Something had been bothering her for a while now, and her adoptive mother was the only person that she felt comfortable talking to. Her real mother, a green rider by the name of Lararu, had never really payed attention to her. She was always here and there and up at the Weyr and down at the Hold and everywhere else between, which didn't make for a lot of bonding time. Maohli didn't really care to talk to her foster-mother: she had never really liked the journey-woman weaver. Maybe it was because she was such an unmannered gossip, or that she practically worked the girl to the bone hauling bolts of fabric and repairing broken loom pieces.

Whatever the case was, the blue speck was stirring, and before long it became larger and larger until it was a diving dragon, one who looked likely to smash into the ground. At the last second, the great oaf pulled up, and landed with hardly a flutter of webbed wings a few meters away. His eyes were great orbs of blue-green merriment: Maohli's mum was probably cursing at him right now for pulling such a stupid dive.

"Hi, Ath." the girl hugged the dragon's muzzle as he bowed down to greet her. He would never speak to her... he was his riders dragon and hers alone, but he could still show her affection. "I hope I'm not bothering you." She knew that she wasn't, and waited as he dipped a shoulder to her, and then deftly swung aboard. In a moment he was air-bound again, checking only briefly for any obstacles above them. Maohli closed her eyes against the stream of air that ran past her, and hugged the dragons neck tight as he beat his way powerfully into the air. There was nothing that could be done about her braid--which was now whipping about in the unruly gusts--because she didn't dare loosen her grip. She loved riding, but she preferred it in a harness.

She was met as the two of them landed at the weyr ledge by a powerfully built woman, a woman who Maohli had admired since she was a child. Her name was Odyi, though the girl always called her mum, and at the moment she was yawning and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "G'dafternoon spudling, what brings you all the way up here?" the woman smiled up at her adoptive daughter as she dismounted from the blue.

"Lararu's not here?"

"No, she's down at the Hold on watch with a brown. Can I get you anything?" Maohli fell into her mother's embrace once she had her feet on the ground again, and the elder woman hugged her tightly. "What's the matter, kid?"

The girl buried her face in Odyi's shoulder, and mumbled something rather inaudible.

"What was that? Aw, come on in. Let's have a sit, shall we?"

Inside the weyr everything was neat and orderly: a large bed rested near the back wall beside two sandy dragon couches, nearby a small chest of drawers and a table sat, and just beyond that, a table with some comfortably worn chairs--chairs to which they were now heading.

Once they were seated, Maohli finally gathered some words about her. "I can't stand it any more, mum. This place is driving me absolutely wonkers!"

"Why's that?"

Taking that as her cue, Maohli launched into a rant, one which she had been preparing for a while now... one which she had not really been able to get off her chest before. "The rumors... I can't stand the rumors any more. Everyone has something to say about someone else, and it's like it just keeps getting worse and worse! See, I know that all the new Candidates call me a bull behind my back, even though they act all pleasant-Holder-snot in my face. I know Natineal, that blasted weyrbrat, says that he broke his arm fending off one of the cook's dogs, but he really broke it because he tripped and fell funny over a pile of crockery. And it's not just the weyr-folk... whenever I leave the kitchens, I know that at least one set of stupid green eyes is on me. And if I do something dumb, then a dozen more are staring down at me, and in a few hours, everyone knows 'Oh, Maohli dropped that sack of firestone on her foot and was dancing around like a dull-glow cursing her head off!' Ugh!" She let out an explosive sigh, and dropped her head to the table in only the melodramatic manner that a teenager can. "I know every one here! Every scorched person: Like... the retired weyrwoman: she's been collecting cats like a Holder collects heirs. And B'ton only just Impressed that green because he acts like... like..." She snorted, though it was muffled in her arms on the table.

Odyi had been nodding sympathetically with her all the while, though she was grinning slightly at the drama and the flair of it all. "Why don't you just stand on the sands? You've been searched by Ath and a couple of other blues, and I know that you'd Impress first thing..."

"That's not the point! I want to be out of here! If I Impress here I'll be tied down for years with a dragonet, and I don't think I'll be able to survive for that long!" Maohli turned her head sideways so that she could stare sullenly at her mother.

Odyi barked a laugh, managing somehow not to offend the girl. "'Survive', huh? So what are you planning on doing? What do you want me to do about it?" She patted Maohli's head and grinned as the girl pulled away.

"Do? Well... I know you transferred from Southern... you know the ins and outs of Weyr exchanging, right? And I heard that there are some new Weyrs in need of new riders and candidates..." Maohli's muddy-brown eyes were at their widest, glittering widely in a puppy-dog like stare.

"Oh-ho! Now I see your little scheme. You're a clever spudling, you are."

"Oh please mum! Please can you get them to transfer me? There are ten thousand candidates here already! They don't need me!"

Odyi shrugged, her voice mockingly sarcastic. "Oh, I dunno... you are the best Firestone lugger around here. You can toss a full bag further then any of the third-year weyrlings... you're a valuable resource to Igen, if I do say so myself..."

"Mu-uhm!"

Maohli, exasperated, stooped to whining.

"Alright, alright. I'll see what I can do." And suddenly Odyi found herself pounced by a very happy girl.