Chuang
Female, age 21 turns
Journeywoman Starcrafter

Having lived at Blackstone weyr all her life, Chuang is used to the idea of dragons, flights and the like. She truly knows her craft and has assisted many others in their apprenticeships.

She is a quiet, but very sharp young woman. As you can see by the look in her bright leaf green eyes, she is one to capture the heart or perhaps only the body warmth of most any rider. She has eyes for an older rider named Taishen, and he for her, though they are both frequently seen among other company.

She hopes to ride a dragon, and would be just as happy on a green as a gold for many reasons, such as the fact that her flirtatious nature is barely balanced by her serious knowledge of starcraft and thread.

"He's so dreamy..." one of the other weyrbrats whispered as Taishen wandered through the dining hall. She and her compatriots shushed each other as the tall, broad-shouldered man passed their table. His eerie yellow eyes drifted over the table, and he let a small smile pass over his lips.

The trio of girls gasped, and then realized that it was not they who he was smiling at. It was that vixen Chuang. She appeared behind them, slid around the low slab and ran her hand over her lover's chest.

"Well hel-lo," Chuang purred. "Is there any word about my equipment?"

Taishen broadened his smile. "I have been told that your precious glasses are on their way. Your odd friends at Alabaster Weyrhold have finished the modifications."

"Silly," Chuang said, "Shim'a and V'ax are brilliant. They'll set my lenses into just the right metals. That way," she hugged his broad arm, "when I'm on a dragon and gazing at the stars from up in the sky, my fingers and face won't freeze from metal that's been made brittle from the chill of between!"

Taishen nodded, and draped his arm out so Chuang could hold it. They strolled down into the lower caverns of Blackstone, and finally out to the road where caravans often brought tithes, candidates and wandering Harpers.

There were no such people out there on this night, however a dark shape moved through the air overhead and both Taishen and Chuang instinctively looked for what shade of dragon skin they were to be honored with.

A well-proportioned blue dragon glided down, and backwinged into a graceful landing.

"It's only Shard," Taishen muttered, and turned to snuggle with the small woman beside him. Chuang on the other hand pushed him away and looked at Taishen with shock.

"Only the Protectorate's leader, Tai..." She tsked her tongue. "And he's not alone." A second dragon circled and then came down, another blue.

Taishen looked at them with his eyes almost glowing in the light of the moons. "They're talking to one another."

"Stop showing off," Chuang said, nudging him. "They're coming this way."

They saw the pair of blue riders converse on the ground near their dragons, and then the riders swung their heads to face the lovers. One of them waved at them, and then they approached.

"And A'rd," Taishen said, squinting.

"I said stop showing off. Just because you can see the stars so much more clearly doesn't mean that you can see them in this light..."

"Who said I was seeing them to know who they were?" Taishen winked.

The pair of blue riders sauntered slowly over, and their dragons both seemed to be waiting for something to happen. Their heads tilted curiously and one of them made a slight trilling noise.

"You're out late," Chuang said, as she saluted the Weyrleader and his head Search rider.

"The Protectorate's a big place. Takes a lot of dragons to patrol it." Shard said, he turned to the dragons again and seemed to be talking to his Jeremoth.

"Both or neither?" A'rd said, similarly in conference with his dragon. "Hum. That might be interesting... Or disasterous..."

"Have any riders spoken to you about being accepted as Candidates?" Shard asked, and Taishen nodded. "And you?" He looked to the tiny Chuang.

"I've been Searched, if that's what you mean. But only here, at Blackstone. There've never been the right eggs on the sands though. Or I've been away," she admitted. "But I stood once, when I was about fifteen turns."

"There is a clutch on the sands at Dawn Sisters weyr," A'rd said, looking at the pair. "It's a recently renovated Weyr. Their dragons are just getting settled again. It would be very good to have some Blackstone blood represented there."

"Gold Gillith and bronze Branth have twenty eggs. A sizable clutch for the new opening," Shard said. We've got some time before we know how many candidates they're going to take."

"Trelerth here keeps saying both of you, but when I was last at Dawn Sisters, they usually only take two candidates from any single place. And we are already taking El's brother Parithet there from Dawnlight Hold." A'rd said, looking slightly disappointed for the pair. "But we could try working something out."

"Or you could go alone," Taishen suggested to Chuang. She seemed slightly surprised at his tone. "I have other work to attend to you know."

"The only work you're doing is making all the weyr girls slobber over themselves like proddy greens..." Chuang said. "But I ... hope it will be both of us."

"If not here, then someday," Taishen said, confident. "I will make sure that your equipment gets to you, either way, my dear."

So, grinning broadly, the journeywoman began her journey to Dawn Sisters Weyr!

The days slogged by. Chuang was pacing in the weyrling barracks when she received word that she had visitors.

Visitors? Plural? Hmn...

She was even more surprised when, upon arriving to the weyrbowl, she discovered not only her tall red-haired love with a package from Alabaster for her, but his mother Uzume and her beautiful golden dragon Kagamith!

Chuang bolted into Taishen's arms, and he laughed. "Easy! You'll break your lenses!" He held the package up at her and she almost squealed like the weyrbrats back at Blackstone.

"You are a life saver!" She cried, and then sobered a bit. The weyrwomen from Dawn Sisters and Blackstone were conversing, and coming at the pair!

Uzume was the first to look over the young woman, and she nodded. "She is as I said, Taishen. Good for you. Keeps you honest in your soul. Doesn't she?" The white-haired weyrwoman poked her son and Chuang barely held back a laugh.

When Alora the young weyrwoman from Dawn Sisters looked over Taishen, Chuang took in a breath. What was this? She was so used to being around the young weyrling girls of Blackstone, and used to strolling right by them into Taishen's arms... But this ... Alora was a woman of means, with a golden lifemate already.

Could she be jealous already? Was that a good sign or a bad one? Chuang left her reverie when the weyrwoman spoke. "I think it right to tell you that Taishen will also be standing on the sands for this clutch," she said, startling both Chuang and Taishen. It seemed news to him too!

A blush crossed Chuang's face, the first she'd had in ages, and certainly the first brought on by news like this! "You mean, we'll... Be standing together! Oh, Taishen, this is so wonderful!"

They embraced, and then Uzume gently nudged herself between her son and his chosen. "Now, then, young candidate, there will be some things you must remember -- if you impress even a green dragon -- there will be no such over-cuteness and cuddly activities, if you know what I mean, while you're weyrlings."

Chuang's eyes grew large. She blinked. Her eyes almost made a 'poit' noise as she did so. "We cannot be, um... Close, weyrwoman?"

Alora gulped back a snicker herself, this time. "Well, yes, dear. Weyrling dragons are quite sensitive to the emotions of their bonds, and such things serve only to complicate their lives. But... There have been strong soul-bonds among lovers, and they have remained so in other weyrs. So, perhaps... We will just have to see how it all works out."

Taishen remained quiet while the women sorted these things out. Chuang thanked the older and younger weyrwomen for their immeasurable help, and then looked to her beautiful yellow-eyed man.

"Well, sweet one," she said, coy, "if this means what I think it means, then, you and I have some close-time before the hatching. Am I right?"

Taishen draped his arm over her shoulders, holding the glass lenses in their unopened package in his other hand, and laughed all the way to their temporary weyr.

"Congratulations!" Cried several of the Blackstone, Alabaster and Dawnlight inhabitants who had been lucky enough to travel with the Weyrleader to Dawn Sisters for their hatching.

"And thank you for bringing them," Chuang tossed her head at V'ax and Shim'a, and she noticed that the other odder elements of Alabaster had come along as well. Chuang sprinted over to them, when her little green Chaybeth was resting. Stuffed full of meat from the kitchens made specially for the hatchlings, Chaybeth groggily looked up and tried to focus on her lifemate.

Rider mine! Chuang! Where are you?

"Silly, I'm right here," she said softly. "I'm showing you off to my friends in the Glass craft... They like you!"

"Of course we do!" Shim'a said, "You'll both be great additions to one of our wings when they're old enough."

His blue dragon warbled something, and a tiny blue beside him chittered a strangely wordlike response. Taishen approached Chuang with his own beautiful blue hatchling, Arfeth, by his side. The blue set down next to his green clutchmate, and they went immediately to sleep.

"She suits you," Taishen said of the green.

"And he is lovely," Chuang responded. She stole a little kiss from Taishen, sure that the sleeping dragonets wouldn't mind.

"I know you will both make me very proud," Uzume said, walking by with the rider of tiny blue Sixth by her side. They could not have been more opposite if only his black hair wasn't exactly as long as her white, but Chuang noticed something odd about the way his sad blue eyes looked at her. Chuang bowed to them, thanked Uzume (and privately whispered a thanks for having born her lovely red-haired son just for her, eliciting a giggle from the elder woman) and turned back to attending her hatchling.

For long minutes, they stared at their matched pair of dragons.

Chuang said, "I didn't like the way that man looked at me, Taishen," she said, "the blue rider with your mother."

"He is not a rider, he is a ... healer, I think."

"A healer with a dragon. That's new." She said, uncomfortable with the memory. She was certain his eyes were on her even now.

"Usually you don't mind when someone looks at you, my love." Taishen smiled. "Perhaps his blue and mine will have to be rivals."

With shock on her face, Chuang turned to her tall lover. "Don't suggest that, Tai. He's so much older... No!" Finally she laughed. "We will come to that when and if we must... I suppose. Now, we should get out lovely little lifemates into our weyrs... And I shall see more of you in about... one and a half Turns..."

Now, Chaybeth! Fly!

That's easy for you to say, Chuang! You don't have six limbs! I can't get them going in the right direction all at once!!

The dragon obviously panicked, and the weyrlingmaster C'gall shook his head in typical fashion. She'd just have to calm down and try it again in a few minutes. Most likely, the green would have forgotten all about it by then.

"I was so sure you'd have Impressed a bronze, or brown," Chuang muttered over their klah. "I mean, you're a born leader."

"I am not," T'shen responded, smiling over his steaming mug. "Besides... I am quite proud of my beautiful blue. And also," he narrowed his yellow eyes with a pleasant and playful smirk, "a bronze would be far too large to catch your quick and talented green in her Flights, now wouldn't he?"

Surprise hit Chuang like a Threadscore. "She -- that is... Well!" She stammered. "I know. You're right as usual my love..." Her green eyes adopted a coy light. "And just what are you suggesting? That perhaps now that our dragons are adults that we might... Get a little closer again?"

Oh how she hoped! She had seen the jealous looks on the weyr girls here at Dawn Sisters, and would be seeing them again when they drifted back to the Protectorate. But for the moment, and hopefully for always, T'shen would be hers.

As handsome Arfeth will be mine too, Chaybeth added mentally. Chuang laughed.

He will be one of many to try flying you, my love. Are you sure he can?

I will only be flown by who I choose, Chuang! And if you think your mate T'shen has raised his blue Arfeth to be a slow, bumbling blue... You're crazy! I have seen him in the skies! He is ... lovely!

Chuang giggled. T'shen had not listened in on their conversation, but he obviously caught the gist of it.

"She should be picky," he said, "after all, she's the finest green on the planet!"