Work and More Work

Writers: AL, Devin
Date Posted: 29th November 2008

Characters: Cosani, Meledei
Description: Cosani and Mel chat while peeling tubers.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 12, day 26 of Turn 4

Cosani

Mel paused when she came close to nicking her finger with the knife. She hadn't actually cut it, but it was too close for comfort. She stared down at her hand holding the knife, mentally chiding it for being so careless and admonishing it to pay better attention. Then she went back to work to finish getting the peeling off of the tuber that she had been working on before her close call. "To be honest, I rather like having the skins on them." Mel admitted, glancing over at Cosani. The candidate shifted, the stool a rather uncomfortable fit, but it was better than sitting on the dirty floor where a few of the stray peelings lay curling at her feet.

"This is _so_ boring," Cosani grumbled. She hadn't run away and gone through everything she had just to get stuck with kitchen duty.

"Alas, I share your sentiment." Mel managed to get the most recent strip of skin into the bucket set aside for the peelings. She turned the tuber over in her hand, then tossed it to her other side where sat the bucket reserved for peeled tubers. She picked up another one from the lumpy sack that slouched between the two girls and began to work on it. "But it doesn't last forever and at least we don't have to do it _all_ the time."

"No. There's lots of other fun things to do like scrubbing pots and sweeping floors," Cosani said as she slashed at the tuber, not caring where the peelings went. Even if she was careful, some of them inevitably missed the bucket and she would have to clean up when she was done anyway.

"Come now, it's not all work work work." Mel eyed the peelings. SHe would be sure to save those for the porcines. No sense in letting them go to ways, and Meybay adored tubers, even if they were just the peelings. "And we do have to earn our keep after all." Of course, she was a crafter and had other duties as well. Granted, she'd have a lot more in the way of chores if she hadn't been in a craft.

"Yeah, yeah." Cosani hadn't minded chores so much at Dragonsfall, but now that she'd failed, she wondered how much longer she'd be stuck doing Candidate chores. What if she didn't Impress this time, or the next, or the next? **It's still better than living with grandda.**

Yes, there was that.

"You could always craft." Mel suggested, letting go of a puff of hair in an attempt to get a couple of wavy strands of hair out of her face. "Do something you really enjoy. You would still have to do chores, but not nearly as many and you would be doing something you might enjoy more."

"Crafting just means more rules." And it would feel like admitting defeat.

"You're going to find rules wherever you go, whatever you do." Mel cautioned, her knife pausing then resuming its work. "Crafting, being a candidate, or if you become a dragonrider."

Cosani looked down at the tuber she was peeling. "I'll pay that price to have a dragon." The ultimate security. No one could ever, ever make her go back to the hold once she had a dragon.

"Suit yourself." Mel wasn't going to argue. She enjoyed her craft and didn't find it any more constraining than anything else. "Do you think you'll impress this time around? Perhaps you'll be our next goldrider!"

"Maybe that's why I didn't Impress last time," Cosani said thoughtfully. "There wasn't a gold."

"Maybe." No one really knew _why_ dragons picked who they picked. Mel certainly didn't know why none had picked her. The girl tossed the next finished tuber into the bucket and reached down to get another only to find that she had finished. "Looks like I'm all out. Need some help on yours?"

"Um ... sure." Cosani was a little surprised at the offer. Mel could have taken off now that her sack was done.

Mel popped off of her stool and moved over to Cosani's sack, gathering a few tubers and then tossing them into her own. "So what else do you have to do after this?"

"I have to help bring clean sheets back to the barracks. That's not _so_ bad. At least everyone has to make their own beds."

"I'll be heading back to my animals." Certainly a much better way to spend her time than peeling tubers. "We've got a bovine ready to calf and the journeyman I'm working with is as nervous as a weyrling about to go /between/ for the first time."

Cosani wrinkled her nose. "I'll stick with the sheets."

Mel giggled. "Come on, the animals are loads more fun, and watching one give birth...well, it's actually quite fascinating."

"If by 'fascinating' you mean 'disgusting' then I agree."

"It's not really disgusting once you get used to it. There's a lot less blood than you think there would be." Indeed, she had thought it would be a lot worse when she had first been told about such things. Yet, by that time, not only was she used to it, but she just couldn't get over what a wonderful thing it was. A new life out of all that pain.

"There's an awful lot of slime involved," Cosani said.

"But it cleans up just fine." Mel insisted with a grin. "But that's okay, not everyone's into that sort of thing."

"Like I said, I'll stick with sheets. And tubers." Cosani tossed another one into the bucket.

The plunk from Cosani's bucket was harmonized with one from Mel's bucket. "To each his or her own. By the way, a feline had a litter recently. You want to go see them sometime? The babies are adorable!"

Cosani tried to hide the little smile that played on her lips. "Maybe ... if you're not going to make high pitched squeals or anything."

"I'll do my very best to refrain from doing so." Mel stated seriously, though she two was attempting to hide her own smile. "Perhaps after dinner? I'll take you over and show them to you."

Cosani gave a slight shrug. "I guess I don't have anything better to do." To herself, at least, she had to admit that kittens were very cute.

"Good. So after dinner? I'll be eating about the eighteenth and a half candlemark." Mel hoped that the kittens would help lighten Cosani up. Perhaps she would take one with her. They'd be ready to leave their mother in a couple of sevendays.

"Okay." Cosani grabbed another tuber and was relieved to see the sack was almost empty.

"Only two more." Mel stated by way of encouragement as she took the second to last one. "Then you can get on with your other duties. The sooner you get to them, the sooner you get done, right?"

"Yeah." After a moment, she added a quiet, "Thanks."

"No problem. I don't mind. I know it's not the most fun job in Pern." Mel's knife passed over, the surface of the tuber, the skin peeling away at the eager strokes. "I'll be taking the peelings with me. The porcines will just love them."

Cosani picked up the last tuber. Although she preferred doing things on her own, some things were easier with help.

Last updated on the November 30th 2008

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