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Candidate at Falas Weyr
"I must not go there. I -- Please?" She begged the rider, search-rider from Star Reaches. "Please, take me home. This is not right."
He shook his head, "My lady?" He asked, "you've been searched, and there are eggs on th--" he stopped in mid sentence. His dragon crooned a hard calling bugle, and was answered not by the weyr's watch dragon, but by many voices from below. A full wing of dragons rose into the air, and went between to all parts of the world.
But Tekata knew what was wrong. The eggs -- something had happened to them, or their dam. But for whatever reason, she knew that this weyr would not be having its triumphant first clutch with her standing at it's sands.
There was no way. Her heart knew there was something else at work here.
"Please," she whispered to the rider again, "just take me back home to Paveh Hold."
Silently, he agreed.
Her grandfather's visit to Paveh Hold was as much a surprise as it was welcome. Rather unladylike in her demeanor toward Lord Holder Engell, she threw herself into his arms and began sobbing. Surprised, the pale blue eyes of the Lord Holder drifted to his cousin Darkhanis.
"She's been searched," was all Darkhanis said.
"And... did not Impress?" Engell's soothing voice came to Tekata's ears, and his soft fingers smoothed out her hair, but she raised her face.
"No. That is not it. I am so sorry, grandfather. I've made a fool of myself here." She straightened her dress, it was a formal Gather day after all, and people were staring at them all. "I ... did not stand. I think there will be time for me to stand sometime soon, but ... I do not know when."
The thought that she could stand and not impress -- AGAIN -- chilled her. She had taken to standing near the steed barns and watching the races, keeping to herself but keeping her hand in with her animal healing and sensing abilities.
The search rider glanced her way, yet did not say anything to Darkhanis. Tekata closed her eyes and turned away.
The Gather was monstrously loud and annoyed Tekata to no end. She walked behind the stands of the racing track, where people didn't usually go. It was slightly darker there, but no less loud. Everything seemed sharper and angrier and -- She tripped over a stone on the ground, something that had been kicked up by one of the horses as they rode into the race area. She tumbled to the ground and curled up over her knees, sobbing.
"Miss?" Called a voice, clear and masculine. Tekata shuddered and clung her arms around her knees even tighter. But she could hear the man step over the low bandstand support beam and his bootsteps crunched closer to her. "Miss? Are you all right?" He asked again.
"Leave me be," she warned, but her voice was hardly threatening. It was scratchy, broken. Just like she felt. She also felt the rush of steeds as they galloped by in their race, their hearts in it to win, all of them.
Tekata raised her face to the man, who was still crouching near her. Her face was run with dirt collected on the tears, contrasting black with her reddened cheeks. "I said leave me be." She said with more authority as fit a Lady of Paveh Hold.
"Ah, well, I merely wanted to make sure you weren't inju--"
"I'm FINE!" She hissed, and people above in the stands could even hear that. But they were intent on the race.
"Then I'll leave... But, there is something I --"
Tekata snarled and scrambled past him, scraping her knees on the stands crossbar and kicking up the dark dirt behind her sandals. She almost disappeared into the crowd, but the man would be able to find her anywhere. His dragon would surely find her again.
Since their arrival, the blue had been agitated about something, and now his rider knew why. The girl was so angry about something, and he queried his dragon about it.
She was searched, and the weyr has vanished. She is yet young, it has left her angry ... she feels betrayed. Was the answer.
"I see... Hmn..." The rider, P'mir, muttered to himself, as he brushed the dirt off his hands and slowly walked into the crowd. It did not take long to locate the girl again. She was huddled next to a candle-maker's stand, teeth chattering as if she were freezing cold.
Instead of approaching her directly, P'mir decided to haggle for one of the small items in the candle shop. There he found a silver colored candle holder, just a simple ring. On it was etched a number of dragons in flight, darkened in by a smear of black enamel. He bought a short taber to go along with it, and then strode carefully around to the back of the tent.
"I thought perhaps this might cheer you up, since you looked awfully sad back there." He said, abruptly startling Tekata. She glared at him but looked at what he offered -- what Lady wouldn't?
She tilted her head and looked at the holder, and then her lip curled into a snarl. "Well. That's very nice, isn't it." Her polite words were barely above a whisper. "But I've no use for such things."
"You might at the Weyr," P'mir said, "you see it does get quite dark in those dens. And you wouldn't want to trip or stumble," he pointedly looked at her scraped knees.
"What Weyr? What are you talking about? Who are you?" She spat, pale eyes lit with anger. "This is some kind of sick joke."
Before she could turn away, P'mir took her by the upper arm, eliciting a wide-eyed angry stare. "Take your hand off me," she said, noticing how strong his fingers were. She only just started to realize that he had a rider's badge on his shirt, one which said he was not only a rider, but... A Search rider.
"Let me show you to my dragon, if I might be allowed? You're very distressed, and look, you're making him worry about you. See him? The blue over there?" He nodded toward a patch of dragons who basked in the late afternoon sun of Paveh Hold's gather grounds. The blue stuck his head up and his eyes almost cast lights directly into Tekata's.
"I... I see him. He's very pretty," she muttered. "I'm sorry for how I've acted, he's right you know. I'm rather ... put off. My name is Tekata."
"And I'm P'mir, of Falas weyr. I'm here on Search, and you're the only person here that my Siyeth has seen who interests him. Let's go have him look you over, all right?"
"I've been searched already," Tekata said, glumly. "But I did not get the chance to stand. The whole weyr just broke up right before I got there..." She took in a sobbing breath. "I'm sorry. I should be all right soon enough."
"It's all right," P'mir said. To his dragon, he added, and she didn't try hiding what it was that bothered her. I'd say that's a good quality.
As long as she stops being so frightfully sad, that's all I am concerned about!
Then let's get her to Falas, and on the sands. At least we know there are eggs there!
"Here he is," P'mir said, as they reached the dragon's 'lounge'. The blue strode over to them, and sniffed at Tekata, rubbing his head onto her hair and shoulders. She finally laughed and pushed him away.
"He's messing up my hair!" She said. P'mir didn't dare point out that her hair had been mussed when she fell under the stands at the race track. Tactfully.
From one of the higher tents on the grounds, Darkhanis watched with Tain and Mirage, as Tekata was given a second chance to stand. Tain was proud of his foster daughter. He'd always known that she would be going somewhere, but now he was positive that her place was on a dragon's back, not a steed's.
Tekata's things were still packed from her failed attempt at Star Reaches, and she managed to quell the urge to re-pack -- so it would remind her of her prior loss. But that was just one more facet in her life that she would deal with.
P'mir and Siyeth waited just long enough for Tekata to rush up to her uncle and family, embrace them fiercely and tell them where she was going, then she ran back down to the dragon and rider.
They flew up as the next steed race commenced, and as the race went on below, Tekata thought to herself that that bay mare would be the winner if she kept up that pace---
Then they were gone.
See what happens next?