"Didn't I see you at the Gather dance a few sevendays ago?" She asks you. You frown, not certain at all if you did meet. But Trance smiles softly with her small lips, and laughs. "I saw you, but I was... busy. With a dance. It was a wonderful dance, wasn't it?"
You agree. "So you are a Hold born candidate?"
She nods, and sweeps her long fingers through her short hair. "Yes, my father Tain is a major Holder at Paveh hold. Sometimes I think he wants more than to be just 'a' holder there, though. But I keep out of that." You can tell she is lying, but you are certain that if she didn't want you to know, you wouldn't have realized it.
"But yes, I'm a candidate. At Jerdan Weyr. My father and mother came with me to wish me well, I think... My mother Mirage would have made a fine gold rider," she says, a bit wistfully. "I think she would have enjoyed it perhaps too much. But I will enjoy it just enough!"
"So do you have any craft training?"
"No, I spent most of my childhood and even up until I was sent here to Jerdan learning how to run a Hold."
"How to keep the records and the like?" You ask, pretty sure.
"No," she says, startling you. "No, I was being taught how to run the hold. Who to speak to, when to pay tithes and to whom, and when to bargain. Like many of my siblings, and many at Paveh, we strongly value individuals potential as people, over their sex. I mean, if you can do the sewing and organizing drudges, you can become a headwoman or something. That isn't what I want at all."
A gleam comes into her deeply brown eyes. "I want much more than that. Can you just imagine a dragon? Have you impressed?"
You must admit that you are only a Journeyman Harper, not a dragon rider.
"Then you can only imagine, as I can. But..." She grins madly, "I'm a candidate..."
You can tell that she very nearly said, 'and you're not' just to rub it in, but she didn't and for that you are thankful.
On the way out, you take a look at her weyr. It is pleasantly light, but not overly bright. You notice that she has thick velvety curtains beside each of the three small windows overlooking the balcony of her weyr. You see the same dark material draped across her bedding, which is sprawled and covered also in plush pillows. She certainly seems to enjoy the idea of luxury, but you notice too that these few things seem to be her only luxury items in this stone walled weyr.
"Are you going to be able to adjust to being a dragon rider, in a Weyr?" You ask, before leaving.
"I am certain that I can do that too," She replies, "if I cannot, then I must learn. Everyone at Paveh is counting on me to learn, especially my mother. So I will learn." She seems confident and pleased.
Read about Trance's stats, history and personality HERE.
"I can't believe this," Trance said, excited. "This is wonderful!"
Her sentiment was echoed in others around her, and they reached the sands. Mikath still guarded the eggs, but not for long. She moved away from them so the candidates could get a better view, and so that her children could move their way across those warm sands to their chosen boy or girl.
The first egg to hatch was a green! She was tiny, noticably so, but she was impressed by blond Reelare quickly. Three more eggs cracked, but only one broke open, and impression happened just after that, a bronze who impressed tall Netar. Then...
With the other two eggs broke, and... Trance was in fact staring as if she were in one. Her heart beat quickly and she hoped beyond hope... The green hatchling went zig zagging in front of the girls, and all of them almost pleaded with the little hatchling to choose them!
But -- in the end, it was to Trance that the healthy green went!
Here you are, the dragon bespoke, in a clear, but somewhat tired voice. My name is Kheltith, who are you?
"Well, about time Kheltith!" Trance said, and used her mind to voice, I had hoped you would be first out of the egg!
I can only be first for you, Kheltith bespoke, and they exited to find the meat and helpful instructors outside.
