Safi usually isn't one for reading books, but someone has left a particularly ~interesting~ one out. It probably wasn't meant to be left behind considering its, cough, topic, but Safi's entranced. Her face is a bright red as her eyes dart across the page. She must have been engaged vigorously before this because her half-grown puppy is curled on a rug at her feet quite happily sleeping. He must be dreaming too, because one paw twitches like he's running.

La-dee-dah-de-dah. Elonoora is practically humming as she buzzes over to check on the current state of the fish stew on the hearth, giving it a few hearty stirs to ensure that bottom isn't going to burn any time soon. That particular task settled, the apron-bedecked baker wipes her hands on said apron and turns to look for a seat. The puppy is notices first (cause duh, who isn't going to notice an adorable sleeping puppy?), but the redfaced redder also peeks Elonoora's attention and so she meanders over to just plop in a seat nearby. "Whatcha reading there?"

Safi looks GUILTY as her attention is drawn swiftly from the book to the presence of another human being. The book gets clutched to her chest as the blush only gets deeper upon her cheeks. "I, uh, I, I… a book. I um, found." Her voice is quiet, almost no more than a whisper in her embarrassment. Thank goodness, she's going to be SAVED by Jen who with the PERSON SO CLOSE wakes up and decides OMG THIS IS A PERSON I LOVE. (He loves a lot of people.)

"Ohhhh?" Elonoora response just a little too sweetly to be completely innocent. Safi's guilty signals are all screaming loud and clear and the older apprentice is now curious. Jen's waking up and OMGILOVEYOU act will get Safi a little bit of a reprive as Elonoora can't resist giving him a good head scratch, but eventually she'll turn her attention mostly back to Safi, while still petting the puppy's ears.

REPRIEVE. It's enough for Safi to be able to swiftly stuff that book into the pillows of the chair and shift herself so that she's sitting on it. Nope, no racy books here~ When Elonoora looks upwards Safi has managed to get rid of most of her blushes. "It… the fish stew is good." Because cooks love talking about their food right?! Maybe it'll be enough of a distraction as Jen rolls himself up for alll the belly rubs, PLEASE.

It's true, cooks do love to talk about their food, but some foods are boring and Elonoora's not distracted enough to miss the fact that the book is magically missing. "It's true, the stew is pretty good. But is it better than the book?" An eyebrow's raised as she expects the other girl to possibly fess up. No way she actually ate the book in those few short seconds. And yes, Jen gets himself some belly rubs. And some mutterings of 'whose a good boy?'

Book?! WHAT BOOK?! Safi is terrible at innocence though, her emotions writ all over her face. "I, um, it would you be… o…offended if I said, um, no?" Darn it, her voice completely brings out her shy stutter. This might be part of why Safi keeps to herself much instead of mingling with the other apprentices here. "I..is Southern, um, home to… many?"
*Many of THOSE kinds of books!

Elonoora gives a rather unladylike snort as she straightens up. Sorry, Jen. Bellyrubbing pausing for a minute. "I'll only be offended if you don't share whatever this mystery fantastic book is." The baker makes some grabby hands. "Home to many what? Folks? Yeah. Fish? Even more." She would have to see the book to know if there are much more like it but considering she works in the kitchen and doesn't avoid her other apprentices, Elonoora probably has a good idea where to find more of those racy books.

There's a glance around to make sure ~no one~ else is around before Safi reluctantly pulls out the book and offers it forward to Elonoora. "It.. um, I think… it's… about the Weyrleader?" Except Safi's only seen the young man from a distance so it's unhelpful to know if the current Weyrleader is the topic or one of the others in recent turns. Jen is SAD at suddenly being ignored, but Safi's done a fairly good job of training the puppy, so he doesn't do anything but put his head down and pout sadly.

Once the book is handed over, Elonoora is going to make quick work skimming the pages, although unlike the other girl, she's not blushing at all. "Oh… did this one come from the library? It's about one of the past Weyrleaders. You know, the one that got attacked by the pirates?" Cause although that might be before this particular apprentice's arrival in Southern, she's spent a lot of time catching up on her Southern history (or the exaggerated version of it that lives in the Kitchen's resident gossips).

Safi has to raise a shoulder in response to that first question. "I, found it here?" Here, before the fire curled up on one of the armchairs. On a rug in front of her a half-grown puppy rests, looking pathetically ignored down there. Safi's fighting her blush down and Elonoora flipping through the pages only brings them up brighter again. "I.. um, haven't heard about that." Other than the whispers in the night that Safi's too shy to join in on.

There's food to be had here, right? There had better be, or Ibrahim is going to be as pathetic as the puppy at Safi's feet. In the midst of this hnting fo foodstuffs, the fact that there are two girls here discussing Weyr history — or whatever weird version of it currently being circulated through the caverns — gives him pause, and a thick brow arches briefly before he smothers his grin behind a conveniently, hastily snatched cup of klah. Perhaps he should loiter here a bit, find out what else he can learn.

Just because it might be an older book, doesn't mean it's not of interest to Elnoora. She's just going to tuck it into her apron pocket for some later reading. Eventually it may find its way back to the library, but it's probably going to be making the rounds of the apprentice's dorms first. The baker tilts her head up as the other girl mentions that she hadn't actually heard about a pretty major event. "Really? Like… how?" It's not a malicious question, really. Since Elonoora is practically always talking, she can't really comprehend not being up to date on all the current events of the past however many turns. "That group from Black Rock snuck in and attacked the Weyrleader and Weyrwoman in their own beds! They both were sent up to High Reaches. The weather was supposedly better for the injuries or something. That was before High Reaches had the whole catastrophic 'Fall a while back…" She's very animated in her telling, but the last line drops off into barely a whisper. And of course there's food to be had. Fish stew as always. Freshly stirred by the not so attentive at the moment baker apprentice.

Under the wealth of words that Elonoora lets spill Safi can't help but blinks once. twice. Then as the story spills out a hand comes up to cover her mouth, shock overcoming her blushes. "I… didn't know that. I… should… maybe listen more." Or actually asked questions at one point or another. Sensing her shift in attention Jen jumps up and puts his head between her feet with an energetic tail wag. Does this mean they're going to GET MOVING? MAYBE? When the older man comes in Safi slinks inside herself again a little.

So much blushing! Ibrahim lowers the cup, his gaze shifting from the extremely shy Safi to the energetic Elonoora, and a brow lifts again. "I do remember that one." Vaguely, anyhow. The fish stew i eyed for a moment with all due consideration, then a bowl is filled for consumption. 'Didn't they end up killing them all, or whatever?" As he'd been well away on other, Wildling concerns, he never did get all the details on it.

Elonoora just stares at Safi for a moment before shaking her head. "Yeah… you wouldn't believe what you'll find out when you just listen." And contrary to what it might seem like at the moment, Elonoora does stop talking long enough to actually listen at some point. How else is she going to catch some new gossip? She abruptly shifts in her seat at Ibrahim makes himself known and she blinks again. "Uhhhh… the pirates? Yeah. The guard showed up and the attackers were all killed. But the weyrleaders are fine." For exceptionally loose definitions of the word fine. They're both alive at least, even if they had to step down and move a half a world away.

"killed?!" Safi's voice gets ALL SQUEAKY at that. But when Elonoora clarifies that it was the pirates and not the weyrleader/woman who were killed she relaxes a touch, even if these are people she doesn't know the slightest bit about. "A…are there, um, uh, pirates now?" Safi casts a glance towards the doorway, like the murderers are going to abruptly SHOW UP right on their doorway.

Ibrahim gets a mischevious notion, then discards it because it would just be mean. Instead, he takes in a few mouthfuls of the stew before he quietly assures Safi, "They do keep a guard, you know." He gives Elonoora a half-grin: is this poor girl serious?

"Duh!" Elonoora responds to the pirate question maybe a bit too eagerly. "I mean, not like here now. But totatally pirates in Black Rock. //Everybody knows that." She gives the other apprentice a rather thorough look over as if trying to possibly assess what rock the girl may have been living under. It DEFINITELY wasn't Black Rock with questions like that. Before giving a shrug to the wildling man. "But the pirates have been pretty quiet lately. There were rumors that they were involved with that whole unauthorized settlement things that came to light a while back" she gives and idle little hand wave as she glosses over that whole episode in just a couple breaths. "But nothing was ever proven." At least not that she found out about.

Safi settles again and wraps her arms about herself. Jen decides that the BEST THING this moment needs is a lap puppy, so in one quick jump (which leaves his legs hanging off the edge and requires some funny looking scrabbling with back legs for purchase) is up on the chair and licking Safi's face. It brings a laugh out of the girl and she wraps her arms around her dog's neck to prevent any more licking. "Bad boy Jen! It's… good they aren't here now. Sounds, um, dangerous."

Elonoora smothers a bit of a giggle at Jen's adorabl scramble up to his new seat. At least she's not going to try to actively encourage his 'bad' behavior, even if she does appreciate it from afar. "Yeah… but like, it's only a matter of time before the pirates make their next appearance." Hello, channeling some gloomy old aunty here.

Thanks Elonoora. Now Safi has something else to worry about in the middle of the night. She can't get too tangled up about it now though, because Jen is being too cute for words and trying to lick. Manners are something Safi's trying to train into the puppy so with a bit of sadness, "Off, Jen." REALLY SAFI? OFF? SIGH. Jen gets down and Safi pulls herself up also so the dog isn't tempted to jump off again. "I… okay." Safi has NOTHING to add beyond that!

It's okay. At least Safi will know where she can find Elonoora when nightmares about pirates strike. Probably only a few beds down or something in the apprentice dorms after all. As cute as Jen is being, duty does call. And for this baker, the call is literaly as a voice can be heard yelling 'El-Oh-NOOOOR-Ah!' From the directions of the kitchens. While she might not have been blushing at the topic at hand, that voice does have Elonoora turning a bit red as she promptly gets up. "Well, uh, nice meeting you and thanks for the book. Bye!!!" And she's going to scurry away back to the kitchens. The book is safely tucked away in her pocket for later.

It's only just now that Safi realizes that Elonoora still DOES have the book on her. The younger woman's mouth opens to object or something… bu then Safi snaps it shut again. Um. "I, bye!" Whoever left that book really didn't expect it to still be here… right? Thus it isn't exactly theft. With Elonoora gone Jen looks expectantly up at his person ans gives a short woof, they're going to go to work now, right? WITH THE FUZZY SHEEP? (Jen loves the sheeeps.) "Yeah, let's go." No shyness in front of the puppy.