Gossip

Writers: AL, Kastaka
Date Posted: 16th April 2009

Characters: Vasha, Meledei
Description: Meledei asks Vasha to keep an eye out for her stalker
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 10 of Turn 5

"Hey Vasha." Meledei greeted the candidate with a smile. She hadn't seen much of the dragonhealer in training since her impression, but with the weyrling schedule, that was to be expected. "How goes it?"

"It goes," replied Vasha with a slightly lopsided smile. "How's Elleth doing?" She sounded genuinely interested, rather than just asking for formality's sake.

"She's fine. Curious about anything, quite playful." Playful indeed, Elleth liked people, firelizards, everyone and enjoyed spending time with others. She was still small, but she was growing, a sign that everything was just fine. "She acquired a ball yesterday and has been messing around with that."

"A... ball?" Vasha couldn't quite visualise a gold dragon kicking a ball around, or nosing it around, or whatever they might be doing with it. It just didn't fit with the dignity that she'd normally attribute to a queen dragon.

Meledei giggled - it had quite surprised her and quite a few of the other candidates as well. As did her possessiveness of it. "Yeah, it's quite funny. She was playing with it most of the day yesterday while I was in class and drills."

"Well," said Vasha, trying to recover from her surprise, "she is quite young, I suppose. Children do the oddest things, it's not surprising that dragon children do the same."

"It was a child - a human child - who gave her the ball." Meledei explained. Then her smile faded a bit. "Actually, I was hoping you might be able to help me."

"Hmm?" As interesting as a gold dragon playing with a child's ball was, Vasha always liked to be helpful.

"Well, you see, someone's been sending me these gifts and things." Meledei still found it odd, but she wasn't going to stop looking for the person. "And I was wondering if you heard of any candidates doing anything like painting a picture of me or perhaps talking about me in particular?"

Vasha tried to think over her interactions with the few remaining candidates and the time she spent in the practically abandoned candidate barracks. "Yishana's quite good at painting," she offered, "and of course there's been a lot of gossip going around about the new goldrider, although I can't say I believe most of it," she smiled, "but nothing so specific, no, I'm afraid."

"Gossip?" Meledei forgot about her original question with that bit of information. "What sort of gossip?"

"Oh, well there's the usual stuff about how you're the fairest damsel who ever lived and how certain boys are totally going to Impress bronze and have a bit of that," Vasha recited, in a tone which suggested extreme boredom from the endless repetition of these items, "and then there's the backbiting about how you're too plain and ordinary to deserve her and how she would totally go better with certain girls' golden-blonde tresses, don't you think; and quite a lot of confusion at how there aren't a load of stories filtering down from the weyrling class about you having standard-issue goldrider hissyfits about being better than everyone else and demanding to be put on a pedestal, I think quite a few of the girls were looking forwards to them and they're quite disappointed with you really," she grinned.

As Vasha began to her descripon, Meledei burst out laughing. Her? The fairest? The gold was certainly blinding their eyes. The laughter was cut short as Vasha continued and Meledei rolled her eyes. The first was definitely from the male side of the spectrum, the second from the female. "Yes, well, I never claimed to be a beauty and I already know that I don't deserve her. Not giving her back though. Hm. So should I start having fits then?"

"Apparently so," replied Vasha, trying not to chuckle too much. "You should be demanding better living conditions, and complaining about being stuck in classes with the greenriders, and you certainly shouldn't be taking any orders from L'pin or G'len, that's just shocking!" Vasha's smirk faded a little into seriousness. "And you totally deserve Elleth. How long have you been Standing now? It's obvious that all the greens knew what you were destined for, or you'd have had one long ago. All the self-important little creatures who came swarming in to have a go at her didn't have a hope with you around. What do you think makes a good Weyrwoman, flashing green eyes, red hair and a fiery temper?"

"Well, I've got the green eyes." Meledei pulled her hair around and flicked the end of her tail. "I wonder if there's a way I could change my hair to red. Eh?" The weyrling flipped her braid back behind her shoulders then shrugged. "I've been standing for as long as I was eligible to stand. I don't think I deserve Elleth, but I'm grateful for her." Ah, but how many people had taken notice of her now that she had a gold? One in particular bothered her and the thought of him brought Meledei back to her original purpose. "Anyway, would you do me a favour and keep an eye out on candidates? If you notice anyone doing anything in regards to maybe sending some presents to me or something, will you let me know?"

"Sure, I'll keep a look out," Vasha promised. "I don't think any of the guys really have the patience for that kind of thing, though, but maybe one of them's more crafty than he looks."

"You never know with guys - they can be sneaky." Meledei just wished that a particular one wasn't quite so sneaky.

Last updated on the April 27th 2009

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