Ydy never liked being on the boat. But it was their home, it was their livelyhood. She just hated it stem to stern. The endless churning, the everpresent spray and stink of the sea. It made her shudder when she woke, always hoping that it would be gone in the morning, or that she'd have gotten used to it ... but even after fourteen turns on it, she was never, ever used to any of those things.

She didn't get seasick, just annoyed by the motion of the waves. She had sustained a wound in one unexpected Threadfall as a child, perhaps that was what caused the whole of her ire: Thread brought down her mother, and while trying to help her, Ydy's hand and the back of her head were hit. To his credit, her father knew what to do: he hurriedly pushed Ydy into the cold, salty water overboard. Almost everyone else had jumped off already, but her mother hadn't made it in time. The pain of losing her mother was mingled with the sharp sting of Thread, and the chilly motion of the water. That was when she was seven, and his father had since remarried and brought another little bundle of joy into the world.

Ydy wanted the best for her family, she really did.

But she just couldn't stand being on that ship. Day after day, hauling nets, mending sails... It never ended.

She knew that nothing else ever ended, either, but if she could be on land, under trees or in a fine dark cavern? Maybe it would be more tolerable.

So one night when they had docked at a friendly port, Ydy packed her few things and ran from the ship never looking back. She took only the money that she herself had earned, and left the tools that she used for sailmending and netmaking behind. Hopefully she wouldn't need those. She did take a family posession, and while she felt a bit guilty about it, she knew there were three more just like it in the ship's locker. A beautifully crafted wood-handled pistol, ivory inlaid, perfectly balanced and tooled metal barrel. She would need it, and its bullets, when she encountered the first of several bands of robbers in the woods near the port.

The hills between the port and the woods kept anyone from hearing the gunshot, it was muffled by the brutish man's bulk anyway. His friends would not come after this girl again, but other groups didn't know how good a shot she was - nor how strong. Years and years of walking upon ropes, an unsteady deck, climbing and hauling had left her body absolutely toned. She was slender and tall and pretty, though she didn't know much about life on land.

She learned soon enough. Fashioning herself a staff using her own knife, she learned to hunt and kept herself safe by observing wild wherry and other animals. When they would scatter, she knew that there were hunters, a big tunnel snake, or Thread. But when they ran on a day that she knew was shortly after her seventeenth turnday, it was not from Thread. It was a pair of dragons - both of them managed to snatch up the fat emu-like birds for food, and when they noticed her staring at them wide-eyed, one of the dragons approached her.

Ydy was far from fearless, but she like everyone on Pern knew that a dragon would never harm a human. Were they capable of it? Of course - the size of even a green dragon was enough to crush any human if they fell. But purposefully? No! So Ydy stood her ground, staff at the ready and pistol hidden in her belt. And it was a good thing she did, for that dragon was well-known as a search dragon!

They took her to Dragonhope, where she overlooked the icy port below and refused to talk about where she had come from originally. There were some who had an inkling, but they rarely asked questions that she was unwilling to ask. She did tell them she'd run away from her home, and how long before, but from where? Too far away to care. So she became part of the Weyr for the time being.

The recordskeepers and weyrling masters were not surprised that she had only a rudamentary education, but she did know numbers and did have a strong grasp on tactics, angles, and weights. Plus she was very strong, hefting barrels and firestone sacks like they were nothing. They weren't much heavier than sacks of fish, and to her they smelled so much better!

Ydy (pronouced eedee by the way) learned reasonably quickly, but would always have stiff, poorly practiced writing. At some point she figured that she'd be riding a dragon, who needed to write? Or would have time?

And indeed, when she was finally sent to Sabon Weyr just before her ninteenth turnday, she knew she was right. There would be only precious little free time, once the dark, stunningly strong brown Tinoth came to her from his shell. He would grow fast, but that meant lots of food, lots of training, and endless scrubbing and oil for his itchy hide!

She was just perfect with this brown, and with her skill at creating and fixing weapons, she became popular among the hunters as well as the fighting wings. There were plenty of opportunities to socialize, and Ydy soon found that she loved being around riders even more than merely candidates or other weyrbrats. She could also drink some of them under the table, much to their eternal embarrassment.

Tinoth was always on the big side, but he never seemed to be too big for this girl to handle.

Status: Low Ranking Rider
Age: 27
Gender: female
Dragon: brown Tinoth; Specializing in weapon repair
Siblings: one half-sibling from their father's side
Born: first
Health: very sturdy
Height: taller than their friends
Build: lithe but muscled
Skin Tone: lightly tanned, has scars from threadfall along their hand (left) and scalp
Hair Color: auburn red
Hair Style: full
Hair Length: shoulder length
Eye Color: pale teal
Literacy Level: learned to read before being allowed to ride
Politeness Level: they're occasionally polite, but often slip up
Focus: they are able to focus easily on the tasks at hand
They're better than average in appearance
They often share with their friends

Values and Goals
Values immensely: their pistol
Hates: the Open Sea
Weak goal: prove themselves to their family
Very weak fear: death
Weak like: Wilderness
Passionately hates: their father

Picked up survival in the wild in the meantime