Raity
:Story::Search::Candidate::Hatchling::Weyrling::Adult:
:Moon Shadow Weyr::Tripaldi Weyr:

Raity grinned at the young man as she left his presence and he watched her go with a twinkle in his eye. He thought she was only interested in him, but she wasn’t. She had her eye on someone else entirely and only flirted with the other young men at the Glass Crafthall because she enjoyed it so much. She ran her fingers through her long, wavy, dark brown hair and grinned as she headed to the apprentices’ workroom. She was one of the few young woman apprentices at this hall and she used it to her advantage wherever possible.

She opened the door to the workroom and sauntered in, flashing smiles to all the other apprentices who were familiar with her. She sat down at her usual station, right next to the only young man who’d never seemed to notice her flirtatious looks. The young man didn’t even look up as she sat down and flashed him one of her winning smiles, the type that had left the others as putty in her hands. She scowled, but quickly rearranged her features into an innocent smile as one of the masters walked in the room.

“Good afternoon, Master Dardon,” she said, smiling sweetly as she set up her station. As soon as Master Dardon had nodded and walked on she glanced over at Valesson again. Frowning softly as she watched him, she wondered yet again what would get the young man’s attention. It left her terribly upset every time he snubbed her like that, though snubbing implied he did it on purpose and she was convinced he simply didn’t see her. And of course that just made her want him all the more.

Raity got to work, darting occasional glances at Valesson. Before long she could tell he was having trouble from the sweat starting to drip down his temple in the pleasantly cool room. Her eyes widened and she ducked just as he yelled and the jar he was working on exploded showering shards of hot glass over him and his work station. She straightened and discovered to her relief that he’d thought to throw his arms in front of his face.

“Shards, fardles, and wherry-brains! I’m never going to get this!” cried Valesson and Raity had trouble suppressing a giggle. He swung his angry gaze towards her and scowled. The ferocity of that look and the tone of his voice made her eyes widen in surprise. “What?”

“Valesson!” said Master Dardon before Raity had a chance to reply. The master walked over with a scowl on his face. “Stop dripping blood on the counter! Go get some numbweed put on those scratches and make sure the healer checks to see if any of the glass is still in there.”

“What?” cried Valesson in dismay, looking down at his arms, which were indeed starting to bleed from all the hot shards of glass that had hit them. His eyes went wide and Raity saw her chance, jumping down off her stool with a wide-eyed, eager smile.

“I’ll take him, Master Dardon,” she said, making sure that her posture and voice only conveyed her willingness to be of service. Master Dardon nodded and thanked her, then turned to scold Valesson.

Raity only half listened to his orders for Valesson as she grabbed some nearby towels to wrap around the young man’s arms as she led him down the hall to the healer’s office. She knew the healer, old Pollin, wouldn’t be in his office now, but since her mother was a healer she knew her way around the office. She forced Valesson to sit down on the cot and went about tending his wounds.

“I’ve got to learn not to sit by you anymore,” she said with a mischievous smile at him. “One of these days you’re going to explode something larger than a jar and shower me with glass splinters as well.” She looked up at him and when she noticed his blank stare she frowned slightly, but quickly replaced it with a smile and went on. “It’s actually a good thing that Master Dardon told you not to come back today because it’d be hard to make jars with these bandages on, though if you could figure out how to it might save the skin on your arms from being torn to bits all the time.”

She chuckled throatily and he looked up at her with a blank stare. Then he shook his head, “For a glass smith apprentice you sure know how to take care of wounds,” he said and seemed to wince as she finished bandaging up his arm.

“That’s a girl’s job isn’t it? To bandage her man up when he does something stupid?” she said, still leaning over him and looking at him with one of her flirtatious smiles. He grew tense and swallowed hard and her smile widened as she thought she finally had his attention. But the next thing she knew he was slipping away from her and she arched an eyebrow as she straightened up and crossed her arms across her chest.

“I, uh, need to be getting to the library,” he mumbled and dashed away so fast she hadn’t a moment to protest.

Raity just stood there for a moment, her mouth hanging open. Then she scowled furiously and stomped back toward the workroom. He wasn’t supposed to run away! Most of the boys grinned back at her and welcomed her proximity. She’d just have to try extra hard with this one. Rather than being discouraged by his apparent lack of interest she just firmed her resolve to reel this one in. He wasn’t a hopeless cause, just a challenge, and Raity never backed down from a challenge.

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