Y'nor and brown Dandith

The Road So Far!

It all began at Madellon Weyr for Yenorvie – a young man of 18 Turns, dreaming of becoming a brown rider.

Yenorvie was born the son of Wingleader R'yeno and green rider Evie of Madellon Weyr. While he didn't have to be Searched, he was 'given the nod' as a likely dragonrider by the Weyr's most senior retired Search pair – S'rius and his elderly blue Padseth. Having been left standing at a Hatching once before, Yenorvie wrestled with the fear that he wouldn't live up to his rider parents' expectations a second time.

As a candidate, Yenorvie 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 Yenorvie! Backed up by his crony Kestor, Rielat became the thorn in Yenorvie's side throughout the sevendays of candidacy.

Hatching Day

The dragons' hum woke Soburn and Yenorvie 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 Yenorvie 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 and the thieving queen

Immediately on leaving the candidate barracks, Yenorvie 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 Yenorvie to find it. The quest took Yenorvie all over Madellon, from kitchens to lake to infirmary – but in the end he succeeded in reuniting the Weyrwoman's jewellery set, to general acclaim.

Respecting his elders

In the Weyr's kitchen gardens, Yenorvie encountered R'hren, a former Weyrleader of Madellon, now peacefully retired to potter among his beloved plants. R'hren asked Yenorvie to help him track down the ingredients for a warming salve to help his elderly bronze, Staamath, with his arthritic forepaws. Yenorvie duly located the components of R'hren's salve, winning the old bronze rider's approval in the process.

Southern comfort

Yenorvie 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 Yenorvie 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 Yenorvie some intelligence on the Southern seven, his advice was somewhat garbled! Nonetheless, Yenorvie 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 Yenorvie with the opportunity to show off his 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 Yenorvie 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 Yenorvie 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 – Yenorvie did!

Weyrbrat by name...

A run-in with a Weyrbrat – Terzon, whom Rielat had paid to cause Yenorvie trouble – resulted in an unfortunate public incident. All too aware of being shaken down, Yenorvie 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, Yenorvie 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, Yenorvie 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 Yenorvie that he wasn't interested in Soburn – or any other men, for that matter. But Yenorvie'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!

Hair today

Mindful of the Weyrlingmaster's orders to be smart for the Hatching, Yenorvie visited Madellon's resident barber – green rider Z'fell – for a trim. Very conscious of his dignity, Yenorvie ensured he came away with a cut he actually liked.

A breath of foul air

Early in the day, Yenorvie 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. The route he chose turned out to be thick with choking toxic fumes from Madellon's volcanic foundation, and Yenorvie soon found himself struggling for breath. And then he came across Rielat – having apparently followed Yenorvie into the passageways – lying unconscious and insensible in the fume-filled tunnel.

Perhaps it was the toxic air, or perhaps not – but when Yenorvie crawled out onto the Hatching sands, he didn't drag Rielat out with him – and nor did he tell the Weyrleader about his stricken fellow candidate. Overcome by the ordeal, Yenorvie fainted.

Yenorvie woke in the infirmary – only to be interrogated by a very grim Weyrleader T'gat and Weyrlingmaster L'stev. Rielat had been found – dead. And only some very quick talking on Yenorvie's part spared him from being thrown out of the Weyr entirely.

The Hatching

When it came to the Hatching, Yenorvie had an excruciatingly long wait before the moonlike grey egg Hatched to reveal the warm milky-klah brown dragonet who would choose him, naming himself Dandith.

A friend in me

And Yenorvie wasn't the only lucky one. To his delight, Soburn also Impressed, becoming the rider of a slender olive-green hatchling, Aeranth.

After the Hatching

"Dandith" by Chris S. Baily

The Weyrlingmaster was the first to congratulate Yenorvie on his Impression, but it was old S'rius, delighted to have found yet another weyrling, who stepped in to help with the immediate matter of Dandith's first meal. That was Yenorvie's first opportunity to speak to Soburn, too, and they introduced each other, with considerable delight, to their respective dragonets, Dandith and Aeranth. Soburn also told Yenorvie that his new name was to be – perhaps unsurprisingly – S'burn.

It wasn't long before Dandith's personality started to become evident. The little klah-coloured brown proved to be exceptionally friendly and forward from the very beginning, wanting nothing more than to introduce himself to everyone he met.

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 Yenorvie made along the way – a young Holdbred candidate, Nichen, whom Yenorvie had encountered in a hopelessly dishevelled state directly before the Hatching – hailed Yenorvie at the barracks – crediting him with his successful Impression of a moon-blue dragonet, Yooth!

Meeting the Weyrleader

As Yenorvie 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. Yenorvie was proud to introduce Dandith to the Weyrleader. And after a brief conference with Dandith, Yenorvie gave the Weyrleader his own new name: Y'nor, rider of brown Dandith!

Following their audience with the Weyrleader, and the application of oily rags to relieve Dandith's and Aeranth's newborn itchiness, Y'nor 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

Y'nor and S'burn soon went their separate ways to find family and friends. Many of the riders and Weyrfolk Y'nor had helped during the day greeted him with warm congratulations as he hunted through the throng – but, at last, he found his family.

R'yeno and Evie couldn't have been happier to greet their son as a brown rider for the first time . And when the Weyrleaders came to drink a toast to Y'nor and Dandith, R'yeno was delighted to embarrass his son by insinuating that Gryth would be stiffer competition to Muzzanth in Shimpath's next flight.

The rest of the evening passed in a blur for Y'nor, 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, Y'nor 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 Y'nor'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 Y'nor some advice about paying attention to his new classmates and surroundings, lest he fall foul of the Weyrlingmaster's penchant for snap quizzes, advised him to report to Master Isnan before returning to the barracks to get his injuries checked again, and made some observations on Dandith.

A close encounter

On his way back to the barracks (by way of the infirmary, as ordered by Tarshe), Y'nor 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 Y'nor 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, Y'nor decided, on balance, not to tell the Weyrlingmaster about the stranger.

Returning at last to Dandith – billeted between S'burn's Aeranth and a mucky-looking brown dragonet – Y'nor 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 – Y'nor 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?

Y'nor and Dandith's story will continue in Dragonchoice: Weyrling, coming soon!

Y'nor'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

Dandith 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

Dandith and I agreed on something very important!

Achievement Unlocked:
BUM NOTE

Dandith and I disagreed on something quite important!

Achievement Unlocked:
RIEN DE RIEN

I left Rielat to die, and I regret nothing!