Name: Lela
Gender: Female
Age: Currently 55
Origin: Blackstone Weyr
Family: mother Green rider Leilan, grandmother Gold rider Lanali; sister (younger) Lessa
Children: son Leonal, daughter Alau, both with O'nal the blue rider; twins ** and ** with Ep'son the bronze rider after their dragons paired
Other Relations: two cousins on her father's side, Charaat and Ch'ran, one a bronze rider
Height: 5'6"
Build: curvy, strong
Hair: black tightly curly and kept natural mostly
Eyes: very pale tan and often look white
Appearance: dark skin with red undertones, Silver caste

Fourth in a line of dragonriding generations, and one of those on Gold, Lela is not your typical weyrbrat. Though she was raised in Blackstone Weyr learning everything that weyrbrats are often taught, she was also tutored by strategists in dragon flights, harpers for her history lessons, and even by starcrafters for her sky-viewing. Her well-rounded education was not lost on her, for her mind is indeed as sharp as her mother's, though her personality is as quiet as her brown-riding father's. With a wry smile now and again, Lela is apt to crack a joke -- but that is often met with such stunned looks that she doesn't let them out too often.

Though she has no interest in becoming a crafter, she takes time out of her long days at the Weyr to do things like help potters, or tend food beasts. The break of activity gives her time to think and mull over the lessons she has learned over the days, months and turns.

Lela is nineteen turns old and celebrates her next turnday in the middle of summer. She hopes dearly that she will celebrate with a dragon by her side.

Unsurprisingly, and due to her weyr heritage, Lela has already borne two children. Her mother is actually quite pleased about that, since her own ability to bear has been unduly stunted by riding a dragon and going between too often. Carrying on her line is very important to Lela, however with life as accepting as it is in the Weyr, she fostered the first child (a boy named Leonal) and cared for the second (a girl named Alau) until she was two turns old. She still has contact with both children and does love them dearly.

Duty always came first. She kept reminding herself of that. Duty was her best instructor. Duty was to the Weyr, to the dragons and riders, and to the people of the Weyr and of Pern. Duty was her life. It always had been this way, and she could not see it ever being any other way.

Lela dug into the dung heap and flicked the shovel full of runner-beast waste over her shoulder into the wagon. For some reason, the stuff was valuable to someone ... She guessed the Dawnlight field workers took it and used it on their crops. She was glad that she only had to deal with this kind of thing once or twice a sevenday -- and in all honesty, though there was always more OF it, she liked shoveling muck from the Weyrlings weyrs, more than this smelly work.

For some reason, dragon dung was never the same as anything else. Perhaps, she thought while resting half a moment, dragons were native creatures, and runners and herdbeasts weren't. Even she knew that, from her studies with the recordskeepers of the protectorate. Dragon dung was harsh, but so very different than the smelly stuff coming from runners...

With a chuckle, Lela resumed her hard work. Tomorrow, she'd be working in the kitchen, helping wash dishes. The next day was a resting day, fortunately, and she had plans already to meet with the father of Leonal. He was a nice young man, handsome enough. She knew that her son would be quite a charmer when he grew up, and she hoped that he would be a rider too.

Ah, how thoughts of the sky and dragons and weyr work filled Lela's mind. One of the few people in the weyr -- any weyr -- that just rejoiced in whatever she was given, simply because she was IN a weyr. Lela was occasionally looked on as a little odd, for that reason.

But she never commented, and rarely cared what people thought of her. When she had finished moving the pile of runner dung out of the stall, she watched as the other weyr brat wheeled it away, and the beastcrafter gave a whistle indicating that their hard shift was over.

"Finally," breathed one of the others, and she put down her soapy brush and bucket. "I can't believe you like getting yourself all mucked, Lela."

Shrugging, the young woman turned to the skinny weyrgirl and smirked. "You can't be afraid of a little work now and again, if you're in a weyr."

"I never said I was afraid of it, just... eeh. Disgusted is more like it." The girl dropped her brush into the bucket, and flicked her hair free of the bubbles.

"And you're complaining because you have to wash down walls?" Lela indicated her smelly knees and hands -- well, she had gloves on for the work would give her bad blisters otherwise. The muck work was far harder and far smellier and the pale haired girl knew it. She stuck her tongue out, and giggled.

"Get cleaned off... Are you going to the gather on the resting day?"

"Of course," Lela beamed. "And I've got O'nal to bring me to the Hold in style."

"Ooh, jealous," the other girl hissed, "ooh! How do you do it, Lela? You're all smelly! Don't you turn boys away?"

"O'nal is hardly a boy, he's a blue rider. And I helped him muck out his weyr when Wanth was little. It's a wonder what a little helping hand can do for your chances to meet and greet the riders, my dear..." They finally reached the weyr's bathing chambers, causing a number of people to laugh or choke from the smell along the way.

Bathing and scrubbing down was welcome to Lela, and she took much longer in the warm waters than her friend. Floating in the deeper area for a while, Lela looked at the high, curved ceiling of the inner bathing chamber. The slight current drawing the water out of the weyr would eventually make her drift past the dragon's bathing area. She would sometimes let herself be brought all the way outside by it, just to take a quick look at the dragons out there. But she had left her clothing for the drudges to clean back at the main entrance, so she would have to go get something else to wear in the meantime, and she didn't quite want to make an entrance nude and sleepy!

Well, maybe nude... She laughed.

That was something she'd reserve for O'nal later! She dried her dark skin off and sat in the warmth of the bathing room listening to the echoes of conversations and laughter of people bathing with each other.

Again, she was struck by how lucky she was to live in the Weyr.

***
Two Days Later

Lela looked at herself in the silver-metal mirror. Lessa and she shared it and her taller, younger sister shouldered Lela a bit to move her out of her way.

"I think this color goes perfectly with my complexion," Lessa said, indicating the deep russet dress. And while it was true, it did make her skin look lighter than it was and perhaps a little healthier, Lela wasn't fond of the way that her sister usually grabbed up everything, including space in front of the mirror.

"It does. You look great. Now could you let me see if these boots go with this dress? Please?" Lela said, holding up the suede grey and graphite colored boots, and indicating her steely-white dress.

"You'll be fine." Lessa said, abruptly, and started putting a comb through her short hair. Lela rolled her eyes, and thought the better of sneering at her sister. It wasn't like this never happened before, it was just... now of all times?

"Must you be so rude, Lessa?" Lela asked, putting the boot on and examining its contrast without the aid of the mirror.

"I'm not being rude, dear sister. I'm being assertive." Lessa said, in her typical manner.

"There is a fine line," Lela pointed out without raising her gaze.

"Are you saying that I don't know the difference?" Lessa put her hands on her hips, and Lela leaned back on the cot. Her booted feet poked out from the grey-toned dress and looked just fine to her. She barely caught a glimpse of Lessa as she --

"What'd you do that for?" Lela held her face in her hands, suddenly aware that her loving sister had raked her with the comb across her cheek!

"Because you're insulting me! I swear, sharding big sister -- you always get everything. I don't want to live in your shadow forever you know. So you can go to the Gather with welts, see if I care."

Lessa turned and furiously poked at her hair some more, then stormed out of their weyr to find a ride to the Gather.

Long after she had left the room, Lela looked at the doorway with its long leather flap covering it still moving a bit with the breeze she carried on her way out. Though there were tears in her eyes, it was more the sting of the pain on her cheek, than of any real anguish.

"'My' shadow," Lela whispered. "Do I even cast one?"

Finally she stood and looked at her dress and boots, in the mirror. Satisfied with the clothing at least, Lela then looked to her face. The comb had indeed left five long welts across her cheek, looking more like a wild cat had scratched her than anything else.

She was surprised when O'nal entered the weyr and placed his hand on her shoulder. Startled, Lela almost yelped, but she was normally quiet, and this was no exception.

"What ... happened?" O'nal asked, and Lela glanced at the dark marks on her face, in the mirror.

"Lessa happened. Of course."

"Of course..." O'nal breathed. "That girl is awfully jealous of you, Lela. Why do you put up with it?"

She furrowed her small eyebrows and looked at her lover, "put up with it? If I did anything else, she'd have reason to complain, wouldn't she? Then I would never hear the end of it. I'd be the bossiest, rudest, most sharding over-cared-for sister ever born. It's not enough that I'm two turns older, but she's half a head bigger than me, no..."

Lela was finally on the verge of tears. "Am I really that much to --"

"You're a goal she can never live up to," O'nal said, with a soft smile on his heavy lips. "She had to beg a ride outside, you know. No one wants to ride with her, she complains the whole way, so I've heard."

Lela sniffled a bit of a chuckle. "I have heard too. Usually all the way across the courtyard..."

"That's my girl," O'nal said, smiling. He held Lela's chin up and kissed her tears away.

They barely made it to the Gather, before it started getting into full swing.

***

Three Weeks Later, Threadfall!

Shoveling firestone into sacks was not the most favorite activity that Lela could think of, but this time, she relished it. Because of her last fight, the night before, with her sister Lessa. She just couldn't believe that the girl had the gall to whine so much!

Lela finally wanted to put a stop to it. But instead, she wound up getting another bad slap on her cheek -- the same one assaulted on the Gather day -- and decided to just lump it and shovel.

Fortunately, her experience with firestone was enough that she didn't put the wrong size in any given sack. She just did so with more force than some of the other weyrbrats and junior weyrlings could handle.

"Hold that bag higher!" Lela snapped at one of the weyrlings, "I can't put the stone in your pants, now can I?"

She nearly did just that. Three bags later, and one more snippy comment between, the Threadfall was more than half over, and the firestone crew was mostly dismissed. Mostly.

The weyrling master pulled Lela aside.

"Lela," he said, his tone already a warning.

"Sir, I am sorry." She said, but her eyes said differently.

"You're a good strong worker, and you know your drills. Why can't you get along like you used to?"

"It isn't me, sir... You know that. Everyone knows that." She spat.

"You cannot blame Lessa for everything."

Lela looked at the weyrling master harshly. Her pale white-tan eyes narrowed in anger for the first time at someone of authority. She wasn't a weyrling, and she told him so loudly. "You can't tell me what to do, 'sir', I'm not in your classes and I'm not on a dragon!"

"YET!" Yelled the weyrling master. "You need to remember that any of my weyrlings ARE depending on you, and you can't go around changing your mood to suit --"

"Why are you yelling at me like this? SHE is the one who hit ME!" She indicated the slap mark on her face, which while it was hard to see because of the tone of her skin, was still very apparent in this light. It stung, still, and it throbbed with Lela's face squinching up in tears. "Lessa is always complaining about how I'm overshadowing her, how I'm always 'getting' things -- but I WORK for them! You know I do! How DARE you say I change my moods -- you don't KNOW moods until you've had to live with HER!"

Lela burst into tears, but stood her ground in front of the weyrling master. Defiantly, she stood straighter, and forced back her sobs until she was silent again. She wasn't a weyrling, true, but she certainly looked like one.

Especially to the rider watching this transpire. She rested her shoulder against the stone wall, holding her riding helmet in one hand and putting the other on her badge. Her green dragon snuffled beyond, and Gerina nodded to her.

"I can see that," she said. Both Lela and the weyrling master turned at her voice. Neither expected there to be anyone still on the ledges, since Threadfall was over and the dragons were being washed and injuries tended to. But this wasn't a local dragon, either. Both Blackstone natives noticed that right off. The green was different, and new to Lela's eyes.

"Who are you, coming in here unannounced?" Asked the weyrling master, holding up a warning hand to Lela that he was hardly finished with her.

"Search rider Gerina on green Nyhiemoth, from Tiamat weyr." She indicated herself with a bow. "I apologize for my entrance, the watch dragon was a bit busy getting the wings back in. I came right as Fall was ending."

Nodding, the weyrling master looked between Lela and Gerina. He turned to the search rider, and his eyebrow went up. Gerina nodded once.

The weyrling master turned back to Lela, and in a gravely voice said, "well, you might be right about your sister. But if you're half the girl you seem to be, you might prove her right too."

That said, he left the ledge to check up on his senior weyrling riders.

Lela looked over the green rider, with her leathers fresh and clean -- so unlike all the other riders just in from Fall. They were covered with ash, and if Lela hadn't been on firestone duty already, she'd have been helping wash down the dragons. That would have been her first choice of activities, but as always, duty was chosen for her, and she never complained about it.

The women eyed each other, until the green rider unfocused her eyes and spoke again to her dragon behind her.

"Yes, of course. You're right." She said, and then looked more in focus at the dark skinned young woman before her. "What is your name?" She asked.

"Lela, daughter of Green rider Leilan, granddaughter of Gold rider Lanali." She said proudly.

"And sister of some poor-spirited girl, it looks like," Gerina said, holding her hand up to Lela's cheek. She nodded toward her dragon. "Nyhiemoth says that you are excellent rider material, and with what you just said, I think she's right. Would you like to stand at a new weyr's sands?"

It wasn't a matter of liking to, Lela realized. She'd been Searched... and that meant that she WOULD be standing! She nodded, numbed.

"I would," she said at last. "I would. I want the chance to prove that I can earn my way through a weyr. I would LOVE to ride like you do. Like mother and grandmother. This Weyr has been our home for... several generations. Would I be allowed to come back?"

"Of course you would, once your training is done. Blackstone seems to be a good place to find excellent candidates," Gerina commented. "Now, let's get you cleaned up. You can show me around the Weyr, right?"

Lela nodded, finally begining to smile again. What a day it had been, and what a day it would be soon, at Tiamat weyr, when she stood upon the sands!

***

Her travel to Tiamat weyr was not tiring, but Lela's weary eyes drifted over the green's rider's shoulder. Her home, Blackstone, would be changed when she got back.

Very much changed.

But she settled in perfectly well at Tiamat in the time that the eggs on their sands hardened. She knew more than most candidates did about dragons, weyrs, work and duty. In fact, she knew more than enough to help teach some of the younger candidates, and some of the weyrlings.

While thinking on the next lesson plan, Lela heard the distinct hum of dragons below. The hatching sands were alive with sound!

She put her white robe on, it made her red-brown skin look even darker than it usually did. With the others, she was just one more dark face with a nebulous body of white. To the dragons, of course, it was to lessen their confusion. To only see the faces of their choices. It made sense to Lela.

Of course it did. Something deep in her mind rang clearly. There was something tingling in her soul. When the eggs began hatching, her heart thumped hard. What would be in store? For anyone!? Eupe impressed a brown, a beautiful one. Then a girl found her green (or was it the other way around?) and left the sands.

A bronze burst open his shell, impressed loudly. Then, the golden egg which had been rudely painted by someone's flitter (how could that go unpunished, Lela wondered?) shook. The egg broke open, and the green paint was hardly a concern to the shining queenlet within.

She walked toward the girls calmly at first, but then openly charged at one then another. Several backed away, cringing. But Lela's eyes had grown wider each moment.

"Gimuth," she said, pronouncing the word which had been fluttering around her mind all morning, "What was that all about?"

The gold dragoness looked at Lela with a calm edge to her red-hungry eyes. Testing them, Lela, Testing.

"That makes sense," Lela said. It was as simple as that. Lela had done what her mother had not. What her sister surely never would.

She'd become a queen rider.

Gimuth rose 'year -12' (when she was around 6 turns) and was flown by white-white-bronze Jaluth, which also led to Lela having twins with Ep'son. The clutch was hatched on Alskyr, which led to interesting local colors being thrown - though also, of course, Jaluth is a bicolored dragon too. Recorded are 2 golds, 2 bronzes, 2 silvers, 1 white, 1 slate, 1 brown, 1 purple, and 3 blues (there may be other offspring)