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Everyone was bustling. That wasn't so unusual at the weyr, Eliaza had come to learn, but it was even more noticable now, with riders being sent out on missions and bundles of fragile plants being brought in the hopes that they'd survived and were strong enough to take in Benden soil.

That wasn't her task today, though. Today, she'd been sent to pour over scrolls and scraps of hide with another candidate, to see if they could discover anything that might help. It wasn't hard work, but it was a little dusty and she sneezed for the fourth time in quick succession.

"If we had to actually sniff things out, I'd be useless," she said off-handedly, glancing up from a scroll for the first time in at least a candlemark.

"You could stand up and stretch," she suggested, tucking a curl behind her ear. Again. "Or do something else. Jump a bit. Jog around the room, if the sitting's too hard." A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. If he did it, that'd be at least a little entertainment. She'd have something else to look at, and the words were beginning to cross her eyes.

She glanced over quickly before trading the scroll she'd been studying for another. In truth, there were worse people she could have been stuck at chores with. Antigonos was friendly enough and she did like that smile of his.

"Or, you know," she said oh-so-casually, "be out on hands and knees, with filthy nails, trying to breathe life into tiny little plants." That image nearly made her laugh. Tall boy, teeny plant. She cleared her throat to chase away the urge.

"Noble," she echoed, looking over again as her eyebrows rose. "A plant could be noble too, I think. I mean...I think I could probably find drawings of some of the orchards around the Hall, or even home. Old trees with these broad, sweeping branches..." She could have waxed on, probably, and realized that she was just on the verge when he found something. A lucky distraction!

She leaned to look and her eyebrows lifted more. "Oh, that's good. You'll definitely have to set that one aside." She nodded and looked up. "I guess it's a good thing you weren't wasted outside," she teased.

She had to look. She just had to, didn't she? She leaned over further so she could see his feet beyond the table's edge. When she straightened, she agreed, "I think you're right. You probably would." She hadn't seen him do anything particularly clumsy, but if he wasn't used to taking care around plants, well. It was easy to misstep.

She considered the scrolls still stacked before her and chose another to open. Brow furrowed, she scanned it. Then stopped and read back a few lines. "Oh, I think... well. No. Or... maybe?" She put her finger under the section that had caught her attention and glanced up at Antigonos again. "What do you think? That could be helpful too, couldn't it?"


((70-84 1x potentially interesting information. ))

"I hope so," she agreed. She wanted to be useful -- no, better than simply useful -- no matter what she did. She nudged the important scroll over to join the one Antigonos had set aside and paused for a moment, straightening to stretch her back. "Do you know, I used to think I didn't care much about wings and whatnot. I mean, I knew they were important, but I didn't dream about serving in one or anything. Now?" She shook her head. "Now things are different." Living in a weyr and not simply near one had certainly changed her outlook on a lot of things.

"But you. You're probably like my brothers. Dreaming about the sands and the eggs and all since you were just a little." She reached for the next scroll in the pile.

Now that surprised her. It probably shouldn't have. She knew that you couldn't judge someone wholly by the way they carried themselves. Still, if anyone had potential, and if she was any judge, she'd certainly have picked him up on Search. Well, if the dragon agreed, of course.

"Really. I'm surprised," she confessed aloud. "But no, there's nothing wrong with being a harper, or anything else, for that matter. I'll happily go back to vines and barrels if I don't Impress here." But maybe not as eagerly as she'd once thought. She shook her head at the scroll she scanned and rolled it up again. "Nothing here, unless you want to know how to mix just the right shade of blue for a Gather tunic."

"Good for playing tricks, I guess, if there are instructions for how to get the color out again," Eliaza suggested. "Or for keeping it off your hands." She'd had fruit-stained fingers far too often to think dyes wouldn't be just as tricky to use.

"Well, someone took a great deal of care with that," she commented, glancing over the scroll. "It ought to be important when it's that pretty."

She nodded. "Vintercraft," she agreed, then laughed. "Be careful what you wish for. If you get me talking, there's no guarantee I'll stop." She would, of course, because she was conscious of the fact that she could go on about things no one else considered important. "Leaf blight and firmness of a fruit and how the wood of the barrel should smell before it's sealed and filled? They'd make a good cure for a sleepless night if you're not really curious." Fair warning.

The scroll she had didn't reveal any deep insight. Most of them hadn't. She moved on to the next.