Caught in the Act

Writers: Eimi, Rochelle
Date Posted: 29th November 2009

Characters: U'kaiah, Tatitem, Kaiafel
Description: Tatitem brings a trouble-making Kaiafel to his father, but whose side is the Wingleader on?
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 6, day 5 of Turn 5

"And make sure all the vegetables are washed properly before letting them chop them." Tatitem instructed the woman overseeing the candidates helping prepare the evening meal. "Last night some of the tubers still had dirt on the skins when they were chopped, and we had to wash them again before they could go into the sauce."

The woman nodded smartly, and returned to the vegetable bin. Tatitem turned around, and was on her way over to speak to the woman adding glaze to the roast wherry when she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. Glancing toward the pastries cooling on racks by the ovens, she saw some fingers questing along the edge of the table, slowly making their way toward one of the smaller pastries. Without needing conscious direction, Tati found herself swiftly moving toward the ovens. The woman in charge of the ovens was getting more spices to dust the tops, and had her back to the questing fingers.

Kaiafel's tongue peeked out from between his lips as he concentrated hard on snagging one of the delicious jam-filled goodies. He had waited until the perfect moment when the Headwoman was talking to the cooks and wouldn't notice him, but the cooling tray was further from the edge than he had anticipated. With a look of intense determination his fingers slowly crawled across the wooden surface of the table, searching for his prize.

Tatitem swooped on the table, delivering a sharp smack to the fingers about to snatch the nearest pastry, and finished rounding the table to catch the wrist of the yelping miscreant before the boy could pull his arm back. "Gotcha." She said fiercely, glaring down at the would-be thief.

"That hurt!" Kaiafel yelped, reaching out to rub his smarting fingers.

"Good." She said firmly, scowling at the weyrbrat. "You know better than to sneak food. Now." She pulled him to his feet, not releasing his wrist. She had a few moments, and she didn't want to turn him over to someone else -the last weyrbat she'd caught snitching foods had managed to slip away from their handler after she turned them over. "Where's your fostermother?"

"I... I dunno..." Kaiafel replied, trying to free his wrist. "I'm sorry, I promise I won't do it again, ok?"

Tatitem snorted derisively. "I know better than that, Kaiafel. And so do you." She said sternly, finally placing the boy in her mental file of weyrbrats. "If you don't know where your fostermother is, then we're going to see your father. I _know_ where he is."

~*~ The wingleader opened his office down to find the scowling headwoman and his squirming son. "Tatitem... Good day to you. Has Kaiafel been scaring people again?" He had heard his son took delight in scaring Weyrwoman by hiding under their desks... Might he have tried it on the Headwoman as well?

"Not that I know of." Tatitem admitted with a raised eyebrow, then glared sternly down at the little boy. "But rest assured I'll be watching him now in case he does."

U'kaiah certainly didn't want to get his son into more trouble with the Headwoman. She could be rather formidable. "Oh, well, I think that's mostly goldriders, right son? You don't scare Headwomen, do you."

"No, sir," Kaiafel promised, looking up sheepishly at the Headwoman with a look of fear. If he was in this much trouble just for a pastry, how much trouble would he be in for hiding in her office!

"Mmm." Tatitem said disapprovingly, wondering what else the weyrbrat had gotten into that he shouldn't have. "If I hear that he's been doing it again, there will be trouble." She promised the Wingleader. She really didn't need irate goldriders complaining about weyrbrats messing up their offices. "But for today, I'll stick with the fact I just caught your son trying to steal tonight's pastries."

"He was, was he?" U'kaiah rubbed his chin in a thoughtful gesture, though it was mostly to hide the fact that he found that more humorous than disturbing. How many times had he been caught in the exact same position himself? He had soon learned it was better to charm the pastries out of the cooking girls rather than try to steal them himself, but obviously Kaiafel hadn't learned that trick yet. Give him time. "Well, this is indeed serious business."

Tatitem glanced sharply at the Wingleader, suspicious that he wasn't taking this quite as seriously as she'd hoped, but said instead "Since he seems to have misplaced his fostermother as well, I thought it would be best to turn him over to you for punishment this time. And if I catch him snitching again, I'm going to draft him to scrub the floor by the spit."

Just because he knew boys would boys didn't mean the Wingleader was going to openly condone such behavior. "Did you hear that, son? It's a just punishment for stealing, don't you think?"

"It was just a bubbly," the boy muttered, though he lowered his eyes contritely, more embarrassed at his father's involvement than anything.

"Stealing is stealing and you had better apologize to the Headwoman," he father said a bit more sternly.

"I told her I was sorry but she didn't believe me," Kaiafel muttered, casting a glance over in the Headwoman's direction.

"Saying you're sorry while trying to escape after being caught in the act isn't really sorry." Tatitem observed with a stern glare at the boy.

**Saying sorry before the act just defeats the purpose, doesn't it?** the Wingleader thought, biting his tongue and rubbing at his temple to try to hide the humour in his eyes. "You can rest assured, Headwoman, the boy won't be stealing bubblies any time soon, will you son."

"No," the boy said, hanging his head. "I'm sorry, Headwoman."

"Hmmph." Tatitem wasn't sure Kaiafel had really learned anything and U'kaiah probably wasn't going to help her discipline him either, but weyrbrats his age normally responded to the humiliation of having their dragonrider parents involved faster than not. She'd already delivered the warning, and if she caught Kaiafel again, no one could complain when she set him to work to atone for his little thefts. "Just remember what your father said next time you get it in your head you want something. Stealing is stealing, no matter what or where it is. And I won't tolerate any of it. Understand?"

"Yes ma'am," the boy muttered, looking down at the floor.

U'kaiah didn't want the Headwoman to think he was taking the offence lightly. "And I think I will put you to work tonight just to make sure you remember your promise. Go get the cleaning supplies from my weyr and meet Kalamath down at the lake. He's going to be washed and oiled before you can go play with your friends. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," Kaiafel said, his eyes still down cast, though he was trying not to show that he actually liked the idea of getting to bathe the giant bronze by himself!

"I'll come down in a little while to check your progress." And after they had finished, perhaps a little trip to the Baker Hall for bubblies wouldn't be a bad idea... "Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Headwoman. And now if you'll both excuse me, I have a lot of work to get done."

"Of course." Tatitem said automatically, nodding at the wingleader. It wasn't like she could afford to dawdle either, even if washing a bronze did not seem to be a suitable punishment to her at all. _She_ would have made Kaiafel clean a bathingroom somewhere, but she really didn't have time to argue. She'd already wasted enough time on this. "Have a good day, wingleader."

Last updated on the November 30th 2009

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Caught in the Act