Xanadu Weyr - Hot Springs
The warmth that flows from this cavern is almost overwhelming for some, the steam rising from the shimmering pools as thick as the morning fog that rolls in off the ocean. Numerous pools are scattered here and there with ribboned walls that are natural in their construction. The water has a somewhat green cast to it, but it is merely a reflection from the ethereal light which is the glow down here that was so noticeable from the Lower Cavern Tunnel. People can often be found down here washing themselves or just relaxing.
Situated along the walls are various racks covered in fresh towels ready for those who step out of the warm waters. A set of shelves have been installed towards the back wall, allowing people a place to put their belongings while they rest in the pools, and despite the white color that these have been painted, they are cast with that eerie green glow. Then, it's obvious. The ceiling of this cavern is covered in the fluorescent phosphorous matter that glows are made off. The mossy substance almost glitters and appears quite lovely.
Early evening at Xanadu Weyr today offers clear skies and a beautiful day for outdoor activity. The warmer weather outside suggests that many folks would choose to swim and relax in the cooler waters outside. Or, if they chose to bathe inside, they would already be done in preparation for dinner or an evening's entertainment. Amelia, however, is just now making her way in from the lower cavern tunnel, her work clothes dingy and a few bruises starting to show up on the visible part of her arm. This definitely calls for some healing heat.
There is at least one person already soaking in the pools, apparently still relaxing despite the hour, and the lovely day outdoors. There's a a vague sort of frown on Eledri's face, but then, the young an is nearly always frowny, so that's nothing new. He's hunches low in the water, knees drawn up to his chest, while his chin just sort of hovers at the surface, letting the warmth seep in and the tension seep out. He's also sporting bruises, as though having been in a scuffle, though they've mostly faded by now. His eyelids are half-lowered, not looking at anything in particular, though there's an, as of yet, unopened jar of soapsand beside him at the pool's edge. The man's clothes are folded neatly nearby, along with a towel. For the moment, though, no scrubbing is going on, instead there's just.. procrastinating, maybe. Amelia's entrance is barely noticed, brown eyes flicking in her direction, and taking in her appearance. Eledri's brow furrows, as he brings his hands up to drape over his knees. He gives Amelia a faint nod, and a polite, "Hello," since he is looking at her now.
Amelia stops by the shelves at the back wall and pulls a robe out of the bag she'd brought along. She doesn't yet notice that there's actually somebody here, and, after throwing the robe around herself, she slips off her work clothes and makes her way to a pool's edge and sits, putting just her feet in at first. When Eledri greets her from a nearby pool, she's a little startled. "Oh hey, excuse me." She smiles wanly and returns his nod.
Eledri at least stops looking when the girl goes to change, instead letting his gaze drift back to some point across the pool. There's another faint sort of nod to Amelia, and a mumbled, "It's alright," at her greeting. Eled sinks a bit lower in the water, letting his hair get wet as he leans backward a bit. He's silent awhile, before it occurs to him that he might have manners somewhere, and he offers a soft introduction, "I'm Eledri." Yep. Slightly awkward perhaps. But he's polite at least. The soaking continues, Eled bringing a hand up to run through his hair.
Amelia doesn't really notice Eledri's awkwardness; she's too busy testing out her own pool of water, inching her feet and lower legs in a bit at a time. The bruises from the day's tumble show up across most visible areas. As she ascertains the temperature, she replies to Eledri's greeting, "Amelia. How are you today?" And finally, satisfied with her testing of the water, she sinks down, submerging completely without waiting for an answer. When she comes back up, she sputters a little bit and laughs at herself for going in so quickly.
Eledri continues to semi-zone-out over there, though he does glance Amelia's way with a, "Well met." He reaches for the jar of soapsand beside him, mumbling an, "I'm alright. Kind of tired. You?" There's a blink at her sinking and sputtering, the young man straightening a bit, though he relaxes immediately at her laugh. A pause, and then he asks, "Er, are you okay?" Those bruises on her arms are definitely getting a look, though he tries to appear as if he isn't, with a quick sideways glance in her direction before he busies himself with getting the jar open.
The sound of whistling echoes down the hallway ahead of D'son who turns the corner into the hot springs and heads over to the racks to find a towel. Oblivious to previous occupants, he promptly strips down, tucks his things away on the shelving at the back of the cavern and turns around, tucking his towel around his waist for the walk over to find a pool to soak in, a bar of soap and a bottle of what's probably shampoo in each hand. The sound of voices draws his attention to Amelia and Eledri nearby. "Oh hey!" is his chipper greeting as he walks that way.
"Rough day at work," she shrugs, gives him a quizzical look, then seems to realize what he means, and glances at her arms. She leans forward, peering at the bruises as if examining them for the first time. The whistling doesn't register as she answers, "Oh! Nothing much. Just had an argument with a runner today." She grins wryly and lays back again, only to sit up straight again when she identifies D'son as the whistler. She greets him with a warm smile and waves. "What're you doing here? I'm only supposed to see you in the mornings!"
Eledri Gets the jar open, taking a handful of soapsand and setting the continer back on the edge of the pool. He tilts his head a little, brow creasing again, "More than a little rough, it looks like." There's an 'oh' for her explanation of the runner, "That sounds.. kind of dangerous," his tone just a tad wary. The guy's probab;=ly never even ridden one, though he's distracted from any other comments he might make by the sound of whistling. Head tilting up, he spies a D'son, and offers him a nod and a, "Hello," while that soapsand gets used to start scrubbing. Yay scrubbery.
"Getting clean?" D'son hazards an answer with a grin. "I mean, I do have a bathtub, but the water in here is hotter and a lot better for soaking," the bronzerider replies, hefting that bar of soap a little. "Rough?" he queries, looking back and forth between Eledri and Amelia, curiously, bends to set down that soap and the bottle.
Amelia laughs just a little at D'son's answer, and shrugs at comments on the bruising. "Oh, y'know. Can't get better if you don't get hurt every now and again." As she talks, she twists around to pull toiletries out of the pockets of the robe discarded at pool's edge. "They're not usually that dangerous. Anyway he was hurt and I was trying to help him. They're not always amenable to our help." She runs a hand over the bruising on the opposite arm, then starts to rub shampoo into dirty hair.
Eledri has to agree with D'son there, eyelids lowering a little as he focuses on scrubbing, "It is good for soaking." Indeed, he sinks further down in the water, shifting a bit, head tilting back to wet his hair before he straightens again. He nods vaguely to Amelia, though Eled doesn't look like he believes her about the runners, "I guess not…" about them being amenable to help. "How did the runner get hurt?" mildly curious, pausing in the scrubbing to frown a little.
D'son's towel gets dropped alongside bottle and soap and he slips into the pool without making any fuss about it. "Oh did you get banged around at work today?" the bronzerider queries, looking over at Amelia's arms as she runs that hand over them. "It's not too bad, is it?" is the next question as he turns around to grab his soap and starts scrubbing in turn.
"One of the draft horses nearby has something going on with a back leg. I went with the journeyman to take assist and the horse wasn't too keen on being held, or on me holding up the leg in question so we could get a look at the hoof. And drafts- well, they pack a lot of heft. It wasn't her fault; she was just responding to her pain," Amelia explains away at the same time as she scrubs her hair, then begins rinsing. "Anyway, I'll live. How was your day?" The question is open, directed to either one of the young men.
Eledri grimaces, nodding some more to Amelia's further explanation there, "That does sound pretty dangerous to me. I guess any injured animal.." trailing off as he shakes his head, wet strands falling forward into his face. Eledri shoves them back, nose wrinkling a just little, "Hopefully the animal was alright." He does glance briefly at D'son when the other guy gets into the water, though Eledri is soon falling quiet, very intent on scrubbing, and then dunking himself to rinse off. He shoves hair out of his face again, mumbling something like, "I should get going," before he's very quickly heading for a towel and clothes.
"Shells, yeah, I get that it's a job hazard but …" Dels trails off, concern on his face but also a touch of uncertainty. Acceptable job hazards? "Did you manage to help the runner?" he asks next, all lathered up to his neck and puts the soap down, waiting on the answer before rinsing off. "My day was fine. Did some flying with Inimeth, visited a few holds. Pretty standard."
Amelia pauses in her rinsing to peer after Eledri's exit, then shrugs and nods at D'son. "Even though she was flailing, my mentor was able to get enough of a look at the hooves and legs to make at least a tenative diagnosis, and started the runner on some medications. The runner probably won't be able to pull wagons anymore, but at least her owners are kind ones," she's pleased, and smiles as she finishes rinsing out her hair. She twists again to pull some hair ties from the robe pocket, and starts to plait up the hair while still soaking the rest of her sore body. "Black Rock among those you visited?"
Eledri's hasty exit lift's D'son's gaze and he sends a wave after the departing man. "Have a good one," echoes along too, then turns back to listen to Amelia. "That's good then, hopefully it'll all work out well and those'll get better quickly," a nod towards her arms. "No it wasn't," Dels says with a shake of his head. "I'm not sure when we're supposed to head that way next." He makes a little face and then dunks under the water, comes up soap free and reaches for his own shampoo, gets his hair lathered.
"It wouldn't surprise me if Xanadu doesn't return there for awhile. Toban would probably react violently if he found any Xanadu folks visiting… especially after the runner incident," Amelia's expression is concerned. "I hope everyone with ties to the Weyr got out." She shakes her head slowly, still working on braids.
"Probably," D'son agrees with quite the lather building on top of his head. "Do you think it's possible people got stuck there?" he asks with sudden concern, hands stilling and he blinks owlishly across at her.
Amelia is caught a little by surprise at the concern. "Uh… maybe? I mean, most of the residents are clever enough to get out of his way, and if that meant leaving… I know plenty of people left before we did, and I'm sure others left since then. Really, ever since Lady Johanna went back to Keroon," she stumbles over the explanation while finishing up the braids, and proceeds to work on scrubbing whatever grime is left on her body after soaking and washing hair.
Sudsy hands drop and D'son nods, looking thoughtful, then dunks his head underwater to rinse off. When he resurfaces, his arms stretch out along the pool's edge and he looks across the way at Amelia. "If there's a chance that there's people that need help, it might need looking into, that's all," he says quietly and chews on his lip for a moment, then clears his throat. "Did you … get your back okay?"
Amelia nods seriously. "Yeah, this is true. I would think the Weyrleaders would have considered it, though. Well, I hope anyway." And then the question earns a baffled look, and she blinks. "My.. back?" Peer. Nope, no lightbulb.
"I'm not sure that they haven't?" D'son says tentatively and sweeps his hand through the water, looking down at the ripples made. "You're … still washing. So um … do you need a hand. Reaching the middle of your back." Hazel eyes lift to find Amelia's face, gaze steady enough.
OH! Yes, there's the lightbulb. She meets his eyes, puzzlement still etched in her own. She actually attempts to reach it herself. "Uh. Well, uhm, let me see." After all, under normal circumstances it'd be easy as pie for somebody as flexible and fit as she. But even with the soothing hot water, it is a little difficult to stretch out the bruised arms to scrub her back. "Well uh, I guess I could. I suppose this is one of those times it'd be nice to have a firelizard, eh?"
"Or a long-handled back-scrubber brush," D'son offers over attempting to make humor as he picks up the soap again and starts to wade over. "Firelizards have a bad habit of being not available just when you want them to be it seems. I don't have one though. I had a whole fair of them sitting on the overhang above Inimeth's ledge in my first weyr at Ista and they were a pain in the butt."
Amelia chuckles quietly. "Or something. A whole fair of them? I guess they didn't come along? I hear they're not the most loyal of creatures sometimes." She grins a little. "I think the critters that came with the original settlers tend to be more loyal. Something about their brains and biology…" She might just start babbling in earnest, must ensure the situation is stable regardless if she's getting help scrubbing.
"Probably more than one fair actually. Seemed to be a mixed group of wild and not-wild lizards," D'son describes further. "You think so? I guess that makes sense. I mean, they were bred for it, right?" The bar of soap is lifted and Dels makes a little turn around motion with one hand. "At any rate, I've never tried to impress one because of that experience, though I have met some fire lizards that were cute and sweet."
Amelia turns around slowly, reluctant to face away. "Yeah. I've done reports on the history of some animals, and they were indeed bred to ensure a relationship with humans would continue to prosper." She peers over her shoulder at him, and adds, "Do be gentle, please. It is a little tender."
D'son lathers up his hands and actually hesitates for a moment before he starts to reach forward. That request lifts his gaze up to find Amelia's again and he nods a couple of times. "Of course I — of course," he finishes lamely. "Right so they were bred that way and firelizards probably evolved to you know, survive on a world with Thread." His hands touch down lightly, start to spread lather around on the beastcrafter's back. Maybe even /too/ gently.
Despite the warmth of the room and water, Amelia shivers at the contact, gentle or not, and faces her head forward again quickly.. "Yeah… not that firelizards aren't pretty brilliant too, of course. And I suppose dragons were created using the best of all genes available. I haven't studied dragon history, save what's in the songs, of course, but in trying to fathom the bond, it seems they had to have used some animal genes to encourage the new creature to bond more strongly and stick around."
"A lot of firelizards seem pretty silly. But I guess when they're wild they're … pretty well suited for surviving?" D'son says a little uncertainly in the wake of all those words. "You okay?" Because she shsivered. His hands continue to move along Amelia's back until it's gotten all sudsy, then he dips his hands into the water to rinse them and brings water up between cupped palms to let dribble over the later to rinse it off even if it's probably just easier for her to dunk down to do that. "I haven't really looked up anything about that either. I'm more interested in machines and tools, to be honest."
Amelia falls quiet, trying to reconcile an answer to the question of status. She doesn't have to answer, though ,as he comes up with another question, and she nods quickly. "Oh yeah? That what you meant the other morning, about apprenticing now that you have time?"
Hands drop into the water again to bring up more water to rinse with and a bit of clinging suds are smeared at with D'son's thumb. His hand lingers there for a moment then he draws away. "All set," he announces of her back. "And yeah, that's what I meant. I was … well it's a long story. But the short version is I was supposed to apprentice at the smithcraft when I was thirteen and I screwed it up. By the time I'd figured out how to make up for that screw up, I got searched and impressed. I was thinking about training after I got tapped into a wing, but then Inimeth flew Kilaueth. So yeah, haven't really been able to think about it seriously until the last couple of turns."
"Thank you," Amelia's gratitude is softly spoken, and she sinks into the water before turning around to face him again. She doesn't offer to return the favor, thought her expression says she might have had something else to say. But as he gives his explanation, she nods slowly, listening thoughtfully. "Well, no time like the present. Tools are useful no matter what you're doing."
D'son leans against the side of the pool again, elbows hooked on the edge. "You're welcome," he says quietly in answer to those thanks and he waits as it seems she's about to say something, then doesn't, looks down and flicks at the surface of the water with his fingers lightly in no particular direction. "Yeah. So I'm probably going to see about applying. See if the things I've been working on are worth anything for rank advancement and all that," the bronzerider says with a little smile and nods.
Amelia watches him flicking the water, and twiddles her thumbs under the surface. She smiles encouragingly. "Good luck with all that. I'm sure you've got something fantastic, you seem the clever sort." Then she breaks the moment by beginning to collect up her toiletries and twists around to shove them back into the pockets of the robe still crumpled beside the pool.
"Thanks," D'son says simply, looks up as she starts putting things away. For a moment it seems like it's his turn to maybe say something, but instead, he retreats back across the pool and pushes up out of it near his towel, bends to pick it up and slings it around his waist again, then collects his bottle, forgetting that he left his bar of soap over by Amelia. "So um … did you figure out when those concerts are?" Conversational.
Amelia hops out of the pool and wraps herself into the robe, adjusting the toiletries weighing down her pockets. She notices the bar of soap, picks it up and walks towards D'son. "Hey you forgot your soap and uhm.. well they're pretty regular. Usually twice a month." She smiles, her expression glowing with the added happiness of being clean /and/ talking about music.
"Oh … shells, thanks," D'son says with a smile and reaches for the soap as Amelia nears. "Okay then we can go to the next one this month, if you've got the free time," the bronzerider says and without thinking reaches with his non-soap-holding hand toward her cheek as her expression shifts to happy like that. His fingers never make contact though because he breaks off the gesture. "Sorry," he says with a sheepish laugh. "Anyway, keep the date marked on your calendar." He takes a half step back, grins. "And I'll probably see you in the morning. Or another morning." Joking around now and his smile widens. "Have a good evening, Amelia." Dels retreats back to where he left his clothes to get dressed and head home.
Amelia stands there as he leaves, smile still on but expression a shocked sort of wistfulness. Oh, dear. She just nods mechanically, then shakes herself physically, limbering up the relaxed muscles. "I will. I'm sure I'll be able to go." As he retreats, she moves to the shelving to collect her dirty stable clothes, then heads for the exit. "Have a nice evening yourself. And uhm, you can call me Amie. If you want." And her escape is completed successfully.
"Great, I'm looking forward to it," D'son answers about the concert while he's tucking his shirt in. Her last brings his eyes back up to try to find her face. But she's on the way out and whatever else he might've said doesn't make it past his lips. As Dels collects his stuff, bundles it together, he mutters to himself under his breath, shakes his head a lot and generally carries on a one-side conversation that sounds an awful lot like he's trying to convince himself of something. At least he's only bothering any firelizards who're around as he heads home to his weyr. And Inimeth. Who doesn't mind.