Wetness, Kissing, and Pain
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Xanadu Weyr - Candidate Barracks

A long, low ceiling room opens off the entrance hall to the arena, one wall slightly curved as it is set against the outer wall of the arena itself. Cots are set evenly the length of the room, in two rows, each with its own small press at the foot, for personal belongings. Wide windows are spaced along the outside wall, letting sunlight in, while other lights are available for the night time hours.


It is getting later in the evening, for all time is not entirely discernable within the candidates barracks, when Morlanol enters. He looks totally beaten. He's sopping wet from head to toe, dripping beach water all over the floor of the cavern as he enters. His eyes are downcast, not making eye-contact as he trudges across the room. He sloughs his shirt entirely, tossing it in a plastic-lined 'dirty' bin next to his cot, and begins digging through his small bundle of belongings until he comes up with a towel. He doesn't say anything, just grumbles quietly as he begins to try to dry himself off.

Cenlia is sitting on her cot, open book in front of her, while three of her four flits play on the pillow. The gardener girl glances up when Morlanol comes in, her brows going up as she asks, "What happened to you?"

At the back of the barracks, two boys are sitting next to each other. Donakan nudges his friend in the ribs, and then snorts a laugh towards Morlanol. "He looks like a half-drown wherry." There is no secret to his words, just amusement at the misfortune of others. "Got dragon duty or did you just fall in the ocean?" The boy sneers.

Morlanol's head emerges from behind the towel, his hair still wet, but the rest of him nearing dry enough to put on a new shirt. He is surprisingly buff for a child of his age and the most obvious conclusion is that it's related to his life in the mines. He grumbles softly something that sounds like "sharding dragons" before shooting Donakan an evil glare, "Least I do m' chores."

Cenlia spares a glance at Donakan when he speaks, but she just shakes her head, glancing back towards Morlanol and saying, "You seen Satoris aroud? I been running messages all day, but ain't had time to ask him about visiting the mines." She's assuming he'd know, being a miner and all.

With a snort of laughter, Donakan leans forward, seeming to find the glare from Morlanol highly amusing. "Last time I checked, I was able to wash a dragon without coming back looking like I saw the arse end of a typhoon." He pushes himself off of his bunk, the larger boy jumping down at the same time. The two seem like partners. Brains and brawn. "Being down in the dark all day must make your brain rot."

Morlanol grumbles, dropping the towel on his bunk and leaning down to his bundle again. He grunts, tossing a few under-things on his bed as he continues his search, "Y've never had t' wash Tam'sth. An' mebbe if y' spent some time in th' mines y'd get th' rocks outta yer head." He emerges, grinning victoriously, with a matched pair of trousers and a shirt. He nods to Cenlia, "Sorry, I ha'en't seen him in a while. I'm no' certain, bu' I think his name's on th' chore list now." He disappears behind a partition set up specifically to allow the candidates to change without having to show off to eachother.

Cenlia eyes the two candidates that get up. Donakan's words have the girl narrowing her eyes at him over the top of her book, the girl's gaze flicking to Morlanol briefly, but she watches the brawn over there. However, when the chore list is mentioned, the girl closes her book and heads over there, scanning the names and smirking slightly. SHe soon makesa face however, muttering something under her breath and then glancing out the door. The girl hesitates only a moment before heading out.

Morlanol emerges from behind the screen, now wearing the clean shirt and trousers, dropping the sopping wet trousers and under-things in the dirty bin as he gets closer to it, "I'm no' tha' kind of miner, I'm a tunnel runner. Why don' you jus' go fer a blow?" Morlanol has barely finished speaking when an older boy, probalby 17 or 18, wearing a miner's sr. apprentice knot appears in the doorway. He lowers his dark eyes at Donakan, "Y' givin' Morl' a hard time?" His look clearly intended to have all of the desired affect, he then looks straight at Morlanol, "You done what I asked yet?" Morlanol turns a bright shade of purple, "I couldn' she's no' here…"

With his own brawn standing behind him, Donakan doesn't even stutter in his step, barely even acknowledging that the older miner is standing in the doorway. His bigger friend pushes his way through, and the rattish Don follows behind. "What a bunch of dimlights." Can be heard as the two leave, a chuckle finally finding it's way out of the older boy.

Morlanol harumphs as Donakan and his friend leave, then smiles placatingly at the other miner, 'I… I'm sure she'll be back soon. If'n y' want 'ta stay, Yontal." Yontal nods, and shifts to settle himself leaning against a wall, "I'll wait. I want t' see this." Morlanol gulps loudly, then settles himself on his cot to wait.

Cenlia manages to miss Donakan's exit, the girl arriving just as Yontal moves out of the doorway. She at first doesn't notice him, her attention on the bronze firelizard that is accompanying her, the girl saying to her flit, "Where you been all afternoon, huh?" as she heads for her cot. Apparently, the gardener intends to get an early start on things, for she's lugging a cloth sack of clothing over one shoulder and has a sewing kit tucked under one arm, the worn leather case having been borrowed. She dumps the clothing sack on the end of the bed and puts the leather case down, opening it and sorting through some tangled threads while Charmer takes up a spot on her shoulder and chitters in her ear.

Yontal gives Molanol a significant look and makes a quiet 'a-chem' noise. Morlanol blushes again and whines, "Do I have t'? Right now?" Yontal nods, "Yes. You bet me you could bathe that dragon without gettin' soaked an' y' los', so i's time t' pay th' piper." Morlanol gulps loudly again and stands as Yontal laughs ominously. He tiptoes towards Cenlia, hoping beyond hope that she won't notice him. When he's next to her cot he stops and leans in towards her.

Cenlia isn't paying attention, her brow furrowed as she tries, unsuccessfully, to untangle a knotted thread. However, bronze Charmer, friendly firelizard that he is, trills at the approaching Morlanol, causing Cenlia to look up. And lean back, blinking at him and then taking a step back with a, "Oh hey. Just doing mending. Figure if I start it now, I can get more time off tomorrow," the girl apparently thinking he's over there to investigate the sewing kit, "Dun suppose you wanna help with this?" Yep, she's kind of oblivious, especially as he's somewhat younger than her.

Yontal is laughing hard by this point as Morlanol mumbles a hurried "sorry" his face turning a deep shade of scarlet as he leans in the rest of the way and kisses her on the lips.

Cenlia is too surprised to jump back, having been distracted by Yontal, the girl letting out a startled, "Mmmaubgh!" noise when she gets kissed. Cenlia does the first thing that comes to mind: Cenlia brings one knee up. Hard. On her shoulder, a very loud Charmer chitters at Morlanol, wings flapping in both their faces as Cenlia flails and tries to shove Morlanol backwards.

Yontal bursts into laughter, slapping his knee hard as he does so before making a conspicuous exit to avoid the after-events. Morlanol's eyes get as big as saucers when Cenlia hits him. He makes a very quiet 'eep' sound and is easily pushed backwards by her shove. He topples straight back, landing on the thankfully empty cot next to hers. There is a moment of utter silence save for Charmer's sqwauking before he begins to howl in pain, tears streaming down his face. He manages to splutter out, "I said I was sorry!"

Cenlia is a bit distracted, so manages to miss Yontal's exit, the girl backing up even more when Morlanol falls back and rubbing her mouth with the back of her sleeve. She tries to wave the chittering Charmer off her shoulder, but he keeps squawking at Morlanol before climbing on Cenlia's head. Her three other firelizards, who've been snozing this entire time, are awakened by the commotion and peer over at the miner, but are otherwise uninterested. Cenlia, blushing fiercely, makes a face, "What the shards is wrong with you!?" Other than her kneeing him, apparently. She eyes Morlanol warily, glancing towards the doorway, perhaps recalling Yontal's laughing but not having put two and two togather yet perhaps.

Morlanol sits up, keeping his legs spread as far as possible to avoid putting any pressure on his poor manhood. Tears are still streaming down his face as he speaks, but he seems to be regaining his composure, "Y- Yontal said that If I coul' b- bathe Tam'sth wi'out ge'in' dunk'd he'd comission a sp'cial saddle fer me if I 'pressed, bu' if I go' dunk'd I'd have t' k- kiss ya." Morlanol wipes his mouth as well as his eyes before continuing, "said it'd be funny, bu' I don' think i' was. An' I still don' see why th' adul's do it."

"You try that again an' I'll dump you in the compost pile!" the gardener girl warns, still glaring at Morlanol. Charmer, on her head, finally quiets down, but he eyes Morlanol too. At the explanation, Cenlia grimaces, still blushing fiercely, and muttering, "Because you lost a sharding bet?" She looks faintly disguisted, though really, she's more embarrassed than angry. She does look like she wants to punch him, but luckily the run-in with Eledri and Rogawani's earlier warning about getting in a fight are still fresh in her mind. With a hand raised and half-curled into a fist, she instead mutters loudly, "'Cause yer still a sharding /kid/," and she wrinkles her nose, perhaps unpleasantly reminded of her own younger brother as she grumbles, "Shards, even Cenir's got more sense." More sense than to try to kiss her? Cenlia waves in the direction of his cot and practically orders, "Just shove off and stay there!" She sounds more irritated than mad at him, by this point, but turns back to her cot to grabs at the tangled thread again.

Morlanol looks honestly hurt. His eyes fall again and he waddle-winces to a standing position, knowing he's earned his punishment. Before he leaves he mutters quietly, "I said I was sorry… an' i' would've been on th' cheek if'n y' hadn' moved…" He slowly waddles his injured form to his own cot, with an occasional 'oof' as he catches himself just wrong. He lowers himself gingerly onto his cot and lays down, legs still spread out as far as humanly possible.

Cenlia makes a face as she tries to ignore Morlanol, not speaking to him, that blush still coloring her face. The girl just busies herself with trying to untangle the thread in the sewing case, and grabbing a random shirt from the sack at the foot of the bed. She parhaps tugs at those threads a bit more fiercely than she needs to, but does not speak. Charmer, onher head, sends a curious croon at Morlanol, but then the little bronze is distracted by the sack of clothing, and flaps over to stick his nose in.

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