Oil It!

Writers: Miriah, Suzee
Date Posted: 14th August 2014

Characters: R'enh, Kumore
Description: Repairs don't go as smoothly as he'd like
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 8, day 10 of Turn 7

R'enh

Kumore hadn't been at Dolphin Cove for more than just a couple of days
until she was pressed into service. She had dived into the work with
relish, repairing the glitches that were already coming up in the new
system and going out on other repair calls. It was more than fine
with her. The Weyr was much like any other, in her opinion. It had
things that needed to be fixed and she was someone who could do it.
There were of course, already the curious glances at her, but she
found those as amusing as ever. Let them wonder, especially since
she'd already taken in some rather lovely skimpy bathing suits on all
sorts of riders and staff. She'd have to do some feeling around (pun
intended), to see which women and men were open.

Before she went back to her quarters for the day, she was directed to
the Weyrsecond's weyr. Apparently, he was complaining of his
dumbwaiter not working. She had to resist rolling her eyes. Those
things were so simple; most apprentices could figure out what was
wrong with them. It was just a pulley system. She shrugged, wiped her
nose, smearing more grease and followed the directions to the man's
weyr. She knocked briskly at the door and shifted her work kit to her
other hand.

"Yes," R'enh asked as he threw open the door. He was dressed in
trousers for the wing meeting but had his shirt in his hand. Swinging
it around he thrust one arm through the sleeve as he asked, "can I
help you?"

She couldn't help but look the man over, eye brows raised. Nice view,
but she wasn't here for that, unfortunately. "I'm here to work on your
dumbwaiter. Got a report that it's not working properly."

"Yes," he turned away from the door and pointed across the room. "Over
there." Then he turned his attention to buttoning up the shirt and
getting it tucked into his trousers.

She strode in and paused at the door with an arched brow as her eyes
swept over the weyr. "Wow. Okay. I'll send a drudge up after I'm done.
Looks like you might need one." She immediately walked to the
dumbwaiter and stood on tip toe to check the main pulley. "Shaffit,
when's the last time this thing was oiled? "

"Wait.. what?" He looked around his weyr, it didn't look all that bad
to him and where did he get off. He snatched his belt off the back
of a nearby chair and started shoving it through his belt loops,
muttering the whole time.

"How the shells should I know?"

"Well, it's your dumbwaiter, you know. And it's simple maintenance.
You oil it so the pulley doesn't lock up." Kumore dug into her tool
kit to get a rag and began rubbing at the pulley with a grimace. "And
it hasn't been cleaned of the old oil."

"The only thing I oil around here is very big, bronze and breathes
fire." He was starting to get irritated with the attitude he was
getting from the crafter.

"Most dragons do, unless they're gold." Kumore agreed easily. "And
bronzes generally are big, I've noticed." Kumore picked up a small
tube of liquid and squirted on the crusty old oil. It dissolved it,
but left a rather sharp smell behind. She huffed to herself, waited
and then wiped off the gear. "I'll leave some oil then, since you've
got experience with it."

"I'm not sharding touching that thing man, Isn't that what _you're_
here for?" R'enh was rarely cross with lower caverns workers but this
one was surely testing his limits. "So fix it and move on."

Oh this was just perfect. Kumore hid a grin and pitched her voice
slightly higher. "You don't have to be so mean and insulting. I'm just
doing my job." Her rear wiggled as she tugged on the rope to test the
pulley. She then looked over her shoulder to let her lower lip tremble
just a bit, a feminine gesture.

"Great," he lifted his hands helplessly. **they sent a boy?** He shook
his head and turned to grab his jacket. "I'm already late for drills
and haven't had my breakfast because the _cracked_ thing doesn't
work!" He turned back to see the lip and just rolled his eyes.

"Just fix it," he said and strode toward his ledge cramming his helmet
on and whipping his scarf around his neck and mumbling about being
hungry for candle marks before he'd get a decent meal.

Kumore whirled on the man, hands going immediately to her hips, in a
distinctly feminine gesture. "Hey! If you'd taken care of it, I
wouldn't be in here fixing it." There was laughter in her in her eyes
as she watched him walk away. It was a rather nice sight, too. Pity he
was a grump. "I should leave it alone!"

R'enh whirled and backed toward the entrance. "I already have a job,"
he snapped. He was a little more forceful than usual when he leaped
into his harness on Mnoranth's back. But they were off the ledge and
winging toward where the wing was meeting for drills.

"Sharding crafters," he growled.

She fixed the pulley in under a quarter of a candlemark and with a
little grin, pointedly left a tube of oil in the middle of his table.

Last updated on the September 7th 2014

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