Kacey and Kit Harless

Kacey (left) is a 16 year old student studying mining and geology. It's possible that he can sense stones or minerals.

Kit (right) is a 20 year old starcraft/navigational expert, who has the ability to speak with dragons of all types.

Brothers, with one sister (Kat) between their ages, and an older brother (Kitrell) older than both. Both raised in Dawnlight, both very young when the Protectorate moved from the old world to Alskyr.

Both brothers have the same yellowish-tan skin, bright hair, and green eyes, and both look both ways before choosing a partner for any event. Kacey is more 'loose' with his relationships, while his brother is very picky.

The word went out early in the morning, there were search dragons flying. It was odd, because they'd nearly stopped coming to Dawnlight these days. While other dragons soared through the skies, and the Paniyan guard defended the coasts from both rampage plants and ants, the Dawnlight brigade of riders were there mainly for trading and show purposes.

So rarely was it, when a search went on, that practically no one knew what to do any more. One of the older, more sensible members of a particular lunch gathering in the courtyard decided to whistle sharply with his fingers in his teeth, and then called them to order.

"We should line up - that's what they used to do, line us up. It doesn't matter where you go, just line up!" He said, bellowing. He was like a drill sergeant, and the riders both snickered that he'd probably have made an exceptionally good weyrling trainer, if he'd ever bonded a dragon.

Sadly, that was not to be. He was older than the others by a few years, and had not a drop of riders' blood in his veins. The lineup of students and visitors got a bit antsy, as the two riders got down from their dragons. One was a large sized brown, the other was a bold blue. Both riders were men, but that was where the resemblance stopped. The blue rider, A'rd, was well known around Dawnlight. His mop of pale white hair atop his fine yellow skin, and his equally beautiful but mysterious yellow eyes were all features that he liked to show off. He'd also recently come upon a beautiful egg of some sort, and now was being followed by a lovely small cat-like animal with wings.

The brown rider, however, was as opposite of A'rd as could be. Viyan was a tall four-armed Zekiran, with skin darker than charcoal in a color of brown so deep that it was hard to see him. He made people here quite nervous - even though Shard, the Protectorate's leader, was blue. This guy was something else.

"We're here today to see about some candidates," said A'rd, "and right now it looks as though both our dragons are interested in you lot." The group started to mutter, many of them grinning. "Not everyone will be chosen. How you react to this is up to you, but I'd say that you can't buy your way into the sands, and you can't whine your way to a dragon."

There were several people laughing at that, but they knew it in their hearts to be true. A'rd heard because he was nearby, and his ears were just as keen as the Zekiran's, one young flaxen haired boy say, 'what if we do get chosen, what if we do?' to no one but himself.

A'rd turned his beautiful yellow eyes on the boy, whose eyes were on the dragons and nothing could tear them away. The blue looked down at Kacey, and sniffed at him until the Purple casted kid's hair was messy with wind. The dragon and A'rd both walked down the line of hopefuls, but they did not pick anyone just yet. That would happen in a few minutes, after the scary four-armed man had his little walk down the line too. It was pretty clear to Kacey that he was one of the lucky few - only two or three others had their hair messed up by the big dragon's nose, or were nudged by a huge muzzle.

But it was the little spotted and winged creature attending A'rd that came streaking by a moment later, with another blond-haired young man running behind him yelling.

"That's mine! You - stop that creature! She won't stop!"

Kacey sighed, embarrassed. It was his brother, freaking out over this little furry critter? Well, apparently she'd stolen some item or other, ah - it was a star chart wrinkled between the beast's teeth - and he could only control flitters. Not this thing - it was furry. And dragons didn't come furry, did they?

Kacey stuck out his arm and blocked his brother from running the whole way down the row, following A'rd's companion. "It'll be fine, they're searching. Chill." Kacey said. His brother, huffy and red-faced from running from inside the nav building, took a moment to breathe and realized that everyone was staring at him.

"Fine. Fine. But she'll chew the chart to bits, and I'll have to pay for that!"

"I'll pay for it," sighed A'rd, taking the now-slobbery chart from his critter's mouth. "She's still young, and learning what to do to get my attention." He looked at the winged cat-creature, "and Tass, this isn't it." He shook the chart at her, and she looked as though she wanted to swat at it. If she got any bigger, she'd be able to take his arm off. Or, someone else's, should they get too close for her comfort.

There was a bit of an uncomfortable silence, and then, A'rd said, "well, Vi, let's get them out. They've put up with enough."

The tall man nodded, and swept two of his arms around at the group. With them he selected two, and then another two, people to move forward. Among them, both Kit and Kacey. With a bit of surprise, as though he hadn't even noticed anything out here yet, Kit suddenly realized that they'd just been searched. By a man with four arms.

"But - we've got tests coming up, what about-"

"Kit, chill." Kacey said with a big grin. "Check out the dragons. What are they saying?"

Kit glanced over at the pair of search dragons, and listened in briefly. He did so until their riders both glared at him for listening in on their private conversation. "They're telling their riders that we're supposed to get ready quickly, there are a bunch of places in need."

"Well that's kind of obvious," Kacey said rather more loudly than he should have - he did want to attract the attention, "since there are search dragons about, and urgently searching..." He rolled his pale green eyes, "duh."

Viyan turned to them, and looked up and down at the pair. "You should get into the spy business. There are many ways to learn about riders, through their dragons, you know. You just need to be a bit more subtle about it. You could be trained. We have people like you."

The other two chosen were a mismatched pair of security trainees, brother and sister who both chose rather annoyingly bright clothing in their caste colors of green and brown. They too looked on with interest at the four-armed man and everything else. The rest of the group was dismissed, some grumbling and some relieved. The last thing some senior apprentice wanted was to have to abandon their craft right before becoming a journeyman anyway.

"What's Kitrell going to say?" Kacey said, with a grin.

"That we lucked out, and he's never going to forgive us." Kit announced, proudly.

***

In one of the massive meeting halls at Blackstone, with a huge window looking out over the endless sea west of Paniya, the group of searched candidates was brought to meet with some other riders, and get a briefing about what was going to happen next. It was a much larger group than Kit and Kacey realized, the pair of Maderas in security were there, but there were also almost whole families of siblings, young couples, and other folks who apparently had been searched rather abruptly and didn't quite know what to think about this all.

"We've brought everyone together because we want to tell you this once. There are many old-world weyrs which need your help. There are nexus sites which require bonders, and there are lots of dragon eggs waiting for you to be near them." Hollis, the caerlord/weyrleader of Blackstone, announced loudly. His voice was normally soft, yet commanding - now he'd been practicing for a day such as this. He seemed to like it. The darkly brown skinned woman on one side - a queen rider whose dragon was caught by his massive bronze - smiled privately at his confidence. Others nearby also seemed impressed. Because of that, the crowd of initiates and searched went silent in respect.

"We're going to have each of you pair off with another search rider, one with experience through the Nexus. That will give them a chance to figure out where each of you should be headed." Hollis said. "Just be honest about your answers, and it's okay to be afraid. This is all new to most of you, since I notice most of you are Dawnlight citizens and not from here in the Caer."

There was some amount of muttering, and then Hollis spoke again. "I realize it's a bit abrupt. But we've learned of some new places, and the ... end of some others. In any case, when you've bonded, you'll have the option to remain there for as long as you wish, or to come back here where your trades will continue to value your presence."

"Even with a dragon?" Someone said, too young to realize that indeed, most of the dragons at Blackstone were ridden by craftsmen and women.

"Perhaps especially with a dragon," Korea piped up, the queen rider and temporary weyrwoman of Blackstone. "We value every rider, but we also value the trade, skill and crafts that you may have been working hard for. Riding and caring for dragons is difficult work - but craftsmen like yourself know hard work, and you know it pays off."

There was a general assent, and shortly Hollis bade the sextet of other riders to start pairing off with candidates.

One of the men that rode and would be bringing the Harless boys wherever they were headed was T'shen, the exotic blue rider whose mind extended through the Nexus. Of course that wasn't common knowledge, but it was always muttered that he had some spooky thing going and when Kacey and Kit met the tall yellow-skinned man they knew those rumors were true.

"Now, let's take a look at you," he said, his eerie eyes gazing at them in the way that A'rd's might have, only with a strange depth that made both siblings' skin crawl. It was like he was looking into their pasts. Or to their futures. Either prospect gave them the willies.

It was to Kit that T'shen looked first, and said, "your deepest fear is to be lost without a dragon? That's odd," the rider looked away as though speaking to another person. Then, turning back he said, "there's very little chance of that happening now that you've been searched." Kit looked a bit shocked.

"Ho... how did you know that?" He asked weakly. Kacey seemed a bit surprised.

"You can sense dragons, brother," Kacey reminded him. "They talk, you know that."

"It... well, it isn't that easy," T'shen said with a smile. When he turned his eyes onto Kacey the younger brother realized it wasn't at all like that. "And yours, neither close rooms nor heights, but depths crushing in on you. An odd thing for a man studying gems and minerals, eh?"

"I like seeing the things coming out of the mines, I never said I liked being in them myself." He said nervously.

"What's next, are you going to predict our futures?" Kit asked a bit sharply.

"Perhaps I am," T'shen said, quietly. "Would that disturb you greatly if I did? And if what I predicted were true?"

While Kit was thinking of something to say, Kacey muttered, "you're just doing it to make yourself seem more scary than you really are."

And with that a big blue dragon just outside their private den gave off what sounded just like a mocking guffaw. T'shen rolled his eyes, those bright yellow eyes, and sighed. "Of course I am, I know you're not stupid enough to believe all that crap."

"It's not crap," Kit said, "but it's close enough."

"Then why do it to us anyway?" Kacey said, kind of avoiding looking back at either of the men.

"Because it tests you. Both of you are suited to ride, for Blackstone specifically. Your navigation skills will come in handy - and your fear needs to be conquered. Because if you don't beat it," T'shen said darkly to Kit, "you may wind up lost with your dragon in the Nexus. I can come get you, but there's going to be a price..."

"Oooh, ominous," Kacey said. "If I bond with a dragon, I won't be able to go underground... Will I? I mean, I guess they've got dragons without wings - why anyone would want one like that I can't think."

"Because they can get into places that others cannot, and," the blue-rider smiled, "they can fly using other means than wings. I've seen them."

Confused, but still interested in what their interview would bring next, Kacey and Kit paid attention to T'shen and his questions. They told him of their private goals, and how far they were from attaining them. To Kit, his navigation skills were to be honed until he could fly or ride by instinct. He was halfway there at least, by T'shen's estimation. Looking into the blond haired man's mind was exceptionally easy because he was clear headed. However he was a bit stand-offish about it when he realized that someone was prying into his mind.

"You're better than most," T'shen said after a few minutes of this, "Kit, your mental skills are sharp. You should try to listen for dragons, instead of waiting for them to speak with you. They're everywhere, including in the Nexus around us. Space and time are meaningless. You'll see that when you go to your bond site."

Kit nodded and thought about that. Since he was a starcrafter he did know that their transportation to Alskyr and other places was through teleporting, and that teleport space was called the Nexus on this world. On the old world, they called it Between, and it had a dozen other names. Portals, slipping sideways, all manner of names for the same essential space. And apparently, that space got kind of crowded. The Pernese dead were there, all of them, along with millions of magicians, scientists whose inventions had misjudged time and space, mutants, angels and demons. He would have a lot to think about for a while to come.

Kacey got a bit more of a conventional talking to. His abilities were clearly with minerals and stone, ores and gems. Crystals almost called to him, gemstones sang. What T'shen suggested for him was that he could easily run as a survey team all in one, without the necessity for a lot of complicated machinery and digging tools. If he could manage to sense at a distance, from a dragon's back, he could fly and do a surface 'scan' of the area's mineral deposits. That would prove invaluable for any landing team, organization or business.

"It certainly would," Kacey said. "But I can only kind of sense when I'm really near a mine."

"Bull," T'shen said. "Close your eyes. Relax."

Kit laughed from the other end of the table. "That kid's so wound up -"

"You should talk!" Kacey said, "mister high-blood-pressure."

"You both need to learn to meditate," T'shen sighed, "clearly..."

Within a few minutes, however, T'shen managed to get Kacey to close his eyes, and "listen" to the stones of the mountain around him. How there were fortified areas that were made of marble imported from another isle, that there was a rich crystal deposit near the northern cold stores, and that there were wide open caverns scattered naturally far below the surface of the island that were hollow and filled with air. No water.

"Weird," Kacey said, coming out of his brief trance. "And that's the farthest I think I've ever felt anything... I'm tired."

"You should be if that's your first real try at it," T'shen said. "Now. Are you two ready to decide where you'd like to go?"

Both brothers just looked at him. "You mean you aren't just going to decide for us?" Kit asked, baffled.

"That's how it was done before, right?" Kacey said. It wasn't a hostile question, neither of them understood that in this day and age they didn't have to wait for the right dragonriders to come around, they could simply find themselves some sands. Of course it did require some talent on the part of the search rider, to suggest the better matches. But in this case, T'shen knew that they'd find their own site easily.

As the sky was darkening outside and the skies over Paniya grew bright with the sprinkling of stars that were so different from the Old World's, T'shen had the brothers follow them into the odd computer room that had a huge database of all the available dragon sands, flights and records of all the different places past the Nexus.

Neither brother asked questions about the room. It was obvious that it wasn't 'really' in the same place as the rest of the mountain - they could both feel it. T'shen was again impressed with their coherency of thought. Kacey knew because he sensed the sudden change between Paniyan stone and the Den's odd build, and Kit he suspected could feel a change in the number and type of dragon minds around him. They'd entered the room through the back door, there were several and they all seemed to lead to different realms. But what was on their minds at the moment was which place to go.

Kacey decided to have the database sort by 'available now', 'size', and 'rarity of parents'. He got a number of hits with that search, but one in particular stood out, and he showed Kit. The blond pair stood as one and said, "Fire Ridge," together.

T'shen nodded, "press the print button, we'll get you out of here tomorrow morning. That'll leave you time to pack and time to dream."

"Time to worry ourselves sick," Kit muttered with a grin, "time to get our parents into a tizzy..."

"Time to get Kat out of her mind jealous," Kacey added.

In the end, that was exactly what they did.

***

Fire Ridge was a beautiful place, in an exotic land. Kit sensed that the dragons native to the world were ... very powerful. Ancient minds, magical ones. Kacey could feel the spin of this world, suddenly. His powers were magnified moreso than his brother's.

"Do you think we could learn some magic while we're here?" Kit asked, but T'shen shook his head.

"You'd need to learn the script first, and then the languages, and then get over the fact that you're not innately magical. You're innately psionic like me."

"And.... there's a difference?" Kacey asked.

"Of course there is," said a woman, smiling as she walked to greet the trio and the big blue that brought them all there. "I'm Copper, I run the place. You're here just in time, and no wonder," she glanced at T'shen who gave her a meaningful smirk. "Get your things stowed. The hatching won't be for a few weeks yet I think, so you'll have time to settle in. Now, I've got paperwork to do."

"There's always that," Kit said, "why does everyone make the weyrwoman do all the work?"

"Because she's always too busy to decide who to delegate it to otherwise," Copper laughed on her way back inside.

NEXT!