Iris and Irii's pages, originally written around 2001
Twin sisters, and no, their hair is NOT natural. Both just past their sixteenth turnday, and both of them naturals at getting into trouble.
They spend more time at Blackstone Weyr than anywhere else, but their home can be claimed to be Eden's Gate. They have an extended family living around Blackstone, Dawnlight and other places more distant, but their attachment to members of the Weyr dominate.
They share everything, and it would surprise no one if they both impressed the same dragon. If... Well, if that were to ever happen, they would have reason to be written down in the records but otherwise they liked being kept out of things like that.
The fewer people know of their existance the better. They breeze in and out of people's lives, weyrs and usually in and out of the kitchens before anyone catches them.
Their parents are a brown rider and a starcrafter, both with their heads in the sky for one reason or another. They have never neglected their middle daughters, but those daughters simply ran off one day and no one bothered to look for them. They came back soon enough.
They have no pets, though sometimes their boyfriends count. Never ceasing to be on the move, on the prowl, these two just adore the idea of being on dragon back. They have no idea how much responsibility there might be to go along with that but they're willing to take that chance.
Neither of them are weak willed, weak bodied or weak emotionally, though their education has suffered as a result of being allowed to wander the South without being attended by a Harper.
**
Iris with smaller green Coranth
Irii with big green Loranth
"How many times have I asked you to not spill those glow baskets?" Sh'awn said, with more patience than the others in the area believed should be afforded the pair. "I am certain it's been more than a dozen. Now, please pick them up, sweep the dead ones out and make sure that the three baskets in the hall are well-shaken. NOT shaken so hard they're all over the floor."
The bronze rider glanced at the pair, and tilted his head forward. He meant his words, and surely even they could take the words of a bronze rider seriously, right?
The brown eyed girls looked at one another and almost telepathically made their decision. They'd do the work he asked of them.
Then they would go play.
Perhaps in his weyr. They stocked the baskets, handed off the dull glows to the drudges nearest, and then scampered off like twin banshees to the dragonriders weyrs above.
They skidded to a halt when they heard a baby crying.
"Uh oh," Iris said, "that sounds like..."
"Sh'awn's boy. What's his name?"
"Tolek," Iris answered her sisters' question. "I hope he's okay..."
They went into the weyr, and found that Ceanna wasn't there. Perhaps she was out getting their dinner, or something. The black-and-white haired girls looked around the weyr and soon found Tolek. The tan-skinned boy was bawling his head off, standing in his crib.
"What's wrong?" Irii asked him, softly ruffling his curly hair back from his messy face. "What is it?"
"BBBWWWWAAAAHAHHHAHHHHHHH!!!" The boy cried, relentless.
"Oh, I think this is it," Iris said, holding up a toy which had been tossed (and tossed fairly far) to the side of the weyr. It was a little stuffed dragon toy, looking like it'd been sucked on or slept with all the little boy's life. Iris shook the toy gently in front of Tolek's face, until his eyes opened.
"That's it, Tolek, you know you shouldn't toss your toys like that! We won't always be around to catch them for you!" Irii cooed, as Iris placed the toy in the boy's waiting plump arms.
The girls watched the little child play with identical grins on their heart-shaped faces, and then were interrupted by Ceanna's clearing-the-throat noise at the entrance of the weyr.
"He's so cute," Iris said, "how old is he again?"
"He's just over two turns, but he's not used to living in Blackstone." Ceanna said, putting a tray of food down on the table nearby. "Aneris weyr was enjoyable, but this is so much closer to home..."
"That's right, I remember you before we kinda left," Irii giggled. "Eden's gate has another dragonrider to its credit, huh?" She thumbed at the wide entrance to the dragon's part of the weyr, and Ceanna nodded with a smile.
"It does. Now, off with you. Thank you for keeping track of Tolek for me. He's a bit of a handful."
"He sure is, but he'll be just like his daddy soon, huh?" Iris giggled one more time at the child. He'd thrown the dragon toy halfway to Dawnlight again, but he was more concerned with the smell of food than anything else.
The twins left the bronze rider's weyr, and ran almost directly into a strange rider. He had a limp and his face was scarred, but he handled himself with the ease that almost all dragon riders did. He looked at the girls and they looked at him.
Unabashedly, one of them (they both looked precisely the same to this rider) asked "where did you get that? Threadscore doesn't--"
But her sister elbowed her exactly-the-same counterpart in the gut before she finished her sentance. "Heyo," Irii said. "How are you today? It's close to dinner time, do you want to head to the kitchens?"
Before he could protest, the rider was surrounded on either side by one of the tall, healthy girls. "Allllll right," he said, and his dragon hummed into his head.
"What would you like to do afterwards? I think that I have an idea..."
They both giggled at his words, but they misunderstood his suggestion entirely. When they had finished off their stew and cheese bread, instead of getting a romp in the sleep furs with him, he walked them to a temporary weyr along the north end of the Weyr. There, a gigantic blue dragon stood.
They are right. Exactly right! I even thought they were one person!
"He's beautiful!" Exclaimed Iris. Her sister breathed, "he's huge."
"He is both," K'ran said, "And he's searched you both. For Thayor Weyr's first clutch. Do you need to tell anyone that you're going to stand?"
"We ... don't really need to do that!" Irii laughed, "no one will miss us!"
Thinking on where he had found the girls, half the conversation he'd overheard, and the thoughts of his dragon, K'ran very much doubted that!
"The moment has arrived!" Someone yelled from the hallway, and sprinted away, calling the other candidates out. The pair of twins looked up from their studies, learining the proper amount of food that a hatchling dragon will need, and both their identical faces lit up.
"It's SO going to be the best moment EVER!" Iris cheered. Irii gulped and hesitated at the door, putting on her white robe.
"What if we don't impress, Iris... What if it's just one of us?"
"That would never happen," Iris said, but there was still that hint -- doubt always tainted a candidate's mind before a hatching.
The handsome boy from Mama Tani's impressed the blue which hatched first, and soon the eggs were hatching left and right. Most amazing of all, was a bronze which hatched from this green and brown's clutch! How remarkable!
That was a portent of things to come, Iris heard someone mutter. That this weyr might have some truly amazing hatchlings!
Well, she had to agree, when three greens broke open and two of them barreled across the hot sands toward Iris and her sister! The smaller of the pair slowed down, allowing her bigger sister to bowl Irii over.
"Gee, I know you won, Loranth, but you didn't have to knock me over!" Irii laughed.
Tired from her sprint out of the egg, the smaller green plopped down beside Iris.
I am very tired! Why can't I walk any more? I wanted to win that race...
"Oh, Coranth, you're pooped! Let's get some food into you and then you'll have more energy!"
Iris picked up her little green and they went to get the cut up meat that the kitchen staff had provided them.
The sisters both knew that they'd be cutting their own meat within days, but that had never been a problem for the girls. Some of the other girls on the sands probably wouldn't like handling the bloody wherry meat, but they would have to, like everyone before them, and everyone after!
Loranth and Coranth began struggling over who had the best selection of sunlight on their shared weyr ledge almost immediately after moving in. Iris and Irii on the other hand just sat and watched the dragons, most often with mugs of wine in their hands.
"Loranth is going to be bigger," Irii said. "Coranth will probably be faster though."
"I think so," Iris agreed. "Coranth doesn't eat as much as your dragon."
There was a pause.
Then the dragons had their turn to watch as the pair of twin sisters duked it out raising dust and screeching at each other!
Iris will win, she's stronger.
Irii is more clever...
Stronger, smarter, bigger, faster... It only seemed to matter that the pair of dragons competed at all to make them worth getting into a wing. The Protectorate immediately sought out the pair for the well-known all-blue-and-green wing, Sea Blessed.
"As long as they don't endanger each other or the rest of the wing riders," said H'dar, the wing leader, "they're both welcome. And you both, more than welcome of course. Now, come play darts with me."
Both riders looked at the wing leader like he had just invited them to sleep in the queen's weyr, and followed on after him, while their dragons got used to their new environment in Blackstone Weyr's ledges.
The wing was spread over the lower area of the Weyr, yet clumped together enough that when they rose as a fighting wing, they could do it all at once.
Finally silenced by their elders in the Wing, Coranth and Loranth wanted to know all the best dirt on all the riders -- which their green and blue compatriots eagerly offered!
