At Your Service

Writers: Cali, Jane
Date Posted: 31st October 2009

Characters: L'bar, Zharesti
Description: The Weyrwoman talks to one of the candidates.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 5, day 8 of Turn 5

"You ... Candidate." The sandy-haired woman waved the tall, fair-skinned man over to her. It was good to see real adults wearing the knots of Candidacy since they would bring maturity to the fight against Thread - or they would if the hatchlings showed any sense.

"Hello Weyrwoman, can I help you?" Labarr replied in a amused tone as he approached the older woman.

"Call me Zharesti," she said, waving aside the title which she regarded as useful only for occasions when names eluded the speaker. "Which Candidate are you?" She had studied the lists more times than she cared to recall, determined that these first hatchlings of Veyeth's in her new Weyr would have the best possible choice.

He gave a slight bow for introductions sake. "Labarr, Journeyman Woodcrafter at your service."

"Ahh." Zharesti was distracted for a moment. "Remind me to speak to you about that later, Labarr." She studied the tall man, memorizing his face and stance by thinking about how she would sketch him. Then she smiled widely, her expression underlining the slant of her eyes above broad cheekbones. "Do you have time to talk now?"

"Of course." He said immediately. Anything he might have been about to do was nothing when the Weyrwoman wished an audience. And he was curious about what she wanted to 'speak to him later about'.

"Good. I won't take long. Just wanted to ask you a few questions. About your Candidacy." She paused, to see if he was going to respond. There wasn't any need to, but some people preferred to converse rather than be interrogated.

Labarr couldn't think of anything _wrong_ with him being a candidate, if anything he was the perfect sort. That in mind, he gave a charming smile. "You can take my whole day if you want, what better way to spend it than with an attractive woman?"

"Perhaps with an attractive woman your own age?" she suggested dryly. "Come and sit in these chairs in the shade," she suggested, indicating a cluster of chairs beside the entrance to the dining cavern but at this time of morning pleasantly shaded. "It won't take long."

He decided that he best curtail any further flirting. He was harmless, mostly, but sometimes people didn't take it that way and he didn't want to piss off one of the most powerful people in the Weyr. He did as she suggested and waited for her to continue.

"Now, Labarr, I want to know a little more about all the Candidates. You're weyrbred?" she guessed. Either that or been here a long time.

"Yes, my mother is a greenrider." He replied, not sure about the question. "Do you want to know about each of them individually or as a whole?"

"I want to know about you, right now, and I'll work my way around as many of the others as I can before the Hatching." She shrugged. "Eventually I'll need to know everybody in the Weyr, of course."

Labarr relaxed a bit. He'd thought she meant for _him_ to tell her about all the candidates. He hadn't wanted to disappoint her, but he hadn't a lot of information about the newer ones. He'd met most of them here and there, but he'd long ago been though all the classes and now just attended those that were required refreshers. "Well... I'm a journeyman woodcrafter. I work mostly on ornamental work, but I can make anything if you give me a good piece of skybroom."

"So you apprenticed here? Didn't leave the Weyr to do your training at the Hall?"

"I apprenticed under my grandfather so I could stay here for Hatchings." He explained, "I like woodcrafting, but I love flying."

"Oh I do like Candidates like you," she admitted with a laugh. "Other than your mother do you have family who've Impressed? Siblings? Uncles or Aunts?"

Labarr nodded, "My mother has two cousins who are riders up north. I probably have other dragonrider family running around too, my mother could only narrow my possible fathers down to three." Not that he could blame his mother, she was beautiful now, and a portrait he'd seen of her in her youth was stunning.

"Three is a good number." The sometimes quirky effects of being weyrbred. "Do they all share you?"

Labarr shrugged, "Not really. They're all nice and we keep in touch, but they were never a factor in my raising."

Very traditional. And nineteen or twenty Turns ago - before the huge increases in clutch size - there weren't very many female greenriders. Or that many Weyrs, for that matter. Zharesti probably knew this Candidate's mother. "Are you about ... twenty? Twenty-one? Nearly out of Candidacy?"

"Twenty." Labarr replied.

"So a couple more Hatching's to go. Do you _want_ to be a dragonrider?"

"Definitely," he said immediately. "It's been my goal since I was little."

"Any particular dragon colour you're hoping for?" It was one of those special questions where what the person said was more important than the actual answer.

Labarr gave a laugh, "I'll take any color that will have me. I've probably got a better shot at a blue or green though, so if you've got your mature yet beautiful eye on me, now might be the time to take advantage."

Zharesti couldn't help but laugh. "I'll keep that in mind," she promised untruthfully. "Now, is it all right if I see you about some shelving I need in my office - or should I speak to your master in craft about it?"

"I'm my own man now, I'd be honored to assist you." While shelves weren't really that interesting, a _weyrwoman's_ shelves were a different matter. "Are they in need of mending, or would you like something special made?"

"I'd like the whole wall of my office given over to shelving," she admitted. "I seem to have a problem with hides and papers spreading out all over the place and I thought perhaps shelving would help." Or give her more room to pile things up, but that wasn't a thought she was prepared to entertain for long. "I won't hold you up now but come along sometime and -" she waved a hand, dismissing the details, "- measure the place or whatever."

Now that _was_ interesting. An entire wall... his mind was already churning with conceptual possibilities. "Sounds fun." and he wasn't exaggerating. He rarely got more than a few large projects a turn. Mostly he did smaller work and repairs.

"Call in when it suits you, then." Zharesti got to her feet. "If I'm not there you'll see the wall - I've pulled the furniture away from it - and you'll see the papers and hides that the shelving has to fit." They were scattered over every horizontal surface. "It's _my_ stuff, not the Weyr's," she explained in a firm tone, not wanting people to get the wrong idea about her ability as an administrator. Not even a nearly-overage Candidate.

Last updated on the November 15th 2009

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At Your Service