She loved dancing. She loved the freedom, the music, and the crowds that gathered, focusing all their attention on her and the music. This was why she had chosen to become a harper.
Her older brother, a journeyman harper, sat on the ground with the other harpers as they played. He was the one playing the drum. Cynric glanced up at Leif and grinned. A cool wind ruffled his light brown hair, though it was cut too short to ever get in his way. His gray eyes were bright as they finished the song. With a short pause and a signal to the other assembled harpers, they began to play another song, and Leif continued to dance. It was what she did best.
What Satordi did best was stealing, which was what she was doing as the crowd was busy watching the harpers. Her pale blue eyes were shrewd as she scanned the crowds, looking for a likely target. A large man in the back looked promising.
She pushed black hair out of her face, brushing it behind her shoulder as she began to walk briskly towards the far end of the crowd. Her small, slight body weaved through the crowds easily.
As everyone else was busy watching the harpers, it was easy for her to slip her hand into the man's pocket and take his wallet, without his noticing. She slipped it into the bag at her waist and began to move away.
A chipper voice directly beside her surprised her almost into losing the wallet she'd just stolen. "Hey, Satordi, what are you doing here?"
She jumped in fright. The man she had robbed glanced at her with a funny look on his face before turning back to the show, unaware that anything had happened. Satordi whirled, glaring at the tall, handsome boy who stood behind her.
Aart had dark brown hair swept back away from his face, and impossibly deep green eyes. He was tall, at 6'3, and very muscular. He was incredibly handsome, and he was incredibly aware of it.
He grinned what he thought was a winning smile at her, which caused her to scowl and try to push past him. He followed her, but at least they were away from the mobs. She sighed and turned to face the older boy. "What do you want, Aart?" She snapped.
"What? Aren't you glad to see me?" He mocked a hurt look. "After I came all this way here, just to help you out."
Satordi seriously doubted that. His family was one of the richest holders in the area, and would not have missed a gather. Aart only stole because he could, it was just entertainment to him. Satordi stole to live, because she had to. She hated the distinction, and she hated Aart.
"I work alone." She said, frowning, and tried to storm away in the opposite direction. Aart chased after her. Faranth, that boy was annoying.
"There's a man selling flitter eggs down by the south end." Aart suggested. "Haven't you always said you wanted a pet flit?"
Satordi rolled her eyes. "Why Aart, you remembered? I'm touched." She said sarcastically.
Aart grinned. "Really?"
"No."
His face fell. "Well fine then, if you don't want a flitter..." He said, turning to leave.
This time Satordi stopped him. "Wait, I never said that. So, where are the flitter eggs being sold at?"
The large man Satordi had robbed earlier began to leave as the harpers finished playing, and reached into his pocket for his wallet. Upon realizing it was gone, he shouted angrily, glaring around him. "Someone stole my marks!" Aart and Satordi, along with the man's money, were already long gone.
Leif sat down beside her brother, panting. Their last song had just ended, and the harpers had decided to take a break. Cynric put his drum away carefully, and turned to his sister. "So, what do you want to do? We are at a gather, after all." He said, smiling at her.
"I don't know. Let's just walk around for a bit." She answered, standing up. Her brother nodded, grabbed the bag containing their marks for the gather, and they set off.
Aart and Satordi had successfully gotten away with four eggs, the original owner none the wiser. They were making their way away from the gather, each egg carefully tucked away out of sight. Satordi yelped as they ran into a couple walking the other way, almost losing her balance. She managed to right herself in time, and avoided harming the eggs.
"Oh, I'm sorry! Are you okay?" Someone asked.
Satordi scowled. "Yeah, I'm fine." She looked up. A young girl, about sixteen-turns-old, smiled at her apologetically. The other one, a man about her age, watched them cautiously. Judging by the heavy resemblance between the two, they were probably brother and sister.
"My name's Cynric, this is my sister, Leif." He said, proving her guess correct.
Aart smiled charmingly at the girl, Leif, who blushed and looked away. "Say, would you two like to buy some flitter eggs?" He asked, causing Satordi to stare at him. "See, we have four here, so we figured..."
Satordi's pale eyes lit up as comprehension dawned. "So we figured we could sell the extra two." She said. "How about it?"
The two siblings glanced at each other, considering it. "Sure, why not? I've always wanted a flitter." Leif said.
Leif took one of the eggs from Satordi as Cynric gave Aart some of the marks they had collected. Leif smiled at the egg she held in her hands. "When do you think they'll hatch?"
"They look pretty hard, it should be soon." Cynric answered.
Satordi looked up, spotted something behind the two harpers, and began to walk away. "Well, congratulations, we really must be going. Bye!" She said, dragging Aart away with her. He hadn't seen the angry holder who had come after his stolen eggs.
Leif and Cynric did, once they heard his angry shouting. "Hey, you! Come back with my eggs! Thieves!"
Cynric's gray eyes narrowed angrily. "You sold us stolen-hey! Come back!" He shouted as Satordi and Aart fled. Motioning for Leif to follow him, he chased after the thieves.
The holder was too slow to keep up, and they eventually lost him. Finally, the harpers caught up to the two thieves. "Hey!" Cynric said, grabbing Satordi's shoulder. She shrugged him off, scowling as she turned to face him.
"I knew I should have gone off on my own as soon as I could." She muttered, glaring at Aart.
She looked up at Cynric, and her pale blue eyes met his gray ones. She held his gaze defiantly until he spoke up.
"You sold us stolen eggs!" He accused.
"Nonsense." Aart said. "We just borrowed them with no intention of giving them back." After a short pause, he added, "Okay, yes, we stole them. And then sold them to you. Sorry, no refunds." He added quickly as Cynric began to protest, furious.
Someone cleared their throat gently behind them, and they all stopped arguing and turned around. A young woman around their age stood beside a green dragon. She beckoned to someone behind her, and she was joined by three blueriders and their dragons.
"Hello, dragonriders." Cynric nodded to them politely, guiltily hiding the egg behind his back. "What brings you here?"
One of the blue dragons snorted. The noise. He stated dryly as Cynric and Leif jumped, causing the greenrider to smile.
"Not used to having dragons speak to you?" She asked.
"Err...no." Aart said nervously as one of the dragons lowered its massive head to sniff at him, ruffling his hair and causing Leif to giggle.
The dragon must have said something to his rider, because the oldest of the dragonriders, a dark-haired man in his late twenties, nodded before turning to the four kids. "Rigelth says all four of you have potential to Impress dragons. Of course, we can't guarantee anything, but-"
"Dragons?" Leif gasped. "We can Impress dragons?" Her chocolate-colored eyes were bright with excitement as she turned to her brother. "Oh, please, Cynric, let's go!"
Cynric smiled at his sister. "Alright then. Where are we going?"
The dragonriders seemed to consider it among themselves before deciding. "I think you'll go to the frenzy clutches. Faranth knows there's enough of them that need candidates." The greenrider said. She motioned to the green dragon, who lowered a forearm as her rider climbed on. "Come one, we'll take you back to Darkling Dawn with us, and tomorrow we'll take you where you need to go."
Leif and Cynric were more than happy to climb on the backs of the green and one of the blues. Aart and Satordi were a bit more hesitant. Aart glanced at Satordi and grinned. "Dad's gonna love this." He said, before climbing to the back of the smallest blue.
Satordi scowled. She didn't particularly like dragons, but if Aart was going, there was no way she'd be left behind. She went to the last dragon, a dark blue, and his rider helped her onto his back. The dragons took off, with their passengers hanging on tightly, and went between.
That night, the four of them all decided to share their stories, and told each other where they were from and why they had been at the gather. Cynric began.
"Me 'n Leif were raised in the Harper Hall." He said. "Our parents were harpers, practically everyone in our family has been. It seemed only natural that we would be, too."
"Not that we mind, of course." Leif added. "I love dancing, and Cynric loves to play."
Cynric nodded. "Leif's a dancer and a singer. I usually just play instruments or something else.
That's why we were at the gather; we were playing with a couple other harpers from the Hall, apprentices and jr. journeymen, mostly. At least until someone decided to sell us stolen flitter eggs." He finished, staring pointedly at Aart and Satordi.
Both of them ignored it, completely unabashed. "Well, at least I steal 'cause I have to. Aart just steals because he can." Satordi said, glaring at the other thief. He ignored her, grinning, so she shrugged and continued. "I pretty much grew up on the streets. That's all you need to know." She said, daring anyone to say otherwise. No one did, though Cynric frowned.
"What about you?" He asked Aart.
"My father's one of the richest holders in the area," He told them his name, and the harpers' eyebrows rose in surprise. Grinning at their faces, he continued. "Not that there's any chance of me succeeding him. Too many other brothers that're older than me."
"So why do you steal, then?" Leif asked.
"Because he's a spoiled rich kid with nothing better to do than steal and flirt." Satordi said, glaring at him.
He just stuck his tongue out at her childishly and pulled out the flitter egg he still had. "Speaking of stolen flitter eggs..." The egg was beginning to rock.
Surprised, the others all retrieved their own eggs from wherever they had been left to keep warm. Surprisingly, all of theirs were rocking, too.
Aart's was the first to crack, spilling a tiny white flitter into his hands. The female flit spread her wings, revealing their blue membranes. Aart grinned as he stroked the flit's head.
Satordi had left to find food for the hatchlings, and by the time she came back, hands laden with bowls of meat, her own egg had hatched into a black female, also with blue wings. The hatchling leapt at the bowls of food, and Satordi had to pull her out.
Cynric and Leif's eggs had stopped rocking, and now lay still. "Great," Cynric said. "You sold us the dud eggs."
"Did not. How were we supposed to know they were duds?" Aart argued, stroking the head of the flit he had decided to call Mí na.
Satordi snorted. "Mí na? That's a weird name for a flit."
"It's a weird name, period." Cynric added.
Aart just ignored them. "What's yours named, Satordi?"
Satordi considered it for a moment, than answered, "Dorcha."
Aart snorted, causing Satordi to glare at him. "Is there something wrong with my flit's name?" She demanded.
"And you said my name was weird." Aart muttered.
She was about to answer when Leif yelped. "My egg just moved!"
Sure enough, Leif and Cynric's eggs were once again rocking back and forth. "See? Told you they weren't duds." Aart said as they all watched.
With a loud crack, both eggs exploded, leaving two small, black creatures in the harpers' laps. The one in Leif's arms looked up at her, and she gasped. The creature's wings were made of blue fire, which also marked his legs and the tip of his tail. "He's beautiful..." She whispered, and the strange flit crooned.
The one on Cynric's lap was just as odd. It was also mostly black, but the back part of its body faded into red, and its wings were made of red fire instead of blue. It chirped curiously at Cynric, cocking its head.
"I think I'll name mine Seijin." Leif said, stroking the little black and blue flit's head happily.
Cynric's flit chirped again as he answered. "Then mine here will be Qani." He decided. Qani crooned in agreement, and lay his head down on his owner's stomach.
Smiling at their new pets, they all split off to their separate rooms to sleep. Tomorrow they would be taken to the different sands to stand, hoping to Impress...
Rank: Harper
Gender: Male
Age: 19
Pet: Ember male drake, Qani
Appearance: Light brown hair cut short, gray eyes. Taller and more heavily built than his younger sister.
Personality: Very protective of his younger sister, tries to intimidate anyone who tries to flirt with Leif, as they tend to make her nervous. He's a lot quieter than his sister, preferring more to listen than to talk. Very respectful to dragonriders and ranking adults, and tries hard not to break any rules.
Dragon: Brown-White Gryphon-Dragon Tavrin
Bonded at: The Ring of Fire
Rank: Dancer/Harper
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Pet: Blue fire male drake, Seijin
Appearance: Light brown hair tied back in a ponytail, complete with ribbons. Deep brown eyes, small and slender, pretty.
Personality: Friendly and cheerful to strangers, has no trouble making friends. Loves dancing and singing. A little shy when boys start to flirt with her, but otherwise very outgoing and nice.
Dragon: Siamese Green-Blue Nazvath
Bonded at: The Ring of Fire
Rank: Thief
Gender: Male
Age: 19
Pet: White-blue female flit, Mí na
Appearance: Dark brown hair reaching to the nape of his neck, swept out of his face. Deep green eyes. Tall, with a muscular build. Very handsome.
Personality: Cheerful, definitely a big flirt. He's very handsome, and he knows it. Though he's the son of one of the richer holders, he spends his time flirting, picking pockets, stealing flitter eggs or whatever else he can get his hands on, or just annoying the hell out of Satordi.
Dragon: Hazel Breshith
Impressed at: The Fiery Fall Festival Frenzy
Rank: Pickpocket
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Pet: Black-blue female flit, Dorcha
Appearance: Black hair reaching to her shoulders, often falls in her face, darkly tanned skin, pale blue eyes. Tall and thin, but very quick.
Personality: Bitter and cynical, with a short temper, Satordi often has a scowl on her face, unless she's working. (That is, picking pockets) She tries to stay invisible, or as close to it as she can get, a habit from spending turns on the streets as a petty thief. She hates Aart always trying to flirt with her, Aart getting in her way, Aart giving her gifts and surprises, Aart stealing, even though he comes from a well-to-do family and doesn't need to, unlike her, and just Aart in general.
Dragon: Spectral-Rain Snow-Horned Dieveggeth
Impressed at: Lantessama Isle