The Messenger-Boy (Emeni)

[Selvagem]

C'cao
Had C'cao been a creature of more temprement and less long-suffering patience, things would have gone severely ill with the next person to speak to him. As it was, however, the greenrider was merely short of speech and curt in manner, prowling the halls of the Lower Caverns like a cat about to pounce.

The day had began early - three messages to be taken to Telgar Hold, two to Crom, and yet another package urgently needed by Healers at a minor hold further east of the Weyr. The minor hold had proven surprisingly hard to find - or perhaps that had to do with the faulty image the elderly brown dragon had passed on to Opheriath. After nearly an hour of quartering back and forth, with C'cao worriedly checking his green every few minutes to ensure her stamina was holding out, they had finally found the place. Only to be told that the needed Healer supplies had already been sent two days ago, by the very same brown dragon and rider that had given them the coordinates. Miffed, but wiling to laugh it off, C'cao had accepted the half-glass of wine the holders offered him as compensation before rising to make the return-trip to Telgar Weyr.

He had come back just in time for lunch, only to be told that a certain Beastherder at Telgar Hold required the reply to a message immediately, and as there was no one else to spare at the moment, would C'cao mind if he had a late lunch and took the reply first? The greenrider, smiled, bit down his annoyance, and willingly took Opheriath out for another run. The last, he told them both resolutely, for the day. They needed their rest as much as anyone else, and since half the Weyr consisted of greenriders, they could jolly well find someone else to run the errands for the afternoon.

He hadn't reckoned, however, with the Beastcrafter himself. The man's name was Leminos, and he was a tall, heavy-built character with a bushy stock of a beard and moustache. After a profusion of thanks to the clearly tired C'cao, he had proceeded, almost without decorum, to ask yet another favour: there was a stack of freshly-tanned hides to be taken to the Weyr, to be made into riding leathers. No, of course Leminos would not be so uncoath as to suggest that the weary Opheriath carry the hides back, but then they needed to be collected, and perhaps the greenrider could request that the Weyr Steward send runners or other dragonriders to collect it. ...

And a chagrined C'cao, trying not to snarl, had hastily-muttered a mention of getting someone else to collect it before turning on his heel and striding stiffly out of the building. Which, of course, only resulted in him being in the current predicament - two hours after lunch without a spot of food in his stomach, prowling the halls of the Lower Cavern, hunting for the Weyr Steward who was conveniently absent from his office.

[Slim]

Enter a grimy little street urchin - at least from the looks of her - covered in soot and wearing old rags a decent person would be ashamed to be seen in. She came trotting down the same hallway C'cao was prowling - and in search of the same person, in fact. She shot the greenrider a quick, polite smile as she passed him, but kept going till she reached the Steward's door and there pressed herself against it and knocked. "Boss!" She paused to listen, then knocked again. "Hey, Boss!"

Nothing. With a sigh, Emeni turned her back to the door and leaned up against it, sliding down till her butt hit the ground. If she couldn't finish find the Steward, she might as well wait here and sneak in a bit of rest.

[Selvagem]

C'cao
The crankiness evaporated as a ragged little figure jogged down the hallway, flashing a courteous smile to C'cao in passing. Pausing to smile back (and to think of where would be best to start in seeking the Weyr Steward), the greenrider watched as the sooty girl sought out his quarry at the office door, and finally ended in a small bundle of rags on the ground before it. With a flush of sympathy for this sight, the greenrider came back up the hallway, and squatted to tap the girl lightly on one shoulder.

"Hey, are you alright?"

[Slim]

Emeni had been working hard that morning - she might give C'cao a run for his money, even with all his messenger gigs - and so she'd found it no problem at all to drop into sleep the second she rested her head against the door. When C'cao touched her shoulder, she stirred with a mumble, but luckily she wasn't so deeply asleep yet that she couldn't be woken.

She was just confused for a bit. "Huh?" She'd missed his question, but she could guess that he'd said something, if he was trying to wake her up for it. "Uh, sorry, what'd you say?" Whipping up a politely apologetic smile, she rubbed her hand down the side of her face to help stimulate her waking-up process, little knowing that in the process she put another smear of black on her cheek.

[Selvagem]

C’cao[/u]
Sympathy flooded the greenrider at the sight of the fast-asleep girl beginning to stir, and for a fleeting instant he wondered at the way the Weyr treated its drudges, the way they worked almost to death sometimes. His own work, he reflected, was no comparision, even if he worked harder at the menial tasks than a bronzerider would. As Emeni rubbed her face while posing her question, C’cao settled onto one knee beside her and gestured for her to stop rubbing.

“Careful, you’re getting charcoal down your cheek,” he tried a friendly smile, “I was looking for the Weyr Steward, but I guess you are too. Have a note for him from a Beastcrafter.”

[Slim]

Catching that gesture from C'cao, Emeni pulled her hand away from her face and looked at it. Sure enough: charcoal there too. She made a comic face at this discovery, then grinned at the greenrider. "Thanks," she said, finding a clean patch of her shirt and using that to scrub emphatically at the mark she'd just made on her cheek. Of course, it made the shirt dirty, but that shirt was so dirty already that it hardly mattered what condition she left it in.

"You want me to give him your note? I mean, if you've got business elsewhere or something, I don't mind." She turned on her best customer-service smile, bright and meaningless. "I'll be waiting for him here anyway. Or if it's urgent, I've got a good guess where he's at, to take it to him."

[Selvagem]

C’cao[/u]
The greenrider regarded this offer thoughtfully, his pale blue eyes unreadable as he considered Emeni with a steady gaze. Perhaps he consulted with Opheriath, though the lightness of his eyes made it hard to see if he did. Finally, mind made up, he shifted back onto his feet from his half-kneeling position, and offered a hand to Emeni.

“That’s a kind offer, though I have a better one: lets go get some food together. You look like you need it. I havn’t had my lunch, and you will plainly not be able to find your boss easily now he isn’t in office.”

The blue-hued gaze twinkled, “And if anyone asks, you are assisting me with getting food. I don’t think they’ll ask after that.”

[Slim]

Emeni didn't have a dragon to consult, but she did consider a moment to make sure she could get away with sneaking off. It was a bit early for her lunch hour, but as C'cao had pointed out, she couldn't do much with the Steward not here. After all, she'd been about to take a nap while she waited for him.

"Sure thing," she answered the greenrider with a brighter, more genuine smile. She held up her hands, though, displaying the same charcoal that had just put a smear on her face. "Hope you don't mind I don't take the hand-up, though. It's nothin' personal, just no reason to get two people filthy." Planting her hands on the floor, she pushed herself back to her feet and sidestepped over to stand companionably next to C'cao.

"I think you're the one who's gonna get questions, though, not me. I mean look at you, wandering around with some kind of cave monster." Emeni flashed him a grin, seeming not the least bit embarassed about the grime on her.

[Selvagem]

C’cao[/u]
“It’s no problem at all,” C’cao smiled amiably, “Cave monsters are no worse than dragons, I’m sure. If you are comfortable with it, then so am I.”

Strange words to hear when one considered that they had come from the usually fastidious C’cao, but the greenrider was a simple person at heart, and he enjoyed being amiable with others almost as much as he favoured solitude on the open plains with his flute. For a person long used to be disregarded and stepped upon, that was, perhaps, not very surprising. Opheriath’s rider was, in fact, known for being gentle with both the drudges and the weyrbrats of Telgar: a characteristic that had gained him some popularity within the Lower Caverns, little though he knew of it. All he knew was that there was always a willing companion whenever he wanted to try finding a stand-in for Opheriath’s flights. He favoured a bedmate every now and then too, though never a male when he could help it. That was reserved for the greenflights, and obliged purely out of necessity, nothing more.

“We can always find a spare cloth and water if you want to clean up, and we need not wander – we can go straight to the kitchens and find a corner to eat in,” stepping out calmly now, C’cao began to lead the way along the corridors to the kitchens. Drudges, kitchen boys and weyrbrats scrambled past them: the halls of the Lower Caverns were busy with the usual post-lunch hour rush. He picked a slow and patient line through them, his pace sedate and calm.

“Anyhow, I don’t believe we have been introduced, have we?” the greenrider’s tone was casual and easy: knowing that he was finally heading for food had taken whatever was left of his earlier temper and dissolved it completely, “I’m C’cao, of green Opheriath.”

[Slim]

Emeni stuck her hand out to return his introduction with a handshake, but she caught herself quickly and pulled it back. "Whoo, almost got ya there. I'm Emeni," she said, shooting him a smile to make up for the lack of handshake. "Just a resident, but working for the Steward, as you can guess." He might also guess, once he heard her name, that this was the daughter of former Weyrleader S'lyn, but that wasn't information that Emeni offered on her own.

Maybe she would have offered that info - maybe - if she hadn't been interrupted at that moment. A younger weyrbrat that went scuttling by paused a few steps away to look at Emeni, then pointed a finger at her and hooted as he ran away. "I'ma kick your butt, Mellar!" she shouted after him. She didn't realize until after she'd done it that the way her voice reverberated in the tunnels of the lower caverns was uncomfortably loud, but afterwards, she shot C'cao an apologetic look. "Sorry. He's a friend of mine, more or less. Less if I'm lucky." She snickered.

[Selvagem]

C'cao

The greenrider nodded gently, smiling in return. He had indeed recognized the name, but let it slide for now. He had no way of knowing if this was the same Emeni, at any rate; and even if she was, well, C'cao highly doubted she wanted any special favours. There was...a great deal in her appearance and manner that suggested so.

"Well-met, Emeni," C'cao chuckled, "Always good to know more Weyr residents, seeing as I am one too..."

The interruption and Emeni's reaction to it received no major reactions from C'cao, who stopped to watch with mild amusement as the weyrbrat disappeared around a corner. He turned back to her as she apologized, and chuckled.

"No need to. I take it you have a strong voice, but that is no fault," the humour in his tone was mild, if distinct, "You have interesting friends. Well, so do I, actually, if you'd count dragons."

He shook his head as he began walking again, "I'm sorry, I'm rambling. Come, lunch now."

[Slim]

Emeni's stomach seemed to agree: as if it could hear them talking about lunch, it promptly growled when C'cao set off. Emeni planted her hands on it and gave it a pat. "You ramble, I rumble. Makes for a fair team." She kicked into a little switch-step maneuver as she lengthened her stride - C'cao was not so very tall, but Emeni was certainly short. A few turns of working the stores had taught her how to match strides with anyone and make it look easy, but she had to put in the effort first.

"Oh, I've got a voice," she continued, chattering at him while they walked. "Good for shouting, though, and not much else. You never saw such a happy harper as the one that finally got to say I was done with classes, and didn't have to rehearse the teaching songs any more. You'd think he would appreciate the time I took to memorize the Ballad of Moreta's Ride, right? Just for him." She shot the greenrider a devilish grin. One could practically imagine the poor, hapless harper in question, squirming in his seat while his student tormented him with that endless song. Luckily for C'cao, the fact that they were almost upon the living caverns negated any risk that she'd break into spontaneously just to showcase her (utter lack of) skill.

(OOC: As the reference suggests, I'm assuming this scene took place before the time-traveling took effect. It was the only long song I could think of! If you want to place it later, I'll edit out that reference.))

[Selvagem]

(OOC> Sure, I’m fine with placing this before the time-travelers returned, of course After all, we did start it before they came back.)

C’cao felt the first pricklings of discomfort, hearing Emeni boast of her wondrous song “achievement”. An avid musician and an appreciator of a well-carried tune, it could hurt him deeply to hear a song brought out like a screech, forcing the listeners to bear it out as if it were a burden rather than a treat. That was not what songs were meant for. But the greenrider smiled politely nonetheless, and in his eagerness to reach the living caverns he did not notice that Emeni was extending her strides to keep up with him.

“I’ve no doubt of that,” he remained cordial, “Your voice is very much like it. At least, we can be sure that no one will be able to miss hearing you. Ah, here we are.”

They entered the living caverns, and C’cao immediately scanned for a seat. Picking out a bench at one corner, he gestured towards it with one hand, “Why don’t you take a seat first, Emeni? I can go get the food trays for us.”

[Slim]

Emeni nodded at the seat he'd picked out, then shot him a grin. "Sure thing. Figure I'll have an easy time keeping people away from your seat looking like this, huh?" She gestured at her soot-covered self, chuckling. "Just grab me some kind of water bowl to dip my hands in," she mimed the motion, "and a stew if they've got it. And you don't mind, o'course." She beamed at him, already moving towards the bench he'd indicating. Noticing a pair of Caminar nearby, contemplating that same bench, she picked up a light jog to head them off and flopped onto the bench well before they could get there. The Caminar lifted their eyebrows and moved away.

[Selvagem]

C’cao chuckled with Emeni, his easy manner returning easily now that all mention of screeching songs were gone, and food was at hand, “Oh, I have no doubt you will. I’ll get you some water, no problem. Can’t have you eating like that now, can we? I’ll be back in a minute.”

He turned to head for the tray-line, and so never saw Emeni ward off the two Caminar from their intended bench. It was hard to say what he might have felt if he had – C’cao was no lover of the Caminar, but they made up half of him nonetheless, and like a true poet he felt his broken lineage keenly.

He did, however, see the same Caminar moving towards the tray-line ahead of him. They saw him at the same moment, and stopped to stare. The greenrider’s rafeiro status was not all that distinguishable: C’cao hardly stood out in a crowd as a half-blood, and in fact usually blended in quite well. But the pale blue eyes contrasted against wavy dark hair and bronze skin were enough cause for a second look, if one noticed them in the first glance, and the Caminar pair favoured him now with a stare that might have been better reserved for a mad dog. Shrugging to himself, the greenrider slid pass them and took his place at the queue, which was very short at this time. He heard a snort, and half-turned to see the two marching away out of the living caverns.

With a soft sigh, he set himself to arranging two trays’ worth of food plus a bowl of water onto a single tray, and carefully balanced the load back towards Emeni at the bench. Settling in opposite her, he let a wain smile grace his features as he helped unload the contents onto the table.

“There, hope I didn’t take too long.”