M'han and brown Teraith
The Road So Far!
It all began at Jessaf Hold, in the protectorate of Madellon Weyr, for Manchan – a young man of 18 Turns, dreaming of becoming a dragonrider.
Manchan was born to unusual privilege – a grandson of Winstone, Lord of mighty Jessaf Hold. Manchan didn't scramble for the attention of the young Search rider, Garlan, who came to Jessaf in early 102 seeking candidates for Madellon Weyr's latest clutch. But as a scion of the Hold, Manchan was among the party welcoming the green rider to Jessaf – and, in due course, became the focus of her dragon Hushith's attention. Lord Winstone wasn't enthusiastic about Manchan becoming a candidate – displeased that such a opportunity would ruin his plans for Manchan's betrothal to a niece of Lord Orfen's. But he grudgingly accepted that, as Manchan had his majority, he had the right to accept Search. And with Winstone's admonition that he Impress a bronze – or a brown at the very least – ringing in his ears, Manchan left to begin his candidacy at Madellon Weyr.
As a candidate, Manchan 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 Manchan! Backed up by his crony Kestor, Rielat became the thorn in Manchan's side throughout the sevendays of candidacy.
Hatching Day
The dragons' hum woke Soburn and Manchan 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 Manchan 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, Manchan was flagged down by M'shen – a green rider with only one arm. But whatever he wanted, Manchan 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 Weyr's kitchen gardens, Manchan encountered R'hren, a former Weyrleader of Madellon, now peacefully retired to potter among his beloved plants. R'hren asked Manchan to help him track down the ingredients for a warming salve to help his elderly bronze, Staamath, with his arthritic forepaws. Manchan 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, Manchan offered it to old S'rius, who was equally appreciative of the gift. And while Kisha, the blind old green rider Manchan encountered in the infirmary, would have nothing to do with one of R'hren's concoctions, she too grew to approve of Manchan – especially after he solved all three of her fiendish riddles!
Southern comfort
Manchan 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 Manchan 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 Manchan some intelligence on the Southern seven, his advice was somewhat garbled! Nonetheless, Manchan unravelled Archidath's confusing suggestions and got the right packages to the right dragons – without being growled at!
Hot stuff
Madellon's kitchen was the source of the hotfruit R'hren had sent Manchan to find for his warming salve. Headwoman Crauva handed one over immediately he asked for it, pleased to be helping such an august figure as the old Weyrleader.
Eggs and baskets
A visit to the Archives led to a meeting with Tarshe, Madellon's Weyrwoman Second. When Manchan expressed an interested in looking up some Weyr records, Tarshe offered him the loan of a glowbasket – on the proviso that he return it afterwards. Which – mindful of not offending such an important personage of the Weyr – Manchan did!
Weyrbrat by name...
A run-in with a Weyrbrat – Terzon, whom Rielat had paid to cause Manchan trouble – resulted in an unfortunate public incident. All too aware of being shaken down, Manchan 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, Manchan 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, Manchan 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 Manchan that he wasn't interested in Soburn – or any other men, for that matter. But Manchan'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!
A slithery customer
Early in the day, Manchan 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, Manchan strayed into tunnel snake territory! A huge, aggressive, and potently venomous female tunnel-snake guarded the exit to the Hatching ground. Manchan 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, Manchan crept closer to the clutch – close enough to touch an egg – before beating a hasty retreat from the Hatching Ground! And something about the very large dark grey egg made him feel strangely certain that he would Impress later that day.
The Hatching
When it came to the Hatching, Manchan had to wait for every other dragonet to Hatch and choose a rider before the very large dark grey egg Hatched to reveal the deep turned-earth brown hatchling who would choose him, naming himself Teraith.
A friend in me
And Manchan 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 Manchan was a very poor choice on Rielat's part. For the low, low price of just three marks, Manchan 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
"Teraith" by Emily Holland
The Weyrlingmaster was the first to congratulate Manchan on his Impression, but it was Garlan, delighted that her risky choice of Winstone's grandson had Impressed, who stepped in to help with the immediate matter of Teraith's first meal. That was Manchan's first opportunity to speak to Soburn, too, and they introduced each other, with considerable delight, to their respective dragonets, Teraith and Aeranth. Soburn also told Manchan that his new name was to be – perhaps unsurprisingly – S'burn.
It wasn't long before Teraith's personality started to become evident. The substantial dark-brown dragonet – chunkier than any other hatchling – had a stolid, non-nonsense character to match, speaking his mind without hesitation or tact.
With both dragonets full to bursting with fresh meat, the newly minted dragonpairs left the Hatching sands for their new home: the weyrling barracks.
Meeting the Weyrleader
As Manchan 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. Manchan was proud to introduce Teraith to the Weyrleader. And after a brief conference with Teraith, Manchan gave the Weyrleader his own new name: M'han, rider of brown Teraith!
Following their audience with the Weyrleader, and the application of oily rags to relieve Teraith's and Aeranth's newborn itchiness, M'han 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
M'han and S'burn soon went their separate ways to find family and friends. Many of the riders and Weyrfolk M'han had helped during the day greeted him with warm congratulations as he hunted through the throng – but, at last, he found his family.
Lord Winstone, M'han's grandfather, was grudgingly satisfied with Teraith's colour, if clearly disappointed that his grandson hadn't managed to Impress a bronze – a criticism that the Weyrleaders were quick to cut short in their toast to M'han and Teraith.
The rest of the evening passed in a blur for M'han, 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, M'han 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 M'han'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 M'han 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 Teraith.
A close encounter
On his way back to the barracks , M'han 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 M'han 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, M'han decided, on balance, not to tell the Weyrlingmaster about the stranger.
Returning at last to Teraith – billeted between S'burn's Aeranth and a mucky-looking brown dragonet – M'han 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 – M'han 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 Manchan's Impression here. M'han and Teraith's story will continue in Dragonchoice: Weyrling, coming soon!
M'han'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
Teraith and I complement each other!
Achievement Unlocked:
THE PATH LESS TRAVELLED
I pre-Impressed Teraith by touching his egg before the Hatching!
Achievement Unlocked:
SUGAR AND SPICE
I've been a very nice person (so far)!
Achievement Unlocked:
EBONY AND IVORY
Teraith and I agreed on something very important!
Achievement Unlocked:
IN TUNE
Teraith and I agreed on something quite important!