Decorating the Barracks. Really. 02.01.3189

Bored, bored, bored, bored… Eavan grumbled to herself as she fought with a rather stubborn tangle. Most days she loved her long blonde curls, but there were times when she wanted to just cut them all off. Then she would scold herself for thinking such foolish things. She would never cut her hair she loved it too much. Typically the candidate would have been doing a chore or doing some other task, but today was one of those odd days where there just wasn’t much for her to do.

Eavan hated those days. She had to constantly be doing something since sitting around doing nothing for too long a period drove her nuts. Earlier she had tried reading, but felt too restless to sit and read. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Julim get up and reach for his coat. She hadn’t been the only one sitting idly in the barracks. She briefly wondered where he was going, but that wasn’t really any of her business. So she went back to brushing her hair.

Eavan was fighting with another tangle when the young man came up to her. ”Well of course I’ll help you.” She said excitedly. Honestly, Eavan had hoped to be able to help with the sitting area and she was glad to have a goal in front of her. ”Oh, you don’t really have to finish my hair. I’d help you regardless. But if you mean it, it’s hard to do anything with these curls sometimes.” A friendly smile was on her lips. Julim was a level headed boy, or at least first impressions had made him seem that way. If he also knew how to fix hair, well that was just another mark for her to like the boy.

Eavan relaxed her arms to her side as Julim began braiding her hair. Besides her mother no one had ever done her hair for her before. She certainly wouldn’t have thought that a boy would be the next one to fix her hair. She wasn’t going to complain, though, she loved having her hair played with. ”Fifty braids? My goodness that seems a bit excessive, but I bet it felt wonderful to have someone play with your hair for that length of time.” She commented enviously.

”I don’t think I’ve ever tried braiding someone else’s hair.” Eavan stated almost shocked herself at the revelation. Eavan’s personality was a bit on the strong side, therefore she didn’t make friends easily or readily. Which was in itself a contradiction since she absolutely hated being alone and would do even the most onerous of tasks to simply be with others. Eavan giggled trying not to move her head too much. ”I’m quite the opposite. Dragon or not I really don’t want to crop my hair. Call me vain, but I’m rather fond of my blond locks.”

It then occurred to her why Julim would say that. ”Don’t fret Julim. I bet you’ll impress. I mean, no one really knows what a dragon looks for in a partner. But…I can’t imagine why a dragon wouldn’t find you suitable. You’re a good lad and I don’t just say that to anyone.” Eavan was truthful. In her entire life she’d only complimented a handful of the candidates she’d been with. A deep sigh escaped her lips. She really hoped she would impress this time as well, she’d cut her hair short if that’s what it took. Julim was younger than her and more chances left, at least.

”Oh I doubt we’d have to stoop to using the oldest of the old. There are certainly some clean cushions and pillows that have been put away in storage that we can use. My mother will be in the kitchens by now. She can lead us in the right direction for everything we could possibly need.” Eavan stated as she checked out her new hairdo in the mirror. ”You did a wonderful job Julim. I don’t know when my hair as looked better.” She said turning and giving the boy a grateful smile. ”Shall we head to the Living Caverns now?”

Eavan noticed him checking his firelizard egg pot. Like her he was one of the lucky ones to find the gold’s oddly hidden clutch. Honestly, who ever heard of a gold flit not laying her eggs in one location and standing watch over them? She had checked hers twice already this morning. The shells were slowly getting harder. ”They’ll hatch before we know it, I bet. As long as it’s not the same time as the hatching I’m happy. I think I’m going to at least carry the pot around anywhere I go, along with some food just in case.” She giggled.

Eavan put on her coat as they headed across the bowl towards the Living Caverns. ”My mother knows how hungry men can be period. She’s been cook here as long as I’ve lived.” Eavan answered with a knowing smirk. Her mother had always mumbled that the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach. Ekletta seemed to have a lot of sayings and quotes. ”By saying that I mean she’ll have something for us to nibble on while we’re looking for stuff.”

They walked into a semi-occupied kitchen. Eavan nodded to a few of the riders she knew as she walked back to the cooking area. It was hard to find her mom. Ekletta looked exactly like Eavan only in older form. Her hair was done back in a loose pony tail and she was currently peeling tubers. ”Hi Mom. Can I ask a favor?” Eavan said as she approached the woman. ”Oh. This is Julim a fellow candidate.” She added catching herself.

“Well met, Julim. Would you like a sweetroll? I just took them out of the oven.” She said handing the boy a still hot sweetroll. “What is it dear?” She asked her daughter. Her face was kind, a bit kinder than her daughters, with the appropriate amount of laugh lines and crow feet.

”We’re going to make a sitting area for the candidates and need some older cushions and pillows for it. Do you know where some are in storage?” Eavan asked, giving Julim a look as Ekletta handed him the sweetroll.

Ekletta thought for a moment. “Go to the very last storage room on the right. I remember seeing a bunch of bedding and other comfort supplies in there. They’re still in good shape, if I remember right, but not too good for the candidate barracks.”

”Thanks Mom.” Eavan said giving the woman a brisk hug. Most children at the weyr called their parents by their given name, but Eavan had always felt very close to her mother and expressed that in still calling her ‘mom’. ”Let’s go Julim. Grab a few of those sweetrolls.”

Eavan led them down the hallway towards the storage rooms. ”I know most of the niches and hide-aways. When I was much younger I would always taunt the other kids into going with me into the darkest and least used areas of the weyr. I’m more mature now, but having the knowledge of the weyr is useful.” She explained as she opened a few of the glows that were shut.

”High Reaches, eh? I had a feeling you were weyrbred.” Eavan commented as she turned to give him a smile. Julim did have that certain attitude about him that said ‘weyrbred’. She had always find it odd how some people’s upbringings were obvious. ”I’ve heard about the designs of the other weyrs. The running hot springs, the smooth walls, and all the other amenities we don’t have. Maybe one day we’ll be as well carved out as weyrs such as High Reaches, but till then I’ll be happy that we’re at least friendly.”

”Oh of course. I don’t mind. It’s not like we have anything better to do and the sitting area can wait. Let’s just look in them as we go along, shall we?” They came up to a door on the right. ”This is the food storage, which you know already so we won’t go in.” Eavan kept on going down the hall till a door appeared on the left. ”This is the medicinal store room.” She said opening the room’s door. From turns of going in this room she managed to open the glow basket without looking. Inside there were shelves and shelves of medicines. Ezob, tussilgo, aconite, borrago, featherfern, fellis juice, just about any herb or medicine could be find on these shelves. ”Everything is labeled for easy find.”

Eavan shut and locked the door and moved on to the next door, also on the left. ”This one has miscellaneous furniture. It’s pretty crowded in there, let’s not bother going in.” They walked a bit more down the hallway to another door on the right. ”This is the room we need. It has all the extra clothing, cloth, linens, pillows, blankets, and cushions we could ever wish for. There’s also a few tapestries in there for decoration.” She said as she unlocked the door. ”So, what should we look for first?”

”In the turns I’ve been here, there have only been a one or two occasions where a lot of people have come down sick with something. Those times had been quite scary, I’ll tell you that.” Eavan commented, remembering those times with a shudder. She’d been one of the sick ones and she never wanted to feel so sick again in her life. Honestly, she was surprised more hadn’t come down sick during this really cold winter. ”Just a fair warning, candidates are most of the time expected to help boil numbweed when the season comes around for it. Let’s both hope we impress by then.”

Eavan began searching through the pile of tapestries. The ones on top where the ones that just recently were taken down from Dining Hall and were still in wonderful condition. In her opinion, they were too good for candidate barracks, so she searched further down the pile. ”Oh, how about this one?” She asked as she held up a gently worn tapestry. The colors were slightly faded, but the picture depicted quite the appropriate scene. It was a hatching, the mother gold in the back ground looked anxiously by as her babies hatched and impressed to the people around them.

”Me? Not really. I did spend a lot of time in the kitchens as a child, but I was never formally trained.” She answered as she sat the hatching tapestry down and began looking for pillows. ”As for my other skills…” She began and then turned to look at him with a coy grin. ”It’s a lot more fun for you find them out yourself than for me to tell you.” Brazenly, Eavan gave the boy a wink. Though her head was pretty much filled up with weyr stuff, she wasn’t so dense to not know when she was being flirted with.

It was sort of refreshing, actually. It had been a long time since a man had had the courage to flirt with her. Two things normally stopped them from it. One, her being a candidate there was no way she would go further than flirting and two, her bold personality sometimes put off the men who felt a beautiful woman should be meek.

Eavan thought it best if she ignored the small blush on the boy’s face, though deep down she really wanted to say something about it. She was a tiny bit proud she’d even managed to get him to blush. He was weyrbred after all and she could only assume that he was more open and use to sexuality than a holder boy would be. The way he was caught off guard was pretty cute, she had to admit.

”I’m sure there has to be more in this pile.” She stated as she went back to looking for another tapestry. The next couple ones she came to was mainly scenes of regular holder work. Farmers in their fields, herdmasters with their herds, even one of a stage with harpers on it, then finally, she found just the perfect one. ”Here we go. This is wonderful.” She said as she held up the tapestry. It was about the same size as their other, but had a bit more length. The scene was beautiful despite its faded color and slightly raveled edges. Against a dark sky a dragon of every color could be seen flaming at Thread. Even a gold was at the bottom of the picture, their rider using a flamethrower at the ancient menace.

”I think this will be a pretty good reminder of why we’re here in the first place.” She said as she rolled it up and then rolled up the other one. ”Let me help you look for pillows.” She said as she walked over next to Julim to dig in the pillow bin. ”It would be great if we could find some of those long pillows. Those would make great back rests for us.” She said as she began tossing out pillows that were not suited to her liking. As she tossed one pillow, it went off course to smack Julim right in the fact. Eavan laughed covering her mouth with her hand. ”I’m so sorry, Julim. I really didn’t mean to do that.” She said, but was still laughing.

Eavan honestly hadn’t meant to hit Julim in the face with the pillow, but apparently the boy had taken it as a challenge. Well, if it was a fight the boy wanted it would a fight the boy would get! Eavan tried to block each of the five pillows as they came flying at her. The last two missed thanks to a sneeze.

”So not fair!” Eavan stated from between hits of the pillows. The dust was billowing out in a small cloud from every which way of her. Her eyes felt very dry and watery at the same time and her nose itched. ”Oh, you are so going to get it now!” She cried as she picked up one of the larger pillows. She grabbed the end of the pillow and began to sling at Julim, hitting his back and the back of his head.

She continued her small assault until a sneeze stopped her in her tracks. Leaving Julim time to retaliate with his own pillow assault. By now the dust in the air was everywhere, making small clouds to drift with the air currents from the swinging pillows.