Can You Really?

Writers: Avery, Emma, Estelle, Yvonne
Date Posted: 18th March 2021

Characters: R'hil, Gienah, Orifa, Rikola
Description: Gineah and Rushil make another bet
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 8, day 6 of Turn 10

It had taken him a few sevendays to work up the courage, but today was
the day. Rushil walked up to the kitchens at dinner and bypassed the
strange pots of soup and stew, the mouth-watering roasted herdbeast
with roasted tubers, the mounds of grains with sauces made of
who-knew-what, the cheeses, dried fruits and suspicious sausages-- and
headed straight for the dessert table, where he filled his plate with
fudge, cookies and an entire berry pie.

Triumphantly he returned to the candidate's table and set his feast
down in front of himself with a grin that felt as if it was going to
split his face in two.

Orifa looked up from her own plate, it's offerings much less sweet and
more bland than what Rushil had piled on his plate. Her eyes widened
at the display and she looked up at him, then back down at his plate.
"Oh wow...Rushil, that's a lot of sweets."

"Yup." He sat down and picked up his fork. "I always wanted to eat a
whole pie but we never had enough pies for everyone. There's so much
food here, so why shouldn't I have a pie to myself?"

Gienah looked up from her meal at the words "whole pie", eager to see
what was going on, and nearly choked on a mouthful of tuber. "You're not
really going to eat all that, Rushil? You'll be sick."

"When my little brother eats sweets, he gets hyper and runs around
like crazy." Orifa looked at Rushil and tilted her head. "Maybe he'll
do that too."

"You're just mad because you didn't think of it first." Rushil dug his
fork into the pie and closed his eyes in bliss at the first bite. The
pie was still warm, sticky sweet and tasted like the last of the
summer days.

Orifa looked wistfully at the pie, looked down at her own plate, then
back at Rushil's; the Healers had put her on a 'healthy diet' and she
couldn't have that many sweets. "Can I have...just a little bite?"

If he shared, then he wouldn't have eaten a _whole_ pie. But it was a
girl asking, and there would always be tomorrow's dinner... "Sure."

"You're going to be sick, and you'll get a tongue-lashing from the
Weyrhealer," Gienah predicted. She watched Rushil's expression as he
took a bite, then eyed the pie enviously.

Rushil dug another forkful of pie from the pie plate. "Nah, I ain't
going to get sick. This is the best decision I made this sevenday."

Orifa sighed, then looked down at her plate. She knew she shouldn't
have any pie; even with the added exercise, the Weyrlingmaster's had
been firm with her. No sweets. But her eyes fell on the pie again.
"You need more than a pie."

Rikola had been watching the byplay with a look of amusement crossing
her face. "Why don't you just give her a tiny bit of a slice Rushil.
Then she'll stop mooning over the sharding thing." She reached for her
cutlery and cut a piece from a slice of roasted wherry and pointedly
dipped it in sauce, before forking a salad leaf up as well.

"I _have_ more than a pie." Rushil took a bite of a cookie for emphasis.
He then turned to Orifa. "Just take your fork and dig in. It's more fun
to eat it that way."

"I don't think she meant sweets on the side." Gienah eyed his plate.
Surely it wasn't possible to eat a whole pie...was it? "I bet you
anything you can't eat all of that and keep it down."

Rushil grinned. "What will you bet me? Because I _am_ going to eat this
entire pie."

"And keep it down," she reminded him. "I bet you a sevenday of barracks
cleaning duty. Loser - that's you - has to do the winner's share."

Rikola watched the by play with an amused look. "A sixteenth of a mark
says he'll be scrubbing the latrines for you." She knew how rich those
pies were.

Rushil whistled low. "You sure you want to offer a sevenday's worth of
chores? Because you'll be doing them, Gineah."

"I don't think so." She eyed his plate with confidence. No-one, not even
a boy, could eat that much. "Just don't be sick in the barracks, okay?
I'd hate for you to have to clean that up as well."

He grinned at her as he dug his fork into the middle of the pie. His
stomach growled in anticipation. "Last chance to back down!"

"I never back down on a bet. Especially not one I'm going to win."
Gienah leaned back in her chair. This was going to be fun to watch.
"Ready, set...eat!"

Rikola sat back and watched as she toyed with the remaining food on her
plate. "I'm sure you'll enjoy every moment of that pie going down, but not
so much when it comes back."

Rushil shrugged and dug into the pie. It was sweet and delicious, the
crust flakey and the inside gooey. His mam had sometimes made redfruit
pies, if they had the marks for the sugar, but he'd always had to
share with his brothers, mam and auntie. He let the conversation roll
over him as he ate and before long he found himself scraping the pie
plate with his fork. His stomach rumbled happily, so for good measure
he ate a cookie before settling back in his chair with a comfortable
belch.

Orifa stared at Rushil with wide eyes, her lips parted as her gaze
went back and forth between him, Gienah and Rikola. She hadn't touched
the pie, but Rushil had polished it off like it had been nothing! She
could have never eaten so much sweets without getting a headache or
getting sick. "Within half a candlemark, you're going to be sick,
Rushil. Really sick."

"She's right," probably for the first time thought Rikola. "I wouldn't go to
far from the latrines."

Rushil shrugged, settling back in his chair with a comfortably full
belly. "Says you."

The rest of the evening passed as usual, with chores and a tidy of the
barracks before lights out. Rushil sidled up to Gineah as they were
sweeping the hallway. "So. I might have another pie tomorrow for dinner.
That was tasty."

Gienah eyed him with the beginnings of concern. He didn't look sick...
Perhaps his stomach needed a nudge. Desperate times called for desperate
measures.

"I guess the Weyr isn't going to run out of pie. Hey, speaking of
dinner, you know what I might have tomorrow?" She paused. "A big, fat,
slimy packtail, all dripping with oil. You know, one of those ones
that's just on the turn, and starting to go squishy. Mmm-mm. I can smell
it now."

"That's assuming you're fit to eat anything tomorrow." Rikola "This
could be a delayed reaction."

Rushil had no idea what a packtail was, but it sounded gross. "Hey
Gineah-- how about I bet you a sevenday's worth of barrack cleaning
duties if you eat a big, squishy packtail dripping with oil? You in?"

Gienah shook her head in despair. It wasn't working. She was making
herself feel queasy, but not Rushil. She glanced over at the other
girls. "Come on, help me out here. What else is disgusting and stinky?"

"Liver, a big plate of bovine livers, flash grilled until it's just
cooked, but still pink in the middles," began Rikola, puposely thinking
of one of the most disgusting foods she could. "Just that, no sauces, no
vegetables."

"Yeah, how about a big, squishy packtail, _stuffed_ with half-cooked
bovine livers. And topped with a...a dead crawlie. Eurgh, yuck." Gienah
clapped a hand over her mouth, puffed out her cheeks and made some
vomiting noises, then looked back at Rushil. He was showing a distinct
failure to bring up the pie. "No? Nothing?"

He shrugged guilelessly. "It was a really good pie?"

Gienah groaned. She was out of ideas, and it looked like she was going
to be on double barracks cleaning duty for a sevenday. "I give up. You
must have an extra stomach in there somewhere, like a dragon."

Shaking her head, Orifa sighed, feeling slightly nauseated at some of
the suggestions coming from her peers. "I think it's all kind of
gross, really."

A wide grin spread across Rushil's face. "If you give up, then I win!
_And_ I got a whole pie! Best day _ever_!"

Gienah sighed heavily and carried on with her sweeping. At least she'd
learned something; she was never, ever again going to bet against a boy
in an eating contest.

Last updated on the July 21st 2021

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Can You Really?