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.
When one's leg is in a cast from the toes to the middle of one's thigh, there is very little you can do to move around. And even less you can do to move around without a great deal of fuss, hassle, and help from someone, or multiple someones. And so, for the duration of her convalescence, it seems that Niva has commandeered a corner of the caverns as her office away from her office - after all, many more interesting things go on out here, and its easier to maneuver without all the stuff shoved the weyrleader's office. With the hour at mid-afternoon, the occupants of the living caverns are fewer than normal, and the Weyrwoman is working away, carefully reading over various reports and notes that have been left infront of her.
While others have the luxury of a set lunch hour, Senkyou just goes in and out as she has time. Today the brownriding wingleader is dragging along a small child, who appears none to happy his little face scrunched up and red as tears run down his cheeks. The little dirty blonde boy is reluctantly following Senk, and finally with a sigh a few paces into the caverns she picks him up and walks over towards the serving tables. Niva is noted, and though rumors travel fast the brownrider looks suprised. Walking over and giving a wave, "Good day Weyrwoman, I'd heard somethin' about you having a little accident. Need anythin'?" Good time to get in her good graces.
Keziah looks just a bit out of sorts as she steps into the caverns. Every now and then her body gives this little jump and she winces. Her eyes glance over at Niva who's set up office and erms a little. This can't be good. She looks over the cast and then shrugs, well some things can't be helped. "After-hic-noon." she grimaces again and sighs.
Ethne looks around as she walks in. She holds her hand as she has a makeshift bandage around it. Some muttering comes from the Jr. Weyrwoman about bugs and ferrets in her weyr. "Mellonath I am not sleeping in there… I'll sleep on a cot in the dragonhealing annex… not sleeping with bugs again."
The entrance of a rather sad little boy and the wingleader catches Niva's attention during one of those times that she's looking up between papers, so she catches the offer. Reaching for her glass, she tilts it towards her, pondering it before offering it to the brownrider. "Some more juice, if you wouldn't mind?" Gently patting the cast-held leg that's propped up on the chair next to her, she shakes her head. "Not quite little, unfortunately.." Keziah, and her hiccups, get a sympathetic grimace, though, while Ethne just gets a stare at her bedraggled appearance.
Senkyou puts Zalyu down, looking and saying to him "Hand." The little boy puts his hand in Senks, holding onto him and nodding to Niva. Taking the glass, she notices Keziah and then Ethne's entrances. Walking towards where a pitcher of juice sits, she stops every few paces and says "Come on, almost there." The pair very slowly make there way towards the juice, a double take she asks Ethne across the cavern. "What'd you do? And don't tell me it was Selva, that's who everyones been blamin' these days." Filling the glass and making her way very slowly back towards the Werywoman, as she has to stop every few steps and prompt the child to continue walking.
Keziah's attention is diverted as Ethne comes in "What happ-hic-nd" she asks and then again hiccups again and she decides then and there to just sit at the nearest table which happens to be near Niva. "B-hic-ugs?"
Ethne blinks as she looks towards Senkyou as she gets asked about her dreadful night in her weyr. "I'm not going back there till those bugs are gone and the darn ferret someone suggested to take care of the bugs tried to take a chunk of my hand…" She shakes her head.
Niva seems to be distracted by Keziah's predicament and Ethne's explanation and as such barely recognizes that Senkyou is slowly walking across the caverns with Zalyu. "Ferret? Bugs?" Niva gives her Junior a rather curious look, before blinking at Senkyou's mention of Selva. "Who's Selva? What did she do?" It seems that poor Niva is quite out of the loop, or at least she feels that way.
Senkyou finally reaches the table, putting the glass of juice down and picking the child up so she can move to a table not far from Nivas. At the mention of ferrets Senks brow goes up and she chuckles, "Well I coulda told ya that ferrets ain't gonna fix that, you'd probably do good to go see a healer. Yu could get some nasty things from furrets." Sitting she puts Zalyu in her lap, with Niva's questioning she says "Well, I keep havin' stuff show up in my weyr. Pictures of other peoples family, jewelry. First people thinkin' I was theifin' then they started to say it was my green firelizard Selva. I'm just thinkin' that people are bein' lazy with there stuff.. I mean who'd ever heard of a firelizard stealing things." Shrugging she leans back in her chair just a bit, with the baby in her lap
Keziah listens curiously to Senkyou. Keeping her mouth shut for now. Hiccupping is bad enough without having to talk through it and all. She does look a bit sumpatetic and all and then she hmms a little and shrugs and says one word, managing to get it out before hiccuping this time "Klepto?"
"Wait, your the one taking all that stuff?" Niva looks anything but happy as she stares at the brownrider and her child, shaking her head. "You know how many notes I have about stuff missing?" ANd a clipped pile is flipped through to reveal about 20 different notes all piled up. "You have to do something about that green." Niva isn't exactly thrilled, as she turns to stare at Keziah. "Get a spoon of sugar, and put it on your tongue, and suck on it." She suggests idly.
Senkyou shakes her head, looking at the Weyrwoman and at least attempting to look sorry, yet her face reads more annoyed. "I ain't takin' nothin'. Tell those people they can come along when I'm not workin' and they can have there things back. Some of the things I get are a little," a cringe as she looks for the right word "unusual." Saying this she bounces a bit, making the baby giggle and then looking at Keziah she says "Hold yur breath and drink water." Is that even possible?
Keziah eyes Niva and Senkyou both and sighs. She opens her mouth to say something and then hiccups once again. SHe gets up and goes to try the sugar and no sooner gets it on her tongue that she hiccups again and spills about half of it. She winces almost painfully. "Why me?"
"Maybe you could try standing on your head, and drinking water. That could work too." Niva suggests as the sugar seems to fail almost immediately. She grimaces at Keziah, before looking back at Senkyou, shaking her head hurriedly. "Put a notice up. Easier than me telling everyone. They might not even know something is gone yet." The baby is watched for a moment as he giggles before looking back at Keziah. "How long has it been?"
Senkyou watches Keziah, her attention split between her kids and the hiccuping. After the first thing fails she says, "Maybe you could see a healer? I've heard of a person who had the hiccups a whole sevendays. Poor thing, wake up every morning and they'd be there." Her little horror story, is said casually as she stands and puts the baby in the chair, walking over and getting a plate full of food. "Maybe it'll jus' take a few days." With niva's suggestion she says, "I'll do tha', and I will get selva somethin' better to do."
Keziah's eyes widen. Seven days? She whimpers a little "Only -hic- couple days." she says quietly "Least I'm not -hic- troubled by a klepto fire-hic0lizard."
"What all have you found?" Niva questions Senkyou idly, while keeping an eye on Zalyu when he's on the chair by himself. Senkyou's story however, just gets a stare, and then she looks back at Keziah, finally grinning. "Ah'll give ya half a mark if'n ya hiccup again." Maybe that will help? Her juice is sipped slowly, and it seems her attempt to work is now abandoned completely.
Senkyou wrinkling her nose Senk come back, just as Zalyu almost falls off the chair and sighing the brownrider puts him on her lap. Once comfortable she says to keziah, "I'd not trade yu." Sipping on her juice she gives the little guy a sip and says to Niva, "Well I've found a shoe, some under thangs. Got a couple of random buttons, an' such. Found a necklace, a hair brush. An then mostly it's just pictures, little things like that. Yu know." Well niva probably doesn't know.
Keziah is so startled by the offer of half a mark for a silly thing as a hiccup that she stares at Niva, her mouth open and not a single hiccup. And then she giggles a little "Underthings?" she asks and tips her head a little "Anything, embarrassing?" she asks and then pauses a moment. She's silent and then she grins, she's not hiccuping again.
"A shoe? Wouldn't you notice that?" It would seem that the shoe wasn't one of the things reported missing to the Weyrleaders, at least not yet. As the baby nearly falls, Niva leans rather ineffectively that way, but then Senkyou has a handle on it, and she's left to smirk at Keziah and her, at least current, silence.
Senkyou shrugs, leaning back and bouncing the kid between bites. " Well I got a diary of types, I think I'm gonna have to have a chat with one of my greenriders." Shaking her head and taking a bite of her food, "I mean I don't think it's right if yur beddin' men an' then destroying there things. She's a jealous little thing." Zalyu take food from the plate, eating and content.
Ethne has been quiet and all as she heads to get herself something to drink. The poor frazzled jr. weyrwoman needs some klah. She looks around the caverns quiet as she does so.
Keziah watches the little one quietly. Seems she's still a little worried about hiccuping, but after a few minutes or so even, not a single one. "A diary?" she asks and then shakes her head "Shouldn't wreck others peoples things." she murmurs and her eyes glance over to Ethne "Are you okay?"
Ethne blinks over to the younger woman and replies. "I'll be much better when I can sleep in my weyr without worries of bugs."
Senkyou puts the baby on the ground, most likely so she can eat. Not being a lady at all she starts to eat her food quickly, saying with a mouth full of food "I've gots to get back to work. Just stopped to spend some time with da kid, might even go drop him off with his father. He's been needin' more attention as of late." Saying that she glances to make sure Zalyu hasn't gone anywhere.
"That's not good either. Trouble left and right." Niva mutters, shaking her head. "I'll be glad when I can get back to normal rounds. Then things won't be falling apart in front of me." A soft sigh, and she just stares at Ethne, shaking her head. "I'll get someone to come look, and see what they can do. If they can catch anything. Move to the guest weyr, for the night." She offers as a solution.
Keziah ponders thoughtfully "What about smoking them out?" she asks after a moment. I mean it works for some things and all. Might be a pain to clean afterwards, Otherwise I'd suggest bringing in something to eat it all. Maybe some chickens, but again, that'd be a pain to clean."
Ethne looks towards Niva as she says. "It's fine, I need to do a bit more studying and all so likely will sleep at the annex… still puzzled as to why Mellonath didn't even produce eggs the last time she mated…" She sighs. "That's bothersome."
Senkyou is stuffing her face, but Zalyu has taken to wondering around. Luckily the little guy is not likely to get injured and such, Senk drinks on her klah getting a glass of wine and then shaking her head, "I'm not sure if i can't have someone else do my last transport, gettin' late and I've got plenty of young folks who'd do it." She mutters mostly to herself, then offering "I'd say get someone in there with something noxious, though it'd be rather bad if in your stuff was so posionious you could no longer use it."
"Well, just sleep somewhere else. We'll take care of it." Senkyou and Keziah's suggestions are meant with stares, the weyrwoman shaking her head with a soft sigh. "I'm not sure how, but we will." And then she's making a note to herself to take care of it, before watching the baby wander, waggling a hand at someone to grab the boy. "Maybe it was just a bad mating."
Stare? Stare? It was a good suggestion, really it was. Better than hosing it all down or something, right? At the last comment she tilts her head a little "You mean there wasn't a full contact in a way. Were they up high enough? Or maybe it's not the queens fault, perhaps the bronze had something wring with his, umm. Hrm. Sheath? I mean some runners will have problems like that."
Ethne shakes her head as she shrugs quietly. "or where she has had oddly small clutches the past few times… anything likely is possible."
Senkyou stands, putting her plate away and grabbing up the boy and waving. "Well I'd better get goin' I'm just better off doing the transport myself." After making sure her place is cleared, she leaves the caverns carrying Zalyu.
"Things happen. Sometimes it just doesn't work - I'm sure firelizards don't always clutch afterwards, so perhaps it was just one of those. Or her diet was off." Niva tries to offer various solutions, nodding absently to the beastcrafter. "So, it really depends if the bronze has had success with other golds, or not." Another note is scrawled to herself, before she looks from one to the other.
Keziah hmms a bit thoughfully, definantly something to try and puzzle out with all the little tidbits she's picked up here and there, and really dragon husbandry can't be that vastly different, except in how it's done. "Where the flights short or long? Or well, have you had her vent checked out? Maybe it's undersized. I know some chickens have difficulty producing eggs with undersized vents, or else they come out small." she thinks a bit more. "So if that was the case, even a long flight wouldn't help. Hmm." Yes, there she goes again, comparing dragons and critters again.
Ethne yawns as she sips her klah mainly just listening and taking it all in. The dragonhealer knows often there is many a cause and pinpointing it down for certain is so hard compared with in humans. She is more worried about her lifemate though.
"Well, I'm sure they'll be able to figure it out. When she rises next, hopefully she'll at least produce eggs, so that they can try to pin down the cause beyond that." The beastcraft apprentice receives a nod, not entirely sure of the non-human side of reproduction issues, when even her human knowledge is limited. She's not that type of Healer, thankfully. "All you can do is make sure she has a good flight, and hope."
Keziah nods "There is always hope, too bad that you can't observe closely though like you can the critters. Would make it easier to check off what is not the issue." she hmms thoughtfully. "She actually goes proddy right." A pause "Can dragons /have/ a false heat err proddiness?" she asks curiously.
Ethne looks over towards Keziah. "Yes she does go proddy, usually pretty regular and all. Her cycles though have rarely been off either." She shrugs. "I think she feels a bit of disappointment though."
Niva looks from one to the other, before simply shaking her head and letting the two discuss the particulars of the case, while she slowly resumes going through her various papers once more, before she's leaning to absently shove a pencil in the open toe of her cast, trying to scratch at the bottom of her foot.
Keziah catches sight of NIva "Hey, you shouldn't do that, I mean well it's not a good thing to do. You could do some serious damage and all." she nods back to Ethne "I'm sure she does. It's gotta be hard on both of you. Now I'm sure, since they produce eggs, their internal structure is a bit different from ours, but think a dolphin could help pinpoint anything?
Ethne replies softly as she looks towards the beastcrafter. "Nothing has been consistent… so not sure. It may very well be a faulty mating flight."
"It itches.. And its not the foot that's broken.." Niva mutters somewhat grumpily, though it seems that she's given up her assault on the troublesome spot for the time being, for she's leaning back in her chair once more, shaking her head. "Mightn't hurt to go see the dolphineers, when they're done cleaning up the mess in Igen." She adds, though she's not making it a direct order.
Keziah hmms a little and looks thoughtful. "Be interesting to hear what they might say." she falls silent again and looks over at Ethne "I do hope she clutches when she rises next."