J'kar and brown Tychomath
The Road So Far!
It all began at Jessaf Hold, in the protectorate of Madellon Weyr, for Jahkar – a young man of 16 Turns, dreaming of becoming a dragonrider.
Jahkar was born the son of a modest cotholder at Jessaf Hold, working alongside his widowed father to work their allotted land, and help bring up his young twin siblings, Albon and Gettie. And in early 102, when a green rider, N'jol, and his Kistrith came to Jessaf in search of candidates for Madellon Weyr's hardening clutch, Jahkar didn't even present himself as a hopeful. Yet it was Jahkar that Kistrith singled out among all those young people. He almost didn't accept Search – anxious not to abandon his father. But he insisted, revealing that his late wife, Jahkar's mother, had always dreamed of being a dragonrider – and gifting Jahkar with her blue feather pendant as a lucky charm.
As a candidate, Jahkar was assigned a bunkmate – Soburn, an anxious Weyrbred youth with one failed Hatching already haunting him, who would soon become his closest friend in the Weyr. He also got to know many of his fellow candidates, including the Weyrbred twins Leover and Leoguy; Zielaph, the nephew of a Madellon bronze rider; and Chiliam, a good-natured highborn lad from Kellad.
But he also made an enemy – Rielat, a self-important apprentice Weaver – who took a firm disliking to Jahkar! Backed up by his crony Kestor, Rielat became the thorn in Jahkar's side throughout the sevendays of candidacy.
Hatching Day
The dragons' hum woke Soburn and Jahkar on 102.03.17. Following a brief run-in with Rielat, 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 Jahkar left, Soburn asked him to find out if H'nar, the young Wingleader of the Betweenless Wing, might currently be seeing someone – or not.
The one-armed green rider
Immediately on leaving the candidate barracks, Jahkar was flagged down by M'shen – a green rider with only one arm. But whatever he wanted, Jahkar never discovered, after making a mean-spirited joke about M'shen's missing hand that – not unreasonably – made the green rider take against him.
Respecting his elders
In the infirmary, Jahkar encountered Kisha – a blind old green rider giving the Weyr's Healers a difficult time about taking her medicine. Kisha challenged Jahkar to answer three riddles before she would consent to behave. And Jahkar rose to that challenge – answering all three correctly, and winning Kisha's grudging respect!
A Masterful order
In the dining hall, Jahkar met his fellow candidate Zielaph, who'd been tasked by his somewhat dim uncle, bronze rider Fr'ton, with delivering a complicated drinks order to a group of Master Crafters. Zielaph had information about their names, beverages, crafts, and fire-lizards – but not in any sensible order!
Luckily for him, Jahkar solved the puzzle of Fr'ton's confusing notes adeptly, delivering the correct drinks to the correct Masters, and earning a handsome tip in the process.
A rising problem
Jahkar encountered both Soleigh, whose green Bristath was preparing to rise near the lake, and her weyrmate Maris, who was getting very drunk in the dining hall on account of her fears that Soleigh was having an affair with a blue rider, G'tron. And while Jahkar did manage to get G'tron excluded from the flight – not to mention another blue rider, G'pellas, who was needed in the Harper ensemble – he still ultimately failed to reconcile the star-crossed green riding lovers!
Bubbling up
Madellon's kitchens – the heart of the Weyr, and domain of Headwoman Crauva – proved an irresistable lure for Jahkar. But reluctant to actually get his hands dirty by helping, he sneaked in and stole a bubbly pie right from under the Headwoman's nose!
Pie-more
Jahkar certainly indulged his sweet tooth before the Hatching – laying claim to not one, not two, but three different types of bubbly pie Albeit he stole one of them..
Weyrbrat by name...
A run-in with a Weyrbrat – Terzon, whom Rielat had paid to cause Jahkar trouble – resulted in an unfortunate public incident. All too aware of being shaken down, Jahkar gave the kid a shove – in front of a number of witnesses – doing nothing for his reputation!
A shining example
Coming upon Santinoth – Madellon's biggest bronze – being bathed in the lake, Jahkar was quick to offer assistance to his rider, T'rello. It couldn't hurt to have some close-up experience with a bronze, could it?
Friend request
Conscious of Soburn's bashfulness, Jahkar approached the object of his affections – H'nar, Wingleader of the Betweenless Wing – with some circumspection. Still, when questioned, H'nar insisted he had to know who was making enquiries of him. And when he learned the identity of his admirer, he told Jahkar that he wasn't interested in Soburn – or any other men, for that matter. But Jahkar's agile pivot in questioning revealed that a close friend of H'nar's – blue rider M'rany – might be a viable alternative. Thus encouraged, Soburn began to think more positively of life as a dragonrider – even if H'nar would end up being his Wingleader!
Wherry bad behaviour
Jahkar's assorted instances of bad behaviour finally caught up with him. L'stev collared him in the Bowl and gave him an ultimatum – buck up his ideas, or sit the Hatching out. Jahkar chose the former, and the Weyrlingmaster sent him to do penance in the wherry hatchery – though Jahkar remained on probation, with one more slip promising to rule him out of standing!
A slithery customer
Early in the day, Jahkar found out about a secret way into the Hatching Ground via storeroom that might allow him 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, he crawled into a confusing maze of passages.
By a stroke of ill luck, Jahkar strayed into tunnel snake territory! A brush with a small male tunnel-snake, guarding his nest, netted Jahkar some marks – and a painful, if not serious, bite. But that was only the beginning of his snaky problems. A huge, aggressive, and potently venomous female tunnel-snake guarded the exit to the Hatching ground. Jahkar was lucky to avoid being bitten. But ultimately he evaded the snake, dodging past it and slipping out onto the Hatching Sands.
Having survived his encounter with the snake, Jahkar crept closer to the clutch – close enough to touch an egg – before beating a hasty retreat from the Hatching Ground!
The Hatching
When it came to the Hatching, Jahkar had an excruciatingly long wait before the unassuming grey-green egg Hatched to reveal the deep russet-brown dragonet who would choose him, naming himself Tychomath.
A friend in me
And Jahkar wasn't the only lucky one. To his delight, Soburn also Impressed, becoming the rider of a slender olive-green hatchling, Aeranth.
Whatever happened to Rielat?
It turned out that making an enemy of Jahkar was a very poor choice on Rielat's part. For the low, low price of just three marks, Jahkar had Grimes, the shady fellow loitering near the Gather stalls, spread a series of nasty rumours about Rielat. By the time the Weyrlingmaster mustered the candidate cohort immediately before the Hatching, the damage to Rielat's reputation was done – and he was ejected from the candidate pool without ever setting foot on the Sands!
After the Hatching
"Tychomath" by Emily Holland
The Weyrlingmaster was the first to congratulate Jahkar on his Impression, but it was N'jol, delighted that his most humble candidate had Impressed, who stepped in to help with the immediate matter of Tychomath's first meal. That was Jahkar's first opportunity to speak to Soburn, too, and they introduced each other, with considerable delight, to their respective dragonets, Tychomath and Aeranth. Soburn also told Jahkar that his new name was to be – perhaps unsurprisingly – S'burn.
It wasn't long before Tychomath's personality started to become evident. The little russet-brown dragonet proved unusually quiet, speaking only seldom, and showing a strong preference for his own company – and his rider's.
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 brother
Another friend Jahkar made along the way – a young Holdbred candidate, Nichen, whom Jahkar had encountered in a hopelessly dishevelled state directly before the Hatching – hailed Jahkar at the barracks – crediting him with his successful Impression of a moon-blue dragonet, Yooth!
Meeting the Weyrleader
As Jahkar and S'burn wiped the worst of the blood and sand from their tired new dragonets, the Weyrleader, T'gat, came to inspect both boys' dragonets, to ask after their names – and to ask the two new weyrlings how they should now be called. Jahkar was proud to introduce Tychomath to the Weyrleader. And after a brief conference with Tychomath, Jahkar gave the Weyrleader his own new name: J'kar, rider of brown Tychomath!
Following their audience with the Weyrleader, and the application of oily rags to relieve Tychomath's and Aeranth's newborn itchiness, J'kar and S'burn headed into the boys' 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
J'kar and S'burn soon went their separate ways to find family and friends. Many of the riders and Weyrfolk J'kar had helped during the day greeted him with warm congratulations as he hunted through the throng – but, at last, he found his family.
J'kar's father almost couldn't believe his son's good fortune, completely thrilled to be the father of a dragonrider. And he was even more starstruck when the Weyrleaders came to drink a toast to J'kar and Tychomath.
The rest of the evening passed in a blur for J'kar, 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, J'kar was flagged down by a Weyrbrat, Emry, bringing the message that Weyrwoman Second Tarshe wanted to see him in the Archives.
Setting the record straight
Tarshe, tasked by the Weyrwoman with converting candidate documentation into weyrling records, went through J'kar's background with him – including much of what he had got up to on the morning of the Hatching – for good and ill. She offered J'kar some advice about paying attention to his new classmates and surroundings, lest he fall foul of the Weyrlingmaster's penchant for snap quizzes, and made some observations on Tychomath.
A close encounter
On his way back to the barracks , J'kar 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 J'kar would later realise was firestone, who called him by name – and gave him a curious wooden box.
"The Watchful Queen" by Chris S. Baily
Back at the barracks, J'kar decided, on balance, not to tell the Weyrlingmaster about the stranger.
Returning at last to Tychomath – billeted between S'burn's Aeranth and a mucky-looking brown dragonet – J'kar was too tired to examine the strange wooden box very closely, and put it in his clothes' chest for later examination. But even as he went to sleep – a dragonrider at last, his brown beside him – J'kar 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?
J'kar and Tychomath's story will continue in Dragonchoice: Weyrling, coming soon!
J'kar'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
Tychomath and I complement each other!
Achievement Unlocked:
SNAKES AND SNAILS
I haven't been very nice!
Achievement Unlocked:
EBONY AND IVORY
Tychomath and I agreed on something very important!
Achievement Unlocked:
IN TUNE
Tychomath and I agreed on something quite important!
Achievement Unlocked:
BFFs
Tychomath and Destrath made friends!