Zeb is 18 turns old, well over 6'4, and is built for it. He has dark skin, with black, stiff hair that he keeps rather short in an oddly mohawkish way. His eyes are dark brown. He prefers to wear comfortable clothing which shows off his muscles. And he loves showing off those muscles to girls anywhere, any time.
One of those girls turned out to be Journeywoman Harper Una, and he rather enjoyed the painting she did of his silly pose. They have a loving, strong but sensible relationship. She knows he must work on the farm to keep their livelyhood until the younger brothers and sisters are more grown up, and he knows that someday perhaps she needs to return to the Harper hall and complete her craft training.
But that is all aside from the fact that they both want desperately to ride dragons. Perhaps Zebediah wants that moreso than his artistic girlfriend. The first time he was in the Cothold, a great brown dragon being ridden by one of Tani's sons (Beao' by name) arrived with a candidate. He offered to allow Zeb to ride the dragon briefly, back to his farmstead, and that ride has stayed with the young man.
Such power! And style! If he could only Impress a brown like that! Or perhaps one with hide the color of his own skin, darkish almost like black? He laughs to himself while working in the field that any dragon that Impresses him must also embrace the hard work that he's put into his life and farming, and his devotion to doing away with Thread.
Zeb is at heart a protective soul, and hates to see Una have to be alone when he could be with her. But that would mean a very long trip to the Cothold every evening... That would be made different if only they were to Impress!
Zeb hunted the clutch down, long before others managed to find it. He whistled to Una, who came along quickly.
Handing one egg to Una, and keeping another for himself, they went closer together and kept the location of the clutch a secret. Then, Una's egg hatched, and she was so amazed at its color of bright orange she named hers Lantern!
But Zebediah was experiencing some tension himself, as the big heavy egg in his own dark hands began to fall to pieces right before his eyes!
To his amazement, this dark shell was barely lighter than the ebony fire lizard that came from it! Zeb was shocked! A black fire lizard! It was beautiful, shiny and hungry! Red eyes stared at him and a small thready voice seemed to whisper that he was ready to eat, now now now!
Zeb took pieces of his lunch meat, and the flit gobbled them down like nothing! A few minutes later, when the black lizard had unfurled his wings and demanded ever more food, Zeb finally satiated the little guy, and he curled like a vine around the dark skin of his human impressor.
"What are you going to call him?" Asked Una.
"Look how he twines around my arm," Zeb responded, "Like a vine of nightshade. That's his name, Nightshade!"
The Talor Cliff search rider Nora agreed. "But I almost serve the same purpose sometimes..." She sighed, lifting her wine glass to the young man. "Because people know I'm going to be making a tour of the small holds and halls, they'll often ask me 'are you going to such-and-such next? I have this letter I need to get to the Lord Holder there! It's everso important!'" She mocked. Laughter followed.
"I woulnd't mind being a currier or something, I really enjoy the visits here to the cothold."
"You don't stay here full time?" Nora inquired, and Zeb shook his head.
"No, I work on the nearby farmstead with the rest of our family," he indicated his oddly pale skinned and platinum haired sibling Zed. "And with the harvest times, it's a very rare occasion that I get out here at all. To see m'honey," he snuggled Una to his side, dwarfing her entirely.
Nora laughed, and moved on to other conversations. Una and the brothers continued to discuss the usefulness of flitters, and how they could possibly get one for Zed.
"I don't need one! I keep telling you!" He claimed.
"But you mix those potions of yours, wouldn't it be good to have a flitter who you could tell where to go with it, if it were an emergency? I mean, it could mean life or death to someone, and you can't run between."
Zed mulled this over for a while, and then they both got a tap on the shoulder from Nora again. This time, she had something else entirely to discuss.
"I'd like to see you both outside, if I could?"
"And you too, Una," she added after exiting and coming back.
With his eyebrow arching high, Zeddediah and Zebediah and Una left the long stone table, and went outside. There, two blue dragons -- only one local, Sixth -- stood outside watching them. With whirling eyes, the larger of the pair, Nora's Mitanth, sniffed and snuffled and even nudged both males with his long nose.
The trio were somewhat confounded by all this. It was a search all right, but they'd been searched already, separately. Now...
"Mitanth tells me that it's about time you stood upon sands. Talor Cliff has a good clutch waiting, and I'd love to see you at it."
They broke into an impromptu dance, and cheers followed.
"But there are many ways around it," he said. Una beside the tall dark skinned man widened her eyes.
"I hope so. I don't like the idea of ... not being with my love. Especially for," she gulped, "two turns..."
"It's more like a little over one turn," Talor's Weyrling master said, "but it seems like an eternity. Believe me, this happens often enough that we must plan for it in advance."
Zeb and Una left the weyrling master's office, and apparently Una had decided to get her sevenday's worth of flirting in right then and there.
"But if I can't have you soon, and you never know when the eggs will hatch, I must have you now, my loooooove." She scooted over to him like a cat, and rather like a cat himself, the farm crafter swaggered away with her.
Later, however, he was frought with a sharp mental anguish. What if they did not both impress? What if one of them were to leave the sands without a dragon? He went to his weyr, which was near the barracks and shared with his brother. Of course, Zed with his eternally happy outlook (that wasn't true, but it always seemed bright to Zeb when he was in a funk) helped a lot.
Then, the hatching started, and they both hoped for the best. The hatching was prompt, but Zebediah and Una had to wait for a while, as there were so many eggs! And, Zeddediah, or now Z'ed, left the sands before the pair with a fine dark brown dragon!
At last, when seven eggs broke at once, and several of them impressed, a green and brown pair waltzed their way to the candidates. The brown thought that his green sibling was acting a little too forward. He tried to stop her from trailing right behind him, as it was unnerving. The way she swooned her eyes and held her wings... It was almost like she wanted to ... fly... right then and there!
She is making me want things... I don't get it! Z'eb, why is she like that?
"Some females are like that, Bednath," Z'eb said, laughing.
"I can see that, my friend..." Z'eb smiled. They worked on the lake shore, where Z'eb and some of the other male riders had time to bathe their dragons, and test out new riding gear. It would only be a matter of time before they were really up there, flying.
I want to fight Thread, pointed out Bednath.
"I know that, all of us do."
You do not want to breathe flames, Z'eb. I do.
Z'eb laughed, and scratched his dragon on the neck before trying on the harness again.
When Dosth finally appeared in the sky, Bednath sighed and Z'eb practically saw hearts fly out from the dragon's eyes.
"Easy boy,.... she's just playing with you now. But later, I think... You two will have a good flight. I know it."
And so will you! Bednath told the blushing rider!
