Lutan's Page - written around 2000 After a Candidacy at Middle Weyr!
Upon entering this brightly lit weyr, your eyes
and nose must get used to both the dancing lights (coming from what looks
like a dangling mobile with glows and mirrors on it) and the strong scents
of incense and oils coming from a variety of pots, sticks and such along
the walls. Also on the walls are many small charcoal pictures and sketches
on pale paper, real paper
not hides...
There is a low, soft looking couch on one side of the room, with a kind
of divider tapestry slung from the ceiling by hooks that keeps it slightly
private. Near it there is a table and a work desk, which is covered with
small metal vials that each have a glass stopper on the top, painted around
the edges with a bright color, no two of them alike except for a half
dozen black ones. If you look closely at them, they appear to have pigments
in them, of all those bright colors.
On the work bench itself, there is a long, strange looking device, kind
of a cross between a crossbow and a writing pen.
Then it dawns on you: this is a tattoo needle! All those colors are ones
which you might expect to see decorating the bravest of the people of
Pern. (or the most fool hardy, or perhaps the most tacky or tasteless...
depending on how you particularly view tattooing!)
"Oh, there you are," a male voice greets you, and you spin. "Are you the
one who wanted a green flit on a cactus flower?" He indicates a picture
which is hanging off the wall near him of just such an image. Lutan stands
with his head cocked, and you look him over. He has yellowish skin, which
is covered with dark and bright shapes, perhaps he got someone to paint
on him... or maybe that's not paint!
"Oh, no! No, not me..." You say, suddenly realizing that he's talking
about giving someone a tattoo! It won't be you, today!
He looks slightly down cast at that, but then he shrugs and looks you
over, as if checking for places he might put pictures.
"You're probably here about the candidates or something," he says, "my
weyr is up here," he says, and you follow him through a narrow corridor
just a couple feet up from the main room.
The huge ledge opens up and gives a bit of a breeze, and the weyr is looking
much more clean cut than you'd think for being the potential weyr of a
tattoist.
"Not what you expected, huh?" He says, "well, I've been told to keep the
place neat and clean, and if I Impress I'm going to have to keep my things
away from the entrance. I don't want a little dragon getting stuck on
my needles or getting into any of my paints. They might get sick and I
wouldn't be able to ride!"
You thank him for showing you his area, and then get out as quickly as
you can. He wasn't so frightening, but the idea of a needle... Eek!
The day of the hatching had arrived. Lutan ran
circles around his roomsbefore the dragon assigned to take him and several
others arrived outside.
"I can't believe this, I can't believe this! I'm going to a hatching!"
He said, uncharacteristically giddy.
Finally he mounted up and got the lift to the hatching sands. Along with
almost two dozen other young people, he stood before the eggs.
There was that pretty white dragon Trymmeth, but her rider looked almost
about to cry. Something had happened to someone, he was certain but he
didn't understand who it was, nor where they might have gone and why.
So he never was able to figure out that particular mystery.
He'd wished that Shard was there, his sister-in-law's half brother, or
something like that, drew them vaguely closer together. That and he'd
been around when Shard Searched another older boy for, wasn't it that
white Trymmeth's clutch? Was that right?
It didn't matter. It was only a matter of moments when everyone had gotten
to the grounds, stood on the hot sands and waited. There was still a bit
of unease in the surrounding people, but Lutan and the other candidates
were still quite excited. Who wouldn't be?
The first egg began to hatch, and out came a Bronze! An amazing colorful
one, too, with a striking difference between his wing skin and body. The
boys all waited with their eyes as wide as saucers, but it was to Lutan
that this beauty walked!
He was so shocked! The first egg to hatch a Bronze, always a great sign!
And then -- some of the boys might think that a Bronze was ill fitting
to a strange young man like Lutan, but their opinions mattered not at
all to this dragon, who announced, I am Bornilith. I like you! You have many pretty lines
all over you! Where did you get them? Others here do not have those!
"His name is Bornilith!" Lutan said, out loud, but then added to his new
life's partner, "I can arrange more colorful patterns for you, my friend!
But you'll have to wait until you're older! You're too little for my craft!"
To read more about their exciting lives read on!
"I think you're about
done," L'tan says to his latest victim-- uh, customer. The whirring of
his tattoo equipment slows and finally stops, as he stops grinding the
foot pedal to make the needle's pressurized power system go.
The man, a rider himself, smiles weakly and nods. "Thanks, here..." He
hands L'tan two marks, a good price for a great tattoo! He walked away
with a small bit of antiseptic sprayed over his arm and a big grin. The
tattoo was nice, the image was of the wing which he'd been made Wingleader
Second of. A proud position, and a good one for a brave man.
Brave enough to withstand a tattoo, L'tan smirked. And good enough about
it to offer a good payment!
"You see how easy it is to make marks?" L'tan said to his gigantic bronze
companion.
Bornilith chortled out a laugh. But you are always doing that.
You never oil me any more...
"That's because you've stopped shedding, you great lummox," L'tan laughed.
"But I suppose that you could get a good oiling right now, if you let
me find an oil pot big enough!"
Oh, I had not thought of that... When I was a weyrling
you could find it anywhere, but now I suppose I am too large for it.
"But I can still help with your bathing. Come along. Let's get to the
shore."
L'tan mounted up without his gear, typical of someone who watched Shard
fly on Blue Jeremoth. They swooped down to the shoreline and Bornilith
dove into the water after letting L'tan off his back.
Then he sensed something. It was more a smell, or a wild thought in the
dragon's aether.
Some... dragon is going to fly... He thought to his rider. There was a wildness to
his thought, almost an uncontrollable urge.
"Fly, like... oh! Great! Go get her!"
Is that all you have to tell
me?
Bornilith bespoke, You always tell your friends
to be careful or be good...
"Born, I know you'll be good! You don't want to be careful except if she's
tiny!"
She is a green, Bornilith told his rider. But she is healthy and strong! I will go to her...
I will be sure that I am the first in the air and the last as well!!
"That's my dragon..." L'tan said, broadly smiling.