Mop, mop (chores)

[shadowreine]

Keloran located the mop and handed CLoar...the wet end, smiling innocently.

"I don't know. I haven't decided yet. Go for a walk, maybe."

He liked to get away some, although he suddenly realized he wouldn't mind if Cloar tagged along. Great. He didn't need another friend to Impress and forget about him. Or vice versa...he had no illusions that friends would go by the board in those busy early weeks and months of weyrlinghood.

They would have to both Impress and what were the chances of that? Incredibly slim, he knew. He sighed. "Sorry. Umm. Do you have anything *you* want to do?"

[dragon]

Cloar gave Keloran a very appropriate, decidedly strange look, at finding himself confronted with the soppy end of the mop. And then he chuckled and smirked, before taking the mop by the wet end ... and promptly threatening to whack the impertenet lad with it. But he didn't ... after a few experimental swings, he let the thing drop down into the bath, and he started industriously mopping all the goopy bits that had been left behind down the drain.

"Walks are fun. If you're going somewhere interesting ... or somewhere you've never been before." Cloar agreed, scrubbing at a particularly stubborn spot with the mop. "Anything I want to do ... ? Hmm." Cloar thought on that for a moment. "I like to explore... it also keeps me out of the way of all the important people about these parts."

[shadowreine]

Keloran nodded. "Yeah, it's a good way to avoid being found more chores to do." Speaking of which, he hunted around. There.

Finding another mop, he started on the other pool. After all, as he had said, the faster they got this done, the better.

"I think some of the dragonriders have the same idea, except they have an unfair advantage." Like, you know, wings. Wings got one a lot further away from chores than feet.

Yet, oddly, he was starting to feel some hope again. Some indication that he might actually...stand a prayer. After all, some people stood for longer. Right?

[dragon]

"Chores aren't so bad. At least ... I don't think so. However ... always doing chores can be a drag. So ... yeah!" Cloar agreed readily. He glanced up as Keloran found another mop. They were almost done in the bathing rooms, and that was a great encouragement to hurry up and get done quickly. Freedom was in sight!

"Dragon riders have chores? Beyond ... you know ... drills and dragon care? I didn't know that!" Cloar admitted. "What do they do?" he scrubbed the last gooey spot down into the drain, and hoped back out of the bath. The burly lad tottered there on the edge for a moment before finally deciding that he wasn't going to fall back in again. Striding over to a cabinet, he acquired a bucket, and filled it with water. Carrying the bucket back to the bath, he dumped it in, using the water to rinse the bottom of the bath out. Once it was nice and clean again, he reached down into it and replaced the stopper. Lifting the mop out, he wandered over to the water pipe that jutted out of the wall over the bath, and cranked the wheel around to allow water to flow down out of the reservoir into the bath. Though the water was gushing through the pipe quickly, it would take some time to fill that vast bath to the top.

Snatching up his mop, Cloar dropped down into the third bath, and resumed mopping, even as the last vestiges of that bath's water continued to drain away. "Flying is amazing, I think." Cloar mentioned, almost wistfully. "I'd love to be able to fly any time I wanted to."

[shadowreine]

Keloran shrugged. "Drills, dragon care, helping with stuff when the wingleader's snowed under. Sweeps. Don't forget sweeps."

That would be a downside to a brown or bronze. Longer sweeps. Then again, maybe he'd get a talkative dragon.

He got his bath cleaned a little bit after Cloar, plugging it in. "Yeah, although not quite any time. Dragons get tired, after all. Especially if you get a blue or green. They're not built to have as much stamina...although they're faster and better at fancy flying. It kinda evens out, in a way. Except for the status thing, but I don't know how much you care about that. Some guys would run halfway across Pern to avoid Impressing bronze."

He understood that. Sure, he wanted one, but he understood why some might find them too much responsibility.

[dragon]

Cloar laughed, and looked over at Keloran. "I am not running anywhere to avoid impressing anything. I'd be happy to impress a dragon! That would be like them deciding I was not an acceptable rider because my hair was black. How ridiculous is that? One never knows what one will Impress ... and there is no changing it. There's nothing we can do to influence it in any way ... so ..." He shrugged.

"What are sweeps?" Cloar asked. Not being from the weyr, he had no idea about some things. But he had already gathered that Keloran was liable to have the answers for him, on little things like that.
"Being able to fly a long ways would be fun ... but fancy flying would be just as much fun, too." Cloar agreed. "It would be awesome either way. It does even out. Hey ... do people ever ride each others dragons? Just 'cause ... you know, for kicks?" Cloar asked, out of curiosity.

[shadowreine]

Keloran considered. "Not really, not unless, say, your dragon couldn't fly because of a pulled muscle or something and you *had* to be somewhere. You can't just switch off. Dragons like their riders with them. Well, not all the time except for very young weyrlings."

Hatchlings got possessive. "I guess I said that wrong. And there are records that occasionally, if the two riders are close enough, you can, but even then, there'd have to be a real good reason, not 'just cause'."

He finished what he was doing. "There. And yeah. Some people don't like responsibility and bronzeriders are expected to take it. But people like that aren't likely to Impress bronze in the first place...bronzes don't usually choose them."

[dragon]

Cloar nodded, listening to what Keloran said, and storing the information away. There was so much that he didn't know ... and he'd even already graduated from classes. That seemed to indicate that there was either a lot of info in that class he missed, or classes were incomplete.

But that wasn't a far assessment, either. There was gobs to know ... and classes alone certainly wouldn't cover it all. He supposed thay maybe they didn't bother to teach candidates about all that until they actually impressed. And in that case, that made them Weyrlings.

Confusing mess, he'd managed to get himself into! He resumed mopping the bath, until it was clean. Then he plugged it, and climbed back out to turn on that water flow, too. By this time, the first was almost full. So he made his way aroud and back to it, to shut it off. "Almost there." He said, with a note of acheivement.

[shadowreine]

Keloran nodded. "Close." he started to pick up the various cleaning stuff.

"And sweeps are patrols. The riders fly out and look for anything that might constitute trouble. Spies from other Weyrs, travelers in difficulty, anything where a dragon might be handy. Sometimes they come back with candidates, too."

He shrugged a bit. "Dragonriders work hard." Fortunately, he'd never been afraid of that. "I'm going to need dry clothes now," he added, almost ruefully.

He'd have to stop by the barracks before doing anything else...his shirt was absolutely soaked. "For that matter, so are you."

He didn't mention that was at least in part Keloran's fault. After all, the horseplay had gone both ways.

[dragon]

Cloar nodded, and grinned. "New clothes ... sure. If you're not planning on going swimming, that is. If you're gonna swim ... why bother changing?" He thought a moment. "You know ... I think I'm going to go ahead and change, and then I'm gonna go exploring out in the forest. See what I can find and bring back. Interested?" Cloar asked, twisting the last water pipe shut.

He circled the bath again, aiding in picking up random items. An afternoon and an evening wandering the forest ... what could be better? Maybe he'd get a sack or something, and fill it with berries. Or ... somethine else. What ever he happened to find. Neat rocks. Interestingly shaped twigs. But berries would be tastey. But that would mean going way off the beaten path.

[shadowreine]

"Sure. I hardly have any better ideas. We should head towards the beach, just in case."

He'd love to find a firelizard or mandyr clutch, but he knew his chances were pretty slim. He was fairly sure that the queens knew better than to lay close to the Weyr. But it was worth a try.

"Good exercise...not that we need it, but then, look how fit the riders are. Half of that's from dragon bathing, you know...and the other half is throwing firestone bags around. Or swinging a flamethrower...I'm told those things aren't exactly light to lug around."

Not something he would ever have to worry about. Unless... "Ugh. Now that would be a horrible deformity to have show up..."

But with all the other problems Millieth's dragonets were having, it wouldn't surprise him...

[dragon]

"What deformity?" Cloar asked, suddenly very curious. Lugging stone, or tanks or washing dragons wouldn't bother him much ... he was already as fit and muscular as someone his age could get. Blacksmithing tended to so that to a body.

Toward the beach. That was an interesting idea, too. "Alright. To the beach. But I'd like to hunt for some berries or something on the way, too. That would mean going through untrodden thickets. You up for that?"

[shadowreine]

Keloran shuddered. "I mean, we have dragons with two tails, that poor green that can't fly properly...I bet if this carries on we'll have some poor green or blue who can't chew firestone 'cause their second stomach don't work right."

"And berries? I'd *love* to find some berries, just be careful. I found a bush once, and they tasted like...umm...vile. Made me sick. None of the ones around here are poisonous, but..."

But not all were really human edible. He supposed that was the way it was. But...mm...berries. Of course, they were better in bubbly pies...

[dragon]

Cloar paused for a moment, thinking. He had indeed noticed that some of the dragons around had been a tad strange looking. How they had been strange, he hadn't been able to determine. But then ... he hadn't seen anything flightless or two-tailed, either. A dragon not able to flame? That would be bad ... but not so bad as two tails or disfunctional wings. Neither of those two deformations could fly. One that couldn't flame was at least something that could be remedied, even if they had to fly in the Queen's wing to do it.

"Oh." Was all that Cloar said on the topic, however, properly horrified that such things could happen to dragons. It made him wonder if maybe all that inbreeding was starting to have effects ... or if it was something else doing it. All the drugging rumors going around were hard to miss.

"I'll have to run back to the barracks to get my bag." Cloar mentioned, glad that Keloran liked the idea of berries. Cloar really like that idea ... berries always made a marvelous mess, and tasted even better. "But ...yeah. If something doesn't taste good, I don't swallow it." He shrugged. "At least ... not when I'm foraging."

Cloar looked around the room, and heaved a weary sigh. It more or less looked like they'd gotten this chore done and out of the way. "Do you see anything else that needs done?" he asked, just in case.

[shadowreine]

Keloran shook his head. "I don't see anything. Lets head back to the barracks and find some dry clothes?"

Would a dragon with two tails be able to fly? He personally didn't see any reason why not, but he supposed they'd find out. At least he'd escaped that...but then, he knew he wouldn't care if his dragon was deformed.

For the sake of the Weyr, though, he truly hoped the effect of the fertility drugs would eventually wear off and Millieth start producing normal hatchlings. Any dragon that couldn't fly was a burden on the rest, just like a crippled human could be. Except, worse, because dragons ate a *lot*.