 You walk into the weyr looking at your notes. Checking on Candidates wasn't exactly your job, more like an excuse for betting who would impress what. According to your friends the girl who was sapposed to occupy this weyr was named Maniki(prounouced like Ma-knee-key). You walk in and find a fairly small weyr, but then that was to be expected of a person who had as of yet to impress any type of dragon.You looked about you to find that there was no seprate bathing pool for the girl nor any huge fancy table. Oh there were two tables, one made out of a stout old oak and the other was set up for a game of chess. Over near the arch that seprated the human part of the weyr from the dragon's weyr was a fairly large cot, bead furs stacked on it. Next to the cot a trunk is lain locked shut by a moveable iron bolt. You could see part of the dragon's couch through the arch, thrushes lain upon it for the dragon that was hoped for. You look back to the chess game and notice that the white king is tipped over; so it wasn't totaly set up board it was the game that was last played. You right the king and look down at it in wonderment at the craftsmanship. "Check mate," a tenor voice came from the doorway. You turn quickly to find a girl of 16 looking at you, a coy smile on her face, she points with a scarred finger at the game, "Can't move one way or the other without having the peice taken." at this point she raises a thick brown sandy brown eyebrow at you, "My name's Maniki, Niki for short, why are you in my weyr?" You look a bit startled at the green eyed girl. She wasn't really the prettiest thing you ever saw with her mouth being slanted, mainly cause by her slight smirk, and her nose being very wide indead. She had hardly any curves to her and was fairly falt in her chest. Dressing in grundgy clothes didn't help her features much either. The only charm to her looks was oddly the messy high ponytail she had and her tiny yet pretty pail green eyes. "I was acttually looking to talk to you," you reply, "you could say Talking to candidates is one of my jobs." "I'm not a dim-glow, dragonrider," she chuckled as she entered her weyr fully, "most candidates know about the betting that goes on about what and if they'll impress." She chuckles as you wince at being found out so quickly, but like Maniki told you, it wasn't really a surprise, she just told you to your face instead of playing along with you. "So what would you like to know...?" she trails off not knowing your name. "K'ton, blue Friznath's rider," you offer your name, "Not much really, the usual questions I guess you could call them. How you were searched. What you did before you were searched, perhaps a bit about what you did after you got here." Maniki chuckled again, "There's not much to me, but if you really want me to..." you nod rapidly and she smiles before starting her tale. "Well, I was born in a hold called Turasake 16 turns back; it's only two generations old, me being a part of the second generation. I was brought up by my father, my mother left just after I'd been weened, or so I'm told. Killed by thread most likely my father tells me, he's a very honest man and tries to hide nothing from me. He had some friends of his look out for her for turns but she never showed up. She's either found a place to stay durring thread fall or...." Maniki trailed off. "I'm sorry," you tell her. The sandy brown haired girl looks up at you with a bit of a scowl. "Don't tell me that, it's in the past besides she left her only daughter to grow up without a female mentor," the girl snorted. "You hate your mother?" you asked startled. "No, I just don't think it was right for her to run out on me and Pop like that," she replied a bit heattedly though you could tell she did still think she loved her mother. Maniki shook her head out of that part of her past before continuing, "As I was sayin' my Pop brought me up. He's an honest man who made a livin' minning gems out of the mines in the valley two hours easy ride by runnerbeast from Turasake Hold." "As I grew he'd bring gems home and I'd play little games with them. As he was workin' with some of his tools one day when I was about eight he showed me how he could make chess peices out of some of the gems. I watched him carefuly make a whole set of jade peices. After finishing the set he asked if I wanted to try to make the opposing peices. I agreed quite readily and picked up the tools at started on pieces made from red sapphires. It took me about five times as long but when I got done with them my father was amazed to say the least. I had scratches all over my hands, some of them still exist as scars today, yet the peices were fairly well done for someone with untrained hands as my father told me. With those peices he taught me how to play chess, and I played it well. The match you saw over there took me two day to compleat with the last rider who challenged me, he was pretty good and I just barrly beat him" "When I reached the age of ten, Pop took me out to the mines to help pick my own peices. In a way I apprenticed to my own father. I became a sort of jewler/miner scratching my hands up both in the mine and at my work bench. I worked so well over the turns that I sometimes surpassed my father in deeds. Then a few months back a dragonrider heard of my work and sent a leader by fire lizard to order a chess board with Jade and sapphire peices. I of course took the job, I carefuly chipped away at the peices and as each one was made I set it on one of the boards I had also constructed." "I finished polishing the last peice when he came in. He was a blue rider from Dawn Sisters Weyr, this Weyr," she efficised that she ment the weyr which was now her home for who knows how much longer, "He introduced himself to me as W'ryn, blue Sylth's rider. He inspected the peices carefully then had the nerve to ask me if I knew how to play! 'I wouldn't be making the games so much if I didn't know how to play,' I told him in my short tempered way. So we played a game. W'ryn played with speed making me have to think quicker than usual; slowly I realized that he was causing me to loose, I tried to play harder but..." "He beat you," you finish for her. "Aye, and beat me baddly. He smiled at me after that game telling me jokingly that at least I was a better crafter than a player. And for my payment for the chess set he told me he'd give me five marks and a ride to Dawn Sisters Weyr. 'Why in the world would you pay me with a rider there?' I'd asked him. He chuckled at me, in my confusion I thought he was making fun of me until he spoke again, 'I'm one of Dawn Sisters' Searchriders and my Sylth says you're a fairly sound candidate for Queen Firath's first clutch.' Unfortunately I was not allowed to stand for the clutch, that already had enough girls by the time Sylth and his rider had gotten me to Dawn Sisters they had just put out the word that no more girls were need. The good thing is that they offered to take me to another weyr or I could wait for the next dragon too clutch. I opeded to stay. I was still dumbfounded. Searched by a client? That doesn't happen everyday, ya' know!" "So that's how you were searched?" you ask a bit surprised at how W'ryn came across Maniki. "Yeah, making chess sets and other jewled trinkets while not having many friends my own age," Maniki replied and sniffed, "image kids not wanting to have much to do with me other than by my goods, that's mainly want started my bad temper I think. I don't have much of a liking for many people because they mainly use me." You smile a bit sheepishly back at her and she rolls her eyes, "At least you're honest enough to not deny the fact that you orignaly came in here to check out what you thought I might impress if I do at all." "It's still makes me feel a bit bad about the whole thing though," you tell her yet you find yourself getting more curious about this girl who seemed to be half annoyed with the people she's met on Pern, "So what else can you tell me about yourself." "Well, fire lizards seem to like me yet I've never been able to impress one," she sighs heavely, "I always seem to be a bit late at getting the food to them and they fly away or somebody else gets to them first and impresses the fire lizard. I'm not too good at cookin', worked too much with jems and metals to get a real feel for cooking. I tend to start a meal on fire because I forget what I'm doing and try to do some of my craft works." "Remind me not to eat your food," you suddenly let slip but are relieved when you hear Maniki laugh. "Remind me that too, I cook the grossest stuff!" she chuckled. After the two of you stop laughing you start to question her again. "So if you don't cook what do you do when you're not in classes with the other candidates?" you ask. "I work on my craft, sometimes play a few sports," she sighs again, "but the only thing I'm good at in sports are foot races and sprints only. My legs can't take too much. They may be muscular but they can't handle long distance and neither can my lungs." "So you stay by yourself a lot of the time, huh?" You raise an eyebrow at the bushy eyebrowed girl. "Yeah, but I have fun talkin' to riders who pass by like yourself," she smiles with her slanted lips. "Well thank you, it's been a pleasure visiting you," you smile. "Yeah, yeah, don't get sappy on me," she chuckled getting a slight tinge of blush over the bridge of her nose. "I think you might impress, Niki," you tell her. "Ah, get out of her ya' old, wherry," she yelled but you could tell it was a joke as she blushed. "See ya' around, Niki," you grin, "and good luck on the sands, I hope you impress." "Thanks, K'ton," she smiles and winks at you slyly, "I'll need it." You wave good day to the girl and leave wondering if she really will impress more than wondering how much you should put on her and for what. |