Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sweeping was something Zelaya was good at. Very good at. Quiet menial chores weren't glamorous, but they were easy, and not taxing like being social or lessons could be. The hustle and bustle of the weyr would just die away beneath the gentle swish of the broom and the repetitive motions of her arms. It also made sweeping larger areas easier, just melting into one long soothing session. Rider weyrs were one of her favorite places to sweep, of late, though not for the same reasons she thought most candidates preferred them.

She didn't thrill at the thought of seeing a dragon up close. Didn't hope to learn any secrets on how to appeal to a dragonet from the rider. No, what she liked was that most often than not, it only took one person to sweep them...and the riders were rarely in them. The solitude, itself, was what she enjoyed. And even if she wasn't exactly keen on dragons themselves, they left behind an almost spicy scent that wasn't unappealing.

And so the young candidate found herself breathing deep the smell of some dragon—blue or green, going by the size of the couch in the weyr's corner—as she finished up her efforts to leave the place's floor spotless. It'd taken her right up to the edge of her free time window...and so she lingered, just a moment or two longer than usual. She'd been sweeping this particular weyr for almost a month now...but hadn't ever really looked around. Distantly she wondered, just what sort of person lived here... Ah well.

The sudden arrival of a dragon (a blue! the curious part of her mind chirped, keen to have at least one question answered) startled Zelaya nearly out of her boots. Had she been adrift in her own mind that long? Would she get in trouble for being caught loitering in someone else's weyr, any further chores forgotten? Her hands tightened unconsciously around the broom's handle, pale eyes flicking between the blue dragon (which had noticed her, and seemed fixated, intense...) and the...woman?

She hadn't known women rode blue dragons.

Well, she'd heard of it, but it was...an anomaly, to her. Something strange and nontraditional, which instantly made her even more wary of the rider, as well as the odd blue that wouldv'e chosen a woman. At last the blue seemed to relax, laying down rather than charging her, though it was still staring, those huge, faceted eyes locking her in place...Though that did little to avert Zelaya's instinct to take a step back when the rider woman ran at her instead. She was shouting something, but it all passed in a flash, and then...oh.

The woman had...uhm. That must have hurt, on the stone floor. In a breath all the tension seemed to bleed out of the candidate in a small breath that was almost a laugh, if you listened hard enough and used your imagination. "Are...you alright?" She knelt down, the broom still in her hands, unsure if she ought to reach out to touch the stranger, or if that might only hurt more. "Should, uhm. Can your dragon send for a healer?" She glanced back at the lounging blue. Well. If the rider was hurt, he probably wouldn't be that relaxed...right?