Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows

Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold

Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold

Elsewhere on Pern
NPC Weyr
River Bluff Weyr
Seacraft Hall

Story Listing
Series Listing

Weyrling Training

Writers: Rochelle
Date Posted: 17th October 2007

Characters: Ariau
Description: Despite her doubts, Ariau Impresses gold Alabieth.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 6, day 3 of Turn 4

The constant but familiar roar of the crowd caused Ariau's ears to thrum, a steady counterpoint to the intense humming of the dragons reverberating in her bones, and the jagged shrieks of hungry dragonets and Impressing pairs. She backpedaled for the sixth time to allow another candidate to make Impression, frustration rising until she made a small noise, inaudible in the commotion. She eased her weight to the other foot, not quite so much because of the heat as to give an incontestable outlet to her frustration. She had Stood often enough at Fort Weyr to know that stout boots were required at Hatchings, but had no wish to let anyone else guess at her feelings. Again. It was happening again. All around her, like the splendid jewels tumbling from pale stones of her Gramndmother's song about Impression, dragonets were breaking shells and eardrums with anxious cries of joy and hunger, but veering around her. Every time she saw a little green coming toward her, she felt her hope rise, the feeling that she _needed_ to be here lifting her higher, only to be dashed to the sands as the dragonet would veer off and chose someone else.

In moments, it would be over, she realized, struggling to shove down her bitterness. She would be left Standing yet again, and her feelings, her instinct that she _needed_ to be here, would prove to be nothing more than another hopeful dream she had deluded herself into believing. Her grandparents and E'laj would have come for nothing yet again. Were they even here? She wondered, watching enviously as another girl from her classes found her lifemate not far from her, tears rolling down her dour face. They had said they were going to come whether she Impressed or not, because they had never seen a gold hatch before. She scanned the tiers quickly, looking for her grandmother's familiar head of white hair...

The sudden hushing of the incessant noise from the crowd caused Ariau to snap her eyes back to the sands. She caught her breath, just as everyone else seemed to have done, as the first glints of a golden head emerged from the matching shell.

The little gold finished pushing her way out of the shell with what seemed to Ariau to be very little effort compared to some of the other creeling dragonets. Ariau spared a glance around her, saw that there were no other dragonets near her, and returned her gaze to the little queen as she stood amid the ruins of her golden shell. After all, she was Standing at a gold's hatching, something she would probably never have the opportunity to see again -especially from the sands themselves! None of the greens seemed to want her, so she might as well see who would become the little queen's weyrwoman...

Eyes whirling in myriad frantic colors, the gold paused, surveying the sands before her and seeming to study the remaining candidates, evaluating whether they were worthy of her attention or not. The humming seemed to intensify, and Ariau found herself holding her breath as the young queen started moving definitively towards the small knot of girls just ahead of her. The gold was beautiful, Ariau thought wonderingly, not daring to consider which of the girls the queen was very deliberately making her way to. The egg fluids seemed to have slid off her while she stood in her shell, and when she half spread her delicate wings, stumbling and catching her balance, the light shone through them like a sunrise through glass.

She exhaled, tearing her eyes away from the wonderful little queen, glancing at the three girls in front of her. One was tall and proud and elegant, and Ariau found she couldn't look at the girl any more. Surely that was who the gleaming little queen wanted. A girl like that was meant to be a weyrwoman, of course a gold wouldn't want someone like her with the half-wild love of the road and the call of the horizon in her veins...

The world narrowed to the stretch of sands between the moving gold and Ariau, the humming so loud in her ears that it drowned out her heartbeat and became a wall of sound that compelled her forward a step with a gasp when the queen stumbled again, but she bit her lip and went no further.
She couldn't get between that glorious creature and her lifemate! The queen was so close to her...

The elegant girl suddenly stepped hastily back, the two beside her quickly backpedaling. Ariau blinked in confusion, the queen didn't want the girl?
She must be looking for someone beyond Ariau then... Heart in her throat, Ariau tried to suppress her confusion and jealousy of the unknown girl who would get the glorious little queen, and glanced back at the gold to see where she was, so that she would know what direction to step out of the way.

Their eyes met, and Ariau dazedly realized the queen was in front of her in the tiny corner of her mind that also noted the shriek of joy the queen gave and the sudden tears in her eyes as she fell to her knees before her new lifemate. But she didn't care about any of it, losing herself in the whirling eyes of the most beautiful, glorious creature on Pern as her mind impacted with hers, melding so perfectly that they became in an instant, inseparably, seamlessly, one.

}:Ariau, I am Alabieth.:{ The queen announced in her dazed mind, suffusing her with a feeling of love and happiness so powerful she lost herself in it. }:And you are mine.:{

Last updated on the October 21st 2007