Nola, female, 5'10, 150, slender build, 15 turns old, red-brown hair kept in a tail but very fluffy, green-brown eyes, and a dark tan-red skintone.

Nola is the illegitamate daughter of brown rider N'ron and kitchen drudge Leoa. She has literally a dozen half-siblings but none so close to her as her half-brother Norolan. Their story is connected deeply, and is not a very pleasant one in the start. Nola is a drudge, and excells at sewing and tailoring. In fact she could very well challenge many tailors or crafters at the work, but since she is a drudge by birth she will never seriously be considered into a craft. She is exceptionally intelligent, a feature that her parents both had. It is her willpower which she shares with her brother and which they both inherited from their rider father. Nola is surprisingly resiliant physically, though she is somewhat dull looking. Her “family nose” often gets her mocked if she is found around any Holder girls for any length of time, another inheritance from her father. She is resourceful and almost completely selfless, though she does feel quite bitter at the way she is treated by the Lady Holders and their children. She does after all have dragonrider blood in her veins.

Norolan, male, 6'1”, 170 with a slender build and long arms, 18 turns old, reddish brown hair kept in a straight tail, and dark green eyes, with tan-red skin.

Norolan always has a slight grin on his face, but why remains a mystery. His father is brownrider N'ron, and his mother is a well-placed Lady Holder in Caledrus. He was raised in the Hold but has visited several Weyrs during his childhood. He is very literate and takes to puzzles quickly. He is not very strong nor burly, but he is able to last at what he does for a while before giving out. His strong will power – and the family nose – both come from his father, while his love of clothing and stylish things he carries from his mother's side of the family. He and Nola share a special devotion to one another, he refuses to let anyone hurt his sister. Though it is uncommon, if he is searched and goes to a weyr, he will not go without Nola, even if she must come along as a drudge with him, something which she certainly wouldn't mind!

And family meant more to him than anything. This part of the family, he treasured without blinking. Everyone else mocked him quietly behind his back. Because family of Lords should not include mere drudges. Ugly ones at that.

But to Norolan, Nola his slightly younger sister was hardly ugly. Certainly she had the same skin and hair, and their faces were clearly related. It was that she reminded him of their father - in so many ways. But why couldn't he have just taken her with him to the weyr before he...

"You can stop that now," Norolan said, clearing his throat and causing three younger Ladies to jump. He'd heard their high tittering voices from down the hallway, and sure enough they were always pestering Nola. "She has work to do, young ladies, so I think you should let her get to it."

"You just want to make our lives boring," said one. The eldest, and the most annoying.

"Then boring they shall be," Norolan growled. He was hardly menacing by most standards, but he was much bigger than the girls, and would not hesitate to swat their behinds should they remain too long. They knew that much about him. Perhaps they would be thrilled by it, were they a little older. But for now, they were young enough to be pests.

They left the pair alone in the hallway, and Norolan watched his sister picking up buttons and sewing supplies from the floor. The basket she had been carrying was all the way down by another door, and he strode over to pick it up.

"You don't have to put up with their chatter and abuse," Norolan said, helping pick up the sewing.

"You needn't do this for me, sir," Nola said out of rote. Her eyes were watery, but surely she recognized her own brother? They spent a lot of time together, but still, she was treated as a drudge when they were apart.

"Sir?" He looked around, surprised. "Is there someone I can't see here?"

Nola stifled a giggle, but then failed to supress a sob. She fell into her brothers arms, and he held her firmly, swaying a little.

"I know I should take it better," she said, muffled by her brother's chest, "but I can't change the way I look, and I can't become something I'm not..."

"You're a lordling's sister," Norolan tried to remind her.

"But that makes my station even more obvious," she replied. But at least to Norolan, that meant she was ready to stop feeling sorry for herself and talk out her problems with him. He helped her to her feet, and they went back to her chambers where other drudges were busy at work with their own projects.

They rarely looked up to acknowledge her, but when her brother arrived into the room they all stood up abruptly and bowed. He simply ignored them - eventually he hoped they'd do the same for him. He was just visiting with his sister after all...

For an hour they talked about how lords and ladies were expected to treat their charges - and how the drudges were expected to perform. Which of them worked harder? It was difficult to say but here in Caledrus a lot of the lower level Lords and Ladies were hardly workaholics. The upper crust were the ones who actually had to maintain their status. It required the work of many drudges to equal the time and effort that those men put into their holdings. The Ladies were expected to do crafts and push out babies.

That was one thing that both siblings agreed was not for either of them. Norolan wanted to have a family, but not one like his friends had. He valued each person in a family unit and since his had been spread out so much, their father's influence, he could love more than one person strongly enough.

"Well perhaps if I won't bear a child for some man," Nola said, "you'll be able to have two or three wives or mistresses. They'll all love you anyway, you're so much like a rider."

"Riders are more exotic than most people in Holds realize," Norolan agreed. "But I don't know if it's father's ways that I want to really follow either. Something else."

"But he was a rider, he lived that way because in Weyrs they're all ... rather promiscuous." Nola noticed one of the other drudges blushing and giggling, and she winked. "I can see that Relda understands that too."

Laughter came from that room for a while, as everyone worked and chatted.

Long into the night, Nola thought about how her brother would protect her when he was around. But... She was sure - positive - that he'd be searched some day. She knew that he would be destined to ride like their father, but she was also almost positive that Norolan would be suited to a dashing bronze dragon. Not just the brown that their sire had ridden.

Why was she so sure? What made her think that? Well obviously it was that he continually came to her aid. Didn't riders do that? But it took a special person to send bullies packing. It would be equally hard fighting Thread, wouldn't it? It was a senseless thing that fell from the skies and didn't care who it hit. Norolan had the sense in his head to avoid the stupid fights and take his wits with him at all times. If there was someone he couldn't fight - there was someone he would bring along the next time to do it for him!

Nola admired him so much. She was after all only still a teenager and while she didn't have a crush on her half brother, she loved him as much as any other girl could. What about plans for herself? She liked doing what she did here, especially the clever bead and button work that her Lady had in mind for dresses. She was quite good at it too, it took an expert hand and a keen eye to work threads perfectly.

She did think it something of a shame that her Lady always took all the credit for the work that Nola herself did. But that was the way of things. Her mother had instilled this into her: her place was at the feet of her Lady. Not hovering around her head. Not a voice in her ear. That was for her sisters or daughters or aunties. A drudge's place was indeed a lowly one.

Most drudges, Nola noted while heading to sleep, were dim witted or deformed. Rejects of society and worse. Birth accidents, orphans, people who had nothing left but perhaps a sound body. Here in Caledrus most of the drudges were healthier and somewhat sharper minded than those she'd met on one or two trips to other Holds. But in the long run, it didn't much matter.

Drudges were ignored as though they were insane. No one looked a drudge in the eye, because drudges didn't look anyone but each other in the eye. Anything else would mean a beating or death in some cases. Horror stories abounded - Nola suspected that some of them were simple lies made into fantastic stories. But many of them had grains of truth in them. Men could be cruel. Women worse.

Lords and Ladies. Nola drifted off to sleep while her brother did so in a bed many times softer and warmer.

***

"I've heard something unusual," Norolan said pulling Nola away from the center of the large hall, and into a nook nearby. "I've heard that something has happened."

"What is it? Is it thread again?" Nola said, worried.

"No, this is ... different. I can't explain it, but it ... doesn't it just feel different now?"

Nola looked at her brother as though he'd lost his mind. But he was sincere - his bright eyes were honest, as they gazed into her own. He was so earnest that she blinked and looked away but then, she tried to focus on what he was talking about.

Was it the walls? The ground? Perhaps but not. The people were the same. The animals, maybe they had gotten a bit skittish. She recalled that recently, perhaps a day or two ago, one of her Ladies' small dogs had growled fiercely and bitten the Lady, something the animal had never done in her life! The flitters - few that there were in the Hold - had all but vanished, and only now had begun to return.

"Come outside with me," Norolan said. "I want to show you."

Nola excitedly followed him, but knew that if she were caught sneaking out she'd surely be punished. Norolan paid that no heed, but was so focused that he seemed to counteract any Lordling's stern gaze or comment as they passed by.

They reached one of the exit chambers, and Norolan pulled open the doorway outside. Normally it was barred, but today it was open. Thread was too dangerous to allow to just drift in through openings! The outside was bright, Nola and her brother both winced and blinked away their blindness for a moment.

Nola stood by and watched as her brother took a seat on one of the rock formations nearby. The trees were the same - the ground was not changed. He gazed up at the sky, as many young men did.

Nola followed his gaze and at first didn't quite understand why she was confused.

But then...

"It's not ... red. It's not orange-colored, what is wrong with the sky? Norolan?" Nola said, begining to panic a bit.

"I think it's okay," he said. He was calm, so she tried to collect her wits too. She sat down beside him, and closely followed his gaze.

"Look at that there," he said pointing off to the distance. "That wasn't there, I have never seen that hill. And behind us should be the peaks, covered in snow, but there are no peaks."

Nola stood, to get a better view. Just as she did so, a pair of dragons flew low overhead!

"Dragons!" She exclaimed, but then Norolan tugged on her hand.

"Look at them closely," he suggested.

It was true they did not look like Alabaster dragons, the nearby Weyr. Instead they had strange features. But what eventually caught up to Nola's eyes, what with the light being so very different here, was that one of the dragons was a silvery black color, and the other a brilliant, "purple!? That dragon is violet! That's not possible!"

"It must be possible, wherever here is," Norolan said with a smirk. "Anyway, no one else really seems to have noticed. One or two of the crafters I hang out with, the smart ones..."

"Well that leaves the ladies and lordlings out of it then," Nola snorted out a loud laugh.

They went back inside, promising each other that they would not share this until someone official came to clear it up. The world doesn't just change overnight, now does it?

*** (This search takes place after the Kshau Protectorate shifts to Alskyr - without having told anyone about it.)***

It was only a few days later that the pair heard that a trio of dragons had arrived - one was from Alabaster, but the other two were foreign to their eyes. Nola had a very strong feeling about this, her brother would be Searched - that would be what anyone might want when a dragon came.

Since everyone was already in a tizzy, no one noticed a few missing drudges. Nola was able to escape her Lady's attention and find her brother in the group that was assembling outside on the Dragon Flats.

Though Norolan clung near some of his Lordling friends, there were others around him. Nola felt safe. She overheard another Lady talking to her friend say, "Have they said anything yet?"

"Not yet - but they're going to. I think the one is from another part of the Kshau Protectorate," a girl named Cendar announced, "but I don't know who the other is."

The riders motioned for everyone to please quiet down. The brown rider from Alabaster was K'yle, the Lord Holder's son. There was a blue rider, T'shen by name, whose travels through the Protectorate were quite amazing. The third was a woman, but quite the odd one, on a gold dragoness. For some reason, it looked as though this woman had ... fur and a tail. No one quite believed it until she dropped to the ground and started talking to her companions, but sure enough there were small ears poking out over her mop of silver hair, and a long tuft-tipped tail that swished about.

People began muttering almost immediately, but K'yle shushed them with a wave of his hand. "We're here on search, yes! We're going to give an announcement that's a bit important, to your Lords!" He answered several questions quickly, and then turned to his dragon who bellowed for quiet again. "Thanks - now listen - the Protectorate is going through some drastic changes. We've found a place that's better than all this," he waved his hand but few understood what he meant by that cryptic remark.

They continued to answer typical questions, but avoided mentioning this odd event, and then began allowing people near the dragons so they might be searched.

Nola felt her shoulder being brushed a bit, and instinctively she ducked down and out of the Lady's way. A bustling woman left a trail of muttering, and she heard Cendar say, "there's Caledrua herself," at the sharp-tongued woman who was the eldest daughter of the Lord Holder of Caledrus. "Does she really think she'll get Searched?"

"I think she just was," another Lady, Aaryea sighed. What was amazing to Nola was that no one stopped her from standing tall near the others, as the dragons came near everyone. They were doing searching, it was really true!

Though everyone wanted to be watching the furry woman's progress through the crowd, confused and perhaps surprised enough to stare openly, Nola noticed that the other dragon, blue Arfeth, had come by the clump of Lords and herself.

Something inside her wanted to run away - dragons were quite large after all. But something more told her to stand her ground, that she was just as much rider-blood as her brother after all. Norolan smiled widely when T'shen nudged him and told him he was to stand.

"I knew it," Nola whispered to him. But then T'shen turned to her.

"And you as well, both of you should certainly stand. You're related, aren't you?" The tall and very exotic looking rider seemed to look right through Nola's pretenses. She nodded lamely.

Norolan said, "well that's good, because otherwise I'd have to drag you away from your sewing duties and do them for me instead." He hugged his sister and they tried to relax. But that was the farthest thing from their minds, after all a good dozen or so of their age-peers were being searched!

Nola nudged her brother, and they watched the beautiful Lady Aaryea. Nearby, she'd been searched by the golden queen ridden by the golden-furred cat girl.

"I ..." Aaryea stammered, for the first time in her life speechless, "could you please tell me, how you came to be that way?"

Kaytcha gave a little funny start, and then chuckled. "oh - that. I'd almost forgotten. When we switched over, I've changed into this. I used to have just skin."

"Switched over?" Aaryea asked, curious to no end. "How?" Nola and her brother were curious too, they burned to ask question after question!

"That's something that you'll learn later. And, if you pair up with a dragon, it'll be even easier to explain. They know already." Kaytcha thumbed (with a furry, padded claw-tipped hand) back at the dragons. "And they can explain it more easily. We've ... well," she leaned in and both Aaryea and Cendar perked up while Nola tried to squeeze herself in. After all she was now a candidate too. The feline woman whispered, "we've already switched over, this speech that K'yle's going to give is just to make it official... Didn't you feel anything odd recently?"

Nola jolted a little, and looked at her brother. "You're devilishly clever you know," she said. He merely grinned. He then pointed to their conversation and chuckled quietly.

Cendar looked into the distance, and a strange look came over her face. "Aary, look. Those mountains aren't familiar, at all. They're not covered in snow, they're really green."

Obviously Norolan's earlier explorations had just suddenly been realized by dozens of people at once. The day was to continue being a strange one. When all the Searched people were called up together by K'yle was kind of a moment of truth for both siblings.

*** (from the group's search page)***

The large group of gathered Caledruans milled about, surprised at how many there were, and how many of them knew one another - or at least knew someone else in the group. Each had an attachment to the next, they almost could form a chain of familiarity.

When another rider showed up, a day after the trio had Searched, several of the Seached recognized him as a man who had formerly lived there! One of the girls, Janice, bolted to his side when he got off the back of his proud bronze dragon.

"H'ndar!" She cried, laughing and relieved to see him. Every time he would visit, there would be another scar on his skin, and every time, she was eager to locate it.

"It's just Hendar, if you want," the rider said, with an odd smile. "I'm not so fond of people saying it that way any more." He smirked at Janice's odd reaction (she furrowed her eyebrows and went to apologize, but then stopped and swatted him instead).

"But why?" Janice asked. "Why suddenly this odd change? What has really been happening out there?"

Just then, two more riders and dragons arrived, yet more old Caledrus inhabitants who had long since vanished to their own devices. One was riding a dragon whose color shocked a number of the Searched - and a good portion of the onlookers who couldn't be forced to leave. The dragon was a bright shade of red, with paler white markings on it. The rider was a girl who had been well known by the higher status Lordlings - Ezhar the dancer. Her partner, T'nor (who had no such problems with his name being shortened, he still thought it quite an honor) rode a two-toned blue dragon, both clearly from one Weyr by their appearance.

"We will be needing the different dragons to take you all to your destinations," K'yle announced loudly, in his half-squeaky voice. He could sound very serious, when he put his mind to it, but he'd never have the command over people that his father did. "We're going to show you some places that are in need of candidates, and if you think one or another is to your liking, we'll see if you can bond there."

Someone called out, "don't you mean Impress?" But K'yle glared at them.

"No, I mean bond. It's a more broad term. We've found places that aren't all ... well, you'll see. You all will understand best after you get there. And the rest of you," he gazed at the assembled inhabitants who hadn't been Searched, "don't worry. We're all going to explain it soon enough - but you will have to be patient and you will have to trust us."

Another trio of dragons and riders came through the nexus, Betweening was such an old-world term, one of whom had lived at Caledrus as a first-class records keeper, before he was searched. Waadier, now fondly known as D'ier, and his pretty green (what a surprise for people who knew him, huh? NOT!). D'ier and Elkinorith joined the search team on occasion, and he apologized to K'yle for not being there earlier.

"It's all right. It's these two I'm worried about," the Lord Holder's son glanced at his half-sibling Pasha, and Pasha's brother Haze. "Didn't you think there would be enough good candidates here?" He asked them, and both men waved him off with a grin - the same grin that he often had on his face.

They had ridden in on a pair of large dragons, Haze's large bronze Alkalmith, and Pasha's brown Surketh. The dragons moved from their landing spots to an area with bumpy ground that suited them to rest upon, with the others.

Gold, Bronze, two Browns, two Blues, Green, and Red... They lined up like a spectrum of possibilities. Resting and chatting, the dragons seemed to largely ignore the people around them, until K'yle whistled for their attention.

The little booklets that D'ier handed out to the group of Searched folks had shiny pictures on them, of dragons and different weyrs - they could tell that these images were real pictures, not paintings. There was something very surreal about this. Very few people of Caledrus knew about photographs, and most of the ones who did, only knew in theory. They did know that Alabaster had some strange machines that could almost seem to think for themselves. Perhaps these pictures came from them?

"Now, look over everything. There is information about each location's needs and desires," K'yle said, as D'ier finished handing them out. "But I want you all to keep in mind one very important thing. We are *not* going to be fighting Thread any longer."

There was a pause, when everyone put down their pamphlets and stared at him like he was insane.

"There are other things on our minds now, as riders. There are threats to our home, but Thread is not among them. However we have learned that those people who were born on our old home," (that elicited a lot of muttering about what in the world he could mean) "tend to bond best to old-world dragons. Dragons who would be best familiar with you. Dragons of the older colors," he tossed his head at the fivesome plus one oddity. "and not ones with the newer breed types. When you get back to Alabaster, you'll see what I mean."

"How much has our home changed?" Demanded someone, "where are we if we aren't on our old home?"

"The world is called Alskyr," said Kaytcha, her gold dragoness tossing her head and reminding people that even though the girl had fur and a tail now - was not human as far as they were concerned - she had still impressed a grand golden dragon like herself. "And it's a very nice place. You will all benefit," she turned to the onlookers who had started to mill about nervously, "because this world is rich in plant life, and our isle has some wonderful people on it that accepted us on it."

"The arrangement was made," K'yle said, "by my father, by T'shen, and by some other people high-up. We knew that if there was an announcement there would be panic, and we wouldn't be able to bring everyone along properly."

Pasha and Haze, standing together with their shoulders bumped, nodded. "And you never noticed, did you?" Pasha asked. He was the stronger telepath of the two, and his lineage (K'yle's side especially) were ones which had helped the most.

"It's not important how long we've been here," said Haze, having heard someone ask that among the Searched, "what is important is that we integrate everyone into our new ways, sooner or later."

"That brings us to the dragons," T'shen said, sweeping past the brothers. The Searched group were apt to stare at him anyway, tall and handsome as he was. Even D'ier (perhaps especially D'ier) gazed at him in wonder. "The dragons who pair off with Caledrus inhabitants will be living with you, here." He swept his hand and suddenly - because they had been inclined to ignore it and nudged telepathically to do so by Engell and his troupe - people noticed that the mountains that had greenery about them, also had ledges, caverns, terraces... Big enough for dragons to roost if they so wished.

"... So you're saying," one of the Searched girls said, "that we will be coming back here, to live, with our dragons."

"That's it in a nutshell."

"Then let's go!" She said, laughing, looking through the pamphlet.

Nola was a bit uncomfortable looking at the slick little thing in her hands. The pictures were important - she could only barely read. Her brother had actually been beaten the times he was caught teaching her to read and write.

One thing that a number of the searched noticed was that there were multiple openings at several of the locations. A place or two had lots of openings, but for some unusually colored dragons on the sands. Some of the searched were leery of such things. K'yle told them not to try for those types, then. There were other locales fit for them.

With Norolan by her side, Nola looked at every page. Norolan patiently read aloud as they flipped the pages. "That one's got those purple dragons," he said of one, "and this one only has one spot. We don't want to go there."

"No," Nola said. Her heart was beating fiercely - with pride! Her brother was searched. SHE was searched! They would ride dragons!

Eventually they came to a page where both agreed the dragons were good. Though it was a new Weyr, there were two clutches on the sands. A green's and a gold's, perhaps perfect for the pair. "You should surely stand at the queen's eggs," Nola said.

"But what about you? What if there's a queen egg? Wouldn't you want to impress - er, bond it?" Norolan said.

"No, no!" Nola exclaimed almost angrily. "The last thing I would want is to be bound to a queen! I don't even know how to read properly, brother, how would I ever be expected to run a weyr or even help run one? No," she shook her head, "I would like to fit myself into the green's clutch, and perhaps there is a fine dragon for me there. I would never want to deny even those eggs their potential candidate!"

"I'm thinking very selfishly," Norolan said, hugging her to his shoulder as they approached one of the riders for information on how they were to get where they had chosen to go. "But I want that small clutch to hatch first, and I don't want you to bond in it. I want you to impress higher than that. You deserve it, sister."

Nola just shook her head, "you're embarrassing me now," she muttered. "Sir, we'd like to head to Bremek Weyr. May we have some time to collect our things?"

"Of course you can," D'ier said with a loopy grin. "It's a new weyr, needs some good candidates like yourself. You'll like the place, it's got great closet space!" He almost pranced - Nola gave her brother a silly look. Greenrider males, you had to love em.

"This is so exciting," Nola whispered to her brother. He shone with confidence. "But I should be waiting for the other clutch!"

"No, you're just fine," Norolan said, "besides aren't you the one who said that you couldn't bear to have a dragonet go unbonded, if you could be there for it?"

"You're using my words against me, my brother," Nola laughed. But then, the eggs began to split open!

A green first, on the old world that was often seen as a poor sign but who could resist the lovely little hatchling? Certainly not her bond, who carried her off the sands. Then another pair of greens hatched, and Nola felt a strange tingling in her stomach.

It was odd that the dragonet who stood before Nola announced to everyone, Mother, I am Moabhith and my new rider is Nola!

Wasn't it typical that everyone would be watching her now? Nola's eyes teared up, "you mean that Moabhith?"

Of course I do, I love only you. Feed me and I will love you even more!

Laughing, she left the sands when the other also bonded. Her brother waited a little longer.

He noted to himself with a casual eye that each rank of dragon seemed intent on hatching in order. He knew that no blue would have him - he was far too serious and maybe too commanding for the one that hatched. But he perked up when the browns began to hatch. Would they be big and sturdy? Tough and durable?

Well he wouldn't know - because he wasn't chosen by one. Instead, it was one of the bronzes who hatched just then. After the first took to his bond quickly, the second announced, I am Moabuth and you Norolan are to be my new rider!

This was stunning, to him at least. His sister watched now from the wings, her dragonet full of chopped meat and fresh water. It was no surprise to her that he'd bonded bronze!