In the Kitchen (G'tet - others?)

[Invisible]

“Please, Shana, call me G’tet,” the greenrider said without thinking. The sir was not what he was used to. Oh, he got his respect the same as any rider, but he never really cared for it. Not when it might be making someone uncomfortable. Which, he thought with a sigh, he might have just done with his request. With a weary grin he shook his head. “Or whatever you are comfortable with. I do not mean to make too many demands on you. I am just far from home and a bit out of sorts at the moment.” Because of his wounded dragon, of course. It was hard to keep the fiction up since he was enjoying speaking to Shana and hated to lie, but what could he do?

“But, as for my sister, Genet will make me pay most horribly for abandoning her. It’s the price I must pay to be a hero.” His words were meant only as a joke. Him. A hero. He hardly looked anything like a hero. “Does the Weyr take a lot?” he couldn’t help but ask. “We don’t. I suppose-“ That clutches were larger in a pass, but he stopped himself from saying it. Shaking his head he downed the last of his ale and gave Shana his best smile. “No children for me. I am still searching for the perfect woman.” You know, one who could put up with a dragon who would never remember her. One who wouldn’t care that the father of her children spent more time in bed with other men than with her. Those sorts of things.

He wondered for a moment how things were going with the others. Likely they were being grilled by this time’s Weyrleader. Once more he was thankful for skipping out even if he was sure to hear of it from someone. Leaders, he thought. They were always the ones who thought they knew best. Surely many of them did, but was it fair? He had a hard time imagining the truth not coming out at whatever meeting was occurring. Would they do the same as J’fel said he was doing? Not telling people? He thought of everyone else on this mission. Would they care about the holders? He was holdbred himself. Only four turns in the Weyr even. It wasn’t right to not warn people. Leaning forward he lowered his voice, expression serious for the first time. “Want to know a secret, Shana?”

[Omnia Munda]

Shana, perhaps surprisingly, seemed to find no disrespect in saying, "G'tet, then." But she said it very softly, and looked down into her ale with a small smile. "They take their due in candidates, of course. It's an honor to the boys that go and the families they leave behind - but it doesn't stop us missing them."

That he had no children made her smile a little more. Perhaps it was a sympathetic smile, a sorry smile, as though she felt bad for him to be so deprived; she looked up at him with that expression on her face, that he might find in it whatever he wanted. I hope you're not looking at what you think is perfect, she thought, trying still to quell the mix of horror, anxiety and thrill that was threatening to sour the ale in her stomach.

"A secret, s- G'tet?" Committed to the part she'd decided to play when she first leaned forward, Shana leaned forward a little more. Young she might not be, but she was not old either, and the bosom her blouse just barely displayed as a result of her leaning had never been ravished by the pressure of feeding a baby. Perhaps the notion that G'tet's knot suggested he was indifferent to women had never crossed her mind... perhaps she'd just assumed that if he wanted a man's company, he wouldn't have to go to a Hold's kitchen to find it.

"Yes," she replied, trying to sound sultry without overdoing it. If it had been more than one syllable, the effort would have been a scratch, but as it was she managed an admirable huskiness without too much vavoom.

[Invisible]

There was real sadness in G’tet as he watched Shana. She seemed like a good woman and it was wrong of her to be alone. For some reason he thought she would have had kids. Didn’t she seem like the sort who did? When he imagined kitchen workers it was always maternal types. “You, Shana,” he began with regret in his voice, “Are a remarkable woman. And I am just appalled that you have not been swept off your feet yet. You certainly deserve more than I would give you.” He grinned as he said it and reached forward to rest his hand on hers a moment to give it a squeeze. “But my home is a considerable distance from here and you would be lost to your family and friends if I gave into temptation and brought you back.” He didn’t want her thinking he found something wrong with her. G’tet was, above all, a nice guy.

“I’m here on a mission,” he told the woman in his lowered voice. “My associates and I have come to stop something from happening that would be ruinous to Pern.” The greenrider wondered how much to say, how close his questions should be to what he knew. The truth was, he was a good greenrider. Good at listening to orders and knowing what the giver or said orders really meant. On his own he was often a bit at loose ends. However he had placed himself here and he wouldn’t give up now. He smiled to try to lighten his mood and asked, “Have you had any ships come in lately from the south? Heard of any strange animals being displayed?”

He had another question, but it was lost in a concerned query from Kalpeth. He fell silent, distant, to deal with the worried green and offered no apology for it when he was done and could focus on Shana once more.

[Omnia Munda]

There was something like relief on Shana's face. A little surprise, too, to be true, but when G'tet squeezed her hand and explained that he wouldn't be taking her with him - she did look a little bit relieved.

She felt enormously relieved. She wasn't off the hook yet, that much the cook did know. Perhaps he wanted someone to have his children far from the Weyr where he wouldn't have to cope. Perhaps he just wanted a fling and had a weyrmate back home to whom it would be complicated to explain. She'd heard of riders who worked out their frustrations after 'falls in a hallway with a scullery maid or whatever else might come along, and while this guy seemed a little more classy than all that, there was no assuming he wasn't frustrated just the same - especially if his dragon were grounded.

Shana felt horrible again at the thought. The poor man.

All of this thinking left her a little cloudy about what he'd said while her mind was ticking. He and his wingmates had come to stop something ruinous to Pern? Duh? She knew Threadfall was being fought off to the east. She straightened in her chair, blinking and cursing inwardly for her inattentiveness. Was she a young thing after all, to be so taken in with the dragonrider's personal... needs that she couldn't listen to him talk as he'd requested?

"Nothing from the south, sir. There's a carrack gathering crew to sail south in a couple days, though; the captain's a..." Shana pulled a face. "My uncle knows him. Why?"

[Invisible]

There was a moment’s elation at Shana’s words that G’tet had a hard time keeping inward. His eyes shone brightly at the woman as he grinned. “We might not be too late then,” he told her. “I would sweep you off your feet for some grand romantic kiss, but I fear my legs are still somewhat wobbly from my journey. We couldn’t have such as you tumbling to the ground over my own inadequacies.” He should have reined himself in, he knew that. Probably he seemed a babbling fool and he didn’t want her thinking that. He needed her to trust him. To not be afraid of him most definitely.

Kal? Tell the others to tell their riders that we might be able to stop it. I don’t know if it’s the same ship as we need, but there’s one due to head south in a few days. In the courtyard Kalpeth sent the message to the Telgari dragons of her time to pass along. There was smugness in her sunny day tone that her rider was accomplishing something.

Pulling himself back to Shana he grinned at her again. “Can I meet your uncle? Would he introduce me to the other captain? Would he know of other ships? Shards…can it be this easy?” Nothing was ever easy, he knew this, but maybe this once it would get to be. If they could just stop the ship from going south. Impress upon people that they mustn’t bring back animals or get near them. It seemed impossible still, to avert the plague for good. Surely it could not be this easy? But even as he worried over what must be done he felt a trickle of hope inside. They could be done. They could go home!

[Omnia Munda]

Shana was hearing the modifiers. He would sweep her off her feet. We couldn't have her tumbling to the ground. It made her suspicious. She'd made herself thoroughly kissable - better than, really. If he wanted smooches he'd have had them, except there was something else he was after.

The cook straightened, lifting a hand to tuck the often-flyaway strand of hair that liked to pop free of her clips over her right ear back into the clip as best she could. It bought a moment to think. "You can meet my uncle, sure. Like as to ask you if you'd like to throw him into the bay as have you meet him, like over drinks and chips, but - "

Shana grinned. She was finally at ease. Whatever G'tet wanted, she was finally convinced that it wasn't her, not in any of the various ways she'd feared, and that meant that he would be going on his way soon. All she had to do would be to satisfy his irrational interest in the South.

"Anyway. Shonn's schooner's the Blond Baby," explained Shana. "He's been anxious to get out - he takes trade west to the island and then on to Fort Sea, then fishes his way back - but hasn't got a new fishmaster yet. If he's looking you'll find him at the bar by the dock."

[Invisible]

Poor G’tet would be heartbroken to know it was his disappearance that would make Shana happy. He might even sniffle or cry. If not that then his feelings would be hurt and he’d have to let Kalpeth console him. Since he was not aware of it he just grinned at Shana. “You probably have to get back to work anyway, darling,” he teased with a wink. “I’m sorry if I kept you from your tasks for too long. Although the pleasure was all mine. If I’d known the women in the kitchen were so charming I’d have come straight here.”

He pushed his chair back and stood up to come around the table. There he took Shana’s hand in his and bowed over it like she was a fine Lady. “My dearest Shana, you have been most helpful. If I could do something for you I would. Alas, I am out of time.” Which meant exactly what he said, but he expected her to take it the way it was usually meant. Except he had always loved harper tales and couldn’t resist.

He flipped his jacket and tugged off his knot. “I want you to have this. I owe you and I can’t do anything right now, but someday your family can collect the debt. Of course it’ll be a long time. But, towards the middle of the next interval if someone in your family comes to Telgar Weyr they can collect the debt. With interest.” Because it was the sort of thing in some ballad right? Some romantic gesture. And she might think him insane and forget it, but if not? There could always be a surprise waiting for him. G’tet liked surprises. With a gallant bow he shrugged on his jacket. “I’ll find my way to the docks. Shana, you are a life saver.”

[Omnia Munda]

Shana laughed. "You do your duties by us every day, s - G'tet," she said, far less retreating than she'd been before, though she still looked down at her hand a little warily as he bowed over it - like the rider might yet change his mind.

But then he was preparing to go, and Shana rose from her chair as was proper to prepare to see him off, or perhaps just to be ready to flee in relief to her cooking. "But you'll need another one," she protested of his knot as her hands opened of their own accord to take the assortment of cord and thread the rider offered. Blinking up at G'tet, she said - she sounded a little distant, now, as though her mind was racing - "Any of the boys can show you the way if you need it."

She watched the man bow, and watched the man leave; hands busy holding the knot like it was water, likely to slip through her fingers, she was unable to wave. And she seemed to have lost her voice.

Shana was not the most educated of cooks, but she'd learned her harper lessons as well as any. It was only after G'tet was long gone that speech came back to her. "Telgar," she said to the knot in her hands, befuddled.

And then she stuffed the knot into her apron at her hip, looping a cord over the tie and hiding the rest beneath the fabric. A quick look-round to see if anyone else had seen or heard that single word, either when G'tet spoke it or when she had - and then Shana was picking up the ales and racing back to her work, beloved work, work to keep her mind clear.