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 Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 5:44 pm
It had been five days.
That was it. Only five days, and Uuni was refusing to look in the mirror.
Had she looked, she would not have been pleased. Regardless of the direction of the sun beating down on their little planet, Uuni had spent more time out in it in the last four days than she had ever dreamed of in her whole life.
It seemed she was always trying to get clean. To her, even the shower water seemed dirty. It had been a mistake to never take up a craft. She could have simply written all day, or sewn little needles and looked old. Instead, she did look old, and she felt like a behemeth.
So much for beauty. Her skin had burned, and then she'd gone out in the sun again and eventually it had started to peel. Now it hurt, it was dry, it itched, and it didn't help that she couldn't look down at her legs and arms sure that she was turning into heavy-muscled Janga and losing everything she'd ever worked for.
And now, early morning beckoned her over the sparkle of farmland in the distance and she took her time eating breakfast under the shade of whatever she could find. Someone would come by to yell at her; they always did.
She'd lost the ability to make a witty retort in returned. All she wanted to do during the day was drink water and sleep, or die. There was no room left for pleasure, or fun. Only Makereth had time to pull pranks or do fun things, and she was constantly envious of him and his youth. But they stuck together, never the less, and although he didn't help much, he kept her company out in the fields.
And breakfast was almost gone. The unplowed earth sat waiting, along with a few nasty whers that she'd rather have avoided as well. Whoever said hard work was a beautiful thing clearly had never been to Ghenza. This place was more blood-letting than between.
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 6:35 pm
Amelia rubbed her eyes as she made short work of a freshly baked bread roll, having wandered out with the sunrise to help with the farmwork. The project the miners had been working on had wrapped up shortly after their arrival so she'd only had time to get her hands dirty before they'd told her to go work in the fields. It made her sad, to be back in the mines for only for a few days, get a taste and fall back into the routine only to be told she wasn't needed anymore.
That had been a disappointment, though today was the first day of her field work. She wasn't sure about the sun - working in the mines sheltered her skin from the heat but here, she figured she'd quickly get a farmer's tan or burn.
When she spotted Uuni, looking disgruntled and dejected, Amelia made her way over and plopped down beside the bluerider. "Morning. Looks like we're working together today. How're you doing? You look worse for wear..." She sighed as she tilted her head to regard the other. Amelia's own clothing was dirt stained and gritty from the work in the mine but it suited the woman, gave the reason for her musculature while on Uuni the burns and frown only made the goldrider wince in sympathy. This... was likely to be a long day.
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 6:47 pm
Uuni squinted when she saw Amelia and the voice was nothing more than a blur in her ears. Makereth had to repeat it to her before she registered the words. She didn't want to register the words. The words had the word "work" in them.
There was a long groan from her throat before she swallowed the last of her breakfast and leaned her head on Makereth's shoulder.
"Don't ask," she murmured back. "It's exactly like it looks." Her eyes glanced over to the fields again and she quickly looked away as if burned. Just a few more minutes of solitude. As soon as night hit, she could collapse in bed and sleep it away.
"I'm never going to eat anything but meat ever again," she told Amelia and leaned farther into the support of her growing dragon. He was practically a midget here, but Uuni didn't mind. It kept people from taking them too seriously and not trusting him or her with daunting tasks. The less "noble tasks" they gave Uuni, the happier she'd be. "If anyone comes by, tell them I have the plague."
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 7:00 pm
Amelia laughed at that, "And get as muscle bound at their Weyrwoman? I'm not even interested in looking like that.... and I work in the mines when they want me." Behind her, Sharath had roused herself and was padding over to where the group was.
Mine, did you say you are working on the farms now? She sniffed, disapproving of such menial labour. They could be doing more important things but these people were too caught up in their mentality of 'work, work, work'.
Yeah. They don't want me with the mining teams right now. Said they'd call for me when I'm needed again. She turned her head to regard the gold as she stood near them, head held high and proud like a metallic guardian. It made Amelia smile.
"If I say that, we'll both get kicked out." She sighed, "It's such a phobia... you can't mention the plague without someone taking offense. It's like nobody takes us seriously..."
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 7:08 pm
"Bwa, mines, bwa," Uuni answered, wincing at the tightness on her face. "I would kill to work in a cold, sunless mine right now." She closed her eyes and imagined it, taking in a deep, pleased breath at the idea.
She poked it open again when Amelia mentioned getting 'kicked out'. "Good. Maybe Makereth and I can go live with the wild whers and be raised to suck blood from veins." She took in a long breath, the sarcasm on her tongue going away with the sight of a Ghenza individual nearing them.
"Time to move your lazy a**, Makereth," Uuni said allowed, getting on her feet and not offering a hand to Amelia. Too many blisters, and that would sting, so bad. As it was, she was debating taking off her shirt and ripping it into pieces, but then more of her would peel.
Makereth, tall enough now to do so, spread out one long wing and overshadowed Uuni as she stepped out into the sun. It was the only solution they'd come up with, but it wasn't perfect.
"I need to bond to a waterwher. You could steal me a wher-egg, Amelia." She grinned and immediately regretted it before she added, "I guess we should get going."
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 7:42 pm
"With Whers that're more gnarled and keen to let you know their opinion of you then the ones at home?" She replied, arching a brow. She'd never really been bothered by them but here it was a little different when you were the outsider rather then one of the crew. There was a definite wall and the Whers picked up on it quite well.
"Suck blood from veins?" She asked, confused. What was she talking about? Uuni came out of left field a lot... maybe it was one of those 'Uuni' things? Rising when the bluerider did, she glanced in the same direction and waved at the approaching supervisor only to pause.
"Wait, what?" She glanced at Uuni then, brows knitting together, "I don't think that would work, Uuni... I've never heard of a rider bonding a wher too. Maybe the sun's addled your brains a bit." Pursing her lips, she followed after Uuni, gesturing for Sharath to come with them when the gold stood her ground and eyed the supervisor with a baleful glare, daring him to tell her off. C'mon. You can eat him later okay?
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:00 pm
Uuni waved Amelia off with a hand. Ghenza didn't understand the word 'joke' and clearly, neither did Amelia. For Faranth's sake, did this people ever have fun?
She made her way down slowly across the lumpy terrain, kicking at rocks as she went. She would get masterful at this wasting time thing. Call it an art. Was there a craft for that? She'd love to go into that one.
"Maybe Makereth can make really good friends with one. What do you think about cross-species relationships, Makereth?" She received a low grumble in response that was probably somewhat of a chuckle.
"You think it's funny, but you're going to get out there, and your throat will be in little pieces, and soon you'll be screaming for water and you might end up hurling on the plants." She grimaced and picked up the pace. "That's not quite how it happened, but you get the idea. I could marry a waterwher right now."
She rubbed her eyes and peeled off some skin that was being uptight regardless of how much oil she'd spread on it this morning. She needed to be oiled more than her dragon. "What kind of stuff do you do in those mines anyway?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:07 pm
"Mmm, we'll see." She murmured with a shrug. It was hard work, and the the sun she figured it was even harder. "What's the routine? I haven't worked a farm before."
"Ah? The usual? Harvesting firestone, reinforcing the walls... they mostly had me hauling rock about and laying out charge line if they needed to blast something. The apprentice stuff, sadly. I guess they don't trust me yet." She pursed her lips, obviously irritated to have her craft questioned. Her family hadn't raised an inept Excavator, that they thought she lacked in skills really reflected back on her parents and Amelia didn't take kindly to that, thanks.
"If your skin is bothering you so much, you should go find a healer. Probably have salves for the burns." She frowned, worried by the amount of peeling Uuni was doing.
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:22 pm
Uuni glanced back and laughed. "I'm not sure have the time. Lots of pulling up plants you don't want, planting seeds of ones you do. Working with the plowwhers to make your life easier. And on the plants you harvest, you get to bend over all day. Normally, I wouldn't mind, but. . . I aint getting s**t for bending over." She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to shake out the dirt she could already feel accumulating in her hair.
When she made it back, if she made it back, she was going to take a long, long bath and never leave. Spend the whole day in bed, have a giant sexual party, and avoid Kesslan and Avery until she looked like a normal human being again. If they lived. If the plague didn't get them. Damn them, they better have been alive. Not even a firelizard to talk to them with.
"I should go find a healer, but I could use that time to sleep." And the second just sounded so much better.
"I wish I'd taken up a craft when I was young," she dreamily started as Amelia began to describe her apprentiship. "Apparently any idiot can pull food out of the ground, but I'm not allowed to write manuscripts since I wasn't 'trained' in it." She sighed and added, "Don't try to sleep with someone to get your way, either. It doesn't work so grand."
By now, she reached the field that she was going to be working today, and Amelia was going to work with her and that was that. She squinted into the distance. "Okay, there's the waterwher. We're starting there so she ends up to us at around . . . oh, a candlemark? And then I'm breaking to use the restroom and we're going to move farther down so she hits us at another candlemark." And then she was going to use the excuse to oil Makereth, so on and so forth. All of Ghenza could have despised her, but she didn't care. She had a system.
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:34 pm
"At least it's fresh air?" Amelia attempted, smiling awkwardly. "Fresh air and earthy dirt, it's supposed to be good for your skin. Dunno about the hair, so much." The sexual commentary very obviously went over her head as she walked beside the bluerider, "I could go request one for you when I have the time? If you're really too tired? Leaving those burns to get worse could be disastrous.... blisters could get infected."
"If it helps, I've been working in Minercraft since I was a toddler... it's part of the family business. Didn't have much choice but I love it. Nothing more satisfying then pressing the button that causes an explosion, if I get to touch said button here." She pursed her lips then, nonplussed at her unofficial demotion.
"Why would I try to sleep with anyone?" Amelia blinked, tilting her head to the side, "I doubt that showcases skill anymore then burying yourself up to the neck in a pit. Besides, nobody's interested in big ol' me. They're mostly interested in my status, or were anyway. Nobody gives two shards here that I'm a goldrider. It's kind of refreshing."
"So get our portion done in a candlemark or so?" Amelia confirmed, nodding. She could do that. "Where're the shovels?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:53 pm
Uuni held up a finger to silence Amelia.
"I'll have you know, it takes quite a bit of skill. Ghenza can use their primitive sticks to get off all they want, but I do have skill." And that was that, and it was the only time Amelia would ever hear it, because it wasn't something that Uuni mentioned more than once. Anyone that went around bragging about how they were in bed were probably going to get eyes rolled at them. And that wasn't the type of rolling Uuni was really in the mood for when she engaged in conversation.
The bit about the shovel, though, caused her to grin. "No shovels. You follow around after the plowwher, I guess they call them loadwhers, like a little slave." She took a piece of leather from her pocket and braided her hair quickly before making her way carefully over rows and rows of unnameable greens.
"I wouldn't try making this fun. It's not. Let's go get a bag of seeds, right?" She jerked her head over to the side, where another loadwher had choice bits of harvest that had not been used for food but instead the crop for this season.
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:00 pm
"Maybe you should stand in for me then..." Amelia murmured, looking off to the side. If Uuni was so great in bed, the bronze riders would probably appreciate her affection moreso then hers, "You have more experience'n I do."
Amelia quirked her lips at that, "No shovels? Picks? Hoes? No tools, hey? Sounds like this is more work then it needs to be. What happened to talking about efficiency?" She eyed the other workers, Ghenza natives all, with a frown. Work for the sake of work was, well, so unimaginative... and dull.
Moving to grab a bag of seeds, she tied the strings to her hip then grabbed another. "Good to go?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:08 pm
The 'stand in for me' caused her to snort. "I can't stand in for you. But don't you worry, I'll help you out." She gave the girl a wink and then redirected to the more important topic: work, wincing at the idea.
"You don't want to do this with handtools. This is as efficient as farming gets." She sighed and said. "Look, watch. You've got that big. . . woodeny thing that pulls up the earth and overturns it. It makes ridges in the ground, right? Those lumpy things. And then you put the seeds in the ridges and cover them up good so they have stuff to grow in."
She looked over at Amelia. "I'm sure if you wanted to dig each hole by itself, you could go start your own plot of land."
As far as Uuni was concerned, this was as much extra work as she wanted to do.
She got her own bags and made sure they were closed tight. These were valuable resources, almost like babies in the hold. Don't lose any.
"No," she answered, but stepped forwards anyway, thankful for the eternal shadow Makereth gave her as he switched sides and wings.
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:18 pm
Amelia sighed, "I know. But I can't say I'm looking forward to that. As long as he's handsome, I guess. You'll help me out...?" The goldrider blinked, "Er... how?"
But Uuni had already switched topics so she shrugged. A mystery for another time. "So... can't I got ahead of you, say, and poke the holes? Then all you have to do is drop the seeds in the holes and cover them up. If we alternate rows, it shouldn't be as hard on your back." She pursed her lips. Uuni seemed intent on making this as easy as possible... wasn't that a more efficient means of planting the seeds?
A large shadow fell across them, swallowing Makereth's as Sharath spread a wing and stood where her silhouette shaded all three of them. She rumbled as Amelia chuckled, Makereth, you can switch out later. I'm not going to let Mine or Yours burn.
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:29 pm
Uuni nodded. It would make her life a hell of a lot easier.
"Make sure you get them good and deep or you'll get tunnelsnakes nibbling on next year's food." Shards, she sounded like a Ghenzaholic already.
"You know what I need? A really, really long flut so I can just slide the seeds down them and then I wouldn't have to bend over at all." Just where she was going to find one of those, she had no idea.
When the shadow fell over, she glanced up, ready to run. But it was merely Sharath, and with it, came Makereth's escape. He wasn't going to be out here in the sun if he could help it.
"Yeah, get out of here, you big pet," Uuni told him. "One of us needs to have a life." She sighed as Makereth thanked Sharath through the mental connection and then hopped his way off through the rows and off to cause trouble somewhere.
There wasn't anymore avoiding she could do. This was going to be another long day.
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