displaced from the queue by moving forward, and found they were passing a corner table full of drunken riders. Casting a sideways glance at them, Katar noted with distaste that she would have to pass the table on the way back out to Sonarth at the landing pad. Another person tried to dive through the line just then, and the bluerider kept herself occupied staying in line in the chaos.

The drudges, accustomed by now to her odd habits, had her food packed and ready to go on request. She thanked them as she turned away - and nearly collided into the boy she had been watching earlier. Hanging back, she allowed him to pass first, and then followed on her way back out the doors. She was barely two paces away when he gave the man his drink - and was promptly accosted by him.

The natural action was to duck away; but there were too many people behind her, and they were all fighting for space to move. Whether by sheer bad luck or just coincidence, someone at her rear shoved out even as she stepped back to avoid the lurching drunk, and the movement knocked her right into him. She managed to keep both her food and her balance (after a bit of stumbling and scrambling), though the force of the blow would probably send the other rider to the ground, if not into another person. Backing up quickly, she found herself next to the youngster, her eyes wide as she realised she might just have earned the ire of all the riders at the table. She started to call apologies, hoping to forestall anything about to happen. On the landing pad outside, Sonarth rumbled and began to rise, his eyes whirling orange as his wings flared.

[Ember]

The expected hit never came as the mass in the main hall suddenly spit someone out - and to his rescue, oddly enough. Dy'shi blinked as his unexpected saviour bumped the drunk rider. While she managed to stay up the guy wasn't so lucky. He would have gone sprawling had one of his companions not been behind him. Well, he was saved but was the woman so lucky? She may have just attracted the drunken anger of the other riders at the table too. The boy gulped and glanced up at the bluerider. Oh. Another with a blue dragon. Ever since Impression he'd been noticing blueriders more often since they had the same colour dragons.

Ack! That wasn't the time to be thinking of such things. He'd jsut noticed that a couple of drinks on the table had been knocked over. With their drinks gone and their comrade made a fool of...those riders probably weren't all that friendly. There was no hope of defending her from them so that left fleeing. Dy'shi glanced towards the kitchens. The people working there would be able to help them but there were a ton of people in the way. He really didn't want to cause even more of a commotion.

He grabbed the bluerider's sleeve and tugged on it to try and get her attention. Apologies at this point wouldn't make it across. The fallen dragonrider was finally getting his balance and the the others were starting to get up. "It's probably a good idea to get out of here now," he suggested. Then he stepped forward slightly and thought up a distraction to give Katar and himself a head start. To think he'd actually be ditching chores! So useless was he. He swore to make up for it later though. Helping another person came first.

Dy'shi pointed in the opposite direction from the landing pad and half-yelled, "Oh my, its a Ponticaluf!" As heads turned he sprinted towards the door. He had to slip past some of the crowd but then he was out. Lovely fresh air! He stopped short at the sight of the blue dragon on the landing pad. That wasn't a happy colour in its eyes. Maybe he'd disturbed the blue's rest? Suddenly the riders seemed safer to face.

[tarra]

Apologies would be useless. Katar saw that the same moment Dy'shi began tugging on her sleeve, and her mind turned at once to thoughts of escape. Drunken riders often had hangovers; hangovers often caused memory lapses. It was a fact that had saved her in many confrontations with such riders back in Fort. In the din of the Hall she couldn't hear the boy's words, and so his sudden cry took her by surprise as much as it did everyone else. But the bluerider was quick to discern the opening he had given both of them by his actions. She followed on his heels as he scooted through the crowd, keeping her precious dinner held close to her stomach to avoid losing it in the crowd. They came out on the landing pad with a gust of fresh wind across the river, and she sighed in relief as she felt it on her face. The boy stopped short suddenly, stunned before the angry blue dragon now stalking towards them; but Katar only chuckled as she recognised Sonarth.

"Love," she said quickly, stepping around Dy'shi into the shadow of her dragon's head, "It's fine, they won't be following us. He helped me get out,"

The blue's eyes faded into a milder amber as his flared wings softened against his sides, That is well. Arching his head downwards, he examined the child beside his talons, his thoughts whirring into a brief recognition that surprised Katar: there were few people her blue bothered to remember, all of them significant in some (usually negative) way. She looked back at Dy'shi, trying to recall if he had stepped on their toes at some point.

Mine, it is him: the rider of the female, Sonarth corrected, The weyrling.

Oh, realisation startled her, yes. How could she forget? The knowledge that a female blue had been shelled at Selenitas had stymied both Sonarth and her when they first arrived, and piped the blue dragon's curiosity enough that he kept track of the younger rider whenever he could. Katar had little interest in male riders in general, and preferred to stay out of their way as much as she could, but she made the exception in this case. A female blue was just too much of an oddity to be ignored. Foregoing her usual coolness around males, she glanced down at Dy'shi, a light smile tinging her features.

"I'm Katar, by the way - you must be Dy'shi, rider of Chakraith. Sonarth here recognises you. Thanks for your help back there."

[Ember]

Dy'shi eyed the blue approaching him and the woman who'd inadvertantly saved him from pain but he was a little too stunned to do much more than that. As Katar chuckled and stepped around him he realized it was her dragon. That explained why he was so agitated. Thus free of any fear from dragon or drunk riders he began to settle down and Chakraith's coldness faded to the usual calm. He wouldn't admit it (though she probably already knew) but she had scared him a bit when she'd gone like that. Preparing to hurt someone, that's what that feeling reminded him of. He didn't like the idea of Chakraith hurting someone, or worse being hurt trying to protect him.

He looked up at the dragon's still somewhat agitated-coloured eyes and tilted his head to the side a bit. He wondered what the blue thought of him. Grateful, perhaps, of helping his rider out of a tricky situation? His curiosity faded after a moment and he turned his gaze on the female bluerider. What he say there confused him. It might have just been him but he thought he saw a flicker of surprise. Her msile reassured him but her words quickly replaced the feeling with suspicion. He wasn't sure which was worse, that she knew his and his dragon's names or that it had been her blue that recognized him.

"You saved me first. It was only right to repay the favour," he commented, glancing at both of the pair. "Umm, excuse me but I don't think we've met each other before. How did you know my name and Chakra - ah." A thought had just occured to him but he wasn't pleased by it. "I don't suppose you know of me because of my dragon?" That was the only thing that made sense...unless of course the weyrlingmaster was unhappy with him and he was under watch. Much more likely was the fact that Chakraith being a blue female would attract some attention.