Chloe stood, arms outstretched, tongue poking through her lips on the banister of the bridge. She took another step forward, face tense with concentration. A slight noise behind her broke her concentration.
"Kean, don't you dare-" But Kean did dare. He leaped forward, shoving her with all his might. Chloe screeched, laughing, as she tried to regain her footing, her arms flailing. She managed to grab one of Kean's arms, and when she she tumbled off the railing, he came with her. She saw the sideways smile on his face turn into one of astonishment as the tiny girl pulled him after her. With a giant splash, the two teenagers landed in the cool crystal waters of the lake. They surfaced a few seconds later, laughing and coughing.
"I win, you fell in!" teased Kean.
"You did not, Kean. You pushed me in! That's cheating!" Chloe pushed her thin, shoulder length, light blond hair out of her eyes. She grinned at Kean, her big brown eyes sparkling. She turned and trudged from the water. When she reached the shore, she wrang out her hair, and then her shirt. Kean followed her, and shook his head, longish brown hair flying. Chloe laughed as she was sprinkled with tiny droplets of water. Kean grinned his sideways smile again.
"I'm going to go and change my clothes. I'm all wet now! See ya later, Kean." Chloe turned and hurried back to her home, dripping water in the hot sun. Kean watched her go, and then turned towards his home in the other direction.
"Oh, Chloe. Did you have another balancing contests wth Kean today?" Chloe grinned.
"Yes, mother, I did." Chloe's mother, Sana, smiled at her youngest daughter. She wondered what else went on at those daily balancing contests.
"Well? Who won? I see you fell in again."
"Mother, I did not fall in. Kean pushed me 'cause I beat him twice before. I took him in with me, though." Sana smiled.
"Go change! Look what you're doing to the floor!" Chloe skipped from the room. Sana looked after her. Two other girls entered the room. Both grils had long hair and big brown eyes. One girl had dark hair, the other had lighter brown. The girls looked very much the same, but not exactly. They were chatting and giggling, and then looked up at their mother.
"Hi, mom!" they called together. They looked at each other and dissolved into giggles.
"Kia, Tey, what are you two so happy about?"
"Oh, mother! The most wonderful thing happened! This nice young man with a blue dragon landed nearby, and told us there is to be a Searching! We are to go tomorrow to the clearing, and we are to tell everyone! Oh it is so exciting! Three lovely greens clutched at the same time!" gushed Kia. Sana imagined her lovely daughters were in for a disapointment, but she knew it was one of life's lessons.
"Okay, well I wish you both the best of luck. Now get off into your chamber. You will need your rest, if you are the be Searched tomorrow." The two girls ran, giggling out of the room. Sana sighed, and went off to her own chamber.
Chloe stood at her chamber door. She listened as her oldest sister of eighteen turns crept into her chamber room. Chloe then knew that it was safe to sneak out. She turned and opened the sliding window at the back of her room. Chloe looked outside. The night was so dark it was hard to see the grassy ground below her. She thrust her legs out first, and then slipped out. She turned and hurried off into the forest, away from her home.
Chloe raced deep into the forest, hoping she wasn't too late. Kean, she knew, was leaving the next morning for a job at some Weyr. He was her best friend, and maybe even more. As these thoughts raced through Chloe's head, Chloe raced towards Kean's house. She was concentrating so hard on thinking, that she suddenly found herself completely lost. She looked around, eyes searching the darkness. She saw nothing familiar. She walked slowly through the woods, heart beginning to beat quicker. She felt tears beginning to well up in her eyes. She willed herself not to cry. She looked up at the sky to keep the tears from falling from her eyes. She was nearly sixteen turns, too old to cry. Looking at the sky, blurred from her tears, she was not watching where she was going and fell face first into the ground.
"Oh, for... Ooooh. OOOOOOH!" Chloe's eyes widened when she saw what it was she had tripped over. A small nest of tiny eggs was there on the forest floor. Chloe crawled over to it. She saw one of the little eggs had a jagged crack that split across the surface. Tears welled up in Chloe's eyes, and her heart shattered at the thought of a tiny baby something inside of that egg that probably would never live to hatch....Because of her.
"Oh, no! Oh, I'm so sorry." She saw the egg tremble, and then another crack appeared. Oh No! Now she had caused the hatching of something that was not ready to be hatched! Chloe peered at the egg, wondering what was inside. She did not have long to find out. A tiny blue dragon hatched from the egg. She recognized immediately that it was a Firelizard. It broke the egg in half and rolled around, squealing on its back.
"Oh, oh! Awww, how cute... Are you okay, boy?" Chloe reached out for the small flit, who was now mewing like a lost kitten. It leaned toward her touch, and crawled toward her, its eyes trying to take in all of its new surroundings. Chloe picked up the tiny creature, her broken heart put together agian, but now it was melting at the poor flit's hunger cries. No longer was Kean on her mind- he had disappeared for the time being. Chloe gathered the flit in her arms, and rocked him until he was asleep, hunger gone for the moment. And that is how she fell asleep.
Chloe awoke the next morning to a hard tug at her hair. She snapped up, and sent the small blue lizard flying. It hit the ground hard, and let out a startled chirp. Chloe gasped and leaped across the ground to him.
"Oh, you poor thing! With me taking care of you, I'll probably kill you... I have to get you home! I have to feed you, you poor thing, oh...let's go." Chloe ran with the flit through the woods. She had no idea where she was, but she needed to get the poor lizard home. Finally, Chloe came to the lake, and the bridge. Now she knew where she was. In no time at all, she was back home. She sat the flit on the kitchen table, and grabbed a giant piece of meat from the icebox. She placed in it a wooden bowl and placed it in front of the baby. She sat in a chair and just watched him eat. She loved the way the light sparkled off his scales.
"Chloe, darling, are you in...Goodness! What is that?" Sana clutched her hands to her heart when she saw the firelizard on her clean table.
"Mommy, look! I found him last...This morning! Isn't he cute?" Sana did agree that he was cute.
"What's his name?" Chloe had to think for a minute.
"Taja!"
"Mother, we're gonna go to the...Awww! Look at him! Isn't he just the cutest! Where did you get him, Chloe? He's so precious!" Kia and Tey stroked the little firelizard's brilliant blue scales.
"Did you impress him?" asked Tey, her eyes glowing with excitment.
"Well...he chose to stay with me. Is that impressing? I held him last night when he fell asleep." Kia and Tey smiled at her.
"Come with us to the Searching. If you Impressed him, you may be able to Impress a dragon!" Chloe's eyes widened. She scooped Taja up in her arms and followed her sisters from the house. Sana stood in the doorway and watched as her three youngest daughters trotted away, chattering and laughing, and scratching Taja's eye ridges.
Kia, Tey and Chloe arrived in the clearing. To their dismay, it was filled with people milling around. There was a long line of boys, and an even longer line of girls. The lines began at two huge blue dragons. At each person, the dragon would peer into their face, perhaps mind-speaking. Then, if the person was chosen as a candidate, the Dragon would rear up and trill loudly. If not, the dragon would make no sound, and the person walked dejectdedly away. Chloe and her sisters stood in the girl line, talking nervously. When it came their turn, Kia went first. She stood bravely, her shoulders back and chin up. The Dragon looked at her for a moment, and then stood back, saying nothing. Kia turned to her sisters, shrugged, trying not to show how disappointed she was. Tey went next, and once ore the dragon did not trill. Tey joined her twin. Chloe felt her heart drop. If neither of her sisters were fit to impress, then how could she? Chloe turned to join her sisters, but Taja suddenly leaped from her arms and landed on the floor where she had been standing. A man, the Dragon's rider, stepped forward.
"Young lady, I believe your firelizard doesn't want you to go." Chloe looked up to see a man standing by the dragon. He smiled down st her. She bent down and picked up Taja. She gulped, and stood up straight, as her sisters had.
"Good," whispered the man. He stepped away from her. Chloe felt everything else shut out. There was no more talking, or noises from the clearing. Chloe stared right into the giant Blue's eyes. She gulped. She felt a calmness in her head. She gripped Taja tighter. Suddenly, she was alone in her mind, and the dragon was trilling so powerfully that her hair blew behind her. She stumbled backwards.
"Congradgulations, Chloe." She turned to see Kean, a big smile on his face.
"You're a candidate at Ryslen Weyr."
