Their education was unremarkable, but Kuda's flexible innovative mind caught the attention of the Lord Holder. Actually, his son, K'yle. He recommended her for training in the Harpers classes, as a currier.
With her lithe body and her skill at word-play, Kuda gained the respect of the masters, and the jealousy of the journeymen! For here was a young girl barely older than their youngest student, who had already excelled at spelling and counting, at history ballads (which she swore were so boring she ought to renovate them), and at teaching ballads. She hardly could sing, and she had no talent whatsoever at creating musical instruments.
The Harpers breathed a sigh of relief, and put her into training for running messages. She learned the drum signals, but she as yet cares very little for learning how to pound them out. Her favored activity, however, is the one which she excells at the most.
Running. Sprinting. Getting from here to there in record time. On a runner beast or on foot, Kuda is quick and has not missed a connection to a Hold yet.
But more: Engell has taught her to spy on the little holds and lordlings, and to bring back every detail that he must miss when in his own Weyrhold. He is, after all, the lordiest of the lords she knows, and he pays very very well.
If there was ever a girl who could invent and use rollerblades, Kuda would be that girl.
Passing on the notes, Kuda silently thanked the people who believed that fire lizards were pests. If they were pests, she thought, they were the singularly most useful ones on Pern. And if people didn't think they were pests, she'd be out of a job!
The dragon, however, obviously thought this job of moving letters from holders back and forth was something below him. A burly brown like that, Kuda thought, he really ought to be up leading a wing or at least seconding! But here he was, pouting, below his rider who had probably done something very stupid to deserve to be put on currier duty. This wasn't a Protectorate rider, of their currier wing, after all, so he must be part of someone else's plan.
Kuda watched them take off, and wished with all her heart that she could go with them. She'd been between only a couple times, but she felt a thrill even thinking about it. How that little tiny inconvienence of cold and dark and numb could be the cost for being in the exact place you needed to be, mere seconds later... AH!
Kuda turned and began walking back to her runner beast. One of the Alabaster farms had lent it to her, and she was going to have to get it back soon. They'd need it to pull the crops in before Threadfall.
Though why they needed to do that, when Alabaster's wings were right there, was beyond her. It was habit, she guessed. A 'just in case' contingency that kept its head up even when there were dragons flying in the sky and breathing deadly flames over Thread. The only thing that would ever reach any of these crops (she thought as she rode by them at a quick pace) was ash.
Or... Dragons!
The runner was calm, but Kuda pulled it up short. A blue dragon had landed near the field and was letting his rider dismount. Right on the path!
Either very rude, or...
"Heyla," called the rider, "I'm D'lom and this blue here is Fadeth. We're headed toward Alabaster, on Search. You wouldn't happen to be from there, now would you?"
With her pale blue eyes matching the color of the dragon, and being about as big at that point, Kuda nodded. Her normally sharp wit had completely failed her. Why?!
Finally, "y-yes, I'm headed back there now. But I need to get this guy back to the farm here... And Fadeth, was it? Is kinda in the way..." She made 'shooing' motions with one of her hands. Though she dearly wished that the dragon would just stand right where he was, so she could admire him.
D'lom laughed, and then seemed to consult with his dragon for a moment. "Well, you're in luck. Why not lead that runner around and we'll meet you back here. We can take you to Alabaster, so you can get your things gathered. What was your name?"
"... It was Kudalamatonapi," she said, still staring at the whirling eyes of the dragon, "but you can call me Kuda. My mom stopped calling me by my full name about a day after my dad named me..."
Laughing again, D'lom moved the blue to the wilder side of the fields, and then met up with Kuda. Her sure hands were shaking when she grasped the harness and put her legs across the big neck of the dragon. She'd been dragonback... But it was just a currier job! it wasn't... It wasn't because she'd been Searched!
They blipped between to cut the trip short, and when they did, Kuda's fears and shakes disappeared. The view of Alabaster from above was so pretty, Kuda sucked in a breath and gripped the harness. "I hope that Lord Engell will let me go..."
"Oh, don't worry," D'lom said over the wind, as they landed in the courtyard. "I think he's already prepared to let a runner like you become a better one by Impressing..."
"Where is it I'll be standing, anyway?" Kuda said, and half a moment later nearly smacked herself on the head. It was right in front of her, D'lom's riding jacket had the Dawn Sisters Weyr emblem embroidered onto it.
"Dawn Sisters," said both of them, as Kuda found her tongue and D'lom wondered why she hadn't guessed or observed it before.
But it didn't matter. The first three eggs broke open at once, showing off a blue who impressed first, and two beautiful greens.
One made her way to a girl to Kuda's right, but the other... Looked right up at her. It was not even in question that they were bonded.
I am Mhorith, and you are my rider. I will learn everything you know about how to get places!
Then let's us get to the kitchens! That'll be a fun place but I want to get you fed before all those others!
She hadn't even looked up from the whirling eyes of the new dragonet, Kuda simply led Mhorith out without saying a word! She heard the dragon's name as well as her own, called from the gold rider's soft throat, but Kuda didn't even care that she'd forgotten to say aloud for the records!
You wanted me to crush it for you, didn't you?
"I didn't say crush it and spread the dust across half of Pern!" Kuda exclaimed, the dark dusty spot in the end of their weyr was spreading quickly. "You'll get everything completely covered! And the drudges have been on me about how dirty our stuff is anyway!"
They are supposed to clean up! I give them something to do!
Kuda stalked around, and physically hefted the green's tail out of the firestone pile. "This stuff is only useful when it's sized for dragons or sized for hearth-pressing. Not totally ground to a fine powder..." She dipped her hand onto the grainy surface of the floor, where the coal-black was now a permanent feature. "I guess most of it is okay for gathering into bars for hearths..."
Then apologize to me! Mhorith bespoke, and Kuda straightened.
"... What?!" Mhorith only barked a long dragon laugh.
It hurts! Oh, my rider it hurts!!
"Mhorith!" Cried Kuda, intimately aware that her inner left wing had been scored by the last bit of Thread which the dragon just couldn't reach in time. "Between!"
They went between, and came out -- directly under another clump of thread! Kuda screamed and then kept on screaming. Moments went by -- and they weren't impacted by the clump. In fact, they felt a bit warmer and drier. Even after the moments between which froze most of the water covering their every surface and chilled them to the bone, Mhorith and Kuda looked up to see one of the local Bronze riders swooping down to fry the Thread just over their heads. They glided downward, under the huge spray of flame coming from the dragon's mouth, and Kuda bespoke broadly to her dragon.
Tell him thank you!
He nearly burnt us!
We nearly died from Thread! Which way do you want to go out, Mhorith? Friendly fire or deadly thread??
I don't want to go out ANY way -- I want to be safe with you...
"We'll get that chance, Mhorith," Kuda breathed, "when we're in the Currier wing. They don't fight like this... It takes too much out of us..."
