Two-Faced Friends [Maggie]

[Lan]

{desc=Yentil/Kaydian}

"Of course," Yentil replied with a smile, although there was an acerbic quality to her voice that never really left. The cook ignored her, shoving her on her way to peel a bin full of the ugliest tubers she had ever seen. With a Lord Holder as Senior Weyrleader, shouldn't the food be getting better? Ah well... changes in leadership hardly mattered to those that scrubbed the floors and threw out the peelings. It's not like he could do much worse than those that let dragonriders like that male tanrider get away with whatever he sharding well pleased.

She sat down in a corner, making herself comfortable on a stool with short legs. A knife held deftly in her hand, she made short work of the first quarter of the sack of potatoes before taking a break to stretch her hand. Listening to the faint pops in the joints, she wondered if maybe she was starting to get old. Of course, she wasn't getting old... she was still fairly young by anyone's standards. She did feel old, though.

Someone called her over and she went willingly, helping carry a large pot and settle it over one of the fires. Relinquished to return to her original duty, the kitchen hand wiped her hands and turned to see a young man at her station. Instantly, she frowned. One look and she could tell exactly what kind of person he was.

Dragon candidate. It was all she could do to keep the word from seething between her teeth. Instead, she focused her energy in the most twistedly positive way possible. Smiling kindly, although with no brightness in her eyes, she approached the young man with a short, quick strides.

"Hello there, darlin'." There was something about the way she said the word that didn't sound wholly sincere. It was a tone akin to that used to soothe a herdbeast before the slaughter. "Are you my special helper for the day?" Chores, the dragonriders called them... and that was exactly how the kids treated them. Not that she could blame them; it wasn't like Yentil expected anyone to actually enjoy the work. But, by Faranth's raggedy rear end, they could at least try to take some pride in their work. Spindly hands encircled a spare knife left on a nearby table and she offered it to the boy. "Do you know how to use one of these?" From his gangly demeanor she highly doubted it.

[Maggie]

Kaydian had a little bounce in his step as he approached the kitchen. Pretty yawned sleepily from around his neck. Flare was flying overhead, going to hang upside down in the rafters of the kitchen, out of the way. Kaydian smiled up at him. He was very pleased that the kitchen workers had accepted to let him do chores there again. He needed to challenge himself and feeding everyone was a very important job.

He faltered as he saw the look on Yentil's face as he approached. His posture, that had been a little straighter than usual, returned to his normal terrified hunch. He grabbed the knife and looked down at his feet. "I do. I'm a drudge," he answered, then frowned. "Was a drudge," he corrected, sounding almost confused. But Yusk would be sad if he didn't admit to being one of her babies. "At Bitra, but Yusk said that if I don't Impress I can stay and be a drudge here." That thought made him smile a bit.

He looked at the tubers she had already peeled, then sat down to work. They needed to be just peeled, not cut. He worked quickly, making sure that the potato was perfect before tossing it into the pile of peeled ones and grabbing another. Yusk said that he needed to make friends other then Seph and Seidon. She wanted everyone to love her babies. He thought of the sweet green wher and hasarded a quick, nervous glance up. "My name is Kaydian," he offered. "What's your name? I... thank you for letting me help."

[Lan]

There was a sudden, biting sting at his words, and as he settled down into a hunch that she knew so well (for she had one herself) she felt... sorry. It was a sense of regret Yentil didn't often feel. This was one of her own, a kitchen drudge raised like herself: the downtrodden of the Weyrborn. Instantly her face moved from its devious perkiness to a blank expression. Maybe she should learn to not judge a book by its cover... or, maybe she was wrong just this once. He was still a dragon candidate, after all. She was, at least, half right.

Even so, she didn't say anything right away. They worked in silence, Yentil occasionally looking up to admire his handiwork. He had done this before. She didn't even have to scold him for taking off too much of the flesh of the tubers. If anything, he was maybe a bit slow... but his potatoes were nicely cut all the same.

"Yentil," she offered in return, her voice no longer sickeningly sweet. Instead a tone of roughness had returned. "And... I'm sorry about that." She bit her tongue for a moment, focusing on a particularly difficult last knot on the potato before tossing it into the finished pile and moving on. "I thought you were one of those mindless floozies we get from the chore roster. Didn't realize you were actually useful." There was a brief flash of a smile, but it was gone as soon as it had arrived. Smiles were saved for customers and dragonriders. Her own kind were allowed to see her real complexion.

"Where did you transfer from?" She chose to temporarily ignore the candidate part of his character for the moment; after all, there was a chance that he was a wher candidate or that he was a dragon candidate and would not bond at all. He did mention a wher's name, Yusk, so she almost wanted to believe he could be a wher candidate. Not all of them stayed up as late as their bonded counterparts. Wherhandlers were still considered almost decent in her book. They fought hard for Weyr and Hold with their feet on the ground; they didn't forget about the peons while their heads were in the clouds.

[Maggie]

Kaydian gave her a tentative smile. She could kind of understand, he supposed. She hadn't been suddenly snatched away from everything and expected to fulfill a role he hardly understood. "I grew up at Bitra Hold," he told her quietly. "People weren't very nice there. I like it better here. I was supposed to be a Candidate at Benden, but... I wasn't very good at being a Candidate there so they sent me here instead." He blushed a bit at that, ashamed. It was for the best and they had meant well, but it still hurt to know that the Weyr that had Searched him and torn him away from his life had not even wanted him.

"I... I'm glad they're letting me do kitchen chores again," he murmured. "I like kitchen chores. I just... I like things tidy and when it's not, it's frightening and they get mad when I keep tidying."

He gave her another nervous glance. "Have you always lived here?"

[Lan]

Bitra. She had never lived in the Hold, but even Fort Weyr had heard of its cruelty. It gave her chills. This fellow had grown up in that? Bitra was a place where men were supposed to be worse than dragonmen. "I wasn't very good at being a candidate either," Yentil admitted with a bitter chuckle. Another peeled tuber was tossed into the tub of saltwater with a dull plop. She wiped her hands instinctively on her apron, then picked up the next potato to skin.

"Dragonmen aren't exactly tidy creatures," Yentil soliliquized, her tone that of antipathy, "I'm sure you've seen their candidates' barracks well enough. Their personal weyrs aren't much better, from what I hear." Each long, curly peel was taken off with more and more precision and care. With someone here to talk with, work seemed to be a bit more worth doing... even if he was a bit of a odd fellow. "Maybe if you... Impress... you'll be able to set a good example." She highly doubted it.

"Only children have always lived here, Kaydian... and even they don't last long. I've been here... six, seven turns?" During the break she tossed yet another peeled potato amongst its cleaned friends, then took her time selecting her next victim as she took inventory of what they had left. One thing that could be said about Kaydian... he certainly made peeling tubers go a lot quicker than her just doing it on her own. "I was born at Fort Weyr." The statement hung in the air like the stench of rotting meat... or maybe that was just Yentil's imagination? With increased vigor she took to peeling once more.

"People weren't very nice there, either," she finally admitted, giving him a brief, half-hearted smile. "Guess we have that in common, too."

[Maggie]

Kaydian looked up at her in admiring shock. "You were a Candidate too? And they let you stay here? Yusk promised, but I thought..." He shook his head a bit. "I... I should love being a Candidate," he admitted to her in a low tone. "But I... I'm not smart like Seph and Seidon and all of them. Yusk says I'm doing better and I'm going to Impress, but... I think the Search dragon made a mistake," he finished miserably.

He did nod emphatically at her comment about them not being tidy. "I make sure the barracks stay tidy, though. I keep Seidon and my room perfect and I try to make sure to keep everywhere that isn't off limits nice and organised." He tossed another perfect potato into the peeled bin, grabbing another to peel. He worked methodically, not leaving even the smallest shaving of peel on it.

He blushed and ducked his head as she reprimanded her. He should have known that, it was part of the history that they learned as Candidates. It never seemed to stick, though. "I think Seidon is from Fort too," he offered, when she said where she came from. "It's very big. I don't think I could live there." He thought he had heard something about bad blood between the two Weyrs, but he wasn't too sure what it was about and didn't really pay any attention to it.

[Lan]

"I was a candidate at Fort," Yentil corrected. She cursed under her breath as a peel with a bit too much potato on it split off from her knife. "I left for Dalibor soon after. It turns out Fort doesn't like people getting a candidate's education when they have no interest in dragons." The soothing sound of blades cutting through starch filled pause as Yentil decided to concentrate more on her work than on the conversation. There weren't a whole lot of potatoes left to peel and the quicker she got that done the quicker she could move on to other things. Once Kaydian had grabbed the last potato from the sack she picked the brown bag up and threw it in a nearby stash of similar brown bags.

"It is nicer here, though... even if there are still dragonmen about... and even if every year or so something seems to want to kill us." The kitchen hand chuckled and grabbed one handle of the very large metal pot they had been shucking the tubers into. Once Kaydian had finished the last potato she nodded at him to take the other side. "I don't think you have to worry about them letting you stay here, either." She squat down to pick up the tub with her legs so that she wouldn't hurt her back. "The Weyr always need more staff, with or without that blasted kitchen fire a few turns back." Yentil looked to Kaydian to see when he was ready to lift. "It's not like those precious dragonmen are going to get their lazy hides down here to cook for themselves."

[Maggie]

"You don't like dragons?" Kaydian asked her, surprised. "I like them. They're nicer than people. Whers too. And flitts. They don't care if you're a drudge or if you're stupid... I mean some of them are mean and scary, but they're mean and scary to everyone." He paused. "Yusk gives me hugs when I'm scared. Sometimes she even sings to me. She's very sweet. And smart. She can open doors!" He gave Yentil a hopeful smile. He also pointedly didn't mention Waroth. Weslieth was ok and chipper, but Waroth was absolutely terrifying.

He grabbed the other side, pleased that he didn't have to stoop too much to keep the basin even and the weight equally distributed. "I'm glad they'd let me stay, even if there's things trying to kill us here," he murmured. "I like it here. Even at other Weyrs the riders were... They sent me here because I was... strange," he admitted, looking down at his feet as he walked, although he followed her lead as to where they were going. "Here at least the Candidatemasters are trying to help even if Candidatemaster Nimara is very scary. Candidatemaster Jasmine is very nice about finding solutions and Yusk is always there if we're feeling sad or scared."