I heard a rumor, and it said (Ritsa//Dani//Open)

[Erionda]

Candidate Ritsa

She had been in the dinning hall, a cup of klah lazily resting on her lips when she overheard a couple of the other candidates behind her mentioning a firelizard had flown. Not wanting to intrude on the conversation of other candidates she didn't know too well. The young woman merely sat and listened to the gossip. Sipping slowly at the liquid inside her mug, there was bits of information she was able to glean from the conversation they were having.

The owner of the flit belonged to someone named Dani, and that Dani happened to have a gold. That was the first part that peaked her interest. Listening harder to the various details she could pick up. Since she didn't know this person, she wasn't too sure how to get a message out to them and selfishly ask if she too could be considered for one of the eggs of the clutch. It would be a nice change of pace, and distraction from the fact she had been left standing while her brother had been blessed with the impression of green Eksenath.

Having gotten the information she needed from the gossip. Ritsa had set about trying to get a message to Dani that she would like to meet up. As with most people in the Weyr she too was hoping for her chance at an egg. It was no secret she was interested.

That was how the candidate had ended up in the dinning halls a bit early. Having rushed here from her mid day class and chores to meet up with the bronzerider. Part of her was certain the bronzerider was too busy to take time out of her day to answer the calls of a Candidate. Which had Ritsa nervously chewing on the inside of her bottom lip. Her eyes darting about the dinning hall while keeping her eyes out for Dani.

[nineofswords]

Dani got a message from a candidate named Ritsa. Honestly, she was a little surprised that a candidate was reaching out to her, but she wasn't about to turn down someone asking to talk to her when she wasn't busy. She just hoped it was about Ceecee's clutch or something like that and not someone wanting to know how they could get a bronze like her. She loved Bladeth with all of her heart, but he wasn't what people wanted when they thought they wanted a bronze. They wanted something noble out of song and story, not someone who fretted at going too fast or asked three times before taking off whether her straps were secure enough.

She made her way down to the dining hall and secured herself some klah before looking for someone with candidate knots who seemed to be waiting for someone. She spotted someone and approached. "Hey," she said with a friendly smile. "Are you Ritsa? I'm Dani, I got word a Ritsa wanted to talk to me." With the candidate ranks newly depleted by a hatching, if this girl wasn't Ritsa, odds were pretty good she'd know who was and could point her out to Dani.

[Erionda]

Candidate Ritsa

The young woman smiled as the obvious bronzerider approached her. That had to be Dani, the woman was nothing like she had pictured the woman being. The complete opposite. It took Ritsa a few moments before she was able to clear her head of the shock. Not that she wasn't happy to see Dani, just wasn't what she had anticipated.

Shaking her head and opening and closing her mouth a few times, Ritsa eventually nodded. "I'm Ritsa," she replied humbly. A bit out of character for a young woman who was always so eager to cause trouble with her peers. "I, well I didn't think you would answer. That's not important. Look I'll get to it. I overheard a few of the others, talking about you having a clutch of eggs you were looking to pass off?"

Ritsa was trying to be polite, though somehow she felt she was far from the mark. She kept her body held as proper as possible. Tried to avoid her fidgeting. Tried to keep as much emotion from her face and body as she could. There was the very real possibility that if she showed too much eagerness towards asking about the eggs being offered. That the owner of the eggs would raise the price or make it that much harder to obtain. It was better to show now emotion in this situation, the young candidate figured.

[Windra]

"Eggs!"

A little plume of auburn hair appeared just below the table. It bounced. With every little jump, golden brown eyes appeared over the wood's edge. When did Sasha get there? Why weren't her parents nearby? What about the sibs? Eh! Whatever! Food, and eggs! But weren't eggs food?

Well ... like ... those dragon eggs could've been food in a fit of desparation. Could feed a whole family! But they hatched into dragons and that was way cool and she bet they ate a ton all the time. No wonder the Weyr had its own penned herdbeasts. And more to spare! The kitchens always smelled sooooo good and why yes thank you she definitely swiped a pair of meatrolls from under the cook's nose.

Sasha was greedily devouring them too. No shame! No tact! Juice dribbled down her chin. Her little cheeks were stuffed!

"Mmmffirelizard eggshhh! There lotshh?!"

[Erionda]

Ritsa nearly jumped out of her skin, her body jerking instinctively away from the sudden and unexpected surprise of a young child peeking around the table. Luckily for her, there was nothing on the other side for her to fumble into and cause even more of a scene. Grunting at the unwelcome disturbance of the child.

It took Ritsa a good minute to settle, trying to pretend like nothing happened. "No. no we aren't having any eggs for tea." Ritsa gently spoke, her head turning towards the smaller individual. Resisting the urge to reach out and pat sasha's head, which only resulted in her clenched fists. "We're discussing firelizards." Ritsa spoke a bit more openly than she would have liked. She didn't like the idea of there being competition for some of the eggs that had the potential to throw her out of the line for one.

[nineofswords]

Dani tried to keep her smile open and friendly. Ritsa was opening and closing her mouth, so she was clearly trying to figure out what her words. It was more common in candidates for any number of reasons, but Dani wasn't really one to stand on ceremony or rank. It was part of why she'd been drawn to High Reaches. She just hoped Ritsa would pick up on that sooner rather than later so she could feel more comfortable just talking naturally around Dani.

"Excellent! I'd hoped you were Ritsa. You looked like you were looking for someone, but that's not super uncommon in the dining hall so you never know. Anyway, it's nice to meet you! How can I help?" Dani put her hands on her hips. "Well that'd be pretty rude of me to not answer when you went through all the trouble trying to contact me," she said. "Especially when I'm not busy."

Dani looked relieved and excited in equal measures when Ritsa mentioned the flit eggs. "Yeah! My gold firelizard flew recently and now I'm drowning in eggs. I love seeing babies, so I don't mind, but I can't keep them all, so I'm happy to give them to anyone who wants any. I just...wanna be there when they hatch to see them, is all." She gave a slightly self-conscious laugh. "Which is maybe selfish of me, but I really love getting to see baby flits. They're just so...so tiny!" She seemed to remember herself. "Anyway, did you want one? As long as you're fine doing it like a wher hatching in my room, you're welcome to any one you want!"

Dani gave a little start when a small voice suddenly made itself known, followed by a small person. Dani knelt down so that she was on the little kid's level. "Well hi," she said. "What's your name? Oh goodness, look at your face, kiddo. Didn't your mom tell you you gotta eat your food, not wear it?" Her tone was light and teasing.

She glanced up at Ritsa's response to the kid. Intellectually, she knew some people didn't like them, but that wasn't her at all. "Yeah, no eggs for breakfast for us," she agreed with Ritsa. "They sure are tasty, though, doncha think? But my friend Ritsa here is right, we're talking about firelizard eggs, and those aren't for eating."

"There are lots of firelizard eggs," Dani said. "More than I know what to do with. I'm trying to get them good homes. Hey, if you want one, you should probably go ask your mom if it's okay. I can tell her how to help you take care of them if you want." She honestly had tons, and she was not a stingy person by nature, and both these two seemed like good kids.

[Windra]

"Eggs are delish!" Sasha lifted her chin and swallowed hard. One could see the lump of food passing down the esophagus and it was a small wonder she hadn't choked. "I have food on me?" She looked down at the crumbs. Oh! Wasteful! Sasha licked them off her sleeves, oblivious to the dribbling on her chin - though it did tickle! "We didn't get eggs a whole lot! It isn't easy snatching 'em from wherry nests. Lots of times the mommas get all scratchy and sometimes we couldn't get a fire goin' to cook 'em because rain."

Nothing but a slight reference to the possibility of eating them raw ...

Oh but they weren't talking about food. How'd they get off the subject of fire-lizards? They mentioned breakfast and she got completely derailed! Sasha's eyes became wide saucers and she leaned in all glassy-eyed. "Ohmigosh! You've got lots! Do they have all sorts of artsy stuff on 'em like the dragon ones did?!" Sasha sucked in a breath. Her family could have some?! They would be so excited! Maybe Cotozi would finally warm up to her a bit if Sasha brought her one ... ? "Yes a million times! Do they eat like dragons? Whaddya hafta to do take care of them??"

[Erionda]

The candidates head jerked from the weyrbrat to the bronzerider. Her mouth all but left wide open, her mind raced to catch up with her surroundings. The bronzerider, Dani, was speaking to her. Not with curt short phrases but as if she were someone just as she was.

Struggling to clear her throat, Ritsa bowed her head briefly as a show of respect to the higher ranking individual. Her posture relaxed the more Dani spoke and a small grin spread on her face upon hearing the woman was happy to let the flits impress to other members of the weyr. Her head nodding vigorously towards Dani's mention of wanting to be present when the eggs hatched. She could understand that feeling quite well. It would probably be the same for her given the circumstances.

Ritsa had never seen such enthusiasm in a bronzerider before, and it was catchy. Straitening her body and squaring her shoulders she nodded her head upon the question posed. She certainly did want one. "Wait," Ritsa started, "how much am I going to have to pay to get one?" She knew firelizard eggs were heavily sought after. Hard to get ahold of a single one. They were very rarely seen in the holds and most of the candidates she interacted with were also without firelizards.

She watched Dani interact with the small child with caution, nodding slowly in agreement of the bronzerider between them. That was until the mention of 'friend' had come up. The candidate took a double take towards the bronzerider, her eyebrows shooting up. Dani was not the type of rider she had expected at all. Aside from Miguel there weren't many other individuals who would take the time to talk to her in such a familiar way. Part of her just didn't know how to take it.

Folding her arms across her chest, Ritsa tilted her head to the side. "I'm interested in seeing them all hatch too. So I think it would be fun to see what comes out of each of these eggs. I would only be interested in one mind you. I have to make sure I can care for it before I even consider the possibility of more. " Ritsa spoke again, this time a bit more casually than she had upon first meeting Dani. "Do you think they make good practice for learning how to care for dragons?" She asked keeping her eyes on the small child Dani was presently attending to.

[nineofswords]

"Eggs are delish," Dani agreed, laughing. She was even more amused at the kid licking crumbs off herself. Oh well, oil probably didn't really count as food when she really sat and thought about it, and the kid would probably get a bath later anyway. No harm in a kid being messy. She kept her light-hearted expression on her face through sheer force of will as the kid mentioned stealing wherry eggs and Dani realized this must be one of the holdless kids. The idea of this kid not having enough to eat made Dani want to go yell at someone. But she wasn't about to let that on to this kid. "Whoa, you stole from wherry nests? You're braver than me, kid! Bet it's nice that you can just have eggs whenever you want now, though, right?"

She looked at Ritsa, surprised. "Oh, no, they're free," Dani assured her quickly. "It's not like I need the marks, and I wanna make sure they get homes so I'm not saddled with twelve brand new babies. Can you imagine?" Babies were cute, but not cute enough to justify keeping a whole brood. "My firelizard's a gold, so I'm gonna have plenty of eggs in the future, too. Easier to just give them away, I figure. If I really want to make some additional marks, I'll sell them to trader caravans, but if I let my fellow High Reaches folks get them, I get to see them again occasionally, and that's way more fun than any lousy marks."

"Oh, you mean are the eggs colorful?" she asked the little one. "Not really, they're all black and white, but they do have patterns on them that look a bit like other stuff. There's one that looks like a fish, another that looks like a gather tent, and one that looks like a flower! There's even one that looks like it's got a sock puppet on it!" Some of the others were a little odd and beyond this little one's frame of reference, but those were all things she could get excited about, surely.

"Oh yeah, I hear you," she agreed with Ritsa. "One flit is quite enough for me. And she's not even that much of a handful." Ceecee was a very calm gold, but there was enough for Dani to do in her day without adding yet another flit that would need feeding and washing and oiling. She considered the questions of both of the younger people. They were all similar enough that it'd be easiest to answer them all at once. "They certainly can be good practice for dragons," she agreed. "As long as you remember that everything about them is on a much smaller scale, from their size to their telepathic bond to how smart they are. But like dragons, they eat meat, and it's a great way to figure out how to make sure you feed them enough without it being too much. You need to bathe and oil them, and when they're freshly hatched you gotta do it really often, sometimes every day, especially if they hatch when it's cold out. Otherwise their skin dries out, just like ours does, and it can be really bad if you let them get dried out too much. But other than that, you just gotta love 'em," she added, shooting a wink at Sasha. "That's the most important part. And like dragons, they can be a really great partner as long as you try and meet them where they're at and don't force them to be something they aren't."

[Windra]

There was an air of something with the Ritsa girl and Sasha couldn't really put her finger on it. She was a little shakey, maybe? Like Pawpaw when they brought him back from the holdless camp all grouchy as can be. But like ... stiff. So Sasha grinned broadly, lighting up her eyes as much as possible, and looked directly at the other lady. She seemed nice anyhow!

"You'd get a flighty buddy too! Got a name yet? Wait no 'course not, ya dun' even know what it'll hatch into so - " Cutting herself off to suck a bit of meat from her thumb (how'd that gob get there?) she bounced on over to Dani and sat beside her, pleased as can be. The other holdless might be spooked of these Weyr whatchamacallits but Sasha didn't really see the big deal. "I'd promise to never let an itty bitty flitty go hungry, for sure! Black and white? Are they always only black and white! That's crazy! All them draggie eggs were different colors n' I thought they were like ... cousins to each others or somethin' like that?"

Being a candidate was the furthest thing from her brain right now. She was still so young! But who knew what the future might hold!

"Summa my family are freaked out by draggies. I betcha a flitter might help 'em feel kinda like family to this place."

[Erionda]

Leaning in the young candidate listened carefully, hanging on to just about every word the Bronzerider spoke in relation to the flits. Her shoulders relaxed upon learning the eggs didn't come with a price tag attached. Feeling a bit warmer towards the bronzerider, Ritsa cast unsure glances towards the wherry nest thief every so often through the conversation. "That's a fair enough point, I suppose it helps you bring in some marks from time to time if you need it." Ritsa commented, about to ask if she had more than the gold when the question had already been answered.

Ritsa found herself nodding along with the information Dani was providing. Eager to learn as much as possible now, before the small firelizard hatched. Happy to know that having this information before hand would prove to hold less stress for her in the long run. Offering up for time for her to prepare. Questions started flowing as Dani spoke, and Ritsa found it hard not to interject the conversation as she was talking to ask her questions. "Is there places around here to get the oil for the little hatchlings? Would we be required to apply for it, or do we just help ourselves to the oil for the Werylings?"

Questions continued to bobble around inside her head and the more she thought on it the more questions she had. It took quite a bit to solidify more questions it phrases, all the while trying to comprehend the words spoken by the child sitting at the table. "They are cousins to each other." Ritsa eventually replied, watching the child, happy it was keeping some fair distance between between them. "Maybe you'll learn more about that in Candidacy." The candidate spoke, trying to remain as kind and soft as possible towards the child. Afraid if she spoke in her usual tone she would come off too harsh towards the child, and send it off crying. That wouldn't bode well in front of the Bronzerider.

Allowing her arms to drop to her side, Ritsa waited patiently for her turn to speak again. Not wanting to pull the attention away from the child Dani was more occupied with. "Are we able to feed them food from the kitchens easy enough?" She finally asked.

[nineofswords]

"Yeah, no names yet," Dani said. "But you can name firelizards whatever you want. You don't have to wait to see what it is first. You could name it Greenie, even if what's inside is a blue or a bronze or any other color!" That was kind of part of the fun of having a flit, as far as she was concerned.

She smiled at Ritsa. "Yeah, it's nice to have as a backup, but unless something changes overnight at the Weyr and I need to start paying for my meals, I'm not sure I'd ever need to. Mostly I'd just do it if I had too many and not enough people willing to take them." She looked a little surprised at a few of Ritsa's questions, but her smile was kind and friendly when she answered them. "You can just take oil from the storerooms," she said. "Flits are so much smaller than dragons that it doesn't make too much of a dent in our supplies if people with flits take some without asking, so don't worry about getting in trouble over it. If anyone tries to give you grief for it, they're just being a hard...er, a bully." She remembered herself just in time not to swear in front of the younger child present. "Complain to the headwoman about, and she'll set them straight for you. And definitely, everyone in the kitchen is always super understanding when you need meat for your flit, although some of them do like to hunt for themselves."

She turned her attention back to the excitable little one. "Good! No one should ever have to be hungry. It means the people with food aren't doing a good enough job of sharing it. And firelizard eggs aren't always black and white, Ceecee's just turned out that way this time. Sometimes they're bright and colorful, just like a dragon's! Sometimes the eggs just decide to look funky." That was probably the easiest way to explain it to a younger child, especially since Dani didn't know what caused it herself.

She nodded encouragingly to Ritsa. "That's right, they are related, and they're all also related to whers." She bit her lip when Ritsa mentioned candidacy for Sasha. Dani wasn't sure if the Holdless children would be allowed to stand, which she thought would be a shame. She didn't think Ritsa should get the younger girl's hopes up if that was a dream of hers, but she didn't really know how to bring that up without doing the same thing herself. She latched onto Sasha's talk of her family to change the subject. "Well flits are certainly good at making people see dragons aren't so scary," she agreed. "Plus, they can be pretty useful if they're trained right!"

[Windra]

Sasha kind of wheeled back onto her elbows in thought. The dream of riding dragonback was there, maybe, settled into the back of her little brain. But so was dinner. And dessert. And fire-lizards, but also midnight snacks.

Speaking of ...

Her little eyes darted back and forth from the kitchen so quickly that it might not have been noticed. Sasha licked her lips. It was so satisfying to have a full tummy. It felt like she was filling a reservoir that had been dry for far too long.

If only she could blink back and forth from there to their little room here in High Reaches without being seen ... oh! "Can they go to that - uh - the black place? Zippin' in and outta nothin' like we did when the draggies brought us here? Wuzzit called?" Little eyebrows furrowed. Sasha heard stories, but little else. "What is it?"

[Erionda]

Candidate Ritsa

"Do you mean Between?" Rista asked slowly somewhat bewildered that the smaller child didn't seem uncomfortable or even phased by an experience of going between. It was supposed to be a very cold and breathless environment. Something so foreign to the human body that it was shocking to those who were unprepared. Even if the trips between didn't last very long. She felt almost a hint of envy towards the red headed child. She hadn't yet experienced going between and longed for the day when she would get her first plunge on dragon back.

Having no more questions left for Dani, Ritsa turned her attention towards the bronzerider. "I look forward to the summons, however I need to get back to my chores before I'm found missing. I can't risk loosing my candidacy. May Faranth's egg shine upon you." Ritsa guestered respectfully towards Dani, having gained a small amount of respect for the child that had joined in their conversation. Giving a tentative wave towards Sasha, Ritsa quickly turned on her heels and darted back out of the dinning hall. She had to return to her duties.