Fiona and green Trigonath
The Road So Far!
It all began at Jessaf Hold, in the protectorate of Madellon Weyr, for Fiona – a young girl of 13 Turns, dreaming of becoming a dragonrider.
Fiona was born to unusual privilege – a granddaughter of Winstone, Lord of mighty Jessaf Hold. Fiona 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, Fiona 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 Fiona becoming a candidate – while conceding that he could spare a younger grandchild. And with Winstone's admonition that she should remember her place as his granddaughter and not make a scene ringing in her ears, Fiona left to begin her candidacy at Madellon Weyr.
As a candidate, Fiona 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 Fiona! Backed up by her crony Berrin, Thippia became the thorn in Fiona's side throughout the sevendays of candidacy.
Hatching Day
The dragons' hum woke Jopha and Fiona 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 Fiona left, Jopha – whose Impression robe was sadly overlarge for her petite frame – recruited Fiona'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, Fiona 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 Fiona to find it. The quest took Fiona all over Madellon, from kitchens to lake to infirmary – but in the end she succeeded in reuniting the Weyrwoman's jewellery set, to general acclaim.
Respecting her elders
In the Weyr's kitchen gardens, Fiona encountered R'hren, a former Weyrleader of Madellon, now peacefully retired to potter among his beloved plants. R'hren asked Fiona to help him track down the ingredients for a warming salve to help his elderly bronze, Staamath, with his arthritic forepaws. Fiona 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, Fiona offered it to old S'rius, who was equally appreciative of the gift. And while Kisha, the blind old green rider Fiona encountered in the infirmary, would have nothing to do with one of R'hren's concoctions, she too grew to approve of Fiona – especially after she solved all three of her fiendish riddles!
Southern comfort
Fiona 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 Fiona 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 Fiona some intelligence on the Southern seven, his advice was somewhat garbled! Nonetheless, Fiona unravelled Archidath's confusing suggestions and got the right packages to the right dragons – without being growled at!
A rising problem
Fiona 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. Fiona's intervention successfully got rid of G'tron, whose Imdoth was very sweet indeed on Bristath, from the mating flight – not to mention G'pellas, another blue rider, needed in the Harper ensemble – and reconciled the two green riders. Even if Fiona did annoy Soleigh, who wasn't impressed with her for prolonging Maris' binge by bringing her more wine!
Kitchen diplomacy
Madellon's kitchens – the heart of the Weyr, and domain of Headwoman Crauva – provided Fiona 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 Fiona 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 Fiona 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 – Fiona did!
A blue lady
Coming across T'gala, Pern's only female blue rider, bathing her Heppeth in the lake, Fiona offered her assistance – which T'gala gladly accepted. Getting some first-hand advice about what it took for T'gala to Impress a blue dragon was an opportunity Fiona didn't want to pass up.
Friend request
Knowing of Jopha's chequered history with Shookana, mistress of the Weyr's mending room, Fiona approached the task of having her robe adjusted with considerable caution. Realising that falsehood would be the wrong approach, Fiona went to Shookana with the truth – and a gift of popcorn. And while Fiona 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!
Hair today
Mindful of the Weyrlingmaster's orders to be smart for the Hatching, Fiona visited Madellon's resident barber – green rider Z'fell – for a trim. Very conscious of her dignity, Fiona ensured she came away with a cut she actually liked.
A breath of foul air
Early in the day, Fiona 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 Fiona soon found herself struggling for breath. And then she came across Thippia – having apparently followed Fiona into the passageways – lying unconscious and insensible in the fume-filled tunnel.
Perhaps it was the toxic air, or perhaps not – but when Fiona crawled out onto the Hatching sands, she didn't drag Thippia out with her – and nor did she tell the Weyrleader about her stricken fellow candidate. Overcome by the ordeal, Fiona fainted.
Fiona woke in the infirmary – only to be interrogated by a very grim Weyrleader T'gat and Weyrlingmaster L'stev. Thippia had been found – dead. And only some very quick talking on Fiona's part spared her from being thrown out of the Weyr entirely.
The Hatching
When it came to the Hatching, Fiona didn't have to wait too long for her date with destiny. The grey-splashed beige egg Hatched out a dark teal-green dragonet who told Fiona her name was Trigonath.
A friend in me
And Fiona 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
"Trigonath" by Chris S. Baily
The Weyrlingmaster was the first to congratulate Fiona on her Impression, but it was Garlan, delighted that her risky choice of Winstone's granddaughter had Impressed, who stepped in to help with the immediate matter of Trigonath's first meal. That was Fiona's first opportunity to speak to Jopha, too, and they introduced each other, with considerable delight, to their respective dragonets, Trigonath and Deimoth.
It wasn't long before Trigonath's personality started to become evident. The teal-green dragonet, inquisitive about everything from the instant of her hatching, also proved to be an especially sweet-natured and kind character.
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 Fiona made along the way – a young Weyrbred candidate, Brithie, whom Fiona had encountered in a sudden crisis of confidence directly before the Hatching – hailed Fiona at the barracks – crediting her with her successful Impression of a tiny bottle-green dragonet, Epatanth!
Meeting the Weyrleader
As Fiona 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. Fiona was proud to introduce Trigonath to the Weyrleader – and to give him her full new name: Fiona, rider of green Trigonath!
Following their audience with the Weyrleader, and the application of oily rags to relieve Trigonath's and Deimoth's newborn itchiness, Fiona 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
Fiona and Jopha soon went their separate ways to find family and friends. Many of the riders and Weyrfolk Fiona had helped during the day greeted her with warm congratulations as she hunted through the throng – but, at last, she found her family.
Lord Winstone, Fiona's grandfather, was faint with his praise for his granddaughter's Impression of Trigonath – suggesting that she should have waited for a chance at a queen. The Weyrleaders were swift to insist that Impressing any dragon was a great achievement!
The rest of the evening passed in a blur for Fiona, 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, Fiona 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 Fiona'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 Fiona 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 Trigonath.
A close encounter
On her way back to the barracks (by way of the infirmary, as ordered by Tarshe), Fiona 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 Fiona 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, Fiona decided, on balance, not to tell the Weyrlingmaster about the stranger.
Returning at last to Trigonath – billeted between Jopha's Deimoth and a pale green dragonet – Fiona 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 – Fiona 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?
Fiona and Trigonath's story will continue in Dragonchoice: Weyrling, coming soon!
Fiona'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:
BIRDS OF A FEATHER
Trigonath and I make a very strong match!
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
Trigonath and I agreed on something very important!
Achievement Unlocked:
IN TUNE
Trigonath and I agreed on something quite important!
Achievement Unlocked:
OUT, DAMNED SPOT
I left Thippia to die, and I'll have to live with that secret, forever.