Story originally made around 2002? maybe? note this is pern style, but they are very much Zekiran now
Page had been many_o_me or paveh_hold lakhsaras.html - Story duplicated on Sarasvati's page

Lakhshmi Marad, Apprentice Healer
Age: 16
Gender: Female 

Physical: 5'6", 120, long and slender build, long legs, golden brown skin always with tan lines from being out a lot, silvery black hair that is wavy and full, to lower back, light seagreen eyes. Very straight posture and aware appearing. Likes wearing very little, if she's forced to wear a piece of clothing, it's often baggy and off the shoulder, though usually is pleasant to look at. 

Skills: health care specialist for mothers, she loves midwifery and is very talented at it. However, she has a darker side to her activities, she has been known to slip poison in someone's drink, in order to subdue them for rewards, in other words she is also a practicing bounty hunter. She favors monetary and tangible rewards to those which political targets might offer. She is very very good at spotting the people she hunts, as well as finding items that have been either lost, misplaced or hidden (her perception is excellent!). 

Emotional: smooth personality, and very cheery. Not always on the ball for subtle politics, but usually up front about things like who she likes, who she hates, and if she cares they know. She is a caregiver for those in need, but she is rarely hesitant about getting things for herself. She and her cousin get along famously, even though they're always competing for who's the most important or impressive.

HISTORY
Lakhshmi and Sarasvati are cousins who resemble one another greatly, since their mothers and fathers are both twins. Kali and Shakti are their mothers, respectively, and Havish and Keshtel their fathers. Both of them go way back in the Paveh line, though their fathers are fairly low-status in the House otherwise. They were raised together by their parents and taught by those who also teach the rest of the Paveh house, and a rivalry grew into deep affection for both of them as they got older. They will defend each other to the death, and if one is near, the other is often around the corner. That is not saying they never spend time apart, they value their own lives as much as their togetherness. Lakh often brings her bounty to her cousin for "treatment", before sending them to the Paveh Lord who requested their presence. 

Though both are indeed healers to a great degree, and both can easily treat most sickness or obvious wounds, neither of them would really be trusted to become a Guild healer, unless some really strange people get on the committee. Sengihr blood runs through them strongly, and it becomes obvious by just watching them heal. They take great delight in seeing pain, however they both love it even more when someone thanks them for healing them.

When they were searched it was as a pair, of course, the dragon using his brown head to butt them into the courtyard for examination. Excited and at the same time oddly unused to this kind of action, they requested time to visit the Caer and see if they should stand on the dunes, let alone if they had what it takes to ride. 

Of course they do. They would never settle for anything less. Again, like Aynatchavay, they will be afforded tutoring in their Guild should they bond, and it is expected that if one of them does bond, the other will as well. 

As for the colors they might Impress, Lakhshmi is geared for a female, she isn't sure how much energy a dragon would have to keep up with her own pace. She is more down to earth, and has a solid idea of who ought to be in charge of what in a Caer, even though her House politics are shaky at best.  Sarasvati on the other hand might Impress a low-level female or even a male dragon, given her predisposition for female lovers and aggressive ones at that. She wouldn't settle to be in only a prestige/show wing, either, were she afforded the chance, she would be out in the thick of it, blasting Ants or Rampage plants at the top of her own lungs!

**

"Saras," exclaimed her cousin, "where did you put the anesthetic?"

"It's right where I left it last time, Lakhs, in the cupboard!"

"It isn't there!"

A growl indicated that someone else must have moved it. Sarasvati stalked around the infirmary at Wild River Caer looking for the cluprit. It was a servant, and thankfully not one of the other apprentices. There were shocked looks around both young women when the tan skinned woman grabbed the servant by his collar and snarled at him, "do not touch anything more in this infirmary or I swear your hands will never recover from what I'll do to them!"

A silence drifted through the place. Lakhshmi looked at her sister, who was wide eyed and furious at the poor man. She shooed him away and kept her sister from following him and doing something she'd regret.

"Saras," the more tame healer said, "you've got to control that temper. We're not at the Guild any more. And not with grandfather at the House. And I don't think even he threatened a servant that often."

Sarasvati sighed, the anger leaving her drained. "He's put it somewhere, and if we don't get it soon, that girl will start screaming again," she waved her hand at a young girl who'd accidentally put her hand atop a still-hot stove-top. Her whole palm was one large ragged blister, and she was too young to stop the tears. She had been brave up until that point, but even she got the idea that the anesthetic which should have been coming, was not there yet.

Lakhshmi rushed over to her, and put her fingers on the girl's nose, tapping it lightly. "Now tut tut," she said, with a smile that had been practiced since childhood. "Rampage burns are worse, and you might have to endure those if you bond, and that's what everyone wants to do around here, right? To bond a dragon? What color do you think you would ride, dear?" Lakhshmi continued to talk her down from tears, distracting her long enough for one of the other apprentices to locate the missing jar of paste.

Sarasvati took it and placed it back where it belonged, along side the bandages and antiseptic spritzers. What that idiotic servant was thinking by hiding it away under a sink was beyond her imaginings. Lakhshmi doused her hand with oil, then took a small dab of paste and applied it very carefully to the brave little girl's hand. Sarasvati then loosely bandaged it, and warned the child not to hold anything with her hand -- not that she would think of doing something like that, she could barely even pull her fingers in to a fist. It would heal, slowly. By the time she was an adolescent, the scarring might even have faded.

Lakhshmi and Sarasvati ended their temporary shift with a glance at the residing Guild-woman, and stalked off down the hallway.

"You think he did it on purpose," Lakhshmi said. Her cousin-sister nodded.

"I do. Let's find out, shall we?" Together they went around to the girl's little friends, but it proved to be her older sister, a girl of nine turns, who provided the key information.

The servant seemed to have it in for the child, though no one knew quite why. He was not as dimwitted as some came, either, and he certainly knew how to clam up when it came time to ask him some sensitive questions.

Lakhshmi slithered in to his room, very late that night. He shared it with three others, but one was asleep and the other two were on their late-night cleaning shift.

Sarasvati made sure that the other servant remained asleep for the duration, by waving a small concoction of sweet smelling herbs below his nose. His snoring cleared up, but he was deeply asleep now.

"Pionat," Lakhshmi growled, "why did you do it?"

His eyes grew wide in the darkness. "W-what? Who?"

Sarasvati put her hard, strong hand on his shoulder and pinned him to his cot. Between the two of them, they were nearly three times his own strength. Finally he got that through his head. That, and a small pin which Lakhshmi had applied to his little finger, got the information that they needed.

The girl had bonded a caerlizard, when she was extremely young. Too young to really help feed it. He had been there, of course, he claimed it was meant to be his own egg. But she'd barged in and the first thing she did was clutch the little newborn flitter to her chest happily. Ever since then, the servant was bitterly unable to find another egg to replace the one he'd 'lost'.

"She was three turns old," Lakhshmi spat. "How could you blame a child for that? You don't deserve a flitter, you don't even deserve to have a roof over your head. Threatening a little child like that."

"Did you put her hand on that griddle?" Demanded Sarasvati, her tone quite cold and threatening.

"I-- I did not!" His voice wavered. Then his eyes fell. "I... did." The tears he cried were quite real, honest ones. "I am sorry... She just broke everything I could have had. I'm just a slave! What do I have to look forward to? Another day of scrubbing and being yelled at? With at least a little flitter I could spend the time with something that liked me..."

"It's no excuse." Sarasvati spat, but her sister held her hand up.

"No, it isn't. But you will apologize to her parents, and to her. What happened to the flitter? I didn't see it anywhere." Lakhshmi said, standing off the drudge and allowing him to sit more comfortably. He held his injured finger, but he answered her truthfully.

"I think it flew off. She was too young to take care of it, remember? It got hungry and she couldn't figure out how to feed it. I've not seen it again. She let it go wild."

"Then that's a lesson you've both learned." Lakhshmi said, and the sisters departed his room confident that he would do as they instructed.

**

The days wore on with tedium being replaced by excitement when the hatching was announced. The dunes were quite hot, and the eggs were ready. Though, it seemed there weren't nearly enough bonders to go around. The first dragons came from their eggs, a red and a purple, and the red ran straight toward Sarasvati!

I thought you'd put up more of a fight! He said, butting her with his head. How amazing, a girl like this bonding a male dragon! And such a fierce red at that!

She laughed, "I'll show you how much of a fight I can give you, Derewith!" She plopped down next to the dragon and hugged him tightly, while they watched the rest of the hatching.

The healers were on hand in case someone needed them, and most knew that if it was up to Sarasvati and Lakhshmi someone might go rather more hurt than need be...

Several other hatchlings came out and bonded, but then there was a long pause. Lakhshmi waited long enough, and then went to five of the unhatched eggs. She'd seen them moving around, before, why weren't they moving any more? She thrust her fist onto the tops of each one, breaking cracks into each so the hatchlings could more easily get out.

Four of them fell from their eggs, one was a dud. There was a beautiful green which bonded the purple who'd come from the start, and then the silver who hatched out flexed her wings and came to Lakhshmi.

Thank you, Lakhshmi, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get to you.

"I'm glad you were able to, Okiath, Lakh said to her beautiful pewter colored dragoness. The cousin-twins now had a good way to show off their differences!