Fahuong knows what it's like to be on the guard against people - but she prefers to believe that folks are better than the ones found in the Loigmei Hold she grew up in. While she was growing up, the second-youngest of 6 siblings, she was immediately seen as pretty - and soon enough after puberty she was clearly labeled 'attractive'. Especially to one of the local Lords... an older man named Pikat. This man was known to have certain ... exotic tastes. However he was also quite rich.
While Fahuong was able to learn just enough about how to make herself the center of attention, say by dancing, laughing and playing her flute, she unfortunately never learned to read. This, along with her pretty face and poor parents, sent her into a spiral of danger and sadness. Since she could not read the 'arrangement', she did not know she ought to complain... At her fifteenth birthday she was sent as a 'gift' in trade for a chunk of land from Pikat's holdings. Fahuong's older siblings would then have more to split between them - but she would be married off to this man!
At first, she tried to be kind and obey his wishes. They had not married, not because she had refused his gifts or flirtings, but because he was too busy flirting with the other young ladies in his 'harem'. Sickened by this, but more worried for the girls around her, Fahuong began searching for ways out of the 'relationship'.
Finally one day, when Pikat had grown tired of her gentle rebukes or statements of worry, he confined her to a small room within his Hold. For days, she was not allowed to even see the servants. Fed by plates being slid below the door, and not allowed to clean her waste from the room, Fahuong grew terrified. Her panic was almost at a deadly level, when one other servant girl finally unlocked the room to allow her to escape.
Fahuong knew the minute she laid eyes upon the younger girl, that she'd already been abused by Pikat and would certainly want to escape the Hold. Chyibha was even more beautiful than Fahuong, and perhaps three or four years younger than the now-17-turn old.
They made their plans in secret. Both of them having to play coy or put up with the 50-year old man's gruff advances. The other girls in the Hold, ranging in age from around 12 to in their 30s, knew that if they spoke a word of the girls' plans the pair would be punished far worse than Fahuong had been before. Fortunately, the other women remained silent until they could make their move.
Read about Chyibha's background and continue the story?

Though she already had a mandy to her name, everyone at the final ceremony got a flying Cloud Cat, which surprised Fahuong a bit. Couldn't these things be bred to control pests? They were certainly entertaining and lovely. Hers (one which latched onto her hand when she reached into the box to see what would come out) was a bright golden-yellow male, which she dubbed Sunclaw.

As they said their farewells and realized that this place had been their home for almost two full years, Fahuong and the other riders took last looks around. Would the place change in the time they would be away? Would they choose to come back and perhaps fly here? Or would they be called to fight menaces?

Any of that appealed to the girl, because now she knew she'd always have a perfect home, with her dragon Jith. Anywhere felt like a wonderful place, no matter the climate or the closeness of civilization. As they arrived and bugled their return - for the first time on their own dragons - Fahuong knew this would be a good place for her. Miles of sky, open ground, snow and sea... So much to look at, and she knew that Jith was quick on the wing. If there was Thread falling they'd warn the holds and weyr in record time.