Another Day of Chores (Z'dayi)

[Xinnai]

A weyrling's day was full of meaningless tasks, filled with menial labor and sprinkled over with exhaustion. It was no different for Salina as she sat in the chair, staring dumbfounded at the veritable mountain of potatoes that surrounded her. The mountain that was supposed to be finished within the day. And I'dayln had only assigned the task to two of the young dragonriders.

The goldrider sighed and picked up her knife and a tuber, beginning to peel it mechanically. Was the Weyrlingmaster trying to make an example out of her? If he was, then she'd undoubtedly be placed here with Ez'ki. That brightened her mood considerably. Still, was the brownrider making her out to be an example? Something like goldriders had to get their hands dirty too or girls could work as well. Something ridiculous. She didn't care. It was an easy enough task, it was just the amount facing her that was daunting.

[blueaid]

Better late than never, right?

Z'dayi hurried into the barracks about ten minutes after he was supposed to show up, rushing like he had some reason for this delay, his eyes wild and his appearance hurried-- right up until he saw only Salina and a mountain of potatoes. No Weyrlingmaster waiting to chastise him, no one expecting an excuse for his tardiness, and his eyebrows climbed upward in impressed response to this lack of supervision. Painstakingly, he brushed his hands down the front of his tunic then ran them through his pointedly mussed hair; such, he was very quickly put into a more reputable appearance when he strolled the last dozen feet toward the goldrider.

"You look like you've got this well under control, madam weyrwoman, can hardly see what good I'd be doing." It was a frail attempt to get out of the lesson, and the bronzerider knew it. Not even his most charming smile was going to sell that particular offer, so he was already off pulling a bench toward the daunting task before them. "I'm guessing," he added with an unhid grin when he settled down on the opposite side of the 'tatoes, "that you were early?"

Z'dayi took his time about stretching his long legs out, lacing his fingers and popping his knuckles, searching around for a second knife, selecting a potato worth peeling, anything to delay the actual nitty-gritty.

[Xinnai]

Salina glanced up when she heard footsteps and then her hopes fell, dashed to the rocky ground as she saw the unmistakable sight of Z'dayi. So, Ez'ki wouldn't be helping her today. She sighed, slipping another peeled potatoe into a big pot and selected another, getting to work on it. Z'dayi was late as always then.

Grey eyes looked up as he approached and her smile was carefully neutral as she put on her calm face. "Oh, I'm sure we'll need you, my dear bronzerider. We've got a lot to get done today." As he settled beside her, she looked at him again, peeling the potatoe adeptly. "No, not early. On time. I used to work in the kitchens." She shrugged and dumped the potatoe into the pot.

So, there'd be no bantering today, no funny stories or jabbing insults or playful little episodes. She had no bluerider to keep her company, her favorite among them. She'd been given a bronzer instead, and one who hated any form of labor. Wonderful. Just wonderful. Silently, Salina cursed I'dalyn. He was punishing her, she just knew it.

[blueaid]

Unnecessarily selective about the whole process, Z'dayi picked out a very fat and round potato as his first. Of many. "Did you," he answered reflexively, very small-talky in tone, that kind of quality to his voice that implied a general lack of interest by the manners to at least pretend he cared that Salina used to work in the kitchen. Peels started curling to the floor between his knees while he sat with his elbows on his thighs, bent over the knife, whittling away with more boredom than skill.

After a long pause on his end, he added, "Mindless chore. Sit here and scrape skins offa potatoes. Ironic, idn'it." His "isn't-it" came out as a one-word slur, id-nit now that he abandoned even the pretense of being a well-educated gent, fell into a lazier grammar while he looked across the mountain at Salina on the other side-- waaaaay over yonder. "Goldrider, bronzerider, future of Pern and a pile'a tubers." But it's a good laugh he shared, an honestly amused one while his knife bit into the apple-like body of the potato.

[Xinnai]

"Yes," she answered simply, tone much like his. They'd socialized a little, but Ez'ki had always been around as a buffer. Prodding here, encouraging there, generally just being the charming man he was. Now it was the two of them and she hadn't a clue what to do.

She looked up as he spoke again, tossing another of the blasted things into the pot. It surprised her when she smiled and then laughed. "Future of Pern and all and what are we doing? Peeling enough sharding potatoes to last the whole bloody kitchen for months. What do you suppose they're going to use them for?" She picked up another and deftly began to peel it, knife moving quickly and agiley around the misshapen body.

[blueaid]

Balling his fingers around the peeled thing, Z'dayi held it like a projectile, cocked his arm back and went through the motion of throwing the potato without releasing it. Once that was done, once he'd tossed it with a clatter into the pot, he answered Salina with a strictly serious nod; "Stock-piling them for use against a potential uprising of holders against the Weyr." His eyes tried hard to look grave, to look like he'd just imparted some snippet of insight to the goldrider, but they were inclined to look merry anyway, and his gravity didn't stick very well.

He was far less adept at peeling than she was, and it was clear who would wind up with the lion's share here. But at least he was trying to be pleasant company, if somewhat useless company. "So how is it? The whole goldriding schtick? All you hoped'n dreamed it'd be?" With a grin he can't quite suppress, his eyes cast toward the knife she's raking across potato-skin.

[Xinnai]

Salina nodded, adopting a serious look to his attempt to be less than the jovial man he was. "Yes. Or, Faranth forbid, some sort of stakeout by the Caminar." She'd leaned forward as if inviting him on a secret no one could know but she leaned back then, a laugh releasing from her. "I'd bet more upon the holderfolk though."

She lobbed another tuber into the pot and then laughed, nodding to his question and rolling her eyes dramatically. "Oh yes!" She clutched a potato to her chest, adopting the dwey-eyed, fluttering-lashed look she'd seen women she considered to be operating on less than a quarter of their brain adopt. "Peeling potatoes for hours is all I've ever hoped to do with my life!"

She snorted and tossed her golden head, quickly sliding the potato free from its skin and letting its join its other naked fellows. "I just want to graduate. I just want to get out of this whole weyrling deal here and be able to be a rider. And you? How's the whole bronzer thing? I'm sure you have the females just lining up waiting for the day of your promotion."

[blueaid]

"Well. You know." And Z'dayi flicked his fingers, sent a scrap of peal off the end of his nails and into the pot. Hold-that-thought while he bent forward, scooping around till he found it and could toss it out into the rubbish at his feet. No peels in the pot. "Haveta give the girls something to look forward to, reckon. Got 'em taking numbers." He buffed his peel-free fingernails against the collar of his tunic and flashed a relentlessly polished smile across at Salina-- if he was trying to line of girls, he probably could get a few of the featherheads on devilish good looks alone. Fortunately, in his current rank, the population of fatherless weyrbrats wasn't likely to skyrocket just yet.

He watched her whole performance with unchecked amusement though, his eyebrows pulled upward, his laugh short but appreciative. "Better watch doing that bit too well or people'll start saying the new goldrider's a fur-warmer." Punctuated by the plunk of another potato into the pan.

A little more seriously, with a peel corkscrewing toward his feet, he added, "I'm surprised they put you through all this. It's not like there'll be any big surprises for you once you're trained, hardly need a lesson in humility and following orders--" He looked pointedly at the big pile of potatoes. "--when you'll be giving most of 'em." Just thinking out loud.

[Xinnai]

"I'm sure," she laughed, finding him amusing despite herself. "They'll all want a shot at you. Most would. I, however, am immune." She flashed him a smile as she threw another potato in the pot and set to work on another one. It really was a mindless task and she found herself glad to have company.

Head tilted at his comment and her lips slowly curled into a smile. She watched the bronzeling for a moment. "Oh really now?" Her voice was low and slightly delighted. "Well, that is surprising. Though not so much that it'd only happen because I'd appear a dimglow." She snicked and quickly peeled the tuber, dumping it in the pot.

"Hmm?" Salina glanced up at Z'dayi and then laughed, giving a light shrug. "I don't know. It all depends on if they transfer me out or not. Then I'll either be giving orders or taking them." She shrugged once more, finishing the potato and picking up another. But what the other weyrling said went into her "for later" file.

[blueaid]

With a drawl that's broken a thousand hearts, Z'dayi quipped, "Ain't anybody immune, sugar, just some people take a little more time to eeeease into the idea." Were it not for the asinine task between them, were it not for the protocol-ambiance of the barracks, those would be some dynamite bedroom-eyes he slanted across at the weyrling goldrider. But he wasn't really committed to wooing Salina, and his half-hearted attempt was more for comedic value than anything.

To the latter matter-- "But taking 'em from who? And for how long?" So quick to shift gears, so comfortable going from utterly impotent pseudo-flirtation to the more pertinent talk of weyrlinghood and futures, he continued working in what seemed to be his customary in-no-hurry way even while he kept up his end of the chit-chat.

No, Z'dayi wasn't the tried-and-true entertainment of Ez'ki, but he was making an effort not to be an utter bore for the duration.

[Xinnai]

A slim brow arched and she struggled not to smile. It was a failure, however, as lips spread slowly across her face, eyes amused and also slightly...respectful. The man had some skills, she'd give him that. "Mmm. And how do you do this eeeasing?" She didn't look at him as she spoke, instead watching the potato she peeled and then set aside. The little goldrider caught the eyes and she laughed, a soft sound that came more from her nose than her lips.

"Ah." She shrugged and looked up at him then. "From a senior Weyrwoman. From a moronic, dog-eared Weyrleader who thinks that it'd be best if he led me by the nose." Thinking of a similar situation, and much closer to home, her lips curved grimly.

"But it'd only be so long until I was trusted, respected, outlived them or was transferred once more." She ticked the points off on her fingers and then let her hands collapse into her lap. She was silent for a few moments. "But I intend to stay here, Z'dayi, and I'll see to it that I become indispensable." Her eyes gleamed with determination before she struggled to set it away, glancing at the tuber in her lap. She picked it up as if she did not recognize what it was and began to peel it, silent after her rather passionate speech.

[blueaid]

Z'dayi essayed a quick, flawless wink. "You'll haveta wait till we're not under lock-and-key, then maybe we can see about that whole easing thing." Some words are just meant to sound lascivious, and the way he played around with the 'easing' put it right in that category-- innuendo.

He might have gone on along that train of thought, a little surprised that Salina was willing to play along even far enough to ask after his meaning. They hadn't exactly interfaced on anything but a superficial level thus far. But her sudden change of tenor, the new look in her eyes, and the gravity behind her words caught him with his eyebrows knitted and his slick smile shifting into the rounded lips of a questioning expression.

Only once Salina resumed peeling, only once the room had a moment to settle back from the seriousness of her words, did Z'dayi say anything in response. "Sounds like you gotta bone to pick over your station in life. Probably oughta not go around prophesying your best-laid-plans though, think?" He twitched his eyebrows from knitted to raised, just reminding her that there might not be people so keen on a junior goldrider with high ideas.

[Xinnai]

Salina glanced up at her fellow weyrling then, her smile quick and flashing. "Oh, I know. That's why I won't tell anyone who can do anything about it." Her smile was tight, vicious, completely at odds with who the woman was but then she buried it, hiding it. She'd stay at Telgar. There was too much here to leave. So she'd stay.

"So," she ventured, returning to their former topic of conversation, "what would you do when we're not under lock-and-key, as you so aptly put it?" She glanced up at him from beneath golden lashes, her grin following just a little bit the intent his words had put forward.

She didn't know him, not well, but it was a universal topic, so why not indulge? It was an easy enough coversation to pursue anyways. So pursue she would.

[blueaid]

A little bristled at her assumption, though it's obvious that its more for show than any honest sense of being slighted, Z'dayi pointed out, "Well, you don't know that I can't do anything about it. Maybe me and Aderes're close as canned sardines." He tugged a finger at his collar as soon as the words left his mouth; even he found the notion of his unpolished familiarity an unlikely coupling to the Weyrwoman's refinement. Then-- "But don't worry. I won't turn you in for intrigue if you won't turn me in for being late." Like their 'crimes' are on the same level.

That Salina asked, that she pursued the less political subject again caught him by surprise. Z'dayi gave her a measuring look, one that weighed the whole of her on looks alone-- all blond and pale and fragile. "How old're you?" Which is by no means an answer to the question, but still pertinent!

[Xinnai]

The only indication of Salina's want to smile was the pursing of lips and their slight upward curve. She nodded solemnly, though the fact the bronze weyrling tugged at his color was more than enough evidence to the contrary of his statement. "All right then. It's a deal then."

She felt Z'dayi's eyes pass over her and focused on another potato. When that was done, and his question asked, she looked up, slight smile on her pretty little lips. "Old enough. And weyrbred at that. Why, how old are you?" Her head tilted, eyes sweeping him over. Tall, a bit ragged, handsome. He looked very much like the image of a golden boy. Her smile curved higher. "Age isn't really important now, you know."