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L'thor was annoyed. People were always so pushy when it came to mealtimes! Literally pushy. He was hardly one of the shortest people in the crowd, and he was far from meek, but he was quite light and easily knocked around. As yet another idiot bumbled into him - a stocky blue rider who L'thor happened to find about ten times more annoying than a head full of lice - he decided he'd had enough.

A mere thought was enough to summon his own personal army. Two blue and two brown they popped into the air around him, chattering in annoyance. Deep blue Dusk landed on one shoulder, young Dancer dropped onto the other, and River and Rust fluttered about his head, snapping at anyone who got too close. Soon enough, L'thor found that he had space to breathe. Naturally the people who had been accosted were glaring at him, but he paid attention to them only for long enough to shoot them happy smiles. It wasn't as if he was trying to shove the the front of the throng, he was just avoiding getting trampled to death and or shoved to the back.

Now that he was no longer focused on the press of folk around him, he had attention to spare for other things, and noticed who was giving out the meatrolls. Tall and skinny, it was Allende, the girl he had searched not so long ago, much to the disgust of her father. Apparently distracted by something, the girl turned about and almost fell over a bench. Though she hadn't actually fallen, L'thor found himself elbowing people aside in order to reach her and ensure she was alright. He got there easily enough; riders might be quite keen on their food, but not quite keen enough to risk an nasty n** from an annoyed flitt.

"Allende! You doing alright there?" he asked as he drew close to her. "I bet that stack of meatrolls weighs about half as much as you do," he added with a chuckle, remembering having to carry things about for the kitchens during his candidacy without even a trace of fondness. He had been an exceptionally skinny lad; heavy work had not been his forte, to say the least. Still, Allende was a big girl, and he had no doubt she was strong despite her less than bulky build.

L'thor rolled his eyes. "People can be very impatient; especially riders!" he shot a glare around. "Doubly so bronze riders!" he shot a rather pointed glare at a man with shiny shoulder knots. "Come on then," he grinned and nudged Dusk and Dancer to flutter back into the air, "lets' get that tray put down." The four flitts moved at L'thor's commands like a perfect little wing... well, if he was leading their wing he'd be berating them no end for sloppiness actually, but for flitts it was pretty good. Two before and two behind, three of them chattering noisily, Rust just shooting annoyed glances around, they moved towards the table without too much difficulty.

"There we are," L'thor chuckled as they arrived, "safely delivered; now these animals can climb over one another to get at the trough!" Apparently taking this as an invitation, Dusk swooped down and grabbed a meatroll off the top of the pile before vanishing to consume his prize. Rust followed him in short order -he didn't like all the noisy people here- and that conveniently enough left L'thor with enough shoulders to go around.

As Dancer and River alighted he gave Allende another grin. "Shall we get out of the way before we're trampled? I'd certainly like to hear about anything tasty they might be making up in the kitchens!" It had been a long day, and both scrubbing and oiling Raith all over had certainly worked up an appetite. For now he wanted to hear about any nice bits that were being kept back; if there was nothing in particular he could easily send River to grab him a meatroll.

L'thor's already lively grey eyes lit up further. "Roast herdbeast you say? That sounds like my kind of lunch!" Dancer and River, aware of what was going through their human's mind, agreed that they were happy they had stayed. He would, not doubt, share his food with them; even L'thor's terrible four were not brazen enough to try to steal roast herdbeast, especially if it was specially prepared!

"So how are you settling in?" L'thor asked after a moment, grinning both at Allende and at the images of food his flitts were flicking back and forth. "I see you've found a place to make yourself useful at least, that's good! When I was a candidate I had no particular skill at anything. Unskilled and skinny, I got shunted around between chores quite a lot." Being good at walking for candlemarks, persuading people to buy things, and handling runners or burden beasts a little hadn't counted for all that much. He'd tried of course, he'd tried very hard but effort could only make up for so much. If you were too scrawny to carry something, you were just too scrawny. Thankfully it hadn't taken him too long after Raith's hatching to build up enough physical power to cope with all he needed to do for her, but even today he wouldn't be anyone's first choice to fetch water or sacks of vegetables.

"Time hmm? I'll have to admit, it is hard to convince myself that I have all the time in the world to figure this life out. " Alle replied with a slight smile for her former naivety. "When you and Raith found me, I was practically bursting at the seams with the need to leave! I only had some vague notion of who I wanted to be, and an even vaguer plan on how to get there..." She paused, neatly avoiding a low bench that was suddenly shoved in her way by a careless rider. "...Being here though, in Ista... well... my ideals have changed a bit with the reality that the world is a pretty big place." She finished, turning to glance back at the green rider. "There is a lot I need to know if I want t reach my goals, y'know?" Which was true, the type of woman Allende hoped to be someday was a woman she could proudly peer at from across a mirror, and to be proud of herself...

Well, Allende knew she had to expand her narrow horizons and get a better grip on how Pern ticked. Science and discovery was just the tip of the iceberg! She had history to read, people to watch, behaviors to understand! Thus far she knew she had only a distant understanding of some of the more bizarre human behavioral patterns, and oddly enough, figuring out what made people tick was rapidly becoming one of her favorite topics.

"I hope you don't mind my asking you this, L'thor... but... well, about Thread..." Alle started, unaccustomed to actually speaking about the hitherto read about or whispered topic. "My last teacher did not really elaborate on it much, and quite frankly... what I have found out about it written on hides here in the Weyr obviously require some level of general education about it. Could you tell me about the placement of the Star Stones and the significance of some of the natural disasters that foretell the arrival of the Threads?" She asked suddenly, hoping the greenrider would be up to such questioning.