N'bil stood beside his brown dragon, Crith, as he stared at the Weyr. "Wow, it's big." He said in awe. "Lot's bigger than Blue Sky Weyr, anyway." He glanced at his twin. "Now why are we here again?"
L'val looked up as he answered. "Visiting Reeka. This is where she and Maricth are remember?" He rolled his eyes as his twin grinned sheepishly. "C'mon, why don't we go find sister-dearest."
As it turns out, N'bil did not find Reeka, instead he found a brown fire lizard egg. When the flit had hatched, he named the brown Keb.
L'val was furious. "That's so unfair! First you get a queen, and now you got another fire lizard!? And you didn't even bring me one!"
"There was only one egg left!" N'bil answered.
Who cares about a fire lizard? There's much more important things to do. L'val's bronze Sysith spoke up, even though N'bil couldn't hear him. L'val guessed Crith had said pretty much the same thing to his brother. "What, Reeka?" He asked the small bronze.
What? No, not that. Her. Sysith said, turning his head in the direction of the lake. Only now did L'val and N'bil see what it was that had caught Sysith's attention. A large, bright golden dragon was sitting by the lake, sunning herself.
She's beautiful, isn't she?
"Yeah, beautiful. " L'val answered his bronze. He wasn't looking at the queen, however. He was looking at the woman who was now standing beside her gold dragon. She had dark brown hair reaching her shoulders, and bright green eyes.
N'bil noticed what his brother what staring at. "You know she's gotta be at least five turns older than you, right L'val?" He said.
L'val ignored him, turning to his bronze dragon. "Sysith, you want to chase her dragon, right?" The bronze nodded eagerly. "Great! Then I'll take the liberty of signing us up." L'val raced off to find the flight boards, before stopping and turning to Sysith again. "Uhh...You wouldn't happen to know her name, would you, Sysith?" N'bil just rolled his eyes.
"The gold? That's Kandrith. The woman beside her is her rider, Sarilyn. Why do you want to know?"
The twins turned as one, seeing their younger sister, Reeka, standing behind them, arms crossed.
"Thanks, Reeka. Bye!" L'val shouted behind him as he ran off again. The girl blinked, staring after her brother, before turning questioningly towards her other brother.
N'bil shrugged. "He and Sysith want to sign up for her flight." He explained.
Reeka stared after L'val. "Doesn't he realize that's a flight for Weyrleadership?"
N'bil looked at his sister in shock. "What!? She's, the Weyrwoman!?"
Reeka nodded, and N'bil burst out laughing. "Oh, he's gonna love that!"
Reeka just shook her head. "L'val, as Weyrleader? Scary thought." She muttered.
"All right, we're getting away from L'val for a while." N'bil announced to his bemused brown dragon.
What? You're not still upset about him signing us up for Valirith's flight, are you? Don't worry, N'bil, I really didn't mind it all that much.
"It's not you I'm worried about!" N'bil said as Crith rumbled with laughter. N'bil ignored the brown. We're heading to Cathair Utopian for a bit."
Suits me. That way I can chase Maoith.
"What!?!?!?"
N'bil shifted his feet impatiently as he stepped outside their temporary weyr-cathair, he reminded himself-at Cathair Utopian. He growled slightly to himself, drawing the attention of his dragon, brown Crith.
What's wrong? Crith asked as his eyes whirled with yellow.
"This is taking too long, Crith." N'bil told his dragon. "I mean, we've been here for what, weeks or months now, waiting for Maoith to rise. I say we take a break and go somewhere else for a while."
Crith craned his head thoughtfully. You're right, it has been a pretty long time...but won't they notice if we go missing?
N'bil grinned evilly. "Not if we time it back..."
The small brown rumbled disapprovingly at his rider. I don't think it's a good idea to time it, rider mine.
N'bil rolled his eyes and slapped the brown's side lightly. "Don't worry about it, Crith, they'll never know we were gone. We'll just take a trip back to Pern, hang around in a Weyr for a few days, and come back here to Danach." He grinned again. "Maybe we can even time it ahead to Maoith's rising."
Crith still appeared hesitant, but his own impatience won him over to his rider's point of few. Alright, but I choose the Weyr.
"Fine by me." N'bil said as he climbed onto the small brown's back. Crith jumped into the air and went between.
They reappeared above Draco's Inferno Weyr, and Crith told the watchdragon their names as he spiraled into the Weyrbowl to land. N'bil looked around him curiously as he jumped off his dragon. "So why'd you want to come here, Crith?" He asked.
Crith rumbled delightedly as he caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. He nudged N'bil in the direction of a smallish gold dragoness sunning herself by the lake. She appeared completely oblivious to Crith's admiring eyes. Her. Linaeth.
"Oh." N'bil rolled his eyes, then smiled. "Where's the flight boards, then?"
Over there. Crith motioned with one wing before going off to speak to the gold. He stopped short as a smallish bronze dragon approached him and Linaeth, but N'bil didn't see any of this; he'd already turned away to sign Crith and himself up for the gold's flight.
After that chore was done, he wandered off for a while, and came across two people sitting together by the lake. The girl was pretty, with dark, almost black hair that fell in curls around her face and golden skin. The guy with her N'bil couldn't see very well at his current angle, but he looked vaguely familiar.
The man turned as he approached, and N'bil stopped in startlement when he saw who it was. The girl, who, judging from the descriptions he'd gathered so far, was quite probably Linaeth's rider, jumped in surprise when she saw N'bil and fell over backward. N'bil wasn't terribly surprised; seeing two people who looked exactly alike at the same time tended to shock people slightly.
N'bil frowned as his twin brother spoke up. "What are you doing here?" L'val asked crossly.
N'bil crossed his arms and stared back at his brother. "Funny, I was about to ask you the same question."
"Sysith wanted to...uh, chase." L'val glanced at the girl, who had climbed back to her feet. "Are you okay, Galaxia?"
"I'm fine." She answered absently, and looked at N'bil. "Who are you?"
N'bil grinned sheepishly. "Hi, I'm N'bil, rider of brown Crith. We're twins." He explained, pointing to L'val.
"Yeah...I'd guessed." Galaxia replied.
L'val coughed, interrupting them. "So, what are you doing here again?" He asked pointedly.
N'bil shrugged. "Crith wanted to chase a dragon here." He said noncommitedly.
"Must be Linaeth, then." Galaxia mumbled. "She's the only dragon rising here right now."
N'bil rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as his brother glared at him. "Heh. So, let the best man win?"
And the best dragon as well. L'val's Sysith added.
Sysith had taken to sulking since losing Linaeth's flight to a brown. L'val was sulking since his dragon had lost a flight to his brother's dragon. L'val's sister Reeka had begun to get annoyed with the both of them sulking around the dragonry and decided to take matters into her own hands.
"Hurry up and get over to Lantessama Isle." She snapped at her brother out of the blue.
"Huh?" L'val commented intelligently.
Reeka tapped her foot impatiently. "I've signed you and Sysith up for a gold's flight at Lantessama. So hurry up and get over there now, before you miss it."
L'val was vaguely annoyed at this. "Well, why'd you do that?"
"Because I'm sick and tired of watching you two sulk around Darkling Dawn. I'm giving you a chance to get out and maybe even meet someone you like."
"Oh." L'val was slightly more charitable to his sister now. "Okay, um, what's she like?" He asked her.
Reeka quirked a smile. "The dragon or the rider?"
"The rider."
The dragon.
Both males answered at the same time. Reeka snorted. "Well, I didn't actually talk to her all that much myself. Maricth told me that the dragon is a gold named Iristh. Apparently her rider is named Rui." (Maricth being Reeka's green dragon.)
"Yes, but what's she like?" L'val prompted.
"I don't know." Reeka answered shortly. "Go find out for yourself. Now excuse me while I go knock some sense into N'bil and Crith and get them to stop gloating. The clutch has hatched already, for Faranth's sake."
L'val was already leaping determinedly to Sysith's back when Reeka left.
