Thimla and green Ercillath
The Road So Far!
It all began at the Healer Hall at Blue Shale Hold, in the protectorate of Madellon Weyr, for Thimla – a young girl of 15 Turns, dreaming of becoming a green rider.
Thimla was born the daughter of two Master Healers at the Southern Healerhall, Blue Shale Hold. She was treating minor injuries even before she was formally apprenticed to the Craft. But frustration with the drudgery of the long apprenticeship made Thimla an undistinguished crafter, lacking the focus or passion demanded by the Healerhall. And then, in early 102, brown rider P'lian came to the Healer Hall complaining of frostbitten fingers. Thimla was assigned to treat the minor condition. But P'lian's Sparth – despite his colour, a budding Search-sensitive dragon – insisted that Thimla was a likely sort for candidacy. And a sevenday later, Thimla arrived at Madellon Weyr, joining the candidate pool for senior queen Shimpath's first clutch by her new mate Muzzanth.
As a candidate, Thimla was assigned a bunkmate – Jopha, a mischievous young Weyrbred girl prone to getting herself into trouble, who would soon become her closest friend in the Weyr. She also got to know many of her fellow candidates, including the Weyrbred twins Leover and Leoguy; Zielaph, the nephew of a Madellon bronze rider; and Arina, a level-headed young woman from Jessaf who'd stood at the previous Hatching.
But she also made an enemy – Thippia, a foul-mouthed girl from the Seacraft – who took a firm disliking to Thimla! Backed up by her crony Berrin, Thippia became the thorn in Thimla's side throughout the sevendays of candidacy.
Hatching Day
The dragons' hum woke Jopha and Thimla on 102.03.17. Following a brief run-in with Thippia, the pair joined the rest of the candidates for a morning lecture. The Weyrlingmaster, L'stev, gave the whole cohort – increased by three late Searchees to a total of thirty-five – strict instructions about pre-Hatching preparations, including eating, drinking, bathing – and in some cases, getting a decent haircut – and then turned the group loose for the morning. Before Thimla left, Jopha – whose Impression robe was sadly overlarge for her petite frame – recruited Thimla's help in getting it adjusted by her nemesis Shookana in the mending room.
The one-armed green rider and the thieving queen
Immediately on leaving the candidate barracks, Thimla was flagged down by M'shen – a green rider with one arm, a fire-lizard queen – and a problem. His queen, Squiffy, had stolen several pieces of the Weyrwoman's jewellery, and hidden it around the Weyr. M'shen recruited Thimla to find it. Despite Thimla's best efforts, though, she didn't manage to complete and return the jewellery set before the Hatching.
Respecting her elders
In the Weyr's kitchen gardens, Thimla encountered R'hren, a former Weyrleader of Madellon, now peacefully retired to potter among his beloved plants. R'hren asked Thimla to help him track down the ingredients for a warming salve to help his elderly bronze, Staamath, with his arthritic forepaws. Thimla duly located the components of R'hren's salve, winning the old bronze rider's approval in the process.
Gifted a small pot of the salve, Thimla offered it to old S'rius, who was equally appreciative of the gift. And while Kisha, the blind old green rider Thimla encountered in the infirmary, would have nothing to do with one of R'hren's concoctions, she too grew to approve of Thimla – especially after she solved all three of her fiendish riddles!
Southern comfort
Thimla met G'kalte – a brown rider and Wingsecond, not to mention Weyrwoman Valonna's weyrmate – in the Bowl, and was quickly recruited by him to help with a diplomatic matter. G'kalte had been tasked with delivering two gifts from Valonna to her Southern counterpart Weyrwoman Karika – but he'd been summoned away to collect his own grandmother, Lady Coffleby, for the Hatching.
He asked Thimla to figure out which of the seven Southern dragons visiting Madellon were the correct pair to hand over Karika's gifts. And while G'kalte's brown, Archidath, offered Thimla some intelligence on the Southern seven, his advice was somewhat garbled! Nonetheless, Thimla unravelled Archidath's confusing suggestions and got the right packages to the right dragons – without being growled at!
Kitchen diplomacy
Madellon's kitchens – the heart of the Weyr, and domain of Headwoman Crauva – provided Thimla with the opportunity to show off her work ethic before the Hatching. A round of chores duly pleased Crauva. And the kitchen was also the source of the hotfruit R'hren had sent Thimla to find for his warming salve.
Eggs and baskets
A visit to the Archives led to a meeting with Tarshe, Madellon's Weyrwoman Second. When Thimla expressed an interested in looking up some Weyr records, Tarshe offered her the loan of a glowbasket – on the proviso that she return it afterwards. Which – mindful of not offending such an important personage of the Weyr – Thimla did!
Weyrbrat by name...
A run-in with a Weyrbrat – Terzon, whom Thippia had paid to cause Thimla trouble – resulted in an unfortunate public incident. All too aware of being shaken down, Thimla gave the kid a shove – in front of a number of witnesses – doing nothing for her reputation!
A shining example
Coming upon Santinoth – Madellon's biggest bronze – being bathed in the lake, Thimla was quick to offer assistance to his rider, T'rello. Perhaps Thimla was never going to Impress a bronze – but it couldn't hurt to have some hands-on experience!
Friend request
Knowing of Jopha's chequered history with Shookana, mistress of the Weyr's mending room, Thimla approached the task of having her robe adjusted with considerable caution. Realising that falsehood would be the wrong approach, Thimla went to Shookana with the truth – and a gift of popcorn. And while Thimla doubted if Shookana and Jopha will ever be friends, the restoration of her Hatching robe to a suitable length did a great deal for her self-confidence!
A breath of foul air
Early in the day, Thimla found out about a secret way into the Hatching Ground via storeroom that might allow her a sneaky peek at the eggs before the Hatching. Successfully entering the combination to the lock on the storeroom door, and suitably equipped with a glowbasket, she crawled into a confusing maze of passages. The route she chose turned out to be thick with choking toxic fumes from Madellon's volcanic foundation, and Thimla soon found herself struggling for breath. And then she came across Thippia – having apparently followed Thimla into the passageways – lying unconscious and insensible in the fume-filled tunnel.
Setting aside her petty rivalry with Thippia in the face of a genuine emergency, Thimla set about making Thippia stable – glad for the Healer kit she always carried with her. And on crawling out onto the Hatching Ground, half suffocated herself, she raised the alarm with the Weyrleader before being overcome by the ordeal, and fainting there on the sand.
Thimla woke in the infirmary, and while the Weyrleader and Weyrlingmaster questioned her sternly about her adventures, the fact that Thimla had certainly saved Thippia's life counted in her favour, despite having disobeyed the order not to go meddling in the tunnels.
The Hatching
When it came to the Hatching, Thimla didn't have to wait too long for her date with destiny. The blotchy pale turquoise egg Hatched out a bright olive-green dragonet who told Thimla her name was Ercillath.
A friend in me
And Thimla wasn't the only lucky one. To her delight, Jopha also Impressed, becoming the rider of a big emerald-green hatchling, Deimoth.
After the Hatching
"Ercillath" by Emily Holland
The Weyrlingmaster was the first to congratulate Thimla on her Impression, but it was P'lian, ecstatic that Sparth's very first Search had yielded an Impression, who stepped in to help with the immediate matter of Ercillath's first meal. That was Thimla's first opportunity to speak to Jopha, too, and they introduced each other, with considerable delight, to their respective dragonets, Ercillath and Deimoth.
It wasn't long before Ercillath's personality started to become evident. The rather slender olive-green dragonet demonstrated an immediate haughty pride in herself – and in her rider.
With both dragonets full to bursting with fresh meat, the newly minted dragonpairs left the Hatching sands for their new home: the weyrling barracks.
Big sister
Another friend Thimla made along the way – a young Weyrbred candidate, Brithie, whom Thimla had encountered in a sudden crisis of confidence directly before the Hatching – hailed Thimla at the barracks – crediting her with her successful Impression of a tiny bottle-green dragonet, Epatanth!
Meeting the Weyrleader
As Thimla and Jopha wiped the worst of the blood and sand from their tired new dragonets, the Weyrleader, T'gat, came to inspect both girls' dragonets and to ask after their names. Thimla was proud to introduce Ercillath to the Weyrleader – and to give him her full new name: Thimla, rider of green Ercillath!
Following their audience with the Weyrleader, and the application of oily rags to relieve Ercillath's and Deimoth's newborn itchiness, Thimla and Jopha headed into the girls' barracks to claim the billets that would be theirs for the next Turn. Choosing adjacent cots, the two new weyrlings got their dragonets settled on the couches that they would take months to grow into. But there was no time for them to sit and admire their new dragons. The Weyrlingmaster soon came along to give them their new weyrling shoulder-knots, before chivvying them off to the Hatching feast!
The Hatching feast
Thimla and Jopha soon went their separate ways to find family and friends. Many of the riders and Weyrfolk Thimla had helped during the day greeted her with warm congratulations as she hunted through the throng – but, at last, she found her family.
Thimla's father, a loud man in normal times, was positively bellowing with pleasure at Thimla's Impression – albeit with a certain disappointment that his daughter wouldn't be continuing in the Healercraft. And he embarrassed both his daughter, and his long-suffering wife, still further when the Weyrleaders came to drink a toast to Thimla and Ercillath – remarking, very loudly, on the parentage of Valonna's soon-to-arrive first baby!
The rest of the evening passed in a blur for Thimla, and it came as a relief when the Weyrlingmaster ordered all the new weyrlings back to the barracks for a good night's sleep. But en route to bed, Thimla was flagged down by a Weyrbrat, Emry, bringing the message that Weyrwoman Second Tarshe wanted to see her in the Archives.
Setting the record straight
Tarshe, tasked by the Weyrwoman with converting candidate documentation into weyrling records, went through Thimla's background with her – including much of what she had got up to on the morning of the Hatching – for good and ill. She offered Thimla some advice about paying attention to her new classmates and surroundings, lest she fall foul of the Weyrlingmaster's penchant for snap quizzes, advised her to report to Master Isnan before returning to the barracks to get her injuries checked again, and made some observations on Ercillath.
A close encounter
On her way back to the barracks (by way of the infirmary, as ordered by Tarshe), Thimla had two peculiar encounters – first, with Tarshe's queen, Berzunth, who seemed quite agitated by one of the visiting dragons on the Rim; and then with a mysterious hooded figure, smelling strongly of what Thimla would later realise was firestone, who called her by name – and gave her a curious wooden box.
"The Watchful Queen" by Chris S. Baily
Back at the barracks, Thimla decided, on balance, not to tell the Weyrlingmaster about the stranger.
Returning at last to Ercillath – billeted between Jopha's Deimoth and a pale green dragonet – Thimla was too tired to examine the strange wooden box very closely, and put it in her clothes' chest for later examination. But even as she went to sleep – a dragonrider at last, her green beside her – Thimla was struck with a deep sense of foreboding. Who was the mysterious dragonrider in the hooded cloak? And what was the significance of the strange wooden box?
Find out more about Thimla's Impression here. Thimla and Ercillath's story will continue in Dragonchoice: Weyrling, coming soon!
Thimla's achievements
Achievement Unlocked:
CARRY ON WAYWARD SON
I travelled The Road So Far!
Achievement Unlocked:
OUR ROB, OR ROSS
I received a mysterious box!
Achievement Unlocked:
A HORSE WITH A NAME
I have a name and it's a good name and I don't need to fix my name. Probably.
Achievement Unlocked:
THE YIN TO YOUR YANG
Ercillath and I complement each other!
Achievement Unlocked:
SUGAR AND SPICE
I've been a very nice person (so far)!
Achievement Unlocked:
PLEASE STATE THE NATURE OF THE MEDICAL EMERGENCY
I returned to the infirmary!
Achievement Unlocked:
EBONY AND IVORY
Ercillath and I agreed on something very important!
Achievement Unlocked:
BUM NOTE
Ercillath and I disagreed on something quite important!