Welcome to Gaia! ::

Although most people had now made it safely inside, Lavi was still searching through the crowd for any stragglers who might be lost or confused. She passed Diaren on the way, who was already heading to the barracks. "That’s right. Go straight to your dorms, candidates." she called to him and to others who were in the crowd. They'd had drills for this, of course, so she hoped the candidates understood the importance of them staying put. Like gathering after a fire, if they couldn't locate one of them, it could cause people to get hurt trying to find them.

Lavi recognized another face in the crowd as another one of her candidates. She caught up to the girl and put a hand on her shoulder. "Iliyana! Oh, good, that's another one." she said, quieter, to herself. There were now just a few more candidates left unaccounted for. The girl looked confused, and Lavi realized with so many new arrivals at the weyr, there was a good chance many of them didn't remember the way to the barracks. Many more probably followed the crowds into the main hall, which was fine, of course, but it was best to have them all in one place, to make sure they were all safe and accounted for, especially with no dragon role-call system to speak off. She smiled encouragingly. "Right on that way," she said, pointing out the direction of the barracks. "I’ll be along shortly, tell everyone to wait for me there." she told her.

Lavi had just resumed looking when she heard her name being called. She turned in the direction of the noise and saw Viorica and Jakkin. "Oh! You two! Over here!" she called, waving.

~~~

Smiling -a little more relaxed now they were inside and safe- P'lias listened idly to Ionan and Ticene talk. The annoyance at their previous subject matter had faced. The subject moved to Ionan’s toy and he was about to add his assurances to hers, when the weyrwoman broke off mid-sentence.

"Aah?" he queried, glancing over, and saw the pain on her face. A moment later, Ionan was rushing around and shouting in a worried panic. "I don’t think it’s thread, Ionan." P’lias said, swallowing as he realized what it actually was, even before she said it. Oh no! What should he do?! He was a youngest child! He’d never seen.. Never.. But Neri had!

Helioth, you can talk to other dragons, right? Like, my sister's?
Of course.
Ask her what you need when someone's giving birth!
Neri's confused response came via Bayeth and then Heiolth. Uh.. Okay..? You need.. a clean, quiet space, lots of warm water and clean cloths, and something for the pain. Why? Is that happening?? Ignoring the question, P'lias chewed on his lip nervously. Great. So basically, they needed everything they didn't have, in the dirty, noisy room they were currently in.

He was relieved when Ionan went to find the older girl and brought her over. He nodded enthusiastically at her implied question. Of course he would help! "Right! A weyr, that sounds good.." he agreed. At least a weyr had a place to lie down, and was away from all these crowds. "Or the infirmary." That was good too. He looked at Ticene for guidance. "Which way?" he asked her, anxiously.

He was distracted only momentarily when Ionan ran off again. Would it kill that kid to stay still for ten seconds? Especially at a time like this! He understood trying to get a healer, but he'd left before he could even be told where they were heading to. Putting that out of his mind for now, he turned his full attention back to Ticene. It wasn't like he could go running after him this time. He just hoped he wouldn't panic if he came back and they weren't there. "Her dragon probably already called a healer." he muttered, talking to himself.

Jasiline's smile was grateful as P'lias gave his support. Shells she did NOT want to do this on her own if she didn't have to! It was bad enough all the woman had to rely on at the moment was a child, a candidate and a weyrling. His muttering was taken as an actual comment and she nodded. "I didn' even think of that." She glanced around for Ionan, unable to see the small boy in the press of bodies. She'd not realized how many people actually occupied the Weyr!

There was no time to wait for him though. "Fergive me Please." She said to the Weyrwoman as she stepped in close, slipping an arm around the woman's back and holding out her other wrist. "Squeeze iffn' ya need to. 'm sturdier than a tree on'na cliff." Ticene hadn't looked all that steady on her feet and the last thing Jasiline wanted to be known for is the girl who let the Weyrwoman fall when she was in labor.

"umm Rider?" He was a Weyrling but it seemed odd to call him that and she didn't know his name. "If y'can make way an lead? I don' know how t' get there." She'd snatch Ionan up if she saw him but first priority was getting Ticene where she needed to be.

((I hope it's okay to post in here <3 My candidates haven't been searched yet, but I wanted to post here before this closed. ))

Mei had been enjoying the gather festivities, much bigger and impressive than any marketplace that her minor hold had put together. Though she was low on coin she still found it to be a good excuse to get away from candidate's chores. There were certain drudges that would put an idle candidate to work even on a gather day.

She idly fingered her few fractions of a mark as she stared up at the sky worriedly. It looked ominous, like a storm was coming. The young woman had chosen to ignore it, ignoring the visceral reaction in her gut, the lizard brain telling her primitive side to take shelter and wait out the storm. Those instincts of course, were not that of fearing thread. The instincts that ran through her blood were those of fearing flood and lightning, but it translated fairly well for the dangerous conditions on Pern.

"Someone seems thoughtful." Hennory's voice brought her back down to Pern. Her face was wrinkled in annoyance, ready to say something when she noticed his gaze was to the sky as well. "Looks like a bad storm is rolling in."

The startled bugle of the watch dragon caused Mei to flinch, a reaction that she had not been able to shake during her short stay as a candidate. Dragons were huge, terrifying, and now very suddenly quite -close-, dipping down and picking their riders up from the gather grounds. She recoiled at the air that buffeted her from dragon wings, vaguely aware that Hennory was pulling her next to him and into his arms.

Thread. Thread. The word kept echoing around them, in rushed tones, commanding yells or shrieks of terror. That didn't seem right. Why would thread be falling today? Normally there were charts to tell the riders when it would be falling, passed down the ages and rewritten onto new parchment for the next generation. The thought that someone made an error was.. unsettling.

"We have to get to shelter!" Hennory yelled, momentarily having to raise his voice as a roaring dragon flew overhead. Mei's feet were rooted to the ground, and Hennory did not wait for her to comply. He grabbed her by the shoulder and wrenched her along.