Snack Hunt [Argeno | Natira]

[Dragon]

It was heading towards morning, and the was sky starting to lighten despite the fact that it was not yet dawn. It was simply deep gray instead of black, and the stars were starting to fade. The ponderous Goranask - ponderous for now, he wasn't slow - had headed back to their lodge as their watch came to an end, and the wher was starting to get a little sleepy as the first traces of the breaking night were on the horizon.

Giana, on the other hand, was heading towards the cookhouse to hunt up a snack. She'd worked up a little of an appetite on watch tonight, and she wanted to get to bed before breakfast time for once. The move to Semaca had been a good thing, but travel was tiring.

Poking her head into the cookhouse, Gi paused, then followed with the rest of her body ... only to find someone else already there. "Oh, hi! I'm not in the way if I find myself a snack now, am I?"

[Agenothree]

Natira had been humming a soft melody to herself, eerie in a mostly quiet cookhouse, but stopped and jumped a bit at hearing someone address her. "Hello!" she greeted in cheery reply, smiling immediately at realizing she had company. "No, not at all! In fact, I should be more worried at being in your way. And everyone else's, for that matter." Laughing a little sheepishly, she looked to her cooking again for a moment, but continued shortly. "Sorry, I'm not usually up so late as to disrupt a wherhandler's routine, but I was craving something specific and didn't want to trouble someone else at such an awful hour. Well, for dragonriders, uh..." Clearing her throat a little awkwardly, she hurried to switch to a different subject. "Say, I don't think we've met! I'm Natira of Khalbath. We fly for Pavane!"

[Dragon]

The poor woman was jumpy, or at least flustered. Gi felt bad for making the dragonrider react like she did, but there was very little that she could do about it except try to make up for startling her. "This isn't exactly my normal routine, but I'm tired and want to get to bed a little early. I wouldn't mind some company while I eat though," Giana said kindly.

Introductions were a good place to start, though, and so Gi followed Natira's lead on that front. "I'm Giana of Bronze Goranask, part of the Weyr Guard. We're newly transferred down from Crom Hold. Goranask and I arrived during the end of the winter, not that there's much of a winter here compared to Crom!"

[Agenothree]

Natira nodded as she explained, her smile growing gentler in her being thankful. "I understand," she responded, moving to chop something as she talked, her movements easy from Turns of practice. "Sometimes you're not up for a full meal, being so tired, am I right?" Moving to face Giana fully, Natira huffed a laugh. "As it happens, I wouldn't mind some company while I'm cooking!" she added, though she went quiet to listen to her explain where she and Goranask were from. "Well, welcome to Semaca, Giana!" she said kindly, looking to her cooking again afterwards. "Crom, huh?" she went on, going into something of a ramble. "I'm from Benden myself. Hold, that is. Searched to Benden Weyr in 2760, but I transferred to Ista and Impressed there in 2768. Where was I... Right, Benden winters!" Natira laughed a merry little laugh before she continued. "Benden was pretty mild, being closer to a coastline, nowhere near as close to those northern mountain ranges like Crom. But here in Semaca, you can forget it's supposed to be winter sometimes, especially after being used to weather up north!" Pausing somewhat abruptly, she glanced at Giana and grinned a little sheepishly again. "S-Sorry, I can, uh, get on a tangent sometimes," she explained, though she seemed more embarrassed for talking her company's ear off than uneasy or uncomfortable.

[Dragon]

Cooking? "What are you cooking?" Giana asked, immediately interested. She didn't assume that Natira was making enough for two but at the very least Gi could smell it.

Okay maybe she was starting to sound a little like Goranask right now, who would definitely be asking for a taste ...

"As long as I'm not in the way I'll find myself a snack," she said, not wanting to bother the woman about food. Just because she was interested in whatever Natira was cooking didn't mean that Gi was going to be rude enough to demand some. "And I don't mind rambles! They're fun sometimes."

Crom was probably colder than Benden, not that Giana had ever been to Benden! But with the mountains and all ... "Benden, huh? I bet that was interesting - I've heard that they're really traditional there." Which meant that a brownrider like Natira would probably be caught in the middle of everything, politically speaking ... not quite up, not quite down. And traditionalists didn't like cross-gender Impressions, did they?

Or maybe the rumors about Benden were wrong. Giana didn't know firsthand or anything.

"So how long have you been in Semaca?" she said, thinking that might be a more pleasant topic of conversation than traditionalists and how they might or might not have acted toward Natira.