alcia

Alcia was at Talis for a while, when she heard that Falas was going to be closing soon. She wondered if her cousin or their friends had been accepted for a clutch. She asked a new friend at Talis if she could get a ride to Falas to visit her friends for a little while. Cara was excited to be going to see her friends too.

When Alcia got to Falas, it took her a while to find any of her friends. The first on she found was Donal.
"Donal, over here," she called when she saw him. "It's me, Alcia."
He adjusted his path and came over to her. "What are you doing here ? I thought you'd been accepted for the clutch at Talis."
"I have been, but I heard that Falas is going to be closing soon and I wanted to know how all of you were doing. Have any of you been accepted to the clutches you applied to? And where is everybody?"
"One question at a time please. First, Carik, Bastian, Teryl, and Jaicie are at Falas Hold, or did you forget? Donar has met a girl here, Jesca. She came to be a candidate but has had about as much luck being accepted as a candidate. So far, whenever we check the candidate lists, none of us are ever listed. Maybe they have too many candidates..." Donal trailed off. "So, how long do you think you will have to wait for your hatching?"
"I don't know. Probably not too long, though there are still quite a few candidate spots open for the clutch. Maybe you should see if my friend's dragon likes you. They are a search pair."
" Maybe I will later. You should probably go down to the hold and see your cousin. He would never forgive me if all took all your time on what will probably be your only visit before the hatching."
"You're right. Maybe I'll come back and see you before I leave. Come on, Cara, you can come back and play with Cliff." As she walked away, she looked back once and smiled at the sad looking pair. They both looked like they lost their best friend. She would defintely come back before she left.

Alcia walked down to Falas hold and looked for her cousin or any of her friends. It took about twenty minutes but she finally found them. And they were all in one place this time.
"Hi, everyone. How's it going?"
When they looked all four were surprised. They hadn't expected to see her any time soon. Carik stood up and hugged his cousin.
"What are you doing here? I thought you'd be busy learning to a dragonrider at Talis."
"I am, but I heard that Falas was closing and wanted to know how you all were doing. Donal said that none of them had been accepted to a clutch yet. How about you guys?"

They all looked at each other before Teryl answered, "We're not having much more luck than they are. We can't even begin lessons until we've been accepted to the clutch, so we're not really doing much. We help out around the hold a bit but they already have so many candidates that there's not much that isn't already being done by one of them."
"I don't know if you want to, but my friend, the dragonrider who brought me today, is one of the searchriders for Talis. Maybe they could see if any of you would be suitable there. There are still spots open in the queen's clutch."
"That's an idea," Carik said. "Maybe I'll do that. I am glad you came to see us I was almost ready to go back to the hold and wait there." The others all smiled at that. All of them knew that the hold was not in any condition for any of them to live in right now. "So, where is this friend of yours?"
"Back at the weyr. He had some friends to visit. I want to go see if Donal is going to come, too. He said he'd think about it. Are the rest of you coming?"
Bastian looked at his sister and her friend. They both shook their heads. "I think we'll wait a little longer here. I do like the dragons here. Besides we don't want to have too many closely related dragons." He was looking fondly at Jaicie as he said this. "I know that Teryl doesn't want to be away from Carik for too long but if he's accepted at Talis, he'll probably have a shorter wait. Let us know when there's a new clutch. If we still haven't been accepted here, maybe we'll go then."

Alcia and Carik walked back up to the weyr. they talked a little but mostly watched their firelizards playing in the air. Cara would chase Aureo for a while, then flip and let him chase her. The cousins got dizzy watching their acrobatics. When they reached the weyr, they again had to search for their friends. They found Donal near where Alcia had left him. His face lit up when he saw that she had come back. He walked to meet them, and started speaking almost before he reached them. "I had just decided that I was going to come with you. I had talked to Donar and Jesca. They want to stay here for a little while longer. then on my way back here, I went past the candidate lists- they have been updated and we are on them. The clutch should hatch soon. So I am going to stay here. If I don't impress, maybe I'll come then. But I am really hoping to Impress here." As he said this he looked a little sad at having to be separated from Alcia for that long but he was too excited about possibly Impressing a Falas dragon to be sad for too long.

"Well, Carik, we'd better be going then. I hope I will see you soon, Donal. With a dragon at your side." The two cousins walked away. Alcia took her cousin back to where J'den dropped her off a few hours before. When they reached the spot, Alcia spoke to the large green dragon. "Askemath, will you let J'den know that I am back? Thank you." She and Carik sat down and waited. A few minutes later, the dragonrider approached them.
"Well, Alcia, I hope that the dragon you Impress Searches as well as you do. Askemath tells me that your cousin would make an excellent candidate at Talis. So would most of the people you came to visit, should they change their minds about staying here. Apparently, she kept an eye on you all day. Well, we need to go now. All aboard."
A short time later, Alcia was showing Carik around Talis. She took him to the Hatching Sands, got him approved to be a candidate, got him signed up, and settled in. Now all they had to do was attend their lessons, and wait for the clutch to hatch.