Xanadu Weyr - Caverns
A massive cavern in it's own right, this one has been skillfully adapted for human habitation. The high ceilings have been painted a light, soft ivory, as are the walls where numerous tapestries hang to provide brilliant color and insulation from the stone. The floor has been left in its natural state, pale pink granite speckled through with glittering mica and dark flecks of basalt, leveled carefully but kept sufficiently rough to avoid slips.
The cavern itself is loosely divided into areas, each one set up to be suitable for some segment of the Weyr's population. The most frequently occupied area, however, is the one near the Kitchens where tables of varying sizes provide a place to sit down and eat or chat and a buffet of consumables is almost always kept stocked. Its plain that on most days, this area wouldn't accommodate anywhere near the full population of the Weyr and equally plain that on such occasions when a formal meal is laid out, tables are appropriated from all the other areas.
A big fireplace is set into the wall near the Kitchens as well, several comfortable chairs nearby providing haunts for elderly residents or riders who like a good view of all that happens. Rugs cover the floor in strategic spots, all of them abstract or geometric in design and most in the softly neutral colors of undyed wool.
Bright and early in the morning, and the caverns are busy. Well, okay, so it's not actually that bright, because a blanket of clouds have rolled in overnight and made the sky overhead a gloomy gray. And it's not really all that early - the sun's already risen, not that you can see it behind the clouds… but the diffuse brightness proves it's back there somewhere. Busy, though… that part's true. It's breakfast-time, and maybe some of the actual early risers got confused by the cloudcover and slept in late, because the caverns are more crowded than usual. Soriana's just finished waiting through the line to get herself a plate of food, and she pauses to eye the mob of people around the klah pot. That's going to be… interesting.
Stationed at the end one of the tables, Kera has a manual opened in front of her plate, cheek leaning against her palm. Cloudcover or no cloudcover, this early riser has studying to get through. She reads as she eats, occasionally her gaze flicking up over the top of her book before drifting back down towards the page. On one of her glances around, she spots the Weyrling she met a few days ago and offers a cheery smile and wave her way.
Oh, studying. You can study and study, and it never gets any smaller! …or at least that's how it seems, sometimes. Soriana looks over to see a wave coming from… aha! There. So she flashes a smile and waves back before giving the klahpot another look. Maybe she… yeah, y'know, it's not worth it. So she leaves it behind, instead making her way between the tables. Lucky her, there's a few seats near Kera despite how busy things are this gloomy morning. Maybe it's because she's new here, but whatever the reason, Soriana intends to take advantage of it. "Hey there," she says, and sets her plate down before asking, "Mind if I join?"
Kera smiles at Soriana sees her then peers back down to her manual again, every so often taking another bite of her breakfast. At the question, she looks up suddenly and nods, "Please do have a seat." She glances around briefly with a bit of an embarrassed shrug. "I'm not exactly sure if apprentices are supposed to use a certain area of the cavern or not. The Hall sorta makes apprentices sit all together.." Another shrug given before she gestures to the empty chairs around her, reaching over to tug her bookbag out of the next seat and swings it under her own. "It was Weyrling Soriana, right?"
Late! Ka'el is late. Ka'el is never late! … Ok, he's hardly ever late, at least in the morning. And why? Because he has an alarm clock he's rigged with extra alarm bells for maximum sound to wake him, as Kanekith usually proves to be no help as he'd sleep all day if he could. So why is he late in getting up today, this cloudy morning? Because somebody with a big clawed foot couldn't help his midnight curiosity and wanted to see one more time just how the clock knew how to ring. And unfortunately, a dragon is pretty good at taking apart (aka breaking) but not so much at putting back together. And so, with a textbook stuffed beneath an arm, notebook in hand, and firelizard on shoulder, a toussle-haired teen bustles in to the busy caverns. "Breakfast roll, go!" With a merry chirrup! the bronze firelizard takes flight and zooms toward the food. .. Grand idea, this.
Seat: taken. Soriana slides right in, giving a smile in return for it. "Hmm?" she says, glancing around, then gives her head a shake. "Oh! No, anywhere's fine. We don't do formal meals very often, so really it's just catch whatever spot you can. Apprentices and Weyrleaders, sitting down together!" She grins briefly, then nods. "That's me." Weyrling, yeah, she's okay with being called that. "Weyrlings can also sit down with apprentices. Or Weyrleaders." Another grin, and then there's the pause as she thinks. "And you're… Kera. Right?"
Kera arches a disbelieving look to Soriana comments about apprentices dining with Weyrleaders. Convinced she had to have misheard the other girl. Shrugging it off, she nods. "Yea, that's me." She takes another bite before reaching forward to flip her page, eyes continuing to scan the line slowly a moment before peering back up to Soriana. "Thank you for your assistance the other day by the way."
Oh, there's a standing line for food? Luckily, Alloy has wings! And what was it he was supposed to get again? There was a roll involved. Bread. Meat inside. He had the mental imagine, but he's beginning to lose it. Something like th- oh there! After doing one fly around of the food, much to the chagrin of some of the breakfast goers, the bronze 'lizard divebombs the breakfast rolls with a triumphant cry! Snatch! And a-ha he even manages to dodge waving arms! Ka'el, meanwhile, is trying to one-handedly flip through his notebook of notes while simultaneously looking for a spot to sit. Table, taken. Table, taken. One spot there but that man looks like he hasn't washed in turns. He finally comes across an empty one and plops his notebook down. "Hi!" Insert a beaming grin here, first to Soriana, then to Kera. "You wouldn't turn a poor, innocent, hungry, studying, seat-needin', still half-sleepin' weyrling away, would you?"
There was a grin around when Soriana said that thing about Weyrleaders, so maybe it was a joke. It wasn't, mind you, but it'd be perfectly plausible for Kera to think that. Certainly, Soriana doesn't actually pursue the matter, mostly because she's got food on her plate that should be in her self. Fork, meet sausage. Very good. Now, sausage meet mouth… excellent. Some chewing and a swallow later, she nods to Kera. "Oh, no problem! So did you manage to find everything okay? How're you settling in?" Questions asked, she starts to return to her food when a firelizard's cry makes her look over that way instead. "What's…" Oh. She shakes her head long-suffering-like, and lo and behold, one of those shakes has it turning the right way to see Ka'el. Soriana smirks. "No. But, since there's none of those here, I suppose you can have it instead."
Kera looks around at the commotion cause by the firelizard, watching it curiously and the angry mutters it leaves in it's wake. Watching the young man approach, she merely nods, unsure how to respond. After taking another bite from her plate, she grins to Soriana. "I'm getting lost less and less. And I've run across some really nice shops that I wouldn't mind spending more time in later." Nodding her head over that, she glances back down to her open book and scans a few lines quietly before her gaze flicks back towards the others at the table.
The great hunter Alloy circles for another pass. One clawed hindleg clutches that roll while the other hangs emptily. It needs something! And his little eyes are on the bacon. Incoming! Not one piece a bacon, but five slithers manage to be snagged before the bronze makes his great escape from the food, though not without first being pelted by a biscuit. Hey!! Ka'el slightly winces, glancing towards the foodline, then quickly takes a seat and hunkers down a little. The book beneath his arm is set on the table top, and a face is made to Soriana. Nyeah! "So kind. So gracious. So…do you know the name've the third son of the fourth leader of Ista? .. or was it Ierne…" He flip flips through his notes, scanning frantically. "I hate history.. I was supposed to look this over /hours/ ago, but I…" He pauses, eyes flitting to Kera, registering that he doesn't know her. "Why, hello. You sound new."
Soriana laughs, and nods to Kera. "Sounds like a good start." She has another bite herself, because breakfast is a good start to the day… even if she doesn't have any klah to go with it. Oh well. Soriana glances over at the guilty (and pelted) firelizard briefly, and gives the instigator Ka'el a somewhat longer look. "If Ocelara comes after you, you're on your own," she informs him, though her expression's not entirely unamused. There's a grin lurking beneath the surface, at least until he brings history into it. "What… Andril? That's the one who was the smith. But…" That lesson was last week! So why's Ka'el dealing with it now? Other than the fact that he's procrastinating.
Kera nods agreeably with Soriana before the commotion by the food draws her gaze towards the large firelizard dive-bombing the food. She lowers her head to hide the amused smirk that forces it's way across her face. Eyes peer just over the edge of her manual, still hiding her smile from the other side of the book. "Hello, yea, Just posted here a few days ago from the Healer Hall." As the chat turns to history, her gaze slips back down to her own manual.
Procrastination is an artform, don't you know? One that Ka'el has obviously been practicing. "Smith!" He jabs his finger down on a scribbled page. "I knew that. I knew I wrote it here somewhere…" He flips open his textbook now to pluck a pen out from between the pages, triple underlining Andril's name. He's interrupted by food raining from above as Alloy drops the breakfast roll right on his notes and flies off to a high rafter to chow down on bacon. Mission: Accomplished. "Auugh, Alloy…thanks!" He picks up the roll, using his hand to swipe off crumbs from his page. "Ocelara would only thank me for trainin' my firelizard so well. How many do you know that can take personal food orders?" The question seems to be asked of them both, considering the way his eyes shift back and forth, though soon they pause upon Kera. "The more healers the better. Welcome, then. I'm Ka'el."
Ka'el is a master artist of procrastination. Soriana is just amused, because this time she got things in mostly on time, and gives her head a shake. "I'd think you'd remember him, at least. Smith and all." At least there's the triple-underlining, so that'll help. Maybe. Another few bites of food, and then she laughs at his claims about Ocelara. "Should I tell her you said that?" she asks, complete with teasing grin. Because… yeah, somehow she doesn't think the headwoman would actually do anything at all like thank Ka'el. She glances back to Kera, and smiles to her, but, since it seems introductions are underway, that means she can continue having breakfast.
Kera looks away from her page, her attention drifting back and forth between the other two as she obsorbs what she just read. Peering to Ka'el, she grins "Nice to meet you. I'm Apprentice Kera." With another smile at the need for more healers, "Hopefully, that means I'll have plenty of work between my studies." Eyeing the firelizard as it bombs rolls down on the weyrling, she dips her head down again, chuckling behind her book with an amused shake of her head.
"He was in my subconscious mind," retorts Ka'el to Soriana. "Floating in the background, biding his time to jump into my memory." And likely, the fact would've jumped a lot sooner if Ka'el had taken more time to study and less trying to sneak in smithing lessons. But he's falling so far behind! How could he resist? As for Ocelara, he smirks smugly and takes a bite of his breakfast. "And tell her the kitchen staff is doing an amazing job with breakfast, while you're at it. Al an' I appreciate them very much." Nom nom! Bacon bits fall from above at random increments as the firelizard feeds above. "Well met, Apprentice Kera. .. I suppose if you want to be specific, I'm .. Weyrling Ka'el, rider of bronze Kanekith. But…really, who wants to say all that?" He grins. "You'll be plenty busy, as Xanadu's a place filled with accidents. Just this morning I stubbed my toe on the corner of my cot after steppin' barefoot on the gears of my alarm clock. And that's only been in the first hour of my day."
Studying actual smithing instead of historical smiths! What is the world coming to? Soriana grins to Ka'el, and then… oh, she grins a little wider. "I'll do that." She has a bite of her food… complete with bacon sprinkles, which has her regarding her fork dubiously before just shaking her head and proceeding with eating. "Busy's good," she says to Kera betweeen bites, "but all the same… I think I'm going to hope you're bored a lot of the time." Soriana grins, then tilts her head to Ka'el. All that, huh? "…not that it's very likely, but I can hope."
Kera manages to get a grip on her amusement when some of the bacony sprinkle land on the table, making her look up at the unsual indoor weather. Brushing the place near her plate clean of the odd precipitation. At the introduction, she grins a bit and says the name back to herself quietly as if trying to commit it to memory. The apprentice flashes an amused look between the others as they talk about someone she hasn't met yet. "Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't hope injuries on anyone. But it can't all be books, and cleaning ewquipment and such, right?"
Yes, it was a rough morning. "Hope nothing. You saw those power tools in the woodshop. Someone's bound to cut off a finger sooner or later." Not that Ka'el's hoping for such an accident, but hey … it could happen! "Have you studied reattaching digits yet?" he asks to the younger girl, grinning humoredly at the apprentice. "Bored. Ha. By noon you'll have your fill of cuts, scrapes, burns, and headaches. You'll be a master in no time with all the hands-on practice." He glances up as he too is sprinkled by bacony bits, and he waves his arm, shooing the munching bronze off to another rafter. One NOT right above their heads! "An' speakin' of headaches… that one up there is Alloy," he says in belated introduction. "Bringer of food an' rainer of bacon. He's your all around type of firelizard."
Cloudy with a chance of bacon! That's the Xanadu weather report for today… or it should be, anyhow. "Yes, well, that's why they didn't let you near them," Soriana says to Ka'el, then laughs and nods to Kera. "I know, I know. It's not like you want to see anything bad happen to any actual people, but there's all the tools sitting there, and it'd be such a shame if they didn't get put to good use… and you can't help being curious…" She grins, and gives her head a shake. "Don't forget bruises and upset stomachs," she adds to Ka'el's list, then has another bite or three of her breakfast, though she glances up to Alloy as he moves out of the way. No more bacon from the sky! Not only that… a golden firelizard flutters in to join him. Bacon? For heeer?
Kera watches Ka'el as he maybe predicts a horrible injury. After a moment of listening to the two weyrlings, she chuckles softly to looks to Ka'el "You visit the infirmary alot don't you?" Looking over over for sign of past injuries. "So far you seem to have all of your own digits and limbs firmly attached." Finishing off her plate, she rounds out her breakfast with a bubbly and nibbles. "And to answer your question, no, I turns from evening attempting such procedures as reattaching fingers." As the food grubbing firelizard moves off to another perch, she follows it's progress, and that of the queen that seems to pursue it. It's hard not to come off as a smallhold girl in the big huge Weyr when she keeps gawking like that.
That's exactly why they didn't let Ka'el near the powertools. It would've been … awful. Bloody. A massacre. "Their loss. I would've been able to create an avian community if they would've let me at them." Hand saws can only do so much! He grins at Soriana's addition to the list of accidents and ailments on Xanadu and nods sagely in agreement. A smirk is sent to Kera. Does he visit the infirmary a lot? "Not as often as I should," he admits. Cuts and scrapes? Walk it off! Rub a little dirt in it, he'll be fine! "I hear Xanadu's got grand healers. You'll be sewin' on limbs in no time." Ka'el, on the other hand, may be on the verge of losing his head if he doesn't cram this information in his brain before his next quiz, which he's only remmbering now. "Shards. I forgot I told K'asin we'd knock this out together after breakfast." His procrastinating partner in crime! "I'm late." Again. He closes his notebook and textbook while Alloy scarfs down the last bit of bacon before Haruhi gets any ideas. Bacon? What bacon? Chirp?
"Complete with Quail Caverns and everything, huh?" Soriana grins and shakes her head… then shakes her head more as Ka'el admits to ignoring his injuries. "Idrissa's the one who keeps ending up there. You'll meet her sooner or later, I'm sure. She's… well, you'll see." A crooked grin for that. "No missing fingers yet, though." As for gawking… the polite thing to do is ignore it, right? That's what Soriana tries to do, anyhow… though if the queen firelizard herself isn't intentionally seeking for the attention, she must just be naturally inclined to strut. There's the little dip she makes under the beam, the wide splay of her wings just as she settles down next to the bronze, and then the croon - just a touch louder than would really be necessary - as she sidles up to him. Maybe all that posing is actually for his benefit, not Kera's. But… wait, what? He ate it all! Never mind the sweet croon, now she's got a displeased squawk for him. Alloy ate her bacon! Soriana… well, she was ignoring it. Now she looks up to the rafters and glares at the gold. Glaaare. So what if there's not line of sight? Soriana's got line of mind, and her nod to Ka'el's excuse is somewhat distracted. "See you at class."
Kera can't help but continue watching what she can see of the interaction between the firelizards. Smirking at the displeased squawk, she flashes and amused grin before wiggling fingers towards Ka'el. "It was nice meeting you, hopefully we won't be meeting in the infirmary any time soon." Taking a huge bite from the bubbly, her gaze goes back to her own manual, rescanning a couple of lines bfore flipping the page with her non sticky fingers. "So, Idrissa is someone prone to injuries?" This to Soriana of coarse.
Alloy stol- … er, earned that bacon fair and square! Haruhi better go get her own … and Alloy had better save his own neck. He's seen and felt the wrath of this disgruntled gold before! Wings lift and flapflap indignantly at the squawk that's sent his way, and he screeches right back in return. A 'what'd I do??' sort of sound. Ka'el's head tilts up and he snickers at the sight above. "Somebody's not happy.." he murmurs as he gathers the rest of his things. Pen. Notebook. Textbook. Half-eaten breakfast roll to top it all off. "Kera, meet Haruhi. Xanadu's biggest queen." Drama queen, he means though that should speak for itself. Balancing his stuff within an arm, he claps a hand on Soriana's shoulder. "Good luck with that," he says, trying to look and sound solemn but utterly failing. Hand sliding away, he turns and heads off towards the exit. "Well met, Kera, and see you. Not in the infirmary," he vows. "See you, Soriana!" is called in his wake, and it isn't long after that Alloy dismounts from his perch and zooms after him. Wait up!
Uh, so? Haruhi deserved that bacon. The gold firelizard spreads her wings as if she's about to 'explain' that to Alloy… but then Soriana's will catches up with her, and she subsides - though not without arching her neck proudly and flicking her tail a few times first. She's just settling down because she wants to, she'll have you know! …yeah, it's about as convincing as your average toddler doing the same thing. Soriana eyes her for another moment, just making sure, then sighs. "Yeah, that's Haruhi. Who's already had her breakfast today." Not that it matters, apparently! At least Soriana can now look up and give a wave to the retreating Ka'el before she returns her attention back to Kera and that conversation. What were they talking about? Oh, right. Idrissa. "Pretty much. It's not like she's careless or anything, she just tends to get unlucky with things." Soriana shrugs, then hehs. "Wouldn't surprise me if she could recite some of the treatments back to you, at this point."
Kera looks up once more as the weyrling dashes off with the food thief in his wake. With a grin, glances to the little queen Soriana names. "They are both pretty…Though, I bet the males wouldn't like being called pretty that much huh.." She gives a little shrug and finishes her last bite of sticky bubbly. Considering this Idrissa person, the cheery apprentice chuckles over her empty plate. "Speaking of reciting treatments, I'm going to have to recite my own if I fall out of my cot again." The girl laughs at herself over that one. "Still not used to the sounds, and the other morning one of the dragons bugled really loudly, jumped so high I ended up on the floor."
"Well, he's just a firelizard, so it's not like he'll actually know what it means," Soriana says with a smile. "They're not much smarter than a canine or thereabouts." She glances up to the rafters again, and adds a mental summons… which, for the moment, Haruhi ignores. She's busy sulking. Soriana looks back to Kera, and laughs. "Oh, ouch. Don't worry, you'll learn to sleep through it eventually, but… it is rather a change from hold and hall." Haruhi, meanwhile, has discovered that nobody's paying attention to her sulk, so she leaves it behind to glide down on graceful wings and perch on the table next to Soriana's plate. Any food left for her? No? Huff. Maybe she's not done sulking yet after all.
Kera nods at Soriana's explanation about firelizards. "Hopefully I'll stop jumping out of my cot soon. Hard on the shoulders when landing wrong." She gives a rueful little snort over that before quickly moving her book out of the way when the firelizard settles across the table. Slipping it into her lap, Kera start swiping little piles of bacon the other lizard dropped from above earlier. When she gets a big enough pile, she pushes it closer to the little queen. No need to waste it afterall. That done, she takes a drink from her mug. "It's amazing how one can actually learn to ignore things like that over time."
"Better the shoulders than thumping your head," Soriana points out. "Not that I'd recommend either one, really." She grins, for that, and reaches to brush her fingers absently along Haruhi's back. The queen splays her wings, as if getting ready to soar away once more, then pauses as Kera slides the pile of scraps toward her. What's this now? She gives an inquisitive chirp, and hops closer. Oh! How nice. She croons once more, gracing Kera with a coy look of bright green eyes, then lowers her head to eat that tasty bacon. Chrr. Much better. Soriana just chuckles, fingers petting down Haruhi's tail and resting near the tip, and nods to Kera. "It really is. I've watched people go from wide-eyed wonder at meeting a dragon for the first time to cursing them out for being in the way."
Kera blushes and lowers her head a bit at the wide-eyed wonder bit. Chewing her bottom lip nervously she peeks back up at the crooning firelizard and gives it a little polite nod before her attention Soriana. "I just think that it's just common sense to be cautious around them when they could squish someone by accident. " She holds up a hand quickly to stave off any preceived offense. "Not that I think it would be done otherwise.." Oh, she's sticking her foot in it now probably.
Tasty bacon! Haruhi alternates between delicate nibbles and gluttonous gobbles, mostly depending on whether she thinks anybody's watching at this exact moment. Soriana… just smiles as Kera talks, a small one that could be 'Oh, Faranth, look at the holdgirl!' She nods slightly, but at least her tone is just conversational. "You're right, they are very big, and you're also right that they'd never hurt someone on purpose." The smile widens to something like approval, and she continues. "But, accidents do happen. There's a reason the first lesson for dragonhealers is still that you don't run toward an injured dragon until you've checked things out. I've heard stories of broken feet, though the worst I've seen for myself are bruises."
Kera nods quickly enough at that. "That's just excellant advice whether it be dragons, runner, herdbeast, dolphin and people too really." Glancing around, she sighs and starts gathering up her books and reaching for her backpack, then shoving them in. "I should really be getting to the infirmary. There were a couple of brats in yesterday with tummy aches. Thought I'ld see if they were still there and cheer them up a bit if they were." Smiling at the weyrling as she gets to her feet. "I'll see you later hopefully, when lessons and duties allow of coarse." Kera works her shoulders through the straps and shrugs the backpack on. Wiggling her fingers to Soriana, she gathers her dirty dishes and starts off to get to the infirmary.
Soriana smiles, and nods. "It really is. Always good to look before you leap." She gives the firelizard another pet, then hehs to Kera. "Good luck! Try not to catch anything yourself." Of course, working in the infirmary doesn't exactly help with that, but hey. She nods again, and grins. "Sooner or later. We've both got to eat!" It worked for them today! It'll work again. Eventually! She gives a wave, and hangs around long enough to let Haruhi finish eating before putting away her own plate, grabbing a mug of klah from the pot that's finally not mobbed, and heading off to the rest of her day.