Boarandin looked out into the corridor with slyly hooded eyes. He shifted his large, yet short body about to make sure that everything was clear. Listening hard for a moment he bobbed his head as he was satisfied with the fact that nobody was near that corridor of Blue Sky Weyr. He was especially glad that the other weyrbrats were no where in sight, they would only try to steal what he had rightfully lifted off a visiting holdbrat; The child would have only been spoiled with the object anyway.

Carefully the broad young teen shut the door to the small unoccupied weyr he had found suitable for hiding in. Taking a few wires to the key hole he skillfully locked the door and went over to the fire place he had set his stolen goods by; a small pouch filled with meat rolls and a creamy tan egg. As he approached his small wealth he spotted the very small moment that the little egg made.

“You’re making this so much more of an easy task, fire lizard,” Boarandin chuckled in his gruff voice, “all I’ll have to say is that I found your egg a few days back and you hatched today. They’ll have no proof that I took anything.” A tapping in the egg answered him and the young thief smiled. The fire lizard most likely would have been abused by the boy who he had “appropriated” the item from with the way he had been acting towards everyone else. Probably the son of a Holder who thinks he’ll be a Lord Holder some day, Faranth help the Hold and other Holders if he gets his wish. the adolescent thought with annoyance.

Just then the tan egg split neatly in two as its occupant, a brown fire lizard, spilled from the brittle casing and to Boarandin’s feet. The dark brown haired lad quickly knelt and at the same time as picking up the brown hatchling opened the small satchel of meatrolls and held one in front of the brown’s muzzle. The creeling that had been sounding from the brown the moment he rolled out of his egg immediately stop as he started to nibble and snap at the meatroll trying to down the thing in one bite. Boarandin was glad of this as he still thought someone might find him and figure out a way to revel what he had done. He was sure the dragonic creature was now attached to him as he felt the little flit’s feelings of hunger, gratefulness, and love.

“That’s right, Kyoskay,” he cooed to the brown, “eat well and sleep well, I should have some tricks for you to learn soon enough.” The brown chirped at him happily before attacking another meatroll playfully. The hatchling was just starting to doze off with his stomach full to seeming almost bursting when Boarandin’s sharp hearing picked up voices in the hall way.

“You should do well in here, T’bre,” a voice stated. The Headwoman, Boarandin mentally yelped. Gently he placed Kyoskay on his shoulder making sure the hatchling wrapped his tail around his neck. Not taking any chances on where the Headwoman and this T’bre were going to stop at, the young man quickly sweeped the egg shells into the fire place where there were only charred remnants of a past fire. Only half satisfied that the eggshells were hidden well enough he ran for the dragon’s weyr. Despite his burly appearance, Boarandin was in no means hindered by his wide size which would have been amazing if someone had seen what he was about to do next.

Reaching the ledge of the dragon’s entrance to the compartment Boarandin peaked over it to check who was about; only a sleeping blue dragon lay bellow him. Boarandin was only one level off the ground but even so this would be a hard thing to do. It was nearly three quarters of a dragon’s length down to the safety that was the ground. The young thief scanned the crevices near the opening to the weyr making sure he remembered where the foot and hand holds were that most didn’t notice. Have to be careful I don’t wake him but I should get away clean. The jingle of keys out in the hallway caused the tan skinned lad to stop thinking and go through with the motions of getting away.

He found the holds that he needed with little trouble, descending to the ground like he was on a latter. It was the last few feet that he missed a foot hold and dropped to the ground with a thump. His eyes immediately looked to the sleeping dragon. Did he wake up? Perhaps he did, child. a voice answered his question. Boarandin winced, this was bad, dragons seemed to only talk to him when they knew he wasn’t supposed to be somewhere or when they knew he’d been up to something. Are you hurt little one? the blue asked opening the three lids on his eye closest to the young man.

“Just lost my footing, dragon,” Boarandin replied in a sheepish tone, it was the truth after all, “Sorry to have woken you.” I have been awake the whole time, child, the blue replied and then as if in a after thought, My name is Zhantrenth.

“It is a pleasure to meat you, blue Zhantrenth,” Boarandin replied politly with a bow and then looked above as he heard voices entering the human dwelling of the weyr, “I’m sorry I must leave you in such a rush but I must get back to my duties before I am missed.” If you say so, child. But take good care of my brown cousin on your shoulder. I am sure we’ll meet again. the dragon replied letting the boy go. Some how the blue’s words weren’t the most comforting to Boarandin, he was sure he was going to get caught because of the blue.

When the secretive thief was nearly half way across the Weyrbowl a screech filled the air causing him to turn to identify the dragon. Living a Weyr his whole life, Boarandin wasn’t the least bit surprised by a female dragon crying out her flight challenge to the Weyr. A green today, he sighed thoughtfully. Greens seemed to be the ones who were usually rising at Blue Sky Weyr, most of them of course were infertile but if his memory served him correctly there had been a green on the flight boards which meant this one was more likely a fertile green.

Catching movement out of the corner of his eye, Boarandin saw five dragon head towards the green. To his surprise one of the males was the small blue he’d been talking with, Zhantrenth. Boarandin cheered softly to himself for the blue, not because he hoped the blue would win the flight but the fact that he was sure the dragon would forget about telling anybody about him climbing down from the weyr above his own all because his mind would totally be on the female. If the blue won then that would be even better for a distraction. Maybe this day was going his way again.

As the dragons took to the air, Boarandin once again took notice of movement on the edge of his vision. It was not that of the riders of the dragons in the flight as he had thought they might be but the holder boy who he had swiped the egg from earlier. Carefully guarding his features, the thief acted like he didn’t see his former victim, however the holder lad seemed to have seen him and remembered him from ealier. The lad was a bit taller than Boarandin but obviously much younger.

“Where’d you get that fire lizard,” the holdbrat asked upon getting close enough to Boarandin to be heard. Taking one more glance at the flight he turned his hazel eyes to the holdbrat.

“Do I know you?” Boarandin asked cocking an eyebrow at the lad.

“Answer my question first!” the younger teen demanded.

“Why should I? You’re being so rude to me in the first place,” Boarandin frowned and caressed his fire lizard’s sleeping form.

“You will answer a Lord Holder’s son when asked a question drudge,” the boy insisted standing up taller than before. It didn’t help him from being back handed; he had almost been hit with a full fist punch but Boarandin had thought better of the act at the last second. The Lord Holder’s son started to speak up again in anger but the thief spoke first.

“I am no drudge, lordling, so curb your tongue,” Boarandin hissed and the little flit hissed angrily in his sleep at what could have been his master had Boarandin not intervened, “I am the son of the Weyrwoman and with just a few words I could probably get you left out for Thread Fall.” He paused to take in the wide eyed look of the younger teen, had he not been trying to pull off this lie of being the Weyrwoman’s son he would have laughed heartily at the fearful look on his face. “Now leave me and Kyoskay alone he doesn’t seem to like you much… and don’t tell any one of what I did, wouldn’t be good for your friends or family to hear you were dissaplined by the Weyrwoman’s son. I’d think it would be quite embarrassing considering I’m shorter than and not as slim as you… aside from that then I would tell my mother to leave you out for Fall.” The boy seemed to have gotten the message and left him without getting the answer he wanted from him.

In the sky two voices rang out in pleasure as the matting flight ended. That was quick, Boarandin thought coyly and looked up to see the victor. To the young thief’s surprise the small blue was twined with the green. Good going Zhantrenth… must be a pretty fast blue to do the flight in less than an hour.

“Good afternoon, Boarandin,” a sly voice greeted the tan skinned adolescent from behind causing the young man to freeze. Boarandin was only nervous about a few things while living in Blue Sky Weyr. First and for most was being caught in the act of steeling, second being the second being the Headwoman or Weyrleaders questioning him about stolen goods, the third, and what was behind him at that very moment, was the weyrbrats who were his age or older and or taller than him that would bully him if given the chance. On his shoulder Kyoskay stirred, feeling the tension in his master. Despite the fact that the young brown most assuredly wanted to chirp in question at Boarandin’s nerves, Kyoskay stayed quiet and low on the man’s shoulder.

“Afternoon,” Boarandin replied turning to face his advisory only to find the man backed by three others. The young thief set his jaw as he continued on, hoping that his brown was some how blending in with his hair, “is there something you want.”

“Yeah, your fire lizard,” one of the cronies shot at him.

“You can’t possibly think that Kyoskay would go with you when he’s impressed to me already,” Boarandin replied sensibly.

“Maybe so but we can at least scare it off from ever staying with you,” the leader grinned as he stepped forward to try and relieve Boarandin of the flit. Fly off and hide, Kyoskay, Boarandin commanded of his fire lizard as he ducked under the arms of the taller and much leaner man before dashing off towards the direction he had come from only an hour earlier. The flit chirped at him questionably as his master ran and the other men gave chase. He quickly gave a mental image of a safe place to hide for a time. The flit blinked worried purple eyes at Boarandin but was quick to launch into the air using the man’s speed to lift himself aloft for his first flight and then abruptly disappeared between.

Either Boarandin’s pursuers didn’t see the act or they didn’t care. Either way the men were still going after him. The chased winced at the pain that was starting in his legs after the first five minutes of the chase around the Weyrbowl. It had been some time since the other weyrbrats had come after him leaving Boarandin with the feeling of shin splints paining his legs.

Taking another turn around the Weyrlake the thief headed towards the more important people of the Weyr living quarters. If I find somebody, even their dragon, they should stop following for fear of getting in trouble some how. To the adolecent’s disspare he didn’t see a single dragon or their rider near the weyrs he was running by. Shaft it all! With a quick spin on his heals, Boarandin threw a wild punch into the jaw of his closest pursuer. Caught by surprise the man fell quickly to the shorter lad. Pure luck, Boarandin thought to himself before the others came upon him, ready for him to fight back.

It must have seemed a bit odd for those who might have been watching the remaining three men trying to beat on the seemingly innocent shorter man. Boarandin was defiantly not the best of fighters though if given the chance he could knock a person out in one solid or wild punch. The trio attacking him were not giving him that chance with them. The weyr lad was soon on one knee while trying to protect his head from the onslaught of fists coming down on his head. It was the bellow of a dragon from above that signaled the end of the beating and the trio ran. Even though they had left, Boarandin had hit his limit and without the constant bombardment of fists on him he fell over unconscious of the brown whom had scarred off the men.

Are you alright? T’bre, I think he’s in need of a healer. The large brown rumbled as he gentle nudged the knocked out man. Kyoskay circled down to his master chirping fearfully at what had happened; the little brown had been the reason for the brown dragon scarring off Boarandin’s attackers. The little brown brushed away a bit of his master’s brown hair to show most of his face already turning black and blue with yellow outlinding the large bruses.

“We’ll have to get him to the healer, Farnith,” T’bre replied to his dragon in agreement, “despite how much I’d like to identify those kids.” Without prompting from his rider, Farnith carefully picked up the fallen man and with a small hopskip was in the air again and heading towards Blue Sky Weyr’s infirmary.

“Leave the lad alone, Zandy, he’s had a rough day,” a voice finally broke Boarandin into a conscience state again. The thief groaned a bit expecting pain yet could feel nothing on his face. The others not hearing the groan went on talking.

“I just need to talk to him,” a female voice spoke up and Boarandin recognized as the voice of Blue Sky’s Lead Searchrider, Zandy. She paused for a moment and then seemed to speak to a third person in the room, “You’re T’bre right, so you found him in the middle of a fight?”

“Yeah, that brown flit in there by him appeared in my new weyr hysterical when the Headwoman had just finished showing me to it,” T’bre replied, “he couldn’t have been more than two hours old but he insisted that somebody was in need of help. He showed my Farnith what his bond looked like and we went to help. We found him being battered by a few weyrbrats.”

“Hmm, Boarandin is known for doing a bit of steeling from time to time,” Zandy replied causing the thief to mentally wince at that being brought up, “perhaps they were after him about that.”

“He didn’t have anything with him and they didn’t take anything away from him,” T’bre replied, “Couldn’t they have just been after him to torment him?”

“That’s usually the other possibility,” Zandy replied as Boarandin opened an eye to look at those where were near by. The Weyrhealer was gone now leaving the two brown riders to speak, “It isn’t that uncommon for Boarandin to be picked on for no reason. A number of the lads his age don’t care to much for him.”

“Thanks for being so blunt, Zandy,” Boarandin grunted as he sat up stopping the conversation about himself for the time being.

“You alright, kid?” T’bre asked of him when the silence seemed to long for him, “Far and I tried to get to you quicker but your fire lizard wouldn’t calm down enough at first.”

“Kyoskay’s still young, he’ll learn,” Boarandin smiled, thankful for the obvious use of numbweed on his face as there was a tingle on his skin yet other than that no real feeling.

“So what caused this fight, Boarandin?” Zandy asked sitting down in one of the chairs next to Boarandin’s bed.

“They wanted something I had like usual,” Boarandin replied almost casually, “this time it was Kyoskay.”

“Dimglows the lot of them,” T’bre growled obviously annoyed that he couldn’t have gotten a good look at the attackers.

“They of course didn’t have a chance to get him,” the thief smiled and left the conversation at that. He looked over at Zandy to make sure she wasn’t going to question him further. He cocked an eyebrow as he noticed the glazed look in her eyes. Must be talking to Bonlith, Boarandin thought to himself.

“This may sound odd, Boarandin, but,” Zandy started.

“But what,” Boarandin snorted, he wasn’t in the mood for being questioned further.

“I was going to say that Bonlith has taken and interest in you,” Zandy snapped back and then continued on in a calmer way, “he would like to you stand at the clutch of green Shanith and Zhantrenth. I know they only flew today but there will be a need for candidates when the clutch is laid.”

“That’s not a nice thing to joke about when a man’s injured, Zandy,” Boarandin frowned not believing that she was being serious. Beside him Kyoskay chirped happily as if he knew something his rider didn’t.

“I’m not joking, Boarandin,” Zandy stated firmly, “If you wish you have Bonlith’s recommendation to stand for the clutch when it is lain.” Boarandin looked almost confused, how could somebody who steals be considered in being a candidate… yet here was Zandy asking despite what she knew of him. He looked at Kyoskay who purred lovingly and rubbed his head against the man’s tan arm.

“I guess I accept then,” Boarandin replied, “just make sure I stay alive till the hatching if you would. I’m not sure they’ll be too happy with me getting away with my fire lizard safe and one of their friends being knocked out in one punch.” The two brown riders only looked at him for a time before leaving to tell the Weyrwoman of the candidate they had found shortly after the flight.