Fyrea stalked around the gala. She detested the gown she was forced to wear, and it had put her in a foul mood. Her pink lips were slightly pursed, and her eyebrows arched together in concentration. She held the lavendar skirt of her magnificant gown in one white-gloved hand. She pushed back a strand of hair with one hand, and sighed. She hated galas. So boring, with nothing to do. Her father was ready for her to be married. Many boys had asked for her to marry them. Her father believed that she should choose, and she said no to every one. She was young, she had her entire life to live! So many people were out there that she would meet and talk to, maybe for just a second, or maybe they will become friends. Either way, she was not ready to tie the knot.
"Fyrea! Oh, Fy!!!!! Come here, come see!" Fyrea knew that voice anywhere. She sighed, and knew there was no escape. A girl, short and slightly chubby with short, kinky black hair and dark eyes scooted up beside Fyrea.
"Hello, Dugan. What do you want me to see?" She looked at the girl. Dugan was slightly annoying, always chattering and gossiping, and could never keep a secret. But, she heard the most interesting news, and always shared it with Fyrea.
"There's a Searchrider here! And a clutch of firelizard eggs! Oh come on, go be Searched. You know you've always wanted it." Fyrea had to agree on that one. She had always wanted to be a dragonrider, for as long as she could remember. She had held off as long as she could, trying not to be apprenticed before she could be Searched. And now, here, was a Searchrider... Now was her chance...
Fyrea followed close behind Dugan. But a voice, loud and shrilling, caused her to veer off curiously.
"What do you mean it is gone?! I only passed it around a second ago!" Fyrea spotted a woman, tall and skinny with brown hair, crying shrilly to a server. She was standing from her chair around a table filled with several other people. The server sputtered something, and the woman cried out again.
"Do you know how much that was worth?! I wouldn't be surprised if you had it, you filthy... server." With nothing else to say, the woman stormed off, leaving the bewildered server being stared at by nearly everyone in the room.
"It was a little diamond? That's it?" asked Fyrea unbelieving. The server was not so worried now as he was angry and humiliated. People from all over were eying him evilly, and clutching to their bags and coin pouches.
"Yes, Miss, but a diamond. But a very valuable diamond indeed. Worth a lot... A lot more than I and possibly you will ever see in our lifetimes." Fyrea thought about that for a moment. Surely, this man was exaggerating...
"Well, what happened? Why does she think it was you?" Fire lept up into the man's eyes.
"Because I was there. She dropped a glass on the floor, and called for me to come clean it up, all nasty like. I went to clean it up. And afterwards, when I had all of the glass shards in the pan, she began throwing a fit and crying hysterically. She said that I had stolen it...Proposterous..." Fyrea thought about that for a moment. A small diamond among broken glass would more than likely be overlooked...
"Did you dispose of the glass?" The server looked at her curously, or as if she were crazy.
"With that woman accusing me every second? No. It's over there on the table." Fyrea walked silently over to the table, trying not to be obvious. The server watched her curiously. She peered into the pan. She could see no diamond, but of course everything was clear and shiny... So she took a knife from the table and stirred slowly the glass. Finally, one piece stuck out to her. It was middle sized, and more blue than the clear glass. She stuck two slender fingers into the mess and plucked out...the diamond! She turned, trying not to drop it, and claaed to the lady.
"Here it is! I found it!" The woman came running over and snatched the diamond out of Fyrea's hand. She opened a pouch, added it to a number of others, and then turned on Fyrea, snarling.
"You thought you could get away with it, didn't you? But then, you knew I would hunt you down and find you, so you pretended it had been in the glass the whole time. Didn't you? Admit it, thief! Thief!" Now, most girls would have began stuttering apologies and denying what she said. But not Fyrea. These accusations angered her. They ticked her off.
"Now look here, you hag! Stop accusing everyone else! It is your own fault for dropping it! And I don't believe that story about it being worth so much, either. If so, why do you have a whole bag full?" The woman opened her mouth to say something, a bewlidered look on her face. But Fyrea cut her off.
"And another thing! How did it so conveniently happen that the glass dropped right on top of your diamond, mixing it up in the mess? Unless you did it on purpose, just trying to frame that poor innocent man! Well?" The woman stared down, wide-eyed at this girl. Red began to crawl from her neck to her cheeks, until she was blushing as red as Fyrea's mother's hair.
"Well...I...You..Shards!" screeched the woman, and she stormed off from the gala. Fyrea turned to see some people staring at her. They smiled, and then people all over were telling how well she had dealt with that, and how clever she was. Fyrea didn't like how close they were getting to her. She shoved away and ran away to find Dugan.
"Where were you? I thought you chickened out or something." Fyrea scooted next to Dugan, who was standing in a crowd around the firelizard eggs. She just shook her head as one of the smaller eggs broke, revealing a green flit. She rocked on her back for a moment, before turning over and shaking off, spraying everyone with egg shards. She looked directly at Fyrea, and screeched.
"Hello, little one. Have I impressed you?" The flit screeched again, and tried to walk to her. But her leg...It was messed up, somehow, and the flit could not walk properly. Fyrea went to her, and lifted the tiny one into her arms, ignoring the stares from the other people. She slipped the little one a scrap of meat, which the flit gobbled graciously.
"It's okay, Eden. Together, we have each other."
"And maybe a dragon to add to the pair?" Fyrea turned to see a big blue face lookling intently into hers. She squealed and walked backward until she could verify that it was a dragon, and that the rider had been talking to her. He stepped into view, a handsome man, older than her. He smiled.
"I am R'lan, and this is Blue Okserth. I am a Searchrider from Ryslen Weyr. We saw what you did to help out that man, and we saw how clever you were to figure what happened. And it was very good of you not to suspect him like everyone else did automatically. We, Okserth and I, believe that you would make a good candidate. So, what'ya think? Wanna give it a try?" Fyrea was overwhelmed. So much had happened in such a short time, she didn't know if she could make such an important, life-changing decision spur-of-the-moment like this...
"When do we leave?"