Kishairyn leans back against a wall, peering furtively around the corner
every few minutes or so.  She has a tunnelsnake knife in the one hand, though
from the way it dangles limply, she hasn't been doing much with it ... except
possibly fencing with thin air.  "So far, so good," she can be heard to
murmur.  And, warm as it is, she's wearing that scarf still.

Taire trots through the caverns, a broom hitched up over her shoulder, the
business end nowhere near the ground. Now, this isn't at all like Kishairyn's
broom. This one is a bonafide used broom with plenty of bristles, a strong
handle, and perfect for sweeping. The only thing is, it isn't doing much in
the way of that right now. The girl passes right by Kishairyn, makes it a
couple more paces, and then hesitates and turns back around to just watch her.

Kishairyn flashes an imp's grin at Taire again and makes another glance
around the corner, then shrugs and tosses the knife up, catching it by the
hilt after a full rotation.  The fact that this is supposed to serve the
purpose of killing things doesn't bother her in the least.  "What've you got
that for?" she asks in an exaggerated whisper.

Taire exactly mimics Kishairyn with yet another stage whisper, "For sweeping."
Tit for tat, "What've you got that for?" Shadowed gaze flickers to the
flashing blade that the ex-messenger is shredding the air with and performing
such fine tossing talents with.

Kishairyn pokes at the wall idly with the tip.  "Hunting tunnelsnakes, of
course," she says.  "Can I help it if these ways are so often tread that few
of them dare to venture this way?"  The art of virtuous slacking off is a
fine one.  "Was thinking of poking around some of the lower passages.  Not so
many people to question what I'm doing."

Taire peeks from Kishairyn to knife and back again. Quite a few assorted
questions come to the forefront of the girl's mind. We're not talking about
brownie recipes or how to splice rope... Nope, more pertinent questions, like
that which are voiced now, "Where did you get that knife? Why did they give
you the job? And why don't you want anyone to know what you are doing? What
/are/ you going to do?"

Kishairyn blinks at Taire, quirking an eyebrow.  "They gave me the knife, of
course ... and why not?  Figured I might as well show off my extravagance on
some other target than the poor tubers.  And ... kill tunnelsnakes, of
course.  And ..." her voice drops to a whisper, "spend some time drawing and
playing cards."  She straightens.  "So you see, nothing untoward ... they
just might not approve."

Taire sniggers not so quietly as one hand comes up to cover her mouth, the
other still wrapped about the handle of her broom. "Drawing and playing
cards?" Her voice isn't near as quiet as Kishairyn's as she says this. "I
wouldn't rightly put those two together usually." Well, you never know with
this group of candidates. Voice drops, "They won't give me a knife." That
would probably be because the first time they did that, she promptly threw
the thing across the kitchen. doesn't everyone know that is the only proper
way to see how sharp it is, and test its weight and balance? Fardles.

Kishairyn quirks an eyebrow, innocence flickering across her features. 
"Course.  The two lone talents I have in the world."  She musters a wry grin.
 "And now you see why I never apprenticed to a craft.  Can't quite see it
fitting in, somehow."  She lifts one shoulder in a shrug.  "Why not?" she
wonders.  "And surely, as long as they don't think you're going to slice
yourself up, they should be happy to send you after small, slithery
creatures."

Taire wryly recalls her last encounter with a snake. The slathering, nasty,
biting creature. "Long story." Actually, its rather short as to the
explanation why, but the whole injustice part that requires vehement
protesting would prolly take up the better part of the day. "Just those two,
eh? I suppose they can get you far... at least the card playing one. Make
plenty of marks if you know what you are up to." Broom is swished, and
therein lies the possibilities. "I can use the broom? You know, whack it
soundly about the head... herd it t'wards ya."

Kishairyn grins, a small sparkle evident in her eyes as she leans against the
wall, balancing on one propped elbow.  "I'm sure it is ... can't believe
you're worse with a knife than I am, and I nearly pinned someone's ear to the
wall."  She always misses when she's aiming to, of course.  She grins and
concedes, "well, maybe not just those two, but ... hmmm.  Not a bad idea. 
And maybe if you poke the bristles into corners, you could prod them out."
Good thing that broom has a nice, long handle. "Do you think I could have the
skins... or at least share them with you? I wanna make these pants...." Taire
has caught the Weaver bug. Now that the robe is done, its on to more
difficult work. Like working with tunnelsnake hide? Ahhhh. "The corners are
usually where they hide out... and if we go really deep back there, I'll bet
we can find some real monsters."

Kishairyn's brows shoot up.  "Can you do that?" she inquires dubiously. 
"You'd have to seam together an awful lot of skins ... speaking from
experience, it's hard to get a workable length of hide out of a tunnelsnake."
 It may be best not to ask about that experience.  She swings backwards,
leaning against the wall.  "You might get lucky, though," she allows.  "Find
a really big one ... you know, I think I heard some simply terrifying
scrabbling-around last time I was down near the storage rooms."

Taire quirks a grin and then glances down to her legs: rather long and rather
skinny, for all you can tell with how baggy her pants are. "Well, I at least
wanna try it," voice sounding a bit petulant at being questioned so, with the
possibility of dashed hopes. "Ain't nothing wrong with that, is there?" Her
grim emerges once more. "There will be all kinds of skins... different colors
and shapes and it'll take awhile, but ain't nobody will have pants like
that." *beam*

Kishairyn laughs.  "No ... let's just hope that's because they don't smell
from twenty paces away ..."  She slithers away from the wall with boneless
grace.  "Nah, nothing wrong with it ... I'll even help you skin them," she
offers.  "Though I don't know what I'll do if I get blood on this shirt ..." 
She casts a rueful look down at the draped tunic.  "You done a-brooming up
here, or you want to head down?"

Taire sniggers, "I ain't never even started to sweep." Well, its the truth.
"I suppose the resident's halls can take a few more candlemarks without
cleaning. It sure isn't going anywhere." Broom is hitched back up on her
shoulder as she regards Kishairyn with a wry glance, "You know most of these
halls? I haven't snooped down them much..."

Kishairyn laughs and shakes her head.  "I don't think anyone would notice if
you didn't, to be honest," she says.  "They'll probably just lose track and
assign another candidate to clean it by evening, and no one will ever know." 
She frowns slightly.  "Well, I'm not too familiar with ... Menace, hey! 
Guide us tunnelsnake-hunting, would you?"  Never mind if he's doing something
else.

Menacion strolls out of the barracks, looking around curiously.  "Hrm? 
Trying to find someplace, Taire?"  He inquires, scratching his chin. 
"Tunnelsnake hunting?  Is there a problem with them?  I haven't noticed
anything.  Why do you need a guide, anyway?"  No, despite the fact that he's
been in the weyr a while, he doesn't know the first names and addresses of
all the tunnelsnakes.

Taire turns her gaze from Kishairyn on over to Menacion, a faint giggle
there. She'll let Kishairyn answer those questions on her own. "You know this
place far better than we do. Menacion would make a fine guide... won't you,
Menacion?" The girl beams cutely onto him, swishing her broom back and forth
as it rests propped against her shoulder. But it doesn't hurt to ask, "Canni
borrow your knife, Menacion?"

Kishairyn flashes a grin at Menace.  "There must be, I've been assigned to
hunt them ... like the knife?"  She gestures proudly with her borrowed
weapon, a long, flashing sweep of the blade.  "Beyond that, Taire wants the
skins of some of them.  And I think it's only fair for us to give back to the
Weyr for having been so kind to us."  Cue the sweetest hints of sarcasm as
she flashes a grin at Taire.

Menacion looks suspiciously at Taire.  Whenever people start making cute
faces at him, he gets a vague sense of impending doom.  They can't possibly
be up to something good when they look like that.  "I probably would...and
no.  You can't borrow my knife.  Faranth knows, you'll probably manage to
scratch, nick, and blunt the thing."  He raises a brow at Kish.  "Tunnelsnake
skins?  Why would you want tunnelsnake skins?"  Shrug.  "I'll go.  It'll keep
me away from any more riders deciding to assign me some random impossible
task."

Well, it didn't hurt to at least ask him for it. Taire shrugs her shoulders.
"Well, then you will have to help skin them, if you won't let me." Simple as
that, at least to her way of thinking. "I just want them. What is it to you
what I use them for?" Granted, usually she would just tell him, but the way
the question was posed, simple riles her up enough to be insolent. And as he
agrees, her grin widens. "Ohhh. Good."

Kishairyn smirks over at Menace, lounging back against the wall again. 
"There's such a wide variety of uses for them!  Where in the world have you
grown up, Menace, that you haven't been instructed fully in the wonders of
tunnelsnakes?"  She tsks softly, shaking her head.  "Sounds more than fair,
Taire.  Maybe he can do the skinning for both of us."  She's not anxious to
get blood on her only white tunic.  "We should go, then?" she inquires,
making small shooing gestures with her hands.

There's more than one way to skin a tunnelsnake.  Though the reason why still
escapes Menace.  "You can have Kish's knife to skin it.  Or borrow a skinning
knife from one of the Weyrhunters.  You don't need mine."  He directs another
suspicious look at Kish.  "In a herding cothold.  You can tell me while we're
searching."  Blood is so hard to get out of white tunics.  Though Menace's is
grey by now.  "Fine, fine...that way."  Menace heads off.

Taire slips in after the others, soft-soled boots treading softly in their
wake as the primary amount of noise she generates  from the beads in her
hair that clink against one another. Well, other than her voice, which is
once more in a stage whisper, "But I wanna use /yours/ Menaction. You know,
you can be right stingy sometimes." *dramatic huff*

"Oh, this is a better knife, Taire," Kishairyn assures the young woman
airily, spinning swiftly to make an expert jab at thin air.  Somehow, she
manages not to bump into anything as she does so.  "If you tried it, you'd
agree."  Her eyes slide sideways to Menace, wondering if he'll take the bait.
 "Well, then.  Of course you wouldn't understand the vast and often medicinal
uses of 'snakes ..."

Menacion doesn't bother with speaking softly, his voice is a loud, mellow
drawl.  "Yes, I can be.  This knife was very expensive, you know, and I don't
loan it out to children."  He raises a brow at Kish.  "I was wondering why
you needed to skin it.  If I'm not mistaken, you both are messengers, not
healers."  'sides, they taste better with the skin on.  Crispier.

Kishairyn smirks into her hand.  "I don't know, it doesn't sound like all
that unlikely of a prospect, Taire," she remarks as Menace abandons them. 
Pity she didn't lay down a ball of twine or anything, but if they shout,
someone should hear them ... hopefully.  "Wonder why, if he doesn't loan it
to children, he gave it to me?" she ponders, then shakes her head. 
"Actually, Taire ... tunnelsnake, prepared right, isn't so bad ... but you
could put that effort and seasoning into something else and have it taste
fantastic, so it's a waste of time."

Taire isn't even gonna comment on Kishairyn's initial comment. "Well, then he
certainly musn't consider you a kid." *growl* The girl drops to her knees to
prod her broom into a crevice, only stopping short as she spies the tell-tale
glimmer of glowlit eyes...sorta red and evil and so very snakeish. A grin
lilts to the side as she glances to the young woman, "Good eating or no, I
don't eat snake... but I'll wear it. I think I found one..."

Kishairyn snickers softly, though she perks up, creeping closer.  "You sure
it isn't just another feline?" she asks dubiously.  "Last time I was down
here, we came across kittens ... vicious ones with sharp teeth, but they
wouldn't make very good pants ..."  A faint grin crosses her features, blade
swung idly.  Watch out, she's liable to hit the wall.  "Suppose not. 
Distinctly odd, that."

Taire frowns silently as the possibilites. "Suppose there is only way to find
out....and just so you know, I don't want a skinned feline. Unless it is a
Cat, their fur is fine." And she fittingly purrs out that last bit. With a
bob of her head, broom jabs into the crevice violently. A few furious pokes
and prods, some serious scuttling, and out flashes a shimmery pumpkin-hued
snake about a forearm long. "Ohhhh, get 'im!" Broom raises as she brings it
down as if to strike the 'snake on the head, only missing and getting his
tail.

Cera wanders idly down the hall, stretching, hair wet from the baths! 
"Shards, I never thought I'd get the oil -off- of me!" she comments, despite
the frown she gives her oil stand uniform.  Well... time for idle wandering,
so Cera turned down one random hallway, only to pause and blink at the sounds
just up ahead.

Kishairyn yelps in surprise, having not expected this, and in her attempt to
take a swing at the errant snake ends on her knees.  There is the sound of
ripping cloth, a violent curse from the young woman, and she takes a swing
with quite the imitation of anger, as it were all the tunnelsnake's fault,
drawing more blood than doing injury.  "Fardles!"  Though granted, it won't
be getting far like that.

Taire stares in awe as Kish not only falls, but causes something to tear. But
a second of amazement as she wathes, gaping. Alas, in the next breath
she scampes behind the 'snake, swinging the broom wide, "Duck!" And that is
all the warning she gives before sending the broom crashing down in the
general area of that scampering and now wounded 'snake.

Of course... Cera walks in to see Taire swinging a broom at Kishairyn.  So...
what does Cera do... she runs forward.  "Taire!  What are you doing?!" she
exclaims, having not seen the 'snake yet.  Cera reaches for the broom,
missing, as she's not that, fast, and winces.  Shards, is Taire actually
going to -HIT- Kisha?

Kishairyn throws herself backwards, the broom just swooshing by her shoulder
and doing no more damage than yanking out a few loose hairs.  As to the
tunnelsnake, it blindly scuttles in Cera's general direction, seeking the
straightest avenue of escape.  "Cera, step on it!" former messenger exhorts,
with a wry look at Taire.  "You can't skin me."

Taire pounces after the snake, nearly backing into Cera, "Eh?" But that is
all the attention she gives over to the Weaver before scooting about
Kishairyn, some rather insane giggles trembling from the girl's lips. Broom
raises once in a rather menacing sight as she bellows after the snake an
epitath, "I'll see you clothing my arse, I will!!"

Cera blinks and stares a moment, only to eeep seeing the 'snake.  Doing as
Kisha directed, Cera attempts to step on it twice as it heads towards her,
before dancing around it.  "Lousy, large, slithering ... nasty thing!" Cera
finally exclaims as she aims a couple of kicks at it.  Cera is just lucky she
had older brothers, and had to learn to be quick, of that think might have
snapped at her foot and climbed down by now!

Kishairyn blinks at Taire for a heartbeat and then bursts out laughing,
falling back to the ground with a bump.  Even the large, impressive rip down
the knee of her too-tight trousers doesn't bother her for the moment.  "Are
you sure you want that on your tailbone, Taire?" she wonders, making no
attempt to pursue.  "Watch out, Cera, it's bleeding and mad ..."  Now she
tells her.

Taire is still the the midst of the excitement, adrenaline streaming through
her veins with eyes wild. The girl screeches, "Don't bruise the hide, Cera. I
need it!" And in the next breath, that broom comes swishing down to strike
the snake about the head, stunning it rather soundly. "Stop your cackling,
Kishairyn 'n get him now!" And thus the girl begins to hop in place, both
hands clutched about the handle of the broom. *bouncebouncebounce* Wheeeee.

Cera stumbles backwards and yelps yet again.  "What?  Bleeding?  Mad?  -NOW-
you fardling well tell me!" exclaims the woman, backing away from Taire as
much as the tunnelsnake.  Looking around, Cera asks Kishairyn in a quite
voice, "Um... I suggest taking that broom from her ... and quickly."

Kishairyn acts first, questions later, finishing off the scuttling snake with
a relatively efficient chop of the knife ... slashing a good bit of the hide
in the process, but one can't have everything.  She hops back as it thrashes
- death-throes? - yelping softly.  "That'll do it!" she proclaims
triumphantly, hurrying to her feet as she ruefully fingers the tear in her
trousers.  "I don't think I can do that again."

Taire heaves a huge sigh of relief as the snake if finally vanquished.
"Ohhhhh, that was good." And then the typical, "Lets do that again." The girl
steps up to the snake, watching as it finally dies and lies still. "Aye, that
skill will look fine on me..." She blinks back up to the others, grinning
widely to Kishairyn and then glancing to Cera, "How'd you find us?"

Cera flops on the ground, staring at the snake with obvious revulsion. 
"That's just... sick," she comments, before looking back to Taire with a
blink.  "How did I?  I didn't.  I was just exploring the halls and caverns..."

Kishairyn snicker softly.  "Well, you have to admit, it's sicker alive than
it is dead," she says, making a tentative poke at the snake with her foot. 
"So what do we get for our trouble, Taire?" she wonders.  "And Cera, what
about Cera?  Maybe a sandwich from the meat?"

Taire grins wryly, "Its got claws and teeth... you could make up Menacion a
necklace. It'd prolly make him feel all manly or something." The girl drops
the broom to the side as she collapses to her knees, to poke at the tail of
the orange-hued snake. "Well, thats /one/."

Cera looks at Kishairyn, shaking her head.  "Shards no!  I am not going to
eat something I just saw die!  I... can't do it."  Cera shivers.  "Being
kindly oblivious to such ... displays has done me well for my entire life,
thank you."  Cera scoots away from the 'snake, and looks around.  "Why -DID-
you come out huntin 'snakes anyway?  You two could have gotten hurt!"  Cera
starts to stand, dusting herself off, and tries to fix Kisha and Taire with a
stern gaze.  "Does -ANYONE- know where you are?  What if you had been hurt
badly?  Really!  I'd think that two smart lasses like yourself would have
used a few more wits.

Kishairyn coughs into her hand.  "It'd take more than a clawed necklace to
make Menace feel manly ..."  She quirks an eyebrow at Cera, entirely unmoved
by the speech.  "I was assigned to, and of course they do.  Menacion brought
us down here, and I have seen movement near enough to know we're in shouting
distance."  Not that she consciously considered it, but no need to share that
with Cera.

Taire casts a grin to Kishairyn as she starts away, but not before leaning
over to pick up the 'snake by the tail. "I'm gonna go take this to the
kitchens and see how many cooks I can drive out." *evil grin* "You just be
sniffing around for some more while I'm gone." And with that, the girl sets
away, 'snake dribbling droplets of blood in her wake.

Cera arches an eyebrow at Taire, shaking her head, then looks over at
Kishairyn.  "Oh, don't give me that," she comments doubtfully, pointing down
to Kisha's knee.  "Come on, you are hurt.  Let's find Nonam or someone..."
she mumbles walking down the hall.  "Sharding kids, always getting thmeselves
into trouble..."