Ashena had always been a bit flighty. Her twin sister Eshana had popped out half an hour before her own birth, and was almost always the first in everything. Ashena was okay with that, because it left her time to goof off. They varied in so many ways, but looked exactly the same. Eshana was the brains of the pair, while Ashena was the brawn.

Drawn to archery as a way to get on her father's good side, Ashena quickly mastered hunting and target shots even while on runner-back. She even taught her younger brothers - also twins - how to use the bow. Not for her were things like fancy lace and embroidered shawls. Ashena liked being out and about, and her attire as well as attitude reflected that.

So it was while she had been out and about that she encountered her first dragon rider. Distracted, Ashena allowed her runner to ignore her weak suggestion of staying on the path, and instead began to trot toward him. Unfortunately the rider was sitting on the edge of a rather high cliff! They narrowly escaped falling, and it was the man's blue dragon which saved both horse and rider that day!

It had also been on that day several years ago that she had been Searched. But when the rider dropped in on the cothold, he saw how busy the family was with the young brothers as well as an ailing grandfather. No point in breaking up the family even further, not yet anyway.

But soon the time did come, when Ashena was asked to come to Isla. The climate suited her, mostly, at least before the days leading up to the hatching! She'd hardly ever experienced such cold before, but then again neither had many of the locals at the Weyr! She was among those who bundled up thoroughly and even then her teeth clattered loudly when they were brought into the chilly classrooms for dragon instruction.

She'd made friends with several of the girls, and more than a couple of the boys, while there. The boys were impressed by her ability to use the bow - she outright beat all of them in one impromptu hunt - though the girls found her rather rude and abrupt for such a pretty thing. The hatching was large, scattered, confusing.

It was such a grand affair, too. Because her family was still needed on the Hold, they couldn't be there to watch, but she didn't doubt for a moment that they would be proud of her even for standing. Though there were tears and sniffles aplenty before she left, Ashena knew that her sister was far better suited to Hold life, while she herself felt right at home in a Weyr.

Many of the hatchlings had found their partners, and Ashena and one of the other girls were getting a little antsy. There had to be one for them!

Two green-sized dragonets, one pale with bronze speckles and the other a rich, dark copper, stopped near two girls who were trying desperately to entice any of the dragonets to them. You don't have to scream so loud in my head, Ashena . I'm right here. The girl blushed and dropped to her knees to hug Rodasheth's small head, apologizing profusely.

"Rodasheth... Rodasheth," Ashena let the name flutter through her mind like a flit in the wind. It had finally happened, she was whole, she was one with what had to be the most incredibly beautiful dragon in the whole world. While lots of others in this clutch had speckles or whatever... This one was special. She'd probably be announced as some kind of brown, though obviously female - and in her future residence of Dragonhope, there was one such female brown already! But this was copper, a richly metallic shade. However, it was also clear that Rodasheth would be small in size, compact head to tail tip. That suited Ashena just fine too! Because she'd ridden large runners before, she wasn't as intimidated as she might have been if she'd Impressed that pale gold!

***

((2024))

"She was never meant to be, I ... guess." Ashena was shaken, to her core. Though she did her very best to make sure that the copper colored dragonet was healthy, something went... wrong. Never growing, eating less and less, until she simply stopped hungering.

There was a pit in Ashena's gut, deep, dark. But Ashena knew she was meant to ride, to thrive on a dragon's back. Not shrink and die from losing an infant dragon. The bond had been true and beautiful, but it was fading even as she attended her sister's handfasting a few weeks later. Of course she'd penned a letter to her family about the hatching and impression, but it sat unsent on a desk at Dragonhope. She had been fully moved to the Weyr when it was apparent she wasn't "needed" at Isla, leaving her feeling bitter and alone more than anything else.

When she'd arrived, however, there were whispers. Something had gone on while the weyr was being renovated - mating flights, numerous different queens or greens or... other pairs. Not all of them produced eggs, of course, but several did. So when she was back from the wedding and had crumpled the letter and thrown it into a fireplace, she was summoned along with several others to a more or less 'secret' and secluded sands.

It was quite warm, a tremendous contrast with the stiffly humid but extremely cold air outside. A newly created hatching area, seated just above an artificially heated chamber that apparently forced hot air through the entire Weyr's secondary peak! She could marvel at that later, for the moment, there were eggs moving. Her gut and heart flipflopped, but she felt... more than that. More than just sadness and grief and excitement and wonder.

"Vixrith," she whispered, there was a word on her mind, just like there had once been half a turn before.

I will not leave you alone, the pink shaded dragoness said. The hunger was familiar but strong, so strong! Much more hearty than before, with a striving purpose behind it. We will fly swift and true like your arrows!

So stunning was this dragon, but still she'd be small compared to many in the Weyr. And a little... different, as well! With those horn buds coming from her heaknobs, like her parents!

Name: Vixrith
Species: (Pernese variant Dragon, horns on knobs)
Gender: Female, low rank - equitable to a green, however with knowledge of another weyr on another Pern, their ranks are filled with more colors!
Color: Dawn, pale pink-fuschia body with brighter pink mottling on face, wing fingers, paws, and tail; wingsails and tail spade pale pink with sunny yellow mottling on edges
Size: small 6'4" s / 30' l / 60' ws
Parents: Burnished White f Htohvoth (L'ben) + Silvered Red m Luuith (Raane) - parents unrelated from Mt's Note Weyr giveaway with these traits
Abilities: (Telepathy, Teleportation, Assisted Firebreath)
Personality: attentive and sure
Sociability: flirty but not aggressive
Intelligence: average for a smaller dragon, more hunt-clever than 'smart'
Mating: likely, but will be choosy and have small offspring in small quantities
Threadfighting: not fit for long term flights and more of use as a hunter
Other: doesn't care that she's a 'replacement', nothing could ever be better than to have a perfect bond
Impressed at / Art by: Dragonhope special, Lines originally by Ktrenal, altered and colored by Lethe
Bond: Ashena

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Status: Commoner, House Born child
Age: 16
Gender: female
Siblings: 4
Born: second
Legitimacy: a pleasant surprise to their happily married parents
Childhood Health: frail child
Adult Height: a bit short for an adult
Adult Build: kind of overweight but strong enough
Skin Tone: olive
Hair Color: darkly brown
Hair Style: afro-curled
Hair Length: cut to the neck
Eye Color: yellow-green
Literacy Level: can read with some difficulty and have poor penmanship
Politeness Level: everyone knows them as a rude person
Focus: they enjoy their work well enough but they love to play more often
This character is pretty good looking
They will rarely share with anyone

Values and Goals
Enjoys: their twin
Enjoys: hot places
Overwhelming goal: 'get away from it all'
Weak fear: fire/burning
Hates: Cliffs

Skill most often practiced: archery
Other skills: horse riding

Searched! When: a while ago, but it was kept a secret from them

Originally From: island community
Location size: smallish
Location climate: very hot

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Former dragon deprecated to yak-dep3.htm over on furries

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