It's early afternoon and there's a storm a-brewing on the horizon. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to have arrived yet - though only time will tell if the drizzle outside will turn into something serious. Ulrika is enjoying a rare day off and that means the guard is free to have her lunch when she likes it, which is just a little past the usual time for people indulging in their mid-day meal. She picks up a collection of food, mostly meat and vegetables, with water to drink, and considers the living caverns as a whole with a speculative eye in search of a place to sit. She sucks her teeth in thought and steps away, lest she block anyone else from getting food. She might well be searching for someone in particular, but it's hard to tell with a face like hers.

Seated at a mostly empty table with a combination of hides and klah mugs spread out around her, Novi's staring a hole in the closest of the mugs. She's been trying to decipher the writing on the hide in front of her for hours now, and she's still clueless. A sip is finally taken of the klah before the brown on her shoulder gives a sleepy chirrup, "I suppose you want to eat again?" Bean. Bottomless pit, but aren't all firelizards?

Her quest for one thing ends fairly quickly; whoever Ulrika's looking for definitely isn't present. But that collection of mugs and hides? That seems mighty suspicious over there. One corner of Ulrika's mouth pulls a bit into a slight frown - but it's an expression of thought, rather than disapproval, regardless of how it might look. There were probably other tables with other open seats, but she didn't bother looking past that one. Space is available and, thus, she goes to it directly. "Hey. Anyone sitting here?" is asked of the redheaded young woman with the brown firelizard.

Novi blinks up at Ulrika before she gives a shrug, "Just me and Bean," Bean chirrups again in an attempt to look pathetically neglected. The empty bowl on the table behind where Novi is seated says otherwise, "He's fibbing again. He just ate," like two hours ago. For Bean that's forever. Novi blinks at the hides in front of her, then begins to gather them up into a more or less neat pile, "Anatomy, and cartography later," the bracelet with the dolphin charms slips down the girl's wrist, "I'm Novi."

There is a moment of consideration given to Bean and his obviously (not at all) neglected state, but Ulrika's attention returns keenly to Novi. "Seems they'll eat as long as food's in front of 'em, like a canine," she observes before setting her plate and drink down. She settles in after that, her gaze naturally tracking after Novi's movements. The bracelet is spied, as are the hides and whatever's visible on them before they're stacked. Her brow furrowed a little at something or another. "Ah. So the anatomy's got you vexed?" She noticed the look earlier. A pause. Then: "Ulrika. Guard. Well met, Novi and Bean."

Novi gives a nod, "Dolphin anatomy is complex," and something she's required to be at least familiar with, "Fortunately they don't get sick often," Novi grins as Bean slinks down her arm, and onto the table to peer into one of the empty mugs. She scoops him up, and deposits him in the chair next to her, "Stay put would you Bean? You'll get paw prints all over my assignment," the brown blinks at both his humanpet and Ulrika before he curls into a ball, and goes to sleep.

"Is it?" Ulrika tilts her head slightly. "Seems they're just- a long shape, mostly, with fins and a nose, right?" She'd seen some dolphins at Ista, certainly, but never close enough to get a proper look - which is made plenty obvious by that description. "Doesn't seem like sea-things get all that sick often," she added after a moment's thought. "Any idea why that is?" She glanced over when Novi bundled Bean up and set him aside. That the brown almost immediately went to sleep seemed to confirm Novi's earlier statement; once the firelizard was settled, Ulrika began to eat in her usual slow and methodical way. "If I'm interrupting your work, let me know. I can move further down."

Novi gives a shake of her head, "You're fine," she answers, "I was just finishing up some notes for reference later," the descriptor of dolphins gets a soft chuckle, "More to them than that, but yes they are a bit on the long side," she grins then gives a shrug, "Probably their diet?" she's guessing, she's not studied that deep into dolphinhealing, "We do search and rescue drills every other seven," she does them every day, "Which can be fun," and terrifying.

The reassurance elicits a slight nod from Ulrika and the ideas are filed away for additional consideration. Dolphin anatomy isn't exactly high on her list of things to study at the moment, but it's something new to be explored. "Diet- that might make sense," Ulrika says with a thoughtful suck of teeth. "They just eat fish, don't they?" She assumes as much, but she's not seen them eat in the wild, either. And all of that is quickly pushed aside at Novi's next words. "Search and rescue drills?" Her interest is definitely peaked on that topic. "What are those? What do you have to do?" She even leans forward a little - only to catch herself and adjust her posture to a more straight-backed oned.

A nod is given to the diets of dolphins, then Novi's thinking, "It depends on what the weather is like. Mostly the dolphins alert us to boats and ships in trouble, and then we go out with the pod to make sure everything is alright or to look for those who may have gone overboard. If there's people in the water then we rescue them by helping them back to their ship or to shore," Novi's memorized this, "Sometimes the water's really rough, and it's trickier than how I make it sound. If the person isn't a strong swimmer, then they can sometimes panic," Novi stops talking to sip at her klah. Helpful to go over the information aloud like this, "Sometimes they're unconscious," Novi's expression darkens slightly before she shakes her head, "When that's the case, you have to hold the person in place against the dolphin so they don't drown," more clouded expression, but Novi doesn't expand further.

There are periodic nods while Novi speaks, Ulrika taking in the information and digesting it thoughtfully. She eats while the other woman speaks, taking advantage of the conversational flow to do so. Still, the darkening of Novi's expression as she explains further is not a thing that escapes her notice. She takes a drink of water and settles back a little. "It sounds like a hard job, saving people like that. Most of my work as a guard is training in combat," she replies after a moment. "But I enjoy swimming. It sounds like that would be a challenge, even for me. I don't know if it's something you can take other people out on, but I'd like to learn more about how that works. Saving people in the water, I mean. It seems like it would be useful to anyone that can swim."

Novi nods with a soft, "Mm," then she shrugs, "The dolphins do half the work," true enough, "Sometimes they'll rescue people all by themselves," for a variety of reasons really, "They're also great to have off the bow of a fishing boat," her father would never ignore a dolphin's lead to good fishing.

There's a faint smile at that, barely there, but still something. "My father wasn't much for fishing, but he knows how to put a ship together. My older brothers had a few stories about dolphins coming to the rescue a time or two, but neither of them are fishing folk, either." It makes sense to Ulrika, though, and she nods again. "They seem like clever folk, on their own. Not too much different from us, bodies aside." She picks at her lunch, with just some bits of meat and vegetable remaining. Almost done, but she's never been one to waste her time at meals.

Novi gives a nod, "My father and brothers are all, well mostly, fishermen," she does have one brother in the Weaverhall. A fellow apprentice wanders in from outside, and Novi looks up, "I've got to go. PT's about to start, and I can't be late," with that she's scooping up the brown firelizard from his chair and running out to the bowl.

"Take care." Ulrika issues a salute to Novi as she rises and departs. Once the other woman is out of sight, she eventually finishes her lunch and moves on, off to relax a little while before she starts up with yet more of her own physical training.