Bamy
6th April 2005, 06:02 PM
Chapter 1: Search
Dragon rider soar,
Dragon rider fly,
Search out a candidate
Who will honour my
Hatching little daughter,
A queen of sun-bright gold,
She needs a woman who is strong
And loving, who will mold
Her into a great queen
Who’ll fly high to be the best,
So search her out and now be quick,
For the golden egg won’t rest.
Bzzzz… Bzzzz… Bzzzz…
Alaris sat bolt upright in confusion. It took her a few seconds to recognise that her alarm clock was going off, at which point she swiftly rose from her desk, padded over to her bedside table and turned it off. She looked apprehensively at the tangle of bronze and blue bodies on the pillow, which constituted three of her loyal little fire lizard friends and quietly sighed with relief. They were still fast asleep. It was still much too early in the morning for her friends to be up as they could be and often were very noisy first thing in the morning, especially if they were hungry. All of the last year veterinary students residing on this corridor needed all the sleep they could get, what with the hard day they had put in the day before, inoculating, branding and worming the large cattle herd the veterinary hold had played host to overnight. They were also likely to have put in a late night since they were studying for their final veterinary exams starting next month, much as she had been before falling asleep at her desk. She stretched to get rid of the crick she had in her neck from sleeping in such an awkward position and slowly wandered back over to the desk where her faithful little queen Aria sat primly waiting for the caress she knew her friend would give her.
“Morning sweetie,” greeted Alaris quietly as she stroked her friend’s head knob and scratched her eye ridges. Aria hummed, eyes closed enjoying the morning caress, her eyes when they opened again were whirling slowly, a gentle blue colour that was slightly tinged with the red of hunger and she nuzzled her friend’s hand.
“ I guess I’d better nip down to the kitchens before the rabble wake up,” she said quietly, glancing at the still sleeping tangle of fire lizards on her bed. Again, Aria hummed and cocked her head, asking a silent question.
“ No, Aria,” said Alaris as she smiled softly down at her friend “you can’t come with me to the kitchens. You stay here and keep an eye on the boys while I am gone. I won’t take long.”
She rose gracefully from the chair and headed for the door of her small study bedroom. Just as she was about to close the door, she asked Aria to keep the boys quiet “If they wake up before I’m back, make sure they don’t make too much noise. I very much doubt Sarah or Maya would be too happy about being woken up by them shrieking like banshees again.”
Aria chirped at her reassuringly, so she headed off down the dim corridor and down the three long flights of stairs she had to take to get to the kitchens. As she walked she mused; she was very lucky to have so many of the friendly little beasts. Her great-great grandmother had been on the team that had discovered them in the jungles of South America and had been the first to impress a queen. It was she who had discovered their abilities to go between from place to place and her grandfather had been a senior member of the select team that had bio engineered the fire lizards’ larger, more majestic cousins.
Her uncle M’Cal had been a lieutenant in the royal air force until his sensitivity to the fire lizards had been noted. That, combined with his extensive knowledge of air combat formations and manoeuvres, had been recognised. He’d been drafted to the programme as a potential candidate and had impressed brown Fellith from the third cutch to hatch from those that were bio engineered. It was he who had given her the eggs from which bronzes Flit and Skitter and blue Atl had hatched. Her older brother T’Mal had gotten two greens, Leef and Furr, from the same clutch, but they had been fickle friends at best. They disappeared from time to time and a while ago he’d been searched out for one of the American weyrs. He’d done quite well too, impressing a blue of the senior queen’s clutch but he hadn’t much time to care for the fickle little greens now so they left him periodically to go and explore, returning only now and then for food and attention though sometimes he had mentioned them helping to clean his dragon Ganth.
Those three fire lizards had been such good friends to her over the years helping her through her rather lonely childhood. Her parents’ important jobs had meant that they had had to travel (http://69.42.87.207/cgi-bin/ezlclk.fcgi?id=6698) around a lot, sometimes even up to the weyrs. That was where they had been staying when M’Cal had suggested to her parents that she and her brother get fire lizards, as they weren’t staying anywhere long enough to make proper friends. She hadn’t minded being alone; she had always made friends with the animals resident at wherever she had been staying the kids had always taken a little longer and by then they had had to move on. While she had been staying in the same weyr as her uncle, she had had the incredible honour of being spoken to by Fellith. Alaris knew it was an honour, even at the age of nine she had known that the dragons rarely, if ever, spoke to anyone but their own riders and she still treasured those conversations.
Aria she’d only had for four years. Smiling at the memory she remembered the day she had been presented with the egg for having received the top grade in the country for biology. She’d always been good with animals, which was why she was studying to become a vet, but it was her ambition to become one of the few who doctored the majestic dragons when they were injured during thread fall. She already did much of the healing required for the fire lizards in the local area and the little creatures responded well to her, following all her basic commands to them, even though she was not bonded to them.
She was bumped out of her thoughts quite literally as she collided with her best friend Anna at the doors into the kitchens.
“Ooof! Oh sorry Anna, I didn’t see you!” she said to her friend apologetically.
“That was quite evident ‘Larie, don’t worry. You looked like you were away with the faeries to me so I should have warned you I was there.” Anna replied. “You off to get food for the rowdy rabble?” she asked using the nickname she’d created for Alaris’s bronze and blue fire lizards.
“Yeah. Aria’s already up so the rabble’ll be waking soon enough and you remember the racket they made last time I over-slept.”
“How could I forget? They woke up the whole corridor screeching like banshees and there you were at your desk dead to the world, and their screeching,” her friend put in grinning snidely. “Come on, I need to get some meat cubes for Zell too,” she added, linking her arm into Alaris’s and walking with her through the double doors into the large spacious kitchens.
They wove their way across the main kitchen past the sterile steel work surfaces to the small fridge in refrigerator room at the back of the kitchen where all the meat off-cuts; offal and other edible bits, were stored for easy access by the owners to feed the hold’s resident fire lizard population. The kitchens were deserted that early in the morning but there was a delicious smell of baking bread emanating from the industrial sized ovens, indicating that the chefs had just left and making the girls’ mouths water. They grabbed a bowl each off the stack on the shelf to one side of the fridge left for just such a purpose and filled them with food for the fire lizards.
“Oh god that bread smells good,” said Anna as they walked back across the kitchen to get to their rooms.
“It’s making me hungry,” replied Alaris.
“You’re not wrong there. Will you save me a seat at breakfast later?”
“Sure, see you in … ‘bout what … half an hour?”
“Nah. Better make it an hour. I need to soak my muscles in a nice hot steaming bath for a while. I can’t believe how much we did yesterday.”
“Yeah, it was pretty harsh. Dan’ll be feeling those bruises this morning! Now that you mention it, I could do with a nice long soak too. Though how I’m gonna get them flits to behave while I’m in there is beyond me; they love sporting around in water.”
Anna groaned, “I’d forgotten about the flits… oh well I’ve only got the one so its not quite as bad is it?
“Say Anna where is Zell? I would have thought that he would have been diving head first into that bowl of meat.”
“Oh him? He’s still asleep or you’d better believe it he would be! See ya!” she added as they parted to get to their own rooms.
“Later.” Alaris nipped up the stairs to the level her room was on and quietly entered. Aria fluttered over to her, perched on her shoulder and began creeling quietly at the sight of the meat. Alaris quickly hushed her by grabbing a small handful of meat cubes and popping them into Aria’s mouth to keep her quiet for a few seconds. She made a mistake though, when she placed the purple glazed bowl in the centre of the room. Aria screeched, waking the others as she dived for the bowl that was now out of her reach; the others were not long in following her to the food.
While the fire lizards ate ravenously, their eyes a whirling hungry red colour, Alaris went into the small, compact bathroom she shared with Maya, the girl in the next study bedroom, and set the bath running. She brushed her teeth and combed out the tangles from her thick, wavy black hair whilst regarding her reflection in the mirror. She was not beautiful in the classical sense but wasn’t all that bad to look at either with her hair enhancing her large greeny-grey eyes and framing an oval face with a fresh, creamy complexion.
She pulled her long hair into a loose bun; it had been washed the night before when she had had a quick shower after work had finished so she didn’t want to get it wet again; it would take ages to dry, and walked back into her room and over to the desk. She started up her laptop to see if she had any new e-mails and to see what the day’s schedule held in store for her.
“Damn,” she cursed. She had totally forgotten about the meeting with her mentor that afternoon and it meant that she would end up in the offices, helping to sort the records updated the day before. Not that it mattered; no one would be doing anything outside this morning with thread due to fall over the area. At least she wasn’t on the ground crew rota this semester, she found it difficult to lug the heavy flame throwers around for hours on end, but she did not enjoy the mandatory sessions in the offices filing records, which was what she would be doing instead. At least there would be the possibility of getting out for a ride on Kai her buckskin Arab mare later; she would need the exercise, having been cooped up in her stall for the last two days to prevent her and the other resident horses mixing with the cattle herds and she would be restless. The cattle and sheep had come in from the local farm holds for the annual cull and inoculation booster and the valuable horses were not to be exposed to any of the possible contagions the herds may have had.
The fire lizards had finished eating, their bellies slightly distended from eating so much and, as the bath was likely to be almost full, she called to them and went back into the bathroom pulling off her cotton pyjamas as she went. She slipped into the hot, steaming bubbly water just as her friends dived in screeching and splashing water everywhere. She scolded them but not too harshly, knowing how much they loved warm water and managed to get them all soaped and rinsed while they wriggled in her hands wanting to sport with the others in the soapy water. They were quite loud cheeping, creeling and whistling to each other as they splashed, sported and tangled with each other and Alaris shushed them often and harshly, hoping that the noise they were making would not wake Maya next door. Finally, when Flit accidentally scratched her on the thigh, she banished them to drip dry on the towel rail while she had a good long soak. She only had one complaint about the bath and that was that it was too short for her to fully stretch out in the hot water. At six foot she was simply too tall for it; even the bed she had, comfortable though it was, was a little short and the footboard meant that she usually ended up curling into a ball. When she actually got to sleep in the bed that is, recently she had spent more time asleep at her desk than in the bed.
Once dry, Alaris clothed herself in a practical pair of black jeans, a green tunic top over a cotton shirt and slipped on a pair of socks and Jodhpur boots. Comfortable yet durable, the clothing would be ok if she had to do any work outside and meant that she wouldn’t need to change if she could get out on Kai, yet it was smart enough to appear in before her mentor. The boots were also much cleaner than the heavy boots she had been wearing the day before and wouldn’t trail dirt halfway up the corridor (always a good way of getting on the bad side of the cleaners). She then unbound her hair, brushed it to remove any knots and re did it in a stylish French plait which would keep her hair looking smart and presentable but out of the way without making her look like a ten year old which is what frequently happened when she tied her hair back. Once she was satisfied with her appearance, she told the fire lizards to find something to do with themselves and headed down to the dining hall with Aria faithfully sitting on her usual shoulder perch. Her other friends followed behind her to get to a place where they could get some sun bathing in before thread fall began.
At Hightops Weyr D’Gor woke groggily. He had a serious hangover from drinking the night before and it took him a few minutes to realise that the increased noise level outside was the entire weyr gearing up for a fall. He groaned softly, He hated not flying a fall but the doctor had only just released him from the infirmary to his quarters after wrenching his shoulder when Coranith had tried to evade that thread tangle. It hadn’t worked anyway. The partially healed scores on his back were a testament to that. Groaning again he unsteadily rose to his feet and staggered over to a cabinet on the wall and swallowed two painkillers, washing them down with a glass of water before heading into Coranith’s weyr, the great bronze wasn’t there, he was on the sunny ledge outside dozing and half watching the goings on below. He had known when his partner had awoken but had sensibly not spoken too him until his head was in order. Now that he was in the outer weyr he spoke.
“Good morning D’Gor, I trust your head is still sore from last night?”
“Yes my friend, too much of the new wine and I did want to forget about this morning, how go the preparations?”
“They go well, Minolth leads the Queens this morning as Illiath wishes to guard the eggs. Lassith’s rider doesn’t like being grounded either, she wishes you good morning.”
“Yes, Eleri wouldn’t would she? Send her my greetings and tell her that I will be with her as soon as I am presentable.”
“I will. Fellith’s rider also wishes to speak with you, something about a potential candidate for the queen egg?”
“Oh that would be the M’Call’s niece, he mentioned something about Fellith talking to her. If we are outstandingly lucky we may have our own queen rider who can hear all of the dragons. That would take the Americans down a peg.”
“Why do you not like the American rider’s M’Call?”
“Oh its not the American riders Coranith, it’s just that every American I have met and I will admit that it is mostly riders, is so insufferably smug about having the only queen rider that can hear all of you, it would be nice to wipe that smugness off their faces.”
“It would be good to have another that hears us all.”
“Yes. Yes it would my friend.”
He scratched absently at the dragon’s eye ridges before heading into his bathroom to wake himself up with a cold shower and make himself presentable to meet the ex-weyrwoman and his wing rider. He then headed down to the dining hall to eat something before summoning his dragon to lift him to the ledge of Eleri and Lassith’s weyr.
Coranith alighted gently onto the ledge that the queen had politely vacated.
“Thanks my friend,”
“Your head is still sore from the wine”
“I know. Good morning Lassith.”
The queen nodded her head regally at D’Gor
“I take it you have a hangover this morning D’Gor” came a feminine voice from the inner room of the queen’s weyr “Lassith said that Coranith landed very gently on the ledge.” There was the sound of rippling laughter.
D’Gor walked over to the inner room and pushed the door open. “You know me too well.
“Join me for breakfast?”
“I’ve already eaten but I’ll join you for a few bites.”
“Good. I got your favourites.”
“Ooh goodie bagels.” He sat down with the elegantly robed woman, still in her dressing gown at the table and snatched bites while they talked.
“I was thinking of heading over to Washington Weyr during the fall, I want a chat (http://69.42.87.207/cgi-bin/ezlclk.fcgi?id=6808) with Mia.”
“Mia? She’s the hear all dragons girl isn’t she?”
“Yes”
“So what’s she to you?”
“She’s my cousin’s daughter, I contacted her when she impressed to congratulate her. She seemed to be a bit overwhelmed so I gave her a bit of a hand and some tips on dealing with talking with other rider’s dragons.”
“So that would be why you are always disappearing during fall?”
“Oh yes, I have been helping her, she was finding it a bit overwhelming.”
“I’ll bet. Speaking of queen riders, I had better get going. M’Call wanted to speak to me about a potential candidate.”
Eleri raised her eyebrows. “Do tell.”
“Apparently…” he grinned evilly, dragging out the suspense.
“Yes…”
“Well…OW!”
“Tell me or I’ll do it again.” This time it was Eleri grinning as D’Gor rubbed the site where she had pinched him.
“Alright, alright. M’Call mentioned that his Fellith had spoken to her. Twice.”
“Really? So she’s a potential HAD then?”
“Possibly.”
“So…”
“I was thinking of checking her out and another girl Lynna Norder told me about down at the vet hold before I was injured.”
“Sounds like a plan. There is one problem though.”
“Hmm?”
“Thread is slated to fall directly over that area.”
“I know. I was thinking of nipping to see my family. My sister’s pregnant again. I had better get over to see M’Call or he’ll be off with the wing.”
“Give your sister my congratulations. Have a good day D’Gor.”
They both rose from the table and she kissed him on the cheek before heading to her bedroom to get dressed in riding gear. D’Gor walked out to the weyr ledge and mounted his dragon. They glided down to the valley floor where D’Gors wing was preparing for fall without him.
Over the noise of organised chaos and dragons chewing the phosphine rock M’Call failed to hear D’Gor when he first called out. D’Gor was only about a hundred yards away when he finally heard his hail.
“M’Call.” “M’CALL!”
“Oh hi D’Gor”
“You wanted a word?”
“Yeah its about my niece.”
“The potential HAD.”
“Yes. She’s old enough now for a queen’s search, she turned eighteen just after the last hatching. I would like a second opinion though.”
“That’s what I’m here for. So what’s her name?”
“Alaris Ellen Black. She’s studying to be a vet down at the Cheddar Gorge vet hold.”
“REALLY?”
“What’s so interesting about that?”
“Lynna Norder contacted me just before I got scored. She wanted me to meet a potential candidate.”
“She’s one of the directors of the Cheddar hold isn’t she?”
“Mmmhmm”
“Its probably the same person. There cant be that much of a coincidence.”
“Just what I was thinking.”
“I had better get going.”
“Good flying”
“Safe fall”
On entering the hall she looked around to find Anna and saw the lanky brunette sitting with a group of people she identified as their ‘group’ of closest friends; they were sitting huddled round something in intense discussion. Shrugging, Alaris headed over to the buffet table along one side of the rectangular hall to get her usual breakfast of sweetened porridge, toast and a large glass of fruit juice before heading over to the table to see what the discussion was about. Sliding into a free seat she heard bits and snatches of what was being said, noting as she did that the object being discussed was an article from the morning newspaper.
“…Illiath’s…” “…That’s a good number…” “…Thirty four…” “ …Bound to go…” “…Don’t be stupid. They’ve more than enough…” “…Yes, Rafe I know but not for the queen…”
Her interest piqued at the mention of Illiath the nearest Weyr’s senior queen, Alaris slipped the newspaper out from the circle whilst starting to eat the smooth, creamy porridge and read the article that was causing so much discussion. No one noticed it was gone and the information on it was definitely newsworthy:
“Illiath, Senior queen of Hightops Weyr,
has laid a fine clutch of 34 eggs. This includes
the third queen egg she has laid as the senior
queen of the Weyr after Lassith and her rider
Eleri stepped down due to serious wing scorings
five years ago which rendered Lassith unable to fly far.
There had been some worry as to the condition
of the eggs after Illiath herself sustained thread
score injuries to her abdomen and landed badly,
jarring her stomach and the eggs within when
landing to receive medical assistance. The eggs
all appear to be unharmed by their jostling and
now lie warming on Hightops hatching ground sands.
Once she had read the article, she realized what the other students were discussing: whether the Weyr would search out possible candidates for the eggs or not, especially for the queen egg.
Cutting in across Maya and Rafe who were still arguing over whether the weyr would search, Alaris added her own two cents:
“You know Rafe, Hightops may well go out on search. You remember my uncle M’Cal? No? Well, he’s a brown rider and is stationed there. He invited me up to the Weyr as a treat for my birthday last year to the hatching and you remember they didn’t search that time? Well, there weren’t many left standing and according to him the queens prefer partners who come from outside the weyr anyway, so it is highly likely that they will search.”
“Well I guess it is possible,” Rafe finally admitted a little sullenly.
“That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to tell him; there wasn’t a search last time so they should be doing one this time,” said Maya exasperatedly. “Is it really true that the queens prefer those from outside the weyr?” she added excitedly.
“Yeah, according to M’Cal at least, and Fellith’s a really good search dragon apparently, especially when it comes to the queen candidates.”
“How’d you know that?”
“I...um…overheard the Weyrleader talking to one of the wingleaders and Fellith didn’t deny it when I asked him.” Alaris answered quietly “All eight queen candidates he’s picked out have eventually partnered a queen from one weyr or another, that’s why M’Cal is always in the parties which go on search even with other weyrs, despite Fellith being a brown. Apparently it’s usually the blues and greens that can sense talent and pick out the candidates according to that conversation I overheard.”
“Did you say that the dragon spoke to you?” squeaked Maya and Anna, causing the rest of the table to stare at the girls. Anna ignored the starers and continued more quietly “But wouldn’t that mean you would be eligible to stand for one of the eggs? I mean actually hearing a dragon. I thought that they only ever spoke to their rider.”
“It was only the once, and anyway there’s no way that I’d be made a candidate, since M’Cal:
a) Doesn’t know Fellith has spoken to me,
b) Would have had me on the hatching sands long before now if Fellith had told him I was suitable, and
c) It doesn’t mean anything anyway, he’s only spoken to me the once and it was only a few words.
“B…b…but…but he still spoke to you,” stammered Anna “That’s more than most dragons do apparently,” added Maya. “I heard that dragons only spoke to their riders and to other dragons.”
“They do speak to others though, just very rarely and only to those they want to speak to…M’Cal told me that one of the junior queen riders, in America I think. She can speak to and hear ALL dragons can you believe that?”
“Wow that is so cool! I would so love to be able to do that.”
“Same here, Imagine the problems that could be solved in communicating with the fighting wings and weyr during a fall. Between Weyrs too for that matter…”
Alaris’s voice was drowned out by the loud penetrating whine of the thread fall siren. The siren was a warning to all in the hold that thread was about to fall and that all people should take their assigned positions. The small knot of friends had been so deep in their conversations that they had not noticed the hall filling with people intent on eating breakfast and quickly leaving to get to their work sections in order to batten down the hold ready for fall.
“Yipes!” cried Dan another of her friends. “Allie, we’d better get up to the offices before they skin us, we’re late!”
“Oh! Shoot! I’m coming! I’m coming Dan, jus’ give me a sec…” cursed Alaris as she stuffed the last bite of toast into her mouth, racing to catch up with her tall, athletic classmate who was already out of the dining hall and heading up the stairs to the offices. Her fire lizards followed dizzily in her wake. She had totally lost track of the time.
“So Dan, what do you think? Do you think the weyr’ll search?” she asked as she caught up with the athletic man.
“I dunno really, it’s always possible.” He mused, “Which is a point, I’ve been meaning to ask you, do you want to go for a ride this afternoon? I’m sure Kai could do with some exercise, my Whinberry certainly does. We could search out that jumping valley to practice in.”
“Sorry Dan, I’ve got an appointment with Professor Norder this afternoon, I was hoping to get out after that though.”
“Well I could always do some schooling while I wait for you to finish the appointment. It’s not as if I’ve got much else to do and there’s that dressage event the week after the finals over Lakeside way, I thought I’d enter but I’ve just not had time to practice.”
“That’s really nice of you Dan, you’d do well in any event you entered anyway without the practice, and everyone knows that Whin’s the best dressage horse this side of the Hightops.”
“Flatterer,” he flashed her a grin as they entered the offices. “Right, let’s see what’s to be done and get it over with.” he added, all businesslike as they crossed over to the shelf holding the duty roster.
“Oh joy,” Alaris commented as she saw what the two of them had to do. “We couldn’t have gotten a worse duty.”
“Well at least filing the inoculation records doesn’t require any heavy muscle work, I’m still sore from the squashing that heifer gave me.”
“Ouch, that must have been painful. Did you take that hot bath I suggested?”
“It was. I’m just sore now though. I did take a hot bath but it’s not helped much I’m still sore and my right side is black and blue.”
“Oooh, nasty. Try some of that witch hazel cream from the pharmacy, its really helped with the bruising I got when that idiot student dropped the wheelbarrow on my foot. I’ll give you a massage later if you like too.” Alaris offered sympathetically as she started filing the records for the first herd that had been done the day before.
“Nah, its all right really, I’ll live. I may try that cream though...”
They continued chatting about the day before and things they still needed to revise for the finals before switching to testing each others knowledge on topics that they had revised as they diligently filed the records for the herds that had come in the day before. It was a time consuming process and they stopped for a break only when the eerie shriek of the thread fall siren signalled that thread was falling directly overhead.
D’Gor watched from his weyr ledge as the wings arranged themselves into their assigned positions and winked out to the area that it was predicted to begin falling.
Sighing heavily he was about to enter his weyr where his dragon was dozing when the golden sparkle of Lassith moving on her ledge caught his eye.
“Coranith, could you tell Lassith to tell Eleri have a safe flight?”
There was a pause. Lassith swung her head in their direction.
“I have told her. She says that Eleri says the same to you.”
The queen dragon launched herself into the air and using the technique she had to use now that her wings were damaged, though they were improving D’Gor noted, there was more sail than there had been three months ago, she attained height enough to go between and winked out.
“I guess we had better get going too huh?” D’Gor asked his friend who immediately walked over to where the flying harness hung. D’Gor rigged it so that it fit the dragon comfortably. He had gained weight during his convalescence due to enforced inactivity so the straps had had to be loosened.
Finally when his dragon was fully rigged he changed into his flying gear, a leather jacket and thermal pants, leather boots and gloves that were lined with a thermal insulator and a full face flying helmet that he carried across the weyr to his dragon who he mounted before putting it on. He absently picked up a packet of papers on the table by the door on his way out that were application forms to become a candidate on the hatching sands and stuffed them into the spacious pocket of his jacket.
Coranith walked over to the ledge of the weyr and waited while D’Gor attached the straps that would keep him safe whilst he was in flight and then, as he was a lazy dragon he dropped off the ledge. He judged the drop accurately and opened his wings at just the right moment that he swooped down and along the valley floor before flapping his wings and rising through the air. Making a little more effort he attained the height considered safe for between transferral.
“First we are going here.” Said D’Gor imaging the sunny family villa in Greece, where his family was holidaying for the dragon, though both knew it well having visited it often over the ten years that they had been able to transfer between.
“It will be good to bathe in the sun”
“ Yes, you would enjoy that my friend”
“And then we go to see if the girl will be good for the queen”
“We do indeed.” He said, grinning in delight at being out on his dragon again after so long grounded as well as the fact that he had a mission of sorts. Keeping the image of the villa in his mind the pair blinked into between.
The fire lizards relaxed and once thread fall had passed and shortly after the metal shutters were retracted they fell asleep on the wide, sunny window ledge. They were always tense, even a little stressed during a thread fall and since they had had little time to sun themselves before it had started, Alaris had opened the windows to let in the fresh air and to allow them to sun bathe. They had almost finished the filing when one of the secretaries bustled in looking for Alaris.
“Professor Norder asked me to give you a message,” she said sniffily, sounding a bit miffed to be given such a lowly job. “You’re to go and see her now, she’s been asked to go up to the weyr later to have a look at a bad case of scoring on a blue dragon. She’s in her office waiting for you.”
“But I’ve still got this to finish,” complained Alaris before Dan butted in saying: “There’s not much left to do Allie, I’ll finish it off. See you down at the stables later?”
“Oh, all right, the meeting is earlier than it was slated, I should have more time in the afternoon. I’ll see you down at there after lunch? We could try going over that new set of jumps in the arena now that thread has fallen and we could look for that jumping valley. It shouldn’t take us that long to get there and thread won’t fall for a few more days. “Sounds good to me. See you later.”
“See you…”
She called to wake her fire lizards; Aria fluttered over and landed on her accustomed perch on Alaris’s shoulder as she headed out the door, the others followed dizzily in her wake. She padded down a plain concrete stairwell and turned onto the senior staff and administrative corridor which was long and dim but richly carpeted and hung with paintings from the times before thread fall and bright tapestries; recently delivered and depicting the magnificent first thread battle by the dragons, other events such as a hatching at the Weyr and some of the everyday work undertaken at the hold as well as abstract arty designs they really brightened the place up. The other corridors were more plainly decorated than this and far less richly carpeted. The sixth door on the left was the professor’s. She’d been a frequent visitor when the kindly woman had first gotten a fire lizard egg, and later when she had impressed her little brown Coo. At the time, Alaris had been her favourite student and, as she also knew a lot more than herself about the care and raising of a young fire lizard, had constantly been asking Alaris questions.
Alaris rapped politely on the door and received permission to enter. She opened the door, stepped in and then stopped dead as she took in the scene before her.
The willowy, grey haired professor was sitting at her desk conversing with a tall lanky man wearing the unmistakeable apparel of a dragon rider. As he turned to see who had entered, she was struck by the look of his face. A face tanned by wind and sun surrounded the luminous green, almond shaped eyes that were closely scrutinising her. He had a long tapering nose and a barely healed thread scar across his left cheek from temple to his well-defined jaw line. His sandy brown hair was wind swept and had a few flecks of grey in though the face bore relatively few lines or wrinkles and he seemed to be in his early to mid thirties. In his hands was a folder and another was open on the desk between the two.
“Well don’t just stand there like a fresher Alaris, come on in and shut the door,” the professor said to the stunned girl. “I’d like to introduce you to an old friend of mine, this is Wing leader D’Gor, rider of bronze Coranith. D’Gor, this is Alaris Black, the girl I was telling you about. As you can see from her records, she has a decided way with animals, especially the fire lizards and has also shown preferences to working as a dragon healer. She was actually coming to see me this afternoon to fill in the application form…”
Alaris finally snapped out of her shock, realising that the bronze rider was reading through her academic and personal (http://69.42.87.207/cgi-bin/ezlclk.fcgi?id=6948) records.
“Hey! What the hell is he doing with my personal records?” She demanded angrily, causing Aria and her other three fire lizards to hiss at the man, echoing their mistresses anger. Aria was crouching, tensed as if she were about to spring at him. Even Coo had reacted to her outburst by hissing at the man before a bugle from outside caused them all to cheep in fright and disappear. Alaris knew that the dragon the man rode had warned them off. ”They are supposed to be private records you know.”
Professor Norder smiled at the infuriated girl. “Yes, Alaris I do know that, but D’Gor is here at my request.” In an aside she added. “See what I mean D’Gor? Even my Coo reacted to her,” she remarked to the amused dragon rider. “I take it Coranith warned them off?”
“Hmm… yes and I did catch that. Alaris, I asked Lynna here to keep an eye out for any potential candidates a few years ago, people sensitive to animals, especially the fire lizards. She contacted me a few weeks ago about a possible green rider candidate for Illiath’s coming clutch, but I got quite badly scored before I could follow it up.” He grimaced expressively having hated the no-flying restriction by the head medic. “I’ve only just been released by the weyr doctor to fly for short stretches again, so I thought I’d get Coranith to stretch his wings and bring me down here, he needs to lose some weight too. Besides, I hate being in the weyr when they are gearing up for a fall.”
“You want me as a candidate?”
“To put it frankly, yes. Your records are impeccable, you’re sensitive to both animals and the fire lizards and you already have dragonriders in your family.” He paused, wondering if there was something in the article he had recently read about genetics influencing the choice of hatchlings before listening to the girl’s reply.
“Yes, my brother T’Mal is a blue rider at Yellowstone Weyr and my uncle M’Cal is at Hightops.”
“Actually, Alaris, M’Cal tipped me off to you a while back as well.” He said, “He’s my wing-second and mentioned that Fellith had spoken to you on occasion and that he thought you’d make a good candidate but before now you have been too young. Female candidates must be 18 or over due to certain... erm…foibles that come with being a female dragon rider.” Alaris butted in grinning, knowing full well what the ‘foible’ was. “You mean the mating flights don’t you.” “Yes that’s exactly what I mean. The flights can get pretty wild when a dragon is involved, even a green/blue pairing can be loud and rough. The fact that Lynna thinks you would be a good candidate as well only confirms his and Fellith’s assessment of you, though I didn’t know who it was when she contacted me.”
“But what about my studies? I have always wanted to be a dragon healer.”
“If you impress you will still be able to continue your studies at the weyr under the weyr vet Alaris, it’s just that you will have that much less time to study if you impress a dragon. You will have to learn how to care for the young hatchling, prepare food for her until she is old enough to hunt for her meals and bathe and oil her daily. Not to mention all of the flight training you will receive once the dragon is flighted and able to go between.”
“Oh, I hadn’t really thought of that.”
“People generally don’t. All they see is the dragon flying through the sky and effortlessly going between, charring thread… they don’t fully appreciate the work involved in raising and caring for a young dragon. Not that it is not worth it, it is.” He paused, savouring the moment the hatchling that Coranith had been had chosen him out of all the others assembled on the sands on the day he had impressed, before clearing his throat and continuing more briskly well aware that the soft look on his face as he remembered that moment looked daft. “Well Alaris, now that I have met you I must agree with M’Call’s and Lynna’s assessment of you. You would make an excellent candidate…” he broke off as he searched in the right jacket pocket for the paperwork he had brought… just in case “…if you are interested that is?”
“Oh yes, I’m interested, I’d love for the chance to impress one of those brave, kind, beautiful dragons.”
“In that case I shall leave these for you to fill in, subject to the necessary interview of course -which you should pass with flying colours- you will be accepted onto the candidate programme, you can turn the papers over to one of the search riders tomorrow that will be coming in the next few days.”
“So you are going to search then?” Professor Norder drawled in an amused voice.
“ Yes, we sent a large batch of our candidates down to one of the Italian Weyr’s, they were a little low on candidates. Most of them impressed so now we are short. The riders should arrive about half nine, just after breakfast to avoid messing up schedules.”
“So we get the least disruption for the workers? how kind of you D’Gor.”
“Well, now that I may have gotten what I came for, I’m in the mood to be accommodating,” said the dragon rider grinning at Alaris as he did so.
“Well, I’ve got to go back now, I’ve a few things I really should get done at the weyr, I may see you around Alaris; Lynna, Coranith says that a brown rider will be coming to collect you in about half an hour. That should give you the time to get what you need together.” he said, rising from his seat to give the stunned girl a slap on the back before rounding the desk to kiss the professor on the cheek. He then swept out of the office leaving the door slightly ajar. He trotted down the corridor and then up the stairs to the panel heights where his dragon sat sunning. He carefully made his way between the racks of solar panels to his dragon
“So what do you think?”
“Fellith is right, the girl will ride gold. She will hear us too. I could hear her, she is strong”
“I think so too my friend, the way those fire lizards reacted to her,” he shook his head in amazement that he had carefully concealed from the two women. “It was amazing, I have never seen one that reacted to someone who they were not bonded to before. This one will need watching well.”
He mounted his dragon before continuing.
“We had better get back and report the good news, I very much doubt that Jeff will disagree to a search. We do need more candidates after all.”
The dragon launched himself into the air and as the people below watched in awe, winked between.
“Well, that was refreshing,” commented Professor Norder once the dragon rider had left. “You may go Alaris, I suspect that you have a lot to think about and you need to fill those forms in for the morning. Since D’Gor pretty much made it clear you had been accepted onto the candidate programme I see no reason why you need to attend any more of my lectures or practicals this week but you may want to inform your other lecturers of your good fortune. You will need to prepare to go to the weyr.”
“Uh, thank you professor,” replied Alaris, still slightly stunned by the dragon rider’s offer. “I think I will take up the offer, I always treasured the moments when Fellith spoke to me and to have a dragon choose me as a life-mate would be an honour and an opportunity that I cannot in all honesty pass up. Mother and father will be so proud to hear this news, I really should call them.”
“You do that Alaris, and get those forms filled in. You have always been one of my favourite pupils you know, and you helped me with Coo when he was young, I hope you impress for your sake, impression is an amazing experience, once in a lifetime. I am only saddened that I am too old to have had the chance, my little sister did you know, Eve impressed a green when she was 26, Wasth spoke to me on the odd occasion too, I think Eve asked her to though, it was because she knew I would never be able to experience it.”
“Thank you professor, for all you have done for me, I won’t forget you, you know.”
The professor smiled before replying, “Go on off with you, you have those forms to fill in.”
“Oh crips! I’m supposed to meet Dan at the stables in an hour, we’re supposed to be going for a ride, get the horses exercised. They have been so restless these last few days after being cooped up for so long; I’ve got to go! Goodbye professor!” Alaris quickly rose from her seat and gave her favourite tutor a quick hug before heading for the office door.
“Oh Alaris,” called the professor before she left the office, “Could you keep the knowledge of the search to yourself until I have made up an announcement for the evening meal?”
“Of course professor, I won’t be back till after then anyway. We are going to go for a loooong ride to get the oats from under the horses’ feet.”
“Very well, enjoy your ride,” was the reply Alaris heard as she headed down the corridor to get to the stairwell that would lead to her room. She turned her computer on and quickly sent off messages to her parents and brother about the good news before heading to the kitchen to scavenge some lunch. She was able to grab a bowl of tomato soup and a large granary roll fresh out of the oven along with a wedge of Lancashire cheese, which she quickly ate in the dining hall before heading for the stairwell that lead to the stables. She passed by the tack room and headed straight for the loose box that her horse was stabled in to give her a quick grooming. Heading back only to pick up the saddle, bridle and numnah that she would need to ride Kai, it took only moments to saddle her up as the horse was intelligent enough to realise that the less she fussed, the quicker she would be tacked up and the sooner she would be able to get out for a run.
As Alaris lead her outside to the mounting block (not that she needed to use it being so tall) she passed by several of her class mates and students from other years doing a stable rotation also getting horses ready to be ridden. They were all discussing the article that they had been looking at this morning and had noticed the bronze dragon on the panel heights. They were speculating on what the rider had come to the vet-hold for. Alaris passed by, inwardly smiling to herself about knowing the reason for the presence of the dragon-rider but heeding professor Norder’s injunction and keeping silent save for answering the odd greeting thrown her way as she passed.
Kai’s jigging about at the end of the reins was enough to show her friends that she would be unable to stop for a chat the horse just would not have stood still for it. Once she had mounted, Kai started to prance about, getting antsy as she smelt the fresh air breezing into the concrete stable block. Alaris rode her out through the hay barn, also clad with concrete and roofed with metal and trotted her over to the large rectangular sanded paddock used when exercising and training the horses in an enclosed environment outside. The indoor arena was only used during thread and in wet, rainy weather but was useful to turn animals out in if a stable was being cleaned. This was only done however when they could not be released in the paddocks for a stretch of their legs as had been the case for the last several days, what with the cattle herds being in them. They horses had had to be contained in order to prevent cross infection and the spread of any diseases between the valuable horses and herd animals.
She had noticed Dan in the paddock doing some complicated dressage moves on Whinberry, his very talented, elegant and beautiful Anglo Arab stallion. She walked Kai around to the gate, opened it using her riding crop (a trick her friend Anna had taught her), nudged the horse through and then managed to close the gate; quite a feat to accomplish whilst staying aboard the restless fidgety mare.
By the time she had completed the manoeuvre Dan had noticed that she was there and had trotted over. Whinberry extended his nose to whuff at Kai who snorted back. They were good friends, having worked together and been stabled next to each other for the last few years and so worked well in the team events that their riders took them to.
“That last manoeuvre looked complicated Dan,” greeted Alaris, “I could never do that, and it would be too much for poor Kai here,” she added whilst patting her mount on the neck.
“Yeah it is a little complicated, it took ages to train Whin to do it.” replied Dan. “So how did the meeting go with Norder?” he added as they slowly circled the paddock side by side in a warm-up lap.
“Oh it wasn’t too bad Dan, I’ll tell you the long and the short of it later. Say, did you notice the Bronze Dragon on the heights earlier? The stables were abuzz with it as I was tacking Kai up,” Alaris noted, deftly changing the subject from the forbidden topic to a slightly safer one whilst in the arena where anyone could hear her.
“Yeah, it looked like it was asleep for the most part though I guess it could have been sun bathing like your lot were earlier. Where are they by the way?”
“Oh, off somewhere exploring I expect” she replied off handedly. “The dragon was probably sunning himself by the way. Dragons have to do that daily apparently as well as be bathed and oiled.”
“Oh, right, I remember that, it was in the course a few years back the very basic aspects of care and healing of dragons. Anyway, I didn’t dare bring Whin out with that him there, you know what horses are like when they are around so I did a little work on that bridle I am making. I only brought Whin out about twenty minutes ago.”
“So we can warm up together then.”
They walked their mounts around the arena in a companionable silence, which Dan broke by asking:
“I wonder why the dragon rider was here? Perhaps he came to pick Norder up? I remember hearing that there was a bad scoring today up at the Weyr that required her delicate touch. It would certainly be faster than going overland to the Weyr.”
Alaris pushed Kai into an extended trot before answering. “Yes I believe he was here for Professor Norder, she mentioned she was getting a lift and it would take the best part of two days to get there overland even if the roads are in good repair…”
After chatting amiably for half an hour whilst putting the horses through their warm up paces in preparation for the cross-country jumping run, they moved into the jumping paddock and started schooling the horses over the cavaletti. From there, they progressed onto the higher jumps in the new jumping arena. Pulling up after another half hour of this they exited the jumping paddock and headed out into the open country. They wended their way through the paddocks and cantered through the enormous glasshouse protecting a plantation of soft and hardwood trees further away from the hold before turning up the dirt track that led to the cross-country course in its little valley. With Dan leading off they galloped along the track, racing each other to get to the valley first. They reached the valley neck and neck and laughing, pulled their mounts to a walk. It was a mark of the horses’ fitness that they were barely breathing heavily. They had been kept fit all through the cold winter by long rides in the snow and long sessions in the indoor arena late at night or early in the morning when the arena was less crowded.
Now that they were in a more secluded spot Alaris decided to tell Dan what had actually happened in the interview with the professor.
“…and then he asked Professor Norder if it was O.K. for the Weyr to come on search in the morning sometime this week! I can’t believe it Dan. I mean I will have the chance to impress a green or gold dragon. It’s such a shock, I never expected to be searched out but I have always wanted to work with them, that’s why I chose to become a dragon healer. But to impress……”
“It is a real honour that Allie, your family must be really proud of you.” replied Dan after listening to Alaris as she had poured out her heart to him, airing her worries and ambitions. “At least you have a supportive family. Mine were horrified that I wanted to work with ‘beasts’, not in computing as most of my family has done.” He added with bitterness in his voice.
“Oh, Dan I am sorry, I shouldn’t have vented off like that, its just Professor Norder swore me to silence. I had to tell someone and you are the most discreet person I know and we are in a secluded spot so are unlikely to be overheard. Anyway, if they do come on search you have a chance too, you are so good with the flits you know” She broke off abruptly as Dan started to laugh. “I am doing it again aren’t I?”
“Well, that is why you earned the nickname ‘Babble’.”
At this Alaris started to laugh as well remembering the time in her first year at the hold before making friends that she had talked a lot out of sheer nervousness. Later she had had long conversations and debates with her friends. The horses just stood there flicking their ears listening to the humans laugh and wondering if they were mad or not.
After they had calmed down, they mutually decided to go over the course, each critiquing the other’s performance on the first round. They then increased the size of the jumps to a more professional level before deciding on a course that would test them and their horses and would also be raceable over. They went over this course once carefully working on the pacing of the distance between the jumps before going over it at speed. As it was starting to get late by the end of that run they decided to race the course against each other the finish being the end of the track that turned into the jumping valley in the plantation.
The horses, a little tired from the exertions now, perked up as they sensed their rider’s excitement. They started to jib a little until the signal – Dan dropping his upraised arm – was given. The two horses leapt off from a standstill to a gallop racing for the first jump, a simple arrow of logs which they soared over neck and neck and pounded on to the next the bull-finch. This was cleared with ease, as were the others. The electricity between the two riders and horses was palpable as they were still neck and neck coming up to the last fence, a jump over a log barrier into the stream that wended its way through the valley. The stream was blocked up farther down and so the water on the other side was quite deep and wide. As Kai landed she pecked a little as her hooves slipped in some mud, putting Whinberry and Dan into the lead over the home stretch. It was only a supreme effort on Kai’s part and the fact that she was taller and had longer legs than her stable-mate that resulted in her winning the race by a hair’s breadth.
As they pulled their tired horses to a walk and headed them in the direction of the hold they picked up their conversation again.
“You know Dan, with the search in the morning, you do have every chance of getting chosen for candidacy, I mean my flits respond to you really well, so does Anna’s Zell as well as Tom’s Fee… which is a point. Where have they gone? They were definitely following us when we got here I saw them.”
“I think I saw one of them heading that way,” he replied, pointing at a tangent to their present direction through a stand of old trees that had survived the initial thread falls, “We had better see what they are up to. They may get lost,” he replied, adding the last bit with a sly grin to see if he could get a rise out of Alaris. It did.
“Hey! They have never gotten lost before… Oh you!” she replied in a heated tone until she saw him laughing at her and joined in with him. They headed in the direction the fire lizards had disappeared and shortly heard the excited cheeping of the creatures and the distressed call of a cow. Pushing their horses to a trot they broke into a clearing and saw that the bawling heifer had a severely broken leg and that the flits were flapping about it cheeping in an agitated and excited sort of way. On further inspection of the break they decided that it wouldn’t be worth bringing it back to the hold to be healed the break was infected. It would be kinder to put the animal out of it’s misery, so Dan taking out his boot knife, which had a rather strong steel blade plunged it into the back of the heifer’s neck, killing her instantly. She sagged to the damp, mulch floor and they set about butchering the carcass.
It took them nearly an hour and a half to skin and dress the carcass and to fashion the hide into suitable saddlebags to carry the meat back to the hold. It would provide a fine meal this meat; most likely it would be carved up and be stewed with a load of the root vegetables that were stored from last autumn’s harvest. By this point the horses were too tired to balk at the metallic smell of the meat, though the fire lizards enjoyed feasting off the blood and offal that Alaris set aside for them.
It took them longer to get back to the hold than they had anticipated and it was dark and quite late, well after dinnertime. After dismounting, they lead their tired mounts back to their stalls and untacked them.
“Allie, I’ll take the meat up to the kitchens, it needs to be stored before it goes off, would you mind getting Whin’s feed while I do it?”
“Sure Dan, not a problem.” she replied as she hefted the saddle into a more comfortable position on her arm. She picked up the bridle and numnah and headed to the tack room to off-load her gear. She then grabbed the buckets of feed for Kai and Whinberry and headed back to the horses to start grooming them.
By the time Dan got back from the kitchens she had finished settling her mare and had moved onto Dan’s horse.
“You didn’t need to do that Allie. I was coming back.” He told her as she ducked under Whinberry’s neck and slipped out of the loose box.
“Oh it’s not a problem Dan, I was glad to do it, Whinberry is really quite a sweetie for a stallion. I’ll leave you to it though, I have to get my tack cleaned and start on that application form. Plus I am starving, I think I’ll stop by the kitchens on the way back to my room to get something to eat, there is always soup in the pot, maybe there will even be leftovers of whatever there was for dinner. See ya in the morning.” She replied before heading to the tack room.
Later after thoroughly cleaning her tack, which had been dirt encrusted and smeared with blood from the heifer she headed up to the kitchens to see what was on offer in the way of food. There was a choice of a thick meaty stew full of root vegetables or some slices of cold roast beef in a bun with salad. She chose the stew, snaffled a bun at the same time to eat as a snack later and ate her dinner in her room at her desk whilst checking and replying to her e-mails. Once she had eaten, she had a quick shower, changed out of her dirty clothes into something more comfortable and sat at her desk looking thoughtfully at the application form, wondering what to write. It asked some unusual questions, possibly as a test to see if the potential candidate had the right mental outlook on life as well as the usual name/ age/ address etc.
As she sat there Aria fluttered over to the desk from her perch on the bedstead asking for caresses. Alaris obliged, scratching her eye ridges and under her chin. “You did well finding that cow, sweetie,” she said softly. “That meat will feed us for a day or two, depending on how it’s used. It was too valuable to have just been left there to die.”
Aria chirped quietly and hummed, enjoying the caresses. The other fire lizards, having gorged themselves on the offal, were now flat out asleep in a tangle on the padded comfy chair in the corner of the room.
Sighing, Alaris turned back to the application form and completed filling it in. She put it in the envelope that had come with it and put it in a prominent place on her desk. She had a quick glance at the list that had come with the forms, which told her what she would need to take with her to the Weyr; yawning, she then put on her pyjamas and climbed into her bed. Aria fluttered down landing on the bed and curled up in a small ball at the base of her back.
Up at the weyr D’Gor was sat in conversation with the Weyr leaders and Eleri over a bottle of wine, they were discussing Alaris and the possibilities of a search through the holds for sensitives using the blue and green dragons that had proved so clever at weeding out the likely candidates
“…So Jeff what do you think? She is definitely a likely candidate for the queen if anyone is, especially if what Fellith and Coranith tell me is true. I mean look at those test scores,” D’Gor flipped a folder over to the young Weyrleader. “She is far better at the practical stuff because it involves working with animals and they respond well to her.”
Penny, Illiath’s rider responded to this comment first “Animals responding well is one thing but how do the fire lizards and dragons respond?”
“Well I saw her get angry about looking over her private records – that was Lynna’s idea not mine – her lizards responded by hissing, the queen was even ready to launch at me for upsetting her mistress,”
“That doesn’t prove anything, D’Gor, you know that though the fact that she has a queen is one thing in her favour, do you know how old it is?” interposed Eleri.
“As a matter of fact I do, the egg apparently was a prize for biology four years ago so she knows what a mating flight is like even if it is less intense than a dragon pairing which is another thing in her favour but that’s not the point.”
“What is the point then?” asked Jeffrey
“Lynna’s fire lizard also reacted. He also hissed at me, Coranith warned them all off me. I have never seen that before.”
“I have D’Gor”
“Yes Eleri?”
“My niece, that’s what tipped the Washington Weyr off to her, she has no fire lizards of her own but they always responded to her call and if they knew her to her emotions, Lynna’s little one must know her at least partially to have hissed at you.”
“Who is this niece of yours then Eleri?” asked Penny
“Her name is Mia Purbeck she rides Isharth, the junior queen at Washington.”
“She’s the HAD isn’t she?”
“Yes. From the sounds of things you have found us another D’Gor.”
“It wasn’t me actually, M’Call tipped me off to her, she is his niece.”
“With a pedigree like hers it’s no wonder she’s a sensitive!” exclaimed Penny. “Wasn’t it her grandmother who discovered the original fire lizards in the first place?
“No. That was her great grandmother.” Answered Jeff, the history buff of the group.
“Well I gave her the forms to fill in should she agree to stand. I don’t think there will be a problem there,” D’Gor added quickly when he saw the concern on the other’s faces. “She seemed quite eager to take the chance, and she can take tuition from Tessera too. She was actually supposed to be meeting Lynna to discuss her decision to take up dragon veterinary work,” He chuckled “I doubt she will object to working in the infirmary until the hatching”
Jeff breathed a sigh of relief, “Yes, that would be a good place to put her, she’s what a last year vet student? Well she can sit her exams as an ‘assessment’ and do work full time helping out. We need more staff in the infirmary, they are overworked at the moment, even with Lynna’s occasional assistance. And if she does impress, well we will just have to take the training as fast as the hatchling allows.” he said in a decisive manner, “If we get M’Call in on it…say…get her to think it was his suggestion to get her assigned to the dragon infirmary…”
“It could just work, and we could test her out on hearing other dragons too” put in Penny.
“You always were a sly one Jeff” grinned Eleri.
“Good, so its settled, we have one queen candidate, any other prospects Jeff?”
“Well, Wellington weyr has a few candidates, a girl among them that they are willing to ship over from New Zealand, they want them back though if they don’t impress so there may be one other queen candidate.”
“We really do need a good selection for her Jeff, it would be unfair otherwise” said Penny anxiously; she had seen the consequences of too few candidates standing on the hatching sands and shuddered at the memory of the dreadful keening when the little green hatchling, unable to find it’s chosen life mate had suicided.
“Don’t worry pet,” soothed Jeff. “we still have a full month to mount a search for candidates. We need more than just queen candidates at the moment even with those coming over from Wellington.”
“So we will be searching then?” asked Eleri.
“Oh yes, we have five days to the next fall in our territory, that should be plenty of time to cover the southern portion of it. We can do the rest as fall permits…”
The morning that the search reached Cheddar Gorge Hold Alaris rose early, she showered, dressed in similar clothes to those she had worn the day she had met D’Gor and headed off to the kitchens to get her little friends their breakfast. Once they had eaten she went down to the stable area to feed and groom Kai and to muck out her loose box.
She headed up to the dining hall for breakfast today deciding to keep it simple; opting for sweet porridge and a cup of tea. As she was one of the first there she got her meal and chose a table near to the window, there was a nice view this morning as the late autumn sun shone brightly in the sky. Slowly the room filled with the hold’s residents each trying to get a seat near to the windows to catch the morning sun.
The hall got noisier as it filled, people were speculating where the dragon rider’s search would send them next. Everyone knew that they were looking for more than queen candidates and those old enough to stand were hopeful. At about half past nine the air outside was split with the bugles of dragons above the hold. Alaris having finished her breakfast long before was just staring into the sky and got the best view of everyone of the dragons coming out of between, first there was nothing and then they were just there. The room was silent for about a second before people started to rush outside to see the dragon riders land on their magnificent beasts. Alaris ran up to her room with her fair swirling behind her to pick up the application forms that she had filled in three nights before. When she got outside she saw that the dragon riders, a blue rider and two green riders were conferring with their dragons. She slowly walked up to the nearest, the blue rider.
“Excuse me sir, I have an application form for the candidacy to give you. Bronze rider D’Gor nominated me as a candidate a few days ago.”
“Ah, yes. He did mention it to us, you must be Alaris then.” replied the dragon rider. “I am Da’Vid rider of blue Lelith. If you could just wait here we will give you further instructions with any other potential candidates.”
Alaris stood to one side awaiting the decision of the dragons and their riders as to who, if anyone would be made candidates.
After what seemed to her to be a long time, the dragon riders walked into the crowd pulling out the candidates and sending them to stand with her. To her delight, Dan as well as another of her classmates (http://69.42.87.207/cgi-bin/ezlclk.fcgi?id=6751) Laura, was chosen as well as four from year groups below hers. In all there were seven chosen to stand with her as one of the domestic housekeeper’s teenage sons was also chosen as a candidate.
Once the selection was completed, the blue rider Da’Vid addressed the crowd. “We have chosen the candidates that are eligible to stand for the hatching from this hold’s young people. We thank you for your patience in the time it took to select them and apologise if it has inconvenienced you in any way. Your candidates will do your hold proud whether they impress or not. Your hold is to be honoured for having so many candidates to offer the weyr and the clutch Illiath has laid. We thank you again for your patience.”
The principle of the vet school, the most senior person currently on the premises offered his thanks to the dragon riders for choosing the hold as one to be searched, offering them hospitality as he did so. The dragon riders declined the offer, saying that they had already eaten full breakfasts at the Weyr and that this was one of many places to visit that day in order to present the eggs with sufficient candidates for the hatchlings. The principle ushered the remaining crowd that were still gawping at the dragons back to work in the hold proper and in the veterinary sheds, reminding people as he did so that chores wouldn’t wait forever and that sick beasts needed healing and the annual cull was to be slaughtered and butchered for the freezers over the next few days and it would not be done by itself.
As the crowds dispersed to their respective jobs the dragon riders turned to face the remaining candidates. Da’Vid spoke to them, smiling softly in remembrance of his own search and impression when he had only just been in time to reach the sands and impress the last blue on the hatching grounds. The creature who would choose no one else from all of the candidates there that day had been his best friend, companion and occasional advisor ever since. “You have been selected from the crowd because the dragons sense that you are sensitive to dragons and are suitable to stand on the hatching grounds and try to impress a dragon. I cannot promise that you will impress, for it is the dragon that ultimately decides. If you so choose to stand on the hatching sands you will need to fill in these forms and those of you who are under 18 will also require the signature of at least one parent attesting that you are allowed to stand.” He said glancing at the youngest candidate as he said the last part. “You will be expected to travel to the weyr a week from today at ten o’clock in the morning to undergo a preliminary interview with a wing leader or queen rider to confirm your suitability. You will be expected on the platform of London’s Euston train station to be collected by the supply train. It is delivering much needed supplies to the Weyr and a few extra passengers will be no problem however,” and here he paused his voice altering to a more menacing tone. “You must not be late for the train. It can only stop at the station for a short period as it is on a tight schedule so if you miss the train you forfeit your chance of standing on the sands at this impression. The weyr leaders expect punctuality in their riders as well as manners so be warned.” He then altered his voice to a more friendly tone. “Once past that and you have filled in the forms you will move to the candidate barracks of the Weyr with the others who will be chosen until the time of the hatching. During your time at the Weyr you will learn the basics of dragon care and Weyr life that all candidates learn before impression as well as working chore sections to assist the regular Weyr personnel. We…” He swept his arms to include the two green riders whilst smiling at the stunned candidates. “…hope to see you then and wish you good luck at the hatching.” The other dragon riders also bade the candidates’ farewell and good luck before mounting their dragons. The candidates backed away in readiness for the dragon’s take off which they knew would throw up dirt and dust from the concrete apron in front of the hold. The larger of the two greens that had accompanied the blue dragon Lelith sprang off the ground first swirling dust around the candidates, shortly followed by the other green and Lelith himself. Once they had attained a height that was considered safe to go between they disappeared, bathing the new candidates in the icy cold air of between.
Dragon rider soar,
Dragon rider fly,
Search out a candidate
Who will honour my
Hatching little daughter,
A queen of sun-bright gold,
She needs a woman who is strong
And loving, who will mold
Her into a great queen
Who’ll fly high to be the best,
So search her out and now be quick,
For the golden egg won’t rest.
Bzzzz… Bzzzz… Bzzzz…
Alaris sat bolt upright in confusion. It took her a few seconds to recognise that her alarm clock was going off, at which point she swiftly rose from her desk, padded over to her bedside table and turned it off. She looked apprehensively at the tangle of bronze and blue bodies on the pillow, which constituted three of her loyal little fire lizard friends and quietly sighed with relief. They were still fast asleep. It was still much too early in the morning for her friends to be up as they could be and often were very noisy first thing in the morning, especially if they were hungry. All of the last year veterinary students residing on this corridor needed all the sleep they could get, what with the hard day they had put in the day before, inoculating, branding and worming the large cattle herd the veterinary hold had played host to overnight. They were also likely to have put in a late night since they were studying for their final veterinary exams starting next month, much as she had been before falling asleep at her desk. She stretched to get rid of the crick she had in her neck from sleeping in such an awkward position and slowly wandered back over to the desk where her faithful little queen Aria sat primly waiting for the caress she knew her friend would give her.
“Morning sweetie,” greeted Alaris quietly as she stroked her friend’s head knob and scratched her eye ridges. Aria hummed, eyes closed enjoying the morning caress, her eyes when they opened again were whirling slowly, a gentle blue colour that was slightly tinged with the red of hunger and she nuzzled her friend’s hand.
“ I guess I’d better nip down to the kitchens before the rabble wake up,” she said quietly, glancing at the still sleeping tangle of fire lizards on her bed. Again, Aria hummed and cocked her head, asking a silent question.
“ No, Aria,” said Alaris as she smiled softly down at her friend “you can’t come with me to the kitchens. You stay here and keep an eye on the boys while I am gone. I won’t take long.”
She rose gracefully from the chair and headed for the door of her small study bedroom. Just as she was about to close the door, she asked Aria to keep the boys quiet “If they wake up before I’m back, make sure they don’t make too much noise. I very much doubt Sarah or Maya would be too happy about being woken up by them shrieking like banshees again.”
Aria chirped at her reassuringly, so she headed off down the dim corridor and down the three long flights of stairs she had to take to get to the kitchens. As she walked she mused; she was very lucky to have so many of the friendly little beasts. Her great-great grandmother had been on the team that had discovered them in the jungles of South America and had been the first to impress a queen. It was she who had discovered their abilities to go between from place to place and her grandfather had been a senior member of the select team that had bio engineered the fire lizards’ larger, more majestic cousins.
Her uncle M’Cal had been a lieutenant in the royal air force until his sensitivity to the fire lizards had been noted. That, combined with his extensive knowledge of air combat formations and manoeuvres, had been recognised. He’d been drafted to the programme as a potential candidate and had impressed brown Fellith from the third cutch to hatch from those that were bio engineered. It was he who had given her the eggs from which bronzes Flit and Skitter and blue Atl had hatched. Her older brother T’Mal had gotten two greens, Leef and Furr, from the same clutch, but they had been fickle friends at best. They disappeared from time to time and a while ago he’d been searched out for one of the American weyrs. He’d done quite well too, impressing a blue of the senior queen’s clutch but he hadn’t much time to care for the fickle little greens now so they left him periodically to go and explore, returning only now and then for food and attention though sometimes he had mentioned them helping to clean his dragon Ganth.
Those three fire lizards had been such good friends to her over the years helping her through her rather lonely childhood. Her parents’ important jobs had meant that they had had to travel (http://69.42.87.207/cgi-bin/ezlclk.fcgi?id=6698) around a lot, sometimes even up to the weyrs. That was where they had been staying when M’Cal had suggested to her parents that she and her brother get fire lizards, as they weren’t staying anywhere long enough to make proper friends. She hadn’t minded being alone; she had always made friends with the animals resident at wherever she had been staying the kids had always taken a little longer and by then they had had to move on. While she had been staying in the same weyr as her uncle, she had had the incredible honour of being spoken to by Fellith. Alaris knew it was an honour, even at the age of nine she had known that the dragons rarely, if ever, spoke to anyone but their own riders and she still treasured those conversations.
Aria she’d only had for four years. Smiling at the memory she remembered the day she had been presented with the egg for having received the top grade in the country for biology. She’d always been good with animals, which was why she was studying to become a vet, but it was her ambition to become one of the few who doctored the majestic dragons when they were injured during thread fall. She already did much of the healing required for the fire lizards in the local area and the little creatures responded well to her, following all her basic commands to them, even though she was not bonded to them.
She was bumped out of her thoughts quite literally as she collided with her best friend Anna at the doors into the kitchens.
“Ooof! Oh sorry Anna, I didn’t see you!” she said to her friend apologetically.
“That was quite evident ‘Larie, don’t worry. You looked like you were away with the faeries to me so I should have warned you I was there.” Anna replied. “You off to get food for the rowdy rabble?” she asked using the nickname she’d created for Alaris’s bronze and blue fire lizards.
“Yeah. Aria’s already up so the rabble’ll be waking soon enough and you remember the racket they made last time I over-slept.”
“How could I forget? They woke up the whole corridor screeching like banshees and there you were at your desk dead to the world, and their screeching,” her friend put in grinning snidely. “Come on, I need to get some meat cubes for Zell too,” she added, linking her arm into Alaris’s and walking with her through the double doors into the large spacious kitchens.
They wove their way across the main kitchen past the sterile steel work surfaces to the small fridge in refrigerator room at the back of the kitchen where all the meat off-cuts; offal and other edible bits, were stored for easy access by the owners to feed the hold’s resident fire lizard population. The kitchens were deserted that early in the morning but there was a delicious smell of baking bread emanating from the industrial sized ovens, indicating that the chefs had just left and making the girls’ mouths water. They grabbed a bowl each off the stack on the shelf to one side of the fridge left for just such a purpose and filled them with food for the fire lizards.
“Oh god that bread smells good,” said Anna as they walked back across the kitchen to get to their rooms.
“It’s making me hungry,” replied Alaris.
“You’re not wrong there. Will you save me a seat at breakfast later?”
“Sure, see you in … ‘bout what … half an hour?”
“Nah. Better make it an hour. I need to soak my muscles in a nice hot steaming bath for a while. I can’t believe how much we did yesterday.”
“Yeah, it was pretty harsh. Dan’ll be feeling those bruises this morning! Now that you mention it, I could do with a nice long soak too. Though how I’m gonna get them flits to behave while I’m in there is beyond me; they love sporting around in water.”
Anna groaned, “I’d forgotten about the flits… oh well I’ve only got the one so its not quite as bad is it?
“Say Anna where is Zell? I would have thought that he would have been diving head first into that bowl of meat.”
“Oh him? He’s still asleep or you’d better believe it he would be! See ya!” she added as they parted to get to their own rooms.
“Later.” Alaris nipped up the stairs to the level her room was on and quietly entered. Aria fluttered over to her, perched on her shoulder and began creeling quietly at the sight of the meat. Alaris quickly hushed her by grabbing a small handful of meat cubes and popping them into Aria’s mouth to keep her quiet for a few seconds. She made a mistake though, when she placed the purple glazed bowl in the centre of the room. Aria screeched, waking the others as she dived for the bowl that was now out of her reach; the others were not long in following her to the food.
While the fire lizards ate ravenously, their eyes a whirling hungry red colour, Alaris went into the small, compact bathroom she shared with Maya, the girl in the next study bedroom, and set the bath running. She brushed her teeth and combed out the tangles from her thick, wavy black hair whilst regarding her reflection in the mirror. She was not beautiful in the classical sense but wasn’t all that bad to look at either with her hair enhancing her large greeny-grey eyes and framing an oval face with a fresh, creamy complexion.
She pulled her long hair into a loose bun; it had been washed the night before when she had had a quick shower after work had finished so she didn’t want to get it wet again; it would take ages to dry, and walked back into her room and over to the desk. She started up her laptop to see if she had any new e-mails and to see what the day’s schedule held in store for her.
“Damn,” she cursed. She had totally forgotten about the meeting with her mentor that afternoon and it meant that she would end up in the offices, helping to sort the records updated the day before. Not that it mattered; no one would be doing anything outside this morning with thread due to fall over the area. At least she wasn’t on the ground crew rota this semester, she found it difficult to lug the heavy flame throwers around for hours on end, but she did not enjoy the mandatory sessions in the offices filing records, which was what she would be doing instead. At least there would be the possibility of getting out for a ride on Kai her buckskin Arab mare later; she would need the exercise, having been cooped up in her stall for the last two days to prevent her and the other resident horses mixing with the cattle herds and she would be restless. The cattle and sheep had come in from the local farm holds for the annual cull and inoculation booster and the valuable horses were not to be exposed to any of the possible contagions the herds may have had.
The fire lizards had finished eating, their bellies slightly distended from eating so much and, as the bath was likely to be almost full, she called to them and went back into the bathroom pulling off her cotton pyjamas as she went. She slipped into the hot, steaming bubbly water just as her friends dived in screeching and splashing water everywhere. She scolded them but not too harshly, knowing how much they loved warm water and managed to get them all soaped and rinsed while they wriggled in her hands wanting to sport with the others in the soapy water. They were quite loud cheeping, creeling and whistling to each other as they splashed, sported and tangled with each other and Alaris shushed them often and harshly, hoping that the noise they were making would not wake Maya next door. Finally, when Flit accidentally scratched her on the thigh, she banished them to drip dry on the towel rail while she had a good long soak. She only had one complaint about the bath and that was that it was too short for her to fully stretch out in the hot water. At six foot she was simply too tall for it; even the bed she had, comfortable though it was, was a little short and the footboard meant that she usually ended up curling into a ball. When she actually got to sleep in the bed that is, recently she had spent more time asleep at her desk than in the bed.
Once dry, Alaris clothed herself in a practical pair of black jeans, a green tunic top over a cotton shirt and slipped on a pair of socks and Jodhpur boots. Comfortable yet durable, the clothing would be ok if she had to do any work outside and meant that she wouldn’t need to change if she could get out on Kai, yet it was smart enough to appear in before her mentor. The boots were also much cleaner than the heavy boots she had been wearing the day before and wouldn’t trail dirt halfway up the corridor (always a good way of getting on the bad side of the cleaners). She then unbound her hair, brushed it to remove any knots and re did it in a stylish French plait which would keep her hair looking smart and presentable but out of the way without making her look like a ten year old which is what frequently happened when she tied her hair back. Once she was satisfied with her appearance, she told the fire lizards to find something to do with themselves and headed down to the dining hall with Aria faithfully sitting on her usual shoulder perch. Her other friends followed behind her to get to a place where they could get some sun bathing in before thread fall began.
At Hightops Weyr D’Gor woke groggily. He had a serious hangover from drinking the night before and it took him a few minutes to realise that the increased noise level outside was the entire weyr gearing up for a fall. He groaned softly, He hated not flying a fall but the doctor had only just released him from the infirmary to his quarters after wrenching his shoulder when Coranith had tried to evade that thread tangle. It hadn’t worked anyway. The partially healed scores on his back were a testament to that. Groaning again he unsteadily rose to his feet and staggered over to a cabinet on the wall and swallowed two painkillers, washing them down with a glass of water before heading into Coranith’s weyr, the great bronze wasn’t there, he was on the sunny ledge outside dozing and half watching the goings on below. He had known when his partner had awoken but had sensibly not spoken too him until his head was in order. Now that he was in the outer weyr he spoke.
“Good morning D’Gor, I trust your head is still sore from last night?”
“Yes my friend, too much of the new wine and I did want to forget about this morning, how go the preparations?”
“They go well, Minolth leads the Queens this morning as Illiath wishes to guard the eggs. Lassith’s rider doesn’t like being grounded either, she wishes you good morning.”
“Yes, Eleri wouldn’t would she? Send her my greetings and tell her that I will be with her as soon as I am presentable.”
“I will. Fellith’s rider also wishes to speak with you, something about a potential candidate for the queen egg?”
“Oh that would be the M’Call’s niece, he mentioned something about Fellith talking to her. If we are outstandingly lucky we may have our own queen rider who can hear all of the dragons. That would take the Americans down a peg.”
“Why do you not like the American rider’s M’Call?”
“Oh its not the American riders Coranith, it’s just that every American I have met and I will admit that it is mostly riders, is so insufferably smug about having the only queen rider that can hear all of you, it would be nice to wipe that smugness off their faces.”
“It would be good to have another that hears us all.”
“Yes. Yes it would my friend.”
He scratched absently at the dragon’s eye ridges before heading into his bathroom to wake himself up with a cold shower and make himself presentable to meet the ex-weyrwoman and his wing rider. He then headed down to the dining hall to eat something before summoning his dragon to lift him to the ledge of Eleri and Lassith’s weyr.
Coranith alighted gently onto the ledge that the queen had politely vacated.
“Thanks my friend,”
“Your head is still sore from the wine”
“I know. Good morning Lassith.”
The queen nodded her head regally at D’Gor
“I take it you have a hangover this morning D’Gor” came a feminine voice from the inner room of the queen’s weyr “Lassith said that Coranith landed very gently on the ledge.” There was the sound of rippling laughter.
D’Gor walked over to the inner room and pushed the door open. “You know me too well.
“Join me for breakfast?”
“I’ve already eaten but I’ll join you for a few bites.”
“Good. I got your favourites.”
“Ooh goodie bagels.” He sat down with the elegantly robed woman, still in her dressing gown at the table and snatched bites while they talked.
“I was thinking of heading over to Washington Weyr during the fall, I want a chat (http://69.42.87.207/cgi-bin/ezlclk.fcgi?id=6808) with Mia.”
“Mia? She’s the hear all dragons girl isn’t she?”
“Yes”
“So what’s she to you?”
“She’s my cousin’s daughter, I contacted her when she impressed to congratulate her. She seemed to be a bit overwhelmed so I gave her a bit of a hand and some tips on dealing with talking with other rider’s dragons.”
“So that would be why you are always disappearing during fall?”
“Oh yes, I have been helping her, she was finding it a bit overwhelming.”
“I’ll bet. Speaking of queen riders, I had better get going. M’Call wanted to speak to me about a potential candidate.”
Eleri raised her eyebrows. “Do tell.”
“Apparently…” he grinned evilly, dragging out the suspense.
“Yes…”
“Well…OW!”
“Tell me or I’ll do it again.” This time it was Eleri grinning as D’Gor rubbed the site where she had pinched him.
“Alright, alright. M’Call mentioned that his Fellith had spoken to her. Twice.”
“Really? So she’s a potential HAD then?”
“Possibly.”
“So…”
“I was thinking of checking her out and another girl Lynna Norder told me about down at the vet hold before I was injured.”
“Sounds like a plan. There is one problem though.”
“Hmm?”
“Thread is slated to fall directly over that area.”
“I know. I was thinking of nipping to see my family. My sister’s pregnant again. I had better get over to see M’Call or he’ll be off with the wing.”
“Give your sister my congratulations. Have a good day D’Gor.”
They both rose from the table and she kissed him on the cheek before heading to her bedroom to get dressed in riding gear. D’Gor walked out to the weyr ledge and mounted his dragon. They glided down to the valley floor where D’Gors wing was preparing for fall without him.
Over the noise of organised chaos and dragons chewing the phosphine rock M’Call failed to hear D’Gor when he first called out. D’Gor was only about a hundred yards away when he finally heard his hail.
“M’Call.” “M’CALL!”
“Oh hi D’Gor”
“You wanted a word?”
“Yeah its about my niece.”
“The potential HAD.”
“Yes. She’s old enough now for a queen’s search, she turned eighteen just after the last hatching. I would like a second opinion though.”
“That’s what I’m here for. So what’s her name?”
“Alaris Ellen Black. She’s studying to be a vet down at the Cheddar Gorge vet hold.”
“REALLY?”
“What’s so interesting about that?”
“Lynna Norder contacted me just before I got scored. She wanted me to meet a potential candidate.”
“She’s one of the directors of the Cheddar hold isn’t she?”
“Mmmhmm”
“Its probably the same person. There cant be that much of a coincidence.”
“Just what I was thinking.”
“I had better get going.”
“Good flying”
“Safe fall”
On entering the hall she looked around to find Anna and saw the lanky brunette sitting with a group of people she identified as their ‘group’ of closest friends; they were sitting huddled round something in intense discussion. Shrugging, Alaris headed over to the buffet table along one side of the rectangular hall to get her usual breakfast of sweetened porridge, toast and a large glass of fruit juice before heading over to the table to see what the discussion was about. Sliding into a free seat she heard bits and snatches of what was being said, noting as she did that the object being discussed was an article from the morning newspaper.
“…Illiath’s…” “…That’s a good number…” “…Thirty four…” “ …Bound to go…” “…Don’t be stupid. They’ve more than enough…” “…Yes, Rafe I know but not for the queen…”
Her interest piqued at the mention of Illiath the nearest Weyr’s senior queen, Alaris slipped the newspaper out from the circle whilst starting to eat the smooth, creamy porridge and read the article that was causing so much discussion. No one noticed it was gone and the information on it was definitely newsworthy:
“Illiath, Senior queen of Hightops Weyr,
has laid a fine clutch of 34 eggs. This includes
the third queen egg she has laid as the senior
queen of the Weyr after Lassith and her rider
Eleri stepped down due to serious wing scorings
five years ago which rendered Lassith unable to fly far.
There had been some worry as to the condition
of the eggs after Illiath herself sustained thread
score injuries to her abdomen and landed badly,
jarring her stomach and the eggs within when
landing to receive medical assistance. The eggs
all appear to be unharmed by their jostling and
now lie warming on Hightops hatching ground sands.
Once she had read the article, she realized what the other students were discussing: whether the Weyr would search out possible candidates for the eggs or not, especially for the queen egg.
Cutting in across Maya and Rafe who were still arguing over whether the weyr would search, Alaris added her own two cents:
“You know Rafe, Hightops may well go out on search. You remember my uncle M’Cal? No? Well, he’s a brown rider and is stationed there. He invited me up to the Weyr as a treat for my birthday last year to the hatching and you remember they didn’t search that time? Well, there weren’t many left standing and according to him the queens prefer partners who come from outside the weyr anyway, so it is highly likely that they will search.”
“Well I guess it is possible,” Rafe finally admitted a little sullenly.
“That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to tell him; there wasn’t a search last time so they should be doing one this time,” said Maya exasperatedly. “Is it really true that the queens prefer those from outside the weyr?” she added excitedly.
“Yeah, according to M’Cal at least, and Fellith’s a really good search dragon apparently, especially when it comes to the queen candidates.”
“How’d you know that?”
“I...um…overheard the Weyrleader talking to one of the wingleaders and Fellith didn’t deny it when I asked him.” Alaris answered quietly “All eight queen candidates he’s picked out have eventually partnered a queen from one weyr or another, that’s why M’Cal is always in the parties which go on search even with other weyrs, despite Fellith being a brown. Apparently it’s usually the blues and greens that can sense talent and pick out the candidates according to that conversation I overheard.”
“Did you say that the dragon spoke to you?” squeaked Maya and Anna, causing the rest of the table to stare at the girls. Anna ignored the starers and continued more quietly “But wouldn’t that mean you would be eligible to stand for one of the eggs? I mean actually hearing a dragon. I thought that they only ever spoke to their rider.”
“It was only the once, and anyway there’s no way that I’d be made a candidate, since M’Cal:
a) Doesn’t know Fellith has spoken to me,
b) Would have had me on the hatching sands long before now if Fellith had told him I was suitable, and
c) It doesn’t mean anything anyway, he’s only spoken to me the once and it was only a few words.
“B…b…but…but he still spoke to you,” stammered Anna “That’s more than most dragons do apparently,” added Maya. “I heard that dragons only spoke to their riders and to other dragons.”
“They do speak to others though, just very rarely and only to those they want to speak to…M’Cal told me that one of the junior queen riders, in America I think. She can speak to and hear ALL dragons can you believe that?”
“Wow that is so cool! I would so love to be able to do that.”
“Same here, Imagine the problems that could be solved in communicating with the fighting wings and weyr during a fall. Between Weyrs too for that matter…”
Alaris’s voice was drowned out by the loud penetrating whine of the thread fall siren. The siren was a warning to all in the hold that thread was about to fall and that all people should take their assigned positions. The small knot of friends had been so deep in their conversations that they had not noticed the hall filling with people intent on eating breakfast and quickly leaving to get to their work sections in order to batten down the hold ready for fall.
“Yipes!” cried Dan another of her friends. “Allie, we’d better get up to the offices before they skin us, we’re late!”
“Oh! Shoot! I’m coming! I’m coming Dan, jus’ give me a sec…” cursed Alaris as she stuffed the last bite of toast into her mouth, racing to catch up with her tall, athletic classmate who was already out of the dining hall and heading up the stairs to the offices. Her fire lizards followed dizzily in her wake. She had totally lost track of the time.
“So Dan, what do you think? Do you think the weyr’ll search?” she asked as she caught up with the athletic man.
“I dunno really, it’s always possible.” He mused, “Which is a point, I’ve been meaning to ask you, do you want to go for a ride this afternoon? I’m sure Kai could do with some exercise, my Whinberry certainly does. We could search out that jumping valley to practice in.”
“Sorry Dan, I’ve got an appointment with Professor Norder this afternoon, I was hoping to get out after that though.”
“Well I could always do some schooling while I wait for you to finish the appointment. It’s not as if I’ve got much else to do and there’s that dressage event the week after the finals over Lakeside way, I thought I’d enter but I’ve just not had time to practice.”
“That’s really nice of you Dan, you’d do well in any event you entered anyway without the practice, and everyone knows that Whin’s the best dressage horse this side of the Hightops.”
“Flatterer,” he flashed her a grin as they entered the offices. “Right, let’s see what’s to be done and get it over with.” he added, all businesslike as they crossed over to the shelf holding the duty roster.
“Oh joy,” Alaris commented as she saw what the two of them had to do. “We couldn’t have gotten a worse duty.”
“Well at least filing the inoculation records doesn’t require any heavy muscle work, I’m still sore from the squashing that heifer gave me.”
“Ouch, that must have been painful. Did you take that hot bath I suggested?”
“It was. I’m just sore now though. I did take a hot bath but it’s not helped much I’m still sore and my right side is black and blue.”
“Oooh, nasty. Try some of that witch hazel cream from the pharmacy, its really helped with the bruising I got when that idiot student dropped the wheelbarrow on my foot. I’ll give you a massage later if you like too.” Alaris offered sympathetically as she started filing the records for the first herd that had been done the day before.
“Nah, its all right really, I’ll live. I may try that cream though...”
They continued chatting about the day before and things they still needed to revise for the finals before switching to testing each others knowledge on topics that they had revised as they diligently filed the records for the herds that had come in the day before. It was a time consuming process and they stopped for a break only when the eerie shriek of the thread fall siren signalled that thread was falling directly overhead.
D’Gor watched from his weyr ledge as the wings arranged themselves into their assigned positions and winked out to the area that it was predicted to begin falling.
Sighing heavily he was about to enter his weyr where his dragon was dozing when the golden sparkle of Lassith moving on her ledge caught his eye.
“Coranith, could you tell Lassith to tell Eleri have a safe flight?”
There was a pause. Lassith swung her head in their direction.
“I have told her. She says that Eleri says the same to you.”
The queen dragon launched herself into the air and using the technique she had to use now that her wings were damaged, though they were improving D’Gor noted, there was more sail than there had been three months ago, she attained height enough to go between and winked out.
“I guess we had better get going too huh?” D’Gor asked his friend who immediately walked over to where the flying harness hung. D’Gor rigged it so that it fit the dragon comfortably. He had gained weight during his convalescence due to enforced inactivity so the straps had had to be loosened.
Finally when his dragon was fully rigged he changed into his flying gear, a leather jacket and thermal pants, leather boots and gloves that were lined with a thermal insulator and a full face flying helmet that he carried across the weyr to his dragon who he mounted before putting it on. He absently picked up a packet of papers on the table by the door on his way out that were application forms to become a candidate on the hatching sands and stuffed them into the spacious pocket of his jacket.
Coranith walked over to the ledge of the weyr and waited while D’Gor attached the straps that would keep him safe whilst he was in flight and then, as he was a lazy dragon he dropped off the ledge. He judged the drop accurately and opened his wings at just the right moment that he swooped down and along the valley floor before flapping his wings and rising through the air. Making a little more effort he attained the height considered safe for between transferral.
“First we are going here.” Said D’Gor imaging the sunny family villa in Greece, where his family was holidaying for the dragon, though both knew it well having visited it often over the ten years that they had been able to transfer between.
“It will be good to bathe in the sun”
“ Yes, you would enjoy that my friend”
“And then we go to see if the girl will be good for the queen”
“We do indeed.” He said, grinning in delight at being out on his dragon again after so long grounded as well as the fact that he had a mission of sorts. Keeping the image of the villa in his mind the pair blinked into between.
The fire lizards relaxed and once thread fall had passed and shortly after the metal shutters were retracted they fell asleep on the wide, sunny window ledge. They were always tense, even a little stressed during a thread fall and since they had had little time to sun themselves before it had started, Alaris had opened the windows to let in the fresh air and to allow them to sun bathe. They had almost finished the filing when one of the secretaries bustled in looking for Alaris.
“Professor Norder asked me to give you a message,” she said sniffily, sounding a bit miffed to be given such a lowly job. “You’re to go and see her now, she’s been asked to go up to the weyr later to have a look at a bad case of scoring on a blue dragon. She’s in her office waiting for you.”
“But I’ve still got this to finish,” complained Alaris before Dan butted in saying: “There’s not much left to do Allie, I’ll finish it off. See you down at the stables later?”
“Oh, all right, the meeting is earlier than it was slated, I should have more time in the afternoon. I’ll see you down at there after lunch? We could try going over that new set of jumps in the arena now that thread has fallen and we could look for that jumping valley. It shouldn’t take us that long to get there and thread won’t fall for a few more days. “Sounds good to me. See you later.”
“See you…”
She called to wake her fire lizards; Aria fluttered over and landed on her accustomed perch on Alaris’s shoulder as she headed out the door, the others followed dizzily in her wake. She padded down a plain concrete stairwell and turned onto the senior staff and administrative corridor which was long and dim but richly carpeted and hung with paintings from the times before thread fall and bright tapestries; recently delivered and depicting the magnificent first thread battle by the dragons, other events such as a hatching at the Weyr and some of the everyday work undertaken at the hold as well as abstract arty designs they really brightened the place up. The other corridors were more plainly decorated than this and far less richly carpeted. The sixth door on the left was the professor’s. She’d been a frequent visitor when the kindly woman had first gotten a fire lizard egg, and later when she had impressed her little brown Coo. At the time, Alaris had been her favourite student and, as she also knew a lot more than herself about the care and raising of a young fire lizard, had constantly been asking Alaris questions.
Alaris rapped politely on the door and received permission to enter. She opened the door, stepped in and then stopped dead as she took in the scene before her.
The willowy, grey haired professor was sitting at her desk conversing with a tall lanky man wearing the unmistakeable apparel of a dragon rider. As he turned to see who had entered, she was struck by the look of his face. A face tanned by wind and sun surrounded the luminous green, almond shaped eyes that were closely scrutinising her. He had a long tapering nose and a barely healed thread scar across his left cheek from temple to his well-defined jaw line. His sandy brown hair was wind swept and had a few flecks of grey in though the face bore relatively few lines or wrinkles and he seemed to be in his early to mid thirties. In his hands was a folder and another was open on the desk between the two.
“Well don’t just stand there like a fresher Alaris, come on in and shut the door,” the professor said to the stunned girl. “I’d like to introduce you to an old friend of mine, this is Wing leader D’Gor, rider of bronze Coranith. D’Gor, this is Alaris Black, the girl I was telling you about. As you can see from her records, she has a decided way with animals, especially the fire lizards and has also shown preferences to working as a dragon healer. She was actually coming to see me this afternoon to fill in the application form…”
Alaris finally snapped out of her shock, realising that the bronze rider was reading through her academic and personal (http://69.42.87.207/cgi-bin/ezlclk.fcgi?id=6948) records.
“Hey! What the hell is he doing with my personal records?” She demanded angrily, causing Aria and her other three fire lizards to hiss at the man, echoing their mistresses anger. Aria was crouching, tensed as if she were about to spring at him. Even Coo had reacted to her outburst by hissing at the man before a bugle from outside caused them all to cheep in fright and disappear. Alaris knew that the dragon the man rode had warned them off. ”They are supposed to be private records you know.”
Professor Norder smiled at the infuriated girl. “Yes, Alaris I do know that, but D’Gor is here at my request.” In an aside she added. “See what I mean D’Gor? Even my Coo reacted to her,” she remarked to the amused dragon rider. “I take it Coranith warned them off?”
“Hmm… yes and I did catch that. Alaris, I asked Lynna here to keep an eye out for any potential candidates a few years ago, people sensitive to animals, especially the fire lizards. She contacted me a few weeks ago about a possible green rider candidate for Illiath’s coming clutch, but I got quite badly scored before I could follow it up.” He grimaced expressively having hated the no-flying restriction by the head medic. “I’ve only just been released by the weyr doctor to fly for short stretches again, so I thought I’d get Coranith to stretch his wings and bring me down here, he needs to lose some weight too. Besides, I hate being in the weyr when they are gearing up for a fall.”
“You want me as a candidate?”
“To put it frankly, yes. Your records are impeccable, you’re sensitive to both animals and the fire lizards and you already have dragonriders in your family.” He paused, wondering if there was something in the article he had recently read about genetics influencing the choice of hatchlings before listening to the girl’s reply.
“Yes, my brother T’Mal is a blue rider at Yellowstone Weyr and my uncle M’Cal is at Hightops.”
“Actually, Alaris, M’Cal tipped me off to you a while back as well.” He said, “He’s my wing-second and mentioned that Fellith had spoken to you on occasion and that he thought you’d make a good candidate but before now you have been too young. Female candidates must be 18 or over due to certain... erm…foibles that come with being a female dragon rider.” Alaris butted in grinning, knowing full well what the ‘foible’ was. “You mean the mating flights don’t you.” “Yes that’s exactly what I mean. The flights can get pretty wild when a dragon is involved, even a green/blue pairing can be loud and rough. The fact that Lynna thinks you would be a good candidate as well only confirms his and Fellith’s assessment of you, though I didn’t know who it was when she contacted me.”
“But what about my studies? I have always wanted to be a dragon healer.”
“If you impress you will still be able to continue your studies at the weyr under the weyr vet Alaris, it’s just that you will have that much less time to study if you impress a dragon. You will have to learn how to care for the young hatchling, prepare food for her until she is old enough to hunt for her meals and bathe and oil her daily. Not to mention all of the flight training you will receive once the dragon is flighted and able to go between.”
“Oh, I hadn’t really thought of that.”
“People generally don’t. All they see is the dragon flying through the sky and effortlessly going between, charring thread… they don’t fully appreciate the work involved in raising and caring for a young dragon. Not that it is not worth it, it is.” He paused, savouring the moment the hatchling that Coranith had been had chosen him out of all the others assembled on the sands on the day he had impressed, before clearing his throat and continuing more briskly well aware that the soft look on his face as he remembered that moment looked daft. “Well Alaris, now that I have met you I must agree with M’Call’s and Lynna’s assessment of you. You would make an excellent candidate…” he broke off as he searched in the right jacket pocket for the paperwork he had brought… just in case “…if you are interested that is?”
“Oh yes, I’m interested, I’d love for the chance to impress one of those brave, kind, beautiful dragons.”
“In that case I shall leave these for you to fill in, subject to the necessary interview of course -which you should pass with flying colours- you will be accepted onto the candidate programme, you can turn the papers over to one of the search riders tomorrow that will be coming in the next few days.”
“So you are going to search then?” Professor Norder drawled in an amused voice.
“ Yes, we sent a large batch of our candidates down to one of the Italian Weyr’s, they were a little low on candidates. Most of them impressed so now we are short. The riders should arrive about half nine, just after breakfast to avoid messing up schedules.”
“So we get the least disruption for the workers? how kind of you D’Gor.”
“Well, now that I may have gotten what I came for, I’m in the mood to be accommodating,” said the dragon rider grinning at Alaris as he did so.
“Well, I’ve got to go back now, I’ve a few things I really should get done at the weyr, I may see you around Alaris; Lynna, Coranith says that a brown rider will be coming to collect you in about half an hour. That should give you the time to get what you need together.” he said, rising from his seat to give the stunned girl a slap on the back before rounding the desk to kiss the professor on the cheek. He then swept out of the office leaving the door slightly ajar. He trotted down the corridor and then up the stairs to the panel heights where his dragon sat sunning. He carefully made his way between the racks of solar panels to his dragon
“So what do you think?”
“Fellith is right, the girl will ride gold. She will hear us too. I could hear her, she is strong”
“I think so too my friend, the way those fire lizards reacted to her,” he shook his head in amazement that he had carefully concealed from the two women. “It was amazing, I have never seen one that reacted to someone who they were not bonded to before. This one will need watching well.”
He mounted his dragon before continuing.
“We had better get back and report the good news, I very much doubt that Jeff will disagree to a search. We do need more candidates after all.”
The dragon launched himself into the air and as the people below watched in awe, winked between.
“Well, that was refreshing,” commented Professor Norder once the dragon rider had left. “You may go Alaris, I suspect that you have a lot to think about and you need to fill those forms in for the morning. Since D’Gor pretty much made it clear you had been accepted onto the candidate programme I see no reason why you need to attend any more of my lectures or practicals this week but you may want to inform your other lecturers of your good fortune. You will need to prepare to go to the weyr.”
“Uh, thank you professor,” replied Alaris, still slightly stunned by the dragon rider’s offer. “I think I will take up the offer, I always treasured the moments when Fellith spoke to me and to have a dragon choose me as a life-mate would be an honour and an opportunity that I cannot in all honesty pass up. Mother and father will be so proud to hear this news, I really should call them.”
“You do that Alaris, and get those forms filled in. You have always been one of my favourite pupils you know, and you helped me with Coo when he was young, I hope you impress for your sake, impression is an amazing experience, once in a lifetime. I am only saddened that I am too old to have had the chance, my little sister did you know, Eve impressed a green when she was 26, Wasth spoke to me on the odd occasion too, I think Eve asked her to though, it was because she knew I would never be able to experience it.”
“Thank you professor, for all you have done for me, I won’t forget you, you know.”
The professor smiled before replying, “Go on off with you, you have those forms to fill in.”
“Oh crips! I’m supposed to meet Dan at the stables in an hour, we’re supposed to be going for a ride, get the horses exercised. They have been so restless these last few days after being cooped up for so long; I’ve got to go! Goodbye professor!” Alaris quickly rose from her seat and gave her favourite tutor a quick hug before heading for the office door.
“Oh Alaris,” called the professor before she left the office, “Could you keep the knowledge of the search to yourself until I have made up an announcement for the evening meal?”
“Of course professor, I won’t be back till after then anyway. We are going to go for a loooong ride to get the oats from under the horses’ feet.”
“Very well, enjoy your ride,” was the reply Alaris heard as she headed down the corridor to get to the stairwell that would lead to her room. She turned her computer on and quickly sent off messages to her parents and brother about the good news before heading to the kitchen to scavenge some lunch. She was able to grab a bowl of tomato soup and a large granary roll fresh out of the oven along with a wedge of Lancashire cheese, which she quickly ate in the dining hall before heading for the stairwell that lead to the stables. She passed by the tack room and headed straight for the loose box that her horse was stabled in to give her a quick grooming. Heading back only to pick up the saddle, bridle and numnah that she would need to ride Kai, it took only moments to saddle her up as the horse was intelligent enough to realise that the less she fussed, the quicker she would be tacked up and the sooner she would be able to get out for a run.
As Alaris lead her outside to the mounting block (not that she needed to use it being so tall) she passed by several of her class mates and students from other years doing a stable rotation also getting horses ready to be ridden. They were all discussing the article that they had been looking at this morning and had noticed the bronze dragon on the panel heights. They were speculating on what the rider had come to the vet-hold for. Alaris passed by, inwardly smiling to herself about knowing the reason for the presence of the dragon-rider but heeding professor Norder’s injunction and keeping silent save for answering the odd greeting thrown her way as she passed.
Kai’s jigging about at the end of the reins was enough to show her friends that she would be unable to stop for a chat the horse just would not have stood still for it. Once she had mounted, Kai started to prance about, getting antsy as she smelt the fresh air breezing into the concrete stable block. Alaris rode her out through the hay barn, also clad with concrete and roofed with metal and trotted her over to the large rectangular sanded paddock used when exercising and training the horses in an enclosed environment outside. The indoor arena was only used during thread and in wet, rainy weather but was useful to turn animals out in if a stable was being cleaned. This was only done however when they could not be released in the paddocks for a stretch of their legs as had been the case for the last several days, what with the cattle herds being in them. They horses had had to be contained in order to prevent cross infection and the spread of any diseases between the valuable horses and herd animals.
She had noticed Dan in the paddock doing some complicated dressage moves on Whinberry, his very talented, elegant and beautiful Anglo Arab stallion. She walked Kai around to the gate, opened it using her riding crop (a trick her friend Anna had taught her), nudged the horse through and then managed to close the gate; quite a feat to accomplish whilst staying aboard the restless fidgety mare.
By the time she had completed the manoeuvre Dan had noticed that she was there and had trotted over. Whinberry extended his nose to whuff at Kai who snorted back. They were good friends, having worked together and been stabled next to each other for the last few years and so worked well in the team events that their riders took them to.
“That last manoeuvre looked complicated Dan,” greeted Alaris, “I could never do that, and it would be too much for poor Kai here,” she added whilst patting her mount on the neck.
“Yeah it is a little complicated, it took ages to train Whin to do it.” replied Dan. “So how did the meeting go with Norder?” he added as they slowly circled the paddock side by side in a warm-up lap.
“Oh it wasn’t too bad Dan, I’ll tell you the long and the short of it later. Say, did you notice the Bronze Dragon on the heights earlier? The stables were abuzz with it as I was tacking Kai up,” Alaris noted, deftly changing the subject from the forbidden topic to a slightly safer one whilst in the arena where anyone could hear her.
“Yeah, it looked like it was asleep for the most part though I guess it could have been sun bathing like your lot were earlier. Where are they by the way?”
“Oh, off somewhere exploring I expect” she replied off handedly. “The dragon was probably sunning himself by the way. Dragons have to do that daily apparently as well as be bathed and oiled.”
“Oh, right, I remember that, it was in the course a few years back the very basic aspects of care and healing of dragons. Anyway, I didn’t dare bring Whin out with that him there, you know what horses are like when they are around so I did a little work on that bridle I am making. I only brought Whin out about twenty minutes ago.”
“So we can warm up together then.”
They walked their mounts around the arena in a companionable silence, which Dan broke by asking:
“I wonder why the dragon rider was here? Perhaps he came to pick Norder up? I remember hearing that there was a bad scoring today up at the Weyr that required her delicate touch. It would certainly be faster than going overland to the Weyr.”
Alaris pushed Kai into an extended trot before answering. “Yes I believe he was here for Professor Norder, she mentioned she was getting a lift and it would take the best part of two days to get there overland even if the roads are in good repair…”
After chatting amiably for half an hour whilst putting the horses through their warm up paces in preparation for the cross-country jumping run, they moved into the jumping paddock and started schooling the horses over the cavaletti. From there, they progressed onto the higher jumps in the new jumping arena. Pulling up after another half hour of this they exited the jumping paddock and headed out into the open country. They wended their way through the paddocks and cantered through the enormous glasshouse protecting a plantation of soft and hardwood trees further away from the hold before turning up the dirt track that led to the cross-country course in its little valley. With Dan leading off they galloped along the track, racing each other to get to the valley first. They reached the valley neck and neck and laughing, pulled their mounts to a walk. It was a mark of the horses’ fitness that they were barely breathing heavily. They had been kept fit all through the cold winter by long rides in the snow and long sessions in the indoor arena late at night or early in the morning when the arena was less crowded.
Now that they were in a more secluded spot Alaris decided to tell Dan what had actually happened in the interview with the professor.
“…and then he asked Professor Norder if it was O.K. for the Weyr to come on search in the morning sometime this week! I can’t believe it Dan. I mean I will have the chance to impress a green or gold dragon. It’s such a shock, I never expected to be searched out but I have always wanted to work with them, that’s why I chose to become a dragon healer. But to impress……”
“It is a real honour that Allie, your family must be really proud of you.” replied Dan after listening to Alaris as she had poured out her heart to him, airing her worries and ambitions. “At least you have a supportive family. Mine were horrified that I wanted to work with ‘beasts’, not in computing as most of my family has done.” He added with bitterness in his voice.
“Oh, Dan I am sorry, I shouldn’t have vented off like that, its just Professor Norder swore me to silence. I had to tell someone and you are the most discreet person I know and we are in a secluded spot so are unlikely to be overheard. Anyway, if they do come on search you have a chance too, you are so good with the flits you know” She broke off abruptly as Dan started to laugh. “I am doing it again aren’t I?”
“Well, that is why you earned the nickname ‘Babble’.”
At this Alaris started to laugh as well remembering the time in her first year at the hold before making friends that she had talked a lot out of sheer nervousness. Later she had had long conversations and debates with her friends. The horses just stood there flicking their ears listening to the humans laugh and wondering if they were mad or not.
After they had calmed down, they mutually decided to go over the course, each critiquing the other’s performance on the first round. They then increased the size of the jumps to a more professional level before deciding on a course that would test them and their horses and would also be raceable over. They went over this course once carefully working on the pacing of the distance between the jumps before going over it at speed. As it was starting to get late by the end of that run they decided to race the course against each other the finish being the end of the track that turned into the jumping valley in the plantation.
The horses, a little tired from the exertions now, perked up as they sensed their rider’s excitement. They started to jib a little until the signal – Dan dropping his upraised arm – was given. The two horses leapt off from a standstill to a gallop racing for the first jump, a simple arrow of logs which they soared over neck and neck and pounded on to the next the bull-finch. This was cleared with ease, as were the others. The electricity between the two riders and horses was palpable as they were still neck and neck coming up to the last fence, a jump over a log barrier into the stream that wended its way through the valley. The stream was blocked up farther down and so the water on the other side was quite deep and wide. As Kai landed she pecked a little as her hooves slipped in some mud, putting Whinberry and Dan into the lead over the home stretch. It was only a supreme effort on Kai’s part and the fact that she was taller and had longer legs than her stable-mate that resulted in her winning the race by a hair’s breadth.
As they pulled their tired horses to a walk and headed them in the direction of the hold they picked up their conversation again.
“You know Dan, with the search in the morning, you do have every chance of getting chosen for candidacy, I mean my flits respond to you really well, so does Anna’s Zell as well as Tom’s Fee… which is a point. Where have they gone? They were definitely following us when we got here I saw them.”
“I think I saw one of them heading that way,” he replied, pointing at a tangent to their present direction through a stand of old trees that had survived the initial thread falls, “We had better see what they are up to. They may get lost,” he replied, adding the last bit with a sly grin to see if he could get a rise out of Alaris. It did.
“Hey! They have never gotten lost before… Oh you!” she replied in a heated tone until she saw him laughing at her and joined in with him. They headed in the direction the fire lizards had disappeared and shortly heard the excited cheeping of the creatures and the distressed call of a cow. Pushing their horses to a trot they broke into a clearing and saw that the bawling heifer had a severely broken leg and that the flits were flapping about it cheeping in an agitated and excited sort of way. On further inspection of the break they decided that it wouldn’t be worth bringing it back to the hold to be healed the break was infected. It would be kinder to put the animal out of it’s misery, so Dan taking out his boot knife, which had a rather strong steel blade plunged it into the back of the heifer’s neck, killing her instantly. She sagged to the damp, mulch floor and they set about butchering the carcass.
It took them nearly an hour and a half to skin and dress the carcass and to fashion the hide into suitable saddlebags to carry the meat back to the hold. It would provide a fine meal this meat; most likely it would be carved up and be stewed with a load of the root vegetables that were stored from last autumn’s harvest. By this point the horses were too tired to balk at the metallic smell of the meat, though the fire lizards enjoyed feasting off the blood and offal that Alaris set aside for them.
It took them longer to get back to the hold than they had anticipated and it was dark and quite late, well after dinnertime. After dismounting, they lead their tired mounts back to their stalls and untacked them.
“Allie, I’ll take the meat up to the kitchens, it needs to be stored before it goes off, would you mind getting Whin’s feed while I do it?”
“Sure Dan, not a problem.” she replied as she hefted the saddle into a more comfortable position on her arm. She picked up the bridle and numnah and headed to the tack room to off-load her gear. She then grabbed the buckets of feed for Kai and Whinberry and headed back to the horses to start grooming them.
By the time Dan got back from the kitchens she had finished settling her mare and had moved onto Dan’s horse.
“You didn’t need to do that Allie. I was coming back.” He told her as she ducked under Whinberry’s neck and slipped out of the loose box.
“Oh it’s not a problem Dan, I was glad to do it, Whinberry is really quite a sweetie for a stallion. I’ll leave you to it though, I have to get my tack cleaned and start on that application form. Plus I am starving, I think I’ll stop by the kitchens on the way back to my room to get something to eat, there is always soup in the pot, maybe there will even be leftovers of whatever there was for dinner. See ya in the morning.” She replied before heading to the tack room.
Later after thoroughly cleaning her tack, which had been dirt encrusted and smeared with blood from the heifer she headed up to the kitchens to see what was on offer in the way of food. There was a choice of a thick meaty stew full of root vegetables or some slices of cold roast beef in a bun with salad. She chose the stew, snaffled a bun at the same time to eat as a snack later and ate her dinner in her room at her desk whilst checking and replying to her e-mails. Once she had eaten, she had a quick shower, changed out of her dirty clothes into something more comfortable and sat at her desk looking thoughtfully at the application form, wondering what to write. It asked some unusual questions, possibly as a test to see if the potential candidate had the right mental outlook on life as well as the usual name/ age/ address etc.
As she sat there Aria fluttered over to the desk from her perch on the bedstead asking for caresses. Alaris obliged, scratching her eye ridges and under her chin. “You did well finding that cow, sweetie,” she said softly. “That meat will feed us for a day or two, depending on how it’s used. It was too valuable to have just been left there to die.”
Aria chirped quietly and hummed, enjoying the caresses. The other fire lizards, having gorged themselves on the offal, were now flat out asleep in a tangle on the padded comfy chair in the corner of the room.
Sighing, Alaris turned back to the application form and completed filling it in. She put it in the envelope that had come with it and put it in a prominent place on her desk. She had a quick glance at the list that had come with the forms, which told her what she would need to take with her to the Weyr; yawning, she then put on her pyjamas and climbed into her bed. Aria fluttered down landing on the bed and curled up in a small ball at the base of her back.
Up at the weyr D’Gor was sat in conversation with the Weyr leaders and Eleri over a bottle of wine, they were discussing Alaris and the possibilities of a search through the holds for sensitives using the blue and green dragons that had proved so clever at weeding out the likely candidates
“…So Jeff what do you think? She is definitely a likely candidate for the queen if anyone is, especially if what Fellith and Coranith tell me is true. I mean look at those test scores,” D’Gor flipped a folder over to the young Weyrleader. “She is far better at the practical stuff because it involves working with animals and they respond well to her.”
Penny, Illiath’s rider responded to this comment first “Animals responding well is one thing but how do the fire lizards and dragons respond?”
“Well I saw her get angry about looking over her private records – that was Lynna’s idea not mine – her lizards responded by hissing, the queen was even ready to launch at me for upsetting her mistress,”
“That doesn’t prove anything, D’Gor, you know that though the fact that she has a queen is one thing in her favour, do you know how old it is?” interposed Eleri.
“As a matter of fact I do, the egg apparently was a prize for biology four years ago so she knows what a mating flight is like even if it is less intense than a dragon pairing which is another thing in her favour but that’s not the point.”
“What is the point then?” asked Jeffrey
“Lynna’s fire lizard also reacted. He also hissed at me, Coranith warned them all off me. I have never seen that before.”
“I have D’Gor”
“Yes Eleri?”
“My niece, that’s what tipped the Washington Weyr off to her, she has no fire lizards of her own but they always responded to her call and if they knew her to her emotions, Lynna’s little one must know her at least partially to have hissed at you.”
“Who is this niece of yours then Eleri?” asked Penny
“Her name is Mia Purbeck she rides Isharth, the junior queen at Washington.”
“She’s the HAD isn’t she?”
“Yes. From the sounds of things you have found us another D’Gor.”
“It wasn’t me actually, M’Call tipped me off to her, she is his niece.”
“With a pedigree like hers it’s no wonder she’s a sensitive!” exclaimed Penny. “Wasn’t it her grandmother who discovered the original fire lizards in the first place?
“No. That was her great grandmother.” Answered Jeff, the history buff of the group.
“Well I gave her the forms to fill in should she agree to stand. I don’t think there will be a problem there,” D’Gor added quickly when he saw the concern on the other’s faces. “She seemed quite eager to take the chance, and she can take tuition from Tessera too. She was actually supposed to be meeting Lynna to discuss her decision to take up dragon veterinary work,” He chuckled “I doubt she will object to working in the infirmary until the hatching”
Jeff breathed a sigh of relief, “Yes, that would be a good place to put her, she’s what a last year vet student? Well she can sit her exams as an ‘assessment’ and do work full time helping out. We need more staff in the infirmary, they are overworked at the moment, even with Lynna’s occasional assistance. And if she does impress, well we will just have to take the training as fast as the hatchling allows.” he said in a decisive manner, “If we get M’Call in on it…say…get her to think it was his suggestion to get her assigned to the dragon infirmary…”
“It could just work, and we could test her out on hearing other dragons too” put in Penny.
“You always were a sly one Jeff” grinned Eleri.
“Good, so its settled, we have one queen candidate, any other prospects Jeff?”
“Well, Wellington weyr has a few candidates, a girl among them that they are willing to ship over from New Zealand, they want them back though if they don’t impress so there may be one other queen candidate.”
“We really do need a good selection for her Jeff, it would be unfair otherwise” said Penny anxiously; she had seen the consequences of too few candidates standing on the hatching sands and shuddered at the memory of the dreadful keening when the little green hatchling, unable to find it’s chosen life mate had suicided.
“Don’t worry pet,” soothed Jeff. “we still have a full month to mount a search for candidates. We need more than just queen candidates at the moment even with those coming over from Wellington.”
“So we will be searching then?” asked Eleri.
“Oh yes, we have five days to the next fall in our territory, that should be plenty of time to cover the southern portion of it. We can do the rest as fall permits…”
The morning that the search reached Cheddar Gorge Hold Alaris rose early, she showered, dressed in similar clothes to those she had worn the day she had met D’Gor and headed off to the kitchens to get her little friends their breakfast. Once they had eaten she went down to the stable area to feed and groom Kai and to muck out her loose box.
She headed up to the dining hall for breakfast today deciding to keep it simple; opting for sweet porridge and a cup of tea. As she was one of the first there she got her meal and chose a table near to the window, there was a nice view this morning as the late autumn sun shone brightly in the sky. Slowly the room filled with the hold’s residents each trying to get a seat near to the windows to catch the morning sun.
The hall got noisier as it filled, people were speculating where the dragon rider’s search would send them next. Everyone knew that they were looking for more than queen candidates and those old enough to stand were hopeful. At about half past nine the air outside was split with the bugles of dragons above the hold. Alaris having finished her breakfast long before was just staring into the sky and got the best view of everyone of the dragons coming out of between, first there was nothing and then they were just there. The room was silent for about a second before people started to rush outside to see the dragon riders land on their magnificent beasts. Alaris ran up to her room with her fair swirling behind her to pick up the application forms that she had filled in three nights before. When she got outside she saw that the dragon riders, a blue rider and two green riders were conferring with their dragons. She slowly walked up to the nearest, the blue rider.
“Excuse me sir, I have an application form for the candidacy to give you. Bronze rider D’Gor nominated me as a candidate a few days ago.”
“Ah, yes. He did mention it to us, you must be Alaris then.” replied the dragon rider. “I am Da’Vid rider of blue Lelith. If you could just wait here we will give you further instructions with any other potential candidates.”
Alaris stood to one side awaiting the decision of the dragons and their riders as to who, if anyone would be made candidates.
After what seemed to her to be a long time, the dragon riders walked into the crowd pulling out the candidates and sending them to stand with her. To her delight, Dan as well as another of her classmates (http://69.42.87.207/cgi-bin/ezlclk.fcgi?id=6751) Laura, was chosen as well as four from year groups below hers. In all there were seven chosen to stand with her as one of the domestic housekeeper’s teenage sons was also chosen as a candidate.
Once the selection was completed, the blue rider Da’Vid addressed the crowd. “We have chosen the candidates that are eligible to stand for the hatching from this hold’s young people. We thank you for your patience in the time it took to select them and apologise if it has inconvenienced you in any way. Your candidates will do your hold proud whether they impress or not. Your hold is to be honoured for having so many candidates to offer the weyr and the clutch Illiath has laid. We thank you again for your patience.”
The principle of the vet school, the most senior person currently on the premises offered his thanks to the dragon riders for choosing the hold as one to be searched, offering them hospitality as he did so. The dragon riders declined the offer, saying that they had already eaten full breakfasts at the Weyr and that this was one of many places to visit that day in order to present the eggs with sufficient candidates for the hatchlings. The principle ushered the remaining crowd that were still gawping at the dragons back to work in the hold proper and in the veterinary sheds, reminding people as he did so that chores wouldn’t wait forever and that sick beasts needed healing and the annual cull was to be slaughtered and butchered for the freezers over the next few days and it would not be done by itself.
As the crowds dispersed to their respective jobs the dragon riders turned to face the remaining candidates. Da’Vid spoke to them, smiling softly in remembrance of his own search and impression when he had only just been in time to reach the sands and impress the last blue on the hatching grounds. The creature who would choose no one else from all of the candidates there that day had been his best friend, companion and occasional advisor ever since. “You have been selected from the crowd because the dragons sense that you are sensitive to dragons and are suitable to stand on the hatching grounds and try to impress a dragon. I cannot promise that you will impress, for it is the dragon that ultimately decides. If you so choose to stand on the hatching sands you will need to fill in these forms and those of you who are under 18 will also require the signature of at least one parent attesting that you are allowed to stand.” He said glancing at the youngest candidate as he said the last part. “You will be expected to travel to the weyr a week from today at ten o’clock in the morning to undergo a preliminary interview with a wing leader or queen rider to confirm your suitability. You will be expected on the platform of London’s Euston train station to be collected by the supply train. It is delivering much needed supplies to the Weyr and a few extra passengers will be no problem however,” and here he paused his voice altering to a more menacing tone. “You must not be late for the train. It can only stop at the station for a short period as it is on a tight schedule so if you miss the train you forfeit your chance of standing on the sands at this impression. The weyr leaders expect punctuality in their riders as well as manners so be warned.” He then altered his voice to a more friendly tone. “Once past that and you have filled in the forms you will move to the candidate barracks of the Weyr with the others who will be chosen until the time of the hatching. During your time at the Weyr you will learn the basics of dragon care and Weyr life that all candidates learn before impression as well as working chore sections to assist the regular Weyr personnel. We…” He swept his arms to include the two green riders whilst smiling at the stunned candidates. “…hope to see you then and wish you good luck at the hatching.” The other dragon riders also bade the candidates’ farewell and good luck before mounting their dragons. The candidates backed away in readiness for the dragon’s take off which they knew would throw up dirt and dust from the concrete apron in front of the hold. The larger of the two greens that had accompanied the blue dragon Lelith sprang off the ground first swirling dust around the candidates, shortly followed by the other green and Lelith himself. Once they had attained a height that was considered safe to go between they disappeared, bathing the new candidates in the icy cold air of between.