Chop, Chop! (Group IV, August Kitchen Chores)

[kysseh]

Fiona was privately of the mindset that kitchen chores, as a whole, were among the most boring and ridiculous invented. They must be some form of punishment, for the outdoor-loving greenweyrling could not otherwise comprehend why the weyrlings would do them. The candidates, surely, would be helpful, but the weyrlings usually had half--or nearly all, in Fi's case--of their mind somewhere else. Away... gone... running freely! Yes, Fiona was quite efficiently distracted today, though she could not drift off as much as she would have liked. Chopping meat did require a bit of focus.

She had intended to get stuck on something appropriately busy and distracting. That mountain of dishes certainly needed to be done, though it looked like the head cook had just roped someone else into it. Another weyrling, maybe? Who knew?! Fiona had been making a beeline for it when the cook--a wise woman, obviously--had snagged her and told her that they needed a herdbeast rump chopped for stew. Fiona knew how to do this, of course, but it was a tedious, boring task, that she had agreed to reluctantly. Now she found herself in a semi-quiet corner of the kitchen, chopping up what seemed to be the largest chunk of herdbeast she'd ever seen. Slice off a slab, cut it into long strips, cut the long strips into short pieces... quite easy, really. Just dull.

Too bad that Ego is full, or you could feed the fussybutt some of it. Raiyth pointed out sleepily. The cheerful green had been lounging on her couch since Fiona started chores, and she was loathe to get up. Curled between two of her backridges, Ego was fairly radiating smugness. Neither female could deduce what was up with him at first, but after a day or so, they had reasoned that he'd found himself a mate.... which Fi had later learned was C'lryn of Minoath's gold Darling. That would explain the strict bronze's obvious delight, and Fi wondered if she had clutched already. She should peek by and see sometime.

A sudden clattering of pots had her alert again, and Fi jumped a bit and then quickly resumed her chopping with easy grace. Shards, but this was going to take her all afternoon! Surely, someone else could help her, right?!

[randi]

Since his humanthing had become silly with the large dragon, Scamp has been lost. Muttering a quiet chant of Staystaystaystay... under his breath, the salamandyr had spent the afternoon completely disregarding whatever His had intended to happen. He was loose, yes, and was excited to be so.

Wing flapping excitedly, he had dashed from one green object to another. Yet, he had become aware that, no matter how much he might wish it so, the green things were not filling. Abandoning his current blade of grass, and getting distracted a lot on the way, he eventually made it to a boat, hitching a ride up to the main hall.

Scurrying through the Kitchens, Scamp was opened to another, greenless, world. Yet, he smelled meat, his stomach rumbling rather urgently that it would be nice to have some. He continued his quiet chant, weaving around the feet of these humans until he found someone nice and stationary, who smelled of the meat Bearinth ate and sometimes shared, though usually not because Bearinth was greedy.

Pawing at the girl's leg, he peered up with his yellow eyes, tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth determinedly, his chant growing audible, Staystaystaystay. The sudden clatter of pots and pans made him jump, a hiss coming from him as he scampered up her skirt, his claws pricking through the fabric to keep hold. He curled up and shivered, still clinging to the fabric, though a little scared that the big noise monster was going to be loud again, and he didn't want that, oh no.

[kysseh]

Fiona had just finished slicing another slab into little bits when she felt something little brushing against her leg. She had to lean away from the counter and look down to see what the issue was, immediately cooing softly upon the sight of the little blue salamandyr. How cute he was! She giggled softly at the picture he made, his little yellow eyes and stuck-out tongue making him look more than a little... strange. Albeit, it was strange in a cute way, and his chant had her wondering. "Stay where?" she wondered aloud.

The little blue seemed frightened by the noise, and though Fiona was startled as well, she wasn't totally alarmed, not to the extent that the little round fat thing was. Silly, silly creature! It wasn't going to hurt him! However, his scampering had her squealing in surprise, and she glanced around to make sure no one could see Scamp clinging to her. ... No? No one looking! She grinned broadly and quickly gestured with her chin. "Up here, cutie," she whispered softly. "Up on my shoulder and try to hide in my hair so they can't see you!" If they saw him, they'd kick him out of the kitchen, and Fiona was loathe to lose her cutely... strange little friend.

She looked around again, just to be on the safe side, and then offered him one of the tidbits she had just cut. It wasn't a large one, but it'd still take him awhile to gnaw through it, and she could care less if he dripped meat juice on her shirt. She had purposely worn this one with the knowledge that it would get filthy in the kitchen from some thing or another. She was safe in the knowledge that her little friend would take awhile to nibble through that and continued chopping as if nothing had happened, carefully cutting another slab off the large hunk of hindquarters. "So, where's your person? He didn't leave you all alone, did he?" she asked, her dark eyes widening as she spied his lack of an appendage. "Oh, no! What happened to your tail?!" The poor dear! Who had snagged the tail from him?!

[randi]

Glancing up at the gentle coos, Scamp's head tilted to the side as he peered at his current safe-spot. No loud noise monsters here, oh no. She smelled like food, which made her an instant winner in his book, even though she seemed to currently lack anything green. No green, so sad, but food, so good. At her seeming offering of a new word, the blue 'mandyr stopped his chant, instead using the new word to add to his vocabulary. Where stay stere way. His stump wagged, a small trilling croon emitting from him.

In some distant part of his tiny brain, Scamp did recognize the girl as the one in the picture given to him by His, and as the one with the nice large Green One who was nice and did not mind his nibbling. At her indication, he scampered up to her shoulder, shielding himself in her dark curls. Distracted momentarily, he rubbed against her neck gently, crooning adoringly. Fiona was a nice notHis.

And the girl just kept getting nicer by the minute. The small bit of offered meat was snatched with consideration, enjoying the game of Not Letting the Others See that they seemed to have made. He nibbled contentedly, drooling slightly onto her shirt below.

Her question was met by a firm answer, at least as much as she was going to get from him. Person alone pelone sone per. He nodded, his teeth firmly embedded in the meat before he went back to nibbling. Glancing back at his tailless rump, he waggled it experimentally, his wings raising in a shrug before flapping happily. He seemed happy no matter what had happened to his tail, and he wished notHis would be happy too. The wind caused by his small wings blew her curls slightly, the 'mandyr trilling quietly in laughter.

[kysseh]

The 'mandyr was quite possibly the most adorable pet that Fiona had ever seen when he waggled his little stump of a tail like that. Ego was a majestic and handsome little beast, but... adorable, he was not. No, he could not hold a candle to her new friend, and she giggled at his little trills, loving how he seemed to say things without... really saying anything at all. The little beast was probably short a few necessary connections in his brain, but he was so adorable that it was hard to get frustrated with his lack of coherent answers. Answers were overrated anyways!

He seemed to understand the hiding concept, and she was glad she had let her curls grow out a bit. They should keep him mostly out of sight, at least, and she had to stifle another round of giggles as he crooned and rubbed against her neck. Scamp was such a precious little thing, and she could not possibly understand how the bronzerider got so frustrated with him. Really, it wasn't hard to deal with him! Offer him something green to nibble on or spoil him with attention, and he was just fine! She scritched him lightly on the back with one finger as he nibbled on her little gift, not minding the drool on her shirt. That was what cleaning soap was for, right? Nothing a little soap couldn't fix!

He seemed very confident about what had happened, but his incoherent babbling left her with no clue as to how the tail had gone missing. Maybe it had gotten stuck somewhere? Who knew?! He did not seem bothered by it, at least, and she hoped it had not pained him. The poor little dear... she would have to track down K'nam to make sure the tail stump was properly cared for. Scamp could scarcely have deserved such a damaging blow. He seemed in good spirits and more focused on his food than his tail, and she emitted a quiet laugh as her curls whirled around him.

"Oops... careful with your wings. You don't want them getting caught in my hair," she said softly, scraping her small pile of meat bits into the pot. Shardit, but that was only a tiny bit of the full haunch! Ah well, at least she'd have enough to keep Scamp happily fed! She carefully cut off another slab of meat and continued to chop, keeping a wary eye out for anyone who might possibly try to chase her new little friend off. He wasn't hurting anyone, after all. The poor underfed 'mandyr just needed a little meal.

[Kisha-Ra]

Roshya moved carefully with her burden of dirty plates and bowls collected from the dining hall, the stack was not particularly heavy but she was worried about dropping things. To be honest she was glad for a chance to be out of the kitchen, the noise and the oppressive heat, plus the watchful eyes of the cooks, didn’t appeal to her, she’d be more than glad when this round of chores was over.

As she passed one of the senior weyrlings on the way to deposit her burden in the sink for the attention of another weyrling-come-kitchen menial Roshya was forced to give out an odd look, the girl was talking to thin air. It wasn’t until Roshya turned back toward the door to start collecting the next round of crockery that she noticed a hint of bright blue among the girl’s black curls, oh a hidden firelizard or salamandyr. Roshya shrugged dismissively, she wouldn’t carry tales, the little beast wasn’t doing any harm there.


O’dan sighed the sigh of all sighs; he normally didn’t mind kitchen chores because he could usually pilfer sweets and pastries that no one would miss, much. However today he was stuck with the biggest pile of vegetables on all Pern. For stew they claimed, personally he was sure it was designed to drive him crazy because no matter how many of any given vegetable he peeled and chopped the pile in front of him never seemed to get any smaller. With another sigh to make sure everyone knew how put upon he was he decapitated another peeled carrot and sliced it into uneven rounds, maybe he could get rid of all of them in a day or so…