[PRP] Meeting or Eating, Flip a Coin (Niobet + Haveli)

[Samuel Carlin]

It wasn't uncommon for an evening stroll to be underscored by the rumbling and ruminations of the gold drag9n who'd been Niobet's "better half" for years, but it was rare that Aedeth's desires focused almost entirely on her stomach. That hunger had turned the rider's steps away from the lining cavern, where she might satisfy herself, and sent her angling instead toward the pens and stalls where the weyr's livestock was kept. It might not have been a conscious adjustment to Niobet's plan, but she hadn't fought the compulsion for long.

Instead, she'd squared her shoulders and stretched her legs and let herself sink into an easy pace that covered the distance without feeling the need to rush. We're long past the point of claims that you'll starve without a meal, my love, so you can stop feeling pathetic. It's mot going to work.

It was that obseration that left her smiling as she sauntered toward the pens where a girl -- a candidate no doubt, since these sorts of chores seemed to cause Candidatemasters all over Perm great deal of delight when it came to doling out chores -- worked diligently to undo the mess the herdbeasts had left behind.

Propping a boot on the lowest fence rail, she folded her arms against the tallest and leaned. "Nearly done for the day, or have you done something to merit an extra long shift?"  

[houllow]

"I volunteered." Haveli paused at the approach of the woman and her beast, her eyes narrowed as an arm moved up to wipe the corner of her mouth. She was sweating but it was a good sweat - sometimes manual labor was what one needed to get their mind off the regular disappoints of the day. "I like being near herdbeasts - they're stupid by default, not by any act of their own. Makes them far more tolerable than most humans."

It was true that Haveli had a preference from dealing with animals due to how she was raised but her words weren't a lie either. People in this Weyr acted entirely too smart for how they actually were and sometimes she felt that she'd have better conversations with a porcine than half the candidate population. "Is there something you need from me?" Her words were terse but her tone was cautiously respectful and so she tried to expand. Even if Haveli wasn't the best at being social she knew which palms needed to stay soft. "That is, can I help you with anything? Surely you didn't come out here to speak to a candidate ankle deep in herdbeast dung."

Samuel Carlin

 

[Samuel Carlin]

"Volunteered?" Niobet would never have imagined doing that back in the day. Mucking was definitely not high on her list of preferred chores. Differences in life, she supposed. Still: "I suppose there are worse chores. Laundry for instance." With the number of Candidates currently in the Weyr, there'd be a lot of that.

Then the young woman went on and Niobet had to bite the inside of her cheek. Not long on charm, is she? she asked, amused. She wrangled laughter into a smile and shook her head. "No, there's nothing we nee--"

That one, Aedeth interrupted, craning her neck toward a cluster of beasts bunched together. We need that one very badly.

"No," the goldrider repeated more firmly shooting a Look up at the dragon. "We don't need anything in particular. Just out for a stroll, we spotted you, and I thought I'd say hello." She offered her hand through the fence. "I'm Niobet. The demanding one is Aedeth."

houllow