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+--- Thread: [G] [P] [EVENT] 739.05.26 | Caught Dirt-handed (/showthread.php?tid=4058)
739.05.26 | Caught Dirt-handed - Qu'va - 26.May.18
It wasn’t there, either!
Quinvalis tried to stay calm but he couldn’t stop the wave of panic trying to settle down on him. He couldn’t find the necklace his mom had given him on his birthday that he had been Searched. In all of his memories of her, she had always worn it, knowing it had been special to her, and she had given it to him to always remember her and keep her close to his heart. It also showed how much she trusted him and of course he had blown it and lost it.
He never took it off, secretly trusting himself to lose it if he did, and look what happened.
He had returned to the Candidate barracks after he realised it was missing during dinner. His chest of personal items and clothes had been dumped on the bed one at a time and were now placed back in the chest in the same manner. Every piece of clothing had been shaken and pockets examined carefully both times and still nothing. Quinvalis had moved to the bed after that, shaking out each layer and looking under the mattress and under the frame itself. Still nothing.
He remade the bed slowly as he thought about where he had been that day and where it may have fallen off. When the case was put back on the pillow and it was tossed to the head of the bed, Quinvalis flopped back onto the bed, realising he had been to a lot of locations that day. The day had started with a bath in one of the common rooms so it could be sitting at the bottom of the pool or someone could have grabbed it and claimed it as their own. He had also helped wash the dishes from breakfast before being recruited by R’nya to work in Rhaedalyn’s personal little garden. She was starting to find it difficult to work the land with her pregnancy entering the final months so he had pulled weeds, trimmed back here and there, and planted some new seeds.
What if he planted his necklace! Horrified, Quinvalis shot up off the bed and decided to start with the bath as it was the closest, easiest, and hopefully most likely spot to lose it. He had only changed and washed his hands before going to eat after working all afternoon anyway so it wouldn’t hurt to strip down and jump right into the water to search.
Twenty minutes later saw him clean and sitting low in the pool so the water covered his frowning mouth. He had searched the bottom with his feet and then with his hands and then back to his feet while he scrubbed away the grime of the day. The necklace wasn’t there. There was still a chance it had been and someone found it, but he had searched the room first as well in case a kind soul found it and left it sitting out to be found.
Finally dragging his pathetic butt out of the water, Quinvalis towelled off, dressed, and shuffled his way back to the dining area. Dinner was still on so the kitchen would be busy but he’d just peek his head in and ask a quick question, maybe see if they’d let him check the washing area for himself and then get out of the way.
One of the older women seemed annoyed at first but turned sympathetic when the situation was explained and let him search for a few minutes but the necklace wasn’t there either. She looked just as heartbroken as he felt when they realised it wasn’t there and Quinvalis quickly got out of their way, with a dessert in hand thanks to the motherly woman, so he wouldn’t be in the way.
Dejected, he nibbled on the sweet cake outside the entrance to the dining cavern. He had spotted R’nya there eating with Rhaedalyn and their daughters and a part of him wanted to rush over and tell him what happened and ask for help. R’nya could fix anything in his eyes thanks to a bit of hero worshipping and seeing the man as a father figure for the last several years. But he also didn’t want him to know and risk both being frowned at in disapproval and having him tell his mom what he’d done.
So he ate his cake as he worked out the best way to check their flower garden without them noticing. He supposed he could go then and hope they didn’t return and see him pawing through the dirt again. Really, that was his only option. He didn’t want to sneak out after lights out for Candidates and find himself in trouble.
The last bite of cake was stuffed in his mouth and he practically ran across the bowl to their weyr. Once there, Quinvalis bent down and started checking between flowers and even on the stems and branches in case they had caught the chain and the necklace now hung from it. He felt like a thief with the way he kept glancing over his shoulder for the return of the family but just another minute more and he wouldn’t be a caught thief-look-alike.