Name Darusk, will shorten to D'usk
Son of Lord Holder Darkhanis and Lady Shadoan

Male, age 15 Turns

Rank, Lord Holder's son, hold bred

Tall and strong, but long in the limbs. Darusk is of a dark shade of tan, having a long face, chin trimmed with his black hair and clipped to a point. He has violet-brown eyes, and a very sweet, low, expressive voice.

Darusk is eager to become a dragon rider, he has loved looking at the great wings flying over the Hold ever since he was a child. He is open and friendly, rather unlike most of his relatives on Darkhanis' side. He does not hide the fact that he loves men equally as much as women, and in this Hold no one says anything about it. All in all he seems like one of the happier members of the Lord Holder's family. His mother is very young, barely fifteen when she bore him to the Lord Holder, and Shadoan herself delights in walking with her son around the Hold and admiring the weyrs when they get a chance to go there. Darusk knows that he is perhaps a pawn in this game of his mother's, to gain status, but he doesn't care. She and his father love him equally, and that is all that matters to him.

Darusk has a bit of a gambling streak in him, and when he was quite young he began betting on the runners at the Hold. His father tries to discourage this behavior as it is largely his fortune the lad is blowing. He does lose occasionally, however he is sensible and stops when it looks like a bad day.

Since he has been Searched, Darusk is hoping that he manages to impress at Blue Star Weyr. He does not really care what color of dragon he recieves, only that he will fly with the wind -- faster than any runner ever could! He would probably bet on the outcome if it were not so serious for him!

Darusk has a fire lizard named Orangepeel, found while he was wandering about the beaches near Mama Tani's Cothold on a visit.

Darusk paced around the dark corridor and dug his booted toe at a loose floor stone.

What is taking them so long? He wondered. How hard could it be to arrange a flight over to the Weyr?

His nervousness wore off on his brown flit Orangepeel, who chirped and his eyes whirled with the same orange color as his wings.

"I know, Orangey, but this is serious. What if they won't let me go? What will I do then?" He sulked and paced, tried listening in at the huge door of the meeting room where his father and the others discussed things, but to no avail. The doors were thick, and his heart threatened to deafen him anyway, beating so loud.

"I'll run away," he whispered. "I'll find the search rider and I'll run away to the weyr, and then stand, and when I impress they can't ever take that away from me." He bit his lip and began hurrying to his private room.

There, he looked at the things he had. Clothing, no, there was little of that as he loved to run about wearing only short pants or a belted tunic. So clothes were not a problem. He stuck a couple shirts and a pair of leggings into his satchel and continued to look around. Ah, this precious silver candle holder. His mother made it for him, or had it made, he was never sure. But it was something that reminded him of her and how much she meant to him. She told him that whenever he burned a candle in it, she'd feel the warmth in her heart.

He held the shiny silver object for a long time. Orangepeel tried helping him pack, by picking up yesterdays socks and burying them into the satchel. Then he found a little bit of this morning's rolls and meats. That would be important, the fire lizard thought, food was very important.

When Darusk went to put the candle holder into the sack he found his hand messy with half eaten meat roll and slightly dirty sock.

"Orange! I know you want to help but..." He sighed. There was nothing for this. He couldn't think straight. He so wanted to go to the weyr, why wouldn't they just agree and let him go?!

Dejectedly, he sat next to his bed and rolled the candle holder between his hands. He barely heard a knock at his door, and then his father's handsome face poked into the room.

"Son? Darusk?" He said, and the boy jolted.

"Sir?" He stood and put the candle holder behind him, and then scooted over a few inches in an attempt to hide the satchel he'd been filling.

Darkhanis smiled gently at his son. "We have decided to allow you to go this time. You understand that if you do not Impress you will come back, and that is that. We cannot have an heir like yourself wandering about Pern."

"I ... understand father. But--"

"No buts," Darkhanis said, sternly. But his face smiled. "Son, I believe you will impress. It will not be so hard for a dragon to find a dreamer and gambler like you to their liking. Look at Raanatani's sons," he chuckled. Darusk found himself laughing as well, for he had learned to gamble from Beaoschkhava, now Beao' of brown Myuxeth.

"Well, I'm ... half packed already," Darusk admitted.

"Then keep going. The search rider will take you to Blue Star Weyr, straight away."

Eager now, Darusk packed with abandon and pleasure. It was no trouble finding little things -- a box to hold tinder, a kerchief from a lady friend or a spy glass from a boy friend... All these things came to his hands as if of their own will, and would be with him as long as he liked.

Darusk entered Blue Star Weyr with confidence and ease, after all being the son of the Lord Holder had its perks. He recognized Zhadar, one of the farm hands that his father employed.

"Hey," he said, "at least you didn't have to practically fight your way to the weyr, eh?" He explained his situation with his father, the hold, and all. Zhadar would poke fun at him for days, while they waited for the eggs to hatch. But all in fun, Duskan laughed just as hard at himself. Lord Holder's sons could hardly afford to take the afternoon and swim it away! It was positively baking so half the candidates were out swiming and such.

Then the queen announced the hatching!

Darusk rushed up and the sun and heat dried him off before he even reached the weyrling barracks to get his robes. It was hardly the kind of temperature that warranted wearing the heavy woven robe, but it was necessary. Tradition and all.

He watched as several candidates became dragon riders, right before his eyes. Something gnawed at Darusk... Something like a sound, or like hunger. His eyes were swimming from the heat, he wasn't sure when exactly the dragons came out of their shells, but he saw two of them barrel up to he and the boy next to him! They both went sprawling, with the force of the brown's vigorous search.

Then, the brown helped up Darusk. "Thank you, Sastrath?" He said, unsure. There was something about the way the brown looked at him... Proud, but ...

"No, it's Scearuth," said the other boy! The blue who had come along next was resting his head on Darusk's thigh, and hungrily bellowed.

I am he, I am Sastrath. I am hungry.

"So you're my Sastrath! Yes, I figured you were hungry. Come, let's get you fed."

"Well, here's more of it, I'm so sorry..." D'usk apologized again and handed the gather-keeper's torn cloth tent strap to him. It was scattered all over the weyr's gather grounds, and scattered mainly because of...

"Sastrath!" D'usk called, "have you gotten the rest of them together?"

I am trying my friend... But there are many people watching and it is very hard to do this...

"It wouldn't have been so hard if you had stayed in the weyr like you were asked." D'usk said, and then stopped. He walked slowly over to the area where the small blue weyrling was still nuzzling through the remnants of the tent he'd accidentally trashed while trying to swoop over the gather stalls.

"I'm sorry, Sastrath. You and I ... we're very much alike. I wouldn't have stayed inside either."

And you were going to get me something... I feel very bad, D'usk. I am sorry too

"Here... I found this for you. Let's get this all picked up and then we can have a long bath down at the lake. Okay?"

The young rider handed the small dragon a wrapped piece of something... It smelled good, but what in the world could it be?

It is food? From a stall here? MMMM! It smells so good!

"One of my friends recommended them. The dragon called them Seapuffs... I think you'll like them."

Sastrath and D'usk began to fly Thread with dramatic results. Neither of them became Threadscored, but their tactics became quite well known among the Protectorate wings. One in particular decided that he'd like to see this pair in action.

A young looking brown rider, by the name of D'mian, came sauntering up to D'usk when they had finished a Fall. The hall was filled with many riders, their lovers, friends and the staff of the Weyr.

"You have some tricky moves, there," he said to D'usk. "We could use someone like you to train some of our riders."

D'usk looked him over, and knew without a doubt that this was a Holdborn rider. The way he carried himself, and the attitude he expressed just by standing there... Things he'd seen growing up. "I could, but sometimes it's hard for poor Sastrath to remember all those tricks. It's usually up to me."

"Either way," D'mian smiled. "Would you be interested in joining our wing? It's often referred to as the Spy wing of the Protectorate, but we prefer to be called the Long Wing of the Law."

D'usk jerked back a little. "That wing? Isn't it filled?"

"Not hardly, we've a scattered handful of riders."

"Then I'd be delighted," D'usk said. "Once we're off from Blue Star, we'll meet you. Tell me something," he asked of the brown rider, "which Hold were you born in?"

Laughing, but still a bit bruised by the obvious nature of his heritage, D'mian said, "Dawnlight Hold. I'm... the Lord Holder Taljorra's son."

D'usk laughed, himself. "I'm Paveh's inheritor, so we've got something in common!"

Well I for one would like to be rubbed down and tucked in! I'm sleepy! Sastrath Mentally cried out.

Long after the Protectorate relocated to Alskyr, Dusk (minus the annoying ' in his name) and Sastrath wandered through the big Isle weyr until they located a strange humming room.

What is in there? Oooh, I do not know if you should go in there. Especially without me.

"Worrywart," Dusk muttered. He lifted the dark tarp which seemed to be covering an entrance - hidden to weaker eyes. "I'll be fine.... oooohhhh. What's this?" His voice got quieter and blue Sastrath paced outside nervously.

It is dangerous. I know you are curious my rider, but you must learn from your mistakes as I have had to learn from mine! If you keep poking around in dark places you never know what might bite you!

I'll bite you, you big whiner... Now look, I think this is interesting. I have heard of these things. Alabaster has a bunch of them.

Annoying riders? The dragon wryly thought and Dusk blurted out a laugh.

"No, silly. Computers! And hey, this is a star chart..." Dusk ruffled through the paperwork and screens, until it dawned on him what he was seeing. "These are flights, Sas. Mating flight locations! And," he grinned holding one particular page up, "some of them even have records of successes and hatchings. Neat."

Your father would love to see some of those the dragon pondered. Now, which flights are you talking about? Aren't there enough women here for you?

"I'm thinking for you, Sastrath, you've never completed a flight, have you..."

Not one worth mentioning, the blue sadly responded. He'd flown several greens in his time at the old world, but none fo them were fertile so not one egg had been laid in his name. It is time, isn't it? I want to win a flight!

"Well here's a list for some interesting greens and such..." Dusk went through the many listings, until he found a good place that might be right. "Now look, you might not win still, but if you use our old fighting techniques you might just find yourself the sire of a clutch!"

Where... where... and who! Sastrath made his rider look at each and every one of the potential females until she showed up. SHE. She is the one! I will try and fly her!

"Which one, Sas?

The green one with the great red horns... Zironath. She is flying at Falas weyr. That is on the old world. I would love to go back there for a bit. Do you think I could catch her?

"It couldn't hurt to try. Says here she is a search rider. That's a good sign that she'll be strong in her flight. But let's get you signed up. Here's a star chart, I'll make sure to memorize it. We'll get there safe and sound."

I will try my hardest and I will remember my tricks. I like playing around the threads falling, remember? I could snap my wings down and turn quicker than the wind. I think this Zironath will be a good challenge for me. It will be about time for me to have a clutch with my name as the sire.