Post by tovaana on Apr 23, 2021 0:11:27 GMT -5
Ceela & Zylorin;
Her eyes blinked in the darkness, coming out of a dream that had left her feeling confused. The details were blurry and every time she grasped to remember, they slipped from her. It was unsettling, and she tried to shake the dream away, but the feeling of confusion lingered. She sighed, rubbing at her eyes and shifting in her bed, disturbing her little three month green flit and made a little squeak as Ceela moved. She had settled on Ceela’s stomach and now lifted awkwardly in the air, clearly sleep clinging to her as well. Ceela’s eyes adjusted very slowly to the deep darkness of the candidate barracks, looking at the darker silhouette of Flutter as the brighter wing tips flapped until they tucked at her side as she landed once more. Ceela sighed, “sorry girl.” She whispered as the green crawled delicately to her person’s face and pressed her own against it comfortingly.
Ceela smiled, the flit’s presence soothing her already, but she wasn’t sure she’d be able to fall back asleep right away. “How about a midnight snack?” She whispered, getting up and scooping up her green as she did so. She couldn’t tell the time, but the glow baskets were practically out and everyone else were sleeping or snoring in the sleep.
Still in her loose night clothes, she fumbled around in her things until she found her warm robe that she sometimes used after lazy baths. She pulled it on her and shivered with delight at the extra warmth, Flutter landed on her shoulder as she made her way blindly to the tunnels and then to the Dining Hall.
She wasn’t surprised that there were people awake and eating – but there seemed a lot for Mavros. Then again, she’d never had a midnight snack at Mavros, but she'd also not seen any whers. At Southern she had stayed up partying and mischief making with friends to know that the wher handlers and a few others did night shifts.
She moved to where there was klah and what seemed to be ‘lunch’ for the night-going people. Hmmm, probably shouldn’t have a cup of klah if she wanted to fall back asleep. She stood there, staring at it for a moment, torn… she sighed, finally resisting the klah and reaching for some water and a plate of fruit. There was a chirp on her shoulder and Flutter sent an image of the meat rolls that were out. Ceela grinned. “Of course Flutter, dear.” She moved down and grabbed one of the meatrolls and placed it as far as she could away from the fruit.
Then she turned and looked out to the tables, her eyes were drawn immediately to a nicely dressed dark haired man who had some sort of wagon like contraption at the end of a table. Her curiosity peaked and she liked the idea of being distracted from the confusion that her dream had left her in. She landed in the seat across from him, smiling – and slightly surprised when he didn’t even glance up from his work. She frowned thoughtfully and got settled, giving the meat roll to Flutter and started to pick at her fruit, then glanced down at the contraption and gasped.
“Oh my!” It was an egg! A large one, it took her tired brain to remember it couldn’t be a dragon egg… “A wher! Oh, how exciting! So you’re a wher handler?”
The man still didn’t look up, making an arch of some sort on the paper and her attention shifted to the hide where he wasn’t writing – he was… drawing? The lines were so… straight and almost too perfect. “What’re you making?” Again, no answer.
Zylorin sighed quietly. He’d been hoping that his silence would be message enough. He wasn’t interested in human interaction at the moment. He was finally adjusting to the new night schedule, but there hadn’t been much to besides prepare for the egg to hatch. He had soaked up the lessons quickly and easily, but it hadn’t been enough to keep his mind busy. He had multiple pieces of hide in front of him, rotating through them as he came up with ideas or got distracted by a line of thought.
He felt the woman lean forward and peer at what he was doing. He had been studying the way caves were drilled into and he had been studying the mechanics at length and how whers were used. He had been playing with ideas that would up efficiency or to make smoother walls. He knew that Mavros probably couldn’t spare to actually implement them, but if he could make it simple enough or show that it wouldn’t add too much work…
“What color do you think your wher is?”
She just… wasn’t going to go away, was she? Without looking up from his work he finally spoke in a very matter-of-fact voice. He ignored the first question, since it was an obvious answer. “A means to make cave drilling more efficient.” A simple thing her very simple mind would be able to understand, and an answer to her first question. “The color does not matter, as long as they can do the work that is required them. But, the probability that is it a blue or green is higher, especially with the size of its eggs compared to its siblings. Or a small brown, but highly unlikely.”
He still did not look up, but he did glance over at the egg, the top of it’s unusually smooth shell visible through the sand. What she could not see was the layer of heated rocks that he had placed in a circle and then filled with sand around the rocks. He was still playing with other ideas to keep the egg warmer longer so he didn’t have to replace the warm sands so often. Even if it was going to hatch soon, it pleased him to make the most of his time when out and about. He also had timed to know how almost down to the sand granule when the sands needed to be changed. He had already changed the sands recently, so he had quite a bit of time still... which meant he didn't really have an excuse to escape the inquiring woman.
Ceela felt confused at the first answer, her tired brain taking a moment to realize he was answering her other question first. Both eyebrows rose and she leaned back, looking at the man who still hadn’t looked up from his work. He seemed like one of those stick-in-the-mud people who needed some fun in his life. She glanced down at the egg wagon and blinked at it- parts of it seemed… familiar…
“Do all to-be wher handlers get a contraption like that?” She asked. She was surprised that he answered very quickly, his voice seemed devoid of feeling.
“I made that from a food cart, so I highly doubt it. Unless they saw the benefit of mine and had one made."
Ceela worked a lot in the kitchen, she remembered there being talk about a food cart going missing! Her eyebrows shot up in recognition of the wheels the the bottom wood panel. "Oh, so it was you!" She leaned forward again, her eyes bright and excited and spoke in hushed tones. "You stole it! Man, if they knew it was for you, they would have monitored your rations for sure. Or, made you got a bone in your meatroll."
"I did not steal it. I'm simply borrowing it."
Ceela's eyebrow rose skeptically. "Uhm, it won't be very useful like... that." She giggled, incredibly pleased by the information and excited that she had kitchen duty the next day.
The man breathed in and shook off the moment of irritation. The woman was jumping to conclusions and simply didn't understand. "Do you think, that if I could make a wagon from a kitchen cart, that I could not reverse the process?" He still did not look up, hoping that she would take offense and just... leave.
Ceela thought about it, still grinning. Even if he did, it was highly amusing and she was feeling already better. She eyed him, leaning even closer and whispered the next words.
“Have you ever been to a Southern beach?”
Finally! His dark brown eyes lifted from his work and looked at her with a startling calm gaze. She leaned back away from the intensity, but she was still smiling at him. It was as if there was some sort of sea behind them, but on the outside he was practically blank. He considered her, unbeknownst to Ceela, her question had startled Zylorin, it had been random and he could not see what the question had to do with any connection of what they were talking about. “I do not see how that is related. But, no. Are you going to leave?”
Ceela grinned at his last blunt question, not at all surprised by it, now that she was getting a feel for his personality. “Oh come on, you like me.”
“I do not know you.”
“Now you do! I'm Ceela.”
The man blinked at her and then went back to his skins as if she hadn’t ruffled his world at all. She sighed, picked at a few more pieces of fruit and yawned. She really wanted to know more about the man, but he and his egg had put her earlier dream confusion out of her mind. Tiredness swept over her and she sighed. “Well, I am tired.” She looked at him with a small smile, he was ignoring her again. “It was nice to meet you and your future wher. Maybe I’ll come visit you guys again! Not that I’d want a dream to wake me up again, but this was kinda fun. What's your name?” No response. She smiled and gathered Flutter up into her arms. It kept her hands busy so she wouldn’t be tempted to touch his wher egg upon leaving. She tried one more time, “G’night! Well, it’s like afternoon for you. But for me, so I guess I should say, good afternoon to you!” but wasn’t surprised when he didn’t even flinch. “Good afternoon to you, then.” And she smiled, taking her dishes in one hand to drop them lazily where they could get cleaned. She’d probably be the one cleaning them in the morning, anyways.
Zylorin let out a controlled sigh of breath as the woman finally left. He glanced over at the egg, remembering the calmness, maybe tenderness of the feeling underneath its surface. He turned away quickly, back to his work. It also seemed to want to help him – want to do its best, or so it seemed. That’s all he wanted from it, to help him when it came out, to cooperate. Everything else would then fall into place as needed.
