Early Morning Babbles

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 07:15:56 GMT

Where: Fort Bowl
When: Early morning, day 31, month 12, Turn 13, of the 10th Interval.
Who: Nadzia, Quintar, P'draig

Center of the Fort Weyr Bowl
The Bowl of Fort Weyr, a large, featureless plain surrounded by steep mountain cliffs, stretches out around you. It is approximately oval in shape, about 2700 meters along the long axis running southwest to northeast, and about half that distance across the short axis. You stand in its approximate center. The soil of the bowl is somewhat sandy.
To the northwest is the large cavern used for the Weyrling barracks. To the west is the fenced off area where the Weyr's herds are kept, and the lake shore is to the southwest. To the northeast can be seen the ledges for the junior queens and the weyrleaders. The large entrance to the Hatching Grounds can also be seen to the northeast and to the east are the Lower Caverns.

Quintar walks across the bowl from the Lower Caverns.
Quintar has arrived.

Early morning and a blanket of snow covers the bowl; untouched but not for long. From inside the caverns comes the unmistakable noise of children and barely a moment later there bursts a group of three out into the snow. Running along behind them, and still trying to put a coat on the last of the children, is Nadzia. "Not for long, remember. You're not to get too cold or they'll make me sit you in the springs till you shrivel." Her tone is light and joking, and the children really don't seem to care about the threat.

Quintar makes his way out of the caverns a little behind the gaggle of children and what appears to be thier mother or nanny for the day. "Good luck with that lot." He murmers to her cheerfully as he comes up next to her, he's wrapped up nice and tight, hat, gloves and a big jacket to keep him warm. He has a shovel resting against his shoulder. "They'll come back when they can't hold the snowballs any more and they want a nice hot drink."

Nadzia turns at the voice at her shoulder, "Oh hi!" His comment makes her laugh lightly and she nods, "Or when one of them gets a stone in the face from the snowball that isn't or falls down and gets wet or another hundred or so reasons that children seem to find when there's snow around." Amazingly she seems to not need to breathe too often, or perhaps talking so fast is just normal to her. "Oh, sorry, I'm not usually this rude." She offers a hand over, "Nadzia. I'm sort of new here, but not really. I mean I was born nearby but not here. I'm babbling. Sorry."

P'draig comes from the northwest, by the weyrling barracks.
P'draig has arrived.

Quintar is standing near the entrance of the caverns next to Nadzia, a small gaggle of children having just run off across the early morning blanket of snow to have some fun. "Oh I can just imagine, I remember all those things happening when I was a kid." He replies before listening to the stream of words with abemused smile. Shifting the shovel out of the way when she offers up her name and her hand he holds out his own gloved hand to her. "Quintar." He replies, "I'm the same though, born and raised in one of the local cotholds and then moved here when space started getting a bit too tight."

Nadzia launches almost immediately into another stream of speech, bouncing Quintar's hand up and down as she does so. "Really? Which one? What brought you here? I'm the Sea hold myself, or I used to be. But my sister decided she had to leave and then I thought why stay round because it's only going to get dull so I should find somewhere fun, right?" She only pauses for breath when she spots one of the children about to dump and entire armful of snow on a younger one, "Kasryn! Be nice or I'll send you back inside!"

P'draig comes across the bowl, scarf wound around his neck, hands sunk in the pockets of his jacket. "Whoa ..." he laughs as that same gaggle of children run by. "Careful there, don't slip ..." He continues on, noticing Quintar and Nadzia. "Good morning!"

Quintar's gaze flickers down to his hand and the unmerciless treatment it's receiving, his look is certainly amused as it returns to the blue eyed girl. "I come from one of the small farm cot holds about a days walk out of the weyr." He explains to her. "But it was getting too crowded so I was sent here to stay with my Auntie Arya." He uses the distraction of the children to try and rescue his hand so he can wave to P'draig. "And a lovely morning it is too, if you like cold wet snow everywhere?"

Nadzia nods, glancing over towards the children and spotting P'draig making his way over. Still holding Quintar's hand she waves at him, then realises what she just did and lets go with a blush. "Good morning!" Back to Quintar she adds, "It's good when a hold's crowded though it means there's always something for someone to do so you never get bored. but here's twice as good for that, I mean even when you have a rest day there's still things to do if you look hard enough."

"It looks pretty?" P'draig hazards and then nods as a snowball battle starts up. "And that can be fun." He smiles over at Quintar and returns Nadzia's wave. "Hey there. From the Hold?"

Quintar just shakes his head at the girl and laughs. "It's fine dear." He tells her before adding. "Bored happened a lot, too many people meant that the work got done all the quicker." He replies to her before answering P'draig. "For a while yeah I suppose it is kinda pretty. But not for too long, some of us get really sick of it quite quickly." He says with a mock grimace as he holds the shovel up into view again.

Nadzia grins, replying to Quintar first. "I must've been doing the wrong jobs, people kept making more for me." To P'draig she nods, launching into one of her trademark breathless babbles, "Not any more, thoug hof course I used to be I can't entirely hide that fact form anyone." She tugs quickly on her sweater to prove the point, "I tend to give myself away, but it's nice to meet you..." She checks the knot quickly, "Oh! Weyrlingmaster."

"Work never ends," muses P'draig wryly for Quintar's shovel and then blinks at Nadzia's stream of babble. He tries to get it all, squinting a little as he focuses on the young woman, then just settles for pulling one hand out of his pocket and extending it her way. "P'draig. Brown Jekzith's and yep, Weyrlingmaster. Well met ... ?" He leaves a questioning gap for her name.

Quintar chuckles lightly at the answer. "Just something to keep you busy then?" He asks a little teasingly. "Don't I know it, M'yr was joking that he was going to get me assigned to permanently shoveling the bowl. Least I hope he was joking." He muses.

Nadzia glances down at her boots, her mutter of "I just waved someone else's hand at the Weyrlingmaster." perhaps a touch louder than she had wanted. But her embarassment isn't enough to curb her manners, and she offers a hand over to P'draig, "Nadzia. Currently resident of the weyr but hoping that might change eventually if I manage to learn everything I need and get promoted or something, though I'm on the littles at the moment. Oh!" It's only then she remembers her charges and looks out across the bowl just in time to see one of the girls get a snowball full in the face.

"Oh well that's no fun." P'draig makes a sympathetic face at Quintar. "And I'll hope the same. Plenty of folks to help with that job after all, right?" Paying no mind to the fact that Nadzia was just waving Quintar's hand at him, he just shakes hers firmly, a friendly grin on his face. "Nadzia. Nice name. And that'll keep you running all day long. Guess you'll be watching mind not too long from now." He looks over his shoulder as Nadzia's eyes shift over to the children. "Oof ... that happened to me last night."

Quintar nods his head with a rueful smile. "I could probably rope some of the younger onesi nto helping make snow forts, of course they'd have to be instructed to take the snow from the paths. Though it could make an interesting gauntlet to run for anyone else." He says with a laugh. "Anyway P'draig, have you and Illya actaully managed to settle on any names for the baby yet?" He enquires.

It's P'draig's hands turn for an excited bounce now, "You're having a baby?" Nadzia's voice is almost a squeak, "Oh that's wonderful, and there's always plenty of space for more in the nursery, or are you going to keep it yourself? poo thing being born in the winter. Is it's mother doing well?" A quick glance to the kids comforts her that the tantrum she had thought would happen wasn't impending, and it's back to the men at her side and Quintar in particular, "You can make snow Forts? I bet the children would love that, they could eve help you clear the path if you really wanted I'm sure they wouldn't mind it it meant they got to stay out longer."

P'draig's hand rattles and shakes and he extracts it gently after a moment. "Uh yeah. Well ... I'm not. Illya is. Greenrider. My brown caught her green. And uh - well combination y'know. Won't be able to keep him or her all the time. Got eggs on the Sands y'know. Illya's doing as well as can be expected, yep." He clears his throat, blinking a little under the onslaught of words. It takes him a moment to answer Quintar. "Yeah. One for a boy, one for a girl. Dunno if Illya's sharing though, so I'd best not say." His lips quirk up in another warm smile at mention of snow forts. "Now see, that's a fun way to deal with the snow."

Quintar smiles and the grins at Nadzia. "It's the best way, all those extra hands to help clear the paths and form the killing ground for the snowballs, right across the path of every resident in the weyr." He pauses. "Or should I not be saying that in front of a senior member of weyrstaff?" He queries teasingly of P'draig. "I'll need to see if I can get her to divulge the options then." He replies.

"Oh, I remember when my cousin was having her baby she was sick for the entire time." Nadzia replies with a definite fond look on her face, "But he was such a sweet little thing when he was born. So many babies are really ugly, well not ugly really they just look a bit squashed till they're a few months old and by then they start to look okay." Quintar's comment stems the spilof owrds and she giggles, "At least I'll be here to see where to avoid, but other than that I'm not getting involved."

"Uhh ...I look a good snow fort and a snowball fight as much as the next person. Don't have to worry about problems from me," says P'draig with a laugh. His gaze shifts back to Nadzia to take in the stream of what she says next. "Yeah, Illya was sick early on. Not all the way through though."

With a happy chuckle Quintar looks over towards where the kids are, thinking. "I'm wondering if I should just go over there and try and enlist them just now." He ponders, pretty much ignoring the extra topic of pregnancy related ills for the moment.

Nadzia's expression becomes one of utter sympathy, "Oh the poor thing. But she's okay now? How much longer does she have to go?" To Quintar she quickly adds, "You can try, but you might need to duck quickly they're actually very good at hitting people even when they look like they're not looking."

"I'd say go for it. And then we can join 'em if it goes fast enough." There's a mischievous grin on P'draig's face for that then, he lifts one shoulder. "Not too much longer. Couple of weeks maybe?"

Quintar grins at Nadzia. "I know, I was one of those little torags once upon a time." He adds a winke for her benefit before waving a hand to P'draig as he shoulders the shovel. "I've got some work to do and I might need to fetch some extra shovels." And with that he saunters off towards the kids.

Nadzia waves after Quintar as he heads off, turning back to P'draig quickly after, "So are you excited? Nervous? I'd probably be bouncing off the walls if it was me, though there's no chance of me ever fathering a child so we're fine on that one. Sarina, don't!" From behind comes the unmistakable noise of another snowball to the face, and this time a wail follows immediately. "Oh Jaina, it's fine. Come here." She mutters a quick, "Sorry," then bends down to give the wailing girl a hug.

P'draig nods as Quintar steps away after the shovels. "Um ... both? And you might not be able to father one, but you could have one yourself," the brownrider points out. He only grins as Nadzia handles the little scuffle between the kids. "Hey, no problem. I've got a bunch of brothers and sisters." He hunkers down and makes some funny faces to distract Jaina.

Nadzia grins up at P'draig, "One? I'm planning on having at least four." Once Jaina's calmed enough Nadzia gives her a proper look over, letting out a noticeable sigh of relief at there being no lasting damage. "Where does it hurt?" Jaina's cheek is pointed to and Nadzia gives her a quick kiss there to make everything better, "Who wants soup?" This seems to be enough to get the other two to stop throwing things at each other, and as Nadzia stands once more she apologises to P'draig again. "I'd better get them inside and cleaned up, I'm sorry I would love to stay and chat but you know how things are. Well you don't yet, but you will soon and then you'll know how it is. Run, run, run. It was lovely meeting you, hopefully next time will be longer."

P'draig laughs gaily at Nadzia's reply. "Four ... wow. Well there you go, that'll be a nice family for you some day." He waves as she corrals the children and heads inside. "See you, Nadzia." Just then Jekzith trots over from the direction of his weyr and gives P'draig a nudge. The brownrider lifts a hand to scritch the brown. "Hey you ..." he says fondly, gazing around the snowy Bowl landscape.

Nadzia gives another wave (her own hand only this time) then head on inside with her flock.

nadzia_pern

Early Morning Babbles