Hendar
About 18 turns old
Stands over 6' tall, and is extremely well-built, strong muscles especially on his chest and arms
Has lightly-tanned skin, with several scars visible, but all obviously from fighting
His hair is pale caramel colored, and is short, to his ears but fluffy; his eyes are light blue
He wears the bracers with a sleeveless long tunic and loose pants
** Note that when Hendar's page was written I had not yet finished any of the other Caledrus Hold candidates and he impressed much earlier than all of them, even though he appears in their story a bit. He did not reappear in Caledrus until after their arrival to Alskyr but I'm too lazy to fix the stories...
Hendar greets you outside his weyr. "Come on in," he tells you.
"Do you have ... something on your arms?" You ask, and he turns with a smile.
"Why yes I do," he says, "I've got Southern Fighting Blades on. Why?"
"I've.... never seen those before."
"Of course not. They're very rare, and they've been outlawed in most places. I'm afraid I still like playing with sharp things, and they were given to me by my father. I'm still attached to them."
The blades are attached to heavy leather bracers, and there are long spikes at his elbows. They look like they're quite dangerous!
"You don't think you could take those off could you?" You ask, timidly.
"I don't think I will," he says, challenging you with a gaze. "As I said, they were my fathers, and I will keep them on."
So, this was why he had the reputation he did in the weyr! He was known to be tough, but outstandingly fair. He broke up fights between bullies and their prey, and he often was used as a kind of excuse by the weyrling trainer to keep young candidates in line.
"I won't be able to wear them when I'm on a dragon, you know," he says, and you nod.
"Well, that's a relief. So, Hendar, how old are you?"
"I'm 18 turns old. I was searched just recently, out of my Hold's lands. I used to work with the burden beasts, but I also had some training in the Hold's court. You know, keeping the peace." He holds up the bladed bracer on his arm, and the light gleams dangerously off the four sharp spade-shaped blades.
"Are you going to try a craft, if you don't Impress?" You ask, wondering if he'll beat you up for that?
"Well, I've got the option to just go back to the Hold and continue to be a guard. But this is what I want," he waves out at the skies. "I want to fly!"
"What do you think of the girls in the weyr? The ones for the hatching?"
At that his face gets a broad grin. "Some of them are much nicer on the eyes than others, aren't they? Especially... What is her name? The blond?"
"Cerice..." you suggest, and he nods. "She's about my age, isn't she? I'd love to see how much of her is perfect!"
The conversation threatens to become more rude, so you decide to ask the other regular questions and get out while you still have light in the day.
They watched as all eyes were on the first egg to hatch, a bronze! Then, a blue and brown hatched, then suddenly three greens. They fought and their newly impressed riders all but snapped at one another. Then a bronze and brown hatched, and another green.
There was a bit of a lull.
No one had noticed that one of the larger eggs lay half-buried in the sands. It had cracked but not broken, during the greens' fight. When the bronze came from it, Hendar's eyes lit up. There was a voice in his head, something he'd been known to hear but never this sharp or clearly.
H'ndar, please help me! The sand buries me!
Hendar -- now H'ndar to his beloved dragon -- rushed over to where the large bronze was stuck. His tail and both back legs were almost completely covered in sand! H'ndar dug quickly, and used part of the broken shell to remove the rest. Then, he stood with his friend and listened to the voice in his head.
"His name is Cometh and he's MY bronze!" H'ndar announced. It must have broken the muttering and distracted everyone, for there were other eggs now hatching again.
H'ndar didn't care that many eyes drifted to him. He was used to being seen. He'd been made to leave his fighting blades behind of course, but the first thing that Cometh asked after 'food and scratching' was,
Where are your spines? I know you have them! You could scratch me with those when I get big! I know I will be very big, H'ndar. I may not look it right now, but I will be!
H'ndar laughed a bit. "Cometh, you're already big! Big enough to look most of the other Candidates in the eye!"
It was true! This bronze, while not the first in the clutch to hatch, nor the very biggest anyone would ever see, was quite large at the start and had strong, long legs! Now that they were out of their sandy trap, that is!
"A guy club. So we go out, fight thread, fly golds, and that kinda stuff?"
"Perfectly interpreted!" Shard laughed.
"Then I'm in! Consider it a done deal, once this bronze hulk is full grown!" H'ndar patted the side of the great bronze's neck, and Cometh rolled his head to get a better scratching.
There, just right there.... yes.... more, if this man and his dragon might even help, I would love to be scratched a bit more.
"You always do, Cometh. Now, hush." H'ndar turned back to look for Shard but the man was gone. "Well, I suppose I'll find out where to meet you later..."
Eventually as the Protectorate drifted from one world to another, Hendar, not really bothering with the spelling as it would sound the same either way, realized that the stars in their sky were different than he remembered them as a child. He'd met up with 'the guy club' and even participated with a massive number of other riders on a strange world with ... well, massive dragon-like creatures with many heads and terror in their eyes.
When all was said and done, Hendar went to become a guard again, but this time for a place suggested to him as the Stone Fury wing split up and retired. On their new home of Alskyr, and on this lovely lush and varied island named Paniya, it appeared that the folk in charge had done the impossible: they'd moved a Hold from the old world to the new.
It was to that Hold, Caledrus, that he was sent. And where to his surprise there were dragons quite comfortably present already. None were as big and bold as his own sleek sharp Cometh, and none would challenge them for a role like wing leader, would they? But on this world too there were different dangers. No Thread fell, but there were swarms of ants; big ants, some the size of whers, and there were plants that could only be killed with fire that would choke the land if not controlled.
Few of the Kshau riders and dragons actually were needed to participate in such things. But rather than grow bored with their new retirement, Hendar and Cometh would do patrolling, sweeping past the roads and woods and putting abject terror into the hearts of a few scattered bandit groups. His job, then, was to help organize the dragon riders at this small canyon-nook Hold, to make sure that they were safe from all things, attended well by fine dragons to move goods or escort both nobles and prisoners to their destinations.
He had also discovered that there was a young woman here that he - somehow - remembered from their childhood days. He'd had such a crush on her, Janice! Janice was her name. And now, impressed to a gold, as well she should. He recalled her being worthy of such a dragon, if his time in the weyr and wing could be trusted.
Her dragon would want to rise, some day, but for the moment, Hendar knew there was another place needing his dragon's bold presence. Cometh and Hendar were going to a place back on the 'old world', Shigan Weyr.
The instructions for their arrival, the stars in the sky and the landmarks... They seemed both familiar and oddly off. Maybe a star or planet in the wrong place, one brighter than it ought to be, the curve of a mountain peak just a touch not-as-recalled. He'd rarely been on this part of the continent in the first place, here in these dry hills. He was used to the more coastal, and slightly more moist, climate of Alabaster's locale.
But the air was certainly fresh even if it made his nose tingle with the dryness. The skies ... well, dominated by the dreadful Red Star. Or something like it; it, too, felt off.
Cometh landed and looked around and instantly gave a bit of a bellow. He didn't think anything was too badly out of place, but then he was a bit preoccupied. There! There she is, look at her. Fine gold.
Hendar leaned over the dragon's shoulder, dropping to the ground after sliding a good way along Cometh's long leg. He'd barely had time to take his riding harness off when Cometh sprang back into the air, getting used to the landscape. There were dragons in the air, training obviously, and Hendar gave a sharp command to stay out of their way. We will help if they ask us, but we're here for a flight, Cometh. They mean business in that wing up there.
I mean business too.
Did Hendar miss it? Thread sweeps and falling clumps... well, miss was not the right word. He wasn't old by any stretch, not yet even thirty in fact, but he'd been riding Cometh for almost eleven turns, and their duties among the Stone Fury wing had dwindled when they reached Alskyr four years back. Even if his arms and his precious bracers continued to get workouts on the roads to clear desperate or dangerous people and creatures away from Caledrus, he felt like he would need a hefty refresher course if they were asked to return to the skies as Thread fighters.
But...
Oh look at him, Hendar shook his head and chuckled. That dragon, bigger than any three blues put together, was still able to overtake the speedy little males and turn them on their tails as they came in from duties. The weyrling master here was a bit of an odd man, but seemed to take to Hendar and his gangly, sharp bronze. Maybe they could teach their own upstart weyrling pairs a thing or two, with moves like those!
But it would be moves that needed to catch that beautiful gold's eye, (or at least her tail, nudge nudge amIright? hahh? Hendar's teenage self still poked through the matured exterior now and again...). They spent a while watching both weyrlings and full fighting wings, got a better idea of what to expect as the gold would rise... Soon, soon they would know whether his sleek form and quick tricks would do the job.
Hendar, for his part, properly introduced himself to the gold's rider, instantly recognizing the strength in her, and the wily streak to boot. But Hendar did also remind both himself and the Junior Weyrwoman, that he was no weyrleader, and... that his heart was truly with his Janice back at Caledrus. Even if Cometh didn't win the flight, they would likely want to continue communicating between Caledrus and Shigan, or more accurately with Alabaster Weyrhold and Shigan, since their allegiance was to the much-closer Weyrhold than to the Blackstone group farther around the island they resided upon.
Dragon Info:
Name: Cometh
Gender: Male
Color: Bronze
Size: medium-large (long, slender) 12' shoulder, 60' long, 58' wingspan
Species: Pernese
Hatched: Seasparkul Weyr
Parentage: Gold Silkenth, Bronze Kilmeth (both progenitors at Seasparkul) **
Notes:
as far as I know I may be the only one with any Seasparkul dragons in the first clutch, Cometh's clutch sibling Gold Qutteth does have offspring in the nexus, and Creamith had a clutch with Sixth which might have some very scattered descendents in the nexus too. Cometh has never bred officially.
