Anaddui's Journal

Anaddui Scene
You pass into the steamy heat of the Weyr's baths.
Baths

The bathing cavern is divided into a number of large pools, each spacious enough for ten to fifteen people. There is one cold-water pool with the remainder being given over to water warm enough to fill the air with swirling clouds of steam. Each pool has been tiled in blue and white and boasts benches along the sides to allow people to sit and soak. Alcoves in the walls have been hollowed out to provide places to store clean, dry towels and various other bathing paraphernalia.
The corners of the room have been decorated with potted ferns, brought here from Ista Island. They are pampered and fussed over by the staff who keep the baths clean and stocked. The plants provide a cheerful splash of color in an otherwise pale and steamy cavern.

~~Roa~~
Straight black hair has been gathered up and tied into a thick braided bun at the nape of this young woman's neck, a widow's peak forming an arched 'V' that accentuates a heart-shaped face. Large, wideset, almond eyes are a clear, cool blue fringed in dark lashes and set under thin, midnight brows. Her nose is small and pert, and lips are full and a soft pale pink.
She is thin, perhaps a little too thin, and the young woman's diminuative stature of 4'10" leaves her looking a mite waifish. Warming weather calls for lighter clothing so her indigo top is made from a soft, breathable material, the garment a little loose but gently outlining what few curves she has and stopping just past the faint flare of her hips. Sleeves stop halfway down skinny arms, few inches past elbow. The rest of her arms are bare, pale skin and the hint of sinewy muscle visible as arms lead down to little hands. The girl has dexterous fingers and nails worn down to the nub. Long legs are wrapped in a pair of pale grey pants, the cut so loose and flowing that, when she's standing still, the item could be mistaken for a long skirt. It's only through movement that the wide pantlegs can be easily discerned. Peeping out from the pant hems are a pair of dark brown wherhide shoes.
By the young woman's right shoulder is the knot that marks her as a junior weyrwoman in the colors of Telgar weyr. A small pin fastened to the knot also proclaims her a caucus student.
The girl looks to be in her late teens.

E'sere watches Roa closely, a thoughtful frown tugging at his mouth. "A good man. Yes, I think so, for what it counts. He is... Our relationship has always been one of friendly competition, more than anything else. To my chagrin, S'lien is not the type of person who loses." Wryly, he offers another small smile to the goldrider in the pool with him.

Roa listens with a quiet intensity obvious by the fact that she's actually *looking* at the bronzerider seated nearby. After E'sere's assessment, all she offers in reply is "I see. Thank you." She and E'sere are in one of the heated baths sitting on a ledge. Roa seems to be simply soaking while the wingleader is actively scrubbing, off and on.

Anaddui slips into the steamy bathing area, having bathed, oiled and comforted Aurenth to sleep. The green dragon had had a full day, as has her weyrling. Laying her clean clothes nearby and shucking her filthy garments, Anaddui grabs a bar of scented soap and goes to the edge of the pool where Roa and E'sere are bathing. "Hello there, weyrwoman, wingleader." She greets. "Room for a tired weyrling?"

E'sere meets Roa's gaze mildly, nodding at her reply. "I hope that helps," he remarks after a moment. Then, adopting an easy smile, he turns to greet the latest arrival. "Weyrling," comes his friendly greeting. "Please, join us. How are you and Aurenth? Your training is progressing well?"

Roa looks over, her expression composed enough to conceal any startle the weyrling's appearance may have caused. She backs up a little, to allow Anaddui room to join the pair and offers one of ther shy little smiles as well. "Of course there's room. Good evening, greenrider." Then she quiets, leaving Anaddui time to answer E'sere's questions.

Anaddui slides into the pool with a huge sigh. "Oh, my, that feels nice." Giving a shy smile of her own towards the slightly unfamiliar face of the goldrider, she answers E'sere. "We've been well. Aurenth is having trouble learning to hunt, I feel she's a little scared of the beasts. Although she's much larger, she still tends to be a little hesitant around them. Our training? Well, I'm having no trouble at all with my strap making, but had a small accident with a firestone sack." Giving a grimace, she indicates the fading bruise on her arm. "Need more practise is all. How have you been, wingleader? And, weyrwoman, lovely to see you looking so well. I don't know if you recall me, I'm Anaddui, green weyrling to Aurenth."

"It was come to her," reassures E'sere, "and you, with time and practice. I, personally, was less fond of strap-making--I seem to recall proposing a new craft to do the work instead." He grins lightly, then, finishing scrubbing himself, rinses. "Ah, this is Tialith's Roa, on loan for the Caucus from my cousin at Telgar," he introduces the woman beside him. "But if you'll excuse me, I should go and at least have the pretense of sleep," continues the wingleader, directing his smile at the pair. To Roa: "Any day you'd like to observe my wing's drills, or look at some of our formations, or anything else, have Tialith let Morelenth know--Roa. Good night." The latter words aimed to both, he rises, dries and dresses quickly, and slips outside.

The Telgari nods in E'sere's direction. "I will. Goodnight, sir." As the bronzerider stands and heads out, she turns back towards Anaddui. "Wet met, Anaddui. You impressed from Citalth's last clutch, then? Congratulations. Do you find the change to being a dragonrider a challenging one?"

E'sere goes home.
E'sere has left.

Anaddui waves wet fingers in E'sere's direction. "Goodnight sir!" Ducking quickly under the water, she then leans back in the bath to get more comfortable. Nodding, she replies "yes, we were Citalth's clutch. Thank you! And, I'm finding it challenging in many ways. Certainly different from mucking beastpens, which was what I was doing before I Impressed. Although mucking after a dragonet is similar to that." She chuckles. "Weyrlingmaster R'vain has some...uh...interesting ideas about teaching young dragonriders. One of the brown weyrlings made a simple mistake and he was made to do marches for twice as long as the rest of us. I suppose he has to be strict though, after all we are Pern's defence from Thread and need to be trained rigourously. And you, Roa? How are you enjoying High Reaches? It must be different from Telgar."

Roa's brows lift. "I remember my weyrlingmaster being somewhat strict, but not quite to that extreme. What sort of mistake did the brownrider make?" Then a hand lifts from the water to push at her hair. "Sorry, yes, High Reaches is different, though the weather's similar. Mostly it's the people, I guess. The Caucus is quite unique in that way."

Anaddui rubs her face a little, trying to remember what A'vren did wrong. "I think that he made a miscalculation with a throw and nearly crushed a fellow Weyrling with a sack. R'vain looked like a volcano about to erupt. He can be very scary at times. A'vren just did what he was told, not his fault really. Mistakes do happen." Scrubbing now with the scented soap, she attempts to remove the oily and bloody stains on her skin. "Never thought I'd be clean again!" She laughs a little. "Oh, yes, the Caucus is very unique. I haven't been there for any of it's sittings, I'm not sure I'm even allowed to, but it does seem to be working."

"Do you think so?" Roa queries, "that it's working? What makes you feel that way?" The questions Roa asks are fascinated and, at the very least, sound genuine. "He..." the girl winces at the brown weyrling's misstep. "I guess accidents will happen, but when you're flying, to injure a rider is to frighten his dragon and if that dragon veered out of formation..." another wince to imply, perhaps, just how terrible that could become. "Maybe the weyrlingmasterjust wanted to make sure such mistakes weren't repeated."

Anaddui hrms "-Seems- to be working." She repeats. "I wouldn't know, having not had much to do with members, but what I hear is good." Ana seems to be side-stepping the questions, perhaps because she really has very little knowledge of what goes on behind the closed doors of Caucus lessons. "I know his mistake could have been a fatal one, we all did, which is why we didn't protest R'vain's punishment. A'vren actually paled when he was told exactly what a mistake like that could do mid-air. A dragon could fly straight into a clump of Thread." Shivering visibly at that thought, she turns to a question of her own. "Has Tialith risen yet? I know I'm both dreading and looking forward to Aurenth's first flight."

The matter of a weyrling's mistake is dropped for this new topic, and Roa gives a shake of her head. "She hasn't yet. She's still quite young so it ought to be a while. I would think the same is true of your Aurenth? What you you anticipate and what do you dread?" A small, wry smile. "I ask because I feel somewhat the same way."

Anaddui grins. "We-ell..." She says slowly. "I'm looking forward to it because in my eyes it will mean she's a fully fledged green dragon. The excitement of the rising, the chase and finally the mating. And all those things I also dread. What if I can't hold her back? What if she gets hurt? And what if she mates with a dragon whose rider I can't stand? There -are- a few I'd like to have win, but you never know in the heat of it all just who will get there." Blushing as she thinks of Ol'ren and her crush on him, she asks a question of her own. "And you? You'll have a clutch of your own to look after when Tialith rises!"

Roa laughs, shaking her head again. "Oh shells, don't remind me! Not that I won't be proud of her, of course. She'll do Telgar proud I believe but...everyone will be watching." She swallows sharply. "Though it would mean a trip back home for a little while." For whatever reason, although the words sound hopeful, Roa's expression remains worried. "As I understand flights, the rider's preference can play a part. Not consciously, maybe, but subconsciously in who a dragon allows to catch her. Injuries, well, they're a risk in anything. But the more you practice flying once she's learned, the less likely they are. As for the last..." her hands lift helplessly. "I'm told you must just stay with her. And then, when she's caught, you make her stay with you. Which is why, I think, it's not good to be inhibited."

Anaddui cocks her head. "Why would people watching make you worried? Oh yeah, living up to expectations perhaps. At least I'll never have to worry about leadership flights. That would be hard, to say the least. I'm looking forward to having a weyrmate one day, one that I can love and share the bond. It will never be the same as my bond with Aurenth though." Her eye's unfocus for a moment, then she states "Aurenth says she needs me to come and sit by her. She's been very clingy lately, and I don't understand why. And I'll remember what you said, Roa. Thank you for talking to me, I hope to see you again soon." Climbing out of the bath, she dries herself and begins to dress, folding her dirty clothes into a rough bundle.

Roa smiles again, softly. "It's nice to have someone else to discuss such things with," and it's hard to tell whether she's offering help or asking for it.

"I'd better head out as well before my fingers shrivel." She climbs out of the bath, reaching for a towel and heading over to her own carefully folded pile of discarded clothes.

Anaddui waves goodbye to Roa and hurries back to Aurenth.

Weyrling Barracks(#43RA)

Every Weyr on Pern has a room like this. A center aisle is flanked by stone couches that dwarf newly hatched dragons and barely fit those who have grown old enough for graduation. The rock in the center of each has been worn smooth with Turns of sleeping bodies while the rock on the edges has been scored deep by countless talons. Each couch has an accompanying cot to its right, and each cot has a single clothespress. The walls and floor are bare and cheerless, leaving little doubt that this is but a temporary home for those who dwell here.

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