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It had been a long hike back from the river, and Jericho almost wished that he had a Wher, like some of the other crafters he had seen around, to help him lug his catch back to the kitchen where the workers there would preserve it for the winter months, or prepare it to be cooked that night. It was one of the younger women who accepted his days catch, and she cast him a brief smile, one of the few he had gotten since he had arrived in Ghenza. He flashed her one of his bright grins and she hurried away to mark down how much he had brought in from his days labor and he turned and left the kitchen, returning to the open air once more.

The people were not always very friendly here, but Jericho found that he was glad for the move, glad to be doing more than busy work as a candidate at High Reaches. More than that, he found that he was glad to be able to work his craft again, even if he did have to change it up a little bit to adapt it to working a river instead of the ocean. Few people spoke to him, but he didn't resent it. In fact, he quite welcomed the quiet and the work, as he had never been a terribly social person.

Taking a deep breath of the evening air, he decided to take a short walk before heading to dinner. Despite the weight of his burden, he had managed to get back a little early. He set a pace fast enough so the others around him wouldn't think he was slacking (they were rather alarmingly harsh when it came to free time, he had learned), but slow enough that his aching muscles didn't protest too much. He had only been there at Ghenza a little over a week after a two month hiatus from his craft at High Reaches, so his muscles were still a little out of practice. A few more days though and he wouldn't ache so much after a days work.

Ghenza certainly had an odd set up, Jericho decided. He had never been to a hold or Weyr that was free standing like it was. There were no caves or cliffs...just stone buildings in the middle of a large, empty field. It had a sense of openess that the shipcrafter still wasn't used too. Still, it seemed safe enough. As he paused to look at one of the larger buildings, he saw someone leaning against it, and it only took him a moment to realized that that someone was familiar.
"Panata!" He called to the boy, approaching him with a smile. It had been awhile since they had first met, but in this new place with so many new faces, it was hard to miss a familiar one. They hadn't had a chance to talk much since their first meeting, but Jericho had seen the boy in passing, and in classes of course. He hadn't realized that he had numbered among the candidates that had decided to make the transfer.
"I didn't realize that you had decided to move too, Panata." The older man said with a smile as he reached the boy where he leaned against the building. "You look even more sore than I do, though." he said with a sympathetic smile "long day?" Jericho asked warmly.

"Ugh, I know what you mean." Jericho said with a nod as the younger boy complained of his sore muscles. As though thinking about his own had brought his soreness back to the forefront of his mind, the shipcrafter stretched his arms above his head to relieve some of the pain in his shoulder muscles. It had been a long time since he had last had to cast and pull in a net, having specialized in ship building for the last couple of turns. All shipcrafters were taught the basics, but some, like Jericho, ended up specializing in one facet that didn't constantly require those same actions he had been taught previously.
Dropping his arms back to his side, Jericho spoke once more "I'm here for pretty much the same reason." he admitted "A chance to impress combined with a chance to work in my craft again." he said with a nod "It's be nice, despite all the sore muscles and the whole being ignored for the most part thing." Being disliked by so many people had bothered Jericho at first, until he had been able to employ himself once more, and realized that there were, in fact, small pockets of people who didn't mind the new comers. People his own age and younger mostly. they might not be outright nice, like people at High Reaches, but at least they didn't sneer. In the end, it just meant he got to work on his own a lot, just him and the river, which he found he quite liked. Once he was more settled in, and perhaps some of the older Ghenzans did not look down on him quite so much, he would try and build a small river boat so that he could increase his daily catch. As it was, some of the older shipcrafters had already had to admit that Jericho was a deft hand with net weaving. A few more steps in that direction and he would be doing quite well for himself, he thought.
"So where were you heading? The dining hall, or back to your hosts?" Jericho asked the younger man "I'll walk with you, can't have you passing out in the street." he said in jest, though there was real concern in his blue eyes as he looked at Panata's tired form.
"They haven't been to rough on you, have they my friend?" he asked in a quieter voice that people passing by wouldn't hear.

Jericho nodded as he listened to the boy, relieved that he didn't seem to be picked on here in Ghenza, at least not any more than the rest of them were. "I admit, I've learned a few things since moving here myself." the man said "Their technique for river fishing is different here than at home, its interesting." he remarked, clearly pleased that he was learning something new after all, despite there being no proper craft hall here.

He looked over at Panata in surprise when he mentioned looking for the clutch "Oh really? Well, the dragons here are much larger, so it follows that the clutch would be too..." he mused thoughtfully, stroking his chin and the goatee that was coming in quite nicely there. He'd shaved it upon coming to the Weyr since none of the men there wore facial hair, but here in Ghenza it seemed relatively common, and so he had decided to go back to the style.

"Say, how about we go look for it together?" he said with a bit of a sly smile in his ocean blue eyes "If anyone asks, we can just say we got turned around, since we're still new here." Jericho pointed out, finding himself increasingly interested in seeing this tremendous clutch himself. Ghenzans were ever so proud of their larger-than-normal dragons, surely it couldn't hurt to take a peek...

Jericho grinned to see how excited the younger man was at the idea. He found himself feeling rather eager as well. He had heard that once you turned twelve, here in Ghenza, you attended a touching, but after that, they felt there was no need, and so the High Reaches transfers had not even had a chance to look at the eggs, let alone touch them. He rather had a feeling that that would damage his odds of impressing, but...well, he'd just deal with that at the hatching.
"Lets see...They'll probably be somewhere pretty central, or near to the fields where the dragons sleep...It'd have to be a pretty big building to house their queens, so it shouldn't be too hard to spot." the man remarked, thinking aloud "What do you think? You seen any particularly big buildings around? I haven't, but then I tend to stick just to the one side of town nearest the river..."
"I imagine their dragons are so big from all the work they have them do." Jericho said thoughtfully "Though maybe it just has to do with breeding too. You'll have to find a beastcrafter and ask them." he said laughingly.

"I've found that you're more likely to get an answer if you ask some of the younger people." Jericho said helpfully as he fell in beside Panata. Unfortunately there were no young people that he would be willing to ask such a question of in sight at the moment, and so he figured that wandering in this direction was as good a plan as any.

"The youngsters seem to be more curious about us, I guess." the man said thoughtfully. The whole mentality of the place still tended to surprise him after being someplace like High Reaches, where pretty much everyone was willing to lend anyone a hand, especially for something as simple as giving directions. Even the people at Tillek were more friendly than the people here, and there they tended to look down on people who didn't know anything about sailing...here, though, they looked down on you for everything. If he hadn't been the type that liked to be on his own anyways then he probably would have been crushed. he had a feeling that Panata was feeling the effects of being an outcast more than he was.

That didn't mean Jericho liked the thinly veiled looks of dislike they were getting though. "Lets pick up the pace a bit, make it look like we've got somewhere to be. No need to draw attention to ourselves." he murmured to the younger boy, picking up his pace just a bit. He shortened his stride and took faster steps so he looked like he was walking fast, but wasn't really, that way the shorter boy wouldn't have to struggle to keep up with his normally long stride.

Jericho gave the boy a small, understanding smile as they walked through the town, pausing to surreptitiously check a large building here or there to see if there was copious amounts of sand inside of it to support dragon eggs.
"I know what you mean." Jericho said after checking another building and then starting off again "The people there were friendly and understanding, even if I had hobbies that everyone at home considered strange or inappropriate for a man." He grimaced at the memory. Was it really so bad that he enjoyed sewing and baking? Or had a weak spot for adorable things?...well, apparently his father, a ship Captain had thought so.
He smiled then, looking at Panata as he did so "Well, I am glad at least that they are letting you further your craft, even though you're an 'outsider'." he remarked, making quotations with his fingers on the last word.

The pair were beginning to leave the section of the city that held the larger buildings, so Jericho stopped and looked around him briefly. Noting that no one seemed to be around, he sat down on some steps leading up to a building and stretched his long legs out.
"Well," he began thoughtfully "No luck so far...Maybe they don't keep them in a building at all?" he mused, looking over at Panata for his opinion. It struck him as strange to not keep dragon eggs somewhere safe, like a cave, or lacking that, a building of some sort. Then again, firelizards kept their clutches outdoors in sand, and the dragons here lived in fields, so maybe they were looking in all the wrong places after all.

Jericho slapped his forehead with the palm of his large hand "Of course! It's probably on that beach on the river!" he exclaimed "I've only been there the one time when we first arrived, and there was no clutch there then..." He murmured to himself. The beach was along a small section of the river, holding pretty much all the sand he had seen in Ghenza, making him wonder if it hadn't had to be imported just for dragon clutches. The river was quite a hike from where they were now, though, and looking at how tired Panata seemed, Jericho wondered if he could make it. The older man was feeling rather tired himself.
"Well Panata, we have a decision to make." The man said with an amused smile down at the younger man "I remember the way to this supposed hatching ground of theirs, but its quite a long walk to the river from here. So if you're up to it, we can go...or" he added "we can go grab some dinner. I'll leave the decision in your hands." Jericho said, giving the lad a friendly slap on the back.