Name: Zarilon Erikson
Gender: Male
Age: currently 40s
Origin: Dawnlight
Family: the Eriksons! Fraternal Twin to Arylon
Other Relations: twin children Yahan and Hoshi with Taiyo
Height: 6'1"
Build: sturdy, strong upper body
Hair: Black, curly, 'shaved' lol nope just like that
Eyes: bright blue-green under always-raised brows
Appearance: fair creamy skin, heart-shaped face, mid-Brown caste, fleet uniform

One of the youngest of the Erikson Octuplets, Zarilon has become known for his silly, quiet nature and his cute smirk.

Twin of Arylon, Zarilon has always been her bane. While she has been great at engineering and smithcrafting designs, Zarilon has been adept at breaking things down and landscaping in a natural way. He looks at every new cavern and volcano site as a new adventure in carving.

His studies in rocks have gained him a Journeyman's knots, and he knows where to dig and what to avoid. But Zarilon is much more than just a miner.

He is quite the charming young lad. At 19 turns of age, while his brothers Epsilon and Tarrilon were out impressing, he was deep within a new Weyr digging out a chamber or two. When they had been studying harpers lessons (not that he hadn't) he was mostly running amock with Holder girls and making them giggle with delight with his sweet charm.

Always more social than most of his family, Zarilon wants to bring dragons to the people, wants to make sure that everyone who can be protected by stone or flame gets their share. No one would suffer under a Pern run by this young man!

Of course, at Dawnlight Hold, he was limited by what the Lord Holders wanted him to say and do. That just wasn't enough. So spending more time out with his Masters at dig sites and calderas, Zarilon extended his leave from Dawnlight Hold for the duration of his entire Senior Apprentice life.

That's quite a feat, considering they really did want him present and accounted for at all times. Quite a thoughtful mouth on that boy. And too much of a brain.

"If we place this wedge here, it'll be able to pry loose this whole area," Zarilon said to the weyr's headwoman. The skinny, overworked woman nodded without really understanding what he said. "Or if you think you'd want this area all cleared entirely," Zarilon waved his hand at the ceiling of the low room, "we could try another technique."

"... To be honest, Journeyman, I really couldn't care less about whether this room has enough head space for a dragon or not. It's going to be a dining hall, not a dragon weyr. Please just get it excavated."

Zarilon nodded, and smiled as the woman left the area. The blasting was going to commence and he thought he ought to warn her first. Perhaps she didn't really know what that wedge held inside it.

Finest quality explosives on Pern. K'tarri had helped them manufacture it, though he had been run out of Dawnlight pretty quickly. That boy liked his explosives loud.

The echo of the huge dusty explosion rocked through the weyr, and the headwoman came rocketing back into the dust-doused room panicked.

"What was THAT!? WHAT?!" She screamed, and Zarilon and the other miners laughed.

"That, my sweet headwoman, was an explosion. As I was saying, that wedge," he waved a hand through the dusty air, "has loosened a huge amount of large stones. The weyr above us will be easier to reach through the stones, now, since there was a natural fissure running up through it. I'll have the masons tell you more about how the stairwell will go."

He nodded and patted her shoulder, and sent her along the way. Sometimes it was easier to coddle people who knew nothing about mining, than to try explaining a thing. This was one of those cases. This weyr would have to be ready within half a turn. At this rate, the headwoman would have stocked the entire place with clothing and rushes for beds, before they'd even excavated all the residential weyrs.

They had a plan to follow, and Zarilon wanted to make sure that they did the right digging in the best spots first. There would be harder stone to get to, but by that time, they'd have dug through all the easy lava stone and porous rocks first.

He looked around at the dust as it settled on the ground again. The huge baskets of glows, surrounded by mirrored lenses which intensified their light, showed that most of their work was done in this large cavern. It was good enough for a dining hall as it was, but now it had enough room -- once the stones were cleared out -- for probably three hundred or more to dine comfortably.

The mining staff decided to call it a day's work, and some of them simply bedded down where they stood, not wanting to bother with taking a quick bath in the natural springs nearby.

Zarilon on the other hand wanted to get the grit out of his hair and eyes before doing anything else. He also wanted to talk to one of those cute cook girls he'd seen making a pastry-covered meat dish.

With his best smile, he leaned on the warm hearth and said, "so, what's cooking?"

"It's a wherry and fruit pot pie," said one of the older, less attractive girls. "And it's not done yet. Kindly go about your business."

"Oh, you'll make a great headwoman some day," he muttered as he slunk outside. The air was clean and the sky dark. They had been working longer than he thought. But then again, too, they'd been brought to this site by Protectorate dragons who would be helping take the stones away. He looked at one of them, a large brown, and admired the way the dragon and rider cooperated as they rolled another boulder away from the weyr's entrance.

"*ahem*" said a girl, behind Zarilon.

"Ah!" He said, turning. Though startled, he hardly made it known. He sniffed at the air.

"It's done. It's been done, Wyla just didn't want to share it with the workers." The girl held out a pan with a small crust-covered pot pie. "Go ahead. It's hot, and the fruit was just right for it."

"I've never had fruit and wherry at the same time," muttered Zarilon, as he dug into the meal. It was delicious, and he certainly didn't neglect to tell the girl that! When he was finished, he noticed that a number of the Uplifted Spirits wing dragons were standing waiting for their riders to come out of the baths.

He approached them and looked at the beautiful creatures up close. He'd never had any fear of them, not even a bit. After all, anyone who deals with explosions and falling stones must have some kind of bravery going for them! But looking at them inspired a lot more awe than just amazement. He watched them breathing, moving, and walking.

"Beautiful aren't they?" Asked a man, behind Zarilon.

Turning, Zarilon saw a short, black haired man smiling near him. "Yes, they are."

"Tevuth is curious about you. Why not go let him look at you, okay?" The rider said. "S'am, by the way."

"Zarilon..." he said, dazed. Something was odd. Different. The dragons all seemed to be looking at him. Their eyes were all the same color: grey-red.

"What does that mean?" He asked of S'am, "that color their eyes are?"

"It means they're looking at you and thinking about dinner," the rider said, then laughed. "Actually... I'm not sure." His eyes unfocused and then brown Tevuth straightened and bellowed a bit. "Ah. Now I'm sure. You've been Searched. Though Tevuth has never done that before... Not sure why he's started now..."

"What do you mean, searched?" Said Zarilon. "I can't be Searched, I'm a miner!"

"Well, you're going to be a candidate now," S'am said. "Let's find you a weyr, shall we?"

The wait at Turquoise weyr was a lot longer than Zarilon thought it would be. It felt like months. Well, it was at least two, while the eggs there hardened. A good queen's clutch, and with gold expected among the eggs! Their second clutch, that would be a good sign.

What would have been better, in Zarilon's opinion, would be if he and the other candidates could have dwelled closer to the sands. Because in the last couple days, the mother of that clutch kept calling them down to the eggs - even though they weren't hatching. Not quite yet.

But now, for the second time in the day, all the other dragons in the weyr were humming loudly. That seemed to be better than just the dam of the clutch. When the group of candidates were herded yet again to the sands, this time, the Queen Fananth moved aside just barely, to let them near her eggs.

The first of the eggs shaking developed cracks on it, and then began to chip away, showing at last a beautiful damp bronze hatchling! Everyone was very happy at this, especially since the clutch was so late in hatching.

Without any consideration for anyone else on the sands, the bronze made a straight line toward none other than Zarilon! He picked his wings up and spread them out, drying them in the warm air.

Zarilon. That is too long. Zari is too cute. You are cute, but I wish you to have a proper name for a rider of a bronze like me. Z'lon is your name. And I am Minath. Do you love me? Of course you do.

"His name is Minath!" Z'lon cheerfully called out, and headed directly back to the kitchens where the meat was being cut up for the hatchlings. They were all hungry - but Minath would be getting the very best he could find.

(there was never anything written that I know of, for weyrling and adult because they didn't go out from Turquoise)

dragon