Almara shivered in the thin candidate robe as she stood on the sands. The crushed rock itself was not cold, but the wind that seemed to bite right through her left the hair on her arms standing on end. It'll head up soon enough, She thought to herself as she scanned the skies for the troublesome Taliana. Between the sun rising and the dragons hatching, I won't be cold long. She caught a glance of her golden firelizard...attacking a green who was luckily not loosing her temper. Almara cringed and prayed that Taliana behaved long enough that she could at least see the dragon hatchlings.
Tali, fully unaware of the gravity of the situation, flew down to Almara's shoulder and pecked at her ear, demanding food. Almara angrily swatted the creature and told the queen in no uncertain terms that any further misbehaving would result in lunch...at least for the dragon eating her. Taliana nipped her mistress' ear quickly and flew back to the roost where the other flits were waiting. Thank the first egg. She breathed a sigh of relief as the first egg began to crack open.
As the dragons began to meet their chosen partners Almara could not help shiting from foot to foot, pulling at the sleaves of the candidate robes. She disliked being in front of large crowds and she disliked wearing dresses and yet she was doing both these things at that very moment. Normally self-confident, she couldn't help but feel a little self-conscious as dragon after dragon passed her by. The worst part of the whole affair was that no matter how hard she focused on the dragons, a part of her mind was always with Taliana, begging her to stay put until this whole thing was over.
Almara wasn't surprised when she found the golden flit had returned to her shoulder, she just wished she remembered when the creature had returned. Good girl... Almara stroked her flits head, but kept her eyes glued to the eggs. Please be still, be good, be quiet...
In all fairness, in Taliana's eyes, she'd been still, good and quiet long enough. It was time for these eggs to hatch! Without warning, the golden flit sprang for her mistress' shoulder and began to screech at the eggs.
"No!" Almara was too stunned to react to her pets behaviour and when the flit landed on one egg and began to peck at it visciously Almara was sure she was going to die.
Queen Kiodrath seemed okay with Taliana's presence, but when she began pecking at the egg the large golden dragon looked as if she was about to take action against her smaller counterpart.
"Please no!" Almara took a few steps forward towards the egg. I didn't mean it when I said I'd let a dragon eat you!! Taliana cocked her head at her mistress' mental outburst and leapt from the egg just as it cracked. A beautiful green graced the world with her entrance and looked into Almara's eyes.
You have her trained well rider-mine. I may not have needed the help escaping my shell, but I certainly appreciated it. The green's eyes whirled a patient blue, letting Almara know that the troublesome, annoying, but loved queen flit would never be lunch for her new lifemate.
The new rider smiled, a lock of brown hair falling into her face. "Yisminth..." She barely whispered the name that her dragon told her. She knelt beside the hatchling and extended her hand to stroke the eyeridges of her new lifemate for the first time.
Such a serene, peaceful, touching moment of course could not be, at least not as long as Taliana still had a say in anything. The golden flit, protesting loudly at having been temporarily forgotten, settled herself on Yisminth's nose. Almara couldn't help laughing. "Just have to be the centre of attention, don't you?"
The blue in Yisminth's eyes seemed to darken and whirl faster. I would not sit so close to my teeth little Tali when I am so hungry!
Tali quickly returned to the air and led her two friends off to the kitchen for the much anticipated and thought-of meal.
Read Almara's Candidate Story.
Almara impressed Yisminth at Cincanta Weyr.
Almara impressed Taliana from Gallimim Weyr.