Welcome to Gaia! ::

When Quinnel arrived at the Feast she had changed out of her Candidate robes, wearing instead a plain, loose-fitting, dark blue dress, her pipes tied to a brown woven belt on her waist. As usual she didn’t feel comfortable in the large crowd, especially since she knew so few people. Sure, she’d seen most of the new Weyrlings here and there – one couldn’t be a Candidate without interacting with the other Candidates – but there weren't many in the Weyr that she truly considered a friend.

Deciding that food was in order, she made her way to one of the tables, her light, springy steps looking rather dance-like. Grabbing a piece of bread, she surveyed the crowd, trying to decide which, if any, of the Weyrlings she would approach and congratulate.

"Are they really?" He asked, surprised to hear candidates were hurt with sufficient frequency on the sands that Con seemed unconcerned with the mater. "Almost makes it a wonder anyone tries." He admitted, though he felt foolish for being so disturbed by it when the other Candidate clearly wasn't. "I guess I wasn't as ready for it as I thought I was." He admitted.
"Mine are Rikk and Skyborn." he gestured to them faintly. "Skyborn I also got at the gather, Rikk kept trying to steal him, so I bought him.

--

S'kagi folded his arms across his chest, watching Weyrlings interact, and candidates, the ones that had come, anyway. Some wouldn't, some hadn't. He imagined a number of those were those who felt that they would never fail, or those who had passed their last chance. Those were the ones that had a rough adjustment to make, hard choices too, but he tried to always make sure anyone who was on the older side knew that there was a chance nothing would happen, that the bright and glorious dream might be them becoming a master in the profession they had been training in, not as a dragon rider. In a way maybe it was better for them, and maybe down the road they might see it that way, when they were back away from an overcrowded Weyr.
Or they could be lucky. We were lucky.

Sitting down and smiling as Isonth wandered over to check Alcherath all over, prodding and nibbling her clutchsibling curiously and then plopping down on her haunches to nuzzle her happily. Hullo, Alcherath. I am Isonth, she said, making thoroughly certain that the other green was settled before stumbling over to La and curling up with a great deal of complicated, storklike movements, eventually setting completely and resting her head in La's lap. She glanced up at her rider then huffed a slight sigh, tilting her head to better present her eye ridges. La scratched them absentmindedly for a moment and smiled at L'an.

Isonth's full belly seemed to be a rarity among the dragonets. "It's all right," she said, helping herself to some sort of roast meat with tubers. Slipping a few choice morsels to Isonth, she shook her head at the other voracious little green and chuckled. "She's lovely."

Wait, L'an wasn't used to the idea of what? ...Was he surprised about the gender of the dragon that had Impressed him as well? Isonth, catching the mild uneasiness in La's mind, tipped her head up and uncurled to sit up and put her forefeet on the bench. Looking La in the eye, she crooned softly.

Lanakirene, are you all right? Are you disappointed? she asked, eyes whirling with flecks of yellow in her concern. La shook her head and laughed softly, throwing her arms around Isonth's neck and hugging her tightly.

"No, no, Isonth," she murmured, forgetting about mindspeak in her urgency to comfort her dragon. "Never with you. How could I be disappointed? I'm just...surprised." Shaking her head, she let go of Isonth and the satisfied dragonet once again went through the complicated process of curling up and resting her head in La's lap. La looked back at L'an, looking sheepish. "I am sorry. Admittedly, I'm not entirely used to the idea of a female dragon, either." She shrugged and shook her head. "Were I to predict for myself, I wouldn't have chosen a green. But it's a good thing the dragons know better than we do, isn't it?" she added hurriedly, slipping Isonth another piece of her own dinner to keep the dragonet at ease.

Conomor smiled and and nodded to the introductions. "Perhaps we got them from the same man even... As to injuries," he shrugged, "I grew up in the Weyr so I'm used to the idea of them. Being around hatchlings looking for their riders is dangerous, but anyone who has successfully Impressed will tell you such a bond is worth any risk." He certainly believed it was so. Anything. He would give anything to be a rider. Especially a brown rider. The more he considered the idea the more he liked it. He would never be one of those convinced of the only colour they would accept; he just thought he knew what would suit him.

"I suppose with the Thread due to fall so soon the next clutch won't be long away," Conomor went on with a nod. "Maybe you and I shall be lukcy in that one. His arm would be better by then - recalling his arm he took the goblet back from Gilden and sipped at it again - three more sevendays and the splint would come off. Then of course he'd have to build strength back up. It would come in time, as would his dragon. It had to. He couldn't imagine any other life. Considering all he really knew was dragon lore, if he failed the best he could ever be was a drudge. His foster mother was a drudge, so he felt like a traitor for feeling sick at the idea but he couldn't help it. He couldn't help having ambition. Having dreams. He couldn't fail. He just couldn't.

Releasing Khunoth to stand up and accept T'ka's handshake, Gh'lan grinned at her warmly and winked, showing that he definitely knew the feeling. "Ghilani I still am, though I suppose folks will start to call me Gh'lan." he said, clasping her hand heartily. "And despite his foul face, I'm sure Khunoth is pleased to have such a lovely green noticing him! You are both welcome to sit with us!"

I do not want to share my food with a green.

"And he will be more then happy to tell Haanyath all about the different types of wherry meats!" Gh'lan continued smoothly, ignoring his dragon's mental interruption. Khunoth grimaced, but showed no further signs of aggression. Tada steered clear of the aggressive green hatchling and took the opportunity to land on Khunoth's shoulder, twittering at Haanyath while Khunoth turned his head to look over at his rider.


The little sister is still hungry, you left her food by the rest of the food. The brown remarked brusquely, suddenly steadfast in his decision to ignore Haanyath. Not surprisingly, Khunoth did not quite grasp the concept of a food table either, but he liked the general idea well enough to speak of it. The reminder also caused Gh'lan to stiffen, then flush with embarrassment. "Speaking of meats and sharing table space, have you eaten yet T'ka? I haven't had a chance to grab a plate yet." Politely, he did not tell her that Haanyath's appearance had interrupted (and destroyed) the plate he had had before.

The little Queen gave a little squeak as the bumbly bronze came closer to her. With all the grace of a falling bowl of soup, she dropped the front half of her body on the ground, curved her neck in such as way as to still be able to look up at Hanumanth, and kept her back end straight up in the air. She resembled a dog, or at least would if there were modern dogs on Pern, and she inched forward a little in some weird crawl to sniff at the now mewling bronze.

I... I'm Yansanth. ...Why ...why are you making those weird noises? she asked after a few more tentative seconds. She still remained in the weird position, but the bronze's odd sounds made her more confused than nervous.

Anne nodded at his new name, making a mental note of it, which caused Yansanth to momentarily look up at her back, but she knew she'd just end up forgetting and calling him 'Cil' anyways. She gave another small smile, one that actually touched her eyes this time, in acknowledgment to the congratulations and comment.

"Thank you. ...And yes... I don't think --" she broke off as a sudden realization hit her as she looked upon Lytah. ...Oh shards...

She stared for a second, then her shoulders sagged. Yansanth immediately looked back up at her Person again and blinked, her eyes swirling with a few more hints of yellow.

Mine?

"Gnattie... I... totally just remembered that I left her. Locked. ...In my room... since the hatching. Oh dear..." Anne sighed and scratched the back of her head. "She's going to hate m -- Raena, hello?"Anne immediately paused in all her motions at the sudden appearance of Raena.

Yansanth, too, froze, as she was just about to creep back to her full stature, and then suddenly skittered under the bench and fwomped her bottom on the ground with a thud. She looked at Raena, then at Hanumanth, and then at Hers. New people just popped up all over!

"I... I haven't seen Elae. ...I hope she's OK." Anne sloped her eyebrows in visual concern, completely forgetting about the question about Yansanth.

“Gnattie?” C’ym was momentarily confused until he traced Anne’s eyes towards Lytah. “Oh! Is that what you named your firelizard? I guess that answers my next question… she’s a green then?”

Oh! There was Raena! C’ym smiled, but it faded slightly as he realized she was the only one of his friends that hadn’t Impressed. Well… ok, not the only one. There was also Elae. The stab of guilt already in his heart twisted slightly as he realized he hadn’t even thought about the girl recently. In fact, he hadn’t even thought about her at all, not since Hanumanth came into his life. “It’s C’ym now,” he said, unable to keep the pride out of his voice. Sure, he felt a little bad about leaving Raena and Elae behind, but hey; he had a dragon now! That was something to be proud of! “And Hanumanth.”

“Umm… actually, now that you mention it, I haven’t seen Elae.” He glanced around the Weyrbowl, hoping to catch sight of her. If she was here, she was certainly right in the thick of things, probably happily gossiping with La or… actually, La had Impressed too, hadn’t she? Well, Nan hadn’t. And wherever Nan was, Elae was sure to follow. Or maybe it was the other way around? Still, he didn’t see any sign of either girls, which boded ill for the girl’s emotional health.
Weird noises? The Bronze tilted his head to one side with another mew, not quite understanding what his sister meant. I don’t know why. I like them. And Mine likes them. And… and others like them…

Hanumanth looked away from Yansanth, his eyes swirling with yellow again. What’s wrong, C’ymmine? Is your friend in trouble? We should go help her then. While the Bronze had never met this girl, this Elae, before in his life, he believed in loyalty. Any friend of C’ym had to be a friend of his too! Without waiting for C’ym’s response, the little Bronze began toddling away in search of Elae. The steps, though wobbly as any newly hatched dragonet, were determined.

He had gotten an entire three feet away before he realized something important. Umm… Mine? What does she look like? There are many, many girls here… his voice wavered and he looked over at his Weyrling with a pathetic mewl. And he was right; quite a few girls were clustering about, admiring the adorable Bronze’s mewls and the glorious Gold queen’s hiding. It was just so cute!

Well, one of them had to be Elae, right? There were so many females here that one of them simply had to be this one girl.

The new Bronzerider stood up in alarm as little Hanumanth began to wander away. “Oh, Hanumanth!” he blurted out loud. And then he saw what his new little partner was doing and covered his face. “…Please, don’t wander under the girls’ skirts…”