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 Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:17 pm
The touching hadn't even happened a sevenday ago, Yulu's mind still fresh with the memories of the eggs, but it seemed like months had passed already. The desire to get back on the sands and be with the eggs as they hatched into dragons was growing stronger with each passing day, Yulu finding most of her time occupied with such thoughts, and pretty soon the young woman was sure she'd be too distracted to concentrate on tasks at hand. Already she had been scolded by the Candidatemaster for staring off into space when she should have been cleaning, so as Yulu headed outdoors to assist with preparing the Weyr for a possible freeze she did her best to clear her mind of everything but her assignment for the day.
She was to go out and join several other candidates, presumably already outside and already briefed, and together they were all going to make sure that various things about the Weyr were in place and ready to go. That was about all she knew, everything else being so entirely vague, and Yulu shivered inside her massive coat as she stepped out into the frigid air. Song had taken the chance before they moved out to dive down further into Yulu's clothing, nearly burrowing herself into her person's skin had she the chance. She did not like the cold at all, it was too much, and Yulu almost wanted to agree.
Once outside she exhaled quickly, watching little puffs of smoke issue forth from her mouth as the cold air met warm breath. That was one of the few things she liked about the cold, the ability to see her breath, but she dismissed that as she hurried along to the meeting point. Surely by now others would be there.
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Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:27 pm
Kaatan was well-wrapped in furs - or rather, it seemed that he was, his heavy coat draped about him, never feeling enough bundled in weather like this. He preferred to feel the glisten across his skin while working under the sun, as opposed to feel his eyes freeze against the cold. And even worse was when that glisten shone beneath his coat, and he even felt it freeze, simply making him colder. I've lived here my whole life, and even now I'm not used to this weather! I'd rather keep to the tunnels when it gets like this... Plenty warm there. He sighed, his breath freezing and creating a small cloud briefly before him, and refocused his attention on their briefer - a man of the Weyr that he didn't really know, since he usually worked indoors.
Oh, this is going to be a long day... The mental groan showed on his face, but he quickly hid it as he noticed the man's eyes scan over his charges. I don't mind work - not at all - but this is just asking too much! He scanned over the area, his eyes resting on the Hatching Grounds. He hadn't stepped into them for this clutch, and he felt a tug of regret. But it was been for various good reasons despite it all... Still, the heat of the sands sounds mighty welcome... But a jug of klah would do nicely!
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Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:45 pm
Yulu managed to make it over to the ground just as the main speaker finished talking, the assignment apparently having been said before she managed to get over and join the crowed, leaving the young woman in a situation where she would be forced to speak with someone else to find out what was going on. It wasn't that she was feeling completely unsocial today, her mood actually pretty decent despite the chill that already started to bite at her cheeks and coat her eyelashes, but it was more or less that the cold air did horrible things to her voice. While it was already too deep for her and sounded like someone always gargling gravel, the cold air almost always made Yulu sound inhuman when she spoke, or else it made her hard to hear at all.
Still, there was nothing else she could do now. She'd missed what he'd said, and it wasn't likely the man would repeat anything for a straggler to a meeting. With the eggs on the sands so close to hatching the Candidates were being treated rougher and a bit more cruel, as if the rest of the Weyr wanted to see who could break before the first shell actually did. Yulu decided to suck it up as she swallowed a mouthful of cold air, turning to the person closest to her.
"Hey, what'd he say we needed to do?"
With her voice so low and harsh from the cold, and her gender and most of her face hidden by the clothing she wore to keep warm, Yulu looked and sounded like a man. Perfect, sort of.
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Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:55 pm
Kaatan turned to the guy who had addressed him - they were equally bundled up, covered in a mass of warm clothing, little more than the eyes and nose showing. Pulling his mouth from beneath his coat, he responded casually, "We're starting with the runnerbeasts - they need more hay in their pens." His words were a bit rushed, but he was eager to take another hot breath from beneath the furs. You'd think that others would be in charge of that, but naturally the candidates get stuck with it...
It took him longer than a moment to realize that it was difficult to tell who exactly he was talking to. The voice sounded quite male- though there was an edge of femininity to it, though it was hard to find at time - but the eyes were slightly less masculine. Sure, these furs make it pretty tough to tell, too. These coats probably couldn't be any bigger! Not that it really matters... Work is work, despite the gender.
They began moving in the direction of the pens, keeping in a close cluster of bodies and furs, trying to stay warm. Each seemed as unwilling as the next to be on the outside of the group, though there were a few that didn't seem to mind the cold as much. It's a bit different, though, when you spend little more than an hour a day out of the tunnels when it gets this cold... Those certainly stay warm, especially in the kitchens.
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Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:22 pm
"Hay for the runnerbeasts? Why don't they just have the people in charge of them do that sort of thing instead of abusing us? It's not like they're short in numbers over there."
Yulu grumbled mildly as she was told their task, though it was brief and she quickly fell in line with the others as they trduged over. She was starting to feel the cold biting at her nose and at the tips of her fingers, so she raised her hands to her mouth and blew on the reddened tips to try and alleviate some of the eventual pain. As a Healer she knew the risks of frostbite and the signs of it, so she would have to take pain to make sure nothing came her way.
"After the runnerbeasts, what's next? They honestly don't think it will take us an entire day to simply line pens, do they?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:39 pm
"You'd think," Kaatan replied, his voice disgruntled, though you couldn't tell by expression, his face buried up to just his eyes. "Apparently they have better things to take care of..."
The walk seemed much longer than it actually was, and once arriving, everyone seemed reluctant to break the group and go about the business. "I wasn't really listening," he admitted, rubbing his hands together, the palms of his leather gloves making a slight skritching sound in the winter silence. "I was focusing on keeping warm..."
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 7:35 am
"How am I supposed to get anything done if I find I can't count on others to be paying attention either? I guess in the end it won't matter since we can just follow the crowds, but you rally ought to think about leaning to focus on what's really important."
Yulu didn't sound like she was lecturing even though she may have been, instead her voice just coming across like she was already shivering beneath her warm furs. The flitt that was nestled against her felt like a warm rock on her stomach, enough to at least keep that part of her body toasty, so Yulu knew she wouldn't freeze to death entirely.
"Anyway, we should get started. Working up a cold sweat out in the cold isn't highly recommended, so don't overwork yourself. Take it slow and make the task last if you don't want to have to do anything else today."
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:20 am
Kaatan huffed, the cloud of warm breath seeping fro beneath his coat and diffusing into the air quickly. "Says the one who was late," he replied, though there was little bite behind his words, more like brotherly teasing. The grin he wore, though hidden, showed through in his words as well, softening the blow.
Trying to do as little work here, hm? Well, it is cold... Doesn't matter where we're working, though. We're still out here... He kept the thought to himself and nodded, "A good tip," he said, loading his arms full of hay, the packed stalks providing extra insulation for his chest. It wasn't a huge improvement, but it certainly helped...
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:48 pm
"Tips don't come free, you're going to be doing something for me eventually when this is all over. Perhaps I'll make you pay back for the comment about me being late, when sometimes being late is a better excuse then not paying attention."
The smirk on Yulu's face was clearly visible, and her words too were in good humor. It was important to stay cheery and warm when you were downright freezing, and Yulu winced a bit as the warmth against her body moved to another spot, thought entering her mind that cold air was getting to the object as she moved to toss hay.
"Of course though going slow gives us more of a chance to end up frozen and sore when this is done instead of making it last all day, so speeding up might work well. Or better. Or, well I don't know. It's too cold to think."
She tossed her own stack of hay at the base of a pen, blocking a bit of draft that she could see slowly leaking in. It was almost sad how much effort people put into keeping things like this warm, while the very people they would depend on for their future safety struggled about in the cold.
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Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2010 8:06 am
Kaatan dropped his hay in the next stall over, and nearly ran into one of the faceless others on his way to grab another armful. "You can't expect me to pay you back," he responded quickly, shrugging his shoulders beneath the coat to keep them loose despite the cold, "if you don't know who I am." Chances are, they had met at some point or other, but outside his immediate friends, he didn't have a clue who exactly was out here. If you didn't look at their eyes for hours a day, they lost their identity in the warm wear. It was likely that as little as he knew about him, the same was probably true of the reverse.
With another armful pulled tightly to his chest, his body welcoming the additional warmth, he turned back to the stall he had dropped his previous load it. He had made a mental note of a slightly misplaced board that needed some attention, and the other that had followed him in had missed in his cold-induced negligence.
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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 9:26 am
"You seem to forget that we're stuck together for the remainder of the day, or at least until all the tasks are accomplished. I will find a way for you to repay me at that point in time, you'll see. It's a matter of how not when since we're all here until we're dismissed."
More hay was tossed against drafty areas, Yulu even using her foot or hand to poke it in place to ensure a tight fit against the cold air. She ended up using more on a single stall than others had used on several, but if she was going to do a job then she shardin' was going to get it done right. The animal that got this pen would at least be very warm.
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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 10:31 am
"Perhaps," he replied, brushing some of the hay from his chest after he dropped it and made sure to cover the hole he had seen. He also took a moment to brush it aside form the middle of the pen, careful not to step in a frozen pile of dung. Though it would probably feel like a rock! He readjusted his coat and sighed in a cloud of frozen breath. "but what if I were to disappear into the crowd! There's plenty of us to just... disappear."
It wasn't that he minded the company. In fact, he quite enjoyed having someone to talk to. It helped to keep his mind off of the cold, and he didn't feel as chilled as he previously had. In fact, he was even beginning to get warm, save for his hands, face and feet. Regardless, he enjoyed keeping the mood light with the miserable work. And if that meant tossing wit with another person, well, he had no problem with it.
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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 10:09 pm
"I don't think you could escape from me that easily. You have a distinct walk about you that lets me know you apart from the others, plus I could always let my Song see your face and eventually let her lead me to you. There's no escaping even if you try."
Yulu had been watching all the people work, in between moving her own loads of hay, though the reason wasn't for idle study as much as it was Healer watching. Anyone who started to slow down got extra note from her, people who looked like they were moving too fast and working up a sweat joined that list, her mind ticking down the options. The boy she was talking to clearly knew what he was doing so she probably wouldn't have to worry, but she was still keeping track.
"Of course, that is to say if you try to escape before the day is over. Once chores are done you're free to do as you please, as I'm not the type of guy to actively pursue someone."
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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 10:31 pm
He's a guy. Kaatan marked the question from his mental list, the pronoun having answered it. "Well, I had no intentions regardless," he said with an easy shrug, then looked around. Even though there were a lot of pens, it looked like they were making good progress. Then again, I'm sure at least half of these are done poorly. Someone should be going around checking them... People make their life with the animals; we can't have them freezing to death...
It was then that he remembered how cold he was. It had seeped through the fingers of his heavy wherryhide gloves and was biting into the tips of his fingers. His entire body shuddered with a sudden shiver, and he buried himself further into his coat. "Can't believe I forgot how cold it was for a moment there!" He had said it a bit louder than intended, but the sudden burst of energy made him feel slightly better.
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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 10:41 pm
"It's good that you're still feeling the cold, it means you haven't started into the first stages of frostbite yet. Just make sure that the moment the cold turns to a numbing cold that you let someone know, or else they'll have to cut off whatever is slowly turning black."
Yulu sounded both sincere and teasing all at the same time, and she glanced down at her own gloved hands before she forced her fingers to ball into fists. There was still good movement despite a slight tingle, and she used the tip of one to pull her collar out a bit and let cold air in. Instantly her body shrank as it enveloped her warm torso, and the figure she was checking on squeaked loudly in protest over being disturbed!
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