Sadel stumbled as she followed Ar’wen deeper into Ryslen Weyr. The man is a weyrbrat in a blue rider’s body, Sadel chuckled and then blushed as Ar’wen looked back at her questionably. Instead the man continued to lead/drag her down one of the side tunnels.
“What’s this all about already, Ar’wen?” Sadel asked once again, and yet again the blue rider replied in the same low voice with a silly smirk on his face.
“It’s a secret!” he replied without turning back to her though she was sure that he had raised his eyebrows a two time while saying the phrase. Sadel sighed again and pulled back again to slow him some, she didn’t feel like tripping once again.
“We’re almost there,” Ar’wen smirked as he went around a corner. It was then that Sadel realized that it was the twelfth time she’d seen that exact glow stand.
“Ar’wen would you get serious and just take me where you were going to take me, I don’t like going in circles as you’ve been doing for the last half hour,” she growled.
“Took ya’ long enough to notice,” he grinned back and then winced as the young woman squeezed his hand so hard he though he might hear his bones crunch in a moment. With a sheepish grin he slowed to a walk and escorted her in to one of the rooms with a hearth. There sat a number of jars labeled “FL” to which Sadel cocked her head at them.
“This is your little secret surprise, Ar’wen? Jars?” Sadel asked though she suspected it was much more than that considering how close they were to the hearth. The blue rider grinned at having confused his good friend.
“Not just any jars, they have a fire lizard egg in each one of them,” he smirked, “The head woman said I could have one but I thought I’d give it to you instead… that is if you want one.” Sadel thought about it for a moment and looked at Whisper, who had somehow managed to stay on her shoulder the whole trip.
“What do you think, my little friend?” she asked scratching the underside of his chin. The brown chirped and in a flourish of wings glided over to the jars inspecting them carefully cooing softly at them before placing his clawed forefeet upon one of the jars as if trying to pick it up himself. Sadel chuckled as she followed her young brown, “I guess you mean that I should and to take this one?” The young brown trilled happily as she took the jar and he spun around her head.
“They’re still soft you know, probably be a month or so before it hatches,” Ar’wen finally warned as the young woman carefully cradled the jar in her arms as Whisper tried to balance her on the other side by landing on her shoulder again. Sadel shrugged in response to Ar’wen’s statement as she looked at the jar. Before she knew it his arm was around her to aid as a support incase she lost her footing with the jar. She tried to shrug him off but Ar’wen chuckled and just guided her out of the room again.
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Today was an interesting day indeed. With the help of Ar’wen I attained a fire lizard egg which Whisper choose for me. The fire lizard egg will not hatch for some time but I’m still somewhat excited about it though I have no idea why Ar’wen didn’t take it himself. He has no fire lizards as far as I know and so I’d think he’d be very willing to have one. Then again this is Ar’wen we’re talking about, the one who needs his dragon to help him think civily.
Ar’wen confuses me to no end at times. He’s a joker but I’ve seen quite a few times, if not many, that he does have a serious side, usually shown in his soft ways. Like just after I picked up the jar he tired to steady me, though I didn’t need the help, so I wouldn’t possibly fall over. Even when I tried to shrug him off he continued to try and make sure I was steady; quite the odd man. Shortly after I had placed my egg in front of my own hearth a drudge came to find me and tell me Koora had been scored by thread! Now how my older sister managed to get thread scored when thread was falling over the oceans far to the north I have no idea but she did. I found later that she had been with a riderless green when it happened and they had fought thread for ten minutes straight. Even though Koora was alright she scared me half to death! What was more surprising to me was that when Quachir came to check on Koora the green, Aventrineth, claimed that no one would take her rider this time. A huge fight nearly brawled between this green and Quachir’s golden Mekoth until the two riders figured out what was happening. Yes you read that right, riders. It seems that Aventrineth has decided to take my sister as her rider now. After the argument between the two dragons they came to an agreement because of their riders’ relationship to one another. Aventrineth is now one of Mekoth’s “loyal soldiers.” When I asked Quachir about the “one of” part she told me that Ar’wen’s Camoth made a similar promise… thought they seem to pull pranks on the queen. To tell the truth I think I’m a bit jealous of my sister and Aventrinoth. Though they’re perfect for each other, them hating most queens and all, a part of me wishes that I had a bond that tight, possibly tighter. Staying at a Weyr I guess brings out the age-old children’s sun dream of being a dragonrider… I don’t think I would mind that much. I find myself now starting to try to walk past the searchdragons when ever I get the chance but I guess they don’t notice me. Well the Flurry clutch should hatch soon, some are estimating with in a few days to a sevenday or so. It should be interesting. It will be the first hatching I ever attend. I wonder what will come of it. -Sadel, resident of Ryslen Weyr |
“That was amazing!” Sadel seemed to bubble as she talked with her sister and cousin after the Flurry clutch hatched, “Have you ever seen so many colors in one clutch? Why, there were specials all over the place!” Quachir chuckled at her cousin’s changed attitude. Sadel was getting a bit more active though she still had her quiet moments and that dangerous temper when it appeared.
“What made you so chipper, sister?” Koora asked with a small smile at her taller, yet younger sister, “I haven’t seen you this hyper since just before you turned twelve.” Sadel glared at her sister though she knew well that the woman was correct. If one were to ask her about it she’d turned to miss silent gloom and doom shortly after Ar’wen left and went even more solid into it when he never came back. Her mood darkened at that. He had a dragon, why had he never tried to visit her after he was allowed to fly with Camoth without a spotter. Probably kept him on a short leash considering what Ar’wen’s told me about his jumping from Weyr to Weyr during his early turns.
Speaking of Ar’wen, she found him moving about in the crowd towards a table of young men. A woman was chatting with them and the blue rider made some comment towards them… or was it her. One of the men, one who’d impressed, made a hasty retreat. Now what is this that’s starting… is he hitting on her? she unconsciously growled under her breath. There was a slight glare at the blue rider from the woman whom she now recognized to be a green rider by the name of Yui. It didn’t take long before two of the men seemed about ready to jump at Ar’wen but in the end one of them followed him out of the dinning hall, while two of the three remaining men followed Yui and the last walked over to some of the new riders.
What was she doing? Ar’wen was a rider, he could do as he please. Even more so when a person he had interest in rode a female dragon. Sadel shrugged, she wasn’t her usual self and she knew it like her sister and cousin did. What ever was going on she didn’t know if she was liking it or not… only time would tell what would happen next.
Weeks later, a gold took to flight and was caught by Ryslen’s first, and only, night bronze. A new clutch would be on the sands soon but what worried Sadel now was that it had been nearly a month since she’d accepted the egg that Ar’wen had invariantly offered her. It was hard but didn’t seem to want to stir yet even though she knew it should very soon. Whisper crooned as he watched the jar and, like a mother, dragon he turned the jar a bit more than usual.
“I have patience, but shouldn’t it have hatched a few days ago?” she asked out loud. Whisper turned his noble head towards his mistress and chittered at her questionably, humming a few notes as well between what seemed to be breaths. Sadel chuckled just as a knock was heard upon her door.
“Sadel, can I come in?” the obvious voice of Ar’wen called through the wood. Sadel only stared at the door, a joking silent treatment plan upon her lips. “Look, Del, I know you’re in there I can hear your breathing when Whisper isn’t chirping his sharding head off… That and Camoth tells me you are in there.” Tattle tail! Sadel shot out her thoughts towards the blue who she was sure was having a good chuckle now.
The door opened slowly and Ar’wen’s smirking face peered around the door only to be met by a pillow thrown by the former apprentice scribe. He had a goofy dazed look after the encounter and Sadel couldn’t help but let out a giggle.
“Serves ya’ right, Ar’wen,” she growled playfully, “Didn’t even make sure that I wasn’t dressing for some reason.” For the first time since she’d rediscovered Ar’wen the man blushed, and in a silly fashion at that.
“Sorry, Del,” he replied rubbing the back of his reddish brown head of hair, “But how’s you’re day been?”
“You came in here to just ask me that?” Sadel asked raising an eyebrow at him in suspicion. Ar’wen smiled at her disarmingly and shrugged his shoulders.
“Can’t a man ask how his friend’s day went?” he asked as he invited himself in and sat down. Sadel shook her head and chuckled. It wasn’t like she would have turned him away in the first place. Ever since they met up again their old friendship had been rekindled and was stronger than ever. In that the duo talked for a good hour about life at Ryslen Weyr and Talor Cliff Weyr, where Ar’wen was currently residing. Near the end of their hour long talk, Ar’wen’s eyes started to wonder the room. His brows furrowed and he frowned as Sadel talked about a baby having been born over night.
“What you don’t like the couple who the child belongs too?” Sadel asked a bit annoyed. Ar’wen looked startled when she accused him of this.
“Huh, what?” Ar’wen replied while his dragon filled him on what he so rudely ignored, “Sorry, Del… I was looking for where Whisper was.”
“He’s by the hearth with that egg,” Sadel frowned. Ar’wen got up with a bit of a puzzled look on his features and walked towards the hearth, Sadel followed quickly wondering what the blue rider was up to.
“Odd that it hasn’t hatched yet,” she heard Ar’wen mumble. As if on cue there was a ceramic sounding tap over by the Hearth. And then the jar started rolling towards the embers. Whisper, who had decided that he’d watch over the jar from the night stand near by, started squawking loudly before humming intensely just before the jar stopped in the embers of the hearth.
“Shard it,” Sadel yelped and dodged past Ar’wen to the hearth and rolled the jar out of the cinders, burning the tips of her fingers in the process of rescuing the jar’s soul occupent, “I don’t want fried eggs at this time!” It was evident to her that the egg inside was trying to hatch now but the jar was a bit hot to try popping off the top even though it had only been in the coals for a few moments.
“Here, open it with gloves, I’ll get some food for the lizard,” Ar’wen grunted as he threw his riding gloves at the young woman and ran out the door. Sadel quickly put on the gloves though they were too large for her own hands. With the size difference it made it hard to take off the top but in the end she managed. On the jar red sand was all she saw… no wait, a small cream colored spot was showing through in about the middle of the small field of sand. With the gloves still on, Sadel dug the egg out of the sands. As she retrieved the egg from its warm home, bits of shell started to break away and an energetic croon came from inside the egg.
With a mighty kick for something so young a pair of green hind legs lashed through the most narrow part of the egg. With in seconds the shell crumbled away to reveal in full the small green fire lizard hatchling that had lived in that confined space for nearly the last six weeks. Sadel felt the hunger the high-spirited green was chirping for. Where are you with that food, Ar’wen?!?! Do not worry little one, he comes. Camoth’s soothing voice told her and she could swear if the giant blue could be in the room now he would have nuzzled her cheek to comfort her.
“Got it!” Ar’wen cried out as he barreled into the room and tossed her one of the two small pouches he was carrying. Sadel luckily caught the offering while keep from upsetting the green fire lizard anymore. The young green could already smell the food and started chirping rapidly and dove for the bag as soon as it was open. Sadel had a hard time trying to control the green from wolfing down the whole pouch in one minute; it didn’t help any that Whisper was cheering the green on from his perch on the night stand.
“For once in your life, you conniving little brown, act as you name considers you to be,” Ar’wen growled at the loud brown who fully ignored the blue rider. There was a squawk that was stopped in the middle as Sadel was finishing with the green. The young woman looked up only to laugh as Ar’wen had a hold of the brown’s beak and the two were having a glaring contest. In her arms the green chirped up a belch before climbing up to Sadel’s shoulders and curl herself around the back of her mistress’ neck before falling asleep.
“She seems pretty smart already,” Ar’wen commented giving the brown fire lizard a warning look before letting go of his beak and coming over to Sadel.
“She has very high spirits,” Sadel smiled, “I think I’ll call her Eiki… Aisu says that sometimes and said it meant high spirits as well.”
“Odd but good name for the little rover,” Ar’wen commented with a chuckle and then looked at one of the rare time pieces he wore on his wrist, “I’m due back at Talor Cliff Weyr in a little bit, Searchrider’s meetings and they’re finally giving me a chance at it.”
“You’re going to be a searchrider?” Sadel asked in astonishment while keeping a hand near part of Eiki’s body at all times; though she could feel the strength in the new born green’s tail she didn’t want to drop her like she almost did to Whisper when he first hatched.
“Yeah,” he replied and looked at her funny for a moment and smiled before he head towards the door, “Well I’ll see you later, Del…. Oh, and J’lenn’s acting really odd right now… I think you should check it out before he decides to go back to his old ways.”
Sadel blinked at the man who winked at her before going out the door, closing behind him.That sour fruit is acting nice? Something’s gotta be up… Then again, Ar’wen could be joking… I better check this one out myself like he said, she contemplated. With a soft whistle at Whisper, the brown landed on the other side of Sadel’s shoulder and the woman walked out of the room.
“So this is the reason you wanted me to pick this egg, Whisper?” she asked him as she remembered his reaction that day a few weeks back. The brown chirped happily in reply not really indicating if what she said was correct or not.
Out in the Weyrbowl it was bright and sunny, riders from the flurry clutch were washing their dragons in the Weyrlake. The odd winter had left Ryslen Weyr as quickly as it was rumored to have arrived, over night! It was now a wonderfully warm spring mid afternoon. Sadel frowned as the only true white to ever hatch at Ryslen Weyr stood in the water, riderless. It was unsure what happened to her rider, but the white had been brave enough to stay in this world though her rider did not only a few days after the hatching.
Sadel cocked her head at the white as she saw somebody scrubbing at her though it was most assuredly not the white’s abandoning rider. As she walked closer her mouth fell open in disbelief, there at the white’s side was the last person in the world Sadel would have ever thought to get even within a dragons length of a white. J’lenn? Washing Neva? This is defiantly something I should check out.
“Afternoon, J’lenn,” Sadel called out, she chuckled as the searchrider shot a look at her for her informal way of speaking to him. She’d flat out refused to call him Searchrider from the first time she met him, after all, in Sadel’s mind that should only be used when on officially on a search and at the time he was fairly stubborn about searching for the green clutch on the sands. The male ridden green, Alinth, had wanted only males to stand at her clutch. Her demands were met whether the searchrider liked it or not.
“Good afternoon to you as well, Sadel,” he replied. Wow, where’d his bite go? Usually he’ll make a comment about addressing him properly before dropping the subject but today he just dropped it straight away!
“Would you like some help with the scrubbing of Neva?” Sadel asked politely, trying to keep her features straight as a rider, that she knew rode green, appeared on the other side of the true white. He was soaked and seemed to want to get out of there that very instant.
“Thank you but I think we can handle the hatchling,” he replied redoubling his efforts, “You get the special treat of being washed by two people don’t you, Neva.” The white nodded her beautiful snow white head yet made no sound. J’lenn gave the white’s hide a good rub with his bare hand before starting in on scrubbing again. Sadel marveled at him, amazed at how kind he was being, for J’lenn that is.
“It’s a bit early for that,” J’lenn stated just as Sadel was turning to leave. She turned back at the statement and raised an eyebrow at the man but he wasn’t even looking at her. She followed J’lenn’s gaze to find him looking at his blue searchdragon, Scith. It was now apparent that J’lenn had been speaking with his blue, “I know, Scith but we don’t want to get too man before we know how many will be on the sands… All right, I’ll be out in a minute.”
Sadel shrugged and started to walk off again. Ar’wen had been right It was quite interesting seeing J’lenn act civil to most everyone and tolerating the “odd” dragons, as he usually called them, enough to be around them and help wash one of them. As she walked away she could feel eyes on her looked around quickly. All she found were the eyes of Scith watching her retreat. Oh, it’s just you Scith, she thought to herself and the dragon rumbled from his roost. Sadel was not fifty feet from the entrance to the lower caverns when she heard her name called.
“Sadel, hold up,” a male voice called to her. Sadel turned about to only to see J’lenn walking towards her. Not knowing what else to do, Sadel waited for the rider to catch up with her. When he was finally near her he indicated that they should continue to walk.
“Just out of curiosity, Sadel,” he started after a few moments of silence, “what do you think of dragons?”
“That’s a pretty silly question to ask J’lenn,” Sadel chuckled as they walked into the Weyr, “I live here now and I have two fire lizards, if I didn’t like them I’d not have a fire lizard now would I?”
“That does stand to reason,” he replied as he looked to see Eiki and Whisper on her shoulders; the former still sleeping while the latter was wide-awake and trying his best to stay quiet for his new companion, “When did you get the little green?”
“She hatched today,” Sadel replied and then her curiosity got the better of her as well, “Why did you ask me that question anyway.”
“Well,” the searchrider replied stopping for a moment, “Scith says that you’d be good for this next coming flight. I’m about to go to talk with Tiyanni, if you’d like I could tell her you’ve been searched to stand at this gold clutch.” Sadel blinked at J’lenn a few times then started laughing.
“Ha ha, very funny, J’lenn,” Sadel replied, “as if I’d be searched…” she trailed off and looked at the very solume expression on the blue rider’s face, “You’re serious, aren’t you?” J’lenn nodded. Sadel’s jaw nearly dropped once more, her searched for a clutch… this couldn’t be…. But then J’lenn was an expert searchrider from what she’d heard so why doubt him.
“I’ll do it,” Sadel replied still too stunned. J’lenn smile and ruffled the tall woman’s short tan hair, something Sadel was sure he would have never done a few days go. With that he left Sadel in the hallway. A few minutes after J’lenn had left a happy whoop echoed through the hall ways.
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Well it’s official; I’m a candidate here at Ryslen Weyr! J’lenn was really nice about it took. He wasn’t old, craggy-faced sour-fruit… but all good things must come to an end. I’m not sure what happened but J’lenn is once again his old cranky self.
He’s already regretting that he searched somebody for Arosymbyth’s clutch because of the Night bronze who is the sire of the clutch.The man won’t come anywhere near the nights or lights again and stays ever farther away from the flurry dragons. Unnatural is in his vocabulary once more when asked about his dislikes. I have a sneaky suspicion, Whisper and Eiki agree with me on this it seems, that Ar’wen knew for quite some time that I had some potential in being a candidate. When they come around though Camoth won’t say a word on the question and Ar’wen dodges the question repeatable. It’s alright with me if he does dodge it, because he answers others much more readily then. For instance I asked him about Yui at the flurry hatching. It seems he and the green rider are somewhat friends and were merely talking to the men at the table and seeing about if they wanted to try their hand at impressing at another Weyr. All but one went and he’s stand for this clutch, the dark skinned Oscar. He’s a nice guy all around, just a little too infatuated with Aisu. Well I must go, lessons for the candidates are starting up today and I don’t want to be late. Better to make a good impression with the Weyrling Master now just in case I do impress… I wonder if I will but try not to dwell on that subject. And if I dwell here much longer I’ll be in trouble.
-Sadel, |
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