Boy Troubles

Writers: Jane, Shale
Date Posted: 3rd March 2008

Characters: Ylisahn, Teldan
Description: Headwoman Ylisahn catches Teldan making a mess.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 8, day 27 of Turn 4

Ylisahn stopped and then took two steps backward, and peered down the stairs to where a youngster sat. She knew his name - didn't she? Not a bad boy but one who was often into mischief. But what was wrong with that? She hadn't been a perfectly behaved weyrbrat herself.

"Teldan? What are you doing?"

The boy started, looking guiltily up at the woman who'd addressed him.
Unshielded glowbaskets lay piled about him, empty, for their contents now rolled about at the foot of the stairs. There must be hundreds, Teldan thought gloomily.

"Well, ma'am," the boy began. "I mean, Ylisahn," he amended, unsure which was more appropriate. Scorch titles, he thought, savoring the naughty word. If they didn't change from person to person, no one would ever be offended, and he would never be in trouble! "I was just carrying these glows--dead baskets on this arm, fresh on this one." He demonstrated, gathering the baskets in question and setting more glows to rolling. It was clear that Teldan, the glowbaskets, or both had come tumbling down the stairs. Teldan shrugged hopelessly. "I can't tell them apart any more. 'S too bright here, and there are so many."

"Well you can't leave them here, scattered around on the stairs," the blonde woman said firmly. "We'll gather them all up and then you can take them somewhere dark to sort them."

"Yes, ma'am," he answered, gathering handfuls and dumping them willy-nilly into the closest baskets. Teldan was almost glad that the Headwoman had happened upon him, for he was forbidden to venture into dark places for a few sevendays. It didn't occur to him that Ylisahn, being such an important figure in the Weyr, was probably on her way to see to more urgent tasks.

Pulling up the skirt of her dress so that she didn't trip on it Ylisahn knelt on the stairs, picking up the small balls and surreptitiously checking the first few to see if what the boy was telling her was true.
None of them seemed to glow under the electric light, as he said, but then she couldn't be sure she hadn't picked up a handful of dead ones.
She smiled and figured she would just have to take his word for it.
"Could you pass that other basket up here, Teldan?"

Since Ylisahn had stumbled upon his little accident, Teldan had practically been holding his breath. Now, reassured by the Headwoman's smile, a relieved and somewhat mischievous grin spread across his face as he gratefully handed her one of the glowbaskets. He changed his mind mid-pass, lowering the basket before she could accept it.

"Aw, ma'am, don't dirty yourself 'cause of me," Teldan insisted, crawling up to her stair with an imperceptible wince. The fall, while not too serious, had irritated his barely-healed bruises from the previous sevenday. "I really didn't do it a-purpose," he reminded Ylisahn, just in case. That was the thing about adults, he thought sagely, rolling the glows into his basket from the edge of the stair.
They forgot sometimes.

"I don't for a moment suppose you did," Ylisahn said reassuringly. Now if the baskets had been let loose in the dining cavern during a meal time - that might have been deliberate ... and likely to end in somebody being punished. This seemed like an accident and Ylisahn was prepared to treat it that way unless Teldan did something to convince her otherwise. "And don't worry about my dress. No matter how careful I am my clothes take a beating every day."

Teldan reluctantly handed her his basket and skipped back down to the foot of the stairs. On tender hands and knees, the boy quickly gathered the remainder of the offending glows, leaving only those in Ylisahn's immediate vicinity. He piled the baskets and stood--paying careful attention to his balance, lest he repeat the episode--waiting for the Headwoman to finish her own lot and give further instructions.

"There. Oh, you've done the rest." Ylisahn looked down at her collection compared to the youngster's. "Well, then, we need to find you somewhere nice and dark. There are a couple of storerooms, not too far away. Let's cut through the dining cavern." It wasn't usually something she encouraged the children to do, but she wasn't particularly inclined to follow the sometimes meandering corridors when the short-cut would do.

Nodding, Teldan rearranged the stacks on his arms in order to see. He followed Ylisahn obediently, hoping the dining cavern would be empty.
Under normal circumstances, he would appreciate the attention his baskets would draw from weyrfolk, but not today--not when he was trailing behind the Headwoman, obviously responsible for some mess.

The Headwoman led her young companion into the massive cavern, skirting the empty tables but cutting across in front of the area where the harpers would be playing later in the evening. Either of the storerooms off the small dead-end corridor would do for the boy.

Teldan looked up at Ylisahn with some effort, as his burden was rather cumbersome.

"Here?" he asked. The corridor wasn't quite as bright as the stairway, but the glows, while noticeably fresh or dead, were still faint.

"In here, I think." She unlocked the door with one of the keys from her collection. As the door opened she reached for the light switch -
"Just come and tell me when you've finished," she said, hearing her own voice as if from a distance and recognizing the signs. She put the glowbasket she carried down on the floor beside the door then walked away without saying anything more.

"Thanks, Ylis..." Teldan started, trailing off at the Headwoman's abrupt departure. "What's got into her?" he wondered. Shrugging, the boy sat cross-legged and set to work. It was easy enough to find the fresh ones, but the dead glows were another matter, and it didn't occur to him to turn the lights back on.

Half a candlemark later, Teldan exhaled and straightened, satisfied that everything was in its proper basket. He crawled to the door and cracked it, making sure Ylisahn was nowhere in sight. Reassured, he extracted from a pocket the meatroll responsible for his accident. If only people had more arms, like tunnel snakes, or something--Teldan mused, munching on his incriminating snack--maybe he wouldn't have dropped all those glows!

Last updated on the March 3rd 2008

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Boy Troubles