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He’d tried to get his mind off it… tried, and failed. No dice. Bakarn wasn’t the kind of man who could just ignore a lady in distress, even if that lady happened to be a forty-foot-long adult gold dragon. That wasn’t the point!

The fact that Bakarn was not a dragonhealer and logically couldn’t do a fardling thing to help was also not the point. The point was that he needed to be there. He needed to see with his own eyes, or he’d never be satisfied, he’d just keep worrying the same paths over and over in his head until he was a hot mess of nothing.

So he waited. He waited until it was dark, until well after curfew when all the Candidates were supposed to be fast asleep. Then he reached under his bed and pulled out a small basket of “borrowed” glows. The basket was tightly woven and securely shut; no light would betray him unless he opened the basket because he needed it to see by. He got dressed swiftly even in the dark, navigating by feel, tugging on tunic and hose but leaving his feet bare so that he could move more soundlessly. The Candidate barracks after nearly five turns were second nature to him, and Bakarn moved effortlessly towards the door…

…which creaked as soon as he laid a hand on it. Well, he hadn’t thought that one through very well. Hopefully he hadn't woken any of the others...

((NOTE: This RP is open to anyone who'd like their Candidates to embark upon a midnight sojourn to go see Hiraeth! Or, y'know, to anyone who'd like to stop them, but I make no guarantees that Bakarn will listen. Disclaimer: IC consequences may happen, I'm not staff, nothing can protect you from angry masterhealers, yadda yadda yadda, fun will be had by all.))

Curfew was curfew but… well, she was awake, and the little communal area at the end of the girl’s barracks was lit by a half-shielded glow. Some people didn’t like it all being dark, although Egg couldn’t care less, and there had been a roughly consensual acceptance of there being some light. She’d buried herself in the work she’d not gotten done that day, because she couldn’t sleep, and she wanted to… well, to distract herself. It was in the girl’s nature to worry, and to worry even more about expectant mothers where something had gone wrong. She wasn’t the only candidate to have lost her mother in that way, she knew she had no special claim to worry for a creature she didn’t even know, but… but everyone else was worrying and it was sort of infectious and…

…and there were voices in the boy’s barracks, which she couldn’t quite make out through the thick stone. The skinny girl rose quietly, padding to the door - she was still wearing her light slippers, rather then heavy boots - and opening it as quietly as possible to peer out.

"Hello?"

"...So next time you go to sneak out..." Keralder announced to the darkness, his voice muffled from being stubbornly planted face down into the bed even though he had already resigned himself to somehow getting his claws into whatever was going on. "...Maybe you should charitably offer to oil the hinge the morning before, or... several days before."

Of course if they had, he wouldn't have heard them, so maybe their lack of devious skill was sort of in his favor right now, even if he was so tired that he could feel it in his bones.

"Are you sneaking?" He asked, raising his head and rubbing at his eyes. "Please say sneaking. Infinitely less boring than being summoned for something."

He didn't think he remembered anyone being hit with chores that would have them up shuffling in the dark, though he might have missed it if they had, depending on the subject. For a fair number of those here however he was pretty sure he would have made a note to be aware of it, to revel in their suffering as some privileged Weyr Brat found out that their rider breeding didn't save them from every kind of trouble.

Oops, they had attracted a small crowd. Seytev glanced anxiously at Zarike and Keralder as they approached, but didn't actually say anything while Bakarn fidgeted and waved them out the door - and straight into one of the girl Candidates (he wasn't sure what her name was, but she was the skinny one with the big eyes who had been rich before she showed up. or something).

This was...a bigger group than he had expected. They were probably all going to get caught.

Seytev's lips drew into a thin line at Bakarn's speech, and he huffed out his breath in an annoyed little sigh. "If you're going to do something this dumb, I'm coming with you," he answered in a voice barely more than a harsh whisper. "Maybe one of us can keep you out of trouble."

And anyway, he wanted to know, too.

Vanavia had been trying her very hardest to ignore the voices she could hear outside the room. It wasn't her business. What the other candidates did was up to them, she had no right to stop them. The new candidate had been easy to wake, unused to sharing a room the slightest move tended to rose the girl. Probably adding to why she never felt truly rested. No. She was not getting involved in any of it. She was just going to stay here in her cot with-

"Smith-!"

Her attempts to grab the firelizard were cut short as she covered her mouth with her hands. Scrambling out of bed she padded after the little streak of blue. His curiosity was far too strong for him to ignore it, he had to see what these people were up to. The firelizard flew towards the door and gave an irritated little huff when he found it closed to him, but he hovered a moment to listen. Vanavia crept up and made a swipe for the blue, just as he vanished between.

The blue appeared above the heads of the little gathering, bright little eyes glowing in the dark. He crooned and softly chattered at them. What were you all up to? Was it fun? Were they going on and adventure? Could he and his come? She needed an adventure. Where was his? The little blue looked back at the door and squawked. Come out, little candidate. Knowing full well that Smith would only make more noise if she didn't come out Vanavia slipped around the door and shut it behind her. While she had wanted to go back to bed, the idea of all of these people getting caught because of Smith worried her. Mostly because they would probably hate her for it later. Vanavia couldn't claim to really know any of them well, with Egg being the only familiar face in the bunch.

May have looked better if she'd actually said something though instead of standing there awkwardly while Smith continued to make all many of quiet, excitable, noises. At least he seemed to get part of the idea about staying quiet.

He glanced over at Seytev, and his expression softened momentarily. He shouldn’t – he was gonna get his friends in trouble, this couldn’t go well, there was no way this many people were gonna get anywhere stealthily.

But Bakarn’s jaw set again when Egg spoke up, and he gave the girl a look that was not unkind, but nonetheless entirely resolved. “Doesn’t matter. I’d rather be kicked out of the Weyr than hear tomorrow morning that something happened to her and I – that I didn’t do anything, I just went back to bed. Even if there’s nothing any of us can do. I still have to try.”

It was Hiraeth. He was old enough to remember Cinnamath and Evmeth hatching; even if he hadn’t stood then, he’d been old enough to sit amongst the spectators and cheer. It had always been Hiraeth. The thought that she might – that he might Impress and she wouldn’t be there – it was like trying to imagine the weyr missing half its lower caverns, some enormous part of it carved out and empty. No. He had to try.

Bakarn startled when the firelizard appeared above all of them, making shushing noises at the creature until its owner appeared. Zarike was right – they were attracting too much attention. “I’m going,” Bakarn said firmly, already turning to stride away. “Anyone who wants to follow, follow. Otherwise, go back to bed and you won’t get in any trouble from me.”

There were disadvantages to communal living, and most of them involved the noise. Whether it be the chatter, the shuffling, or even the snoring, most people naturally made noise, and a good amount of it, day or night. It had bothered Alcine when she first came to High Reaches, but that was Turns ago, and by now she only really thought of it as a means to get information. If Bed Number Three was snoring particularly loudly, then she was probably sick with something, and it was best to avoid her. If Bed Number Eight was tossing and turning, then she was probably bothered by her training and would want to talk in the morning. Alcine gleaned as much as she could from the other girls, and it gave her some small comfort to know that, at least from their end, there would be no secrets among them.

Alcine hadn't heard the boys or their plots, but she woke to the sounds of stirrings on her side of the barracks, keeping still to listen for more. It sounded like Bed Number...9? But it was difficult to tell in the dim light when she was trying to be discreet. She waited for the sound she was listening for--the door swinging open and shut--and then she curled up into a sitting position, blinking as her eyes adjusted. Through half-lidded eyes she watched the new girl and her flit zip by, and by that point the girl was just too curious. Something was going on, and if it was after curfew it was devious in nature.

Sliding her feet to the ground she pulled on her slippers, dipping around the door just in time to hear Bakarn's heartfelt little speech. It was hard for a girl of her height to keep hidden, and she made no effort to do so, unfurling from the barracks with an inquisitive (if still somewhat sleepy) stare. Hiraeth's illness had been on everyone's minds since the information had leaked out, and Alcine was certainly not the type to be immune to rumors. Still, they weren't enough to sate her curiosity, and she had to know what was going on down at the Sands.

Oh, and there was the whole sentimental care for Momma Hiraeth too, she supposed. Maybe she was supposed to feel bad. But then again, shouldn't they have expected this sort of illness after the last clutch? She had been more surprised to hear that the gold had flown again than that she'd fallen ill, and she wasn't sure why everyone else was acting so shocked about it.

"I want to see," piped her thin voice from the doorway, joining the throng of her peers. For some of the newer candidates, it was probably the longest sentence they'd ever heard her say. "We'll want to use something abandoned to get there. Any ideas?"

My, someone was feeling loquacious.

Egg hesitated for a moment, then retreated, backing up around the girls who had come to the door.

She wasn’t going to turn them in, because… well, because they couldn’t really do any harm, but she wasn’t going to get involved either.

“Vanavia, are you coming back to bed?” she asked quietly, because surely she wasn’t going to get involved in this madness. “I don’t think haring off to invade Hiraeth’s privacy in the middle of the night will endear us to anyone"