Oirana
:Story::Search::Candidate::Hatching::Weyrling::Adult:
:Dawn Sisters Weyr::Tripaldi Weyr:

A few weeks later Oirana woke to find Eari sitting on her chest staring at her intently. She had decided to name the gold Eari because the little darling acted as Oirana’s ears. Eari always let her know when someone was coming and was even able to help her mother communicate with her. Today Eari had felt she needed to be up and dressed because her mother was coming and her mother was excited about something.

What is mother excited about? She asked the flit through the use of images and feelings. Eari had no idea and merely settled herself on the bed to watch Oirana get dressed. The healer had finally told Oirana she could get out of bed only a week ago and she was slowly regaining the use of her limbs. Her legs were unsteady at best but for the most part they did support her. The first thing she had done when she was finally allowed out of the bed was to be helped to her mirror. Something in her mind had remembered enough to make her think she needed to see what she looked like now and as soon as she saw she wished she hadn’t thought to look.

The once perfectly smooth skin of her left cheek was now marked by a jagged scar and there was another beneath her right eyebrow that was a little more faint and even, but just as ugly. She had been considered beautiful before the accident, and though not vain or conceited about it she had been very aware of her good looks. She had cried then and her mother had quickly settled her back into bed.

Now she could not look in the mirror without feeling those tears returning, but everyday it got easier to accept her new condition. Eari had worked wonders for her. The gold fire lizard was always cheerful and managed to keep Oirana’s spirits up. Oirana didn’t know where her mother had obtained the gold’s egg but she was infinitely glad she had thought to, as the flit was invaluable to her.

By this time Oirana had managed to dress herself, and was sitting down on the bed, resting her wobbly muscles and frowning at the minor scarring on her hands. Her mother came in and Oirana looked to Eari who transferred her mother’s feelings of excitement to her. She didn’t need to though because Hanian followed her mother in and held out a note her mother had no doubt dictated to him. It read: 

Dear Oirana-
    I am pleased to tell you that the Searchriders have returned to see you.
They are waiting outside so you must come with me immediately.  They wish to
take you to Dawn Sisters Weyr where you will have the chance of Impressing a
dragon!  You know how invaluable dear Eari has been to you, well just think 
how nice it would be to have a dragon that can actually communicate in words
what others around you are saying.  I cannot begin to think how fortunate it
would be for you to Impress.  Please, make haste my dear, we must go to the
courtyard, they are waiting!


Oirana’s eyes widened. The Searchriders had never even laid eyes on her. Why would they be so eager to take her with them to the Weyr? She frowned then as something deep within her so firmly resisted the idea of being faced with dragonriders that she immediately started shaking her head. She did not understand the abhorrence for dragons deep within her, especially since she was so fond of Eari, but nothing could make her go down to greet the dragonriders. Not even her mother’s horrified look as she realized her daughter was refusing to go with them, or even deliver her reasons herself would change her mind.

Her mother frowned and left the room and Hanian began writing questions to her, which she answered as soon as she could read them.

“Why would you refuse to see the dragonriders, Oirana?” he wrote and she looked up at him and answered angrily.

“I have no desire to be a dragonrider, Eari does a good enough job of translating and helping me to hear. I do not need a dragon as long as I have Eari.”

“There is something more to it than that, will you not confide in me?” he wrote next and she frowned even harder.

“If you are so sure there is something more to it, then why don’t you figure it out yourself for I am convinced there is nothing more to it than that. Besides, I’m not ready to see anyone yet, I have not come completely to grips with my own repulsive appearance and the last thing I want is to see the appalled looks on the faces of the dragonriders when they lay eyes on my hideousness.” She turned away from him then but before long another piece of paper was thrust in front of her.

“Perhaps you wish to be ignorant to the truth, Oirana, but sooner or later you will have to face it. On Pern it is very hard to escape dragons forever and your mother and I will do everything in our power to see that you deal with this issue before it damages you forever.”

She whirled around to yell to him that she was not choosing ignorance, but he was gone, and she felt more than heard the door slamming as he left. She scowled and sat there, reading and rereading the note he had given her, puzzling over what he could mean by her wishing to be ignorant of the truth. Eventually it bothered her so much that she got up and headed down the hall to find him.

The journey took much longer than it should have as she often had to stop and rest her weak muscles. Eari flitted along with her, alighting on her shoulder when she stopped to rest and flying along beside her when she was walking. She expected Hanian to be in the Hall, but as he was not there she inquired around for him. He had gone outside with her mother. She frowned and headed for the main door. Barely able to hold herself up now she was so tired and her muscles were so overworked. She hadn’t done more than walk about her room a bit in the past week and the strain was almost too much. Huffing and puffing, her face contorted with the effort of keeping herself upright she slipped out the door of the hold.

Once there she stopped, looking out into the courtyard and seeing the big blue dragon. He crooned at her and she screamed a truly bloodcurdling noise to those who could hear it. Eari was so distressed by the sound and the terrified emotions coming from Oirana that she flew at the beast in anger, diving at his head as the blue desperately tried to avoid being tackled by the enraged flit.

Oirana could not move, nor could she stand and her legs crumpled beneath her as everything came flooding back to her. Those days spent in a daze where she hadn’t even known who she was, those horrifying nightmares she had had of falling past rocks and into the water. She looked up and through very hazed vision she saw the dragon and remembered. It had not been a dream; she had been on her way to the Weyr to be a candidate when a strong gust of wind had thrown the dragon off course. The straps that were supposed to keep her from falling had been too loose and one of them had been faulty. As the dragon was blown sideways she had fallen, tearing her face and hands on the rocks of the cliff as she tumbled down towards the lake far below. She had hit the water with such a force that though she didn’t at first lose consciousness she almost thought she had as the world went silent around her and then slowly the blackness had closed in.

Oirana was devastated by remembering, as Hanian had known she would be. She lay there on the ground in front of the hold, sobbing and screaming in turn until Hanian scooped her up and she lost consciousness as he carried her back to her room.

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