Xanadu Weyr - Meadow
A large, slightly rolling meadow is set high enough above the riverbank on both sides to avoid suffering from flooding, healthy ground cover and grass spreading out from either side of the dividing river. Scattered amongst the meadow are a variety of weyrs, each with a narrow path leading up to it from a main, winding road. Some are set under a few trees, while others sit by themselves.
Runner stables with the paddock beyond are to the south beyond the meadow weyrs, a smithy and a woodcraft shop are settled closer in towards the path to the clearing, while trees border the western edge of the meadow, and a faint outline of a stone wall and low rolling hills can be seen to the north. Wagons laden with felled trees from the forests to the southwest or ore from the mountains to the southeast are hauled by burden beast up the road through the meadow, over the bridge spanning the river to be processed in the appropriate workshops.
Rain, it was pouring save for about thirty moments ago, now it is just a faint drizzle. Idrissa is making her way slowly through the meadow, her battered and patched up coat pulled around her while her arms are folded before her. Her gaze drifts over the area, every now and then pausing while a faint hum escapes her. Could she be looking for someone, or perhaps ones? Yes she is looking for someone, or well in this case 'ones' actually. Ripley shifts on her shoulder an angry grumble escaping the damp blue as he is not all that happy at the moment, though what else is new with that lizard?
Rain, rain, go away… or rather, don't, for the longer it rains the longer ka-elJ'o gets to stay inside. But, alas, it's not one of those forever rains, and once the droplets hae tapered off, the two boys have been sent off to do some task together. Check the tarps that cover the excess coal that's stored outdoors. Shovel away washed up mud. Drain the carts of water and dry them for the next what's sure to be muddy delivery. That sort of thing. The only thing that's kept Kale sane is the thought that this punishment is nearly over. Thank goodness! Currently, the two of them are toweling down one of the delivery carts. Kale's boots are slick with mud, and he gives helpful directions to J'o. "Get that inside corner over there," he barks. "Any water left will rust whatever's transported today."
Someone, now with bonus someone else! Oh, wait. More like, penalty someone else. J'o and Kale have been busy today. They are also grumpy. They could probably give grumping lessons to Ripley right now, and that's really saying something. Even in this drizzle, the rope binding them together has gotten wet. These chores that seem to take twice as long despite (because of) having twice as many hands for the job, and now the rope is starting to chafe in a real and physical sense as well as just a metaphorical one. This. Sucks. "Ain't like it ain't still raining," he grumbles at Kale's 'helpful' instructions. "Ain't like the towel ain't wet." Ain't like he wants to be here. Ain't like Kale wants him here, either. Ain't like they got a choice.
It takes a few moment until she catches sight of Kale and J'o, she watches them, seeming unsure for a few moments, and well even nervous actually. She swallows and slowly shifts heading towards them, her fear growing with each step that both of them will tell her to get lost. It's her fault this has happened after all. "Hey…" Is soon heard, or was that the wind playing a trick making it sound like someone is talking to them? Ripley curls up more and settles more into his person's shoulder on the ride towards the pair of boys.
"Then get a new shardin' towel," mutters Kale who helpfully throws one at him. There. See how kind he's being? Mutter. He now does his best to ignore J'o's existance while getting the chore done, glaring at the surface of the cart, counting down the seconds til they're cut free. Rub, rub, dry. Hey? He almost doesn't look up, the voice was so soft, but something encourages him to do so. His eyes pause upon Idrissa, and seeing her causes his towel drying to stop. He bristles slightly, not exactly at her though, considering the way his eyes dart to J'o soon after. "Hi Idrissa," he answers, peeling his eyes from J'o to look at her instead.
"And how-" Oh, flying towel. That's how. J'o grunts in answer, and drapes the wet one over his shoulder as he begins to dry with the other one. Kale must move a little when he hears that voice (or maybe it was J'o himself? Nah, blame Kale), because there's a tug on the ropes between them as the weyrling's foot slides on the mud and sends him thumping against the cart. "Shardit," he mutters to the universe, and lifts up his knee to tap it (carefully) against the cart's underside. That'll show it for hitting him. That accomplished, he notices that Kale's stopped drying. "Now what?" he protests, turning to see… oh. It's Idrissa. "Hey," he says in a monotone.
Idrissa glances to Kale curiously a moment before she looks to J'o, a light wave is seen, fingers wiggling. She swallows and is soon eyeing the ground, missing what all happens with the cart in the process. "Um…I'm sorry you both got in trouble." How else does she start? She isn't sure.
Kale glances to J'o at that tug, catching the slip. Luckily, it isn't cause for him to do the same thing despite the gentle pull on his leg. Kale 1, Gravity 0! Smirk. But, oh now here's Idrissa to talk to. And how he does want to talk to her .. but not with J'o right there. The things he has to say to her he won't give J'o the satisfaction of hearing. At least he's had a day or so to calm down, which makes it a little easier for him not to say or ask what he'd like to. His eyes linger on her at her apology, and he plops the towel down upon the cart. "Yeah, well." He shrugs a shoulder. It is her fault, isn't it? Running to J'o to cry on his shoulder, making him falsely feel as if he can speak to Kale any kind of way about her. "Nothing can be done about it now."
J'o shrugs, then catches for the wet towel as it starts to fall from his shoulder. He's really not in the mood to agree with Kale, and he gives the smither a sideways glance and a frown for getting words out first. "Ain't your fault I made a mistake," he says, and lowers his gaze to the cart again, pushing at Kale's discarded towel and wiping at another of those corners. "What you do is your business."
Idrissa glances towards them both, she gets the feeling that she is losing both her friends, which she did consider J'o a /friend/. A glance is sent towards J'o before she looks to Kale. "I didn't tell you want happened, and the only reason J'o knew was because he was there the night at the tavern that Jarse got mad at me." There is a slight pause. "Jarse took my knot. I'm just a stablehand now, until I can prove to him that I'm worthy of being back in the craft. Which /neither/ one of you knew until right this moment." There, now they both know what has happened.
Her knot? Kale blinks once, looking lost for a half moment. Her knot. He had nearly forgotten. Almost forgotten the night that seemed to be the catalyst to this. Her somber, secretive mood. Not getting anything from her. And J'o, seeming to know more than he did about her predicament. He was mistaken? Not that that changes anything that J'o said to him on the beach, but there's another matter now. His brows furrow, abandoning on menial efforts to distract himself with his chore. "What do you have to do to get it back? Did he give you a task?" Pause. Here's a better question. "Why did he take it?"
J'o looks away, back down to the cart as Idrissa explains why he knew things. He's trying to keep his face emotionless, but he's not succeeding as well as he might like; there's a frown, a scrunching of his eyebrows like he's hoping if he can avoid hearing it he can avoid it having happened. No such luck. He looks up again at the report of the missing knot, and his frown deepens. "Weren't her fault. Just a scared firelizard." His gaze wanders to Ripley, watching the blue as his shoulders hunch up into another shrug.
Idrissa glances to Ripley a moment before a slight shake of her head. "Ripley appeared from between and landed on his table by accident. Jarse got mad and was going to hurt him and Ripley lashed out at him." One really can't help that the lizard did that, Jarse was going to turn him into a blue smug! "I have to work enough to make eight marks and prove that I should be back in the craft as I talked back to a journeyman." Well she did sorta do that. Eight marks is a lot of work for her to do to say he least. Also the amount for a runner if anyone knows and is keeping count!
Kale's eyes drift to J'o as he speaks, his expresion considering. Firelizard? He can already guess as to which one caused the trouble, and an accusatory look is sent to Ripley. That firelizard has been nothing but trouble! Except for that one time he wasn't. And then the entire story is told, and Kale's eyes widen at the stipulations given by Jarse. "EIGHT marks? How in the shardin' shell does he expect you to come up with that as a stablehand? He took your knot just for that? That doesn't sound hardly fair at all." Case in point, he and J'o were fighting. Throwing punches! Busting lips and bruising eyes! And Kale still has his knot and neither one of them have some ridiculous fine to pay. "Could you talk to someone about it? Like a senior Journeyman or Master?"
J'o is still not in the mood to agree with Kale, but nevertheless, his brows also rise at that sum. "Don't seem fair," he says. Wait, actual agreement? With Kale? What is the world coming to? Admittedly, these two may well get a few more punishment chores from their journeyman and weyrlingmaster once they're untied, but never in any of this has their status been thrown into question, or any sort of a fee been charged (except against their dignities. Their poor, impoverished dignities).
Idrissa shakes her head slightly while letting her arms curl in front of her, her fingers gripping at her coat for a few moments. "I dono Kale. I may never be able to do it." Her head lowers a moment to watch the wet ground a few moments. "I should have told you before hand and then you two wouldn't have gotten into this mess. The only reason J'o was offering me a place was to be nice Kale. We're friends." You know /friends/ not her going behind his back as he may think!
Yeah, this is getting weird. Kale and J'o haven't said anything snippy to each other in whole minutes! And now … agreeing? Something fishy is going on. Either that, or Jarsce's punishment really was out of line enough that both of these knuckleheads can see it. His boots squelch in the mud a bit as he adjusts his weight on his free foot, considering what she tells him with a frown. "You hardly tell me anything, Idrissa. How many times had I aked you what was wrong, and you never said a word or acted as if everything was fine? You said Ripley chewed your knot when I asked you about it. I've known you for turns. We've dated for months. Why's it so difficult for you tell me things that're bothering you?" Meh. J'o. He momentarily forgot he was there. Stupid J'o. In the way of talks.
"Aye. I don't mind sleeping against Kaidoth," says J'o. He already does it some nights! He shifts back a little as Kale does it, trying to get a position where both of them are comfy. This not fighting thing is weird. For J'o, it's even weirder than that as Kale starts talking again, because… he's heard something like this complaint before, only the roles were reversed. He frowns a little, and starts looking away across the field. He'd get out of the way So. Fast. …if only he could. He settles for the next best thing of pretending to be a fencepost.
Idrissa didn't really act fine did she? Though maybe she has gotten better in her acting if he didn't pick it up. She chews on her lip nervously a few moments. "I was worried what you and Soriana would think of me. I didn't want to worry you all." No instead she got Kale an J'o to fight because of what she didn't say. "I… I don't know why its hard for me to tell you things. It's hard for me to tell anyone anything if you hadn't noticed Kale." Perhaps turns of dealing with a mother like hers is cause, or who knows really.
"I'm not just anyone. Neither's Sori. And it was stupid if you thought we'd think any less of you because've some stupid knot. Everyone knows you're good with runners. That journeyman is probably goin' to get his ass handed to him when things start slipping without you. You did more than any other apprentice I've seen else with those runners." His attention drifts to J'o momentarily, and he takes a step towards Idrissa. Er. Rather, he would but he forgot he was all tied up. Stupid rope! "Look, let's talk about this later, alright? I want to talk to you. I do, really."
J'o the Fencepost is solidly placed. He grunts as his leg is tugged at, and moves forward to match that partial step. He glances to Kale's face, then to Idrissa's, then sighs as he turns his head out across the meadow again. "I got my eyes closed," he says to one of the distant trees, and crosses his arms in front of him. His eyes are, in fact, closed, and he's only got about half a scowl's worth of frown.
"I know you're not Kale." Idrissa says softly, so why didn't she just tell him and Soriana? She isn't sure. She was ashamed of losing her knot, and how she acted, it was just a mess of a situation and it ended badly all around. A glance is sent towards J'o once Kale makes a few steps towards her. "Course we can talk later." This said while she looks back to Kale. "How… long do you have to do this?" A slight point sent to the rope.
Eyes closed? J'o's proclamation has Kale looking at him fully this time. Yup. Eyes are most definitely closed. He watches him a while, brows faintly dipping in a curious expression .. Then, it's back to Idrissa. He extends a hand to her, reaching for her wrist to gasp and gently tug towards him. "It'll be off tomorrow," he says. Just hearing it lifts his spirits! Not that J'o is … all bad. For instance, right now he's being rather decent. Not that Kale is going to admit to that or even thank him for it. Nope. All he's going to do is kiss Idrissa straight on the lips. If she allows him to.
J'o is most definitely a fencepost. He does not see. He unfortunately cannot prevent himself from hearing, but that'd be why he has the half-scowl, isn't it? But it's only a half scowl, because tomorrow, tomorrow, sweet tomorrow they are released from this torment. Admittedly, not until late in the day, most likely… and that does mean another night spent in… ugh… Kale's bed… but the end is in sight. Or would be, if his eyes were open. Which they're not.
Idrissa lets her wrist get grabbed and thus pulled closer to Kale as a result. A nod is seen while she glances to him and takes in a soft breath. "Well that's good." She can almost swear she has seen this punishment happen before with a few other teens that was in trouble for a fight. Perhaps it is a standared punishment for silly things? At the kiss though she doesn't stop Kale from it, nor does she lean away. Instead she leans close to him and thus back into the kiss, her eyes close for a moment even.
That's better. Kissing her lessens the lingering blow felt by J'o's words. Maybe he won't even bring them up again. Maybe. But, such things should be spoken of, right? And their track record of being open is … such a good one. -.-; The kiss lingers because it needs to, helping to mend hurt feelings and insecurities just a little. It doesn't last as long as it should, for there is an audience (even if he is blind) and they should be doing chores. Orik could be out here any minute. And so Kale leans back after a while, pulling his lips from hers. "We'll talk more tomorrow," he says, idly picking up his damp towel again. So much talking needs to be done! But at least it can be done with freed legs.
J'o can hear them kissing. He can hear them. Gah! He can hear them kissing. He ramps on up to about three-quarters of a scowl, but fortunately, the kiss doesn't last for long, and then it's back to chores. Chores are… only about a quarter scowl's worth of unpleasant. He nods slightly to Idrissa, giving a wave before burying himself in those chores. One. More. Day.
It's rather sure there is plenty for them to talk about. Idrissa lets the kiss linger as long as possible though. She soon clears her throat, a blush runs across her cheeks and she nods to the bit on talking tomorrow. A look is offered to J'o, whom gets a faint smile and wave back towards the weyrling as the pair are off and leaving.