Keuwan held his hands out, "Come on, Dusty, just jump! It'll be all right."

The kitten was unsure, but Keuwan wasn't. He waggled his fingers and Dusty watched them momentarily before leaping into the air from the top of the dresser.

"Good boy!" Keuwan allowed the kitten to run though his shared weyr, but it was getting on the nerves of the others in the dorm. Other animals would follow him around too - though few flits - and often he had an entourage of younger children following them. Dusty gave off a mew, kneaded Keuwan's neck, and fell to sleep on his shoulder.

He was on his way to a meeting in the kitchen, he was supposed to be working on some animal breeding event. But before he could do so, he ran into the tall, skinny search rider K'roohan. Who looked at him with a strange expression.

"You're one of the people I'm supposed to be rounding up," the rider said, "you know how we searched you a few years ago?"

"Everyone in a Weyr gets searched some time," Keuwan shrugged, careful not to dislodge his kitten.

"Well, not everyone, but certainly rider brats like yourself get looked at more than others. Come on, I'm going to find someone else, you're ... needed."

"But I-" Keuwan stammered, "the kitchen, the -"

"You're needed at a weyr, standing. Dragons. You know," K'roohan said, flapping his hands, "those things we fly here?"

Keuwan blinked, and then bolted up behind the rider, kitchens all but forgotten.

***

Tripaldi weyr would be where they were to go, he and a small number of others, recently searched. Some others were there too, but weyrs hadn't yet chosen which among them should stand. Keuwan had seen the other boy Jaejir recently come in, he adjusted to weyr life quickly for an outsider. Eshishy was a bit brash but was still wide-eyed and friendly enough. The trio of kids from another Hold clung to each other more than anything but they'd been whisked off earlier.

They were each taken around to Tripaldi, shown their new barracks, and of course Keuwan knew where to go right off. He hoped that Dusty would behave - and he knew that all the other felines in Dragonhope that came to him for feeding and lovin's would find other hands and bowls easily enough. It was a feline-friendly place.

It took a while before the clutches on the sands were hardened, but eventually the candidates got to touch and talk to the eggs. There was one fairly small egg that Keuwan continued to be drawn to. It was quite little, but warm and friendly, and he thought that Dusty would love to sit here near it.

But that so wasn't going to happen, what with Frinaith there watching everyone. Plus, she'd been seen shifting the eggs around frequently enough that a kitten asleep near an egg might have to worry about being smushed. Keuwan impulsively reached for the warm bundle of kitten draped over his shoulder, and comforted himself from that thought.

He really loved animals, but he knew their value and place in human society. Pets were important in different ways to different people. Though he'd never consider a lamb to be a pet, because their meat or the wool from sheep was so useful, he knew some herdsmen that had their favorites and wouldn't ever slaughter them. A loyal dog was something that couldn't be bought or sold, it simply was either yours or not. A wher even, watchwhers were so important to holds, caravans, and weyrs, though here at Dragonhope there were snake hunters that used canines too. He'd met up with the now-brown rider Wede that had raised several dogs for that purpose now and again.

But dragons... weren't pets. They weren't animals, so much as big, winged people. Keuwan hadn't heard any dragon minds until recently, when they spoke of how to carry yourself in the sands, or what to do in an emergency and you needed a dragon to get a rider out to you. It was comforting in that way, that a dragon could hear you if you only needed it enough.

And then, the day of the hatching came. Dusty was a bit freaked out by the noise, the dragons humming around the sands were loud and almost terrifying in their beauty. Dusty waited until Keuwan had his white robe on, and then jumped into his hands. The cat would never be bigger than a teen-cat size, which suited the young man just fine. Little cats were far more adorable than big ones. Just ask any girl!

The hatching was quick for him - he was among the first handful of Impressed riders! For after a couple minutes and a few other impressions, a lovely dark green colored hatchling came out of her shell. Everyone must have recognized the grace by which she did so, she even flicked her paws the way a cat would when stepping out of a puddle! I wasn't a surprise that she came to Keuwan!

I am Syrth, she bespoke. Her mind was like... like green satin! Like a roll in the warm, tall grass! It was his dragon's voice, Keuwan chuckled. "She says her name's Syrth," he said to the recordskeeper who stood near the meat bowls for the dragons first meals. "She's mine!"

K'wan and his dark green dragonet kept up their catlike attitudes, through training. Though small, Syrth was able to keep up with browns in most flight routines, blues while K'wan was on her shoulders. Most enjoyable of all though, she loved having Dusty kneading her shoulder or neck ridges, because those little claws scratched so very well!

K'wan and his companions headed back to Dragonhope, and he was glad that he'd had this chance to see another part of the world, another Weyr. Dusty had sired perhaps three litters of head-seeking kittens at Tripaldi...

"We get our own Weyrs," Eshishy exclaimed to him when they had landed, she brandished a paper that showed where each of them were to be residing now. "They aren't going to make anyone pair up unless they want to!"

"That's a relief," K'wan said, and Eshishy knew he didn't mean it as an offense to her and her rather sharp tongued dragoness. He liked his space, and now... he could have more of it than he ever had as a weyrbrat!

Once he settled into his weyr he made sure that there were cabinets and shelves for kittens ... there would be more kittens in his life, certainly. The danger of Threadfall was so serious... It was good to have something nice and soft to come home to after Threadfall! Even if the ash smelled a bit and the kittens gave him a fright whenever the call was sounded for riders to gear up (they would all scatter, like he had time to catch them all and bring them into their safe boxes!).

Syrth prided herself on good dependable flights, and precision moves. They were good enough in the air that it was only a distant possibility that they'd be scored! Besides, with all the great riders around, K'wan felt they had excellent backup if they missed a clump.

We will never miss, Syrth assured him.