Bonder

Pertan skipped down the halls, wondering what he should do next. He had arrived two days before and had chosen to stay in his weyr until he felt comfortable walking around. He walked briskly down the steep stairway leading to the Caer Bowl and then asked a dragonrider where he could find the flitter hearth. “Down that hall, and then the fifth door on the right,” he said through a thick accent. Pertan thanked him and then followed the man’s directions. As he walked in a short woman, holding a thick stack of hides greeted him. “You are interested in bonding a flitter?” Pertan nodded and the woman pointed to a fire-pit filled with small, oval-shaped eggs. “Go ahead and feed some meat to the ones whose egg hatches first. Pertan nodded and kneeled down by the eggs.

One of the eggs started to crack and Pertan got some meat ready. A small green snout poked though and he frowned, he didn’t want a green. He was about to turn to another one that was also beginning to crack but the green creeled loudly and Pertan couldn’t tear himself away. He watched as the green fought to get out of the egg and Pertan started to peel the eggshell away. The fledgling stretched her wing out and then crawled out from the shattered eggshell. Pertan put his hand out and the green

stumbled towards it and ate the meat hungrily. Pertan smiled and was about to pick the green up and walk away when a small blue pushed the green’s head out of the way and ate what was left of the meat. Pertan got some more and let them both eat. “I didn’t really want two,” he told the blue. It chirped but continued to eat. After they’d both eaten their weight in food he picked them up and walked back to the woman. “Do I have to fill out anything?” He asked. The woman nodded and handed him a sheet of hide and a pen. He filled it out and then walked back towards his caerlet, a flitter draped over each shoulder.

As he entered his caerlet he deposited his flitters on the chair and then called down the service shaft for dinner. He went back to the chair and sat down, moving to one side until the blue moved onto his lap. He sat there and stroked him until he heard the gears grinding in the service shaft. He picked the blue up and placed him on the arm of the chair and then went to the service shaft, picked up the tray and placed it on the dining table. He was about to put a forkful of tubers into his mouth when one of his flitter squawked angrily. He put his fork down and walked quickly to the chair where he found the blue clawing the green, which was still trying to sleep. Pertan picked the green

up quickly and walked back to the dining table, stroking her as he ate. The green warbled and flew on unsteady wings to the table, where she watched as Pertan ate. He smiled and said, “Stardan,” which he had decided to call her. “What do you want?” The green chirruped and cocked her head as he ate a fresh apple. “You want some? You’re not going to like it,” he said as he handed a small piece of the apple to Stardan. She grasped it greedily in her small claws and bit into it, shaking her head as she got the taste, dropping it and backing away. “I told you that you wouldn’t like it,” he said with a smile.

When he finished his meal he sent the tray back down the service shaft and then went back to the chair to read. He picked his book up, and was deep in concentration when the blue warbled and jumped onto it. “Limbar, what do you want?” He asked irritably. The blue looked up at him and then tore a corner from the page. Pertan gasped and quickly moved the blue away from his favorite book. He shook his finger at the blue and then began to read again. Limbar made an agitated bugle-like sound and then curled up on the chair again. Pertan read deep into the night and when he finally looked up again, it was well past sundown. He yawned and placed the book on the chair and then stood up, scooping Stardan and Limbar up and heading into the bedchamber. He quickly changed his clothes and then got into bed. Stardan curled up on the pillow near his head and Limbar decided to sleep on the end of the bed. Pertan was going to call him to the pillow but decided against it, not knowing how his green would handle it. He fell asleep soon after, dreaming of being of the hatching sands and bonding the largest dragon on Alskyr.