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Cetalese had been working nonstop for days. She caught snippets of sleep here and there, but for the most part she worked. Digging belongings out of rubble, moving rubble away to clear space, helping the refugees get settled. The only job she felt she wasn't doing was ferrying supplies from Weyr supporters to Trine. Other dragons had that job exclusively, but Ceta was content to do her work here, where she could get her hands into multiple pies and help everyone.

Unfortunately, it also meant she was running on her lowest energy reserves. Cetalese had always been a workaholic, but in the light of the disaster that trait had taken on heightened proportions. Cetalese, for her part, didn't seem to notice her exhaustion, however. The physical tells were there, but everyone had them these days. Cetalese considered herself in no worse shape than anyone else and as such continued to work efficiently.

She was searching for her Wingleader now, to see what he needed a hand with now that her latest task was done and her next shift of rubble removal was not until later.

I have found them, Cetalesemine, Halith informed her in a weary voice.

Thank you, Halith. Set me down near them and then go get some rest. I'll find a task that I can handle without you for now.

No, I will wait. If you can still work, so can I, Halith insisted stubbornly.

Fine. I will wake you after I've spoken to him, but try to find an open space and get some sleep, Halith. Cetalese unstrapped and dropped from Halith's back with less grace than usual, but she paused once on the ground, leaning on Halith for balance. Halith turned eyes whirling with concern to her.

You need sleep as well. We will rest together when this is done and then go swimming. Halith wasn't one for doing things she was bored with, but even she had sensed that the upheaval required everyone to lend a hand. It helped that Cetalese had been making it fun for a while, but the last day had seen a significant decrease in that, and Halith herself had never been much good at seeing games in boring things. Better to have fun with actual fun.

Yes. When the work is done, we can go swimming, Ceta agreed, patting Halith's side with affection and managing a smile. Go find a clear space now and get some sleep. I'll call you when I need you.

Halith rumbled back at her and then moved to find a place out of the way as Cetalese headed toward D'lin, forcing her legs to push themselves into a reasonable gait even though she was going uphill.

Halith let out a soft little trumpeting sound at Plexith's offer and when she reached the wallow flopped in to it gratefully.

I will only rest for a moment, while Cetalesemine speaks to Yours, she warned him, but the first lids of her eyes were already closed. Her hide looked faintly dusky; nothing too worrisome, but beneath the thin layer of dirt (Cetalese made sure the pair of them stayed washed in between work, so it wasn't too thick a layer) it was clear that her lighter color wasn't as bright as usual. (The rest of her hide was so dark she almost looked like a Black half of the time. If that was faded, it would have been difficult to tell.)

Nearby, Cetalese smiled slightly as D'lin greeted her, but didn't bother waving. "We had a hand," Ceta called back before she made it the last few steps to D'lin. Admittedly, they had been almost done before the helpers had shown up, but Ceta wasn't one for shows of self-importance or aggrandizement. "I came back to give Halith a breather and get a new assignment from you. We still have a few hours left before the next shift comes on rubble duty. Where else still need to be cleaned up?"

Cetalese was distracted by D'lin's maneuver and peered into the basket. "Oh, D'lin, congratulations! Is it warm enough in there? You have been changing out the sand, haven't you? They get cold so quickly."

As if drawn by her thoughts, Daine arrived and hovered above them, peering down at the egg. She whistled at it, then dropped down and landed on the basket handle to lean over and get an even better look.

"There certainly have been enough flit flights lately that I'm not surprised," Ceta admitted, reaching out to run her fingers over the shell to double check that it was still warm. "It seems as if the firelizards have ignored all of the upheaval and gone about their usual antics."

Veralidaine stared intently at the egg for another long moment, then made a small chirping sound and leaned back. She took to the air and circled their heads for a few passes.

"Hm. I don't think it's one of hers, but that does seem like my answer," she said as Daine resettled herself on Ceta's shoulder.

Ceta stared at him for a long moment, her pretty eyes essentially blank. D'lin could not possibly be ignorant enough of his surroundings to not know that you needed to change the sand out. It had been a silly question on her part, but his response had her seriously considering him. What was he attempting to do? He was brighter than that, and Cetalese well knew it.

After a long few moments of her piercing stare, Cetalese dropped her eyes to the egg and dipped her hand in to the basket to check the sand. "It's warm, but it could use a new batch soon." She understood not wanting to leave the egg near a fire, lest one of the many new faces turn out to be less than trustworthy. Not to mention that in all of the chaos of the weyr it might be knocked over and break. Safer to keep it close.

"Vix is hardly ever around," she commented, well familiar with D'lin's oft-absent Green.

Cetalese showed genuine surprise at the offer. He wanted her opinion on the Wing Headquarters? She thought S'kor would be the one to go over that with, being the Wingsecond. She was just a Greenrider and, while she was D'lin's friend, she didn't think he would want her opinion on anything to do with running his wing.

A lunch meeting sounded good, though, as Cetalese knew she was going to be hungry soon. She had caught breakfast on the way to her first task of the day, but that had been candlemarks ago. Also, if D'lin did genuinely want her opinion, though following the strange sand exchange she probably should question that, she wasn't going to turn him down.

"Of course," she agreed, reaching out to take the basket. Sensing her motive, Daine took off from her shoulder and disappeared between again. Ceta tugged the blankets closed over the egg, to retain some of the heat for the trip. "This is a good-sized egg. You may end up with a Blue or a Brown. It's certainly larger than any Green egg I've seen."

She smiled faintly at his reply, then turned and headed back down to Halith.

Halith, I'm sorry to wake you, but we have a small task and then you can rest while D"lin and I have lunch.

Halith, who had been dozing, drowsily awoke, warm from the sun and Plexith's wing over her. It felt good to sleep. I am ready to go, Cetalesemine. But can we take a break later? Maybe we can bask by the lake...

Her voice was so wistful, Cetalese had to smile. Halith really had been amazingly good over the last few weeks and there were tasks Ceta could do without Halith. She would have to make room for Halith to get more rest. Even if Halith forced Ceta to join her-- which she was capable of doing, Ceta knew-- Ceta had things she could bring with her. Clothes that needed mending, or a slate to list what items the weyr or wing or she and Mercy (her new roommate) might still need or to list what tasks she could accomplish once their rest was over. Halith needed another good bath, too. Ceta could certainly take the time to do that, and maybe oil her. She hadn't oiled her in weeks and with all of the work and dirt, she didn't want Halith's hide cracking.

That sounds like a wonderful idea, Halith. D'lin needs us to take care of his new firelizard egg and have a lunch meeting with him, and then maybe this afternoon or evening we can go to the lake.

Halith eased her way to her feet, eyes whirling brightly at the prospect of a break. She crooned at her rider and carefully stepped out from under Plexith's wing, turning to look at him.

Thank you, Plexith! We will see you and Yours shortly, Cetalesemine says.

Cetalese mounted while Halith was talking, being careful with the basket, and strapped in. We'll need some lakeside sand before we go back to his weyr. Fly straight there, please, and then we'll detour back.

Halith lifted into the air with strong strokes, some of her energy restored by the promise of a rest and maybe some water games. As requested, she didn't take them between to cut the trip, not wanting to harm the egg, and instead flew them to the lake the long way. Cetalese spent a short time changing out the sand and they managed to arrive at D'lin's weyr before he or Plexith got back. From the lack of Bronzes in the area, Ceta also assumed N'mol, D'lin's temporary roommate, was absent. She knocked just to be sure, then entered the weyr and settled the egg safely on the floor off to the side, where no one would trip over it.

Daine appeared then, sending Cetalese the feeling that she was amused that she had found her owner in this place she had never been to. Ceta smiled at the Green, who easily settled herself on one of the two cots in the cluttered room and curled up for a nap. Outside, Halith had already flopped into the wallow and gone promptly back to sleep, leaving Cetalese with a few moments to breathe and think her own thoughts. She took up residence in one of the chairs around the table in the room. Weary now that she had stopped moving, Ceta leaned her elbows on the table and placed her face in her hands, blocking out the light for a moment and resting her eyes. She knew there was still so much to be done, but right now all she could do was wait for D'lin to arrive for her next task, unless she wanted to clean his weyr for him. That just seemed like too much an invasion of privacy to her, however, so waiting was her only option.

Cetalese heard the door open and turned her head, making sure it was D'lin returning. She smiled as he walked in. Her arms dropped to the table as she straightened her back and dug a tie out of her pocket to pull back her long hair. It had been nice to close her eyes, but resting when there was work to be done was out of the question. She would have a few hours tonight to rest and then she could sleep as much as she wanted once this was over (assuming they didn't have Threadfall to worry about, of course, and wing practices and generally getting Mercy settled in or building new weyrs for the refugee riders). The only tasks she couldn't help with were the crafts and the mess hall. There were so many refugees lending their hands to the jobs that riders stuck mostly to the larger problems and the transportation issues.

"Do you need a hand setting that out?" she offered, looking at the lunch basket. Yes, she was definitely hungry now.

Cetalese relaxed back into her seat at D'lin's refusal of her offer of help and just watched him set things out, content to do so since she knew they would be getting to work soon enough.

D'lin's explanation at first made sense to her; specifically his reasoning on why he wanted her opinion made sense now. She had begun to lean forward to inquire into the building when he delivered his last order, which stopped her in her tracks.

Though her face otherwise didn't seem to change, from that point to the end of his speech her eyes slowly grew wider until she was finally staring at him with large green eyes seemingly made much larger by the bags under her eyes.

"I have been sleeping," she insisted. She had! She just stared at him for a moment, her for-some-unknown-reason slow brain trying to catch up with excuses and examples of why she couldn't sleep right now. D'lin had mentioned Halith getting a bath from the firelizards, so that took away that chore, but she was sure there were other things the flits couldn't do. "I caught a few hours last night after Halith and I got in from helping some of the Malvren refugees finish building some temporary weyrs."

She shook her head, giving herself another moment to form thoughts. Her excuses were as calm, serious, and direct as she usually was when problems arose. "Honestly, D'lin, I'll be fine this afternoon. I really should be the one to bathe Halith, which were exactly the plans she and I had after this. She needs a good oiling. The flits can't manage that and I can't ask others to abandon the important tasks to tend to my dragon."

D'lin looked so sincere that Cetalese couldn't find it in herself to deny his plea at the moment. She dropped her gaze away from him and began filling her plate. She would need to be in top form for Threadfall, that was true enough. She didn't think she had reached a point where her lack of sleep would endanger her wing, but D'lin seemed to think so and she didn't want her Wingleader believing that she was a risk to the rest of the wing's riders.

Cetalese looked disheartened as she set a few meatrolls on her plate and reached for whatever was in the pitcher D'lin had brought back with him. However, she knew she didn't have a choice in this matter. D'lin was serious, either as Wingleader or her friend or both, and if she refused she was going to end up with more trouble coming down on her than good. Normally she would have found a quiet way around his rules, but he had made it so he would, essentially, be watching her sleep. Although she didn't think she could physically sleep for as long as he was demanding, she was going to have to try.

"All right, D'lin," she agreed quietly.