Food: an annoying necessity

[tealah]

Mya had already been in the infirmary that morning since just after breakfast, when the candidatemaster had assigned their chores. No surprises there, thankfully. The infirmary, while much slower than the healer hall, was busy enough to keep her occupied all morning and into the afternoon, when it was finally realized she'd yet to eat lunch and she was sent off to take her break.

Luckily the dining hall wasn't incredibly full, as she was later than usual coming in to eat. Dragonriders keeping odd hours as they did though, there were surprisingly few completely empty tables and those all at the far end of the dining hall. Glancing it over, Mya came to the conclusion that it would be too much effort and go too far out of her way to secure one of those empty tables for herself, so instead she took her full lunch plate to a closer one. There were people already there, of course, but she hoped to avoid conversation by simply not greeting anyone and applying herself to that plate of food too single-mindedly to invite attention.

Sometimes, that strategy actually worked.

[missing]

Midnael watched as the girl sat down at the table. He had been in the middle of feeding Fin and paused in mid pass of a scrap of meat. The tiny green greedily extended her neck and gobbled down the chunk. Midnael hadn't seen this girl around very much, but the few times he had had been at chore assignments and the various candidate classes so it was safe to assume that she too was a candidate. His eyes caught the rank knots at her shoulder, apparently she was also a Journeywoman Healer, explained why they never had the same chores. He mentally frowned, barely letting a sliver of the actual expression show itself on his face, and turned to grab another scrap for Fin. He vaguely remembered that chatty Healer-girl mention another who had come with her and been searched... Mya was it? It sounded right.

On his shoulder Fin gulped down her food before turning to see what he he had been looking at. She, rather uncharacteristically, ignored the meat that Midnael held out as she looked the girl over. She turned back to the boy who gave her a look that clearly said "don't." She ignored him.

The green hopped form his shoulder, gliding over to drop to the table just outside of arm's length from Mya, and chirped up at the girl.

[tealah]

Chirp.

Mya paused mid-bite at the sudden appearance of a firelizard. Unexpected. Better than the alternative, which was to say, someone human who'd decided to talk to her just for the sake of talking. At least the firelizard probably only wanted her food. Good thing Chief was off napping though or he'd probably have jumped on the table to get to the 'lizard... it wouldn't be the first time he had.

"Here," she said roughly to the 'lizard, tossing a bit of meat to it. With any luck the little thing would take it and leave her alone so she could finish eating and get back to the infirmary. Not that she was on a time limit, she just wanted to get back to work.

Keeping an eye on the 'lizard so it didn't steal any of her food, Mya bit into a meat roll. She touched the little bundle of emotion in her mind that was Chief, asking where he was. It wouldn't do for him to be heading her way and see the little green firelizard. But no, she got the sense that he was out by the lake. Dragon dragon dragon, he burbled happily in her mind - since coming to the weyr it had become his new favorite word, and Mya wasn't sure if he was saying it now because it was fun or if he was stalking a dragon - she hoped it was the former.

[missing]

Fin, not one to turn down food, caught the meat mid-air and gulped down. She turned and chirped again, this time as Midnael who sighed and shook his head, "Fin leave the girl alone so she can eat in peace. It is quite clear that she has no desire to talk now come back here and eat or I will toss these scraps to a tunnelcat."

For her part Fin seemed to be making a very good effort at glaring at the boy. He knew why she was doing this, she had done the same with almost every other member of the Weyr. Couldn't she just let him keep to himself like he had at the hold? Sooner or later she would draw the attention of someone not so nice and would probably end up in trouble, maybe even kicked out. He didn't want to ruin his chances at staying here, didn't she get that?

He looked at Mya, "I really am very sorry, but she seems to think I need to be more sociable. Unfortunately she doesn't usually take the desires of others into account."

Finiky seemed to be watching the girl closely, eyes whirling as she tried to figure her out.

[tealah]

Mya really, really wanted to ignore the boy who apparently owned the firelizard. She even considered calling Chief to chase the green away despite the chaos he would cause. As she bit savagely into another meat roll, she really truly considered it. But alas dealing with the aftermath of Chief going after someone's beloved pet would be more trouble than it was worth.

Instead she settled for a growled reply to the other candidate's last sentence. "I can see that." She picked at her food a second more, then gave in and turned to the other person. She recognized them as another candidate easily enough by the knots, and she could vaguely remember the rather girlish-looking boy from classes.

"You're a candidate," she stated needlessly. Ok, so she wasn't very good at small talk. What was she supposed to say? How's the weather? Not that she really knew how the weather was anyway, since she had been inside the infirmary all day so far. Clearing her throat, she adapted what she'd said into something that was probably a bit more socially workable. "You're a candidate; you'll have to get to know people eventually to have a suitable working relationship with them. If you Impress, you'll be flying in the wings alongside other people who you will depend on. A good reason to know them."

Though not, in Mya's opinion, a good reason for small talk. Hmph. She eyed the 'lizard in irritation.

[missing]

Fin's eyes whirled with amusement at the girl's statement, and Midnael got the overall feeling that the girl could take her own advice into account before correcting him. At least he was trying! His face showed none of his irritation, "Finiky come and leave the girl alone now please." Come on listen to me this one time please...

The green seemed to decide he was right and flew back over to his shoulder to accept another scrap from the boy, "So..." he ventured, "You work with that other girl right? Pala? You don't really seem like her at all."

Honestly he liked the differences he could see thus far, what with the constant, difficult to follow chatter that Pala constantly spouted it was nice to know that at least one of the healers was quiet. Even if she did seem a little angry at the world... Not like he was one to judge in that regard.