Eastern Weyr - Commons Cavern
A grand stairway leads downward into the cool rock of the commons cavern, a place for socializing and relaxing, as well as an area that provides solid shelter from the seasonal storms of this area. One of the few caverns at Eastern Weyr, the rock here has been worn away by centuries worth of water movement, leaving a nearly glass smooth polish over much of the room. Rocky shelves line the walls on which electric lights covered with paper lanterns rest, providing adequate illumination for the area. High above are further light fixtures, enabling a wide range of lighting options here. A natural pool occupies half of the far end of the cavern and is supplied with heated water piped in by an ingenious techcrafter. All about the room are balconies of rock with stairs leading to them and small dumbwaiters for the purpose of delivering food and drink to their heights.
Such a pretty Eastern day! If by pretty, you mean it's foggy, and muggy, and so darn warm…the sort of weather that makes even the lightest clothing stick to the skin. Bleargh. Having the hot springs in the commons cavern doesn't seem like such a great idea at the moment, as it only adds to the oppressively humid sensations. It's into this moisturefest that Ur'con makes his way in, fanning himself as if that might actually help. Yuck. Not really, but he can try. It's so muggy several flits seem to have wilted as they sprawl among the various tables and perches. One's even belly-down on the floor, trying to cool himself against the cooler stones.
Even before K'nan enters into the caverns, one can hear her coming. Or at least the infant child she is carrying. The poor babe fusses tiredely and the heat isn't making it easy for her to nap. K'nan herself looks like she could use a nap. "If I ever found the woman who birthed ya, or the man who fathered you, I'm going to slit through their stomachs, pull out their entrails and strangle them with their own intestines." she murmurs in a soft and soothing voice. "Yessiree, and then I'm going to take those entrails and stuff it down their throats. Won't that be lovely? Oh yes, It'll be great." The bluerider continues to murmur as she heads for the table and something cool and soothing to drink.
Fiona moves in after Ur'con, some maneuvers end around the same time and right now the slightly-oily wingsecond is huuuungry. Oblivious to the others around the room, she moves over to the buffet line and starts piling things on. Bovine, ovine, tuber, sprout… she doesn't seem particularly picky.
S'dan has just come in a short while as his Wing landed. "Shards, sounds like the wind followed us in," he says when he hears some crying. Who's kid is it this time? He looks around, a class of cool fruit juice in his hand. "K'nan?" he questions, really and truly confused. Then he stops to think. "Oh. Who's baby are you watching?" His forehead looks moist and his facelooks a bit windburned.
Ur'con looks up, because it's not all that unusual for a babe of that age to be heard wailing…catching sight of the bluerider with the baby does make him doubletake. Heat or no heat. He nods to what his fellow wingleader ask, and then teases a little, "Sounds like you lost a bar bet, K'nan. Whose little is that?"
Before even answering anyone K'nan pours herself a glass of cold cide, downs it in one swallow and then pours another and takes down half of that. Refilling the glass she turns and eyes S'dan and then Ur'con a moment "Mine it seems like. Phaili's grown attached." she grumbles a little "Some idiot chose my tree weyr as a place to leave a little bundle. I knew I shouldn't have had those stairs installed. Makes it too easy." She looks down at the baby who's face is all puckered up and red "She's hot and tired and nameless. There wasn't even a little note that said 'Please take care of my little darling because I'm dying'." She hmmphs "I swear, I'll do things to them they would never have thought of. At the very least, I hope their intestines fill with the parasites of plague ridden porcines."
Fiona finally makes her way towards Ur'con… which is also S'dan and K'nan, "Sweet Faranth, it's hideous." She's not feeling especially tactful at the moment, "Are you keeping it or handing it over to the nannies?"
S'dan says "Good grief! Has anyone reported a stolen or lost child? People don't just leave babies up in trees!" Being head of the Flame Wing, the police Wing, makes him responsible for the case. He hurries over to take a closer look at the child. "Shards, I don't know who he looks like. I mean 'she'. Sorry. When did this happen? Was there a note or anything? What was she wearing? Was she in a basket?"
Ur'con frowns a little at Fiona, "The baby?" How could anyone say a baby was hideous? Even if they are kind of red-faced and squawly! But he does look to S'dan. Hey, the man has a point. Several of them…huh. Sounds like it might be suspicious…to say the least. Privately, he's probably pondering what he'd do if someone left a baby in HIS weyrbarn. Time to start locking the doors.
K'nan eyes S'dan "No, no note, not nothing, not even any pieve of heritage left by loving parents." She sighs a little "She was in a basket, wrapped in a blanket with only a diaper on." She glances over at Fiona "Phaili wants to keep her. He likes her. Course he loved Danny and Zafi too, so well who's to say anything about his taste." she notes, though there's a smile on her face. She looks down at the child and frowns "Well ain't know one told me they were missing a child. HEck any of the cavern gorls suddenly turn up not pregnant anymore?" she wonders after a moment "Be jsut my luck, some chit leaves a rider by-blow cause she's too dumb to foster her out."
Fiona gives Ur a half-wide-eyed look, torn between honesty and the desire to please him for all of a moment, "yeah. Sorry. It looks like a shriveled beet, I'm sorry. I'm sure it'll grow up to be nice and cute but newborns are, well, ugly." She looks up at K'nan, then at S'dan's earnest face, "If the parents wanted her, you'd know by now. So it seems to me the choice is whether or not to keep it. And if your dragon's attached…"
S'dan says "Well, you can't just go keeping someone's baby. She's probably stolen. I'll check around with the healers and see who's delivered children lately. Shards, she could be from anywhere on the whole planet!" He looks at the porr little girl. "Awww, poor little thing. Here, want me to hold her for a bit, give you a rest?"
Ur'con gives his unlikely wingsecond a look, before he shakes his head. Sheesh. But he leans to consider the baby girl again, "Well, no harm in making sure she's well cared for NOW, is there? Make sure she's got all she needs…have you FED her, K'nan?" Is that why she's making that sound?
"If he's attached.. if he's attached… he's already picking socks to decorate her 'area' with." K'nan mutters and rolls her eyes. "I think it's past attachment" If they were on Earth, Phaili would already be setting up her college and career. She does happily hand the baby over to S'dan even as she eyes Ur'con "Oh course I've fed her you ninny. I'm crazy, not dumb." she hmmphs a little "Honestly. I've not killed my own after all. Though Zafi's on her way to doing that herself, the idiot child." as if K'nan hadn't put her in harms way all those turns of carting the kid around. "She's even been changed and burped. It's hotter than the sands and twice as muggy. I'd be screaming my head off it I thought it'd do any good."
S'dan says "Exactly, Ur'con. We aren't going to abandon here but we /do/ need to look into it."
"S'dan!" Fiona actually sounds mildly offended and it's got nothing to do with someone stripping in front of her, "Stolen? Really? People abandon babies all the time, especially workers who weren't ready for them. Especially in the Weyr."
Ur'con gives Fiona another look, but notes, "If they've been in the weyr long enough to get pregnant, they've been here long enough to know they can just dump the babe on the nannies, too. If it's a woman /here/, then she's either new or dumb. If anything, I'd suspect an outsider…have we had any visitors lately?" He doesn't keep track of them! "I'd find stolen to be unlikely…but from what I've heard of the Renegades they have up north, I suppose anything's possible."
S'dan takes the little kidlet in his arms with her rump sitting on his left arm and his right arm across her back so his hand can support her head and neck. At least he knows how to hold a baby. He bounces her lightly and shushes her a little and turns to Fiona. "Well, we know nothing about her, do we? She could come from anywhere. And if she is from Renegades, we'd have known it. I got my Wing out looking for them too. So it doubly surprises me that we have no indication about how she got here."
At the mention of Renegades, K'nan pauses a moment and looks curious "What if one of their women managed to slip loose and left the child here?" she asks as she glances over at the baby. "You here enough about how many of them try to get lose, only to be taken back and such. She could even be just as sneaky. You hear how they infiltrate places and such, one person could possibly have slipped by. If she came and left we might never know for sure." There's another pause "And if it's true and they come looking, who's to say they won't trace her back here? And come after the baby. Especially if she's born to anyone of rank there."
Fiona frowns mutely. The conversation is not pleasing her, but it doesn't seem enough to push her away. So she's just standing there, grimmacing slightly and listening to stories whirling around over her head.
Ur'con chuckles, a little, and shakes his head, "Usually the simplest explination's the right one anyway." He finally settles down, "I doubt there's any CRIME, perse…first things first. We ask around the Weyr. And send out messages to the coverage area." He gets comfortable, though, "Though…there were a couple of rogue riders around, a few Turns back…but why would they abandon a baby at a Weyr? A hold would make more sense."
K'nan shrugs a little "Not my job to figure that out, but in a way it makes sense. Think of how many babies we have around here, what with all the lower caverns women popping like zits." she notes with a smirk. A pause "Course, if someone came from a Weyr or knew someone…" she trails off a little and looks thoughful and then shakes her head a little. "But yer right, likely is some silly chit who thought it'd be funny to drop her unwanted brat on a poor defenseless rider."
Fiona sighs and takes another sip of her klah, "It's happened in every Weyr I've lived at, not that I've been at all of them. There's always /someone/ who didn't want to get rid of the baby but didn't want to keep them, either. Is it honestly that unusual?"
Ur'con shrugs a bit, "I've lived in Weyrs more of my life than not now…and I can't think of it happening all that often at all. That's why we HAVE the nannies and the nurseries! To take on the babes. Like I said…we look here first." Like K'nan no longer has any say or something! Dratted bronzers! "If there's a girl that stupid, she gets a good talking to…and life goes on."
K'nan rolls her eyes "Men." she mumbles under her breath and takes the baby back from S'dan "Honestly. It's no big worry anyways. I mean, unless it really is a Renegdae brat, then there ain't no problem, and likely not even then either. Heck, it could be someone I know. I've met a lot of people over the Turns and many of them I've told I'd help, no questions asked. Ya meet some strange ones out on the fringes. Like as not twas afraid of ya all and fearing just such a thing." she hmmphs and then snorts at Fiona "Sure amy happen, but speculatin is like bread and butter pickles. It goes with everything." She sighs softly "Especially with some mashed tubers and gravy." Can we say Eww?
Fiona raises one brow and goes just a little green around the edges, "Ah… right… I"m just unsure why S'dan's acting like some capital crime's been committed. It's not like she was left in the woods or something."
Ur'con laughs a bit, and notes more softly, out of S'dan's hearing, "It's his duty, after all…"
K'nan shrugs a bit "Who am I do argue with a rider doin' his wongs duty, let along the wongleader?" she asks and then sighs softly as the little girl finally actually dozes off. "Still, I suppose no matter what, I outta find out a name for her and all." she notes thoughtfully. "Maybe Zulu or something." She hmms.
Fiona quirks a brow at K'nan, then shrugs, "A name seems like a good choice. Everybody needs one of those." She glances after S'dan again, "I didn't realize it was his duty to play Weyr scolding police… assumign the parents are ever find
K'nan can't help but grin at Fiona "Well, someone has to do it that's a bit more mobile than that old Auntie Hilmara." she notes with a smirk "After all, she's in worse condition than Syra."