Welcome to Gaia! ::

Conomor grimaced and nodded; he wouldn't wish such a fate upon anyone, but it was probably true. "Thread of weyrling training," he agreed, "quite a number of young pairs never make it to being assigned an adult wing. The arrogant ones who think they're too good to listen to the weyrling-master by and large so far as I've gathered. Good ones sometimes get lost on the first trips between, but more often its the ones that weren't listening that fail to reappear, or that crash trying to show off in flight." What a terrible thing it would be to Impress only to die before you could serve the purpose dragons were born for. Worse still if your dragon died but you survived.

"Still though," Conomor smiled as Gilden swooped back and landed neatly on his shoulder with a piece of meat clutched in her forefeet, "I know I for one will be listening hard to everything the weyrling-master has to say if I Impress." Honestly he knew a lot of the theory already; he knew how dragons were cared for, their anatomy, knew about mating flights and he'd read old records about how the Thread was fought as well as watching drills whenever he got the chance. Reading things weren't at all the same as doing them, he knew, but he had some practice caring for dragons; his blood parents often let him help them wash their mounts.

"If you're interested in getting close to some dragons I could introduce you to my blood parents," Conomor said thoughtfully after a moment. "They're both riders, and they're always glad to have a bit of help washing their mounts. A bit of practice would put you ahead for when you do Impress." He was sure Rayale would, and he was sure he would too. Well, fairly sure anyway. Their chances were decent for sure.

I’m looking for Elae, Hanumanth responded, as if this should have been patently obvious. There are lots of girls here. She must be here somewhere. In his mind, everyone was here; nowhere else existed. Besides, there were so many people here! One of them just had to be Elae because all the people in the world were here right now! He still wasn’t quite certain why everyone was here, but it was nice all the same. It made trying to find Elae much easier.

And he felt like he was doing a pretty good job so far! That is, until C’ym suddenly pulled him back, all the while apologizing. But Miiiine! We must find your friend! Hanumanth squalled a little, not liking the idea of leaving a friend behind. He struggled against C’ym’s hold, letting out more pathetic little mewls of frustration at being kept from his task. He just had to find Elae!

We’ll find her together, Han! C’ym said desperately, trying to think of a way to explain to the dragon that wandering under girls’ skirts was not a good way to go about meeting people. We’ll all work together, ok?

That seemed to get to Hanumanth. The little dragonet’s eyes swirled with yellow for a moment and he continued to mew, but he at least returned to the table once more. C’ym sighed and scratched the dragonet’s eyeridges until his eyes swirled with blue once more. “Yeah. We probably should try to find Elae. I’ve never seen her pass up an opportunity to socialize before. Something might really be wrong.” And the idea of an upset Elae was just… foreign to C’ym. In all the years he had known her, he’d never seen her upset.

“I wouldn’t be too worried about her not Impressing though. I mean, she’s been left standing before…” but, then again, this time was different; several of her friends had Impressed, leaving her behind. And, sadly, he honestly could see Elae doing something for revenge, like breaking into the boys’ barracks to sew extra bits of lace on C’ym’s new clothes or something. “Ok. Well, you two can go search the girls’ barracks. I’ll search the boys’, just in case she is adding extra bits to my clothes.”

Despite her failed Impression, Nandeli was bouncing from weyrling pair to weyrling pair, congratulating each and taking mental notes. If anyone asked her tomorrow which person had got which dragon she would have to know it on the spot. Names might not be required – though she could probably remember some of them – but she at least had to know the colours. One couldn't be the Weyr gossip if one didn't even know who the new weyrlings were!

As she looped around La and her new green she waved merrily at the girl, cataloging the colour of the dragon whose head was resting on her new friend's lap. Green, surprisingly, but that just went to show you that some rumours were not as true as they might have been. Still, she was a pretty green, and Nan was glad for La. Not to mention greenriders always made for the best gossip. They practically set the standards for it, what with their frequent flights and saucy tempers. It would be so much fun when all of these little dragons grew up.

Spotting Cil – though that probably wasn't his name anymore, since he would have shortened it – she bounded over, reaching out to tug on his ear playfully. "Didn't expect you to find you here with such an adorable little bronze at your side! Cutest thing, if you ask me." Which nobody had, but that was beside the point. It was then that she noticed there seem to be quite a little gathering going on around the new bronzerider.

"What are we all standing about here for? Waiting for someone?"

Of course I am lovely. I am a green. Green is prettier than gold. Astarteth supplied. By this time, the little green had completely filled her belly and was sitting back enjoying the attention from random people coming up and congratulating Kallista.

Giving a genuine smile to C'ren, Kallista moved over in case he wanted to sit. By now, the Harpers were out and ballads were at full volume. Pitching her voice so that she could be heard, the newly made green rider responded. "Thank you much. And tell Ceylith thank you for believing in me. If she hadn't, I wouldn't have Impressed Astarteth."

I would have found you. You are the only one for me. No other can have you. Astarteth told her rider quite firmly.

Kallista chuckled and explained outloud. "Astar is under the Impression that she is better than any other dragon, gold included. Of course, she is right."

L'an was momentarily taken aback by the girl's words. She'd been planning on a blue? Maybe even a brown? Oooh...He chuckled a bit and offered a sympathetic look. "I understand then. Both of us will manage though, I imagine. Now that I've got Alche I know she's what I wanted all along. I imagine you feel the same about Isonth. She's my other half, y'know?"

A second yawn echoed La's. "I suppose we'll probably leave soon, if only to get some sleep. I'd hate to fall asleep in my food.

I'd save you from your food, L'an. I'd eat it all up. Then you can just sleep on the table. That's alright, right?


"I don't think so, Alche. We probably should find our weyr first." He blinked, looking around at all the others. "Have you met anyone else yet? It's funny, I got here late, after the touching, so I really don't recognize many people at all."

R'dan and Coatlicueth had taken their time to enter the Feast, filling the green's stomach (which... took forever and she still claimed it wasn't full) before going to fill the boy's stomach as well. The green eyed her clutchmates, watching as several of them interacted.

R'dan, however, had spotted one of the few friends he had and quickly guided the little green over towards Conomor. As they walked, the boy recalled that he hadn't seen the other on the sands for the Hatching. Drawing closer, he could see that Conomor appeared to have broken his arm.

"Guess your bad luck caught up to you, huh?" R'dan remarked in greeting, glancing towards the other boy. "I'm Rior... er, R'dan." The green butted her head against his legs and he added. "This is Coatlicueth."

You should tell them how pretty I am! I'm very pretty, you know. Very --- Oooh, look at the little sister!

R'dan blinked, wondering what had distracted his green when he spotted the little gold flit on Conomor's shoulder. "A gold? Wow, you really lucked out!" He chuckled.

La smiled slightly when she saw understanding light up L'an's face, and she bit back an amused chuckle at the fact that she and this boy seemed to be in the same relative position. Well, what happened would happen. Dragons didn't dictate everday sexuality, simply the sexuality of Flight...and La would deal with that when is happened.

Making a soft peeping noise, Isonth lifted her head and looked up at La again. Her slight croon made La look up and tip her head. Mrr? she asked quietly, and La's wave of sudden confusion was not hers alone. Realizing she had just thought of something that perplexed her poor dragonet, she shook her head and thought soothing things at Isonth. Eventually the dragonet gave up whatever she was thinking about and returned her head to La's lap. La resumed scratching her, and Isonth made another happy rumble. This is nice, Lanamine, she said decisively, and La laughed softly. Looking back at L'an, she shook her head.

"Sorry, I think I just confused her," she said with a slight smile. "As for knowing people...I've been here a long time. Four turns as a Candidate, so I do know a good handful." Nodding, she looked up in time to catch sight of a handsome orange bronze that had apparently attached itself to her new friend Hesendek, and made a note to go visit him soon. "But there are a lot of new faces here, like yours. Lots of people to get to know, overall." Speaking of which...she had never introduced herself.

"I'm Lanakirene, by the way," she said, extending a hand across the table to shake. "Shorten it how you like; La and Lana seem to be preferred."

Ceylith chuckled at the little Green’s confidence, finding it rather endearing. Was she ever like that? Probably not, but it was nice to see confidence in a Green. None of this, ‘oh, I wish I was a Gold’ stuff that Ceylith occasionally went through. Yes, Greens are most certainly better than Gold. And don’t let anyone ever tell you anything different. Greens get to have more fun and none of that responsibility stuff. She paused for a moment, briefly thinking about what else made Greens better than Golds. Well, there was the obvious, but that was hardly a topic for a little hatchling.

Also, Golds can’t chew firestone, you know. They can’t flame. And, of course, Golds don’t have Ours. That alone was good enough for Ceylith; she wouldn’t have given up Hers for anything. Speaking of Hers… C’ren, sit down next to Hers, will you? You need to actually eat.

Despite Kallista politely making room for him, C’ren had no intention of sitting down there. If anything, he intended on stealing some food and then going off to lurk quietly somewhere. But he could hardly say ‘hi’ and then run off. Some elements of civilization had to remain, right? In this case, that meant some actual conversation.

“She’s certainly more outgoing than the new Queen,” the older Greenrider observed. “From what I’ve seen, the little Gold has been hiding behind her new Rider most of the time. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go oil Ceylith…"

Ceylith snorted and told little Astar, No, he doesn’t. He’s just trying to get out of being social. Do go tell your Mine that, will you? Also, I’m sorry for Mine’s behavior. I’m certain he was dropped on his head as a child. Often. Now, C’ren, sit. Or else I shall be despondent. Hopelessly. It wasn’t often that Ceylith gave an actual order to anyone, but she felt fully justified here. For one thing, her Mine did need to actually eat. And be social. And do other normal human things. Since he actually tolerated Kallista, Ceylith felt that the new Greenrider was a good enough start.

Oh, wonderful time for Ceylith to get all stubborn about things! C’ren sighed and sent a mild glare at his dragon, but, honestly, who could be mad at the Green? Especially since she looked so smug at the moment. He sat down slowly, saying, “See, this is what you have to look forward to.”