"I never said I wanted to be a Harper," Ais grumbled, but her friends always begged her to start looking into apprenticeship at the Harper hall. Ais felt it entirely an invasion. Yes, she was the granddaughter of a local and very well-known Harper, the great-granddaughter of a balladeer that had dozens of her tales told at meetings, the daughter of a journeyman whose best accomplishments included bringing literacy to the poorest of cotholders and even drudges.

He'd hardly been able to instill those skills in this girl of his though. Distracted by any chance to get outside and away from the people of her moderately busy House, Ais would quickly abandon her studies. She can read, write and do fairly good maths... But history?

That was her father's junk. She stayed away from it. Her mother and her two brothers relished everything he did and said. But even early on, Ais was independant of him and his ways. If that meant that she missed out on learning just where the first Holds were, or who flew the biggest dragon flight, or when Threadfall disturbed the meeting of some official or other... She didn't care.

Choosing a different route to her loom than her friends would remember to take, Ais slipped away from them into the House's many corridors. Her home Hold was at the edge of the scrublands, built halfway into the first available rocky cliffside, and over it and beyond it... All connected with clever stone and adobe tunnels with metal shutters and doors.

She hated it. It was ugly. It was dark, even with the windows on the tunnels.

If, she reasoned while she fiddled with her threads and a pattern to work on the loom, they'd only paid attention to the direction of the sun - they'd have light in at least half the House during every daylight hour. As it was, there were patches of their large sprawl that never saw one glimmer of real sunlight. She stayed away from those, choosing instead to cling to the tunnels and the one or two crafting rooms where a large window would allow some afternoon sun in.

The pattern she had chosen to work on quickly became something else. Her fingers moved thread around itself expertly, in colors available cheaply. It wouldn't be a dramatic and beautiful hanging, but maybe it would inspire someone. For the pattern she'd made was imbedded in her mind since she'd first seen the House from above on dragonback.

She wanted to modify it - she wanted to rebuild it herself. The worry of that first and only dragon ride (being rescued with a handful of others from the fire on the scrub that threatened everyone's crops) faded so quickly when she squinted against the wind and ash and looked down upon her home Hold.

The tapestry that she'd woven today, while small, was most of her design. An elegant tower and block, built into the same short wide cliffside. But beyond it, angled rooftops with shuttered openings on the top and sides. A dozen buildings still connected by tunnels, but made so that one would hardly spend time in those dark and dismal places. A courtyard big enough for a dragon to land and see their search choices...

Ais stared at her work, with difficulty. It had grown dark. And she hated the dark.

***

"Ais didn't come to the meeting," said someone, and as she heard her name spoken she wondered what would be wrong now. Punishments abounded in this House, so she was careful to listen in closely.

"He won't be here for very long," said another, with a bit of excitement in her voice. "So maybe we won't have to worry about her showing up."

Now this intrigued Ais immensely. Why would they want her out of the picture? Who was coming?

"She was so lucky, that bluerider was there to pick her up before. But this time," one of her known enemies said with a dark chuckle, "she won't even be around for him to see."

With narrowed eyes, Ais stepped from the dim corridor. From the crafting studio into the main House, there were three such corridors, and each of them were known to her. Ditching between them was a frequent activity, Ais didn't much care for hanging out with people all the time. Especially this one. Nykarlis, she was the Holder's second daughter. A priveleged bitch, in Ais' opinion.

One who occasionally needed a smackdown. Ais was a sturdy girl, strong enough to stand up for herself. Nykarlis was almost twice her weight - but all in fat. They stood eye to eye, but it always seemed that Nykarlis looked down her pudgy nose at everyone. Ais approached her quickly, holding her small weaving under her left arm and swinging hard with her right.

Stunned, and suddenly with their biggest member sprawled out onto the hard packed dirt floor, the group of gossiping girls squealed and then dove apart. None of them were going to stand up to her. Almost all of them had been bullied a bit by Ais in the past, and knew that they would be on the losing end of her wrath if they tried. She stood angrily over Nykarlis and snarled.

"Well, it looks like the lucky girl will be there after all," she said. Ais wanted to kick at the fat girl, but her brain caught up with the reality of the situation. So she left her attack at that - and hoped as she strode stiffly away that the girl wouldn't think to have her flogged or something.

Now she had to find out when and where the blue rider - or any rider - was going to appear. She left her tapestry on her bed, dodged her mother's questioning eye (she always knew, when Ais had been in a fight - always! It was like she was psychic or something!), and bolted back into the common area where food was being laid out in preparation. It must have been a quick announcement, because this kind of feast would normally have been given a couple days advance notice. As it was, it looked like people's dinners were being sacrificed in favor of a group meal in honor of the riders.

That wouldn't be a half bad way to live, Ais thought as she went home to have her own meal. But shortly she was curious again, would there be another announcement? She took her food along, found herself a chair and sat alone. A rider has many duties, she knew, just like Harpers did. They could rescue people - like she'd been - they could transport important people from place to place. They could search for other potential riders. Yes, they had to fight Thread, but Thread fell sporadically here. The rains right at this location were more frequent than in other parts of this dry scrubland, and their winds apparently kept Thread from falling directly. But other places would benefit from the dragons presence.

People always bent over backwards to accept riders and their beautiful dragons into the House. If they were able, they'd ask the handsome men and strong women to stay the night. Celebrations always followed searches, though sometimes searches ended in death later for the poor new dragonrider. Ais was realistic about it - but she could dream all she wanted.

What about it though?

While she picked at her food, and listened half-heartedly to others, couldn't she be searched? After all she had no fear of heights, she in fact loved the moment when the rider had picked her up from the hot windy flames. She knew how to ride almost by instinct - hold on with your knees, grip with powerful thighs, and lean when the dragon leans. The beating of the dragon's wings just behind her legs was still a strong memory even though the event was more than ten months behind her.

She hadn't been the only one picked up, but she was the only one who didn't let out a piercing fearful scream. She didn't clutch her eyes shut and grip the rider so tightly they could hardly breathe. She alone - and the riders commented on this - looked around and saw her environment, knew where she was, enjoyed the view.

Even if it was a view of her family's and friend's crops in danger!

And it would, if she were to be searched, get her away from this chattering bunch of idiots.

***

In the later part of the morning next day, was when the riders came. Two of them, one the blue rider which had rescued Ais, but the other was riding a completely different looking dragon than she'd seen before. A gigantic blue - so much bigger than the more local Dragonhope weyr resident who'd come to her aid! Upon his back was a man who had to rely upon the dragon kneeling down and offering his great paw for assistance to get down. The pair of blues looked around themselves, calmly with blue-green swirling eyes.

The riders conferred with one another, and finally asked that the young folk of the House be brought out to line up. A rush of activity, which passed by Ais quickly since she'd been up the longest and always was up with dawn, brought out almost two dozen of the local inhabitants. Some were clearly too young, and one or two obviously incapable of riding a dragon. Nykarlis was one that no one considered physically able to mount an animal like a pack beast, let alone a dragon. She was simply too round.

Yet there she was, standing arrogant as ever with her nose in the air, as though being able to see up one's nose would somehow improve their chances of being Searched. Ais has been standing in the right place the whole time, where the warm sun struck near the tunnel entrance. One or two others scrambled for a position on her other side, and everyone waited with their breath held for the search to begin.

The dragons were somewhat intimidating when they approached as a pair. In fact the one almost could have put his whole wing over the other blue's back! But even so, Ais knew that the dragons could do no harm to a human. They were the lifeblood of the whole world, humans made it possible for dragons to fight Thread, anyway - and without a human to pair with wouldn't dragons die?

Ais looked at them both, admiring the build on the little one, but the wingspan of the big. Their features were so different, it was almost like they were two different breeds - and she desperately wanted to ask about them, when the riders approached. No one else asked such a thing, they merely answered the questions the riders posed, or trembled when they passed unasked.

Looking the brown-eyed Dragonhope rider up and down, Ais gave a little smile. He recognized her, of course. It occurred to Ais that he was very young - he almost looked like he could be younger than she was!

"Your name," he asked, "and age?"

"Ais, and I'm seventeen. And... you're pretty young for a rider aren't you?"

Suddenly caught aback by the question, F'nek blinked. His companion who was older by a bit gave a chuckle. "She's got you there, kid," Ar'wen stated. "So, Ais, you're ... a..."

"Right now I'm a weaver, I guess," she said, furrowing her narrow eyebrows. "But what I'd like to do is, well, it's ... It's silly, never mind." Suddenly her conversational tone was gone, the thought of explaining why she wanted to rebuild a perfectly good House building drained her bravery.

"What is it," Ar'wen asked, "I've heard you're a harper's daughter, you -"

"No, it's nothing to do with Harper work," she blurted out, "I want to build a new House here, one that will catch the light and make everything... lighter... inside."

She heard Nykarlis utter a disgusted chortle, but Ais maintained her steady look downward at her own shoes.

"That's an admirable goal," Ar'wyn said quietly. "I'd like you to think about coming with me to Seiryuu Weyr. There's an interesting clutch on the sands, you might enjoy the hatching."

He moved on, and F'nek whispered as they passed, "I am so old enough to be a rider, I'm seventeen too."

"Then you're little for your age," she hissed back with a great smile.

***

Two others had been Searched, one for Dragonhope and another in general. The riders would come back shortly, within the week, to gather the kids and their meager belongings.

It was fairly predictable that Nykarlis hadn't been searched. It was by rote and tradition that the search riders have her in the line at all, since she was the holder's child...

It was also predictable that she and her group of cronies would come by the Harper's suite and pester Ais while she packed.

"Your friends are here to say goodbye!" Her mother said, cheerfully and blissfully unaware of who the girls were.

"I don't have any friends," Ais called out almost angrily. She didn't have many, and those who were going to wish her well had already done so - exchanging little trinkets and items or just hugs and tearful good lucks. She'd kept her tapestry, because she wanted something to look forward to later on...

"Well well, the lucky girl got lucky again," Nykarlis grunted. "You won't feel so lucky when you're stranded between."

"Your dragon couldn't find its way out of a sack," added her friend.

"If Nykarlis had a dragon unfortunate enough to impress her," Ais shot back with anger in her eyes, "the poor thing would have to be put down because of her breaking its back with her fat ass on it."

Shock and anger passed over the three girl's faces, but Nykarlis the most. She blocked the entrance to the main room, lowered her head, and said, "you're not going to be leaving this Hold, little lucky girl. Not now, not for a search, never."

"Try and stop me, you can't stop a searchrider." Ais said simply. She closed the latch on her small travel case, satisfied that she'd packed enough clothing and items. And, if anything, she could swing it pretty hard if Nykarlis stayed in her way any longer. She almost got the chance, but - and Ais was almost willing to go with the Lucky Girl euphemism - the search riders were waiting outside. She shoved past the girls and then turned, "get out of my home, you three. You're not welcome here, this is my family's place, you keep to your own high-class little dirtrise over there. You're just going to dirty yourself with our low-class air."

Her mother had barely caught that, but definitely saw the trio of girls storm out after her daughter. Shortly though, it wouldn't matter to Ais.

For she was on a dragon's back again, soaring over the scrubland headed to this mysterious Seiryuu weyr, far far away...

Turned out she and a couple others from around Dragonhope would be standing together, if rushed, at the weyr. She had no idea how long she'd been Between, on that trip, but like her new companions she looked a bit... green...

But that was nothing compared to the rush of blood to her head when she realized she really was standing at the sands at a weyr she'd never heard of... Maybe later she'd have to find out exactly why she didn't know where it could be. She had been good with maps, after all.

She was starving, all of a sudden Ais realized that she hadn't eaten earlier and was now hurried down to the hatching sands! A blue emerged from his shell, and Ais wondered what the deal was with the sad-faced kid who impressed him. Ais pushed her hunger to the back of her mind, along with the fading nausea, as she watched two lovely greens - one a mix of green and pinks... a 'dawn' shade - impress. A blue went up to one of the odd people...creatures...things that had been guarding the nest, and then a pale brown one found that other kid from Dragonhope to be his bond. This was shaping up to be a good clutch! Ais looked around, and realized that there were fewer eggs than candidates, and a pang of worry struck her. In fact, there were only two eggs left!

And four candidates, including herself! What if she didn't bond? What if she was left on the sands alone, friendless... like those dismal tunnels at the hold...

I could keep those rooms lit, you know? the Dawn blue commented looking over at Ais just after the light blue’s impression beside her. Before she realized what was coming from her mouth, she had replied.

“Mizuranth, you’re a Dawn blue, not a glow. Your body does not light up a room after dusk.”

I could try, the Dawn blue seemed to grin at his rider. Laughing, Ais realized now her dreams could come true: she was a rider, she would be able to go anywhere! Stay in the light!

Ais' Dawn Blue Mizuranth (Me-Zoo-Ronth Mizu - Japanese meaning water)
Personality: Optimistic and helpful when he thinks he's needed. Little bit of a joker

The light was kind to Ais and Mizuranth, especially given that the blue's special coloration blended in with the light of morning. Though Ais would often be found in the crafting areas, she tried to spend as much time as possible with her blue, flying overhead. Someone had commented that they'd make good watch riders, and Ais took that to heart.

Do you want to watch for Thread? We'd have a ton of time together, Ais asked her sleepy weyrling.

It would be best, you like to protect things, and I love to fly - let us do that!

They both drifted off to sleep with images of clouds, thread, and buildings mingling...

When they finally soared over Dragonhope Weyr, Ais cried freely. The dancing sun against the brilliant white coating of snow and ice... The harbor below dappled with the rays dancing over the water, and the flight of dragons in the sky as well - everything was so beautiful.

I am glad we are here, this is home, it is a good place. Will it really be dark half the year?

"Well, pretty dim, what they told me... But that doesn't matter!" She urged Mizuranth into a sharp dive to buzz the local herders, "we're home!"