Ehzeia
"Ehzeia!!! Get down from there! You're going to kill yourself!!" The woman stood on the ground, staring up at her at the eight-turn girl as she climbed higher.
The girl laughed. "Don't worry mommy! I'm fine!"
"No you're not! Nobody fine climbs the walls of the Weyr!" The poor woman rubbed her hands through her prematurely grey hair. "Get down now before I have to come up there after you!"
"Mother!" The active, adventurous Ehzeia turned and glared down at her foster mother. Letting go of the rock wall with one hand. "I'm fine! I've done this before!"
"I know!! Why do you think I have grey hair?" The woman was close to hysteria.
"What seems to be the problem?" J'kar approached the foster-mother. "What's wrong Myanar?"
Myanar latched onto the bronze-rider's arm. "Get. Her. Down!" The foster-mother emphasized each word separately as she tried to continue breathing.
J'kar smiled. "Ehzeia climbing again?"
"Yes!" Myanar dug her nails farther into J'kar's arm.
The bronze-rider flinched. "Millith!" He called, feeling the woman's pain and fear….literally.
Yes rider-mine? The bronze raised himself from his ledge and glided down into the Weyrbowl. Where are you?
"I'm just outside the Weyr!" J'kar replied trying to get Myanar's nails out of his arm. "Ehzeia's gone for another climb."
The bronze smiled as he appeared over the top of the Weyrbowl. Sure enough the little girl was clinging to the rock outside, about half-way up. The bronze flew down beside her, gently picking her up, with his teeth, by the collar and depositing her on the ground, beside a very grateful Myanar.
"Aww…." Ehzeia kicked at the ground. "Why'd you go and do that Millith? I was almost to the top!"
J'kar smiled. "You're mother forced us."
Myanar wrapped her arms tightly around the girl. "Why did you do that?!? I thought I told you never to do that again!"
Ehzeia glared up at the older woman. "You're not my real mother. My real mother was a green-rider and she'd let me climb wherever I want!"
Myanar sighed. She knew Ehzeia wasn't trying to hurt her, the girl just didn't seem to understand that a lot of what she considered 'fun' were considered 'crazy', 'life-threatening' and 'dangerous' to the rest of the world. "No, she wouldn't. Even green-riders have more sense than to let their children climb Weyr walls."
Ehzeia sighed and kicked at the ground again. "I coulda made it to the top."
"I'm sure you could have. -BUT-" She added the word quickly. "I don't expect you to try that again! Ever! You had me sick to death with worry."
Ehzeia sighed, but made no promises. Myanar sighed, knowing that was the best she'd ever get out of her over-active foster-child. She grabbed the child's arm and began leading her back to her room.
"Hey!" J'kar called after the two. "Ehzeia! Why do you want to be so high anyways?"
A twinkle lit the girls eyes. "I wanna be higher than everyone else! I wanna see things other people don't, cuz they're too scared or too small or too weak. I wanna see things...like a dragon sees things."
J'kar laughed as the girl was dragged off to her lessons.
* * * "Ehzeia." The fourteen-turn girl smiled as she heard her mother bellowing her name.
"Just a minute mom." The adventurer put her mother out of her mind as she focused on finding the next hand grip or foot grip. This was higher than she'd ever been before.
"Ehzeia!" He mother pleaded, but her voice was faint since the girl was so high up.
She didn't even bother muttering an answer as she forced her numb fingers into the small crevice and tested her weight. Seeing that it would hold, she scrambled up a few inches and began the process of finding her next grips again. I'd better get to the top soon… She mused, her breath coming short and quick. I'm getting a little tired and oxygen is becoming thinner and thinner… Another half hour of work and the girl pulled herself to the top of the Weyrbowl. She stretched and wasn’t surprised to see J'kar and Millith waiting for her. "I made it."
The older bronze-rider laughed. "Yes. It's taken you 6 turns but you've finally climbed Adanuk Weyr. The only question her adoring fans have left is...why?"
She grinned, pushing a piece of red hair out of her eyes. "I thought I told you already?"
"To see things other's can't?" He asked, remembering the conversation they'd had so long ago. "To see things like a dragon does?"
"That too." She smiled. "But there's one other reason too."
"Why?"
"Because mother didn't want me too." J'kar laughed. "And…" She quickly added. "Because there's nothing else to do around this Weyr! I'm bored!"
"So you climb the side of the Weyrbowl?" J'kar leaned against Millith.
"Gotta do something for adventure."
"Try fighting Thread." He knew it was a mistake the moment he mentioned it. Ehzeia's eyes lit up. "No!" He answered before she could even ask the question.
"Please!" Ehzeia begged. "I'd be quiet and small and you wouldn't even know I was there! Please!"
"You are not coming with me when we fight Thread." J'kar put his foot down on the issue, or tried to at least.
Ehzeia sank to her knees on the lip of the Weyrbowl. "My parents were both dragonriders! Fighting Thread is in my blood! Please!!"
"You didn't know you're parents!"
"That doesn't matter. Please!"
"NO!" J'kar sighed as Ehzeia pouted at him. "Are you insane?"
"I'm bored! B-O-R-E-D!!!" Ehzeia yelled out over the Weyrbowl, and a few dragons roared in response.
"You're probably the only person on Pern who finds Weyr life incredibly dull." He mounted Millith and waited for Ehzeia to follow him. He'd carried her down from other precipices around the Weyr so many times that Ehzeia could probably ride Millith just as well as he could.
"I've grown up around here J'kar. I've never been searched. My mother gives me menial jobs that any drudge could do easily…" She sighed and put her arms around the older man's waist. "There is nothing interesting for me to do around here."
"Maybe you'll still get…." J'kar trailed off as his eyes unfocused and he began talking with Millith. "You're getting off…now."
"What?" Ehzeia longed to know what was wrong.
"Nothing." The bronze leapt into the air and glided towards the Weyrbowl at breakneck speed.
"You have to tell me!" Ehzeia pleaded. "C'mon! Is someone in trouble?"
"No." J'kar grit his teeth.
"J'kar!" Ehzeia gripped his shoulder's tighter. "Tell me."
They landed in the Weyrbowl. "Get off." J'kar ordered her, loosing all his patience with the young girl.
Ehzeia expertly slid from the dragon's back, having done it a hundred times before. Before she could say anything, Millith leapt into the air and disappeared between. Ehzeia pouted. "I hate this! Something interesting is happening and I don't get to be there!"
"You wouldn't want to be there, at least not if you're still sane." Myanar grabbed her daughter's arm. "And I'm beginning to doubt you're sanity! What did I tell you about climbing the walls!"
Ehzeia cringed. "Be careful?"
The older woman swatted her. "I told you -not- to."
Ehzeia smirked. "Not to be careful?"
Myanar glared at her and then gave up with a sigh. "One of these days I'm going to have a heart-attack and it will be your fault!"
"I'm sorry mother." The woman continued to drag her daughter towards her room. Ehzeia noticed all the action in the Weyr, and the lack of dragons. "What's going on anyways?"
"Thread." Her mother said, continuing to drag her.
Ehzeia stamped her foot. "May the Red Star take J'kar! He knew!"
Myanar whirled and slapped her daughter. "Don't you dare say that about a rider. He's out there risking his life to save yours you know!"
"Yeah!" Ehzeia agreed, nursing a bruised cheek. "And he didn't take me with him!"
Myanar stared at her foster-child. "Ehzeia, Ehzeia, Ehzeia. I don't think I'll ever understand the way you think." They continued towards their home.
"Kamlin!" A frantic Melisande ran through the Weyrbowl. She grabbed Myanar's shoulders. "Have you seen Kamlin? Oh please! Tell me you've seen my son!"
Myanar gave the gold-rider a pitying look. "You go on to Arkinith and fly. We'll look for Kamlin."
Melisande looked horrible. "I'm not leaving until I know he got in!"
"Got in?" Ehzeia asked.
"Yes." The harried mother turned to her. "He was on the beach with some of his friends. His friends are back, but he isn't."
"Melisande. You must calm yourself. You have a duty to this Weyr. I'm sure Kamlin made it back..." Myanar tried to calm her down.
"I'll find him." Ehzeia broke her mother's grasp on her arm and tore off towards the gates of the Weyr.
"Ehzeia! No!" Myanar tried to run after her, but both the worried mothers were stopped at the gate by Takisha.
"Woah there. Back to the Weyr. C'mon Melisande, we've got to get ready to fly." The larger Weyrling Master pushed the two smaller women foreward.
"But Ehzeia..."
"But Kamlin..."
"I couldn't catch Ehzeia and I haven't seen Kamlin. I'll send my dragon, Mandaleth out after them, okay?"
"NO!" Both of the mother's protested at the same time.
Takisha smiled. "Good. Glad that's settled."
* * * Ehzeia made it down to the beaches in record time. "Kamlin! Kamlin!" She ran across the sand, searching for the young boy. "Kamlin! Where are you?"
"Eh-Ehzeia?" A weak voice called back. "I'm scared! It's dark down here!"
The boy was only 8 or 9 turns and terrified, so Ehzeia knew that he'd be little to no help in telling where he was. Okay Ehzeia, think! Dark...scared...down! The old pools! She raced towards the landmark. The old pools were a collection of deep potholes that had once been filled with water. Now the rocky deepths were a playground for the young who wanted to disobey their mothers orders and climb the dangerous holes. Ehzeia had spent many a candlemark down there. She reached the edge of the first hole and peered downward. Nothing. She ran carefully around the rim of it and glanced into the second of the 7 or 8 holes. Third time's a charm. Sure enough, in the third and largest of the formations, Kamlin sat crying. He looked up the 30 or so feet at Ehzeia. "Ehzeia?"
"Hang on kiddo! I'm coming down." She quickly began to climb, but the going was tough. The handholds were big enough, but spray from the ocean left the rock slippery. To add to her problems, she could see the Thread coming closer above her. Don't think about the Thread, think about the climb. The dragons are thinking about the Thread. The dragons will kill the Thread. The dragon will... "AHHHHH!!!!" She screamed as a strand of the horrid substance drapped along her hand, burning worse than anything she'd felt before. She lost hold of the rock and fell the remaining 20 ft onto the rock at the bottom. She felt the arm she landed on, as well as several ribs, crack. Kamlin stared at her arm horrified, the Thread still eating at her hand. She shoved the entire arm into a small pool that lay at the bottom, seeing another piece of Thread fall beside her in the water. She grabbed Kamlin and hunched beside the wall, praying that the slight indent was giving her and the boy enough coverage. As she blacked out from the pain she silently whispered to the trembling kid. "Guess that's the last time we go looking for adventure, huh?"
* * * "I'm sorry Myanar, Melisande. We couldn't find them." Takisha, tired and sweaty sat in Melisande's weyr with the two greiving mothers, a grieving dragon and J'kar. "We looked everywhere."
Neither of the women responded, both sobbing to hard to form any words. Arkinith's sobs drowned them both out.
J'kar was crying too. "It's all my fault! I knew Ehzeia was stupid enough to try something like this... I should have...I should have...."
"There was nothing you could have done J'kar." Takisha wished she wasn't the one who had to distribute the awful news. It had been three days since the Threadfall and no one had been able to find a trace of Kamlin or Ehzeia.
"But...she was like the little sister I never had! And the last thing I said to her was 'Get off'." The bronzerider was trying not to get hysterical like the women.
Takisha put her arm around him. "I know. I know."
J'kar... Millith interupted the mourners, bespeeking them all. There's something out here you all need to see.
"What?" J'kar quickly dried his eyes.
The bronze sounded confused, yet joyful as he responded. Unless I'm dreaming, your 'younger sister' just walked into the Weyr, accompanied by Kamlin.
The occupants of the weyr looked at each other, then took off for the Weyrbowl.
* * * "OW! Mom... OW! Melisande.... OW! J'kar....OW! OW!! Nice to see you too Millith." Ehzeia was grinning, as if she'd just returned from a vacation, instead of the dead.
"Where were you? What were you doing? Are you okay? How did you get back? Why didn't you get back sooner? You had me so worried!" Myanar desperately tried to get a hold of her emotions.
"In a hole. Saving Kamlin. No. Climbed out and walked. It's hard to climb with one hand and a kid on your back. I was worried too!" Ehzeia hugged her mother and almost started crying... "Mom...I want the Healer...and I'm never doing anything dangerous again! I promise!" She collapsed on her mother.
"Oh honey, sweetie. You see how I feel now. I knew if you kept risking your life you'd get hurt. Look at your hand! C'mon know." She kept a hold of her foster-child's hands as J'kar carried her to Celeste, the Healer.
J'kar couldn't help smiling as he passed Takisha. The bronzerider leaned in towards the gold-whiterider. "Fifteen marks. A sevenday."
Takisha smiled. "What?"
"Fifteen marks say her anti-adventerous streak will last less than a sevenday."
Takisha continued to walk beside him. "That's a lot of money."
"I know my sister."
"Fifteen..." She seemed to consider the offer. "Fifteen marks say she'll be up and at the world in 5 days."
* * * "Ehzeia?" Melisande entered the Healer's rooms. "Celeste, have you seen Ehzeia?"
The Healer was obviously annoyed. "Of course I haven't seen Ehzeia? Why would I have? She only has a threadscored hand, a broken arm, and two or three cracked ribs, why would I have seen her?" The Healer was abusing the use of sarcasm.
Melisande couldn't help smiling. "Get away from you again?"
"One of these days she's going to kill herself!!! And I'm not going to save her!!!" Celeste began clanking bottles together in her cupboard.
"If I find her, I'll send her back." The goldrider left and wandered out to the Weyrbowl. After a few seconds of searching, she found the girl in the custody of J'kar. The bronzerider was 'escorting' her back to the Healer.
"J'kar! No! Ow! I feel ow fine!" Ehzeia wriggled in his grasp, but J'kar didn't let go.
"I'd love to stay and chat but I'm under strict orders from Celeste. If she catches me with you and you're not in the Healing Caverns, I'll end up in the Healing Caverns." J'kar loosened his grip slightly and became a little more gentle with the damaged girl. His money pouch dangled at his waist, fifteen marks lighter.
"Aren't you supposed to be recovering?" Melisande laughed as she fell into step beside the two.
"Hey! Tell this idiot that I'm fine!" Ehzeia tried to latch onto the goldrider.
"But you're not. Ask Celeste."
"I don't want to ask Celeste!" Ehzeia stopped dead, causing both the riders to continue on a few steps before realizing they'd lost her.
Melisande sighed. "Well, if you're not in the Healing Caverns I guess you don't want what I have for you."
The girl cocked her head. She may have acted like a full grown brat, but she was still a fourteen turn girl at heart. The temptation of gifts was irresitable. "Have for me?"
The goldrider gently took her left arm, the unbroken, unthreadscored one, and began leading her back to the angry healer. "It's part thank you gift, part get well better present and it's all yours." Ehzeia noticed the basket Melisande was carrying around her wrist and reached for it. Melisande pulled back. "-If- you stay with Celeste until she lets you go."
J'kar snorted. "Yeah, right."
Melisande swatted him. "You have to promise Ehzeia."
"I promise." The girl crossed her fingers behind her back.
"Okay." Melisande opened the door to the recovery room, warned Celeste off a long rant with a glare and helped Ehzeia back into bed. "Here."
Ehzeia tore into the bag faster than lightening. She quickly found her gift and held it up for everyone to see. "Wow." She mouthed the word. It was a firelizard egg, and an odd one at that.
Melisande and J'kar sat down on the bed on either side of Ehzeia. "It's a very special egg Ehzeia, that I got just for you. I took Arkinith and we went over to Falas Weyr. They have a special program there that breeds rare firelizards. I told the woman there all about you and what you did. She said she'd be more than happy to part with one egg as long as you went back there after it hatched so you could register.
Ehzeia was astonished. "I'll admit I wasn't going to keep my promise Melisande, but now I will. Thanks." She gave both the riders a hug before she snuggled into the bed beside the egg.
Celeste walked over to them as they were going to leave. "How on Pern did you do that?"
Melisande smiled. "I know kids. She shouldn't be a problem." Melisande didn't finish the sentance until after she left the healer's. "Until the egg hatches."
* * * Ehzeia woke to a strange humming noise. A whole bunch of firelizards surrounded her on her bed. She yawned and looked out the window. It was still really dark, about the middle of the night. She stretched and looked around to see what the creatures were here for. In seconds she noticed her egg rocking.
"Celeste!!" She called desperatly for the healer as she picked up the egg. "Celeste!! Come quick!!"
The egg continued rocking and no one came. She stood in the door way, balancing the egg against her body with her good hand, wondering if leaving to get the creature some food was really considered breaking her promise. "Celeste?"
Finally one of the apprentice healers walked to the girl. "What do you want?" She was obviously grumpy at having been woken.
"I need Celeste!" Ehzeia was getting desperate as the egg began rocking more violently.
"I'm a healer. I can help you. What do you need?" The woman became kinder as she realized Ehzeia was panicking.
"Meat!"
"What?"
"My egg is hatching! I need meat!"
"Why don't you go get some then?"
Ehzeia faught down the temptation to deck this poor woman. "Because I can't leave!"
"Your feet look fine..."
"Celeste!"
"I'm going!" The healer finally rushed off towards the kitchens. "And I'll bring the Masterhealer. She'll tell you that it's not polite to scream like that."
"Just hurry!" The egg began to crack as Ehzeia paced back and forth. "I wonder if I could keep it here until the meat came if it hatches?"
"You won't have too!" Celeste ran in, in her pajamas, with a bowl of meat. "Here! It's hatching!"
Sure enough the egg had cracked and out came a tiny firelizard. Ehzeia quickly stuffed it full of food.
Melisanda, Myanar and J'kar rushed in soon after and saw the creature curled in Ehzeia's arms. Melisande's own firelizard, a golden Faith, was on Ehzeia's shoulder, chattering away to the newcomer, telling it the rules of the Weyr or something.
"I see your new friend finally arrived." Myanar smiled and sat beside her foster-child.
"It almost wasn't her's." Celeste smiled.
"Why not?" J'kar looked over Ehzeia's shoulder at the creature.
"Apparently she stood screaming at the door for meat while the egg started hatching," Celeste smiled. "She had time to go get meat for herself, but she couldn't leave the room.
Melisande smiled. "I should have put something in the promise about emergencies, or she would have stayed here while the Weyr collapsed around her."
"So is it rare? It came from the Falas Genetic Program, so it better be." J'kar tried to get a better view of the firelizard.
Ehzeia held it up for all to see. "It's a gold-white...I think...and it's a girl"
"Have you thought of a name yet?" Myanar pet the tiny creature's head.
Ehzeia smiled. "Promise."
* * * Ehzeia bit her lip as she wandered around the old pools. She examined them carefully before nodded. "Think I can do it Promise?"
The gold-white creeled and whirled in the air, sending her owner confident thoughts.
Ehzeia laughed at the antics of the firelizard she'd impressed four turns ago and nodded her agreement. "I thought I could." She quickly began climbing nimbly down the deep hole. The climbing down wasn't the hard part. She removed a bandana from her pocket and tied it across her eyes. "So J'kar thinks I couldn't do this blind-folded huh?"
The bronzerider wasn't around to see her attempt this foolish feat, but ever since he'd laughed at her boast, Ehzeia had had to prove it to herself.
Promise decided to help by sending her images of the rock-face. Ehzeia smiled. "That's cheating."
The firelizard chirped and landed on her shoulder. The creature was worried for her owner's safety.
Ehzeia smiled and rubbed her pet's head. "Don't worry. I wouldn't have said it if I couldn't do it. I hope." She put the firelizard, and everything else, out of her mind as she began her ascent.
After her fifth or sixth fall, she was battered, bruised, cut and very frustrated. "Shards, shells and shipfish!!" She kicked at the rock, bruised her toes and winced. She calmed herself down by taking a few deep breaths. "I can do this. I just need to calm down."
She was farther than she'd gotten before when the horn began sounding. Ehzeia was stuck, about half-way up, debating between continuing or giving up and finding out what was going on. Her curiousity eventually won out. She tore the blindfold off and raced for the Weyr, Promise close behind her.
* * * "J'kar!" The eighteen-turn girl grabbed her friend's arm as he passed. "What's going on? What's everyone so anxious about?"
"There's been an accident during the latest mating flight. One of the dragons was injured and betweened itself to the healer. Unfortunately, the rider wasn't so lucky. The flight was right over a set of cliffs leading down to the sea. The rider couldn't control the strong emotions that his dragon was emitting and he plunged over the edge. He's unconscious on a ledge about 100 ft down from the top and 200 ft up from the bottom. They've tried to get a dragon down there to help him, but whenever one gets close the ledge starts to shake, like it can't stand the wind from their wings. It's obviously very unsteady." Millith landed in front of J'kar. "They've asked for help from all the surrounding Weyrs."
Ehzeia whirled J'kar around to face her. "Let me come. Please. I'm the best climber around. I can get him off."
"You're just a girl. You couldn't carry him." J'kar wasn’t going to let her do anything dangerous, again.
"I can carry a rope down and tie it around him, so all the big strong men can pull him up." Ehzeia got sarcastic when she was anxious.
J'kar seemed to weight the idea in his mind for a moment. He looked at Ehzeia, then up to the top of the Weyrbowl from which he'd rescued her hundreds of times. She'd only have to go 100 ft and the Weyrbowl was easily 6 or 7 hundred. He nodded once and Millith returned to the sky. "You're mother's going to kill me!" The bronze-rider called back to her before they popped between.
* * * "You're going to climb down there?" The man who had taken charge looked the teenager over sceptically.
Ehzeia nodded. "I can do it. I climb my Weyr's walls all the time." Promise chirped helpfully at the man, trying to convince him that Ehzeia was the best.
J'kar smiled to himself as the dragonrider raised a brow. "Don't worry sir. She can do it."
He finally nodded. "If you're sure." Ehzeia gave Promise to J'kar and a rope was quickly fastened around her and the man's large silver-blue dragon. Ehzeia took a few deep breaths to calm herself and started over the edge.
Everyone was silent as they watched her descend, well, almost everyone. To Ehzeia's surprise her silver-blue anchor began talking to her. What is your name?
Ehzeia looked up, but could only see the sky. She trusted the dragon could hear her. "Ehzeia. What about you?"
Alendreth. Are you scared?
"Why would you ask a silly question like that? Of course I'm not." Ehzeia braced herself as the wind tried to remove her from the cliff-face. At least that's what I keep telling myself.
But if you fall, you don't have wings to catch yourself.
"That's why I don't fall. Anyways the danger's what makes it fun." Ehzeia slipped, but caught herself. "The adventure."
You like taking risks?
Ehzeia nodded. "Yeah. To a point. Trying to talk and climb this is a little hard. Mind if I have some silence?"
Fine. I'll tell you later. Alendreth's voice left her mind.
A few seconds later, she reached the ledge and tied the rope around the unconscious rider. "Okay! Pull him up." The man's body began to rise in the air. Ehzeia balanced herself on the thin strip of rock. "Tell me what Alendreth?" She stretched her arms, the long scar from the Thread began to ache, as it sometimes did when she used that hand too much. All the climbing had tired her, and she still had to get back up.
I've searched you. The shock caused Ehzeia's knees to buckle and she lost her balance. She let out a short scream as she began falling the 200 ft to the rocks below. I'm gonna die! I was just searched and I'm gonna die She closed her eyes and waited for impact.
Alendreth bellowed and dived after her, catching her mere feet above the rocks. He had her coat safely locked in his teeth as he flew her back up. She refused to open her eyes.
"What took you so long?" Ehzeia demanded once she was on solid ground again. She clenched her hands together to stop them from shaking. "You were a little slow catching me." Promise screached at the dragon and hid herself in Ehzeia's hair. J'kar quickly ran over to her and gave her a quick hug to make sure she was okay.
The silver-blue smiled. I thought you'd like the excitement.
Ehzeia at the Pelar Protectorate...
* * *
Ehzeia's picture from Magentasky's Beach Pit.
Background from Myrror Images.
Ehzeia is a candidate at The Pelar Protectorate Black Sands.
Ehzeia impressed Promise from Falas Weyr.
