Xanadu Weyr - Garden
An arch woven from the tendrils of a willow tree stretches overhead lightly creeping with ivy as one steps in from the meadow into this sanctuary of green. Cool gray flagstone carefully spaced enables a soft velvety moss to thrive within the cracks, and creates a single wide pathway that fluidly breaks off into two paths of stone once free of the natural arbor. It is a wonder this place, and meticulously tended from the way it seems not a single leaf is out of place. On either side of the main path expansive grassy patches are trimmed short and edged behind with natural tan colored stone selectively chosen to stack just right. Beyond these are a line of fine puffed shrubberies in vibrant green intermingled with flowering bushes of brilliant pinks varying in hue from the very light to the very dark, which causes the occasional snowy white blossoms of other scattered here and there without worry to simply pop out of the scenery.
Directly in the center of the garden is another wall of intricately stacked stone, this of muted grays, creating what from the air would prove to be a perfect circle. It's been set high for safety, but not so much as one would not be able to lean over it to admire what lies beyond, either standing or sitting at the smattering of benches whose backs are set every four feet along it. Flush to the ground inside it's protective stone outcropping, is an enormous twenty foot wide fish pond. Within one can glean the metallic glint of playful goldfish, the unhurried cruise of fat koi, and even a frog or three among pale yellow and white flowering water lilies and their thick green pads.
The trees surrounding the entire garden were planted to give the impression that they had always been here, not only lending to a rustic look, but also eluding to the beauty that can be found among the wilds if only one might just look for it. Species vary from the ordinary Birch and Pine, but the flaming red capsules of the Indian Shot to the robust orange spokes of the Firewheel tree suggest the spice of the exotic. The two paths leading away from the entrance have come full circle, wrapping around to meet each other on the other side, yet still continue on to the far left and right. One path leads off deeper into the surrounding woods, while the other wider; cheerily decorated with brightly colored slabs of painted stones.
The gardens are looking their usual loveliness, despite all the ovine encounters and other disasters that have occurred here recently. Two of the trees near the entrance to the garden seem a little worse off than the rest of the greenery, having suffered both broken branches and an arrow in one of them. The leaves on damaged branches have begin to turn brown, and so Cenlia has taken it upon herself to trim the dying foliage before the trees suffer for it. Cenlia is up in a tree. Yep. The gardener girl has a rops tied around her waist with the other end tied around the trunk of the tree she's currently sitting in. A handsaw is used to work away at one partly-torn branch, which looks awfully high up to have been caused by ovine damage. Now and again, the girl swears, and mutters something about, "Flamin' ovines," while her four firelizards play a good distance away, over by the pond. Cenlia has cleaned up and changed her clothes since the bubbesplosion earlier, but the flits are apparently still sudsy, and are giving the fish something to worry about as they create a mini-bubblebath in one small section of the pond
X'hil has had time to clean up after the sudsplosion in the kitchens, or at least change his clothes, though he's still a little damp and smelling of soap and burnt pudding. Right now, he's headed for the gardens, absently tossing a small marks pouch - tied with an elaborate and shiny golden ribbon, and clattering with the promise of a fair few marks - a short distance into the air and catching it again as he walks. He peers up as he walks under a tree, and blinks. "Oh. Hey, Cenlia!" he calls, tossing the pouch again absently and then /cursing/ as a blue blur swoops in and snatches it. He'll get it back later, but he scowls at the firelizard, or where the firelizard used to be, all the same.
Fortunately, Rogawani had missed the sudsplosion in the kitchens, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been busy. His hair is wind-swept and his pants are muddied, but the boy comes trudging towards the gardens with his delivery bag thrown over one shoulder. Spotting X'hil infront of him, the boy quickens his pace a little bit, "Oh, X'hil!" Calling out, the boy waves with one hand, trying to catch up. "Did you ever get that letter ready for your aunt?" He asks, looking around for a moment as he catches the tail end of what the rider had said, "Cenlia?" Huh? He looks around, and then follows the rider's gaze upward. "Ahh, hey there Cenlia. I got some deliveries for you." Still, the boy takes a step back away from the tree just incase, fingering the handle of his bag.
A garden should be a nice, quiet, serene place shouldn't it? In theory a person could get away from exploding pudding and flooding soapsuds, darting firelizards and crazy dragonriders. Alas, for Enkavir, it is not to be. He strolls casually into the garden with hands in his pockets. He too has on fresh duds and he looks freshly scrubbed though somehow his hair is just as unruly as ever. A few steps bring him to the tree where Cenlia perches and X'hil stands and he lets a slow breath out through his nose. "Try not to send any branches crashing down on my head, yeah? I would really like to survive my first sevenday at the Weyr." The glint in his eyes is slightly amused but his tone is completely dry. X'hil and Rogawani, one familiar and one not, both get greeting nods.
Cenlia peers down, grinning a bit as she sees the flit make off with X'hil's pouch, and waves to the folk beneath and near the tree with a handsaw, calling out a, "Hey!" in greeting. And then, as the partly-sawed branch begins to creak and droop, the girl quickly adds, "Look out down there!" The girl waves for anyone under the tree to move, while grumbling, "Shardin' flits're supposed to be keeping watch." At Cenlia's mention of flits, all four of her firelizards raise their heads from making bubble-soup and trill, and then they take flight, chittering at anyone still under the tree, presumably trying to warn them off the area. Better late than never, right? At least the water from the pond means they're no longer sudsy, though they are dripping as they swoop and chirp.
X'hil nods a little at Rogawani, and starts patting down his pockets… He'd already been unable to hand this letter of his over to Rogawani /twice/ now, he wasn't going to forget a third time. Er. Was he? Hmm… "Aha!" the man pulls an envelope out of his jacket pocket, and nods, straightening out the slightly wrinkled bit of paper, before handing it to the messenger. It's addressed to Zhaila, at a nearby hold. There's a blink towards Enkavir's dry tone, with a brief glance up at the broken branch that Cenlia is working on, and a wry smirk. "Xanadu's not normally this dangerous, really." he vows, though it's certainly been dangerous since he got /back/… Speaking of getting back, he winces as he hears a creak from above, and takes a big step /backwards/. "Need a hand with anything?" he calls up. With the pouch gone, well, that's why he's here. Yep. Was /all/ along.
Already being a pace back from the tree itself, Rogawani has to lean forward a little to take the letter from the bronze rider. "Great. I'll make sure she gets it on my run tomorrow." He eyes the address, and then nods, pulling his bag to the front and tucking it into a small square-shaped pouch intended for letters. Giving a small nod to Enkavir, "You're new? Well, I'm Rogawani, any mail you got that doesn't need to go dragon back comes through me… well me or one of the other messengers that is." The dry look is returned with his usual, easy going grin. Unfortunately, the grin is interrupted by chittering, dripping firelizards. "Hey!" Raising an arm, Ro' backs away even further, looking up at them with a childish scowl as he rubs water droplets from his nose.
Enkavir takes a slow, deep breath and manages to maintain a faint smile even as he takes a few deliberate steps away from the tree. "I'll make a more important request then. Please try not to come crashing down on our heads /yourself/, because that would be really unfortunate." One hand shading his eyes he peers up at the girl and now his smile is more genuine. He glances back down toward X'hil then, one brow arching. "Yeah, it seems real peaceful around here. Wingleaders calling Weyrwomen cupcake, exlosions, falling branches, some very odd oblique references to dangerous ovines? Totally reasonable." There's a faintly amused snort, and then he returns Rogawani's nod. "I am. Enkavir and I'm sure we'll see a lot of each other, I'm working with the records." A sweep of his eyes includes X'hil and Cenlia in this introduction since that bit was skipped in the midst of chaos yesterday.
Seeing that everyone is out of the way, Cenlia goes back to sawing, and soon the branch is tumbing down, leaving a neat stub where it had been attached. Cenlia grins down at X'hil, saying, "There's a pile of branches behind the shrubs over there," and she points with the handsaw, "Couldja haul this one," meaning the branch that just fell, "over there?" It's a big branch, possibly one that Cenlia might not have been able to move by herself. But X'hil is bigger and stronger, right? With a grin at Enkavir and a, "Oh, hey, I'm Cenlia," the girl unties the rope around her waist and tree trunk, coiling it neatly over one shoulder and climbing down the tree with practiced ease. She waves at Rogawani and the others when she's on the ground, but then acks and has to wave away four wet firelizards as they all try to land on her at once.
X'hil glances at Rogawani, asking, with a mischievous glint in his eye, "That half-brother of yours been searched yet?" He rather doubts it obviously, or he wouldn't be asking. At least, not in that cheeky tone. There's a shudder from the man as Enkavir mentions ovines, and the bronzerider's eye starts to twitch. He's not been in the gardens /nearly/ as much lately, and he's looking around a little nervously. Oh, something happened here, something with /ovines/. He tries to focus on happier things, but ends up landing on paperwork instead, with a grimace, and an introduction, of sorts. "X'hil, paper shuffler." His /knot/ says weyrsecond. Branch hauling? Manual labour? He is /so/ there. "You got it, boss!" he calls cheerfully up at Cenlia in the tree, with a snappy little salute, before moving cautiously over to the end of the branch /furthest/ from the trunk, and pulling it away from the tree. It's heavier than it looks, apparently, but he's making progress. Slow proud progress.
"Be glad you missed the ovines." Rogawani says to Enkavir, shaking his head back and forth. Sometimes, things are better left not talked about. "Nice to meet you though." He quips, looking around the taller man to spy the X'hil. "Nope. Xaliyan was telling me that he saw him heading down towards the feeding grounds this morning, though. Trying a different tactic, I guess." With a shrug, Rogawani watches the rider's progress with the branch before turning back towards Cenlia, barely containing a laugh behind one hand at the sight of her firelizards all trying to find a perch. "I've got some deliveries for you, Cen. One's from that rider friend of yours." He gives a lift of his eyebrows, as if she should know very well what he's getting at.
Enkavir's hands end up clasped behind him as he watches Cenlia clamber down so adeptly. "Nice to meet you as well, Cenlia." The firelizard chaos has him taking one more of those too-deliberate backward steps and he shakes his head. "How do you keep up with so /many/ of them?" His shoulders are markedly empty. Sharp pale eyes dart from one to the next then and his brows furrow together in a quick little frown. "I think I /am/ glad I missed the ovines at that. I don't even want to know." Now that X'hil's made a decent bit of progress with that branch Enkavir reluctantly crosses toward him, offering, "Need a hand there?" without much enthusiasm.
Thea enters the gardens looking rather flushed and sweaty, rounds the corner of several scraggly-looking bushes and heads for a shady spot, only to halt abruptly as all the activity is spotted. She eyes the branch-moving dubiously and ignores the inner voice that tells her to flee. Flee now while you can! Instead, she takes a quick, furtive look around, then relaxes when no animals are in sight. She edges towards a large rock and settles to watch. "Good afternoon," she calls pleasantly with a little wave at the group. She's obviously hoping it will be.
Cenlia giggles a bit at the salute X'hil gives her, though the girl is still swatting at her four fits. She isn't able to wave away all her firelizards, and midnight-blue Rogue and bigheaded blue Mizzle curl up on her shoulders and drip sudsy water on her neck. Cenlia makes a face, but stows her handsaw in her garden tool belt, and then not even dripping firelizards can stop the huge grin from spreading across her face as Rogawani mentions a delivery from B'miel,"I gotta get him somethin' in returnfor all that booze." Cenlia gives Enkavir a lopsided grin and tells him, "I dun keep up with 'em, I just try to make sure they dun get me in any more trouble." And she laughs, "Shardin' things, I ain't even wanted them." Brown Trouble gives her scolding chitter and perches on a branch above the girl, dripping water on her head. Cenlia quickly moves out from under the tree, and then spots Thea, and waves a cheerful hello. Bronze Charmer immediatey flies over towardsthe weyrwoman upon spotting her, landing nearby and doing his cheeky crooning thing, trying to get her attention.
X'hil mutters and takes a breather, taking off his jacket and carefully placing it to one side, rolling up his shirt sleeves, and getting back to hauling dead tree bits around. It's good stuff, good solid physical /work/. Exactly what he hasn't had much of for over three turns now. So he's not finding it as /easy/ as he once did. There's a short bark of laughter at Donakan's latest tactic, and an amused snort. He can't really say much, huffing and puffing with the branch. Blink blink. Rider friend? He peers over at Cenlia then, with a frown. Enkavir's offer off assistence is given a sheepish nod, and he drops the branch, wiping sweat off of his brow. "Uh, yeah, a hand'd be nice." he agrees, with a bit of a stretch before he gets back into it. He catches sight of Thea then, out of the corner of his eye, and quickly drops his stretching to give her a brief wave. "Hey. How's Seryth?" Sure, he /could/ ask Kinseth, but it's more polite to ask… He'll get back to the branch in a moment, /really/. Blink blink. Booze? Another peer at Cenlia, this one rather different. The first was kind of brotherly, protective almost, this one is more interested, and slightly relieved. Booze is good. He likes booze.
"Makes me glad my firelizard isn't here, he'd probably be joining in the rukus." Rogawani says with a bit of a rueful tone to his voice, still not having quite gotten the hang of managing the little bronze. With one arm, he tries to sling the bag over and crouches down, pulling the strings free. "This one's kinda sloshy too, but it's small." Ro' explains as he pulls out a wrapped box, maybe a little less than a hand square. It certainly doesn't look like the type of thing wine would come in. "Annnd, this one is from me." The boy stacks another small box up, looking up at the gardener with one of his best grins. "When B'miel told me, well I had to make you something, too." Aww. Slinging the bag back onto his shoulder, he offers the two small packages out to Cenlia before giving a wave towards Thea. "G'day Weyrwoman." Nearly knocking himself off-balance as his bag sways and thumps him squarely in the back.
When X'hil seems more inclined to stretch and talk than drag the branch, Enkavir follows suit. He stays near enough to lend that hand if X'hil starts again, but in the meantime he just leans back against the trunk of the nearest tree - one that doesn't have gardeners hacking limbs off. He eyes the firelizard quartet dubiously, giving Cenlia a little headshake. "If you didn't want them how did you get them?" Watching Charmer draws his gaze to Thea and he offers her an easy smile and a nod, eyes going to her knot. "Afternoon, weyrwoman."
Thea gives Cenlia a wary greeting, although she's smiling at her friend, she's still uneasy about something. Charmer is a welcome distraction from her apprehension and she tickles the bronze's chin when he gets near enough. She answers X'hil, "Seryth's okay, getting a little bored with being stuck on the Sands, though. I… needed a break from the heat." She nods to Rogawani, eyeing those packages with a bit of an eyeroll and a grin, "B'miel's gonna be the ruin of ya, Cenlia." When Enkavir speaks, Thea turns her head towards him and smiles quizzically, "Hello, haven't seen you before. New to Xanadu?"
Cenlia grins at Rogawani as she gets two packages, eyeing the wrapped boxes curiously and saying, "Thanks! Ya gotta tell me when your turnday is coming up, too." And she gives him a smile, and then giggles a bit when he thumps himself on the back with his bags. The gardener girl begins unwrapping the packages, glancing Enkavir's way and saying, "Little sammich thiefs wouldn't let me get away," and she tries unsuccessfully to glare at the flits, "Dunno why, only thing that likes to hang around me is trundlebugs." And booze, apparently. Cenlia gives Thea a lopsided grin, "Nah, B'miel's okay. Been off at Ierne a lot, so he brings back a lotta stuff." A lot of booze, maybe. Charmer crooons at Thea's chin-tickles, the little bronze flit happily trying to charm the weyrwoman. He's a charmer, alright. As Cenlia unwraps the first package, the one from B'miel, she discovers two things: a small fluffy thing and a little bottle of very fine brandy. Cenlia grins at the brandy, and then suddeny bursts out laughing as she examines the fuffy thing more closely. The girl suddenly glances over towards X'hil, "Hey X'hil, catch!" She immediately tosses the fluffy thing at him, and her aim is pretty good.
X'hil eyes the successive presents Rogawani is delivering to Cenlia, and frowns a little. "Yeah. Firelizards." he mutters with a snort, and a glance towards the meadow. "If you feed 'em, you're stuck with 'em, and if you /don't/ feed 'em, they take the food right out of your hands, and you're stuck with 'em." Yep. He brought Cenlia a gift, but his firelizard stole it. There's a nod and a grimace for Thea. "Yeah, it's like a sauna in there. Shards, Kinseth is so concerned, about every little noise. Yesterday, someone sneezed in the gallery, and he actually started /pacing/. Don't know that he's slept properly since the clutch was laid." Okay, so the man is exaggerating, slightly, but Kinseth is very protective and cautious, apparently. Pity the poor candidates that get led out for egg touchings. He snorts, and shakes his head, nodding Enkavir to the branch again as he moves back to take up the other end. Work to do, huzzah! He especially likes the part where you just move the branch from point A to point B, no thinking, no fretting over whether the branch will be okay, no running around trying to get approval forms signed in triplicate, just moving a thing from one place to another. Simple. Good honest work. Yep. Good honest — "Yeargh!" there's a fluffy white thing flying at him! He drops his end of the branch, narrowly missing his toes, and raises his hands up in front of his face, defensively, too lost in thought to notice it sooner, and too caught up in reflex to actually think about what he's doing.
"Mine's not for a while, so no worries." Rogawani replies, just beaming a little once he catches his balance. "I just couldn't let you have a turnday without something. I hope it's okay." Sheepishly, the boy rubs at his neck and toes at the ground in a boyish way. Luckily there is the distraction caused by X'hil and Thea talking about their dragons. "Oh, X'hil?" Just as he's about to ask about the secret passage that Xali had mentioned, something white and fluffy goes flying towards the bronze rider. Blinking with surprise, the boy looks from Cenlia to the rider, and then just gapes. "Wow… he really -is- afraid of ovines, even if they aren't real ones." This much is kept at a low voice, hopefully not loud enough to carry as far as Enkavir and X'hil.
Laying a hand across his chest, Enkavir inclines his head in a little approximation of a bow. "Pardon my lack of manners, ma'am." This of course to Thea, his little smirk showing amusement at himself. "Enkavir is my name and I just arrived here a few days ago. I'll be working with the records so I imagine you'll be seeing more than enough of me." He turns then to grab up his side of the branch, hefting it easily. He might not be the brawny type but he's spent turns working on a cothold where you do whatever needs to be done, and his sinewy muscles can do the job. Waiting for X'hil to lead the way forward, he glances over the branch to look at Cenlia's presents, the bottle drawing more attention that the fluffy white thing, at least until it comes flying in his general direction. And then X'hil is nearly tossing the branch, leaving him to bear the brunt of the weight and shifting around to keep his balance. "Really. I would prefer to remain in one piece through a complete sevenday. Maybe I need to make a sign to hang around my neck?"
Thea can't help but giggle at X'hil's description of Impressing firelizards. She watches the fluffy thing fly through the air towards the bronzer with a grin. He can't get hurt by it, after all. Or can he? After all, Cenlia is the one throwing it. "Kinseth needs to take a lesson from Seryth. She's never slept so much. Totally relaxed." Rogawani's mention of a turnday gets her attention, "Turnday? Is it Cenlia's Turnday today?" She gives a short laugh at the teen's comment, adding, "Oh, X'hil's just a bit arrow-shy, is all." Enkavir's introduction has Thea giving him an appreciative smile, "Thea, Junior Weyrwoman, but just call me Thea, please. Nice ta meet ya. And you can be very sure I'll be appreciating your record-keeping skills." That last bit wryly as he may already have already heard how most of Xanadu's staff despises paperwork. "Sign around your neck won't help ya if it's a Cenlia-disaster, trust me on this, Enkavir," Thea snickers softly.
Cenlia nearly doubles over laughing, seeming a little surprised at X'hil's reaction but finding it hilarious nonetheless, while the small ovine plushie sails through the air and bounces off X'hil's raised arm with a little 'bap' and tumbles down, rolling a little ways. "Shards," Cenlia gasps, laughing even harder at Rogawani's words and calling over to X'hil, "Y- yer supposed to catch it." She subsides into snickering and grinning at Enkavir and his sign-suggestion while brown Trouble leaves his perch in the tree to go fetch the stuffed sheep. Cenlia gives X'hil an amused look, asking, "Y'alright?" She looks only a tiiny bit guilty. Cenlia nods Thea's way, saying, "Turnday's tomorrow, but am gonna see if I can find B'miel and have a proper party later. Got enough booze, that's for sure." With B'miel involved? Cenlia will be lucky if she even manages to stay upright tonight. The gardener girl giggles, attempting to give the weyrwoman an innocent look as she adds, "Gonna have brandycake, too." Cenlia unwraps the present from Rogawani, and she blinks and holds it up, with a little, "Oh!" It appears to be a little mock up of a dragon made out of little sticks and scraps of hide and a few bright shiny stones. It's the sort of home-made thing that's both cute and ugly at the same time. Cenlia grins at Rogawani, thanking him again and saying, "It's cute." Cenlia's flits peer at the gift, bright blue Mizzle stretching his neck out to chirp at it curiously.
X'hil has caught the ovine now, and he's scowling at it, cheeks bright red. "Don't /do/ that." he snaps at Cenlia, still a little shaken. Scooowl. The sheep is tossed right back at the gardener, and the man bends back to pick up the branch, trying to hide his red face. "I think that's partly the problem. Seryth's so relaxed, and Kinseth keeps nagging me when I tell /him/ to relax. He keeps telling me that /someone/ has to keep an eye out…" There's a pause then. "Those odd noises at the clutching were worrisome." he has to admit, with a frown. Yes, he's a little concerned, though Kinseth is more so. They're Kinseth's eggs too, after all. X'hil would be the same if anything were threatening his present or future children. Not that he has any future children, but, if he /did/, he'd be the same. He does second Thea's comment about the sign though, with a muttered, "Beasts can't /read/." And then there's a grunt, and he hefts the branch, whether or not Enkavir is still willing to help. Must. Do. Manly. Work. Must hide silly ovine fear. "I'll be… I'm /fine/." he mutters at Cenlia. "I," he hesitates, then grimaces. "Got you a present." Sort of. "But Wraith pinched it." So it'd be in that loft stash of the firelizard's, then.
Somehow, Rogawani is able to contain the laughter that threatens to bubble up from his belly and spill out. However, it comes out as an ill-contained snort as it takes a great effort to look away from X'hil and the fallen toy ovine. However, spotting the girl unwrapping his own gift, the boy's attention snaps back as he toes the ground one more time in a slightly nervous fashion. "It's supposed to be Kinsath, since you like him so much." He tries to explain, watching for a moment as the firelizard inspects the mock-dragon. X'hil's comment about the strange noises snaps his attention, though. "Oh, X'hil." He starts just as before, and this time nothing interrupts his train of thought. "Xa… err, someone mentioned you found some kinda secret place? Do you think that's where the weird sounds were coming from? I mean, I've heard that there were other places in the weyr people are hearing stuff but no one seems to have a clue." The mystery, it intrigues.
Enkavir eyes Cenlia, taking a little step to the side, dragging the branch with him. "Is it all your fault then? You have been present at all of the catastrophes I've witnessed." Back to Thea then, his smile returning. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Thea. And bring records to me any time." He actually seems to mean it, not dreading the chore at all. When X'hil lifts the branch, he helps the man lug it toward the pile, calling over to Cenlia an easy, "Happy Turnday" between soft grunts with each draggin step. He quiets at the talk of secret passages and strange noises, eyes intently flitting from one to the other though he has no comments to add.
"Tomorrow, huh?" Thea eyes Cenlia knowingly - and a bit relieved. She still has time, then. "Have a Happy Turnday. At least if yer busy drinkin' maybe I won't have to worry 'bout you disheveling the Weyr tonight." She snickers, nodding agreement with Enkavir's observation. "Don't quite know what to make of that… Catastrophes just seem to follow her around." She catches X'hil's comment and her eyes narrow slightly as she says calmly, "You can tell Kinseth that Seryth and I are alert. I said relaxed, not negligent." When Rogawani speaks of the secret place this is news to her as she had fallen asleep by the time the bronzer found it. "Secret place?" Her voice sharpens as she looks from Rogawani to X'hil, "What secret place? I'm more concerned with -who- was making the noise, myself."
Cenlia ducks the returning ovine plushie as it sails towards her, but brown Trouble flutters after it and manages to catch the thing… and then drops it right on Cenlia's head. Cenlia laughs, though, and grabs the little sheepy, stowing it in a pocket with a giggle. She gives X'hil an amused look at the mention of Wraith making off with her present, and then turns to eye the little mock-dragon Rogawani gave her, the girl's eyebrows rising somewhat as he mentions it's supposed to be Kinseth. But Cenlia grins broadly, uncapping that brandy bottle and raising both it and the dragon figurine, saying brightly, "To Sir Kinseth! Best getaway dragon on Pern!" That seems to be her usual toast, though she tiltes her head at the talk of odd noises, saying, "First we got creepy notes and now wierd noises? So it weren't just somebody pulling a prank at the clutching?" A glance back at X'hil as she asks, "What'd you find when you went to look?" Meaning after the clutching. To Enkavir, Cenlia just grins, trying to look innocent while muttering and glancing at Thea, "Weren't my fault, none of it. This place is just crazy." Suuure it is. And ovines can fy, apparently.
X'hil is ignoring Rogawani's snort, yes. Hearing Kinseth's name does bring his attention to the hand-crafted dragon, and he blinks, then has a suppressed-laughter snort of his own, at the bronze's reaction, apparently having shared the image with the dragon, as he notes, "Kinseth … likes it." And he /does/, too. He may be worrying, but the ego is strong in that one. "Thanks." he does add, cryptically, but definitely thankfully. Presumably Kinseth's ego kicking in has calmed the dragon down some. He narrows his eyes at the passage mention though, and glances away. "I found a passage. It was empty." is all he'll say about /that/. There's a brief nod of thanks to Enkavir, as the man helps with the lifting. Grunt. Lifting. Good. And then X'hil groans at Thea. "Look, /Kinseth/ is the one freaking out out there, not me. I'm only repeating what he's telling me." He'd hold his hands up in a defensive gesture, sort of 'don't shoot the messenger', if he weren't lugging the branch to the pile. Not much further… "Hey, Cenlia, who is this B'miel, anyway?" he asks, with a frown. Curious. Yes.
"Well, I'm glad -sir- Kinseth approves." Rogawani comments towards the bronze rider with a bit of a shy smile. He hadn't been expecting the dragon to ever get to see it, but that's just his luck. His smile returns at seeing the ovine placed on Cenlia's head, and of course he remains quite interested as talk of the odd noises starts. "Creepy notes?" He asks, head tilting somewhat. "You mean the stalkerish ones?" Furrowing his brows slightly, Ro' shakes his head. "Well they aren't coming through the messengers. At least not through me. But I've heard that the weird sounds weren't just during the clutching." The walls have ears, or at least the messengers that run through the halls of the weyr certainly do.
Enkavir hefts the branch the last few steps, then makes eye contact with X'hil to coordinate the toss onto the pile. Swing, crash, and that's done. He brushes his hands off on each other, shoves a stray chunk of hair back off his forehead and takes a deep breath. "Aye, what sort of creepy notes? Not only are there near misses with branches and… something about ovines, and exploding kitchens, but stalkers as well?" And creepy noises. His keen amber eyes narrow as he strides back towards the general group, taking up that spot leaning back against a tree trunk once again. His arms fold over his chest and he looks from one to the other. "Where does the passage lead? It isn't the sort of thing where someone could snatch an egg, is it?"
Thea smirks as Cenlia uncaps that brandy, "For the Weyr's sake, if you're gonna start drinking that, please stay outta the trees until, errr… tomorrow." Forever would be better, but she doesn't say it. X'hil's words cause her to just -look- at him for a moment without speaking. "I can see that, X'hil," she says mildly with a tinge of sarcasm, "Just pass on the word to Kinseth for me and get him to relax before I have Seryth make him leave. He can fret quietly, if he wants to. I won't have him upsetting Solarith or Seryth." She ponders his reticence to speak of the passage, "Told Niva yet?" She's obviously not pleased to be hearing of this only now. She rises, and by the look of it, depending on X'hil's answer, she's going to notify the Senior right now as she takes a few steps in the direction of the Caverns. Rogawani's comment draws a surprised blink and she turns towards him, "Oh? What have you heard? Besides the trees of Xanadu's forests and the hatching grounds, where else have they been heard?" Enkavir's mention of egg-snatching has Thea doing a quick-indrawn breath.
Cenlia giggles at hearing that Kinseth likes the little dragon figure, which she is still holding in the air while she gives Thea an innocent look and takes a swig of that brandy. Glancing at X'hil when he asks about B'miel, the gardener girl raises a curious eyebrow at the man's frown and says, "B'miel's a greenrider here, rides Verzth. Knows where all the best parties are," and she grins a bit, "Been takin' me to some of 'em." Cenlia turns and nods at Rogawani and Enkavir when they ask about the notes, saying, "Yea, it's kinda creepy. Somebody's been leavin' dead flowers in my cot an' last night I got this note warnin' me off strange men an' runners. What the shards is that supposed t' /mean/ anyways?" The girl makes a face, and adds, "When I find out who's been leavin' them notes, I'm gonna knock their nose in with a shovel." And Cenlia just might do it, too. She gances back at Rogawani when Thea asks about where else the noises have been heard, and the gardener girl frowns at the mention of possible egg-snatching. With the likelihood of renegade dragonriders looming, and all…
X'hil swings along with Enkavir, tossing the branch with the others with a satisfying wood-meeting-wood clattering sound. He brushes his hands clean of the bark, and actually smiles. Good honest work. There's … not any /more/ to do though, right? He looks around a little shiftily, before forcing himself to relax, and nodding at Rogawani. "Kinseth definitely approves! And he's /always/ happy to hear someone call him sir." he adds, with an actual cheeky grin. Yeah, the man never calls him sir. Cenlia was the first, really. "Passage leads to the sands." But from where? He doesn't say. Thea was still there, she saw him go down the passage, at the end of the clutching, with the torches and all… Or at least he /thinks/ she did. There's a guilty look on his face, obviously he hasn't told Niva yet. He hasn't told /anyone/ yet. But he does mutter, "Kinseth'll relax." quietly. The bronze will, too. He doesn't want to be kicked out. But Enkavir's words get a grimace from the man. See, this is /exactly/ what Kinseth is fretting about. He blinks at Cenlia. "Oh. He takes you to /parties/ does he? /Greenrider/, you say?" He's only looking out for her really, like a brother might. "Maybe /he's/ sending the sharding notes. I got one warning me from getting too close to goldriders. I'm not close to any goldriders!" Though he does glance briefly to Thea, oh so briefly. But he's beginning to have that sinking feeling again, the 'I'm liable to get /shot/ here' feeling. Trouble is brewing. He /really/ should have told Niva about that passage.
"Welcome to Xanadu." Rogawani says with a sarcastic half-smirk towards Enkavir, scratching at his head a little bit. "Where adventure and oddities are an every day thing." Okay, adventure might not be the correct word, but between sudsploding kitchens, rampaging ovines, and lost goldriders… there's enough interesting things going on. "I haven't gotten any notes, but Balana, that techcrafter girl was telling me that she got a threatening one saying that she should give up her craft and run away with 'em or she'd see her project ruined." Slowly, he turns back towards Thea as if he were a little unsure what he should mention and what not. "Umm." Hesitating, he looks down at his toes, fidgeting. "Well, my friend who works the storerooms said he keeps hearing this laughing when he's all alone, and sometimes loud banging. He hasn't been doing his chores down there since it started happening." Lifting his eyes a little, he looks at Thea pleadingly, "Please don't punish him too much. He's just scared, okay?"
Enkavir shoves a hand up into the rats nest that is his hair, shoving it around ineffectually and leaving it even more mussed than it was originally. "Aye, welcome to Xanadu is right. I seem to find something odd every time I turn around." He pauses, eyes narrowing just a bit at Rogawani. "Laughing and banging when he's alone? Are you sure it isn't… just him?" A short bark of mirthless laughter escapes and he shakes his head. "I'm beginning to think this Weyr could drive a person crazy." He rubs a palm absently against a thigh, his gaze sliding back toward Thea. "Strange notes, strange noises, missing riders and eggs on the sand? It sounds to me like someone should go down that passage, see where all it leads." One shoulder lifts in a lopsided shrug. "Not my place to say, of course, but…" he trails off, watching her for her reaction. "Especially when, from my one encounter with your Senior Weyrwoman, she doesn't eem overly concerned herself." He quiets then, arms folding across his chest once more as he leans back against the bark. Objectively offering observations, that's all.
Thea just shakes her head at Cenlia's innocent look. Some folks are beyond help. X'hil's unhelpful addition just causes her to shake her head in frustration, "How on Pern Niva saw fit to make you Weyrsecond, I'll never know," she grumbles. "Saw you head into the shadows, was half-asleep. Why didn't you say anything?" She's glaring her irritation now. She doesn't dispute his comment about goldriders. He's hit the mark there. She blinks at Rogawani and gives a short bark of disbelieving laughter, "Punish? What d'you think I am?" Then more mildly she adds, "Rogawani, he doesn't have the training nor the responsibility others-" and her glance slides towards X'hil for a moment, "-have nor expectation to perform their duties-" she just grits her teeth on the word, "responsibly." She turns to X'hil, "Go tell Niva, I need to get back to the Sands. I want a guard on -both- ends of that tunnel." She leaves at a run muttering words, "Incompetent… wherry-brained…idiot…" floating back in her wake. As she passes Enkavir, "You're with me until they come."
Cenlia gives X'hil a look, rolling her eyes and muttering, "B'miel ain't sending no notes," and then she snickers at the threat about goldriders, adding, "He dun't even /know/ you." And from the expression on her face, she looks as if maybe she might want it to stay that way. She /likes/ adventuring halfway across Pern to attend drunken parties. Not that she'd ever mention that part now, given the bronzer's reaction. Cenlia already has /one/ overbearing brother stuck in the infirmary - she doesn't need another! The girl glances at Rogawani, asking, "Laughing and banging? If it was me, I'd go find who it was an' show 'em the end of my shovel." Cenlia's solution to everything involves either booze or a shovel, really. Sometimes both. But she does nod in agreement with Enkavir, saying, "Should see where it goes." There's a quick look at X'hil, and then back to Thea as the weyrwoman leaves. Cenlia doesn't add anything, though she does frown a bit.
X'hil snorts. "I /went/ down the passage. Was empty, dusty. Crawler webs everywhere. No-one'd used it in turns." he mutters, moving over to pick up his jacket now that the heavy lifting seems to be over with. "I'll…" he scowls, and glances around the gardens. "Sharding… Bah!" he grunts, and then just /goes/. He does agree that something needs to be done, and feels terribly guilty for /not/ doing anything. He'll be back … maybe.
Rogawani's gaze turns from Thea to look over at Enkavir, shaking his head from side to side ruefully. "He's not the type to imagine things or make stuff up." He says with a firm voice, trying to stand a bit straiter, even so he can't be anywhere near as imposing as the tall record keeper. As Thea invites Enkavir along, however, Ro' just deflates a little, putting his hands into his pockets. With a side-ways glance to Cenlia, and a shrug, "Not everyone's as brave as you are. I'd probably jump if I started hearing weird things in those dark places." The shiver threatening to run up his spine at the thought halts halfway, and then continues when X'hil starts to mention just what was down that passage. "Well, I should get back to work. Happy turnday Cen." He gives a small wave, and then tugs on his bag, moving to follow the retreating riders. Perhaps to deliver something, or perhaps to try and get an earful on things.
Enkavir just looks at X'hil for a beat, then shakes his head. "But that doesn't mean it can't /be/ used, right? If it opens up out in the jungle or something?" He shrugs. "If you are all okay with it, who am I to say different? It's probably just weyrkids trying to sneak a peak at the sands anyhow. And that's probably all the laughing and such is too. Kids climbing around in the tunnels." Thea's final instruction brings his brows up, but he just pushes his weight off of the tree, and nods. "Yes ma'am." The others get a little flip of the wave and he heads off behind the goldrider.
Cenlia watches the weyrsecond go and shakes her head in near-sympathy, though she pockets the mini-Kinseth and the brandy bottle, and goes to collect her flits while waving at the two other departing guys. Time to wash those sudsy flits off, and then find B'miel for some party-planning!