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Of course her mother would schedule her for work on a Gather day. All of the Weyrbrats, younger Weyrworkers and Candidates were already long gone and here she was sweeping out the fireplaces that had been allowed to burn clean last night. Of course, on a Gather day nothing would be baked or cooked and only fresh food would be served at the Weyr - it was assumed that most everyone would be at the Gather for most of their meals.

Lynna was covered in an inch of white soot. It would be something if she were permitted to use water, but all ashes were precious, used for making soap and other things as well, so every scrap HAD to be saved. Lynna coughed heavily, barely remembering to keep her eyes closed as she did. Since she was still smallish, and skinny enough to do the job, but also responsible enough not to hurt herself with the sharp scraping tools, the job had been hers for two turns, missing EVERY Gather in the meantime (unless it was at the Weyr itself). At first she hadn't minded the matter in the slightest, since she had been to plenty of Gathers as a child with her parents and siblings, but since her mother's promotion, and her siblings being old enough to mind themselves, she had allowed her mother to convince her that doing the fireplaces was a special and unique job suited to her talents.

My talents. Lynna made a face, and setting the ash bucket aside, climbed up onto the still-warm flatbed the fire would be reignited on later this evening. She grabbed the stiff bristle brush and without much care, showered herself with the blackened soot from the chimney. It was due for another proper cleaning that only a trained smith-worker could manage, but she was to do her best, and fussy old Brina would be looking to make sure that she had done a proper job. That is, if her mother didn't get to her first.

And where was her mother? Oh chatting up the other Kitchen workers who were doing very little in the dining area of the caverns. They were to be serving food, or cleaning, but really, none of them wanted to be anywhere near the fireplaces, since they'd turn out looking just as horrible as Lynna felt.

One thing about doing the fireplaces, that Lynna couldn't be upset about was that she was able to spend her time daydreaming - naturally about the days ahead. The Touching was soon. Naturally, she would go straight for the queen egg. It was a silly bit of ego, she knew, to think that a Queen would choose her. It made her stomach and heart twitter with fear. She'd seen Hatchings before. Dragonets were the size of most candidates (the larger colors anyways), and while she'd never seen any of those Hatchlings attack a candidate, she knew it had happened in the past. She'd been told to let a Hatchling choose what it would, and NEVER to stand in it's way, least the poor thing try to get you out of the way and end up clawing you.

Her mind turned to an image of standing before the rocking Queen egg - it cracked open, just so, the queen tumbling out, and pushing through the other girls, just to come up to *her*, and look at *her*, and then...

"LYNNA!" The angry voice of her mother crowed, far too close, making her smash her head against the sloped roof of the fireplace.

Lynna bit back a whimper, instantly angry that her mother had caught her daydreaming, and just as mad that her mother had bothered to come back and check on her. "What?!" She growled, too harshly.

"Don't you take that tone of voice with me!" Her mother hissed.

Still upset, and now with her head throbbing slightly, Lynna knelt, eying her mother with no small amount of irritation. Orina caught the look and returned it tenfold, straightening up to add to her intimidation. "Have you eaten yet today?"

That's what she wanted? Lynna tried not to snap a hasty reply and sighed a little, "Not yet." She thought it ought to be obvious that there was no point in eating when one was covered in soot - but that logic seemed to be beyond her mother.

Her mother shook her head, seemingly disappointed. "Well you're going to miss out on the last of the bread then, we're running out."

Lynna wanted to reply that she didn't care, but then felt confused. "Didn't Brina cook enough loaves last night?"

"Half the Weyr doesn't seem to want to go to Gather - goodness knows why. And that's the other thing - hurry it up. We're going to be relighting the fires for mid-afternoon. Brina wants us to be ready for a full dinner, just in case."

Mid-afternoon?! Lynna felt a surge of panic - she'd never had so little time to do this work! She glanced over at the other large fireplaces that still needed cleaning, and groaned. The mother cleared her throat. "You should be getting those done in that time anyway. Now get to it."

Lynna felt her cheeks flush in outrage, and she stood back up quickly to avoid letting her mother see her scowl of anger. She scrubbed so hard with the bristle brush that she was certain that she managed to shower her mother with black soot as the old busybody turned to leave. Served her right!

(TBC!)

Orina heard the footsteps, and in confusion, turned towards the boy. She cocked her head in a friendly but slightly patronizing manner, and asked, "Are you lost?" she smiled slightly, her mind making a fast calculation. Lynna had been slacking just enough that really, getting her some help was definitely required at this point in order to get everything done.

Lynna heard her mother start talking to someone nearby, and felt a twinge of mortification. If her mother was going to stand there and badmouth her - when she wasn't but half a room away! UGH! She scrubbed just a little bit harder, but kept an ear out. Best she knew what her mother was up to - especially if it was going to effect her in short order.

Orina smiled in her most comforting manner, leaning forwards in her effort to come across as agreeable. "Oh, not going to the gather? Well...not that I should want to impose, but we're having a little problem here in the kitchen today." She rolled her eyes in a clownish way. "Our Headcook wants to get the Kitchen back up and running far sooner than normal, so we need a liiiiiittle extra help to get these fireplaces clean before then." He was thin and short enough, she mused, where Lynna WAS getting to be a bit too tall. Scruffy, though. Not anyone she'd want her daughters to date.

"Would you like help us out? If you're not too busy. We'd really appreciate it."

Lynna couldn't make out the words, but the tone was unmistakable. Her mother was trying to manipulate someone. Probably some Weyrbrat or other who slept in and was trying to get himself breakfast before running off to the Gather. Of course, no matter who her mother picked, they'd probably do a shoddy job, which naturally meant that Lynna would be in trouble. Turning to clean the final wall of black carbon markings, Lynna tried to cheer herself. Who knew who the kid was - he might be nice! Or cute. She smiled to herself, beginning to daydream again.

Orina smiled sweetly, then nodded, "Of course, that's just fine. I'll just get my daughter to give you a bit of a lesson." She turned and cleared her throat, "Lynna, could you come here?"

Lynna finished scraping the wall, and striffened a little. Well, fine she now had help, but of course her mother was going to make HER do the training. Couldn't do any work yourself, of course! She thought, uncharitably. Ducking down she hopped from the fireplace and approached the older woman and the boy standing beside her. A skinny little thing. Lynna smiled - perhaps this kid could take over for her from now on. Well, if he was competant.

"Yes, mother?" She said, keeping her voice even. She wasn't sure how reactive her mother still was after that blasting she'd given Lynna earlier.

"This is..." Orina paused, not knowing the boy's name, but continued after a moment. "Well, he's here to help with the fireplaces. Why don't you give him a rundown of what needs to be done. Don't tarry, though. You only have a few hours left." Orina caught her daughters eye and narrowed hers slightly, warning her that this was not supposed to have taken her this long.

Lynna caught the rebuke and bowed her head, feel a tickle of irritation in her chest. She wouldn't argue in front of a stranger, though.

Orina smiled again at the boy and patted his shoulder. She wandered off a few steps, then added, "I'll be back to check on you in a little while."

Lynna frowned a little, sulking momentarily. But on seeing the person she was left with looking so shy and embarrassed she felt an instant twinge of sympathy. Maybe he'd been abandoned here and was too scared to walk to the hold by himself. And of course, her mother scooped him into chores instead of finding someone to guide him to the gather. It wasn't that she couldn't use the help, of course, but he just seemed so quiet and lonely to her.

She smiled warmly, and nodded at the large double fireplace that was next on her list. "We'll start over here, okay?" She tilted her head. "What's your name?"

Lynna nodded at the question, grabbing an empty ash bucket and the sharp digging tools to break up the precious white ash. Setting the bucket close to the edge of the fireplace, she took a short poker made of iron and a mallet and quickly broke down the edges of the ash from the wall.

"Just scoop it into the bucket - be careful not to spill any on the floor. We need every bit of it." She handed a small metal shovel to Handra.

Turning to break off more ash from the wall, she finally replied to him. "I was born here, yes. But not to dragonriders. I'm a Candidate too," she added, knowing that was a status symbol to anyone in the Weyr, weyrbred or not. "Ovines?" She added as an afterthought. "My father deals with the beastcrafters in the weyrbowl. They have Ovines there. My dad, he used to be a beastcrafter before he came to the Weyr, too." She thought this was a unique connection. While her father hadn't strongly encouraged her to become a beastcrafter herself, she felt she knew quite a bit about it just from watching him and listening to him as a child.

"Call me Lynna!" Lynna giggled in embarrassment. She might think to call a single Lady Holder "miss" - but certainly not a soot-covered Kitchen Worker. she shook her head, lashing her braid. "The only real reason why I'm not a beastcrafter is my mother." She glanced in the direction of the dining area where her mother sat with the other workers. "She wanted me to become a Kitchen Worker with her. My father doesn't argue with her." Her voice sounded flat. Really, why didn't her father try to get her to work with him? She'd never really thought about it before, but it didn't seem right. Maybe she'd just missed the conversation where her parents had chosen whose footsteps Lynna would follow in.

Trying to cheer herself up and keep from sounding dreary, she managed to glance over at the boy when he mentioned his brother. "Oh! Well then, at least you're not alone." She knew that some of the holder girls were homesick - they didn't admit it easily, but Lynna had seen the sadness on their faces whenever they spoke of their home.