Tendar (T'dar)

Hold born, age 17, 3rd of 5 children (2 sisters and 2 brothers), higher ranking hold family

Brown Caynith, Adult Length: 32'8" Adult Height to Shoulder: 9'2", gold Mardanith & bronze Ichiroth

***

Tendar played cards. All his life, he was always shuffling a deck of poker cards or fiddling with betting chips, or counting his winnings. No one ever said anything about 'doing something' with his life, or getting to know a trade, he was third in line for the Hold lands and he didn't much care. He was an absolute demon with these cards, playing Dragon Poker (or regular poker, or solitare, or hold em, or pick a game, he'd invented dozens) was like breathing to him, and he excelled at playing to win.

His sisters would beg him to show them how to play, but he snubbed them, telling them often that their place would never be at a poker table - it would clearly be in the kitchen serving the menfolk. Yes, he was an absolute prig when it came to women. This, of course, learned from his father and uncles. Being ranked men in the Hold, and the Hold showing no signs of disasters or failings, they kept their heads high and their women stayed silent.

Not that they were mistreated, his mother was a lovely woman, and while she would hold her tongue in public, even Tendar knew that she argued with his father about things. Mundane things, things about cloth and sugar and sewing needles. Things that Tendar hardly cared existed. As long as he could play cards, everything in his life was in order.

His uncle was the one who had given him his first lessons in playing. Learning quickly, but prefering the ins and outs of card games instead of strategy games like chess, Tendar rapidly outpaced his uncle's abilities. By the time he was twelve, the family was more proud of him for having such skill, than worried that he'd never be able to take a Hold seriously. He wouldn't have to - he would not particularly be inheriting much if his older brothers had much to say about it.

While they liked him well enough, and never ever showed any malice toward him, they did frequently discuss between themselves, while Tendar listened half-asleep, how best to keep the Hold for themselves. Tendar might have worried about this, except that he seriously never wanted to have to be tied down to the Hold. It would mean he'd have to sit down and figure out salaries for the workers, weigh bags of cane and flour. That sort of thing was ridiculous to him. That was drudgery and his father and mother took to it with ease and gusto.

Not so their middle child. He definitely and clearly took after his father's brothers. One was a rider, killed in action over a weyr in deep Threadfall and honored greatly by his peers. Another was a trader, by choice, he'd fallen for a girl in a caravan and never wanted to return to a steady stone home. Then there was Tarrab, who was by all accounts a scoundrel and a womanizer, Tendar's uncle with the cards. Now, he would never outright steal - he was no thief, and neither was Tendar because of it. The one time that Tendar tried to cheat, Tarrab had a long, heartfelt discussion about economics and morals... and then reminded him that many thieves and cheaters were beaten to death or run over by carts 'by accident'. That sobered him up quickly.

Tendar was easily distracted if he had to do anything other than play cards or learn about a new game. When playing, nothing - even Threadfall - stopped him. He would play newcomers in the Hold, testing them, seeing what kind of person they were based on their ability in the game. And if they couldn't play cards he didn't even want to know them.

At gathers, he was positively renoun. Folks would come from nearby cotholds and faroff weyrs, and if they wanted a challenge, they were quickly shown to the boy's shaded nook near the Hold's wall. He didn't care for runners, so watching the races was boring to him. He didn't care for all the fancy clothing or trinkets, he didn't have a girlfriend (none of them played cards, and those that did had mouths on them that would make a sailor blush...) so he didn't have much need to spend on someone other than himself. He was liberal with gifts for his sisters, they ought to look pretty for their potential husbands. And he did enjoy drinking and dining, in his teenage years he'd gotten a little pudgy.

But once an opponent came near, he was all business, with a face that could lie to a dragon and have it believe him. Outside of playing his cards, he was animated and friendly looking, smiled frequently and never hesitated to laugh at a good joke. Once behind that card table, though... He was the stone below the mountains, unmoving.

At one gather, shortly after his 17th turn day and a week after his youngest sister's 12th, as he sat there waiting for people to come in and lose their hard earned Marks to him, he noticed the shadows of dragons flying overhead. They would spook the runners, the herd beasts bellowed, it was normal.

What wasn't normal was that they were on Search, looking for a few young people unattached who'd make good Candidates. This Hold rarely saw such activity, even though there were often plenty of riders coming through for goods. The tithes they paid regularly were always picked up by the same pair of greens, who never turned away from their duties. These were foreign dragons, only one was a breed that he recognized as Dragonhope's.

So a pair of riders, one clearly cut for heavy winters, and the other for blistering summers, wandered the Gather grounds. From his shelter, Tendar could see and even hear the squeals of joy or heated arguments that people gave when they were Searched. To Tendar, it didn't much matter either way - there would always be dragons, someone had to ride them.

It wasn't much likely to be him.

Until those two riders came by his lean-to. One of them furrowed his brows, and turned to the other, quietly making some comment that Tendar didn't catch. The other shrugged, and then approached.

"We'd like to ask if you've ever been sniffed out by a dragon, young man." He said, "you might be interested to know you could be standing for a dragon soon."

"..." Tendar blinked, for the first time in his life somewhat surprised by something. "What?"

"Searched, you, yes." The other rider said, smirking.

"Oh.... er... Well now." Tendar said, "how about this... I don't really know much about dragons, and I've never done a lick of work in my life that involved picking things up or marching around like you lot do. Convince me that I'm good for your dragons. Best me at the cards, and I'll go with you."

The pair of riders looked somewhat shocked, this was hardly what they came to do. But one of them, the tall skinny Dragonhope rider, pulled on the chair opposite Tendar's and sat down. "I'll take you up on it, but you have to remember - there may be a dragon waiting for you, and if you're not there, it will die without you. They do that you know. So even if I lose, you're going to be pursuaded to come along somehow."

"I doubt that very much," Tendar said while shuffling his well-worn cards. He announced the game would start simply, nothing special. He dealt the cards and looked his hand over, said nothing, and switched out two, while K'roohan did the same. They would not have to bet, that was one facet that changed the dynamic a little.

Teldar had a little time to think, while they moved their cards around. What was going on with his life? Nothing? Anything? What did he have to lose, exactly, by becoming a candidate? The likelyhood was that he'd stand a few times and then return, not having impressed and having grown too old to stand any longer. He played safe all his life. Sometimes he took a wild leap and bet when he shouldn't, and usually paid that price. This time though... the price was much higher. He could impress. And then fly into Thread like his uncle, and die. Or not die. So many variables. So many new pieces of information, folding out like a new deck.

With new rules.

Eventually, it came time to 'ante up' so to speak - since there was no money involved, they would either win or lose.

So K'roohan showed his cards, three equal-value face-cards, one from each suit, and two sixes. Teldar's hand had been far better, with four face cards including the Weyrwoman and Weyrleader. That was perhaps the one thing he allowed to get to him. He knew all the faces on this deck - they'd been painted to reflect the nearby Holders and their people, the crafters in a hold not far away, and the Weyr which they tithed. The Weyrwoman and Weyrleader. Maybe.... this was a sign, a variable that tipped the scales. He'd met one or two of the people that were painted on the cards, Holders mostly, they were older now of course. The cards were painted almost twenty turns before. The Weyrleaders... would they even be alive now? Would he ever get the chance to meet them?

Without blinking the wrong way, without pursing his lips, without all those little cues that others - including K'roohan - gave off when they were playing cards, Tendar placed his cards face down on the table and said, "you have a good hand for this, sir. I'm in, congratulations."

The other rider, from Isla, gave a chuckling cheer to his cohort, who stood up and shook Tendar's hand. "Good, that's good. I mean, I know I'm a crappy card player. I saw those and had this feeling."

"So did I," Tendar said, "so did I."

***

Isla wasn't like any place he'd ever imagined. There were dragons all right - that he knew he would find at a weyr. But there were ... people! Like he'd never seen before! People with long ears and with fur or tails, and then there were wolves - these great furry canine creatures with wings! Tendar didn't even know that such creatures existed, he'd never heard of them, at first he thought they were whers. But they weren't hided, they were furry, and their wings besides were feathery like a bird's. So wide-eyed, Tendar wandered the halls until he was brought to the dorms, joined in with the other boys and of course, started playing cards.

Quickly, he'd gotten a reputation for being better at cards than anyone in the dorms, and that led a green rider named A'tam to come along to see whether there was anything to this rumor. And very shortly, he in fact was shown. Anyone else might have given up, but A'tam managed to win a couple hands (after losing essentially every Mark he'd ever make - in theory, of course, because they weren't allowed to actually gamble with the candidates until they actually earned their own keep around the weyr). Then, rather abruptly, a hatching was crooned out - called from the depths of the hot sands.

Throwing his candidate robe on, and hustling down to the sands, Tendar was almost tempted to rush up into the stands and start placing bets for the outcome. But he was too excited, suddenly his head was filled with images and feelings. So this was what it was like.. This was the way it felt to be around real dragons, real eggs... and soon there were dragons hatching wetly out of their shells!

A handful and then another few, and then toward what looked to be the middle of the clutch, a trio of dragonets burst forth. One went to someone nearby, and then another, a deeply brown one, approached Tendar.

I bet you that you and I will become wing leaders some day, T'dar, the dragon bespoke slyly.

"You're on, Caynith!" He replied, pretty certain they could do anything they set their minds to!

***

It was obviously true that their bet would be paying off. Even though T'dar was never much for big lifting or hard work at the Hold, he was becoming stronger by the day. Working with a young dragon, mucking out the weyr, helping lift buckets of sand and soap, drilling with the others for threadfall exersizes, all those things were taking off the pudge and putting on solid strong muscle. And he was also becoming more emotive, even though when he played dragon poker he was as dead on flatfaced as he ever was.

They took to the air with ease, but landings were a hard part for them both. T'dal made sure to get advice from that leather crafter to get his harness smoothed down, it was odd to both dragon and rider that the scratchy braided exterior of the harness chafed the dragon and made the human itch right on the bottom of his neck...

***

Chathy, the green rider who'd apparently impressed just shortly after T'dar had, was having trouble convincing her green to get going. "We've got to smack some sense into her," she claimed, "or else she just will sit here all day. She doesn't want to leave."

"It is nice and chilly at Dragonhope, so I've heard," T'dar said, looking at the dragon. "You like fish don't you? I can tell you like fish. You know where the best fishing is done? That's right, in cold water!"

With that, it appeared that Nelith agreed suddenly to the long flight between back to Dragonhope.

That was sneaky.... Is there really better fishing?

"Well it is a fishing port, so I'd have to say yeah," T'dar said, scratching his head, "we'll find out, huh!"