[Open] Draons Have to Eat

[Rust]

02.25.3189

The irritating thing about being a weyrling was the work. Well, to be honest, the hatching had been only four days ago and the workload had been pretty light. There had always been meat for the dragons, even if waking up in the middle of the night to feed them was annoying, but N'rak had told them that they would have to help butcher the herdbeasts eventually. The kitchen staff couldn't always be doing all the work! It would be at least a month, if not two, before the dragons could even attempt catching their own, and even then they would need help. You just couldn't have a squeamish rider.

Well, that was the problem. K'ran was getting better. In the time before he Impressed, he had seen a few dragons eat. It was uncomfortable every time, but at least he didn't feel like he'd be sick by the end. Cutting up dead herdbeast was a whole other matter. He had cut up fish on the odd occasion, but he had never been trusted to not mess up something bigger. What if he messed up the good parts? What if he let Marith eat the bad parts by accident? He had already been scolded for letting Marith overeat. There was just so much that could go wrong that for the first time in his life K'ran felt genuinely nervous instead of just uncomfortable.

It was worse now. It was evening, after dinner for him, but he could feel Marith's hunger clawing at him. That's why he was here! But there was nothing already prepared for the green, so the task was now coming to him. Someone had left to get a beast, which left K'ran standing with Marith waiting patiently by his side (and Ari flittering around his head as she usually was) and hoping that someone might show up so he wouldn't have to be the only one learning this right now.

[weetia]

P'tal had been vaguely confused for a moment by her hunger when she had jsut finished dinner, before she realized it was coming from Drinath. So far, this was the first time that she hadn't been at least a little hungry herself when he was, so she hadn't experienced that confusing sensation of being starved and full at once until just now. It didn't take her long to figure it out, though, especially after she saw K'ran head out with his green. Drinath immediately began complaining that Marith would get all the good parts, but she insisted on taking some time to pull on pants to go with her sleep shirt, as well as a pair of slippers. They still caught up with K'ran and Marith before the beast was brought out, and P'tal closed her eyes, preparing for the thought of carving up the meat for her brown herself.

She had plucked and cleaned a few birds while she lived in Foothills Hold, and hadn't minded at all. Herdbeasts were larger though, and this would be both more work and more mess. She fully expected to want to throw her clothing away when she was done, but it would be senseless. Obviously they would need to be cleaned immediately, but this wouldn't be the last time she made a mess of herself taking care of Drinath, and she couldn't throw her clothes away every time she did.

P'tal surprised herself with a yawn, the shrugged and smiled ruefully in the greenweyrling's direction. "Have you ever had to do anything like this?" she asked. She knew that he had been apprenticed to the herdcraft before he was Searched, but she didn't know much more about him. "I think I can manage to use a knife without cutting anything I'm not supposed to, but I don't know what the easiest way to cut up a herdbeast would be."

[Rust]

Busy watching the beast being set on a table, K'ran didn't notice he wasn't alone until P'tal said something. Ari has noticed with a squeak, but the tiny gold tended to be loud. Marith, on the other hand, had vaguely noticed but was too interested in the beast to consider who else would be eating.

K'ran turned and looked at P'tal with confusion for a moment, then relief. He wouldn't be alone! Of course, there was a part of him that didn't want to be shown up by a girl four turns younger than him, but Marith's hunger and... well, something about her attitude helped him not worry as much. She had this kind, patient feeling about her that spilled over to K'ran. It just wouldn't be proper to worry about making a fool out of himself; things happen and he'd get better.

"I haven't," K'ran answered, looking back at the beast on the table. "I have no idea what we're doing! I've only ever gutted fish." He explained.

The man who had set the beast on the table for them brought over a couple knives and offered them to the weyrlings. "Butchering is an art, but most dragons I've seen don't mind mangled meat so long as they're fed. If you can find the muscles it's usually good to cut around them, along the white, and then slice against the grain of muscle." He turned around and began removing the skin so he could show them what he meant.

K'ran turned back to P'tal. "I hope it's not too gross,"

((1/2 what I know from watching good eats, 1/2 making it up. Hope it makes sense!))

[weetia]

P'tal yawned again. "If you're cutting off the skin for us, that's great," she told the man. "I know that's one of the harder parts." Herdbeast hide was rather thick, and besides, once it was gone, it would be easier to stop thinking about what the animal had been before. "Yeah, I guess dragons wouldn't care too much about mangled cuts since they'll eat herdbeasts whole once they're big enough."

She looked over at K'ran. "At least you can probably feed both your girls at once without much extra effort," she noted. "Your flit probably won't mind taking little extra scraps as you feed Marith." Her stomach felt painfully empty, but she worked hard on not thinking about it, since it wasn't really her own stomach.

I don't care how it is cut, as long as I get it, Drinath informed her. Will there be enough? I don't want to take Marith's share, but I am a big brown, and they might not have sent enough.

Despite her exhaustion, P'tal managed not to roll her eyes. Her brown was always worrying about having enough to eat, probably because his belly being full was his only real concern at this age. She wasn't at all worried that he wouldn't be fed enough, but then she knew for sure that Weyrs truly valued their dragons. If any hatchlings needed to be worried about something like that...

"Messy? or just gross?" she sked K'ran, idly. "I think it will stop seeming gross after we get used to it, but it will always be messy. And I know we need to avoid cutting into the intestines if we want to avoid unnecessary grossness," she said with a wrinkled nose.