Welcome to Gaia! ::

Naedreth was the one to worry about, the young bronze snorted, only moderately displeased since Rinfala had the good sense to compliment him first. If anything had happened there, it would have been because of him.

"Uktenath says that he wasn't the one to worry about," O'asis passed on, smiling as he gripped her hand securely, "and he wasn't, don't worry." The honesty of that statement might be a bit up in the air, but the blond didn't give a sign that he might have only been telling a half-truth. If he hadn't been where he was, right up front with no one to separate him from Uktenath - if there'd been someone in the way, after the little bronze had gotten so riled up thanks to his brother... O'asis couldn't guarantee that Uktenath wouldn't have reminded them to move quickly on the sands. Likely not something that Rinfala would want to hear, though.

"Say, have you heard the rumors about a new Weyr?" O'asis questioned, segueing the conversation from the potentially unsavory side of his dear bonded. "It sounds like Favan has been pushing for one for a while now. Would solve a lot of problems for us all, wouldn't it?"

"Well," O'asis admitted honestly, "I somehow doubt that she'd be doing much of the work, once she got the permission. But there's folks aplenty in the Weyr that aren't afraid of rolling up their sleeves - I dare say, most of the folk come here knowing that there'll be work to do. But if there's going to be a new Weyr built, it's got to be done soon. We need to have the Weyr built before Thread comes, right?" His eyes flicked upward in a gesture that was either delicately fabricated or absolutely habitual, then he went on. "Because if we haven't pushed for it by then, we're either going to be stuck like this throughout the Fall - and I gotta tell you, I don't know what kind of shape Ista would be after fifty Turns like this! - or the Weyr's going to have to be built under the threat of Thread."

"Well put!" O'asis cheered. They'd managed to stumble on a true visionary with Rinfala, he thought to himself; with her help, they'd have the Weyrleader begging to let them build a new Weyr!

Uktenath, too, felt a spark of approval, and raised the girl a notch in his estimation. Someone like Rinfala, he would be pleased to associate with.

"Now," O'asis was saying, pulling a bit nearer to the girl (because of course he didn't want to be overheard), "we've got a couple plans in the works, things that everyone can do in order to help out the cause. The way I see it, things have gotten so bad because we work too hard to cover up the signs of how bad they really are. Keeping things too clean, doing chores too well. The things that would really show how many people there are, are hidden because all these people have nothing to do but keep after the signs. So if we want to make a difference, we're going to have to find ways to make it more obvious."

Ah, O'asis loved this moment. Where the connections were built, understanding achieved - and yes, he could say, he'd had a hand in it. Smiling modestly, he answered, "Well, I can't say that a couple rolls aren't honestly burnt, but...."

Mine, Uktenath warned him, and that was all it took. O'asis wasn't supposed to be wasting his time with bragging, especially for a movement that his name would never be attached to. The bronzerider sighed, nodded, and refocused.

"Look for opportunity, places where things could be slowed down or made worse by incidental things. We're not making demonstrations; we don't want people to know what we're doing. The more natural it all seems, the better. Things that dirty up the Weyr, or affect how people eat or sleep or generally get around, those are all good. If you see a way that we can act to get attention to the problem - not us, remember, but the problem - then you ought to come by my weyr and talk with whoever's there, and we can organize something."

O'asis struck his hand to his chest, as though afflicted by great injury. "Harm a beast? Bite your tongue, girl! What do you take me for?!" he gasped. What sort of self-respecting caravaner would ever dream of injuring a beast over the affairs of men? It was an outrage, an absolute outrage, that Rinfala would even suggest--

Well okay, maybe that was a bit melodramatic. From somewhere in his huffy self-righteousness, the sneakiest bit of a grin began to slip onto his face, disturbing his illusion of sincerity. And once a bit of it was lost, there was no reason not to scrap the entire thing. O'asis let his shoulders loose, all posturing vanished, and chuckled softly. "We'll get along just fine, I think. Now, if you've ever got any problems or ideas, you come to my weyr, all right? Whoever's there will be able to help you out."