"You all right?" The headwoman asked. Rarad nodded, supping the warm klah. Shards, his stay at the Weyr had all ready been full of adventure,, though nothing like the adventures in the stories.
Apon arriving at Avium Weyr, Rarad had soon found his way to the record room and became buried in the books, and that's where it had begun.
Vlina had begun to squawk and flutter, causing Rarad to look up. Through the cream flit's racket, he heard voices. No, shouts.
"Shut up!" He said irritably to his firelizard, who promplty was silent. The shouts ceased, and there was a terrible thudlike sound. Rarad rushed out of the room and looked at the scene before him, shocked. At the end of the hallway, at the foot of a staircase, lay a crumpled heap of a person. From the top of the stairway he could still hear shouts, "Take that you dead glow!" The voice broke into hollow laughter as it faded. Crossing the hallway to the limp drudge, books for once forgotten, Rarad bent peered cautiously at her. It was impossible to tell if she was his age or a very old woman, so covered in dirt and grime was she. Was she dead? No, the ever so slight rise and fall of the chest indicated that at least she still lived.
Now Rarad was dumbfounded. What should he do? He looked around, but saw no one coming. He couldn't just leave her there, but what could he do? By himself he could not carry her, and we was not sure where to take her anyway.
The drudge solved this problem for him by groaning and rolling over. Brilliant green eyes peered at him through the filth. With another moan, the drudge attempted to get to her feet, but sank back down again.
Not knowing what else to do, Rarad helped her. He helped her stand and he helped her walk along the hallway, though he was not sure where they ought to be going.
"Thank you." The drudge replied, wobbling as he helped her to walk. "That man, he was evil, just because I was not fast enough. He probably thinks I am dead. If I don't hurry to the headwoman, I may wish that had killed me." Rarad did his best to smile, but in truth being around drudges made him uneasy. Supposedly they were stupid and not really able to do anything else, but he always felt bad becaue they had to work and were dirty all the time, and those green eyes certainly did not look stupid.
"Where is the headwoman?" He asked.
"The lower caverns." She replied. "I can show you." So Rarad found himself helping an injured drudge acorss the weyrbown in the rain. It was slow going, and in minutes Rarad was soaked to the skin. He wasn't even sure why he was doing this, but he couldn't have just left the drudge there.
"Goodness, goodness!" A strong female voice eclaimed as they clambered down into the lower caverns. "Lian, what in Farranth...no, I don't want to know. Come. And you boy, you're shivering! Why you would want to help this foolish girl here is beyond me." Rarad realised for the first time that he was shivering from his wet clothing. Oh why did it have to rain today? The drudge, Lian, stunbled to a chair under the headwoman's eye, and another drudge came with blankets and klah for both of them. And so, there he was, when the bugle sounded throughout the weyr.
Vlina and Trenn fluttered between while Rarad gaped about, wondering what was going on.
"The hatching!" He heard someone say. Now? Shards! shivering, Rarad set down his klah and stood, unsure of how to get to the sands from there, but knowing he had to hurry.
"You're a candidate?" Lian gasped.
"Yes." He muttered. "Where.."
"Could have waited til after the hatching was over to get yourself sick." The headwoman muttered. "Here, change out of those wet clothes and into this, it's traditional for impression. Hurry, get out there to the sands!" Following the direction she pointed, Rarad scurried down the hall, throwing the white robe she had given him on over his wet clothing, the robe would just get wet anyway.
He hadn't needed to go so fast, he found as he arrived second on the sands, soaked again, and trying not to cough too much. The back of his throat felt sore. Somehow, it didn't seem real that he was standing out here in front of dragon eggs. He saw, but his mind did not beleive.
More candidates arrived, and the weyrwoman and rider of the mothering dragon. The area around the sands was beginning to fill with weyrfolk despite the rain, everyone loved to watch a hatching.
A crack of thunder shook the ground so that Rarad at first didn't notice the first egg hatch into a brown and impress. He saw the second though, a green, nearly run down some of the other candidates in order to get to her lifemate, or...in order to race her lifemate! Shards, what if one of those dragons trampled him because he was in the way of another candidate?
Two blues hatched almost simultaneously, though they looked very different. One was large and buff, and walked with an air of arrogance, the other small and shy looking. The smaller looked around, confused, but the larger began to prance up to the candidate he had chosen.
The smaller blue continued to look around, but his eyes met Rarad's suddenly, and Rarad felt...joy, even before he heard the voice.
"Valinth?" He asked quietly.
S'my name! The blue replied, reassured now that he had his lifemate. Shall we join the others? R'rad could only nod, overcome with joy. He was no longer Rarad, the papercraft apprentice, he was R'rad, the dragonrider of Blue Valinth!
