V'rine and blue Squenth
The Road So Far!
It all began at Jessaf Hold, in the protectorate of Madellon Weyr, for Varine – a young girl of 15 Turns, dreaming of becoming a blue rider.
Varine was born to unusual privilege – a granddaughter of Winstone, Lord of mighty Jessaf Hold. Varine 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, Varine 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 Varine 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, Varine left to begin her candidacy at Madellon Weyr.
As a candidate, Varine 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 Varine! Backed up by her crony Berrin, Thippia became the thorn in Varine's side throughout the sevendays of candidacy.
Hatching Day
The dragons' hum woke Jopha and Varine 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 Varine left, Jopha – whose Impression robe was sadly overlarge for her petite frame – recruited Varine'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, Varine 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 Varine to find it. The quest took Varine 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, Varine encountered R'hren, a former Weyrleader of Madellon, now peacefully retired to potter among his beloved plants. R'hren asked Varine to help him track down the ingredients for a warming salve to help his elderly bronze, Staamath, with his arthritic forepaws. Varine 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, Varine offered it to old S'rius, who was equally appreciative of the gift. And while Kisha, the blind old green rider Varine encountered in the infirmary, would have nothing to do with one of R'hren's concoctions, she too grew to approve of Varine – especially after she solved all three of her fiendish riddles!
Kitchen diplomacy
Madellon's kitchens – the heart of the Weyr, and domain of Headwoman Crauva – provided Varine 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 Varine 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 Varine 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 – Varine did!
A blue lady
Coming across T'gala, Pern's only female blue rider, bathing her Heppeth in the lake, Varine 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 Varine didn't want to pass up.
Friend request
Knowing of Jopha's chequered history with Shookana, mistress of the Weyr's mending room, Varine approached the task of having her robe adjusted with considerable caution. Realising that falsehood would be the wrong approach, Varine went to Shookana with the truth – and a gift of popcorn. And while Varine 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, Varine visited Madellon's resident barber – green rider Z'fell – for a trim. Very conscious of her dignity, Varine ensured she came away with a cut she actually liked.
A Weyrleader's mercy
Early in the day, Varine 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. By chance, she found a way onto the Hatching Ground – onto a very high ledge! Calling down for help was the only option, and a welcome – if embarrassing – lift down from Muzzanth himself returned Varine safely to ground level.
Realising that honesty was the best policy, Varine apologised to the Weyrleader for intruding – and was surprised to find T'gat remarkably sanguine about it, reminiscing about his own youthful journey through the passages. And a polite request granted Varine the Weyrleader's permission to approach the clutch. She touched one of the eggs, marvelling at its palpable vitality.
The Hatching
When it came to the Hatching, Varine had an excruciatingly long wait before the grey-swirled silvery cream egg Hatched to reveal the very pale moon-blue dragonet who would choose her, naming himself Squenth.
A friend in me
And Varine wasn't the only lucky one. To her delight, Jopha also Impressed, becoming the rider of a big emerald-green hatchling, Deimoth.
Whatever happened to Thippia?
Thippia didn't turn up for the pre-Hatching muster, and – Varine's own suspicions notwithstanding – L'stev guessed that she had probably got herself lost trying to sneak into the Hatching Ground through the dangerous ventilation tunnels. Fortunately – Varine supposed – Weyrlingmaster A'len located the missing candidate, but too late for Thippia, who having been found unconscious, was promptly invalided out of standing!
After the Hatching
"Squenth" by Chris S. Baily
The Weyrlingmaster was the first to congratulate Varine 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 Squenth's first meal. That was Varine's first opportunity to speak to Jopha, too, and they introduced each other, with considerable delight, to their respective dragonets, Squenth and Deimoth.
It wasn't long before Squenth's personality started to become evident. The moon-blue dragonet, while seemingly reluctant to even leave his egg, showed glimmers of a curiously perceptive and knowing mind beneath his apparent laziness.
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 Varine made along the way – a young Weyrbred candidate, Brithie, whom Varine had encountered in a sudden crisis of confidence directly before the Hatching – hailed Varine at the barracks – crediting her with her successful Impression of a tiny bottle-green dragonet, Epatanth!
Meeting the Weyrleader
As Varine 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 in particular to remark upon Varine's unusual Impression of a blue. T'gat further enquired if Varine would like to elide her name, as T'gala had done, or not. Varine took up the opportunity to rename herself, and after a brief conference with Squenth, Varine gave the Weyrleader her new name – V'rine, rider of blue Squenth!
Following their audience with the Weyrleader, and the application of oily rags to relieve Squenth's and Deimoth's newborn itchiness, V'rine 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
V'rine and Jopha soon went their separate ways to find family and friends. Many of the riders and Weyrfolk V'rine 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, V'rine's grandfather, was outraged by his granddaughter's highly irregular Impression of a blue dragon – calling her aberrant. The Weyrleaders were quick to take V'rine's part, but the damage to her relationship with her grandfather was done.
The rest of the evening passed in a blur for V'rine, 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, V'rine 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 V'rine's background with her – including much of what she had got up to on the morning of the Hatching – for good and ill. She cleared up an anomaly with her new name, too. She offered V'rine some advice about paying attention to her new classmates and surroundings, lest she fall foul of the Weyrlingmaster's penchant for snap quizzes, and made some observations on Squenth.
A close encounter
On her way back to the barracks , V'rine 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 V'rine 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, V'rine decided, on balance, not to tell the Weyrlingmaster about the stranger – though she did give L'stev her new name.
Returning at last to Squenth – billeted between Jopha's Deimoth and a pale green dragonet – V'rine 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 blue beside her – V'rine was struck with a deep sense of foreboding. Who was the mysterious dragonrider in the hooded cloak? What was the significance of the strange wooden box? And how had the stranger known V'rine's new name?
V'rine and Squenth's story will continue in Dragonchoice: Weyrling, coming soon!
V'rine'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:
DEED POLL
I changed my name by choice!
Achievement Unlocked:
CEASE AND DESIST
I prevented legal difficulties by changing my name!
Achievement Unlocked:
ONE STEVE LIMIT
I avoided duplicating a Dragonchoice character's name!
Achievement Unlocked:
THEY'RE DEAD, DAVE
I changed my name to respect the deceased!
Achievement Unlocked:
BIRDS OF A FEATHER
Squenth and I make a very strong match!
Achievement Unlocked:
SUGAR AND SPICE
I've been a very nice person (so far)!
Achievement Unlocked:
EBONY AND IVORY
Squenth and I agreed on something very important!
Achievement Unlocked:
IN TUNE
Squenth and I agreed on something quite important!
Achievement Unlocked:
ENEMY MINE
Squenth and Chanth took against each other!