C'arles and brown Arooth

The Road So Far!

It all began at Jessaf Hold, in the protectorate of Madellon Weyr, for Charles – a young man of 18 Turns, dreaming of becoming a dragonrider.

Charles 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, Charles didn't even present himself as a hopeful. Yet it was Charles 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, Charles's mother, had always dreamed of being a dragonrider – and gifting Charles with her blue feather pendant as a lucky charm.

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

Hatching Day

The dragons' hum woke Soburn and Charles 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 Charles 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, Charles was flagged down by M'shen – a green rider with only one arm. But whatever he wanted, Charles never discovered, after making a mean-spirited joke about M'shen's missing hand that – not unreasonably – made the green rider take against him.

Disrespecting his elders

In the Weyr's kitchen gardens, Charles encountered R'hren, a former Weyrleader of Madellon, now peacefully retired to potter among his beloved plants. But they got off to a poor start – Charles had unwittingly taken a redfruit without permission – and furthermore lied about it when challenged by the old bronze rider. The scrumping alone might not have turned R'hren against Charles – but the literal red-handed lie did!

A rising problem

Charles 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. Charles'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.

Weyrbrat by name...

A run-in with a Weyrbrat – Terzon, whom Rielat had paid to cause Charles trouble – resulted in an unfortunate public incident. All too aware of being shaken down, Charles gave the kid a shove – in front of a number of witnesses – doing nothing for his reputation!

Backhander backfired

Seeking an easy way to slip into the Hatching Ground for an early peek, Charles encountered H'nar – Wingleader of the Betweenless Wing – on guard at the entrance. It may have seemed like a good idea to offer him a few marks for safe passage – but Charles hadn't reckoned on H'nar's incorruptible nature. H'nar rejected the money with outrage, and word of Charles's attempt to bribe him made its way back to the Weyrlingmaster!

A shining example

Coming upon Santinoth – Madellon's biggest bronze – being bathed in the lake, Charles 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, Charles 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 Charles that he wasn't interested in Soburn – or any other men, for that matter. But Charles'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

Charles'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. Charles chose the former, and the Weyrlingmaster sent him to do penance in the wherry hatchery – though Charles remained on probation, with one more slip promising to rule him out of standing!

The Hatching

When it came to the Hatching, Charles had to wait for every other dragonet to Hatch and choose a rider before the unassuming grey-green egg Hatched to reveal the deep russet-brown hatchling who would choose him, naming himself Arooth.

A friend in me

And Charles 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 Charles was a very poor choice on Rielat's part. For the low, low price of just three marks, Charles 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

"Arooth" by Emily Holland

The Weyrlingmaster was the first to congratulate Charles 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 Arooth's first meal. That was Charles's first opportunity to speak to Soburn, too, and they introduced each other, with considerable delight, to their respective dragonets, Arooth and Aeranth. Soburn also told Charles that his new name was to be – perhaps unsurprisingly – S'burn.

It wasn't long before Arooth'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.

Meeting the Weyrleader

As Charles 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. Charles was proud to introduce Arooth to the Weyrleader. And after a brief conference with Arooth, Charles gave the Weyrleader his own new name: C'arles, rider of brown Arooth!

Following their audience with the Weyrleader, and the application of oily rags to relieve Arooth's and Aeranth's newborn itchiness, C'arles 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

C'arles and S'burn soon went their separate ways to find family and friends. Many of the riders and Weyrfolk C'arles had helped during the day greeted him with warm congratulations as he hunted through the throng – but, at last, he found his family.

C'arles'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 C'arles and Arooth.

The rest of the evening passed in a blur for C'arles, 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, C'arles 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 C'arles'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 C'arles 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 Arooth.

A close encounter

On his way back to the barracks , C'arles 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 C'arles 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, C'arles decided, on balance, not to tell the Weyrlingmaster about the stranger.

Returning at last to Arooth – billeted between S'burn's Aeranth and a mucky-looking brown dragonet – C'arles 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 – C'arles 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 Charles's Impression here. C'arles and Arooth's story will continue in Dragonchoice: Weyrling, coming soon!

C'arles'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

Arooth and I complement each other!

Achievement Unlocked:
SNAKES AND SNAILS

I haven't been very nice!

Achievement Unlocked:
EBONY AND IVORY

Arooth and I agreed on something very important!

Achievement Unlocked:
BUM NOTE

Arooth and I disagreed on something quite important!

Achievement Unlocked:
BFFs

Arooth and Destrath made friends!