Welcome!

[Weaving]

“Whoops!”

The sound of something shattering against the stone floor preceded the exclamation by a fraction of a second. Kiran looked down with dismay at what had once been a cup of klah and was now a rather messy mix of spilled liquid and shards of the broken cup that had held the klah. She looked down at it, a worried expression upon her face as she nibbled on her lower lip.

As if suddenly aware that she might not be the only one in the common room of the candidate barracks, she looked up, searching around for signs of anyone else. The room seemed empty for the most part, but her attention returned to her mess before she had finished her scan. She needed to clean it up, but what if someone else walked in while she was gone getting cleaning supplies and stepped on it and hurt themselves?

There seemed to be only one way to solve this dilemma. The small woman knelt down near the mess and carefully began picking out the shards from the klah, placing them in a fold in her skirt. She hardly noticed that her clothing was quickly growing dirty from the mess. After all, clothing could be washed with relative ease. A cut foot on the other hand would take much longer to fix and could have permanent repercussions.

Ouch! Oh no…” Suddenly her blood was being added to the mess as she gazed in dismay at the shallow cut along her right index finger. She hadn’t been paying enough attention when she had grabbed that last piece, and the small shard was now embedded in the cut. It was just beginning to hurt, but she didn’t have time to take care of it. She needed to finish cleaning up the rest of her mess first.

Trying to fight through the pain, Kiran continued to clean. The cut wasn’t a bad one, but it certainly stung every time she moved it, which elicited a small whimper from her throat. If only she hadn’t been so clumsy. If only she had noticed how uneven the ground was in that one spot. If only, if only.

[Kisha-Ra]

Odian sighed from his corner of the common room, he was trying to teach his feline to…well he wasn’t quite sure what he wanted Jin to do just yet, but not climbing all over Odian and scratching him to bits would be a great improvement. The little black fuzzball however, was more interested in climbing up Odian’s body than hunting the knotted rag that the young man was twitching across the floor in a half hearted attempt to catch the kitten’s attention.

A sudden excalimation and the distinctive sound of breaking crockery made Jin jump onto Odian;s head and cling there in sudden fear while Odian muttered a few curses and tried to work out how to get his kitten down.

It was only after he had half coaxed and half dragged his startled feline down into his hands that Odian thought to get up and look for the source of the noise. If something was broken it would probably be best not to put Jin down again. Rising with Jin held to his chest Odian could see that someone had dropped a mug of klah on the floor. A small whimper gave a clue that the girl who dropped it was either upset or hurt. Odian shifted his feline friend around so he could be held in one arm. Then he approached the girl, noting as he did so that she was clearing up shards of the fallen cup in her skirt.

‘Do you need any help there?’

[Weaving]

She had been so focused on pushing past the pain and continuing to clean that she had been completely oblivious to the fact that someone was approaching her. It wasn’t until boots appeared in her line of vision that she looked up, her neck craned back all the way to fully view the man in front of her.

His offer of help gave her pause. Help would be wonderful, but a glance down at her hurt finger reminded her that he could easily hurt himself. And it wasn’t as if it was his mess to clean up. She began biting on her lip as her eyes drifted back toward Odian. He was probably expecting an answer at some point soon.

“Well…” The indecision was heavy in her voice as she let the word drift off. “It’s not your mess to clean up and I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself and – a kitten!”

She finally noticed the black mound of fur held in Odian’s arm and grinned as she stood, careful not to drop the pieces that she had gathered in her skirt. Pain temporarily forgotten, she reached out with her hand before pausing, glancing at Odian as if to make sure that this gesture was okay.

“It’s so cute! Does it have a name?” Mess momentarily forgotten, she stepped closer to Odian and Jin. Of course, it just so happened that she stepped right into the spilled klah, luckily missing any of the remaining shards of crockery. Grimacing, she looked down and sighed.

“I really should finish cleaning this up before anyone else steps in it. Do you know if there are any rags or towels nearby?”

[Kisha-Ra]

Odian began to wonder if he’d been forgotten as the girl, who was not as young as he’d first thought, looked down at the mess on the floor. He was just about to wander off for some cleaning supplies anyway when she started speaking. Odian nearly leapt a foot in the air when she jumped up. Jin, shameless creature that he was, mewed at his new admirer and patted the outstretched hand with a paw, deciding whether it would do as a meal, a scratch, or a new toy.

Odian grinned. ‘Uh-huh, he’s called Jin. Watch out he’s got a habit of attacking people’s hands when he’s bored, or whenever else he feels like it. I can’t really tel which.’ Odian would cheerfully have talked about Jin all day. However there was a sodden sound. Odian looked down.

‘Yes I know where there’s some rags and things. I’ll get some, and something better to put those shards in than your skirt.’ Odian rushed off with his feline squirming in his arms. A minute or so later he returned with a bucket in one hand and an assortment of rags in the other. Jin peeked out of the bucket, king of all he surveyed.

[Weaving]

“Jin? How cute!” She continued to reach out, finally making contact with the kitten’s head. She giggled as she gently began to scratch behind his ears, doing her best to watch for signs that her hand might soon become the victim of an attack. “He’s so soft and cuddly and sweet.”

Next thing she knew, Odian was off to gather supplies to help her clean. What nice young man, she mused as she looked down at the mess that she had created. His help was a surprise, though a welcome one. She wasn’t cynical, but she did know that most people were often to busy trying to do their own things to be bothered helping a perfect stranger.

When he came back, she couldn’t help but giggle at seeing Jin looking out from the bucket. “Silly kitten,” she murmured, scooping him out and petting him for a moment before handing him back to Odian. “I need that bucket to put all of these broken pieces in.”

As she spoke to the kitten, she dumped the contents of her skirt into the bucket, shaking the cloth out with satisfaction once the task was completed.

“Thank you,” she said fervently to Odian, taking a rag as she spoke, beginning to mop up the rest of her mess. “It would have been a bit more difficult to clean up without these things and I’m afraid that I’m still learning my way around here. It certainly takes some getting used to.”

She continued to soak up the klah, pausing every now and then to toss another shard into the bucket. Belatedly, she realized that she and Odian hadn’t even been properly introduced yet.

“Forgive me, I’ve been terribly rude. I’ve learned your kitten’s name, but not yours. I’m Kiran by the way.”

[Kisha-Ra]

Jin hung pathetically limp and docile in Kiran’s hands, however the kitten dropped his sweet act as soon as he was back in Odian’s hands. Instead the kitten squirmed out of Odian’s grip and clambered onto his left shoulder, purring quite deafeningly into his ear. Odain reached up and scratched Jin’s ears without really thinking about it.


‘It’s okay. I’m sure you’ll learn where everything is soon.’ Odain thought about that statement for a moment. ‘Well I’m sure you’ll be able to find most things above ground soon, I always get turned around in the tunnels but that might just be me.’ He realised, somewhat belatedly, that it wouldn’t be polite to just stand around watching someone clean up, however another comment from Kiran made him pause. Odian wasn’t good at multi tasking.

‘I don’t think I ever mentioned my name,’ he replied, ‘so there’s nothing to forgive. I’m Odian, pleased to meet you.’