Close Call

Writers: Heather, Mirren
Date Posted: 21st January 2016

Characters: Doria, R'nar, D'zul
Description: The two candidates run across an unsavory rider while completing their chores.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 4, day 1 of Turn 8
Notes: Mentioned: Cyradis

It's not a good idea to read while you walk, unless there's no one around. Equally, it's not a good idea to walk and do puzzles in a crowded place.

Doria knew that, but she was working on trying to solve a puzzle one of her mother's friends had set for her. It involved looking for words in a grid of seemingly random letters. Some might call it a waste of time, but the apprentice weaver and candidate adored them. She glanced up to make sure she was still heading toward her candidate chore group before looking back down.

Ranar looked up to see that it was Doria approaching, with some sort of paper in her hand that she seemed entranced by. It wasn't the first time that Ranar had been paired with the other candidate but they didn't see much of each other since she was a crafter as well as Candidate.

"Evening."

Doria looked up, startled. "Oh, evening." She folded her puzzle before anyone saw and thought her strange for finding it so interesting.

"Here." Ranar handed her one of the buckets he'd brought. They were in charge of scrubbing the Dining Cavern floors that evening.

"Thanks." She tucked the puzzle into her pocket and took the bucket. She didn't need to say anything, her expression said it all - 'floors again?'

Ranar answered her expression with one of his own that clearly said, 'Yes, this sucks.' Even the Weyrwoman's son had to do menial chores like the rest of the Candidates. There were usually some murmurs among the other Candidates about Ranar and his connection to Cyradis, but he tried to block it out. He was focused on Impressing, and nothing else mattered.

Doria sighed. "I'll start over there." She pointed toward the far side of the dining cavern, where no one sat eating. Where no one else was, was usually her favourite place to be.

That left Ranar to take the side of the cavern where a few tables of people sat eating. With a sigh he started in the corner, figuring he could work his way across the room that way. Picking up the thick-bristled brush and sliding his hand through the strap, Ranar got down upon his knees and began scrubbing.

There had to be a better way, Doria decided, than scrubbing like this. There probably was, they just liked to make candidates work hard. She glanced over to where Ranar worked. He was a hard worker, she could see that from here.

"Oh, look at that, I got mud all over the area you're trying to clean." A voice sneered. D'zul was looking down at Doria with a condescending curl of his lip.

Doria looked up at him and frowned. He'd left a mess. Why did some people have to be thoughtless? "Excuse me," she muttered and moved to clean up his footprints.

D'zul winked at the buddy who was standing with him as stepped around Doria, leaving more footprints and mud where she had just been standing. "Oh dear, looks like I get this spot dirty too."

**Maybe you should take your boots off** Doria thought. She frowned and stood to move her bucket away from the pest. She'd clean up after him when he was gone.

"Why don't you come with me to my weyr? I've got some things there you could polish." D'zul said, reaching down for Doria's elbow.

She jerked away. "No thanks," she muttered. "I'm working." She wished she was one of those girls who were brave enough to throw a sponge at him or something.

"Sweetie, I don't care if you are -"

"She's working. Candidate chores. I think she made that clear." Ranar's soft alto cut through the brownrider's voice with surprising strength. At some point during the confrontation he had abandoned his bucket and scrub brush.

D'zul frowned, "Who are you?"

The rider with D'zul clapped the brownrider on the shoulder, "Don't you recognize that curly hair? Come on man, this is the Weyrwoman's kid."

It seemed to take a moment for D'zul to catch on, but when he did he raised both hands, eyes widening a bit as he looked between Ranar and Doria. "I was just playing around." He said as he backed up a step and then turned and high-tailed it from the Dining Cavern.

Doria stood with her big eyes wider than usual. "Thank you," she said softly. She didn't _think_ he'd have forced her into doing anything she didn't want to do, but that didn't stop her from trembling slightly. "If you hadn't been here…" She swallowed.

"Then he would have continued being an ass." Ranar finished for her. For once being the "Weyrwoman's kid" had come in relatively handy.

"Yes," she agreed. "And spreading mud." She frowned at the boot prints which led all the way to the door." She sighed and knelt back down to clean them up - again.

"Are you okay?" Ranar asked, concern shining in his dark brown eyes.

She sat back and gave him a half-smile. "I'm fine, thank you." She just wasn't good at sticking up for herself; if Ranar hadn't come up when he had, it might have been easier to go along with that rider.

Last updated on the January 27th 2016

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