Now that spring had finally announced itself, it was time to prepare the gardens and clean away all the old leaves and debris winter had left behind. Rahien didn’t much look forward to the task, but if there was one thing she had learned quickly after entering the Tower, it was to never question an order, especially not if you were a novice. She had earned herself more chores than she cared to remember, just for forgetting that she wasn’t to speak unless asked to. Rahien had been raised by her mother to question everything around her and use her mind, so it was hard for her to accept anything without challenging it, but neither was she prepared to spend the rest of her Tower life in punishment. Absently adjusting the scarf around her head, she adjusted her grip on the rake and gathered some more leaves in a steadily growing heap. “I still don’t see why they don’t just let us use the Power.”

Rahien practiced as much as she could with the Power and she was fairly confident that she would be able to gather up the leaves with a few weaves of Air without problem. Air was one of her stronger elements after all and the leaves were very light. But no, manual labour was supposed to build character. Rahien smirked as she attacked the next set of leaves. The weather was already warming up noticeably and Rahien realised she was in for a long hot summer wearing the scarf around her head. She would rather die of a heatstroke than bear the shame of taking it off though. A soft breeze wafted through the gardens and Rahien lifted her face to catch it. Rahien wasn’t used to working this hard physically and the effort wasn’t improving her temper much. The rake was already starting to cause blisters on her hands and she muttered a few curses under her breath.

“Some Aes Sedai I’m going to make with hands like a farmer’s daughter.” Rahien knew full well not all Aes Sedai were nobly born, but for the moment she didn’t care she was being unreasonable. She ground her teeth as she kept going and silently wished she could take out her frustration on someone. Hitting them over the head with the rake sounded very satisfying indeed. She groaned as she realised she would have to stuff all the leaves in bags later to clean them up. Something a simple weave of Fire could take care of in a mere fraction of the time! Of course there was the problem that she barely handle enough Fire to light a candle, but what better reason to practice? A plan started forming in her head and a slow smile spread on her lips.

Nina did not like manual work. Not like this anyway. Washing pots and pans she could deal with, scrubbing the floors she could deal with. But raking up leaves she seen as a pointless exercise. Once you had brushed them up it was inevitable that a wind would come and blow more on to the ground again. It truly was pointless, but when an Aes Sedai told you to do something you did it without a pause. That did not mean of course that she could not have a good old moan about it. The White Tower defined this type of work as character building, Nina thought of it as tiring and knew that her time could be better spent learning, either academically or practically learning how to use the One Power. She had come along very well recently and was looking forward to more classes. She was a fast learner and loved to read and find out new things to do with the Power. She wished she had been able to channel to do this work, it would have been so much easier, but that would not have suited the Aes Sedai. They would rather have the Novices work for hours on end.

She sighed as she raked more leaves toward her. It was even worse that she did not have anyone to talk to here. There were three other Novices around, she recognized them be sight but did not know their names. She wished one of the “friends” she had made at the Tower were here, they were not friends as such just people she talked to sometimes. She needed a friend, someone she could count on, the years as a Novice were long and often hard and she wanted to have some fun while she was here too. She had been quite mischievous when she was little, and had enjoyed it very much she did not want to change that now. She was a nobles daughter but did not behave like one. She did not mind getting her hands dirty unlike a few of the other nobles daughters she had known and knew now in the Tower. She brushed a few more leaves toward her and then straightened up and looked around once more. She saw a Novice standing still looking mischievous. Nina had seen this Novice several times, she was the one who was badly scared on her face and wore a kinda of scarf around her head, presumably to hide scarring their too. Nina did not hold anything against people until she got to know their personality, and besides she liked the naughty glimmer in the girls eyes

Deciding it was best to go talk to the other Novice she moved toward her. She did not think that the other noticed her until she was right before her when she said “Hello my name is Nina Kian” she breathed in deeply “Don't you just hate doing work like this?” and without wasting a second she dove right in, she wanted a bit of fun “You look like a girl with a plan, anything i can help with” she hoped then that she had not misunderstood the look on the girls face. If she had she had just made a complete fool of herself, she blushed slightly . All she wanted was a bit of fun and a break from this tedious chore. She was up for anything and did not mind a trip to the Mistress of Novices, she was sure it would be worth it.