All references to worlds and characters based on Anne McCaffrey's fiction are copyright © Anne McCaffrey 1967,2000, all rights reserved, and used by permission of the author. The Dragonriders of Pern(r) is registered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, by Anne McCaffrey, used here with permission. Use or reproduction without a license is strictly prohibited. For more information, visit the Worlds of Anne McCaffrey.

Nareisa wanders in dressed in some rather flimsy nightclothes and fluffy pink slippers. She's wearing a garland of flowers on her head.

Auralia's got juice. She's also got muddy feet, which have made muddy footprints on the floor, but she's not telling about that, not while she perches on the edge of one of the tables, and swings her legs. Fun.

Nareisa says sleepily "Hi Aura. Nice mud," she floats across the room, teddywher in hand.

"There's no mud. None. Okay?" Aura glances up, bestowing broad smile upon Nareisa. "Hey, Reis."

Nareisa notes sleepily, "Well, except for the mud on your feet. And on the floor. There are muddy footprints there. And they're the same size as your feet too. At least..." she smiles sleepily "They look about the right size. I haven't really looked at your feet that closely. They're too big to be my footprints." She toddles sleepily over to a table and places her hand against a jug. "Still warm," she says happily.

Auralia sighs, and sticks her tongue out after Nareisa. "Fine. But don't tell anyone else that. It can be our secret." She picks up her juice, and takes a long sip from it, adding, "Have you been asleep? -- I'd hope it's still warm. Cold, it's pretty nasty."

Nareisa mms happily, pouring klah from the jug. "Only warm though," she murmurs. "Not hot. Are you proddy?"

Auralia peeks up from her mug. "No, I'm not." Promise.

Nareisa ohs, smiling vaguely at her. "That's nice. I guess it's safe then." She and the teddywher toddle over there, with klah. "It's an awful lot of mud. Are you going to clean it up?"

Auralia hesitates, but, finally, nods, somewhat slowly. "I guess so. Ooh, nice teddywher." Clinging to her mug, she adds, "No, Tiri can do that. I can't be bothered."

Nareisa curls up on a chair near Auralia. "Oh thanks. His name is..." she frowns "Well, look, it doesn't matter. Don't tell N'all though." She sips her klah. "Tiri's going to be awfully mad."

Auralia restrains a snort of laughter, commenting, "Lucky N'all. I'm sure it's a big compliment." To share one's name with a teddywher. "Tiri'll live. She'll probably make someone else do it, which is fine with me."

Nareisa ers. "Um... no... er... well, never mind." She has the grace to blush. "Well, um, N'all, he's not really much like a teddywher is he? Well except for the cuddly bit. Sometimes. Not when he's shouting at weyrlings though. Or scaring people. Or yelling. Or well, most of the time." She peers "How come you don't care? Are you SURE you're not proddy?"

Auralia frowns. "Well, *no*. I wouldn't even call him cuddly, myself." Ferocious, probably. "I'm positive. Absolutely positive. I just don't care. It's more fun, that way."

Nareisa peers at her. "You know," she says, seeming a little more awake, "it's really not very nice to leave a mess for somebody else to pick up. I think I'll go clean it up for you."

Auralia peers back, asking, "Are you sure Niaeth didn't turn green, and you're not proddy? Tiri won't mind." Aura's more confident than she should be. "Don't. Sit, and talk to me."

Nareisa mmhmms doubtfully "Yes Weyrsecond," she says, a little irritably. "And no he didn't. Which probably is a good thing." There's just the faintest hint of doubt in her voice. "And um, I don't know about Tiri not minding," she adds.

Auralia's eyes roll, at the use of her title, as she retorts, just as irritably, "Don't call me that. Oh, good. I don't think he'd make a very good green. -- Well, Tiri won't mind *much*, anyway." Liar.

Nareisa looks even more irritable. "I think he'd be PERFECT at anything he wanted to be," she says. "And if you don't want to be called by your title why are you going around doing things that you can just get away with because you're weyrsecond?"

Auralia raises her eyebrows, as she glares at Nareisa. "Except catching Iesath, if she was proddy, and he tried." She crosses her arms, as if to say 'so there'. "I can't get away with things just because I'm weyrsecond. I'm supposed to not do things like that, so I'll get in trouble from L'mir, anyway. So there."

Nareisa blinkblinks at Auralia, looking just a tad hurt. "Just because he hasn't caught her, doesn't mean he couldn't. He's caught a few greens you know." Glare. "So why are you doing it then? She won't like it. /I/ don't like it."

Auralia crosses her arms more tightly, expression petulant. "But not Iesath. He could never catch Iesath." Double glare. "Because I want to."

Nareisa hmfs. She stares at Auralia for a while and then pronounces, "Proddy," in a definite tone. She takes a sip of her klah. "Fine, he won't catch her. Happy? I'm sure she'll be caught by someone with a very nice, very good looking rider."

"Not proddy." Aura sticks out her tongue as she finishes this statement, staring at Nareisa meaningfully. "Yes. Except that she isn't proddy."

Nareisa stares right back. "You sure don't act like this usually," she says. "But never mind, I'll keep Niaeth away from her. I'll even go to Honsh...er somewhere if you like. Maybe to Cove."

Auralia snorts. "Neither do you. I bet you're just jealous, or something." Then, a smile. "Oh, good. You do that. I hope you freeze at Honshu, or get a sunburn, at Cove." Nice. Real nice.

Nareisa looks even more hurt. "Well I certainly won't stay around if I'm not wanted," she says. "I'm not going to Honshu anyway. Well only to see my mother, but otherwise I'm not going to."

Auralia sticks her tongue out, again, triumphantly. Perhaps she is proddy. "Good."

Nareisa gets up off her chair, and slams her mug down on the table, sploshing the lukewarm klah all over the teddywher. "Well I..." seeing her handiwork, she just blinks, a tear sliding down her face, and grabs the teddywher, cradling it. "Well..." she's lost steam here... "Well." She finally says. "Happy flight. Or something."

Auralia pauses, and then stops. "Thank you." She pauses again, then sticks her nose in the air. "Go and suck on your teddywher."

Nareisa just stares at Auralia for the longest time and says nothing. Then she grabs the teddywher, sticks it down her pyjama front, and leaves, cradling it to her.

Auralia, on a roll, sticks her tongue out again, after Nareisa. "Baby," scoffs she, as she begins to swing her legs again, glaring at anyone who stares at her.

Nareisa throws the flowers from her hair at Aura as she storms out. They don't get too far, but hey, it's the gesture that counts.

"Ooh," calls Aura, sarcastically, "I'm shaking, I'm shaking. That hurt."

Nareisa turns, just as she reaches the door and says "I AM glad Niaeth's not green. I wouldn't want to treat my friends like that every three months."

Auralia lifts her eyebrows high enough to note, "I'm glad he's not green, too. Because only adults can be greenriders. And I'm *not* proddy."

Nareisa runs out, in tears.

Auralia smirks. Just...smirks. "Serves you right, baby!"

Loisa, one of the caverns girls appears shortly afterwards. "Sharditall! Who went and left this mess here? Sharding riders think they can do ANYTHING. Don't care a whit for the people who keep them in the sky, they don't!"

Auralia rapidly tucks her feet under her, inconspcious and innocent...not to mention still smirking after Nareisa. "Awful things, riders," decides she, stretching her shoulders.

Loisa looks Auralia up and down. "You're a rider, unless my eyes deceive me," she points out haughtily. "Too good to clean up after themselves, that's what they are."

"Er," says Aura, smiling. "Well...yes. But I'm a better rider. The blueriders are very bad," she adds, lowering her voice. "Making muddy footprints. I *saw* them."

Loisa gets out a mop and begins angrily mopping up the mud. "Blueriders, Bronzeriders, Brownriders, even you Greenriders. ESPECIALLY you greenriders sometimes, I might add. Goldriders too, for all they're so important here." She sniffs. "What's that on your boots?"

Auralia nods along, sagely, agreeing all the way, "Oh, but blueriders are the worst. Why...I saw one of them, putting that mud on the floor just now." She nods again, even more sagely. "Er, my boots? They're naturally like that."

Loisa looks around. "Which one? I'll report them to the headwoman, I will!" She stares at the boots "They look pretty muddy to me," she says suspiciously. "And these footprints DO lead up to you!"

Auralia reports, her voice lowered, "Nareisa. She's one of the worst, I tell you." She attempts to shift her feet, to hide her boots, retorting confidently, "It's old mud. Dry. No, Nareisa was sitting here, before me. It was HER."

Loisa screws up her eyes, thinking on this. "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell, I'll be keeping my eye on you, and no mistake," she says, suspiciously. "Nareisa is it? Right, we'll see about what the headwoman says about THAT when she hears about this." She makes a few more angry passes at the floor. "The weyrlingmaster's sister?" she scrubs away at the dirt. "Short ugly little thing?"

Auralia smiles sweetly. Butter couldn't melt in her mouth. "Little old me? Ooh, Tiri's going to be mad, though. I almost feel sorry for Nareisa, but she DID bring it on herself." Aura nods rapidly. "Yes, that's her. Awful girl."

Loisa sniffs, and scrubs away. "Right. I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of this." Scrub. Scrub. "Nasty types, making more work for me. You better not do anything like this. Next time clean your boots before you come in to my weyrhall! I won't have this mess. You'd be complaining quickly enough, I'm sure, if you came in and everything were a-shambles. Or your dinner half-cooked. No need to be making more work for us."

Auralia nods her head, rapidly. "I think Nareisa should have dawn sweeps for months," she says, very loudly. "In fact, I'll tell the Weyrleader so. He'll listen to me." Still nodding, she adds, "Of course. I wouldn't dream of making a mess, but I'll make sure I do. It would be *rude* not to, when you do so much for us.

Loisa peers at Auralia. "Well, that's okay then," she says sulkily. "I'll tell the headwoman how nicely you're trying to help us too. And mind you DO mention it to the Weyrleader. Just because your knot is fancier than mine doesn't mean I don't count or that you can just forget promises when it suits you."

Auralia positively beams, as she slips up from her chair, gingerly attempting not to make a further mess on the floor. Her boots are mostly dry, now. "Of course not," says she, horrified. "I never would."

Loisa glares at her and pointedly scrubs behind Auralia as she walks. "Mind you don't," she says. "Can't say I'm too thrilled with those boots as they are, you know."

Auralia passes a rueful grin back to Loisa, tilting her head, and avering, "It was Nareisa! She made me put on her boots!" Oh, sure. And with that flimsy argument, she runs. Rapidly.