Risks (Srunae)

[Taxx]

It was dark and quiet. Perfect.

Aleni slipped from the bed, cradling Sleek in one arm and clutching towel and clean clothes with the other. Padding as quietly as possible past the rows of sleeping girls, she headed for the bathing area. She knew she wasn't supposed to be doing this, but this was the only time she could hope to bathe and not have to worry. She wondered if the other girls ever wondered about why she never bathed with them- she wondered if S'bol ever wondered. He couldn't know; he'd have done something about it if he did. Right?

Snagging a basket of glows on the way, Aleni entered the room. Setting her clothes on a chair and the glows against the wall, she smiled as Sleek leaped from her arm and disappeared into the water with a tiny splash. Quickly, with a nervous glance toward the entrance, Aleni stripped off the clothes and dropped them, heading for the water herself and sinking into it with a sigh. She laughed as the seaspitter's head popped up, eyes whirling green with happiness, wings folded neatly to her back and flippers propelling her toward the woman. She squeaked and dived again, and Aleni felt the push of water from the strong movement of the green's tail.

She couldn't stay long, and with that in mind, Aleni dunked herself under to wet her hair, taking a moment to run her fingers through the strands and enjoying the slight current of the water, and the warmth- only when the need for air was too much to ignore did she come up again.
Rhush

[Rhush]

Srunae :: Gold Danovelith

Srunae breathed a heavy sigh as she entered the bathing caverns, her arms wrapped around a nice, fluffy towel. It had been a long day – she had been roped into going in Karredy’s stead to smooth over some issues with a local hold’s tithing preferences, which had resulted in nearly half a day’s negotiations with a particularly irritated Lord Holder and his hidebound family council. The goldweyrling rubbed her temples with one hand, recalling the awful headache she had been left with after the entire ordeal was finally resolved and the lessons she had to attend afterward with the just as irritated weyrlingmaster, K’ton. He knew better than to say something about the elder of the class’s goldweyrlings missing the lesson that morning – she had a perfectly relevant political reason – but he certainly wasn’t keen on having to repeat the class late for a single student, and he made sure she was aware of it, whether he realized it or not. Between his snappy comments and the nigh incessant feelings of intense irritation and displeasure rolling off of him, she simply couldn’t get away from the man’s obvious aversion towards the situation. She was too tired to successfully shut out his forceful feelings and so worried about making sure she wasn’t missing anything (she did not want to make him repeat himself today) as he taught that by the end of her lesson she was prepared to give the man an ultimatum that might have involved the end of his life.

Zax chirped quietly from under Srunae’s long brown hair, a wave of understanding emanating off of his young form. The bronze seaspitter was tiredly draped across her shoulders, balanced by little more than his tail at her collar. He was tired too, though it was because his Pet had forced him to stay in her weyr all day and he had been dealing with the rest of his Pet’s Pod instead. Zax had enjoyed playing with Zoom for a while, spitting water at the brown firelizard as he rocketed past his large-bowl-swimming-pool over and over again, but after he accidentally got Floret wet the fun quickly ceased and his tiredness quickly began. The green gemglider had chewed him out for ages, until his Pet came home at last and rescued him from her tirade. Srunae chuckled gently and ran a finger over the spitter’s eyeridges, a warm smile crossing her lips as she entered the spacious bathing cavern. As she drew nearer to the water’s edge, Zax practically threw himself off her shoulder, gliding the short distance to the water and dropping into the massive pool with a joyful cheep. 

Giggling, Srunae stripped off the loose dress she had thrown on specifically for the late night trip to bathe and dropped it unceremoniously at the edge of the pool. She set her folded towel and clean undergarments alongside it, glad she didn’t have to keep them neat – merely one boon that came with the solitude of late night bathing. Perhaps the best part of bathing completely alone for the beastcrafter was the freedom from her holdbred self-consciousness and the chance to let down the exhausting mental barriers that kept her gift closeted. She slipped into the water with a drawn-out sigh, instantly relaxing as the heat seeped into her tense muscles and pulled her long hair off into its gentle current. This was her favorite thing to do, just letting her worries wash away with the day’s dirt…

As the goldweyrling sank deeper into the water and relaxed completely, a twinge of primal fight or flight popped up on her empathic radar, heralded by a splash, as if someone had just popped above the surface of the water to catch their breath. Srunae opened her eyes as a shock of anxiety and panic blossomed in her chest and glanced around, her hazel gaze searching for a hopefully imaginary bathing companion. A moment later Zax’s greenish bronze head popped out of the water in front of her, his eyes whirling a protective red. Srunae blinked as he supplied the image of a familiar little green Seaspitter to her, morphing the weyrling’s anxiety into merely a mild embarrassment. It was only Aleni. A sigh of relief escaped the woman as she then caught sight of the taller candidate, not more than a quick paddle away. While Srunae would rather that no one see her nude, she did thank Faranth that it was only Aleni and not some random male rider; she likely would have about drowned herself trying to escape without being noticed if it had been the latter. Instead she offered the candidate a warm greeting, shyly waving at her so as to get her attention before startling her by breaking the immense silence of the cavern. “Ah, hello Aleni,” She smiled gently, settling back against nearest the wall of the pool. “I’m sorry if I interrupted your bath,” Though she hadn’t seen the woman when she came in, Srunae surmised she could’ve missed the candidate if Aleni had already been submerged at the time.

[Taxx]

Sleek had known before Aleni that another person had arrived; her slim head popped up from the water as the bronze dove in, but she made no noise to draw attention to herself, circling the edge of the pool and watching the newcomer, only darting into action when Aleni came up, lurching forward to meet the bronze, her wings flared wide in a defensive move. She did not attack, pausing so that her tail draped over Hers shoulder, keeping Aleni's position in mind without looking back.

Aleni was much more wary when she realized she wasn't alone. She'd just blinked the water from her eyes when Srunae greeted her, and she jolted in surprise, eyes going wide as a twinge of panic chilled her. How long had... no, she hadn't been there before Aleni had gone under. She couldn't have; the Candidate had made sure she'd been alone before slipping out of her dirty clothes. The realization that Srunae couldn't know was a mild balm, but quick on its heels was the worry about how she was supposed to deal with the Junior's presence.

At least she didn't seem upset to find Aleni here, which was another good thing, but how was Aleni supposed to get out? Srunae thought she was a woman. The entire Weyr- almost- did. And of all places this could have come out, the possibility of it being in the middle of the night, in the bathing caverns, had never occurred to her. Her worst case scenarios involved a crowded place with someone figuring it out and screaming it to the masses.

She hadn't answered, Aleni realized, and quickly found her voice. "H-hi, Srunae," she replied, reaching a hand to gently stroke Sleek, trying to calm her nerves. "No- I didn't get here too long before you did. I just wanted to wash up real quick before heading back to the Barracks." So saying, and doing her best to keep her body as low in the water as possible without completely submerging, Aleni moved toward where sweetsand was waiting, scooping up a handful and wetting it before massaging it into her hair. She didn't say anything else- she was still very much fighting with the issue of how to get out of the pool without letting Srunae in on anything she didn't need to know.
Rhush