"Sorry about that," the man says sheepishly pushing his dark brown locks of hair out of his green-gray eyes, "Thought I heard a knock and opened the door... and well, you fell in."
He helps you to your feet and you find he's not tall at all, only just over 5ft tall. "My name's Cokaren Tambo's newest jockey, but you can call me Ren," he tells you, "And you are?" You give him your name and rank, "I came to meet you."
This seems to bring a smile to the man's rougish features, "That's a nice surprise. Where are my mannars, come in and sit down. Would you like something to eat or drink?" You quickly wave your hand in a no thank you gesture.
"I mainly came here to find out a bit about you, it's rumored that you're to take on what ever runner Tambo buys next," you tell him.
"Quite true," Cokaren nodded, "He just finished nagoshating with Julanna from Sapphire Hold, and bought the girl's prize runner's latest offspring, Wild Fire's Last Light I don't think I've ever seen such a gorgous filly! She looks so much like her Dam, Wild Fire's Eternity Burst. Other than Tambo I'm the only one who she'll let get near her... well then there's Crisma."
"Well I'm going off subject I guess," says mainly to himself, "You came here to hear about me, not my employer, his newest runner or his other jockeys."
"Anyways, unlike most of the people in Ganatek Hold, I'm from Delaway Hold. I've been in a beastmaster's family all my life, so I know a lot about how to handle both runnerbeasts and herdbeasts. While I was still at home I became an exercize jockey for a friend of the family's and started learning how to ride and handle racing runnerbeast. I tell ya', there's a big differance between racers and drafters, one bein' their temperments. Racers are more likely ta shy at things most drafters wouldn't, this means ya' gotta be on guard and calmer at all times around a racer."
"Tambo found me when I was exericing a runner on the small Delaway track when he was looking for jockeys and runnerbeasts. He seemed to like how I handled the runner and so talked me into movin' ta his cothold in Ganatek Hold. The bad thing is that until he founds Light, I had ta pay my way to live here. I either had ta much out the stables or pay him a couple of marks a month to live here."
You nod and then hesitate for a moment before asking your next question, "What are you like...? I mean as a jockey and a normal person?"
"Well," Cokaren chuckles, "As a jockey, that's pretty much all I am, a jockey. I may have been born into a beastmaster family but I never could figure out how to really train a runnerbeast. I like the speed so I try to always have the runners get to their top speed without hurting themselves in the process. Since there's no stable kid here, and there'll probably never will be if Tambo never gets married and has some kids, I'm also a sort of stable hand."
"As for my off runnerback personality, well I guess I'm kind and curtious but not overly humble. I plan to some day get married, but being short it's sort of a hard thing to do. But then the best jockeys should be short. After all, Crisma's about 5 ft tall and she rode Nataka to victory in his maiden run at the Ganatek Maiden."
"Any syblings?" you ask couriously.
"Six," he says draftly, "the last healer to visit my ma said she had some twins or triplets on the way. But of the ones already on Pern four of them are girls the others boys. I'm the oldest, at 27 turns, in my family and next comes my sister Renko and her twin brother Cortel at 20 turns, then there's my 18 turn old brother Telobre, who I might add is dragon mad. At 15 turns, my second oldest little sister, Kare, seems to be more dragon mad then Telobre, not to mention she's now a whiterider at Talor Cliff Weyr. Then there's my sister Reclo who is 11 turns of age and thinks it's cool that her oldest brother is a jockey and now living so close to the dragons that protect us. Lastly is my youngest sister Telka, she's only 4 turns old yet seems very smart."
Your mind whirls as you hear all the names. So much so does it whirl you hardly notice Cokaren look out the window.
"Uh, sorry to do this, but I must get back to work. We plan on entering Light in a maiden race some time soon... we don't know which one yet but we want her to be ready for it, so I gotta ride.," he shakes your hand once more before leading you to the door, "Thank you for visiting me, it was a nice change to see a new face. Come again." As you go out the door he hands you a peice of hide with his stats on it and closes the door, he races down the stair ahead of you before you can bid him fair well..
Name: Cokaren
Age: 27 turns
Gender: Male
Pets: brown with golden strips male feline, Telgar
Living/Location Now: a cothold in Ganatek Hold
Rank: Runner Jockey
Hight: 5 ft 4 in
Hair color: Brown
Eye color: Green-gray
Skin Color: dark yet not tanned
Scarings: None
Father: Rentelo
Mother: Brecoka
Syblings: Six(Four sisters, two brothers)
Sybling Dragon Riders: Kare, white Oroth's rider at Talor Cliff Weyr
Spouse: None as of yet
Children: None as of yet
Crisma,
The Padock,
or
Back to the front of the Cothold
