Ah, Solitude! ((Orena))

[Kandarra]

As she finished her last meatroll, Jeri looked up from her hide. Her ears had alerted her to the fact that there were now probably far too many people in the room with her, and her eyes confirmed it. She sighed and mumbled something about privacy and solitude and having none in a weyr, and gathered up her charcoal and hides to move to a different spot.

The problem was, there wasn't another spot. It was a sunny day, so the Bowl was well-populated, and there were people all around the lake. She poked her head in, and even the Hatching Grounds had people in the stands, who were likely admiring the eggs and musing on when they would hatch. She sighed again. What would it take for a few moments' peace?

Looking around idly, thinking over a good spot, she eyed the passage leading near the storageways. Hadn't Orena said something about how in some of them, you might never come back out again? That would be a great deterrent for explorers. She walked over to them, deciding that was a good place to start. She grabbed a glowbasket from an already well-lit hallway, thinking it probably wouldn't much be missed, and headed into one of the passages.

Carefully sketching on a corner of her hide the turns she had taken, she found a spot in a corner where, it seemed, no one had been in a while, judging by the undisturbed dust. Happy to have found a spot, she propped up the glowbasket. She flipped the hide over the makeshift binding that held the stack together, and began to sketch faces from memory.

[Marnark’tranarprol]

It just so happened that today, Orena happened to be investigating more of the tunnels in that very area. Simply because she had an overactive exploration bone, and she wasn't averse to doing it by herself when no one wanted to come along. She was pretty good at keeping track of where she'd been, where she hadn't, and where she was. Internal mapping was a skill she had, whether she knew it or not. So with very little fear of getting actually lost, as she knew when she was going near where she could actively remember.

She traveled slowly, paying attention to what she saw, making a game out of counting doorways, and the number of steps it took to get from one joint to another. She, also, was carrying a glow basket, though it only had a couple glows in it rather than a full set for a wall cage. The light coming off it was no where near as bright as Jerodyn's, but it was adequate for what she was doing.

But the glow of the other candidate's basket caught her attention fairly quickly when she rounded a corner and spotted it lighting up the far wall of the hall from where Jerodyn was hiding. Skipping forward, she stuffed her own few glows into a pocket. She was curious to see who was down here, and what they were doing! Rounding that last wall-corner, she stopped dead on her toes when she saw Jerodyn so intently focused on her parchment, all lit up by her glow basket. Orena smiled a bit, looking at that, before tippy-toeing closer and bending low. She knew she was almost invisible, due to Jerodyn's eyes being fixed on that brightly lit drawing surface.

So she bent over when she got close, dark curls raining downward as she smiled at her friend. "Hi!" She said cheerfully, close enough to be seen, and her face almost upside down to Jerodyn's.

[Kandarra]

Jeri was just adding what she hoped was the correct nose to the face she was drawing, which happened to be Orena's. As she double checked it, shading it in a few places, the face she was drawing popped upside-down out of the darkness and spoke to her.

She was taken completely by surprise, and the hides flew out of her hands and into the air as she jumped and then scrambled backward, knocking the glowbasket awry as she did so. Her eyes big, and breathing hard, she realized it was really Orena, and not some incarnation of her portrait come to haunt the artist.

Recovering her breath, she half-glared at her friend and flipped the hidebook closed. She hoped (against all reason) that the other girl wouldn't want a look-see, because there was a reason she was drawing this particular face. But nevermind that now, she thought. Finally resettling her shaken nerves, she righted the glowbasket and said, "Er, hi. I'm surprised you found me."

[Marnark’tranarprol]

Orena giggled, and plopped down on the floor next to Jerodyn. "I am, too! I never would have guessed to find you secreted away down here, in the bowels of the Weyr! So, this is where you go all those times I can't find you, huh? Neat! I am surprised you don't have a basket of redfruit sequestered away and all that, too." She looked around, then started picking up the spilled glows, placing them carefully back into the basket.

"What were you drawing? I didn't know you could draw." She asked, with curiosity, righting the basket once she was done, setting it down next to Jerodyn again. "I'll leave if you want me to." Orena offered, after belatedly realizing that maybe there was a reason Jerodyn was down here all by herself. Maybe she didn't want company? But just as quickly, another thought popped into her head. "I have a present for you ... but I don't have it with me. See, I wasn't expecting to find you down here, much less at this time of day. There's a lot of light outside, you know..."

She trailed off, and just looked at Jerodyn curiously, trying to puzzle out things without distracting herself. But it all boiled down to one thing; Jerodyn was wanting solitude.

[Kandarra]

When Orena sat, Jerodyn wasn't sure whether to be glad or annoyed. She enjoyed the other girl's company, but that hadn't been her goal today. She sneezed at the dust that had kicked up, then replied, "Actually, I just found this spot today." Cautiously she opened her sketchbook to a page that wasn't adorned with Orena's face. "It's just a hobby I have. It was useful when I was in the Weavercraft." On the exposed pages were sketches of a few dragons sunning themselves, and various weyrfolk, including the Headwoman. "You don't have to leave. I don't mind you being here," she said, deciding that having a friend with her wasn't so bad, even if it meant she wasn't going to draw much.

"A present?" Jeri was surprised and touched that Orena cared enough to get her something. But what should she get for her in return? That was an issue.

"I was going to go outside in the light, but there were too many people. I guess I'm still not used to having so many others around." She shifted a little, uncomfortable at admitting that. She didn't much like to reveal her uncertainties to others.

[Marnark’tranarprol]

Orena looked at Jerodyn, then at the book when it was opened up to reveal sketches. She smiled, and looked at them closely. "Oh, these are lovely, Jeri! I can't draw anything more than drafts, I'm afraid. And there's not much very attractive about a few rows of colored squares." Not that she usually did drafts, anyway... that was something she had done the few times she had bothered to tinker with weaving. Her real talent was in taking the cloth and turning it into something useful.

"Yeah! I made you a present. I didn't think to bring it down here with me - you see, I was expecting to find you later, when I did have it." Orena smiled at her. "I hope you like it." After that, she suddenly blushed a little bit. She didn't even have an excuse of why she had a present... it wasn't Jerodyn's turnday, and she hadn't impressed or anything ... so how to explain it?

"Oh, I see. There are lots of people in the Weyr, yeah. I noticed that, too." She nodded, soberly, before scratching her ear absently. "I also noticed they have a different mindset so far as personal space goes, too."

[Kandarra]

Jeri flushed at Orena's praise of her sketches. She didn't often show them to people because she was always nitpicking about their quality, but she was glad that this time, they were appreciated. On a whim, Jeri decided to show her the sketches she had drawn of her. She flipped the page, where there were two of them drawn from a candid angle.

"You were in the craft?" she asked, surprised, forgetting for a moment about the sketches. "I agree that drafts aren't that pretty, but they are useful." She had drawn many of them, herself.

"I'm sure I will, since it's from a friend," Jeri assured her about the gift, noticing her blush even in the light of the glows. "And yes, people are... odd about personal space here. There's certainly less observing of it." The corner of her mouth turned down at that. She was one who thoroughly enjoyed her space.

[Marnark’tranarprol]

Orena's eyes grew wide at the new pictures she was shown. "You were drawing me!" She exclaimed, entirely flattered. Other than that, she didn't even know what to say. At all. What was one supposed to say, anyway, when shown images of one's self. "Wowwww." She finally settled for, looking at those closely, too. It was interesting, to see how Jerodyn perceived her.

"Hm? Oh, only sort of. Ma is a weaver, but Da is a tailor, and I was much better at that than weaving. Much. My brother took to weaving really well, though. I know the basics, but I don't have any real skill. I drew lots of drafts, when I was first starting out, learning how to do it so that the weaving would come out proper like." She shrugged a big, brushing it off. "I made almost all of my clothes..." It was a lot cheaper than buying them already made, that was for sure! That and she loved coming up with new designs and then trying them on.

"I heard that some people just randomly crash into other people's rooms. I can't imagine why they do that. Or why people let them. If someone tried that in my parents' place, they'd get beat over the head with something solid." Orena remarked, with her mouth quirked over to one side. Weyrs and weyrfolk were certainly different, yes. Very different.

"How long does it take you to make one of these pictures? I bet it takes forever! It would take me forever, anyway." She amended.

[Kandarra]

Jeri smiled at Orena's reaction to her portrait, but her smile quickly turned to thinned lips. "Did I get it right? Do you think it looks like you?" She wasn't quite able to keep the anxiety out of her tone. She wanted to get this one right.

"Both my parents were weavers." She added thoughtfully, "So I was kind of born to it, I suppose."

She winced at the idea of people just popping in whenever they wanted, and nodded. "At my hold, too. You'd better have a good reason to just show up unannounced." She shook her head. That would be actively discouraged if she ever got her own room. It was bad enough she had to share one large room with so many other girls, in and out at all hours.

"Well, it depends on how well I know what I'm drawing, and how complicated the subject is, and how comprehensive I want the drawing to be. So sometimes it takes forever, and sometimes only a few minutes. Yours took a while because I was trying to include a lot of detail."

[Marnark’tranarprol]

"Awwwww." Orena grinned. "No, it's perfect! I love it! You've got such a practiced hand, and a good eye! Look at that ... woowww." She marveled. "I wish I could draw like that, Jeri!" She gave her a quick hug, before letting her go again. "It's good, no worries! No, it's better than good!" Orena grinned. "I don't think anyone's ever drawn me before..."

Orena nodded. "I'll be sure to knock next time I find you." She grinned, and rapped a knuckle on the book playfully, teasing. Sometimes she just couldn't help herself, playful was just her nature. And some people she was more easily open and goofy with than others. And then, some people seemed to encourage her by their reactions, while others practically drove her away. Which was fine ... she liked it when she could be herself.

"I wonder if we'll all still be in one big room once we impress?" Orena mused, apparently thinking along similar lines as what Jerodyn was. "I mean - that's a lot of dragons to all cram into one space." She pointed out.

[Kandarra]

Jerodyn's face grew hot as Orena went on and on about her drawing skills. She didn't think she'd ever blushed so much in her life. She actually started to hunch inward a little bit out of embarassment. "Well, er, I just practice a lot.." she said modestly after the other girl had hugged her. She was glad that someone enjoyed her sketches, and was secretly pleased at Orena, especially, liking them, but coming from a hold where praise was usually said in two words or less, she was a bit overwhelmed.

Glad of the topic switch for the moment, she said, "I think so, unfortunately. I heard someone talking about rebuilding the weyrling and candidate barracks. So that would imply that they're not individual rooms." She sighed. She missed her room back at the hold. It had been small, but since she was an only child and her parents didn't foster, she hadn't had to share it with anyone.

[Marnark’tranarprol]

Practice. Of course! Everything took practice. Especially things that turned out nice things. Like art. "Maybe I should practice, some, too." She mused, quietly, sensing that Jerodyn was being a lot overwhelmed, and it was driving her into a shell that Orena didn't want her to go into. So she backed off. A lot. She was quiet aware that she had quite the ... excitable ... personality, and some people just had a hard time handling that.

"Barracks. Well ... that just means everyone is in the same place, right? Maybe it's like a row of rooms. Or something. I dunno. I hope so. I wonder what kind of dragon I'll get? What kind of dragon do you think you'll get?" She asked, interested to know what Jerodyn thought of the whole thing. It would be absolutely awful if Jerodyn didn't get to impress this time around ... Orena rather wanted to stay in the same class as her friend. Of course, it never occurred to her that she might not impress, either! Mostly because her thoughts hadn't wandered that far yet. She wasn't an arrogant person at all, but she was scatterbrained sometimes.

[Kandarra]

Jeri nodded. Practice was a big part of how your drawings turned out, regardless of natural talent. "Maybe I could show you a few things," she said tentatively, still a bit uncomfortable. "If you want," she hurriedly added.

"What kind of dragon?" she repeated. She hadn't even thought about it. "I don't know. Girls usually either get green or gold, but the Candidatemaster has a brown, so I guess all that stuff doesn't matter so much. Plus she was talking about the weird colors that they have here." She paused, thinking it over. "I don't even know if I will Impress."

[Marnark’tranarprol]

"I'd love it if you'd teach me." Orena smiled happily. "And we can draw all sorts of things ... I think it would be completely awesome if we had a book that was devoted to just pictures of our dragons. So we can see how they grow! What do you think?" She asked. "I should have done that for Nemisis, but it never even occurred to me! Isn't that awful?"

"There's a few gals with blue, too, remember. I've seen them about." Orena pointed out. "So, anything but Bronze, I guess. That's a lot of colors! But, oh, don't think those things. You'll impress, I know you will! You're too good to not impress! I think ... oh! New colors? That's interesting... I didn't even think about them. What do they call those, anyway?" She asked, thoughtfully.

[Kandarra]

Jerodyn couldn't help but smile, again, at Orena's enthusiasm. "Awful?" she asked, and snorted. "No. You were probably too busy taking care of her to even think of it. Which is how it should be." And how it probably would be if they Impressed, too.

"Blue, hm? That would be okay. Any would be okay," she amended, deciding that any dragon was better than no dragon at all. Thinking out loud, she said, "I've heard of copper, and silver, and.. well.." She trailed off for a moment. "I've seen some really interesting markings on the traditional colors, too. I saw one bronze that had red and black on him!" she declared, marveling at that possibility. "I think anything could happen. Did you see that huge egg on the Sands?"

[Marnark’tranarprol]

"Weallll ... I guess so." Orena admitted. "I do love her ... and she's so much fun. It is good she doesn't need that kind of care all her life, though! Whew! I never thought I'd keep her oiled enough!! But I guess I did ... she didn't break her skin." She beamed with pride for a moment on the thought of her pretty copper flitter. There was little the girl treasured like her pet. Everything else could be replaced - pets and friends could not. Grinning she looked at the drawings again, flattered and impressed at the same time.

"Yeah, any would be awesome! I know some people walk away and never impress at all. I don't know why that happens, especially if a person was even searched. You'd think they would stand a great chance of impressing before aging out. But I guess not! Any dragon is better than none! I can't wait till I can fly! Oh, I dream about it sometimes, flying. It's an awesome sensation, you know it!" Orena nodded. "Copper I know about - Nemisis is copper! But I don't remember a silver! That'd be an interesting color to see! Red and black? Really?! Wow! I bet that was interesting. Yeah ... I did see that big egg. I wonder what's in it? Do you think maybe there is a gold in that egg? It would be really neat if there was! But aren't gold eggs, well, gold?" Orena asked, doubtfully. But she was no weyrbrat, and did not know the ways of things.

[Kandarra]

"Your flitt is copper?" Jeri asked, intrigued. She had never seen the other girl's pet. "How did you get her? I've never seen a flitter hatching." Not that she'd ever really wanted a fire-lizard for herself-- they seemed like a lot of trouble, and she'd had enough problems of people at her hold spying on her with their own flitts, trying to find out where she was. If she had one... well, it would have been impossible to have any privacy.

She nodded at each statement Orena made, trying to keep up with the girl's rapid chatter. It was a bit annoying, yet endearing. It was strange, really, that she found herself liking this girl who was pretty much the embodiment of everything she had found irritating back at the hold. Had she really changed so much in a few sevendays? Or was it something about the girl with the dark black curls? She didn't know.

Latching onto something she could make conversation out of, she said, “Judging from the weird colors of the eggs that we saw on the Sands, I think anything goes here. An egg with a gold dragon in it could probably be blue for all we know.” She mused on that. That huge egg just had to be a gold or a bronze, no matter how crazy the colors around here. It was gold and silver and HUGE, that had to indicate metallic.. right? Idly she flipped the page in her sketchbook, not paying attention to the fact that both of the newly exposed pages were, again, filled with Orena's face.

[Marnark’tranarprol]

"Yeah! Nemisis is copper alright. Copper as a cooper's pot." She nodded enthusiastically, grinning. "You've never seen Nemisis?! Oh mai, I wonder how you managed that? She's always doing these annoying shows and attention-grabs in the barracks, trying to make like she's a queen or something. And then she goes all sober and tries to hide under things usually upsetting them. Two days ago she smashed someone's pot ... made them SOoooo mad. I only got away cause I told them it was a wild flitt, and not mine, cause mine had been sleeping in my shirt. Of course, they didn't dare to check my shirt to see if it was true or not, thank faranth. I don't know what I woulda done if they'd insisted I prove it." She paused, inhaled, and stuck out her tongue a bit. Scary thought, that.

When those pages turned, Orena made sure to look see what other kind of artwork Jerodyn had done, fascinated. To find more images of her own self, though, was a shock. It rendered her silent for a bit, before she looked up at her friend's face. "I wasn't aware I'd taken up modeling." she said, rather straight, before a hint of a smile showing on her face to say she was teasing.

[Kandarra]

Jerodyn smiled in amusement when Orena told her the flitter's antics, but also took that as more evidence that she didn't want one. “I suppose I'm not in the barracks that much, and even if I am, I'm usually paying attention to my sketches. Though I think I would have heard a commotion like that,” she added, as she was one to always keep her ears open.

Jeri was puzzled at the modeling comment, until she looked down at her sketchbook. “Er..” she began, blushing rather hard. “I... you see.. well,” she finished lamely. She kept her eyes down, and didn't see the little smile on Orena's face. She was properly mortified. She had no real excuse to have so many sketches of the other girl. What was she supposed to say? Something like 'Oh by the way I draw you a lot because I think you're pretty and I'm kind of obsessed with your hair'

---

Admin's Note:[/hr] There was no way she was going to say anything like that to Orena, because she'd hardly admitted it to herself. So what was she to do? She opted for staring down at her lap. That was safest. Yes, no eye contact, no words to trip her up... definitely safest.

[Marnark’tranarprol]

Orena snickered a bit, clearly amused. "Aw, c'mon. Don't be like that! I didn't mean it that way." Orena gave Jerodyn's shoulder a friendly nudge with her own. "I don't mind! But, really, if I'd known anyone was drawing me so often, I might have worked harder at holding a better posture." She laughed a bit, as she tapped the sketch book with a finger. "Don't be sad!!" She leaned on Jerodyn's shoulder and rested her chin atop it, looking at her friend in concerned and almost sad expression. It looked very unnatural on her indeed, and not quite looked put on. Orena really didn't want Jerodyn to feel bad, but it was really hard for her to try and express such emotions. She spent so much of her time completely bouncy and giddy with everything that more sober emotions were not quite foreign on her. So only ended up that way when it really, really mattered.

And of course, Jerodyn mattered a lot. This was her friend who was being down! "I'll stop looking at your drawings, if that'll make you feel better?" Orena offered, brows peaking in the middle.