DUVALL'S WEYR

There were two boys running along the beaches near Gallimim, their runners tied up to a small stunted tree. They were scanning about the beach above the high tide mark and in any large crevesses in the rocks nearby.

"I'm going to find them first!" Darlan muttered.

"Nuh-uh!" Duvall shot back. He was the heavier of the two brothers, but not by much. The sibling rivalry had been part of their lives since birth and was staying with them in their transit to adulthood.

Duvall spotted an abnormal lump in the sands and went over to investigate, quietly. Darlan was ahead of him, inspecting a hole in some rocks. He carefully uncovered a small clutch of wild flit eggs. Several flits of different colors started circling around above.

"The big one's mine!" Darlan screamed from over Duvall's shoulder and he snatched up the largest egg. The eggs were very hard.

"It's not! I found it!" Duvall challanged and he chased after his fraternal twin brother. The flock of firelizards swooped down to the remaining eggs and settled about them.

In Darlan's hands the large egg started rocking violently so he stopped and crouched down to watch. A Gold? Bronze? Duvall caught up with him just as the eggshell split in two. The little hatchling looked straight at Duvall. She was a lovely shade of green and he was sure she was very hungry since he felt it in his mind.

Darlan grimaced as he saw that the little creature looked to his brother. "Its just a green! I'll find a queen or bronze!" he said. He thrust the flit to his brother and ran off to look for more flit clutches. By then, the rest of the small clutch - a green's - had hatched and were being taken away by the adults, testing their new wings.

Since the green, newly dubbed Shora (because he found her near the shore), was hungry, Duvall rushed back to the Weyr as fast as the runner could carry him and Shora.

Darlan pointedly ignored him when he came back to their weyr later one that day. He had been unsuccessful at finding another clutch. Darlan cared little, and found it a brief respite from their nearly incessant nagging of each other. It wasn't hard - though the Weyrwoman had made them live in the same weyr, they had quickly erected a cutain wall and split the double weyr in two. It was one of the few things they had agreed upon and constructed together.

Duvall cuddled with the tiny flit, who was sleeping peacefully in the crook of his neck and shoulder. Impressing the little flit had felt right. He supposed himself destined to be a dragonrider. He didnŐt really care what color, though a bronze would be great just to show off to his brother. Darlan should be the one to go back and run Ovir Hold, and be a stuffy Lord Holder. The whole reason they were here was because they were born at the same time - fraternal twins, not identical - and only one could become Lord Holder aftertheir father. He'd set them up in competitions early on, but both were pretty evenly matched. So he fostered them off to nearby Gallimim Weyr to learn some manners and hoping one would impress, therefore forfeiting title to land. Then the other could assume the position at Ovir Hold. But, being young boys of 12 turns, they both wanted to be dragonriders. Holding was boring.

Shora sighed in her sleep and shifted. She clutched a lock of his dirty blonde hair, and drew it near. Duvall smiled. She didn't care about her clutch-mates, and they weren't annoying anyway. Why couldn't certain human siblings, just, just, go away somewhere?

Duvall fell asleep, too, never admitting to himself that either brother would be a little lost without the other.

D'vall was triumphant. He had been the brother to impress - a beautiful blue Inzuith! His deflated brother Darlan tried to egg him on that it was just a puny blue - not a mighty bronze. D'vall hoped their Holder father would come around to collect Darlan soon, and have him out of his hair. So his brother was now destined to become the LordHolder of Ovir Hold - big deal, he was a dragonrider.

But perhaps your sibling will impress, too, Inzuith suggested.

"But everyone knows father just sent us here to get rid of one and have the other become LordHolder. You can't own title or deed to land as a dragonrider. And since we're fraternal twins (he emphasized - he would never want to be identical to Darlan) no one knows who's born first," he tried to explain to his dragon.

So my ten clutchmates are fraternal twins, but we don't complain about the colors we hatched out to be. Suddenly Inzuith wanted his rider's comfort. But do you like me since I am a blue? Humans seem to prefer the rare colors, Inzuith said.

D'vall felt himself like he was letting his dragon down on account of his brother. "But Inzuith, you know my favorite color is blue, ad I like you just the way you are!" Shora popped in from between and demanded he address her, too. "And green's a good color, too," D'vall consoled, scratching her under the chin.