Trinkets [Siata/Serdek]

[nozomi]

Even though the little blue technically bonded to Siata, Siatask had taken Little Bitch under her wing as her blue She held a fondness for the creature that the angry woman down the road would for her only cat. Little liked to nest between her headknobs, sprawling on the crevices and the bumps of her hide. He slept on her in the forge, and even while Siatask wallowed in a horrible mood, she let him.

Little even gnawed at her crumbled wings a few times, until Siatask rumbled and was disliking him, and Siata scooped him up to go and deliver a message. The blue squeaked and went limp in her grip, stared pitiously up at Siata as if she had taken everything precious from him.

She tied a bit of paper to his tail and told him where to go, with the warning of, "Don't be stupid again, Bitch."

So when Little Bitch popped into the Weyrling barracks, ash-smeared paper wrapped around his whipcord tail, he kept to the top of the barracks. The only time he'd been scared in his little flit life was when, unannounced, he'd gone SCREEEEEEEE in the face of some very upset weyrlings. He chirped, hovering, tail waving, to peer around for the duo.

"Chirrup?" Because, yes, he had a message on his tail. Night had not yet settled in the prison, and Siata was still drowsy and not yet on shift. He had a message! And when his presence was announced, Little dared sink a bit lower. At least the pale and dark blue clashing of Little could be easily recognized?

On that wrapped-tail-message was a scrawling in small, messy writing of 'Come over I have stuff!'

He'd learned not to barge in on what Siatask called Yellow Woman and the big creature with her. Not without warning.

Siata, for her part, sent him off with little worry. Little Bitch, for all his issues with being a decent firelizard, did not strike her as stupid. She had things to worry about, such as the trinket or two she had for Serdek when she arrived. In her standard outfit of tunic and pants, stained with ash and polish and some other substance she couldn't quite pin down but figured it had something to do with work. Despite the fact her shift did not exist that day - hurrah! - she had finishing touches to do and was so not allowed in the weyrling barracks.

While she waited to see if Serdek would come or not (as Siata would not blame her, given the awkward and sudden request, and the time of the day, though it wasn't late), Siata sat on her stool, legs crossed as she balanced. She wore an apron, polish on it, as she delicately tapped designs into one of the trinkets.

Even though she'd just woken up - feet still bare despite her headed from the wher barracks - Siata tapped away at the small shining thing in her hand, delicate as she could be with a small device in one hand, the trinket held against her knee. She concentrated.

Siatask, still asleep in the barracks, said nothing.

[giftwrapped]

Serdek. That woman's firelizard is here.

Greboth's eyes glittered in the dim light of the barracks, and the yellow watched the blue flit with sharp attentiveness, fixing each motion in her mind and wrinkling her nose. Serdek might be all right with intrusions from the blue - and she had grown to be, because intrusions from the blue meant Siata wanted to talk with her, and Serdek had become rather fond of the company of her only friend - but Greboth still viewed the little thing in suspicion, even now. She did not, however, fuss as Serdek took the message from the blue and sent him on his way.

"Siata wants me to visit her," she said gruffly, looking at the yellow, who snorted her distaste. "I know, Greboth. You don't trust her. I wish you would." She was just about the only person in the Weyr Serdek did trust, now that Warden was gone. The new Wardens were...Serdek was afraid of what they would say. She knew what her record said. She knew that the men heading the Weyr were Watch bronzeriders. She only hoped neither would ever have enough spare time to take an interest in her. Faranth only knew what they would do if they found out...

They won't do anything. Greboth rumbled, snapping a warning at the blue flit. She was done with him, and Serdek was making her edgier. They won't take you away from me, and they can't take me away from you. There was an edge to her voice, though. She knew, because Serdek knew, that her rider was a former prisoner, that should Serdek step out of line even once, it would be Greboth who paid the price. She knew that she and Serdek walked a razor's edge at the Weyr without Warden to back them up. But while this knowledge terrified Serdek, it meant little to Greboth.

She would deal with the consequences as they came. She would not let them hurt Serdek.

"Do you want to come with me to the forge?"

Do I have a choice? Will they let you leave me alone unsupervised?

"You have a point." Serdek sighed and reached up to scratch the yellow's eyeridges. Greboth rumbled happily. "Come on, then," Serdek said, standing and stretching. Greboth, too, got to her feet, slinking out of the barracks in front of Serdek, a barrier between her rider and the rest of the world. Serdek smiled fondly.

"So where are we going?" Serdek's guard interrupted smoothly, approaching from the side rather than behind so not to startle her charge and smiling slightly at Serdek. Serdek huffed and shrugged. Months after Greboth's Hatching, turns after her arrest, and Serdek had not once committed a crime. Why they thought guards would be necessary even now, she would never understand. But she wouldn't begrudge the other woman her job, and shrugged noncommittally. It wasn't like she ever did anything exciting, to begin with.

"Invited to the forge. Siata wants me," she answered. "I guess we need to take Greboth." The best thing about Siata, probably, was the fact that the smith held near-Guard status, and guards - or at least Serdek's personal guardswoman - tended to trust her with Serdek. And Serdek's assumption held true again, as the woman gave a short nod and a sigh. Serdek felt momentary pity for her. Stuck with a prisoner who was tedious at best and cripplingly dull at worst, she must have been counting the days til graduation. Serdek didn't blame her.

"Sounds about right," the woman answered, and then she shrugged, tucking the hide scroll she had been reading under one arm and sighing as she followed the pair out. Serdek put her out of her mind as she crossed the Weyr grounds, eventually stopping alongside Greboth as the yellow turned a circle outside the forge, scratching a wallow and flopping down. In the remaining sunset, her hide was a sickly reddish-orange, and Serdek grimaced, turning away from the dragon and tapping at the door.

"Siata?"

[nozomi]

Had Siata heard 'Siata wants me', she'd have chuckled. Poor Serdek, her only friend harbored a crush that even Lostris recognized. Siata adored her guard friend, let no one say otherwise, but even she knew how little attention her friend paid to Siata's (numerous) little romances. Didn't matter if Serdek got it or not, wasn't like she'd go throwing herself at the yellowrider to see what would happen. Life didn't work like that.

Siatasks. Rumbled Siatask, half asleep back in their barracks. Stop mind.

She opened her mouth to speak outloud, despite Siatask's inability to hear her whwen the knock on the door caught her attention. Siata blinked and hopped right up off her stool, toeing into her shoes. While she had no issues working barefoot when not at the fire or the anvil or any of that, who knew what she'd walk across while going to and from the door.

The trinket and tools were tossed into her pockets, the smith swinging the door open with a warm grin. "Hey! You got here fast enough. Was it the promise of gifts?" Siata leaned out to look out around for Greboth before rocking back onto her heels, curiousity satisfied. If the guard were still in sight, well, she was ignored. Sure, she was around to keep Serdek from being assassinated, or killing someone (again) or something, but she had little to do in the way of interesting in the world of Siata. "Or am I just that badass?

"There's no wrong answer to that, so you know." Another grin and she stepped back to let Serdek inside. She reached out to touch a wrist or forearm, though a flinch or slightest of sidestep would stop it. "But I do have gifts in which to bribe your time with. Nothing superbly awesome, I think, but it's yours. Do you want klah? Or. Wait. You sleep soon, don't you. It's night."

She stared at the pot of klah as if it were to blame for the time of day (or night, as it were), and settled back down on one of her stools, dark fingertips tapping at the countertop. A quick frown to the scraps of metal on the countertop before Siata looked back to Serdek. Another smile, quick and crooked, Siata's feet hooking in the rungs of her stool. "Only half a Turn left until you're officially not a prisoner, right? Graduation and all of that, no more yellow and red, and you're good?"

She blathered. Serdek made her blather although, granted, she had the tendency to do that anyway. While she did not find Serdek tedious or mind-numbingly boring, perhaps it a good thing that one of them yammered on and on.