Glowbaskets Everywhere (Chores) - Open

[Rowana]

Farryl glanced at her meager pile of belongings in the trunk next to Aniqua's. A few half finished carvings, her knife, and an extra change of clothes were still stuffed in her travel sack with her coat on top. She shrugged. It certainly didn't look like much, but at least it meant cleaning up after herself was easy. Her other chores would take much longer.

They certainly didn't waste time either. She had barely been at the Weyr a day and already she had been given tasks to do. Soon she would even be attended classes. Not that she expected dragons would care how educated she was, but at least it would be good to learn some new things. She would think about that and the upcoming hatching later. For tonight, she had a job to do. Cover the glows in all the baskets in the Weyr for the evening. Outside it was already dark and getting late. She would have to hurry to be back in her bunk before curfew.

It was simply enough, but Selenitas Weyr was huge in comparison to most of the Holds she had visited. Beyond that she still wasn't quite sure he way around. Still, she saw no better way to learn than to get started now. Tying her hair back with a strand of cord, she picked up a small glowbasket so she would be able to see her way. Then she was off with a playful skip in her step.

The candidate barracks were first. She gently covered each glowbasket in the common room and on the corners of the stairs. At least this chore wasn't so hard, only time consuming.

[nightingale]

Saeo yawned into her palm as she trudged downstairs. After spending all morning coppying out files in the Archive room, she'd been more than willing to spend her afternoon napping in the candidate barracks. She hadn't expected to sleep as late as she did of course, but really, what else did she have to do in the course of a day? One could only read for so many hours straight before they went cross-eyed, and until the next class rotation reading in one form of another was her only real method of occupying herself.

She eyed Farryl with vague curiosity as she came into view. Saeo didn't know much about the girl, apart from casual observations made from across the bunk room, but she'd always seemed a little...snobby for Saeo's taste. Well, that really wasn't fair, was it? Might was well talk to the girl a bit before drawing conclusions about her.

"Evening."

She sighed in a sing-song voice, smiling and delicately rubbing at her smudged eye-makeup with a gloved finger.

"Enjoying the fast paced life of a candidate yet?"

[Rowana]

Farryl glanced up at the new arrival. She recognized the brown haired girl from the bunk next to hers, but hadn't had a chance to talk to her yet. The girl looked like she had been sleeping, which was odd since it was only now close to bedtime. Still, Farryl was new, so who was she to judge the habits of others? Maybe the girl liked to be up at night, despite the looming curfew. Farryl was used to going to bed with the sun, so the required bedtime didn't bother her so much.

"Hello," she responded warmly with a polite smile. "It's certainly keeping me busy," she admitted reasonably. The chores actually reminded her a bit too much of her boring life with traders. At least here she had a chance for something far more exciting; a chance to impress a dragon. For that she would endure the most tedious of tasks.

She stood straight and held out a hand in greeting to the other girl. She loved to meet new people, no matter who they were. It was especially interesting since she and this girl would probably be spending a lot of time together until the hatching. "Sorry, I don't think I got your name yet. I'm Farryl."

[nightingale]

"Well I should certainly hope not!"

Saeo laughed, taking the girl's offered hand and giving it a firm shake that belied her rather slight stature.

"I haven't given it to you yet, so I'd have to lable you a name theif if you had it already. It's Saeo."

She drew her hand back delicately and rested it on her hip, casting an appreciative glance at the fresh glows that lit the otherwise dark staircase.

"Replacing glows? You're on general weyr duty then, am I correct? That certainly sounds more fun than copying out musty old records in the archives. Ugh! I want to sneeze just thinking about it!"

She turned the flickering surface of her dark grey eyes back toward Farryl and offered her a friendly grin. Well, she might not be snobby, but she certainly wasn't very interesting so far. Rich family? That might be it. Girls with money did tend toward the demure and uninteresting.

[Rowana]

Farryl laughed merrily at Saeo's wit. A good sense of humor went a long way in her opinion. She winked brightly. "I'll have to be careful in future when I steal names, so you don't find out," she returned jokingly. Farryl decided she liked Saeo. At least as far as first impressions went she did. She seemed sensible and friendly, unlike a lot of the silly Hold girls she had met before.

"And yes," she nodded and waved a hand at the basket of glows. "I'll get my exercise tonight, that's for sure!" she added cheerfully. It was always better to see things in a positive light. She smiled sympathetically at Saeo's woes. "At least you can read," she pointed out helpfully and with an impressed tone. "I can barely put two letters together." The traders had, of course, seen that she learned her numbers, but reading was not something they had ever had the inclination to teach her.

[nightingale]

Saeo's open expression softened into vague confusion at the girl's latest statement.

"Can't put two letters together?"

She asked with a small tilt of her head, speaking slowly and clearly as if hearing the words spoken in her own voice would help her to make sense of them. A small, half-smile played in the corner of her mouth as she debated weather or not Farryl was joking with her.

"Surely you're exaggerating. Reading isn't exactally a rare tallent."

Pretty girls weren't illiterate -the very idea was ridiculous. Neither were candidates for that matter, as one certianly couldn't expect to complete their studies with any degree of completeness when they couldn't read or write. A pretty girl candidate not reading? No, it had to be a joke -and a bad one at that.

[Rowana]

Farryl nodded gravely. She had thought to learn once or twice in the past year, once she was on her own, but so far hadn't found the time. It was a skill she had always intended on picking up someday. Perhaps, now that it looked like she might be settling down, she would take some time to learn. Especially since she would probably need it before long.

"I just never got the chance to learn," she admitted sadly. "I learned my numbers, though. Paukar saw to that." The old trader wouldn't have anyone in his caravan who couldn't count and haggle for goods. Farryl had learned well and was quite proud of her skill with math.

[nightingale]

The confusion lines on her brown deeped visibly beneath the thin fringe of Saeo's bangs. Never got the chance to learn? How was that even possible?

"Paukar? Who is that, your father?"

Not much of one if he dosen't ensure that daughter learns to read, she added silently, deciding to keep the barbed comment to herself. Really though, who in this day and age could go through -eighteen maybe?- turns of life without learning to read? Mathematics were all fine and well for some things, but not near as important as language. Not by a long shot -in her opinion anyway.

[Rowana]

"Not exactly," Farryl answered, but she did not elaborate. She didn't mind talking about her past, but it simply did not interest her as much as the present or the future. She had already said more than she normally would have.

She smiled to herself at the memories. Paukar had been a hard taskmaster, but a kind one all the same. It was probably more her fault than his that she had never learned more than her numbers and a few basic words. She had never been able to sit still very long and he had eventually given up. Perhaps it would have been different if she had had a more stable life, but she did not regret it.

Looking back at Saeo, she changed the subject smoothly. "Did your father teach you to read?" she asked in honest curiosity. The life of a more normal family had always interested her. Besides, she didn't want the whole conversation to focus on herself and some of her lacking skills.

[nightingale]

"Of course not."

Saeo huffed irritably, folding her arms over her chest. The irritation was not directed toward Farryl of course, but toward the very idea that someone could grow to be her age without ever having learned to read. It was ridiculous!

"My father is a tanner. I learned from the village harpers -surely you know all of this."

But then, she didn't did she? How could that be? She couldn't have come from Selenitas -the harpers never would have allowed a child to grow up illiterate, even if her father protested.

"Where are you from? One of the northern holds?"

It wasn't much of a guess, but Farryl did have the proper colouration. Then again, she might just as easily have come from Selenitas -the cultural demographics of Pern only really changed when you reached the blue-eyed, fair-skinned southern reigons.

[Rowana]

Farryl shrugged dismissively at the questions. "Could be," she admitted. Paukar had explained about finding her on the beach, so coming from a Northern vessel was a possibility. "I moved around a lot," she told Saeo vaguely. Her life wasn't all that interesting after all.

"A tanner?" Farryl sounded genuinely intrigued by that. "That sounds important." After all, without tanners, they wouldn't have all the flying leathers and such that they would need if they Impressed. Crafters were fascinating to her, especially since she she would never have the patient to learn a craft for that long. That made the feat of becoming a Journeyman or a Master very impressive indeed.

"What is tanning like?" she asked. She had seen their wares, the traders often bought some, but never known exactly how they were made.

[nightingale]

Saeo was silent for a long moment, examining Farryl with skeptical grey eyes. She had a hunch that the girl was deliberately trying to change the subject. Well, that was her bussiness, she supposed. If the girl din't want to talk family, tanning was just fine with her.

"It's boring, painful and a lot more work that you'd think."

She smiled wryly, making a small gesture toward her leather blouse with one gloved hand.

"My dad made this, and it took him almost a month not counting the embroidery. You've gotta scrape the hides, cure them, stretch them, cure them again, and then you gotta cut it and sew it together -but I guess some people really like that kind of work. My dad and brothers do anyway. Me, I've never really got the wole 'working with your hands' concept. It really messes up my fingernails..."

[Rowana]

Farryl listened intently to Saeo's explanation and nodded in agreement. It did indeed sound long, boring, and tedious. Yet the craftsmanship could not be denied. It took dedication to spend a whole month on something. Farryl had never spent more than a week on any of her carvings, which was probably why most of them were fairly simple.

"That does sound hard on the hands," she agreed. "But it looks lovely." Her own hands were pretty calloused, but likely no where close to as bad as they would be doing that kind of work. The talk of work, though, reminded her of the chore she was supposed to be doing. "Oh! I still have to finish these," she waved at the glowbaskets. "I'm sorry. You could come with me if you like and we could keep talking?" Her tone was hopeful, but she wouldn't be offended if Saeo didn't want to come. It was getting late after all and the other girl had done her chore for the day.

[nightingale]

"Weeeell, I suppose I could help..."

Saeo frowned, placing an index finger alongside her jaw in a deeply thoughtful gesture. For a moment she looked to be genuinely considering the offer, but it soon became obvious that she was trying very hard not to smile. Eventually she gave up on the charade alltogether and a bright grin lept across her face.

"Yeah, let's go. Anything to avoid going back to bed."

Sleeping all afternoon had removed any and all desire Saeo posessed for going to bed on time -not that she had very much desire for it on a typical day. Filling glowbaskets seemed like a rather facinating alternative to copying out records anyway.

[Rowana]

Farryl grinned back. "Alright then!" she said with relish. "Shall we stalk the hallways?" She picked up her basket of glows and started towards the door, keeping pace so that Saeo could keep up with her easily. She felt happier than she had in a long time. It was one thing to wander from Hold to Hold and see the what each had to offer. It was something entirely different to find a friend like Saeo. Farryl hoped they would spend more time together in the future. Someday they might even be weyrlings together!