Tamika doesn't sleep tonight. She stares straight up at the stars through her window. She has the only room in the Hold with a balcony, mainly because she built it herself. She liked the outdoors, she liked seeing the stars, but her mother and father wouldn't make the balcony, thinking that without someone to help her, Tamika would give up the crazy idea. Obviously they didn't know their daughter very well. Tamika had made the balcony by herself, and although it was little more than a ledge hanging from her windowsill, she was proud of it.
Damian creeled, telling Tamika that he wanted to go to sleep, but she couldn't, not tonight. The Searchriders came tomorrow, came to see the hopefuls, came to see her. She sighed, wondering how she'd gotten herself into this one. As usual she could blame Damian, not the watch weyr, her brother. She'd named the watch weyr after her brother because it was his fault she had it. She sighed again, that's another story. This one, was all her fault.
Damian, the watch weyr, creeled again, letting her know firmly, that he wanted to go to bed, so she'd better come in here and shut the window. Tamika gave Damian a half-smile and consented. She jumped back into her small room and closed the window locking it. She turned off the light and Damian went to sleep. She stayed awake, too nervous, anxious and excited to get any sleep that night.
Morning came quickly, much quicker than it usually did. Her brother was at the door, pounding on it before Tamika was ready to face the world. She felt a knot growing in her stomach. She couldn't explain it, it didn't make sense to her. She'd wanted to be a rider for a very long time, why was she so scared to even face the Searchriders? As she watched her pet streach and yawn the answer came to her. She didn't want to leave her Hold.
Gini Hold was probably the smallest Hold on the face of Pern, little more than 50 families lived there, with their children and fosterlings. It was a productive Hold, there was always work for the young body to do, but that's not what Tamika loved about it. She loved that fact that it was isolated. She loved being out in the open. She remembered a comment her mother had once made about her. It was when her father was thinking of sending her to another Hold, a bigger Hold, as a fosterling. Her mother had said "You can't lock Tamika up in a big place, dear. Tamika's wild, she needs the stars at night and the sun on her back by day. She needs the open space. Take that away from her and she'll be like a runner locked forever in a stall, unhappy." Tamika thought about that for a while and decided her mother knew what she was talking about. Tamika liked to run, she liked to pick a direction and run until her feet could carry her no further, and then run back. She had never seen a big crowd before. Tamika laughed at herself.
Tamika, single daughter of small Hold family, Tamika, owner of a watch weyr, Tamika, independant, head-strong, stubborn. This same Tamika was scared of a crowd. It was laughable, but Tamika stopped laughing. She wanted to be a rider so bad, but could she live in a Weyr?
She pondered that question as she dressed. She decided to put on a dress today, as she wanted to make a good impression. She usually wore leather pants and a tunic like the boys. There were few girls in the small Hold, so all of Tamika's childhood friends had been male. She detested dresses, they didn't let her move well, but first impressions are important, so she donned the red robe and brushed her hair.
She heard a great flapping of wings and a screech that could only be made by a dragon. The Searchriders were here. All the blood drained from her face as she looked at herself in the mirror. Dressed up, neat, perfect...but it was wrong. Something was wrong. This wasn't her, not the real her. If they were going to take her back for Impression she wanted them to take the real her. She threw the dress off and dressed in her normal clothes. She pulled her hair back, threw on her boots and ran to join the collection of youth piling around the blue Searchdragon and it's rider. No one had noticed her absence and she got in line as the Searchrider paced bakc and forth in front of her and the others.
The Searchrider pulled some other youth out, but not her. They were going to leave her behind. Tamika stood open-mouthed, not knowing whether she was relieved or broken-hearted. The blue turned it's head to her and looked at her. She could hear it's voice echo in her mind.
You can still see the stars in a Weyr, Tamika, you just have to get up passed the light. Above the weyr, on dragonback, the night sky is an awing sight.
Tamika stared at the dragon, dumb-struck. She hadn't thought of that. The thought of flying through the night sky, flying over the earth. The emotions that those visions conjured up almost brought Tamika to tears. The blue rider smiled and walked up to her.
"So, my blue finally convinced you?" He asked.
"Yes." She said simply smiling.
Tamika remembered nothing of her packing, her parents parting words, or her journey to Sapphire Weyr. She only remembered the dragons comment, she could already see the stars, same as before, only brighter now.
Back to Tamika's room