"Quick, Acarien, get the meatrolls!"
"Me? I thought you brought the food?"
"I told you to-Oh, don't tell me we don't have anything to feed them!"
"No, it's alright Acellan, I have the food."
"Or at least what's left after Crysa found it."
"Oh, she only took one meatroll."
"..."
"Ok, maybe two. Or three. But anyway, there's still enough left for Acellan to Impress a flit."
"If the queen ever leaves her clutch unguarded. Which she obviously won't, if they're hatching."
"...Pessimist."
Acarien glared down at the two boys, who were crouching behind a large pile of rocks as they watched the wild fire lizard and her eggs. The 17-turn-old rolled her eyes. "You do know the two of you look ridiculous, don't you?"
Acellan glared up at his twin sister. He glanced back at the eggs and gasped. "Oh! They're hatching!"
Sure enough, the wild queen hissed as her eggs began rocking furiously. A whole fair of fire lizards appeared, mainly blues, browns, and bronzes. The queen hissed at the males, who crooned before flitting off between again. They soon came back, holding flopping fish in their front claws.
The queen screeched, watching anxiously as her clutch of eggs hatched. A blue broke shell, followed quickly by two greens. The male fire lizards tossed the fish to the hatchlings, who jumped on the food eagerly, and flitted between to get more.
Acellan watched anxiously as a large bronze dragonet wandered toward them. He tossed a bit of a meatroll to it as Acarien rolled her eyes. The bronze fire lizard saw the meatroll, but a large blue beat him to it as Acellan tossed out another peice. The bronze walked back to the adult fire lizards, who held out fish for the hatchlings still breaking free of their shells, but the blue stayed, eagerly gobbling up the food Acellan kept tossing out, leading it closer to them.
Finally, the little hatchling was close enough for Acellan to pickup, and he did so, the blue flit still gorging contentedly in his arms. Acellan looked up at Acarien triumphantly, and his sister just rolled her eyes.
"I think I'll call him Vyli." Acellan smiled as he stroked the flit's head. Tucking the now sleeping hatchling into the crook of his arm, the three children stood up, preparing to leave, now that Acellan had Impressed his flit.
Acarien just glowered as she followed her brother and their friend back to the Weyr.
Acarien, Acellan, and Ralic all lived in a large Weyr. It was built into a mountain, just dragonlengths away from the seashore. There were plenty of long, sandy beaches for fire lizards to lay their eggs on, and it was from one such clutch that Acellan had Impressed his blue fire lizard.
Acellan and his twin sister, Acarien, both had their mother's straight, sandy brown hair, though Acarien's was considerably longer than her brother's, and their father's icy blue eyes and creamy skin complexion. Though their mother was a junior weyrwoman, and their father a wingleader, they tried not to take advantage of their parents' positions in the weyr...too much.
Ralic, on the other hand, was considerably taller than either of his friends, with long black hair, often tied into a braid, and deep blue eyes. His father was a wingsecond, on his large brown beast, and his mother one of the woman in the lower caverns.
Of course, it was only a matter of time until the trio was searched, but strangely, none of the searchdragons seemed to have an interest in any of them. They weren't concerned, though. They were content to wait as long as it would take.
...Well, Acellan and Acarien were patient, anyway. Ralic had, shall we say, a bit of an obsession with riding a dragon. He was eagerly awaiting the day he would finally get searched, either for a clutch here, or at another weyr.
Acarien paused in the entrance to the Weyr's massive front hall, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the change in brightness. It looked like someone had forgotten to replace the glows in the corrider again. Her face brightened as a silvery-white creature, something like a canine, raced toward the trio, followed by a sandstone-colored fire lizard. Ralic greeted his flit, Crysa, while Acarien hugged the ivory-colored cinettai to her.
"Hello, Maeri! We're back." She laughed as the foxlike creature licked her face happily. Ralic's sandstone flit hissed from the boy's shoulder as he rolled his eyes. "I hate canines..." Acarien didn't hear him mutter.
The caninesque creature had thick, silvery fur, with a black mane around her throat. The tip of her foxlike tail was also black. The female cinettai purred from her master's arms. Did you bring me back any food?
Acarien laughed. "Sorry Maeri. Acellan's new flit ate it all." She said as Acellan proudly showed off the large blue.
Ralic, meanwhile, was gaping at the cin. "It talks...? Wait, hold on a minute. The sharding thing can talk now!?"
Acellan rolled his eyes as his sister continued cooing over her pet. "Yeah, we found out a couple days ago. Turns out cinettais can be taught to speak mentally, like dragons."
Maeri snorted. Don't go comparing me to those great big lizards you two seem to like so much. I'm a cinettai.
"Give ya three guesses who taught her, too." Ralic whispered to Acellan, and they both snickered as Acarien and Maeri glared at them.
"Ah, good, you three are back then." The trio turned to see Acarien and Acellan's foster mother standing behind them, arms at her hips. She snorted at the sight of the blue flit in Acellan's arms and scoffed. "Not another mouth to feed! You'd best take of him, you hear that, Acellan? I'll not tolerate him flying about and getting into Faranth knows what sort of trouble!"
Acellan replied softly with, "Yes, Ma'am." and "No, Ma'am." as appropiate.
Their foster mother smiled at them suddenly. "Best hurry up and do your chores quick tonight, kids. There'll be searchriders from another Weyr coming in soon, looking for candidates. Heard they're supposed to be from several different places." She said, and winked at them as she left.
The three children glanced at each other hopefully, Ralic all but gleaming with anticipation. They promptly raced off in different directions to get ready. It wouldn't do to be late, when dragons were on Search!
It wasn't long before the searchdragons arrived. A large brown dragon appeared first, followed by a blue and green dragon. Acarien, Acellan, and especially Ralic, watched excitedly as the dragons looked over all the hopeful-candidates.
Acarien watched in wonder as the blue dragon's great rainbow eyes slid over her and her brother. She almost thought he paused for a moment, looking at her, but didn't dare to hope.
The brown dragon and his rider were introduced as Dritath and R'dar, searchriders from Aneris Weyr. The blue and green, on the other hand, both came from a place called Darkling Dawn, though they were searching for candidates for other places, namely Sunstone Weyr and Cy Dragonstake.
The blue dragon was Rigelth, ridden by the Head Searcher C'rin, and the green was Seinkoth, ridden by Ellone. The three children watched them all nervously, hoping they would be chosen.
But it didn't look as if that were to happen. The dragons nosed aside candidate after candidate, not finding any of them worthy. Finally, the brown dragon approached Ralic from one side, while the blue dragon approached Acarien from the other side. Both dragons stopped in surprise, regarding the three children with interest. Acarien's heart leapt into her throat. Perhaps they would be searched after all!
Sure enough, the brown rider R'dar grinned at Ralic and asked, "Would the three of you like to stand at Aneris Weyr?"
They didn't have time to answer, because the other two searchriders began to protest. "No!" The man, C'rin, said. "They're coming with us, to stand at Sunstone Weyr."
R'dar glared at the other man. "Dritath found them first."
The children watched in stunned amazement as the searchriders began to argue over where they would stand. Finally, the greenrider Ellone got sick of the other two searchriders fighting. "Oh, for Faranth's sakes!" She exclaimed, motioning to the children. "You, go to Aneris with him." She said, pointing to Ralic. Then she pointed to Acellan. "You, go to Sunstone." Finally, she smiled at Acarien. "And I'll take you to Cy Dragonstake." Then she glared at the two men. "There, that wasn't so hard, now was it?"
The two men fell silent sheepishly, motioning for Acellan and Ralic to climb onto their dragons' backs. The three children glanced at each other. "Well, guess I'll see you guys in a turn or two?" Acellan asked as C'rin helped him onto the blue dragon's back.
Ralic shrugged, vaulting onto the brown dragon as well as any dragonrider, grinning down cheekily at his friends. "Count on it." He said as Crysa landed neatly on his shoulder.
Acarien giggled from her position on the green dragon as Maeri scrambled up to sit on her owner's lap. "Bye, Acellan! Bye, Ralic!" She waved as the dragons took off. They had barely enough time to smile at one another before they were separated by the bitter cold of between, for two long turns...