Candidate at Tiamat Weyr
Though she has no interest in becoming a crafter, she takes time out of her long days at the Weyr to do things like help potters, or tend food beasts. The break of activity gives her time to think and mull over the lessons she has learned over the days, months and turns.
Lela is nineteen turns old and celebrates her next turnday in the middle of summer. She hopes dearly that she will celebrate with a dragon by her side.
Unsurprisingly, and due to her weyr heritage, Lela has already borne two children. Her mother is actually quite pleased about that, since her own ability to bear has been unduly stunted by riding a dragon and going between too often. Carrying on her line is very important to Lela, however with life as accepting as it is in the Weyr, she fostered the first child (a boy named Leonal) and cared for the second (a girl named Alau) until she was two turns old. She still has contact with both children and does love them dearly.
Her mother has one other, younger, child, Lessa (no, not the same, of course -- ooc, she's not born for another 2000 turns!), and Lela has two cousins on her father's side, Charaat and Ch'ran, one a bronze rider.
Lela dug into the dung heap and flicked the shovel full of runner-beast waste over her shoulder into the wagon. For some reason, the stuff was valuable to someone ... She guessed the Dawnlight field workers took it and used it on their crops. She was glad that she only had to deal with this kind of thing once or twice a sevenday -- and in all honesty, though there was always more OF it, she liked shoveling muck from the Weyrlings weyrs, more than this smelly work.
For some reason, dragon dung was never the same as anything else. Perhaps, she thought while resting half a moment, dragons were native creatures, and runners and herdbeasts weren't. Even she knew that, from her studies with the recordskeepers of the protectorate. Dragon dung was harsh, but so very different than the smelly stuff coming from runners...
With a chuckle, Lela resumed her hard work. Tomorrow, she'd be working in the kitchen, helping wash dishes. The next day was a resting day, fortunately, and she had plans already to meet with the father of Leonal. He was a nice young man, handsome enough. She knew that her son would be quite a charmer when he grew up, and she hoped that he would be a rider too.
Ah, how thoughts of the sky and dragons and weyr work filled Lela's mind. One of the few people in the weyr -- any weyr -- that just rejoiced in whatever she was given, simply because she was IN a weyr. Lela was occasionally looked on as a little odd, for that reason.
But she never commented, and rarely cared what people thought of her. When she had finished moving the pile of runner dung out of the stall, she watched as the other weyr brat wheeled it away, and the beastcrafter gave a whistle indicating that their hard shift was over.
"Finally," breathed one of the others, and she put down her soapy brush and bucket. "I can't believe you like getting yourself all mucked, Lela."
Shrugging, the young woman turned to the skinny weyrgirl and smirked. "You can't be afraid of a little work now and again, if you're in a weyr."
"I never said I was afraid of it, just... eeh. Disgusted is more like it." The girl dropped her brush into the bucket, and flicked her hair free of the bubbles.
"And you're complaining because you have to wash down walls?" Lela indicated her smelly knees and hands -- well, she had gloves on for the work would give her bad blisters otherwise. The muck work was far harder and far smellier and the pale haired girl knew it. She stuck her tongue out, and giggled.
"Get cleaned off... Are you going to the gather on the resting day?"
"Of course," Lela beamed. "And I've got O'nal to bring me to the Hold in style."
"Ooh, jealous," the other girl hissed, "ooh! How do you do it, Lela? You're all smelly! Don't you turn boys away?"
"O'nal is hardly a boy, he's a blue rider. And I helped him muck out his weyr when Wanth was little. It's a wonder what a little helping hand can do for your chances to meet and greet the riders, my dear..." They finally reached the weyr's bathing chambers, causing a number of people to laugh or choke from the smell along the way.
Bathing and scrubbing down was welcome to Lela, and she took much longer in the warm waters than her friend. Floating in the deeper area for a while, Lela looked at the high, curved ceiling of the inner bathing chamber. The slight current drawing the water out of the weyr would eventually make her drift past the dragon's bathing area. She would sometimes let herself be brought all the way outside by it, just to take a quick look at the dragons out there. But she had left her clothing for the drudges to clean back at the main entrance, so she would have to go get something else to wear in the meantime, and she didn't quite want to make an entrance nude and sleepy!
Well, maybe nude... She laughed.
That was something she'd reserve for O'nal later! She dried her dark skin off and sat in the warmth of the bathing room listening to the echoes of conversations and laughter of people bathing with each other.
Again, she was struck by how lucky she was to live in the Weyr.
