Ronell's pages, originally written around 2001
The only child of a weaver and a woodsman, Ronell's family rarely are seen within Dawnlight's actual halls. She loves the outdoors and in her 15 turns has learned many tricks for hunting. She is quite good at trapping, skinning, laying lures and baiting traps for tunnel snakes, wherry and other creatures. She rarely eats anything that she has not caught herself.
Since she has always lived outside the confines of Dawnlight, she was unaware of any of the politics, and in fact was unaware OF politics until she and her family went to a gather. There, when she was only 10 turns, Ronell was harrassed and bullied by the Holders offspring relentlessly. Until she finally started fighting back, at which point it was much too late to save face. Her family was moved back out, and has never been back. They do not blame her for their graceless exile, in fact her father was about to defend her actions, had he the chance he would have proven her rather innocent.
Ronell's unusual eye wear comes from a glass crafter who travels through the area from Alabaster on west (the short way, see the map). He saw that she was in some danger of getting her beautiful dark skin scarred by snakes or spines, and created a complimentary set of goggles which she intends to wear as long as they last!
Ronell was Searched by a returning A'rd and Trelerth, on their way to Dawnlight. He has promised her that when there are sands open with eggs he thinks will suit her, he will come get her. This has both thrilled and terrified her parents, as they have no other children and are still in need of her hunting skills.
Ronell would love to ride a green dragon, but she secretly wishes that she would impress a Brown. She respects the greens, in that they are the bulk of the fighting forces, and sometimes lay their eggs... But the browns are in her opinion best suited to someone like her: independant, but able to love and work together.
"Aden," he said. Ronell looked up from her work, and blinked.
"What?" Ronell put her carving tools down and watched A'rd as he grinned like a cat in her work weyr's doorway.
"Aden. Weyr. Eggs. You." He said, grinning more broadly with each short word. It was so easy to make the dark woman widen her eyes that way.
She finally stood up and gulped back something. "What was that?" A'rd said, and Ronell smiled weakly.
"I'm going to be on the Sands?" She said, blinking away tears.
"Yes, sweetheart, you are. It's a very good clutch to be on, too. The senior queen, Anissimoth, just laid many of them, with her new weyrmate. It's about time to get you going."
"Going... Already?"
"The eggs have been waiting," A'rd said. "They're about halfway hardened, that I could tell. Or that Trelerth could wheedle out of the queen."
I love talking to her. She is so strong!
I know, you just keep those thoughts to yourself. You'll get your chance to fly another green some day.
But she is GOLDEN!
Ronell looked at the search rider, who had his beautiful yellow eyes unfocused most of this time. How they did that, it made riders look almost silly. Almost. And mostly, people had the respect it took to let them speak with their counterparts, instead of interrupting. Well, Ronell had the sense.
"Could I at least finish these traps?" Ronell said, holding up one line leading to a sharp cord. A'rd nodded. "Good. Because if I'm not around, my folks might need some help hunting. And, keeping the thief away."
"Thief?" A'rd looked up, concerned. "Which thief was that?"
"You tell me. They're very good in the woods, but I know they're not part of the gypsies, because they've been suffering from them as well. Even as far out as Eden's Gate, here, to Dawnlight. Someone with guts, I think. They've stolen three of my traps and kills, lately. Maybe that'll suit them enough."
"If you put traps down, you should expect to catch a thief some day. But ... Perhaps I'll have someone in the Protectorate look after this... It probably bears investigation."
"Thank you," Ronell breathed, relieved. "I'll... Tell my folks. And you might want to tell them not to worry about me, right?"
"I'll do that." A'rd said, and they went their ways.
***
The wait was over! Ronell paced around, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, the sands were so warm...
The first to hatch of this the sixth Aden clutch was a bold, beautiful bronze! Oh, that was such a fine way to start! Three more, three different colored dragonets burst from their shells, and impressed. Then, three more. All three of them green, but one of them strayed over to the male candidates, where she impressed Daniel -- that didn't surprise anyone, least of all any of the boys!
The other greens strutted before the girls, and jealously watched each other. Finally the middle one chose her girl, and the other...
The larger of the pair, medium green, crooned up at Ronell. Her heart swelled huge, and her mind felt something at its edge. A sweet, almost pained voice called to Ronell.
She will not have you! I have you! You are mine! I am Ageneth, and I am yours!
Ronell sucked in a breath. She smiled, and whispered, Don't worry, Ageneth, I am yours, and yours alone." She stroked the little green's eye ridge, and the dragon pressed her head into Ronell's hand.
The bond she had waited her whole life for, now was very hungry!
"Ageneth, you just stand there for half a second more, and don't you dare move!"
I will not! I will not move!
The weyrling master stood and watched as the dragon and her rider did a move along the cliff side weyr that impressed even his expert eyes.
The dragon dangled with her back legs and tail clutching the weyr ledge, and her long neck snaked down into the next weyr to rescue a younger hatchling dragon who had gotten himself stuck in a crumbling weyr.
The ledge was about to collapse, and Ronell climbed down over the green's neck ridges and snatched the dragonet up into her arms.
Just then, the ledge fell away and the larger weyrling dragon swooped off the higher one, in time to land next to the weyrling master and present the blue to his rider.
"Don't do that again," breathed Ronell, thankful that they could be of help. The green was such a great acrobat already! With a little more training, they'd be able to do rescues all over the world.
It turned from one world to the next. Ageneth truly enjoyed the thrill of cliff-side rescues. She watched as others dove into chill waters, or crept into dark collapsed mines, but when someone needed a mountain top resuce, they called Ronell and Ageneth!
The dragon has never chewed firestone, and when they made the move to Alskyr Ageneth seemed to grow more canny and able to notice details about their surroundings. It was her talented eye that caught the clutch of alis-gryphs that would have been crushed in a rock slide, and the whole nest of the little creatures seemed to want to attach themselves to the dragon or her rider!
"I can't have these things around me all day..." Ronell complained. But she continued to feed the creatures and they always looked to her for care! (....NOT TO SCALE)
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