Musing -- The Lower Caverns

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Date Posted: 23:45:07 10/08/06 Sun
Author: Wessae - Shrineth
Subject: Musing

Wessae sits at an empty table, her fingers twined loosely around a mug of cooling klah. She watches the late afternoon business of the kitchen with mild interest, her mind on other things.

Mylanith flies, a freshly oiled Shrineth informs her. The queen's duty done, she tucks her slender head back under a wing and resumes her nap, making sure her body is angled in the sun just so as to achieve fullest effect of the light her newly minted skin. Wessae can't help but smile, her thoughts full of love for her lifemate, ever the vainest little queen ever hatched on the Sands. But at the thought of Mylanith's flight, the smile turns to something of a frown. An idea comes to her mind and she looks about, hoping she can hail someone to assist her. After a moment's glance around the mostly empty caverns, she catches the eye of a drudge who had been standing and watching her. The girl blushes, aware she ought to have been scrubbing pots instead of watching the Weyrwoman, and the blush deepens tenfold when Wessae beckons to her.

"I um...more klah?" The girl asks, hoping and praying the Weyrwoman won't take her to task for daydreaming.

"No, thank you. Actually, I was wondering if you had paper and charcoals? Just a spare stick, maybe? Something the cook writes on or-"

"Oh yes! Right away!" The girl blurts, whirling and rushing into the kitchens, returning moments later with arms haphazardly full of semi-crunched parchment and worn charcoal. Wessae takes the implements appreciatively, smiling at the girl who was maybe all of ten or eleven. "'S all we had, Weyrwoman, but I got as much's I could."

"Thank you," Wessae says graciously, smiling at the youngster and resisting the urge to chuckle when the girl stammers and blushes deeper. She remebered a time when she could have been just this girl, shy around real dragonriders and daydreaming her duties away. Was that so long ago? It felt as though ages had passed since the, at any rate. "What is your name?"

"K-K-Kaireen," the girl stammers, the name finally bolting from her mouth like a frightened runner colt at the starting gate.

"Thank you, Kaireen." The drudge is almost relieved to recieve a harsh summons from the kitchen, at least then she won't have to stutter and be awkward in front of the Weyrwoman another second. She gives Wessae a final fleeting glance, a hurried 'welcome', and is gone in another moment.

Pushing the klah gently away from her, Wessae smooths one of the pieces of parchment and begins writing. She frowns at the paper more than once, she's no calculations expert and the work is very rough, the numbers rounded. Finally she sits back and looks at the discouraging results. A few Turns back, the news of a flight would have been fantastic, the hatching eagerly anticipated by all, the promise of a bolstered Weyr that had seen such tragedy. Now, though, with so many weyrfolk and so many dragons, things were changing.

"It won't be a problem yet," she murmurs to herself, circling the numbers and tapping the charcoal stick against the table absently. "But if we have another queen in this clutch...but even so, even if not..." Rubbing her eyes, she resolves to speak with T'bel about her thoughts. There was no more Thread, there were no more Holds, and Pern was a different place altogether. Changes were imminent, that was for sure. With no more Thread, would the dragons begin to change? Would weyrling training cease to have purpose? An Interval on the old Pern was one thing, but here, what would happen? Her mind follows along this train of thought until she feels Shrineth fretting in her sleep. With a silent apology to her beloved one for disturbing her sleep, Wessae rises and folds the parchment before tucking it into her jacket pocket. The slight frown is still in place as she leaves, in search of T'bel.

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