Booty's pages = originally written around 2002

"He's awfully short," said the search rider from Adanuk Weyr.

"But he's got a lot of spunk," said Shard. The Protectorate's weyrleader assured the riders from the new weyr that though Boroty was indeed the littlest of the bunch at Eden's Gate, he was about the best they had.

"There aren't many children here," pointed out one of the young women, not coincidentally his mother. "It's a hard place to live, here. It's usually a wonder when a child grows to even be his age."

The search rider furrowed his eyebrows. Life must be hard here, where it almost looked Threadworn on the ground. It was possible that the desert nearby had been struck many times by Thread, over the centuries when there were no dragons to guard it. And the few people here in this rustic little cothold protected themselves as best they could with their hammered metal rooftops and stolen-marble walls.

He didn't make any further judgements. His dragon reminded him that he'd made his choice, and that Boroty was to come along.

"You're going to like it in a weyr, Boroty," Shard said, offering him a ride on Jeremoth to the weyr. "Lots of things to do and see."

"Loads of stuff to lift," Boroty pointed out. "You know I get into trouble a lot for stealing..."

"No... I did not know that." The very tall man said, his face going into a grin. "Well you've got to learn to cap that little problem then. Or it will be a bigger one. You could get kicked off the sands, and that might leave a dragon riderless. You wouldn't want that, would you?"

"Never!" Cried the young lad. He was only 12 turns old, but he was the only child among the Eden's Gate populace who had been brave enough to stride right up to the dragons when they landed. With curiosity instead of fear, he faced the weyrleader and the search rider.

"Then you know that you have some work ahead of you."

"Yup. And will I get to learn how to use a sword?"

"Why would you want that?" Shard asked, as they took to the air.

"My father has a sword, and he told me that when I'm old enough, I get to have it. It's been around for ages!" The child said, not even flinching at the wind around them. He looked down, and laughed wildly. "Look at the herdbeasts! Look at em go!"

The dragon buzzed the herds, rounding them back toward the cothold instead of out to the desert and scrub. Then, they went between.

Shard worried for half a moment that the boy would be taken off guard by this, but then when they came out, the first thing Boroty did was to stand up on Jeremoth's back and point at the beautiful ocean below them and cheer loudly.

"That's Adanuk? That's the weyr that I'm standing at? SHARD, is is BEAUTIFUL!"

Laughing, Shard dropped the excitable boy off and saluted the weyrwomen, winking at the rider of the dam for this small but healthy clutch. "He's a handful, but he's braver than most riders I know. Time to start cultivating that in him, he's useful. But watch his weyr for ... um, missing items from time to time..."

"Ah!" Magika laughed, "I think we can handle that!"

***

It wasn't so long after setting down that Boroty managed to get himself not only into trouble, but into a strong position among the local weyrbrats.

He scaled the nearby cliffside during high tide, just to reach a spot that no one else quite could get to because they were too big or too heavy. His small size came in perfectly handy.

The firelizard clutch which he found had seven eggs in it, and he handed them off to his newfound groupies. His, he claimed the bigger of the bunch, he protected with his formidable courage.

"You should never go out to the beaches during the tides," warned Magika. "The currents around here are fierce!"

"I didn't fall. Besides, I got the eggs, and none of them broke, either." He proclaimed, and right about then, the egg began to quiver.

"See! It's hatching! Do you have anything for it to eat?" He exclaimed, and Magika had to find some meatrolls before the little blue flit within the egg got away from the boy. The blue gulped down the meat and promptly climbed to Boroty's underarm, and fell asleep.

"He's cute! I ... think his name is Tide's turn. That's it!"

***

Boroty's interest was kept up during his long stay at Adanuk by the very presence of dragons. He learned all he could about them. Their habits, eating patterns, how they grew, flew or fell. How their injuries were tended, and why he was often asked to help. His small size allowed him to reach on delicate wing sails to stitch wounds up, without causing damage by being on it.

Then one early morning in winter, the clutch that he'd been set to attend finally began to hatch! It began with a green, a good solid way. A blue and another green, then a tiny fragile white. Another large egg hatched and revealed a big bold bronze! He trumpeted and his mother bellowed a response. But he rolled up and landed on his back to look up at Boroty.

She's pretty. Pretty loud! I'm Curiosith, by the way.

"Your mother is loud, isn't she Curiosith?" Boroty, now thinking of himself as Booty, laughed and the bronze bugled how happy he was to have found his match. Though Booty wanted to see if the bronze was all intact and healthy, Curiosith had other plans, and dragged his rider away to the kitchen!

In the stands, back in the shadows, was a tall blue man who looked slightly surprised. "Boroty on a bronze... I never thought that would happen..." Shard said, then made arrangements for the boy's eventual transfer to the new Protectorate.

***

The bronze was getting big. Well, "got" big. His full size was admirable, and in the year and a half which it took him, Booty also grew. Since he was still rather young, though, he would always think of himself as tiny compared to the other riders.

You are just the right size for me. Do not worry! Curiosith told his rider. You do not need to use a harness, I like that. The other bronze riders worry about falling off but you cling on!

"I know... Hey, maybe we could go get my father's sword now. I ..." He looked around, and saw the weyr in its lazy afternoon way. It seemed to slowly shimmer. It was the tears in his eyes. "We're going to be leaving here forever, Curi, and ... I worry that it won't be here when we want to visit."

Do not worry about that either, my rider Booty! Because we can just go back to a time when it IS here!

Laughing, Booty climbed up to the neck ridge of his dragon, snugging the small collection of posessions he had aquired during his stay upon his back. Tide's Turn fluttered around and settled on Curiosith's head, where he was promptly dislodged. "Tide, you know that's not where he likes you!" Booty laughed, and the flitter came back to rest on his shoulder. Wrapping his long blue tail around the 14 year old's neck, they all held their breath and lept.

The big bronze took to the sky as he always had, circled above Adanuk and then... Went to the new Protectorate and found the old Eden's Gate community according to Booty's mind. It had changed a little, the grasses were greener and the trees -- there were trees!

This is beautiful! I want to stay here!

"You can't stay here, Curi, this is a -- well," Booty said, looking at two other dragons who came from a cliff canyon nearby, "I guess you can! heh!"