Fosterling Yui

A young boy with sunset colored orange-red hair lay on his back in the snowy hills of Crom Hold. The sun shone brightly overhead yet gave little warmth, yet the boy thought nothing of it. The cold was nothing with all the wher-hide he was wearing, he didn't even feel the icy snow he lay on while looking up at the sky. The boy raised his hand and currled his gloved hand and stuck up his thumb, easly stopping Rukbat's bright light from getting in his eyes. The boy moved his thumb back and forth, covering the sun and uncovering it with his tongue stuck out of the side of his mouth and a small smirk on his features.

"Yui (prounced like you-e)!" a voice called. The girl, for it was now very aparent that she was acttualy a girl as a sharp breath was taken giving veiw that she was a sharp tenor though if she were to sing her voice would be on the high range of a bass.

"Yui," the voice called out again a testy way, "I may be blind but I know you're out there, girl! You take in too deep of breaths when you try to hide yourself from me." At this Yui sighed in deffet, she'd never been able to fool her blind foster mother, Reca, even before she was given a fire lizard egg as a present a turn ago. She slowly sat up, the snow crunching under her weight. "That's right. Com'on, Yui, I know you can move faster than that, the wherry stew's going to get cold if you don't come soon."

Yui was on her feet within seconds of hearing wherry and stew in the same sentence. She could already smell the meat as she dashed towards the cozy cothold. A gold fire lizard, named Krilly, chirpped at her iritably on Reca's shoulder as Yui came with in sight of the only home she could remember even though she'd only been living there for three turns.

Three turns back, Yui had found herself alone in the forests in between Ruatha and Crom at the age of 13 with no memory of her past before that day. Though Yui had amnesia she knew her name and her age not to mention her day of birth.

That day of her first memories Reca, or more precisely her young ten turn old son, found Yui in the undergrowth. Reca's son, Utamrec, brought the slightly battered Yui over to his mother saying she was a boy. Upon Yui's protest, Reca chuckled and corrected her son. Finding the girl knew nothing of herself or her parents, Reca put out word to friends in high places to send the word about Pern that she'd found a young girl who looked like a boy and knew nothing of her parents or her background save the day she was found by her son. They waited for months on end for some word from the parents or relitives of Yui but none ever came. Reca, saddened by the fact that she could not help locate the girl's parents instead took Yui on as her first fosterling.

"I'm blind not deaf, Yui," Reca chuckled as she heard the girl's eatting just as loudly as she'd anounced what she was going to do. Using her fire lizard, Krilly, she also saw the action and sighed in deffeat. She'd never been able to get the girl to eat with proper table manners. Sometimes Reca thought that Yui had learned her table manners from Kymon, but that was far from true. Kymon was only two turns old himself and his egg had been given to Yui at the same time as she herself had recieved Krilly's egg from a rider who had brought a clutch from the Dawn Sisters Weyr and was giving them out randomly to people he'd visit on earons for his own Weyr.

"Now, remember, Yui," Reca continued on ignoring the messy eatting habits of her charge, "We need to get those herdbeasts in before nightfall this time, I don't want some renegade wild wher huntting them down again because we can't find them in the night."

"There's a full moon out tonight, Ma," an alto voice reminded Reca from behind, "That may be, Utamrec, but that doesn't mean we should waist time because of that fact. It's the sun that keeps them away from the herdbeasts durring the day."

"Right, Ma," Utamrec replied pushing some of his tawny brown hair out of his light, icy blue eyes.

Yui kept her own dark green eyes on her stew which was rapidly disappearing. Utamrec had grown quite a bit since they'd met three turns back. Yui herself was now very tall, at 5' 11", and though very stringy looking had very well preportioned muscles. Yet now Utamrec was only half a head shorter than her and just as well muscled even though he was only 13 turns old. Yui could feel her foster-brother's icy blue eyes on her as they always were at the begining of a meal.

"Don't you ever take those riding goggles off, Yui?" he asked refuring to the goggles that rested just above her forehead. They were the only link to her past that she'd had on herself. They were of the style dragonriders wore. Fondly, Yui always imagianed they were her parents' rider goggles or a present from a rider shortly before she'd lost her memories of her life before Reca and Utamrec.

"Sure I do, Utamrec," Yui mumbled between mouth fulls of stew, "when I bathe."

"Oh, don't tell me that," Utamrec waved his hand infront of his nose jokingly, only to receive a snort from Kymon while Yui continued to eat as if he'd said nothing.

"Done!" she suddenly shouted startling both Krilly and Utamrec. Reca just shook her head and pointed towards the door.

"Then dress yourself and go corral those herdbeasts of ours," the young fostermother told her, "The sun seems to be behind the trees now so Ebric should be able to help you now without too much complaining."

Ebric was the cothold's bronze watch-wher who had impressed to a not too bright drudge who'd wondered into the cothold while on an earon for the Lord Holder of Crom. Upon the word of his impression the Lord Holder aloud the drudge to stay at the cothold. Ebric was a very fearus wher who would only get along with a few people and things besides the drudge, whose name was Garum; Reca, Utamrec, Yui, Krilly, Kymon, and the herdbeasts of the cothold. All other visiters were snarled at, including the wild whers that would consider coming after the herdbeasts who were already put away for the night.

Yui was quick to dress once again, this time putting a scarf over her face and pulling her goggles down over her eyes after seeing that clouds were moving in fast. She'd have to hurry, get Ebric, and find the herdbeasts before the storm rolled in. Setting out quickly she found the watch-wher quickly as he barked out a warning to his bonded. Garum walked out and looked at Yui a bit questionably.

"I need to borrow Ebric for a while, Garum," she told him slowly incase he didn't quite understand. The drudge nodded understandingly, he'd gone through this before.

"Faster, you ride," he said simply as he reasured the bronze wher while carefuly unhooking the Ebric and slipping on a make-shift saddle. Yui calmly walked over to the bronze and rubbed his eyeridges on his ugly features. She knew better than to show fear in the face of a wher. Ebric liked and trusted her though so she knew that he'd be safe enough.

The red eyes of the watch-wher whirled in a happy way and Yui mounted him gentle, he may trust her but Ebric didn't like many people other than Garum riding him and even then he wasn't always too happy about it. The 16 turn old tom-boy smiled and patted the wher when he stayed cool and calm.

"We'll be back soon," she smiled at the drudge, "Don't worry." As she said the last two words, Yui gave a quick click of her tongue signaling the wher that they should go. At an amazing speed Ebric was off at a run, knowing well what his job was before his normal watching tonight, kicking up snow and even some earth as he traveled across the ground. True it was at a much lower speed than the dragons and fire lizards he resembled very slightly yet it still gave Yui the feel of flying over the ground adragonback.

Ebric gave a howl as the herdbeast came within his sight range, yet a growl soon replaced it. For a moment Yui couldn't see the cause for it but then the bright red eyes of a huntting wild wher caught her eyes. Her features turned grim, she hated hurting beasts unless it was for food, even if it was to save her cothold's livestock.

"Chase it off, Ebric," Yui growled out the order to the bronze watch-wher just before rolling out of the saddle and into the snow. The bronze crowed and dashed off at a higher paced speed, one that no human could have stayed on, after the wher. The eyes of the other wher suddenly caught the movement of the bronze and yelped. Odviously it was much smaller than Ebric and knew it would be killed should it stay any longer.

The herdbeasts were startled by the two whers and started to stampid. Luckly for Yui, they were heading for the cothold. Her brown fire lizard decided at that moment to appear next to her chirping in his happy way.

"Kymon, do me a fav and make sure none of them head the wrong way. I'll follow from behind, Ebric shouldn't be too long," she told the brown. Kymon gave another chirp and went to do as he was asked. Yui followed at a jog, her long legs taking the distance with ease.

An hour later it was full dark and Yui was back at the cothold with her fire lizard and the watch-wher. The girl carefuly made sure that the doors to each beasts' stalls were secured poperly. Garum bid her goodnight before Yui walked over to the cothold. She blinked as she looked into the trees... There seemed to be two large green-blue orbs up there glowing down at her.

Yui cocked her head and blinked. The orbs were now gone through there seemed to be a soft, dim glow from where they used to be. How very strange. Yui walked into the cothold finally and almost didn't notice the visitor at the table, eating some of the stew she'd had earlier. She looked at Reca and Krilly chirpped at Yui. The young man got up and smiled at Yui in greeting as Reca turns her face towards her fosterling.

"Yui, let me introduce you to P'laz, blue Merimath's rider," she smiled sensing the girl's surprise, "he's the head searchrider at Rose Circle Weyr, and was just on search at Crom for his weyr's latest clutch. I'm told it's a Queen's clutch of 19 with a queen egg."

"That's right," P'laz agreed with a nod of his head, "The dam of the clutch is our Senior Queen Eliameth and of course the sire is bronze Duranth. Saddly we didn't find any promising candidates at Crom. We were about to go back when I heard about Reca's cooking and I decided to look into it. I think she does a pretty great job of it, doesn't do the rumors justice..." the bluerider trailed off as his eyes glazed over while he odviously listened to his lifemate. Wonder what he's talking about, the girl thought still a bit baffled by the rider's surprise visit.

"Hmm, ya' don't say, Merimath," the bluerider mummbled vocaly to his dragon.

"Don't say?" Yui asked tilting her head in curiousity.

P'laz walked the short distance between himself and Yui looking at her criticly. The 16 turn old girl looked at the rider while putting a hand to the back of her head and her eyes narrowed slightly. Yui never liked people that she didn't know well inspecting her. The blueriders eyes returned to Yui's dark green ones and he stepped back.

"So you are really a girl?" P'laz finally asked.

"Yeah," Yui replied now theroly confused. The bluerider only chuckled.

"Like I said Merimath and myself were sent on search," he finaly smiled yet turned his back from Yui, "Thing is, Crom wasn't sapposed to be searched, it was really his idea to search Crom Hold, he said he could sense someone who wasn't what they seemed who would be a likely candidate for the clutch. So we went to Crom and found nobody. Merimath wanted to stay a while longer and when I found out about Reca's reputation as a cook I agreed we'd stay long enough to see if we could get a bite to eat from her." here P'laz turned back, "Seems that we figured out where we were sapposed to find the candidate. Not at the hold itself but in one of their cotholds. Merimath says that you're the one he was sensing."

Yui blinked and her jaw dropped visably. Was he saying what she thought he was saying. No, he couldn't be she admired dragons but... but to be even mildly considered to be a candidate for a clutch.

"Quit gawkin' like a famished wherry and answer the man, Yui," Reca chuckled, "or am I to sappose you want to herd in herdbeasts with Ebric for the rest of your life."

"He hasn't asked the question yet," Yui finally said smartly with a slight smirk, "only hinted to it."

P'laz chuckled, "Well, would you...?"

"YES!" Yui shouted louder than the meal she'd had earlier at the same time as cutting the bluerider's question short. P'laz looked baffled for a second while Reca meirly chuckled.

"Get used to it, Searchrider," Reca chuckled, "she's almost always this excitable." P'laz looked at the brightly smiling Yui and finally laughted.

"Well, if you pack your stuff now we might be able to beat the snowstrom that's on it's way," P'laz stated and was baffled at the speed Yui dashed up the stairs to her room to collect some of her belongings, he looked up the stairs as he finished his statement in an exasperated voice, "or so my Merimath says."

Yui quickly gathered extra sets of clothes, both for warm and cool weather not really knowing what the weather was like at the Rose Circle Weyr or the season. As she was about to go down the step she stopped remembering two things, her paint set and her clay building tools. Yui had two hobbies, making things out of clay and painting, both she found had come naturaly to her making her think that she might have been in some art type of craft before her amnesia. She carefuly placed the two sets in her bag as Kymon chirpped at her. Taking one last look over her shoulder she sighed. She might never see this room again... Deep inside she hopped she didn't, it wasn't that she didn't like the bed. She loved her bed, but she dearly hopped that some dragon would find her worthy on the sands of Rose Circle Weyr. With that she closed her door for a final time and walked down the stairs.

"Loose your energy?" P'laz asked a bit surprisde that the girl hadn't run down the stairs faster than she'd ran up them. Yui smirked and shook her head.

"No, just this is the only home I've ever known," she smiled, "even if it's only been for the past three turns."

Reca could tell the bluerider was looking at Yui curiously, "She has amnesia and can't remember anything before she was 13 turns old." P'laz nodded and smiled at Yui who seemed to now look a bit sad about her forgotten memories.

"Well, we'll be going now," he smiled, "And hopefuly you'd be able to creator more memories than you can handle at Rose Circle." Yui looked up at P'laz and nodded determinly with a slight smile. The duo then walked out the door as the first snowflakes of the storm started to fall.

With the help of P'laz, Yui mounted the amazingly big blue dragon. Feeling she should act the part of a dragonrider she pulled down her goggles and turned slightly to give the bluerider a thumbs up sign.

"Ready to go between when you are, P'laz," she smiled. P'laz chuckled and mentaly gave his dragon the signal to rise. Merimath circled the cothold thrice giving Yui a good look at what she'd be leaving then popped into between.

Reca whipped a tear from her blind eyes having used Krilly's sight to see the girl leave. "Good luck, Yui."

"She might need it," Utamrec nodded from behind his mother.