As luck would have it, or more like because his father decided on it, he was learning at the Weyr three of his older siblings were riders at. It had defiantly made the transition to Weyr life easier. Though having three older siblings also had its disadvantages but so was the life of being a younger child or in Trayzin’s case nearly the middle child; he had four younger siblings still at Kutou Hold.
He watched the skaters make circuits around the rink. Three or four waved or nodded to the young teen while a few glared at his present. He knew that there were mixed feelings about his being there. He’d made friends with a few of the skaters over the turn while a few others had developed a dislike for his periodic dropping in on practices. The rest merely focused on practices and gave him no feeling if they were for or against him being there.
It was as the coaches came onto the ice that he noticed a tall sandy brown haired man with his hair spiked so high that it was a wonder how it stayed up. Sitting in the middle of his hair was a little green fire lizard. Upon noticing Trayzin the man gave him a nod and walked over to join him.
“Thought I’d find you here,” the man said going to scratch his head but find his flit in his hair resisted the urge, “coolest place in the Weyr even with the season changing to fall.”
“You know well I’m not here for the cool air, N’natsuwa,” Trayzin yawned again as he replied to the rider.
“Why so tired, Auzaroth and I didn’t push you that hard yesterday nor today,” the dragon rider replied.
“You didn’t, but T’lcin, Roki, and Tokin decided it would be fun to have me work on cleaning their dragons as if they had been hurt by Thread,” Trayzin replied.
“You know you didn’t have to go through that,” N’natsuwa told the Apprentice Beastcrafter, “they’re only your siblings, not your craft master.”
“True, but I couldn’t turn down the challenge,” Trayzin replied, “It was good practice anyway. Aside from that it’s always nice to visit with their dragons. Always reminds me of Jayz’s brown flit though in larger size of course.”
“Ah, speaking of flits, I want you to take this note to Aisu,” N’natsuwa told the young man handing him a folded up note. No seal protected it from being opened, however Trayzin pocketed the note without taking a glimpse at the writing.
“Do you wish me to deliver it now?” he asked the rider looking away from the ice for a moment.
“If you’d like,” N’natsuwa smiled back mysteriously. Trayzin felt a bit flushed from the look and opted to see the Sunlight Gold rider right away. “We’ll start up again in three hours, alright Tray?”
“I’ll see you then, blue rider,” Trayzin replied with a wave of his hand though he did not look at his master. He couldn’t look the blue rider in the eye at the moment without have some goofy grin on his face. It always happened when N’natsuwa smile at anybody, it had been the first indication for Trayzin that he might be bisexual when he first came to Seiryuu to visit his siblings before he’d ended up at the Weyr to learn from the blue rider about healing herdbeasts and other animal. He had figured out on his own in this way that he was bisexual as he knew he’d felt the same about some women as well, but also had noticed the same reaction with men other than his tutor.
It had disturbed him at first, to the point that he had made it a point to keep his distance from most men. It wasn’t until just before he was transferred to Seiryuu Weyr by his father that he learned to understand that what he felt was not wrong as some holders would have liked to tell some. Not so oddly enough he was informed of this by his eldest brother’s friend F’link, green Akaneth’s rider, who was openly bisexual. Oddly enough the green rider had not approached him like he approached most men or women. F’link had seemed to know that Trayzin had been struggling with the fact that he was interested in both sexes.
F’link never insinuated this fact, however, spoke plainly to the teen about his own struggles with his sexuality though event the green rider had to admit he didn’t have struggles with it so much because of the minor hold he was brought up in. But he did bring experiences of others to the table and this seemed to help. Trayzin was still closeted for the most part but more because he did not speak to anybody about people he might have crushes on. He did however at one point admit openly to F’link if he didn’t know the man’s current background he’d think the green rider might be worth the relationship. The green rider had smirked and flipped his long black hair at the comment to which the teen had rolled his eyes.
Trayzin found himself before Aisu’s office door as his memories came to a halt. Taking in a deep breath, he let it slowly out and knocked on the door. There was a shuffle of papers in reply at first before the gold rider’s voice sounded off.
“It’s open!”
The apprentice beastcrafter walked into the office to find a dark haired beauty sitting in a desk sorting through papers and hides here eyes were glued to the documents in front of her so she had as of yet to notice who exactly had walked into her room.
“Dragonhealer N’nastuwa instructed me to give you this note, weyrwoman,” Trayzin announced pulling the note out of his pocket. Aisu’s almond shaped blue eyes shot up to look at the apprentice as her thin eyebrows slanted down towards her eyes in annoyance.
“Why everyone insists on calling me weyrwoman just because I impressed Akemith… I’ll never get used to it,” she scowled and reached for the note.
“Would it be better if I call you Coach Aisu instead?” he asked causing Aisu’s features to change to an amused smile.
“I wouldn’t be as weirded out by it, that’s for sure,” she replied as she opened the letter, “I’d prefer Aisu, Kanchou, or even Ichiban. I’ve never gotten used to the formalities of Pernese.” AS she said this he looked over the letter. She raised an eyebrow at the apprentice then nodded slight before waving her hand over towards her hearth. Trayzin stood there waiting for whatever reply the Seiryuu Flit’s coach would give to N’nastuwa.
“Well aren’t you going to pick one?” Aisu asked the man after a few seconds.
“Pick one?”
“You didn’t read the note he sent you with?” Aisu asked to which Trayzin shook his head, “Then I take it he didn’t tell you about the content.”
“He only told me to deliver it to you, I make it a habit to not read other people’s letters unless told I’m allowed,” Trayzin replied honestly.
“Can be a good habit,” Aisu replied, “In this case you have a surprise. N’nastuwa requested that I allow you to select a Chibi Flit egg. He believes it will be very helpful to you in your future work. They’re smaller than your typical fire lizard, more paw like than claw like and have retractable claws. If you work with cattle or horses,” the beastcrafter looked at her strangely for the odd names, “the animals should be able to handle being around a chibi flit better than a normal fire lizard.”
“A flit? I never mentioned how I wanted a fire lizard to him,” Trayzin replied as he looked over to the hearth to spot two small piles of fire lizard eggs, “I wonder how he knew.”
“Trayzin, I knew you did too without hardly knowing you,” Aisu commented kicking her booted feet up onto her desk, “You have three siblings who are dragon riders and a younger sibling who impressed one of the first known chibi flits before I took over the clutches. You’re bound to one a flit, a dragon, or both.”
“You’re right on the both,” Trayzin replied ducking his head sheepishly finding it hard to make eye contact with the pretty queen rider, “But I guess a fire lizard will have to do if the dragons here don’t want me as a rider.”
“You that upset about not impressing in the last two hatchings?” Aisu asked.
“I wouldn’t say upset… saddened maybe,” he replied as he looked at the eggs thoughtfully trying to decide if he wanted a marbled egg or a smooth cream colored one knowing well the cream ones were regular chibi flits while the marble eggs would hatch marble chibi flits, “I think I might have been more upset if I’d known I’d stolen another person’s lifemate in a hatching.”
“However the hell that would happen,” Aisu replied. The sunlight gold rider had originally been from Earth but had come to the conclusion through weyrling classes from years ago that in the end a Pernese dragon could never be stolen from the one they had bonded to though some chose to bond to another if their bond abandoned them in some way. Seiryuu Weyr however had never seen this at the Weyr but had seen a few of their weyrlings go between never to appear again.
“Logically I realize it should not be able to happen,” he replied as his vision fixed on the clutch of marbled eggs started to reach for them and then decided at the last second to go for the larger clutch of normal chibi flit eggs, “I think it’s just that we even now don’t really understand how the dragon chooses. Is it fate or is it who manages to hold the dragon’s attention. Fire lizards we know are usually impressed upon by the one who first feeds them to being full. But a fire lizard owner can die and the flit may go on living despite the fact depending on how strong the bond is. The same goes for watch-whers.”
“I don’t know much about whers but I’ll take your word for it,” Aisu replied and pulled a sheet of paper of her desk as she took her feet down from it to be able to write properly, “So one of the normal chibi flits for you.” Trayzin nodded and Aisu scratched an X next to a line on the paper after checking a box marked regular. “Sign there, I’ll get you a jar of hot sand to keep the egg warm.”
The teen did as he was told and soon he was carrying a dark ceramic jar filled with sand and the little egg he’d pick. He considered heading back to the rink to thank N’nastuwa for his note of recommendation but opted not to with the thought of the sand getting cold while in there and thus the egg might also get cold. Instead the apprentice headed back to his room to find the hearth and get the egg pot near the heat.
It was nearly an hour later as he sat looking at the egg barely peeking out of the sands that N’natsuwa knocked on the door frame with a rock left there for that exact reason. Trayzin jumped at the harsh knock and looked up at the blue rider with eyes that reminded the rider of an awed young child.
“Which type did you pick out?”
“A normal chibi,” Trayzin replied then biting the inside of his lip decided to ask a question, “Why did you think I wanted one?”
“You didn’t?” N’nastuwa asked in surprise.
“Of course I wanted one, I just didn’t think it was appropriate for me to ask for one on my own,” Trayzin replied making the blue rider chuckle.
“Well that’s good, you gave me a scare there,” N’natsuwa replied, “Made me think I was making you take a flit you didn’t want. As for the reason, I knew you’d probably like one and firelizards can be quite helpful in our field. I’m sure even more so if you do not have a dragon… you didn’t read the note I sent with you did you?”
Trayzin tilted his head at the much older man, was that slight disappointment he heard in his mentor’s voice? The blue rider chuckled and shook his head.
“I guess I should have factored in your honesty,” N’natsuwa finally told him, “I’d hoped you’d have looked at the note since it was not sealed. I’m guessing Aisu didn’t tell you what else was written there, either she figured you already knew or decided that it should come from me rather than her announcing it.”
“What are you talking about N’natsuwa. You’re making me nervous.” The boy shifted uneasily from the talk.
“The search dragons keep on discussing you,” the blue rider chuckled cheerfully, “They’ve been pushing for you to impress even if it means at another Weyr. They think you’re ripe for impressing at this time. Auzaroth keeps on saying in the next few weeks of your life, which means to me that you might not be impressing in this time.”
“You’re talking about timing it somewhere for me to impress?” Trayzin replied in an awed whisper. He’d learned of going between times from his older siblings but had also been told to keep it quiet outside of most dragonrider conversations.
“Odd thing is that Ar’wen’s been scarce since the Searchdragons decided on this and Camoth refuses to speak up,” N’natsuwa growled, “The Weyrwoman’s not concerned by this. She even laughed and told us that it was a game of hide and find.”
“They must have a good reason then,” Trayzin replied to which the blue rider grinned sarcastically.
“Knowing Ar’wen and his Camoth his good reason is to just play with us for a while,” N’natsuwa snorted.
“Did you ask the Night-Green rider Sadel?” the teen inquired causing the rider to pause.
“You know, we hadn’t thought of that,” he replied trailing off as his eyes unfocused to talk to his big winged blue only to become more irritated, “Shard those two they’re both refusing to reply. Only laugh at the other dragon’s attempts!”
“Then we’ll just have to wait to see what happens,” Trayzin replied though even he was now irked by the two dragons on giving their location when people were looking for their riders.
N’natsuwa sighed at Trayzin’s patience, “Well, we best get down to the Weyrlings’ Barracks, one of the Dawn Blue hatchlings accidently stepped on his own wing when he woke up and his rider’s asleep at the moment.”
“Alex’s Dawn Blue Braudanth,” the apprentice deduced knowing that the sun was still up thus the Dawn Blue rider was still locked in stone sleep. The blue rider nodded.
It was the hatching of Trayzin’s egg into a blue chibi flit and a few days later that the apprentice beastcrafter even thought of what the Searchdragons were implying once again. He had named his blue flit Soru. The flit had taken to N’natsuwa’s green Rozary’s bad habit of trying to ride on top of the young man’s head so that now his reddish blond hair was a bit of a mess, sticking out at odd angles. The moment he tried to flatten the hair back into place it seemed Soru would choose that time to land on his head or paw at the teen’s hair messing it up again. He could only hope to train the habit out of the little blue.
Get to the Weyrbowl little one, your ride has just arrived, a voice commanded in Trayzin’s head causing both Soru and him to jump. Auzaroth? the young man asked to which he got a mental nod. It was one of the few times the blue had talked to him in the whole turn h had been at Seiryuu however the blue said no more after that. It took the apprentice a moment to realize what the blue had been talking about. It was after hearing three different dragons bulge at two different times that he understood and started to jog towards the bowl.
“You should be running faster,” N’natsuwa told the young man as he caught up to him, “There’s no telling how long M’len and Jesioth will stay here. They’ll be your ride to another Weyr… if we catch them in time.”
“Where are they?” Trayzin asked breathing a little hard as panic suddenly took him.
“Talking with R’mar and Tiff out in the bowl,” the blue rider replied.
At this Trayzin accelerated towards the Werybowl and started looking about for the two riders mentioned. It was hardly a challenge to find the duo as he recognized an odd silver toned blue conversing with two dragons, a brown and a green. Not far away were the riders of the three dragons as well as two others one seemed to be another rider while the other by his clothes seemed to be a Journeyman Healer. He stopped only a few feet away from the group oddly finding himself out of breath he ignored the fact that the group had gone silent as he looked at the ground breathing hard and trying to calm his breath at the same time.
“You’re the other one then?” one of the men asked once Trayzin regained his breath. The young man raised an eyebrow not fully understanding the rider, “Jesioth tells me that I’m supposed to be waiting for another candidate to take back to Falas Weyr with Filinro.” Here the rider pointed to a young man three turns Trayzin’s senior.
“Then I guess that would be me, I’m Trayzin,” he replied.
“Well, Trayzin, I’m M’len and this is Filinro who will be coming too,” the blue rider greeted him, “We won’t be leaving yet, but you’re welcome to pack your bags to leave later today. I only came for a visit but we do need candidates at Falas so it’s good that you came to me.”
“I’ll go get my things then,” Trayzin replied excusing himself just as suddenly as he’d arrived. As he started to go he couldn’t help but see the startled look on the older candidate who had as of yet to speak a word to him. Trayzin didn’t blame him for the look, he’d run up pretty fast and to have such a short conversation, it almost felt like cheating to him to get what he wanted so quickly without really having to ask. But he’d talk to this Filinro later about it, now didn’t seem the time. Now was the time to pack and get ready to head to Falas Weyr, whatever time that was in.
Trayzin, nickname Tray
Age 17
Honest and sincere
Lightly muscled
Not much for wrestling
Apprenticed to Seiryuu Weyr to learn about Beastcraft healing
Height 5’10”