Standing over 5'10" tall, Aynatchavay is slender but very strong. Her skin is tanned quite deeply, and has a beautiful golden sheen to it in the sunlight. Unlike her father, she does love basking in the sun and warm, bright places. Rather like her mother, she takes to water as well, though she has never had any interest in dolphineering. Her hair is a deep slate-grey shade, something between Kalkin's black and Kaytcha's pale platinum. It is voluminous, but controlled and has her father's widow's peak. Her face is dramatic, long, and sharp -- very much the sly looking seductress. Her eyes are large, and teal-blue colored, and peer with great intensity at you. She enjoys wearing short skirts and clothing that suits the Southern warmth. She doesn't much like the cold, and loves to romp about in the sun during the hottest parts of the summer days, with as little on as possible. This has gotten her into some amount of trouble with the more sedate Holders at Paveh, but to her Foster mother, she is still a perfect beautiful doll.
Mirage doesn't see what's so wrong about romping about in the warm waters of the nearby lake, either.
When Aynatchavay was born, it rather stunned several of her mother's best friends. How could she -- who loved her F'eng so much -- bring a bastard child into the world? But as a gold rider, and as a woman convinced of Kalkin's importance to the Protectorate, Kaytcha never once blinked at her friends. She loves her daughter, and has other children, whom Aynatchavay often corresponds to.
"Are you ready for the interview?" The harper said, quietly and trying not to stammer.
With a lopsided smile that was only too close to a smirk, Aynatchavay purred out, "of course I am. I would not have allowed you to enter if I were not." She stood with her back proud and straight, though not haughty as some of the true-born Ladys were. Her eyes watched the harper without blinking and made him quite nervous. The smile on her face broadened until she broke into a laugh. "Oh, please relax Apprentice! I will not bite you!"
He chuckled, still nervous. "Well. Then, the Masters at the Hall would like to know how you would resolve these problems," he said, and handed her a sheaf of thin wherhide sheets. She looked at the first, then the next, until she reached the end of them. In silence, she looked at them again.
"I would have the Holder brought to question," she said of the first dilemma and handing it back to the Harper. He jotted that down and she took that as a cue to move on. "The cotholder is clearly at fault, for not having reported the shortage for the tithe. Since he was still able to feed his family on what was left, he should not be fined further, but he should be put on notice and if able, he ought to provide an extra amount for the next season's tithe." She slid that sheet back to the harper who looked at the page before making his note. "Have you a dispute with my response?" She asked.
The harper jolted back, and shook his head. "No, no... I.... I've been sent to do this to no fewer than three other Law-givers this last sevenday, and that's.... the fairest judgement I've heard on this one. But I'm not a--"
"You ought to keep it in mind, then," Aynatchavay said, smiling. She tilted her head and moved her long fingers through her fluffy hair. "Fairness should be a feature of every Harper, no matter their focus. It is our job to negotiate, is it not?"
"It is!" the young harper apprentice said, enthusiastically. "It is! And there are some... I can't name names, but you probably know that there are ... Holder's brats who are in the same level of Harper law as yourself and wouldn't bat an eye at having the same Cotholder serve in their drudge ranks for a turn to pay off a missed tithe!"
"Ah, but that would not till the field would it? Nor keep the baby or fosterling fed. There is no gain in servitude against one's will. So. Next?" She indicated the last sheet, and gave her response. The harper boy set her words down, and thanked her for the chance to practice his delivery, penmanship and his rounds about the Hold.
Aynatchavay gazed at him, he was clearly several turns younger than she but he might have potential. A fair mind as well as a fair face... She smiled to herself again, and began putting her books in order.
The Journeywoman Harper hummed to herself, and found her way back to her chambers, with the egg in her hands. It was warm, and it felt as if it were trembling slightly. It must be about to hatch! Since she never left food out over night, she picked up her skirts and the pace of her feet down the stone corridor, into the nearby upper kitchen.
"Could I bother you for some meat? The stable boy has found a fire lizard clutch--" she breathed, happily. One of the lucky drudges looked at her with bright eyes.
"You too! Here! I've a bowl! We c'n share, can't we?"
"Of course we can!" Aynatchavay declared, and they held on to their little eggs until each hatched. The fire lizard inside the Harper's egg hatched a beautiful brown, and she named him promptly, after the way he ate!
"Little Gobbler here," She showed him off once he'd fed himself to the gills, "I'm so glad you got one too!" The drudge laughed and cuddled her little green.
She entered the Weyr with two runnerbeasts (both of which would be sent back to Paveh Hold if she was to remain here in the Weyr for any length of time), both piled rather high with her Harper equipment, her firelizard Gobbler, and the sting of the words of the Lord Holder at that last hold. How dare he say such things about her! And her heritage! Yes, she knew that she was a 'bastard' child, born purely for interest value to her father. But she had visited him on occasion, and though he was getting old, he was still sharp enough and well-traveled. She would go back to him, before long. She had to. Just to rid herself of the nasty images that the Holder had thrust upon her.
While walking into the lower caverns, she was deep in thought. So she barely noticed when Gobbler chirruped and pulled her hair in distress. She brought herself up short, just before being bowled over by a pair of canines and their extremely over-worked handlers.
"Sorry mam! Sorry!" Said one of them as they were dragged forcefully outside for their canines walks. Or perhaps the canines were walking their humans, whichever. That brought a tiny spark of a smile back into Aynatchavay. Things here were more sedate. This was a new weyr, and it was not uncommon for new weyrs to try new things. Not so Tradition bound like the Holds.
They would not judge her -- that was her job. And she had done it well enough that her entrance to the records room brought a gleam of recognition to the recordskeeper's eye.
"Aynatchavay! What good timing! Perhaps you've heard the good news! Our new queen is now clutched! Seventeen eggs -- with a gold!" He winked at her. "I'd not be surprised if you were to stand upon the sands, young Harper Singh!"
She blushed. She could hardly believe it. Her old Master harper, here? Well, small world it was! She uncerimoniously dropped her bags and hugged him, and he was as surprised about it as she seemed to be. She gushed out the story of verbal abuse she'd suffered at the last Hold, and he soothed her with a careful song and long, gentle hands over her hair.
"You go see the weyrwoman. Raizel. Her Isisith will tell you if you're good for one of her children. I'm sure you will be, dear. And in the meantime, I would love it for you to remain here in the Records room to erm... Help out with the organization?"
"I can deny you nothing, my old friend..." She said, and her heart began to heal.
Then the humming started. All the candidates in the dining hall froze for a moment, and then bolted to their barracks to get their white robes -- the hatching was upon them!
The sands were so hot, it was amazing. Not like just a few days before, when the candidates went by them one last time. The night air was cooler and swept a pleasant breeze over the golden sand. But this day, even at the break of day, the sands had become almost unbearably hot.
A green hatched first, and Aynatchavay wondered what that would portent? Perhaps that this weyr would be supplying Pern with a great stock of fighting dragons -- though if it had been a bronze everyone would have said the same thing. All greens were important.
This one passed the dark skinned girl by and impressed a girl. A blue and brown hatched next, and Aynatchavay didn't dare expect them to come to her. She was bold, but she wasn't like that! She knew some of her own relatives impressed dragons of a different sex than themself, and thought much of them for doing so, but... It wasn't for her! Two more greens, large ones, spilled out from their shells. Both of them passed by the girls, but one wound up impressing a boy, while the brown which came out with them went to a happy boy.
The bronze which hatched next made everyone gasp, especially the boy who impressed him. Now a man, Aynatchavay thought. She smiled at that. Two eggs broke into each other, and another green impressed a boy, while the blue went for the girl who helped out. And then, and then...
The golden egg was hatching. Aynatchavay looked at the other girls, and they moved closer to it. The gold hatchling was so spectacular, so shining...
Do you think I am so beautiful? What about that green who just hatched? I think I am prettier than she but do you?
With a gasp, Aynatchavay announced, "My beautiful Jyotirth, you are perfect..."
