Chores (Group IV, June)

[kysseh]

Brushing a thick-bristled broom across the floor of the main hall, Fiona was trying to decide whether this was a better or worse chore than boat duty. Granted, boat duty had been difficult to grasp at first, mostly because she was not familiar with maintaining seaworthy--or riverworthy-- vessels. But that had been outside, in the fresh air. She was now stuck inside and sweeping twigs, dried leaves, and dead insects out of the corners. It was not difficult or confusing, but it was mind-numbingly boring, to say the least.

//Sweep patterns on the floor! Well... perhaps not, because all the dirt is going to be swept up.// Raiyth added rather unhelpfully, contentedly curled up in their room in the barracks. The green weyrling felt badly that she could not help Hers with chores, but she had just fed and was sleepy. Besides, she doubted that she could properly use a broom like Fiona could. Brooms were made for human use.

"Should've gone with changing glows," the young woman muttered, knowing she had to move on to the dining hall next. This place was too sharding big! She had barely covered half of the floor in the last candlemark, and the one corner on the opposite side looked especially... well, dirty. She supposed a good sanding and then a mopping would be next on her to-do list. Shards, but she hated these chores! At least boat duty had been outside.

Curled around her neck, Ego gave a sleepy chirp. The bronze flit was growing at an alarming rate and was a lot bigger than Fiona had ever thought he'd be. She figured he would slow his growth, but the little flit was constantly packing away the food. She had to oil him several times a day, or he made an intolerable racket. She was too smitten to bother much, though. She loved the arrogant little twit far too much.

[missa]

Beka now officially hated chores. First boat duty, which was outside for long periods of time working with boats - which she knew nothing about. Now, she was stuck indoors for long periods of time and mopping up what floors had been swept. Who ever was assigning the chores obviously wanted to annoy her, well, it was working.

Grumbling under her breath as she dragged the mop over the floors, Beka couldn't help but wish she'd offered to do the glows instead of this. This, this was boring. Completely and utterly boring. She didn't have to move much, and that of course gave Anai and Pita ample oppurtunities to bicker over who got the left shoulder.
You missed a spot. Again, with the unhelpful advice. First with the boats, then with the mopping. At least she wasn't alone, that girl who'd been with her on the boats was sweeping, and Beka was following along with the mop and sanded water.
Shut up Thoth.

Well you did. Anai told me, she jsut didn't want to bother you. Right next to you- Thoth was greatly enjoying teasing His, knowing it was at least keeping her from taking out her frustration on the other weyrling.
I'm ignoring you now. Beka growled as she placed the mop to the dry piece of floor that Anai pointed out. At least the green was helping. Sharding brown. Pita chittered with laughter as she growled at Thoth, and Beka shrugged her shoulder, delibrately making the brown stumble and cling to her shirt.
"You stop it. This is bad enough without you two acting like a joined couple."

[rynnti]

Young M'ritz yawned as he reached for a mop, looking distastefully out over the entirety of the Main Hall. Shards, he had to mop… all of this? Seriously? He rubbed his eyes, trying to force the last remnants of sleep out of them. Normally, he slept really well and could be up and about as soon as he woke up. But, normally he didn’t have a certain dark brown dragonet fussing over him all night. The way Origoth had been worrying one would have thought that M’ritz had been one of the Candidates who had been mauled! Origoth had to make sure that M’ritz was comfortable in their weyr, and that M’ritz had retrieved all of his belongings from the Candidate Barracks, and that M’ritz wasn’t hungry, and that M’ritz wasn’t thirsty, and… a lot of other things. M’ritz had, at one point, wondered if he worried too much about how he was perceived because of his size and age. After hearing his beloved Origoth worry about everything from the temperature in the weyr to the part in his hair, M’ritz realized that perhaps he hadn’t worried enough.

He looked back out over the expansive Main Hall. Why did the rooms need to be so large? It’s not like the dragons came in here. Shards, even if they did, they would all have plenty of room! /M’ritzmine, is everything alright?/ The brown weyrling paused in his mopping to smile warmly. /Origoth, I’m simply mopping the floor. What might possibly go wrong?/ There was a pause during which, M’ritz assumed, his dragon was going through a list of every single thing that could possibly go wrong. Knowing his dragon, that list was going to be very long. /M’ritzmine, I simply worry about you. After all, you are Mine. If you are hurt, it will hurt me too!/ The brown dragonet couldn’t stand having to wait for His to finish up these boring chores. Especially when he couldn’t be there, watching out for his M’ritz. He wouldn’t worry over his small rider so much if M’ritz was a little more careful. The boy had been telling him stories of his life before the Weyr, and Origoth wasn’t very approving of all the danger M’ritz tended to put himself into. Why would he have to prove himself to anyone? Origoth knew that M’ritz was perfect, so M’ritz should too!

/Don’t worry, Origoth. I’m being especially careful today. Just for you./ M’ritz resumed his mopping, but was unable to remove his grin from his face. He couldn’t understand how he had managed to live without his brown counterpart. He had spent his entire life missing half of himself, and hadn’t even noticed. No wonder he was always failing at proving himself, he had been missing his other half! But now, well shards! Standing next to his magnificent dragon, who bore the most distinctive markings around his beautiful multi-faceted eyes, he was already proved! /As long as you’re extra careful./ Origoth began, deciding to lay down while His worked. /But if you get too tired, just let me know! I can come down and mop for you!/ M’ritz’s small grin grew. /My dear Origoth, how do you expect to use a mop?/ M’ritz couldn’t believe his luck in being chosen by Origoth. Even the new goldrider, Savitri, should be jealous of his dragon’s caring personality. /I don’t know M’ritzmine. But please let me know if you need help!/ M’ritz wished he could be in his weyr with his Origoth, oiling the dragonet and rubbing his eyeridges. /I will make sure I let you know if any problems arrive, and I’ll try to mop as quickly as I can. Next time, make sure I volunteer to change the glows before somebody else does./ M’ritz, not really knowing which chores were as bad as the others, had been one of the last Weyrlings in his group to pick a specific job for the day. He wasn’t about to let that happen again! /Clean as quickly as you can, M’ritzmine. I miss you. And I have an itchy spot on my back./ M’ritz assured his young dragon that he would go as quickly as was possible, and began to mop with a renewed vigor. He was going to get this done and over with, and he’d try to enjoy it as much as possible. After all, he didn’t want his dear Origoth worrying too much.

[Tashe]

He was stuck at Selenitas against his will, he forced to take their stupid Weyrling lessons (most of which he had already learned), and now he was stuck doing Weyrling /chores/. The chores weren't so bad, in fact he much preferred the labor of cleaning to the tense situation in the classroom, yet he still hated the whole entire idea of supporting the welfare of Selenitas. In his mind, he was still a Benden Weyrling, no matter how long Ismaroth bickered with him about never going back. Pushing the broom forward with a slight flicking motion, E'rro silently continued to collect the dirt from the floors so the others could mop. Experience showed him that if you miss dirt and then mop over it, the dirt will turn into mud and the fibers of the mop would drag it across the already swept floor. He was far ahead of the moppers but he didn't allow himself to take a break, he had gained a groove and was intent on keeping it, the menial task of pushing a broom had yet to put any strain on his arms. /You should speak to people./ No. /But it would help you settle in./ I'm not going to settle in. /We are staying here./ No we are not. /By Farnath for the last sharding time we are./ No.

Growling quietly to Ismaroth as the Brown began to annoy him once again about the fact he was stuck here, E'rro moved his broom to a slightly faster stroke, faster but still very effective. Who needed to socialize with a race that he had lost all hope in, especially that of his once despised enemy. His Brown hoped in time that he would at least grow to be indifferent as to where his home was, as long as it was anywhere but Benden. Shaking his long hair out as a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face, the heat at Benden was nothing compared to the Southern Continents. "So warm."

[Kisha-Ra]

What are you doing?[/color] the inquiry came laden with sleep, it seemed Sheyath had only woken for a moment this time, which was just as well since his bonded was on her hands and knees attacking the floor with a scrubbing brush and bucket.

Scrubbing floors, Sheyath. Roshya replied without stopping in her work, thought she was less than certain that the state of the floor warranted the attention of her and her scrubbing brush. She didn’t receive a comment on this and guessed Sheyath had dozed off again. Roshya sat back on her heels and stretched. ‘I hate this.’ She announced for no real reason. ‘My grandfather scrubbed out stalls with a hard bristled broom. I bet we could do better like that.’


O’dan returned to the main hall with a basket of fresh glows and set about changing the old ones for new methodically, some things never changed it seemed. You could have your whole life inverted in a day and go from abject failure to the rider to be of the most wonderful dragon on Pern but you still had to do your chores. O’dan didn’t mind much, changing glows kept his mind on reality.

Are you coming back soon?[/color] Emerith wanted to know. You should eat, and wash, you should wash before you eat though. Are you happy doing that? Why are you doing that anyway?[/color] O’dan rolled his eyes. Yes mother. I will, I will, I’ll keep that in mind. I’m indifferent about changing glows, and I’m doing it so people can see in here.