“Any friend or relitive of Kare is a friend of mine, Renko, it was my pleasure,” C’fron replied And mine as well, little one, the green dragon seemed to smile as she spoke in Renko’s mind.
“Oh, and thank you very much, Trith,” Renko smiled at the green and bowed to her means of transport, “Oh, C’fron, you mind if I interview you again?” The green rider laughed as the young woman brought out a stick of charcoal and a small well used notebook that she always carried with her.
“Renko, nothing interesting in my life has happened sense you last ‘interviewed’ me,” C’fron chuckled, a smirk fixed to his battle warn features.
“Nothing at all?” Renko frown, “Nothing interesting’s happened at Talor Cliff like a flight or something? You haven’t gotten news from your daughter at Sapphire or anything?”
“Well now that you mention it, Cristroga’s Tusath won his first flight resently,” C’fron replied thoughtfully and continued on before Renko verbally prodded again like she was prone to do when interviewing people, “It’s odd really, Tusath flew R’tif’s orange Golonith at the Healing Den.”
“What’s so odd about that? Lots of dragons fly at the Healing Den,” Renko replied having interviewed a few riders including Baeris herself.
“Well the odd thing is that Golonith’s nearly thirteen turns old and this was her first flight,” C’fron replied not really noticing that Renko’s jaw had dropped, “I mean the orange was chewing fire stones and everything. Ah well, I figured from day one that R’tif and Cris would be weyrmates whether their dragons flew or not.”
“You didn’t think that was good enough to tell me about? I mean it’s unheard of for a dragon to fly for her first time thirteen turns after hatching and to still be fertile after chewing firestones for so long,” Renko replied running a hand through her light brown hair.
“Actually, people have been finding that colors other than green and golds can chew firestones and still lay eggs,” C’fron replied, “Why the person who helped make these dragons had the green be sterial after eating firestones and the queen not even able to produce a flame even if they wanted to I’ll never no. What a dimglow that person was.” C’fron then eyed Renko with a serious smirk, “Hasn’t something interesting happened in your life lately that you could write down about yourself.”
“Well I impressed a blue fire lizard from Avium Weyr a few weeks back, I named him Mizuiwa,” Renko replied and paused for a moment, “but I don’t like writing about my own life, other’s lives are more interesting.” At that moment Renko’s little blue appeared at her side chittering his objection to not being as interesting as the people Renko interviewed. “No offence to you, Mizuiwa, you’re interesting but I don’t have much of a feel for writing about things I have and such.” The fire lizard trilled at her understandingly as he landed on her shoulder. She finally looked at the man who was in his forties and mock scolded him, “Well since you refuse to tell me anything more that’s happened in you life then I guess I’ll have to find somebody new to interview.” The green rider chuckled at her and she turned to leave, “I’ll see ya’ later, C’fron, at the latest when the hatching starts.” The green rider nodded and she was off into the crowd of people whom had arrived early or were candidates and waiting for the clutch to hatch.
Renko’s eyes darted about the clusters of candidates and spectators who were still up at this hour, many talked adamantly and those listening showed a fair amount of interest. Renko however quickly decided to look for other prospective. Through out her live she’d found that the most interesting people to interview were dragonriders or people who seemed to be brooding about things instead of talking. She’d found many a brooding person to actually be, to her, more interesting than how one rider had saved the population of Pern. I want to tell the untold stories! she grinned as she seemed to stalk stealthily about the small groupings of people.
It was as she got near a corridor that lead directly outside, to a smallish balcony that she spotted one who’s story was ripe to be told. He was a tall heavily muscled man with short, tightly curled, light brown hair and his eyes were an very light, icy, blue. On one of his muscled shoulders she spied a set of notes that told her he was a candidate and the crest above showed boldly that he was standing at Firestone Weyr. She hesitated for a moment, he was quite imposing to look at but the fact that he was somewhat handsome won over his brutish looking muscle mass and she walked forward casually just as the man gave a grunting sigh and turned his gaze, and his body towards the stars that shown above.
Renko smirked as she found nobody else on the balcony with him, This should be easier without an audience, she thought to herself. Over the time she’d found her love of interviewing people she found it was much easier doing so without others around, people were more likely to talk then and about more personal things then too.
“Nice night, isn’t it,” Renko greeted the man after a few minutes of leaning on the balcony rail a few feet from the man. His head shot up and his icy eyes darted over to her, Seems I startled him.
“Sorry, didn’t hear anybody come out here,” he replied flashing a quick grin that some woman might have swooned at. Without even looking at her notebook the woman jotted down this added feature.
“Quite alright,” Renko replied returning the grin with a tilt of her head to look at him a bit better, “Kind of got out here to look at the sky and talk with anyone willing to. See my I don’t think my other family members are here yet… and my lazy twin brother will cause my little sister some trouble conveying him here… I was actually supposed to ride with them.”
“Well at least your brother has a chance to be lazy,” the man replied, “I’ve had to work around this Weyr for the past month. It wouldn’t be so bad if the bronze rider who searched me wouldn’t keep making snide remarks at me and…”
“And who?” Renko prompted as she saw the young man grow quiet, all the while jotting down the conversation in a short hand that only she could decipher to later recopy a readable text. The young man turned to look inside at the crowd that was brewing around as if looking for something or someone. Suddenly a tiny blur of dark gray, mute orange, and white dashed by and around peoples feet, even tripping up a few people.
“You see that feline kitten?” he asked Renko in a quick but hushed voice and the woman nodded, “Watch, there should be a beautiful girl running after it in a moment.” Sure enough, seconds later a young woman, who had the body that every man and some woman dreamed about or would gawk at hurried by. Had she not been scowling as she followed the feline Renko would have thought she would have been one of those snooty children of Lord and Lady Holders. Yet with the scowl she was sure the woman was far from that and if she ever acted snooty she did it for a damned good reason.
“That’s who,” he replied, “her name is Gemtia,” he replied and was about to go on when he saw the note pad out in Renko’s hands, “Why are you writing this down? What are you some type of Harper or Scribe?”
“Er, no,” Renko replied a bit sheepishly, “I’m actually a Starcrafter, Jr. Journeywoman actually. I just like to write but not about myself… kind of think of it as a bio that I’ll be the only one to see until my death… er, do you mind me writing down this stuff about you and your life…” On her shoulder, Mizuiwa chirped; he had somehow managed to hide himself in his bond’s short hair during the conversation period.
“Talcin, and I don’t really mind, it’s just nobody’s ever wanted to write about me and my life,” the man prompted looking at the blue with a bit of boyish curiosity, “And you say you don’t like writing about your own life, I mean it has to be really interesting with that little guy.”
“Oh, Mizuiwa?” Renko replied a bit startled for some reason and the blue rubbed his head against her cheek, “he’s only a few weeks old, he hasn’t really gotten into any trouble or anything notable yet other than learning to fly and he can feed himself when it’s need but that’s a rare event… do you mind if we get back to what you were talking about?”
“You don’t like being questioned yourself do you?” Talcin grinned and Renko blinked. She’d never been questioned this many times before by a stranger she was trying to write about, I wonder if he’s right…, “What’s your name by the way?” Renko faltered one again and grew meek. I think Talcin’s right… I’m more used to questioning others than them questioning me more than a few times.
“Er, Renko,” she replied ducking her head a bit shyly before staring in his icy blue eyes once again and trying to change the subject back to the original course, “Now you were saying about Gemtia and yourself when you got here, that the rider who searched you kept making snide remarks at the two of you?”
“Uh, yeah,” Talcin replied and made a disgusted face, “B’tal, bronze Neverenth’s rider. He seems to believe that myself and Gemtia won’t impress at this clutch and he keeps on jabbing that we never will impress from any clutch. I tell you Gemtia will impress, and I’m sure she’ll impress a female or perhaps a brown. She even if she’s a bit violent to guys who even look at her, she’s got great leadership skills and does have a real soft spot for animals… I think the only time I’ve actually seen her smile, I mean really smile has been when she looked at Iggy.”
“Iggy?” Renko replied, confused enough to smug what she was about to write, “she has a boyfriend?”
“No,” T’lcin replied with a wistful sigh, “Iggy’s that feline I pointed out to you earlier, she owns him. I’m surprised she can love him so much at times when he causes so much trouble for herself and others. Like for the past hour, Gemtia’s been trying to recapture the troublemaker. I was helping her for a while but she finally brushed me off saying that I shouldn’t be looking for him with her because I was getting too close for her comfort.”
“Well that sounds rude…!” Renko started then a know smirk curved over her features, “you like her!” Talcin immediately went beet red, something Renko was sure was not his usual reaction to girls he’d been around before Gemtia. “There’s nothing wrong with liking her ya’ know…”
“No there is,” Talcin replied. And so the hugely muscular man told of his life the month before he arrived at the Weyr. They talked so long they didn’t notice the dark dragon that had crossed the moons or that the night was growing quite late. It was when Talcin was a bit droopy eyed and Renko’s small notepad was nearly filled that they abruptly were interrupted bulge blasted through the Weyr.
“The eggs!” Talcin yelped, now much more awake. Forgetting about Renko for a moment he dashed towards the door to run and get his rob.
“Good luck!” Renko called after him. The man gave a quick wave with a nervous smile before disappearing into the Weyr.
Renko was broadly grinning after the hatching. She’d watched the whole hatching but had kept a constant eye on Talcin and then also on the girl he still liked though she’d tried to warn him off. Talcin had not only showed the bronze searchrider he’d talked about up but he had also impressed bronze! And to top it off Talcin’s prediction of Gemtia impressing female and come true. The strong willed woman had impressed the gold! Talcin still has a chase with her, Renko commented to herself as she sat with her brother, Cortel, sister, Kare, and C’fron.
It was during this time that a young man, who’d newly impressed green himself trudged over with Gemtia and Talcin being pulled behind him. The man had long black hair which could cause him to pass as a woman if one weren’t to notice that he had no chest. He was quick to call C’fron’s attention and introduce his his companions. When the man and done so he mentioned that Talcin’s name was now T’lcin, yet to the young woman’s annoyance he had not mentioned his own name. When all the green rider was done he hurried of to where he’d left his green sleeping, for she had gotten up now and seemed to be stalking a dark blue who had angered her earlier in the hatching. Cortel went off watching the dragonets around and Kare stayed silent as Renko finally talked to the newly dubbed bronze rider.
“So you feel the need to go and tell me your name again,” T’lcin tease as he bronze watched from the side of the table, his tail twitching playfully.
“Hey, you’re the one who looked at me like you needed to know my name,” Renko replied.
“You two already knew each other,” Kare inturpted, her green gray eyes looking slyly at Renko. Ever sense her sister’s white Oroth had first flown the woman had for some reason got a suggestive mind when it came to people, it was worse however when her weyrmate would be around.
“Yeah, I was interviewing him almost as soon as I got here,” Renko grinned rolling her eyes at her sister’s suggestive voice.
“You never mentioned your sister was a rider,” T’lcin avoided the white rider’s questioning.
“You were the one being interviewed not me, remember?” Renko shot back, “If you must know, I also have a brother who’s a rider, T’bre, brown Farnith’s rider.”
“Makes me surprised that there weren’t more impressions from the stands tonight,” T’lcin replied and his bronze gave something sounding like a curious chirp. The bronze rider looked about, obviously the bronze, whom T’lcin had told her earlier was name Sakabatouth, had mentioned something to him. Renko watched, and scribed down the event as it unfolded, as T’lcin’s good mood turned to soured features.
“Well if it isn’t the Head Searchrider, B’tal, bronze Neverenth’s rider,” T’lcin’s voice was as biting as his dragon had been during the hatching, “I told you we’d impress!” Renko turned to see a man approaching their table. B’tal had been scowling when she first caught sight of him but now that T’lcin had spoken to him his scowl deepened even more. Renko could already tell why nobody really seemed to like this man.
“Congradulations,” he grunted grudgingly and only asked the bronze rider one thing before pointedly ignoring him, “Who are your friends, Talcin?”
“That’s T’lcin, bronze rider,” T’lcin growled back, Renko was surprised at the venom in the man’s voice, “Cortel and Renko, twins from Delaway Hold, and their sister Kare, white Oroth’s rider.” B’tal only acknowledged Kare with a curt nod. Why the arrogant wind bag I autta…!
“How many turns do you two have?” B’tal half barked at the twins as his eyes unfocused and then became normal again.
“Depends on what you mean,” Renko smirked across from her brother, “Together we have forty-eight turns. In other words we each have twenty-four turns to each of us.”
“Why do you seem so hurried about knowing anyway,” Cortel asked impatiently, Renko could tell this bronze rider really irked him as much as herself, if not more.
“You’ve never had a stubborn bronze dragon urging you to start things earlier than before have you?” he growled though oddly there was a slight smile on his lips, “If you wish to return to Firestone Weyr upon the hatching of the next clutch my Neverenth says that both of you would be good to stand. I however…” the man trailed off as a bellow from outside sounded and he grunted ending where he had though he looked at the twins for their answer.
What kind of search rider is he? He has no manners and is the rudest rider I’ve ever known… I wouldn’t be surprised if some people turn him down with his attitude! Renko thought as she looked at the bronze rider wide eyed. But he did search you. a small voice told her in the back of her head.
“Shouldn’t we stay here until the hatching then?” Cortel asked.
“We have no idea when the next female will fly so you might be here for nearly a turn if you stayed here from now on,” B’tal replied in a voice that spoke volumes to Renko. He was thinking he was better than everyone, he was worse than your stereotypical bronze rider. I think he’s trying to egg us into not excepting, she thought and a mental smirk quickly rose in her mind as she knew what to do next.
“Then when the next fertile female flies we’ll be here,” Renko answered shortly, “And work on your people skills while we’re gone, K?” B’tal’s face turned bright red in anger but managed to walk away without another word. T’lcin chuckled as the Searchrider left their presence and Renko basked in her small victory.
“I haven’t seen him that mad since I first met him,” T’lcin hooted, “I hope you two do impress, then I won’t be the only Weyrling to not like him.” Renko and her siblings nearly fell off their seats laughing along with their new friend. They played out the night well, retelling the tail to F’link and Gemtia when the returned to their table and rejoicing with Gemtia and C’fron upon the news that they had figured out that the green rider was the gold rider’s unknown, up until that night, father.
It would be a month later that the twins would return, a white had flown at Firestone Weyr.
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