Back

Aniz had of course been on dragon back many times. Opal and her small white had been able to barely squeeze her on, while other times she rode upon S'xon's huge bronze with the Weyrleader to official gatherings. Those rides were wonderful - not just because the Weyrleader was handsome and tall, but because he had such long hair that he knew it would obscure the view, so he always put her in front of him in the riding saddle. From there she was always given such a great look at the world around her.

Dragons hardly ever touched her mind, but Bhav occasionally did, he claimed that the Weyrleader fancied her, and that would lead nowhere good unless she was...

That memory of the rich tones of the bronze's voice in her mind snapped her out of a daze. K'ral and she had arrived over Tripaldi, early in the day, and were lazily soaring over the weyr. She clutched the leather strap that belted her down to the saddle, instead of gripping K'ral's shoulder - that would probably have told him something like 'I'm scared' or 'I have something to say' and she certainly didn't want to say that!

That ... what, she might be a Weyrwoman some day, because a bronze insisted on it?

No no no, she had to even just stand first, and that might not mean anything. Aniz was more nervous now than she'd ever been in her life. She appreciated the scenery on their way down, tried to distract herself from it, but the churning knot of worry in her gut wouldn't leave. She was faintly light-headed by the time they were brought before Xalia and her current batch of important Weyr people.

"If you don't mind, I'd love it if you would teach my scribes to do what you've done, at least give them some pointers?" The Weyrwoman said, and the two young Apprentices that stood nervously nearby looked even more embarrassed than they would have if merely brought before the Weyrleaders.

"I -- I'll try, Weyrwoman, I ... this is so overwhelming," Aniz said. "I would really like to have some water and maybe sit down... It's been a long few days."

Aniz was led to the barracks, which already had half a dozen girls chatting with each other and room for many more. She moved listlessly toward one cot, dropped into it, and fell to sleep. She didn't realize that the other girls all looked at her and decided she was sick, so by the time she roused from her nap, she was surrounded by worried looking faces.

"What! What's wrong!?" Aniz popped up and almost hit a local healer in the head with her own. As it was, she snapped her head around so rapidly that he did get a facefull of her hair-beads!

"We - thought you were ill! You came in here so down, and then collapsed..." Said one girl, while another nodded.

"I ... well," Aniz wasn't sure whether she was sick. Maybe if that would... no, of course not. How silly. "I'm actually fine, just very, very tired from the last few days." The others nodded, the healer still hovered around to take her temperature and make sure she was drinking enough, and finally wandered away too.

"What was so busy?" She gasped and looked down, "You have Master's knots!" Said the girl with short straight hair and dark eyes, "you're a Master? You're not even as old as me!"

"....." Was all Aniz could get out, before the other girls started chattering about this. "I -" They continued, and Aniz just lay back in the cot, smiling to herself.

***

Because she had been around them all her life, Aniz was able to easily clear with the Weyrling master what she did and did not need to go over in the classes at Tripaldi. Sure, she would need to get a deeper understanding about the dragons anatomy, riding straps and then finally get a feel for actually commanding a dragon in flight. But those things would come easier when she'd Impressed, if she did so.

She kept saying that to herself. If she Impressed. Because something in the back of her mind kept worrying. If she did impress, what about the Weyr? Maybe she'd pray for a green, or even a blue to come to her! Hah, that'd show that big bronze!

Aniz helped out a bit straightening the records up and making sure that the weyr had copies of important scrolls. They worked mostly on wherhide parchment, here, but it was of little consequence to Aniz what materials they used, as long as the records were correct!

After a few days she and the other candidates were led into the sands, to look at and possibly touch some of the eggs. There were two females' clutches on the sands, one was that of a green while the other was the Weyrwoman's golden Frinaith's. The green, Sereath, had all but bailed out of the place once she'd laid her eggs, and Frinaith was very protective of both clutches. The eggs were shifted around but one had to guess that the smallest of the eggs belonged to the green's clutch. Aniz carefully walked near the eggs, and didn't want to get too close to that large one. No.

It had a faintly golden tint to it. No.

But she was drawn to it anyway. NO. She touched it once, NO! It sang to herNONONO!

She bolted out of the chambers, others looking up at her with some surprise. She handled herself so carefully, calmly every other time in her life! But this? When she was standing on Tripaldi's sands and being considered by the queen? Almost any other girl in the whole place would have given anything to be in her position.

Aniz shook, and Sage twittered softly trying to calm her down. She played with the beads in the girl's hair, trying to distract, but it wasn't working. Eventually Aniz calmed down when Xalia came into the barracks.

"Frinaith tells me you ran out for a reason," the Weyrwoman said. "Mind talking about it?"

"Frinaith obviously knows what I think," Aniz said, her face puffy and reddened, "I ... I'm scared. Before I left Dragonhope, bronze Bhavyatath told me his rider f-fancies me, and he's the Weyrleader S'xon and if I'm a rider, if I'm a gold rider..."

"Oh that right old bastard thinks that, does he?" Xalia said with a laugh, "well S'xon fancies almost everyone. He just doen't normally act upon anything thank goodness and thank his wife Kira. And he's far too old for you. His youngest is your age, isn't she?"

"Opal, yes, we're about the same age." Aniz admitted. With the way Xalia was acting, it was clear that Aniz's worries were largely unfounded. "But what if..."

"You can worry about what-if's in the future, dear," Xalia said, "for now, clean yourself up and get to the dining hall, there's a big plate of tubermash waiting."

***

The time had finally come. The eggs were as hard and as rocking as they got, they must have been laid at around the same time. The second time Aniz went back to the sands to touch and walk among the eggs, she deliberately took a tour of all the eggs just to make sure. That one big egg over by the middle of where Frinaith sat though... kept calling her. If it did, so be it. There were several girls here - some having come from Dragonhope's search riders and the weyr's attendant Holds - that would be good gold-riding material.

One odd thing was, though, that when the hatching was being announced loudly by the humming of the dragons around it, Aniz swore she saw an extra egg or two. Each time she'd been there, it looked as though there were different numbers of eggs. Frinaith, Xalia explained when it was brought up loudly by someone in the stands, was notorious for hiding and shifting her eggs around. Apparently the dragon liked the thought of surprising people. Xalia detected a bit of mirth that told her more was in store.

It was quite difficult for Aniz not to perform her ingrained duties of records-keeping at a time like this. She put herself into a kind of trance, tried to focus on only what was before her. Wearing her white robe and paraded past the stands with the rest of the candidates, she focused on the eggs once more.

Most of the eggs had long cracks, some were bulging. True to form, the smaller (but not every small one) eggs had been the green's clutch, it was obvious now because Frinaith had separated them at last from her own precious orbs. Frinaith had stood up with a flare of her great wings, and while the gold was still overprotective like most queens she had a few clutches behind her, and obeyed when Xalia insisted she back off. This was her childrens day, not hers.

There were more candidates than eggs. But when that wasn't true, it was a tragedy. The candidates all were brought in and stood in the discomfort of white woolen robes, on sands that were baking hot. Some of the young people were right at home here, others were wishing they had an icy drink. Maybe it was the heat of the sands making them uncomfortable.

Or perhaps it was the eyes of all those people, in the stands. Or the dozens of rainbow-glimmering eyes from the dragons who stood on their balconies above. All of them were crooning their song of hatching. It slightly differed from the songs they sang when a flight was going on, and certainly different than when a dragon had died.

There would be no deaths here today. No dragon could possibly go unImpressed with this crowd present! Two eggs from Frinaith's clutch and one from the green's opened within moments of one another. A dark green, a medium-colored blue and a bright green were the first to hatch from these nests. Shaking their limbs free of the eggshell, covered in goo that had all but dried up while they grew within, they became rapidly the focus of all attention.

She would Impress. Suddenly it came to her, a wave of fear, panic, bliss and wonder. She was standing on the hot sands, sandals under her feet soaking up the worst of the baking grains, but she wasn't used to the heat. Because Dragonhope was so far north and so chilly most of the time she hadn't realized how warm it really was here. Or maybe it was the woolen candidate robe?

Aniz held her breath when the first eggs broke, and at last a green paired up with a black haired boy. Names fluttered through her mind, she'd met everyone already and had clear pictures of them all in her head whenever they spoke. And now, they would all have a dragon to go along with it! A darker green impressed after a little blue.

A big bronze looked so elegant until he planted his nose in the sand, and the handsome young Zanaeger from Dragonhope Impressed him, Aniz was pleased - right before she left she knew that his sweetheart had impressed a copper-gold at another weyr. This could only mean more beautiful eggs than ever at Dragonhope's sands in the future!

That brought a pang of fear back into Aniz's heart. While a boy with a cat on his head paired up with a cute green, Aniz's stomach did flipflops. What if she really was going to ...

A blue and a green paired up quickly with a boy and girl nearby, and Aniz tried to take solace in the girl's expression of joy. A pair of eggs smashed against one another, causing Frinaith to bugle in worry - but the brown around the other side paired up first with a strong young man. The green chose the silent Geni, while the bronze found his own pair. The girl near Aniz clapped hardest for her friend with the bronze - now they were quite an interesting couple!

The eggs had slowed down, the hatchlings inside them tired out. Drinks went out to the stands, but the candidates didn't really notice they might have asked for some water too. Frinaith started to rearrange the eggs yet again, throwing her tail around and causing everyone to duck, and all the flitters including Sage angrily chirped when she dislodged them from their roosts. "Frinaith, careful! The candidates!" Xalia warned her gold.

Another few eggs broke apart, a brown from Sereanth's clutch, then a pale blue. When a brown and green came to blows standing near the candidates, the brown finally swept past and found his friend, while the green stomped around menacingly. A blue came around to hide behind a boy, and impressed.

Finally the irate green impressed her one, another girl from Dragonhope's searched.

Then, more eggs hatched. Including... the big golden egg. Everyone was silent, stunned, she was beautiful. Aniz and the other female candidates approached on instinct. One however remained behind while a cute blue Impressed another Dragonhope boy.

The light colored green nearby skirted the other girls, in favor of the one who lurked behind. They were a good pair, Aniz thought, distractedly. Maybe it'll bring her out of her shell too...

The gold was just... Sitting there. She preened, got all the egg goo off herself, even behind her headknobs. And frankly for a hatchling dragon, that's a feat. She simply ignored the foursome of girls waiting eagerly for her attention.

In that time, a bronze found his friend, while another blue stalked his own. It was patently clear that a few people here wouldn't be impressing, among the girls at least, when a big brown hatched and Impressed the last of the male candidates.

People in the audience, flitters on the beams above, and even the other dragons attending started to get a bit nervous. The dark colored gold had not bothered to glance around at the girls since she dried her wing sails. Instead, she stood up and turned toward her dam.

Who promptly stood up herself. Revealing one... last... egg.

"That's - that's so ... Frinaith!" Xalia exclaimed, having been on her toes (along with most of the rest of the audience) she sat heavily down with an embarrassed, angry glower on her face.

The egg was slightly ... not white. More tinged with gold, in fact than the first had been. It was entirely possible she'd been switching these two gold eggs carefully enough that no one could have noticed when one was hidden and the other on display. So now there were four girls, and two ... - yes, the egg hatched shortly to reveal a lighter colored gold - golden dragonets.

"We aren't gonna have to wait for this one to dry itself off, too, are we?" Some bright glow in the audience yelled, producing a tirade of laughter and mocking back at him. Of course, lots of the people there were in agreement by now, as it was well into evening and the sun had gone down an hour before. It was going to get chilly down here and few people had thought to bring their sleeved shirts.

The dry sister dragonet nudged her sibling up, and as a pair they began looking over the four left over humans. Cethian bit her lip - she simply backed up and bowed out. There was no way either of these dragonets would go to her, once she saw their eyes, she knew. The dragons would have to make their decision without her.

Shortly though, she was joined by her friend Mruna, who had tears in her eyes. They were not of joy. Neither of them were walking away Riders this day.

But the other two... Maia had been chosen silently and swiftly by the brighter yellow-gold, Dayinth. Her family could never possibly claim her now! I am your family now, am I not?

"You are, Dayinth, you certainly are!" She cried into the soft, still-wet neck of her dragon.

Aniz held on to her own fingers tightly, even as she knew she'd be the one that this darker gold chose. You do not have to think about that big bronze you know. By the time I am old enough to fly he'll be too stiff with age to catch me!

Aniz let off a nervous chuckle at that, "But Sayaith, ..." she couldn't even finish her own sentence, instead she just committed this too to her memory and enjoyed every moment.

***

Sayaith was growing quickly, and Aniz wasn't entirely sure what to do next. She'd been hearing that Dragonhope was getting plenty of new people coming to it, and might have a few eggs on the sands now and then. She felt... like she was missing out.

You want to go home, but I cannot go between yet. I am sorry.

"Oh, no, no, Sayaith, I... Sage keeps me updated with everything I need there, right now our job is to learn how to get into formations and stay at the right altitude." Aniz said, still somewhat distracted. It was true to an extent, she did want to return home, the only home she'd ever known all her life! But this place was still thrilling to her, the people were entertaining and friendly.

"I'll keep writing, Saya, and pretty soon you'll be able to make that trip. The other weyrlings are going to want to follow you, when we head home." Aniz was pretty sure that would make her gold happy.

What about that handsome bronze who will be coming with us? Won't they want him to lead? I am not a leader, you know that!

"You're a little gold, but even bronzes bow to golds," Aniz chuckled. And Z'an would likely wind up taking the lead anyway. He was going to be so thrilled when he got back to Dragonhope to find... "he's not going to be for you, my love."

What? What if I want him to be?

"Well, Z'an and his girlfriend have been together a long time, and I've heard that she's Impressed a queen too - they deserve each other. We'll find someone, just wait and see."

Next