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He might have hoped that he'd earned himself a bit of downtime after a hard day of challenge-making, ingredient-gathering and dimglow-replacing; but arriving many hours late to his kitchen duties, Okassis was quick to find that he'd been mistaken. Very mistaken. Never mind the fact that he'd been all but shoved out of the kitchen on his last attempt to make himself useful. No, they'd been expecting him there, and even if he'd spent his time helping another portion of the Weyr, he was now expected to work right up to the dinner shift - and that lunch he'd missed getting? Yeah, he wouldn't be getting that until he'd earned it.

Which wasn't to say they actually wanted his help in the kitchen - if you could call his bumbling attempts at cooking "help". No, they were shooing him out again. You're a strong boy, he'd been told dryly, so put those muscles to use and get these supplies from the stores!

The fact that he'd left and then been unable to find the stores until asking three separate Candidates for help didn't do much to stop his grumbling, either. Eventually, he got pointed in the right direction - shells, it had been right across the way! - and now observing the huge stacks within the caravan, Okassis couldn't help a low whistle, rubbing at his head and looking at the list in his hand. "This's gonna take a while, ain't it..." he sighed. It wasn't like everything in here was neatly labeled either; no, that would've been too easy....

Then his ears picked up a few sounds. Someone was already in here? Thank the First Egg, maybe they could help him! Walking briskly toward the sound of a scolding voice, Okassis's face lit up with hope as he caught a glimpse of a young woman, hopefully some sort of hand around here that could help. But as he opened his mouth and began to happily call out, "Hello!", he'd walked a little further around a pile of goods interposed between them, and saw what else was there....

Okassis stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the young Queen with open shock. Despite living in the Weyr for well on a week, he'd seen relatively few dragons during his stay - and for a moment, Yansanth's size just baffled him. Too big for a firelizard, too small for a dragon, too pretty for a watchwher - what did that make her?

Catching a glimpse of the Queen's yellow eyes - and knowing full well what that color meant - Okassis had been quick to raise his hands and take a step back, chuckling awkwardly. Even as his brain puzzled together the fact that, yes indeed, he was looking at a proper dragon - if a young one - he was already realizing the worrisome situation he'd walked onto. His head had been filled up with a lot of warning about the female dragons on the Hatching grounds, how they were the most likely to rip up an unfortunate Candidate that was in their way, and he didn't want to find out if they could be equally vicious off the sands.

"Whoa, sorry there! Didn't mean to spook you lot!" he hurried to say, aware that he'd become abruptly the center of attention. Not just the girl and the Gold, either - a little flitt was darting about with those anxious screeches, which just set him less and less at ease.

It occurred to him, somewhere in his mind, that he'd run into someone that by their very nature should outrank him. An Impressed Weyrling certainly had to have more weight than a week-old Candidate, after all! But the Trader in him snorted and waved away the thought that he should run for cover before he risked offense. He was here doing work, after all - he must have as much right as her to be here!

For that matter, what business did a Weyrling have in the Stores?, he wondered. A bit less alarmed, a bit more curious, he gave what he hoped would look like a properly pleasant smile, forcing his shoulders to relax. "Shards, I didn't expect to be running into anyone around down here! You trying to find something?" Okassis asked, hoping that he could gloss over the young woman's obvious embarrassment and unease.

Were all Goldriders this flighty? Okassis found himself wondering, trying to follow the girl's mumbled, distracted meaning. She seemed to have her hands quite full, trying to keep up with the dragon and firelizard both. It might not have been too long ago that she'd Impressed, though, for all Okassis knew. He remembered Nan telling him that there'd been a Queen from the last Clutch; maybe Yansanth was the very same?

"Hunting after tunnelsnakes, huh?" Okassis mused, gaining enough courage to walk a bit closer as he could get a better view of the action - though not so close that he might risk upsetting that dragon, there were some things that even his arrogant self wasn't willing to risk!

Something reminded him that he wasn't here to socialize, he was here to work - that fardling woman back in the kitchen wouldn't take too kindly to him if he got sidetracked, no doubt. But at the same time, if they had seen a tunnelsnake, maybe it was a fair diversion - the last thing anyone wanted was pests getting into the stores, right? Especially ones that had nasty bites!

"Well, you're not gonna catch anything making noise like that," the blond said critically, folding his arms in front of him. Talking directly to the queen, he said, "Tunnelsnakes aren't deaf, and they like it better if they're the ones doing the chasing. If you want to get them out, you have to out-sneak them, or out-think them, you see?"

Okassis probably should have felt bad, at least a little, for having instigated (or at least, escalated) the poor girl's troubles. Quite on the contrary, though; he smiled at her distress, shaking his head. "You can't begrudge her for wanting to do some good work, can you?" he asked. "Besides, I don't want to be picking up a bag with one of those things on it, and she she's hardly got anything to worry about if they try to bite. So it makes her happy, helps me out... and she's going to be hunting her own wherries someday, so she might as well start learning how!" He was honest about his motivations, at least.

Feeling the young dragon's head knocking against his leg, Okassis nearly recoiled - then, laughing at his own surprise, called to Annelie, "Lookit that enthusiasm!" And who am I, not to fulfill the whims of a Queen?, he thought smugly, hunching down to address the dragonet. "Whaddaya think, pretty girl? You more a sneak-hunter, or a smart-trapper? I can tell you how to do either - or both, I guess, but that'd take longer."

Oh. Shards. Okassis creased his lips, realizing exactly how far off he'd been from what he'd been guessing. Tunnelsnake... pets were much different than tunnelsnake prey.

"Is that right, is it?" he mused, rubbing at his chin. Trying to wrap his mind around the idea that anyone could think the fardling things were cute was a hopeless venture - obviously, the young gold did, and he doubted she could be persuaded otherwise. But that didn't mean...

He had it. Nodding his head, Okassis said, "Ahh, I see. Well, each to their own - but I don't think you could keep 'em as good pets. Too wild," he told the young queen, "and too easy to spook. They might die of fright." This wasn't necessarily true, mind, but it sounded properly convincing coming from the trader's mouth. "In fact," he went on, "it's probably not so good for them to be around people in the Weyr, either. Somebody else might get the idea to keep them as pets, and then what? Nothing good, that's what. So if you really wanted, you might be able to catch one - just for a bit - to play with... and then you could let it go where it's not bothering nobody, and nobody's bothering it...."

"The trick is," Okassis went on, willfully deaf to the rider's objections (oh, he'd pay for it later, and he knew he would - but there were some moments where you just had to barrel ahead with a regretful course anyway, and pay your dues when the time came!), "tunnelsnakes aren't too different from dragons, or any other folks, in some ways. They just want a couple things. Most of the reason people think they're pests, for example, is because they keep digging into food stores like this. So that's where being a little smarter comes in. Get something they like to eat, and you can set them up so you can catch them - say, in a box...."

He was grinning widely now. It was impossible not to; even if he wasn't making trouble, the little Queen was so intent, how anyone couldn't be absolutely delighted was beyond him! (Other than Annelie. If it were his dragon, he might be slapping his forehead as well.) With some diplomatic consideration, Okassis concluded: "Then you can keep them for a while, and let them go later. Who knows; they might decide they like you, and come back! That's how you know that you've really made a friend, y'know, after all; you have to let them choose."

Well, now Okassis didn't feel so great about his decision to encourage the young Queen. It had been well and great when it seemed like her rider wasn't really adamant one way or another - uncomfortable, maybe - but now she just seemed sharp and annoyed, and the way that the gold was whimpering under that gaze....

"Ah, think you'd better listen to her on this one," he said as a by to the young dragon, smiling sheepishly. There was a time to recognize when he'd been beat, and this was certainly it. Even though there was that annoyingly incessant voice trying to tell him he could push it just a bit further... well, it just wouldn't be polite to do that to someone he hadn't even introduced himself to yet! Otherwise, how would they know what name to scream curses at?

Trying to push back his more wicked side, he nodded to the young girl. "Erm, sorry if I was a bit unhelpful... might've gotten carried away. Name's Okassis, by the way - yours?"