Shylanda bonded Cream-Blue Khoireanki. Isn't she beautiful?
Shylanda snorted disdainfully and shoved the bowl of soup away from her. “Tuber soup AGAIN! Don’t they serve anything else in this place! Couldn’t we have herdbeast stew once in a while? I realize this is a minor,” she emphasized the word, “holding, but surely you can provide at least some variety for your guests.”
The lady of the hold looked over at the blonde haired young woman from where she sat at the head of the table. “First of all, Shylanda, you ARE a guest here. We fostered you out of the kindness of our hearts. We treat you just like the rest of our children. No one gets special treatment and we all have to eat the same food.”
“Well forgive me! I can’t help that your little holding is in the part of the High Reaches that’s colder than sharding between. My uncle will NOT like the way you are treating me. Thank Faranth I’m only here until he can arrange for my lessons at the harper hall.”
Ralarin stood. “Young lady, you would do well to watch your tongue. If dinner doesn’t suit your tastes tonight, perhaps you’d do better to spend the rest of the meal time in your room.”
”Fine then! Just wait until I tell my uncle!” The fourteen turn-old girl rose abruptly knocking her chair over in the process and stormed up the stairs to the room she shared with the holders’ two other daughters. She flung herself onto her bed and buried her face in the feathered pillow.
Shylanda had only been at the hold two sevendays, but already things were a mess. She and Ralarin didn’t get along at all, but that was probably because Shy was so homesick. She missed her uncle and her cousins back at Aeslen Hold.
Aeslen was all she had ever known until her uncle, Landranar, had decided that she needed some experience outside of her native hold to help her grow as a person. He’d fostered her to one of the smallest holds, at least in Shy’s opinion, in the High Reaches. Her uncle had told her it was the best thing for her to learn how to be a proper holdbred young woman.
Hurynal Hold was said to produce some of the finest Lady Holders in the North. Ralarin had a reputation as being a bit hard, but she got results. No one could dispute that fact. Landranar had shipped off his niece to the remote hold and hoped they could teach her what she needed to know since he had no daughters of his own and did not know how to deal with the girl.
Shy sobbed into her pillow. If being a proper lady meant she had to endure this horrible place, she’d rather remain as she was. Shylanda wasn’t a bad person. Most people saw her as a friendly young woman. A bit spoiled, more than a bit of a tomboy, and a bit stubborn, but that was to be expected from being raised with a bunch of boys.
The young woman’s self wallowing was cut short by a bellow from below. “Shylanda! Get down here. We have company,” came Ralarin’s shrill soprano. “You’d still better have on your gown!”
Fortunately, Shy had been too upset to bother removing her gown in favor of nudity or her preferred trous. That was the first rule Ralarin had instituted. A lady always wore a gown. Shylanda groaned and hoisted herself off the bed. A quick check in the polished metal to make sure everything else would meet the Lady Holder’s high standards and then she made her way back to the small hold’s main hall.
Being careful to keep things as close to perfect as Ralarin had come to expect of her, Shylanda took dainty steps down the stairs. The white gown swirled around her ankles, and she looked older than her fourteen turns. She saw the Lady Holder talking to someone dressed in wherhide. “A dragonrider,” she whispered to herself in awe.
Shylanda reached the bottom of the stairs and awaited recognition from Ralarin. She didn’t feel like getting into yet another fight with the Lady Holder tonight, so patience was her friend at the moment though excitement and tension were mounting in her young body as she surveyed the dragonrider. What would bring someone like him to this backwater hold?
Ralarin turned to look at the girl. Brown eyes surveyed the fosterling’s appearance and lingered for a moment on Shylanda’s vivid green eyes. She nodded and gestured for the girl to straighten her skirt and approach. “Bluerider J’rin, please allow me to introduce Shylanda. She’ll be the only one of interest to you. The other girls here are too young.”
Shy brushed her hands over her skirt before stepping forward. The young woman couldn’t help but wonder what the bluerider could want her for that the others were too young for. “Good evening, Bluerider J’rin.”
The bluerider inclined his head toward the young woman. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Ralarin informs me that you’ve fourteen turns. I must say you look older than that.”
“You were not mislead. I’m only fourteen. I’ll be fifteen on winter solstice. Please forgive my,” she paused looking for the word and one eyebrow arched upward as she thought, “impertinence.” Shy looked at Ralarin to see if that was the right word and the woman nodded. “But what can I do for you that the others are too young for?”
J’rin gave the girl a warm reassuring smile. “I’m here on Search for Ryslen. It seems you are the only one of appropriate age to even be considered, but Amitath assures me that someone here is worthy. It could be you or one of the younger ones. I can’t be sure until you’ve been introduced to my dragon.” He motioned one gloved hand back toward the hold’s main entrance. “He’s just outside. So if you’ll get your coat and accompany me, we’ll just see if it’s you. It won’t take long.”
Shylanda glanced over at Ralarin for permission. She didn’t want to make a bad impression on the bluerider by being her usual rebellious self and charging outside without even a second thought for her foster mother or her coat. The young woman nodded her blonde curls spilling forward over her shoulder. Hurriedly she grabbed her coat from a hook near the door. “Ready when you are,” she said with a bright smile.
Ralarin frowned at the girl. Her brown eyes narrowed, but never got the chance to say a word. Before she could raise her voice to chastise the young woman for speaking to a dragonrider so casually, Shylanda was out the door with J’rin close behind.
She was immediately greeted by the sight of a large blue dragon. Her jaw dropped slightly as she looked up at him. “Wow. He’s beautiful.” Shy turned wide green eyes to the dragonrider. “His hide is even more blue than the lake near Aeslen Hold. I didn’t think such a color existed.”
J’rin smiled at her. “I’m glad you like him. He’s quite an incredible dragon and very special. Amitath is the best Search dragon at Ryslen. He’s never wrong, and he’s chosen you. You’re the one he was sensing,” the bluerider informed her. “Will you come be a candidate?”
“OF COURSE I WILL!!!!!!”