P'tra and blue Tixjath
The Road So Far!
It all began at the Healer Hall at Blue Shale Hold, in the protectorate of Madellon Weyr, for Pettra – a young girl of 15 Turns, dreaming of becoming a blue rider.
Pettra was born the daughter of two Master Healers at the Southern Healerhall, Blue Shale Hold. She was treating minor injuries even before she was formally apprenticed to the Craft. But frustration with the drudgery of the long apprenticeship made Pettra an undistinguished crafter, lacking the focus or passion demanded by the Healerhall. And then, in early 102, brown rider P'lian came to the Healer Hall complaining of frostbitten fingers. Pettra was assigned to treat the minor condition. But P'lian's Sparth – despite his colour, a budding Search-sensitive dragon – insisted that Pettra was a likely sort for candidacy. And a sevenday later, Pettra arrived at Madellon Weyr, joining the candidate pool for senior queen Shimpath's first clutch by her new mate Muzzanth.
As a candidate, Pettra 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 Pettra! Backed up by her crony Berrin, Thippia became the thorn in Pettra's side throughout the sevendays of candidacy.
Hatching Day
The dragons' hum woke Jopha and Pettra 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 Pettra left, Jopha – whose Impression robe was sadly overlarge for her petite frame – recruited Pettra'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, Pettra 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 Pettra to find it. The quest took Pettra 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, Pettra encountered R'hren, a former Weyrleader of Madellon, now peacefully retired to potter among his beloved plants. R'hren asked Pettra to help him track down the ingredients for a warming salve to help his elderly bronze, Staamath, with his arthritic forepaws. Pettra 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, Pettra offered it to old S'rius, who was equally appreciative of the gift. And while Kisha, the blind old green rider Pettra encountered in the infirmary, would have nothing to do with one of R'hren's concoctions, she too grew to approve of Pettra – especially after she solved all three of her fiendish riddles!
Southern comfort
Pettra 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 Pettra 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 Pettra some intelligence on the Southern seven, his advice was somewhat garbled! Nonetheless, Pettra unravelled Archidath's confusing suggestions and got the right packages to the right dragons – without being growled at!
A Masterful order
In the dining hall, Pettra met her fellow candidate Zielaph, who'd been tasked by his somewhat dim uncle, bronze rider Fr'ton, with delivering a complicated drinks order to a group of Master Crafters. Zielaph had information about their names, beverages, crafts, and fire-lizards – but not in any sensible order!
Luckily for him, Pettra solved the puzzle of Fr'ton's confusing notes adeptly, delivering the correct drinks to the correct Masters, and earning a handsome tip in the process. Pettra even shared the largesse with Zielaph, who then introduced her to Fr'ton – who, having Impressed a bronze in spite of his less than boundless promise, gave Pettra a certain confidence in her own prospects!
A rising problem
Pettra 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. And while Pettra did manage to get G'tron excluded from the flight – not to mention another blue rider, G'pellas, who was needed in the Harper ensemble – she still ultimately failed to reconcile the star-crossed green riding lovers!
Kitchen diplomacy
Madellon's kitchens – the heart of the Weyr, and domain of Headwoman Crauva – provided Pettra 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 Pettra 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 Pettra 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. But with one thing and another, Pettra didn't bring it back – earning the Weyrwoman Second's ire!
Backhander backfired
Seeking an easy way to slip into the Hatching Ground for an early peek, Pettra 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 Pettra hadn't reckoned on H'nar's incorruptible nature. H'nar rejected the money with outrage, and word of Pettra's attempt to bribe him made its way back to the Weyrlingmaster!
A blue lady
Coming across T'gala, Pern's only female blue rider, bathing her Heppeth in the lake, Pettra 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 Pettra didn't want to pass up.
Friend request
Knowing of Jopha's chequered history with Shookana, mistress of the Weyr's mending room, Pettra approached the task of having her robe adjusted with considerable caution. Realising that falsehood would be the wrong approach, Pettra went to Shookana with the truth – and a gift of popcorn. And while Pettra 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, Pettra visited Madellon's resident barber – green rider Z'fell – for a trim. Very conscious of her dignity, Pettra ensured she came away with a cut she actually liked.
A breath of foul air
Early in the day, Pettra 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 Pettra soon found herself struggling for breath. And then she came across Thippia – having apparently followed Pettra into the passageways – lying unconscious and insensible in the fume-filled tunnel.
Setting aside her petty rivalry with Thippia in the face of a genuine emergency, Pettra set about making Thippia stable – glad for the Healer kit she always carried with her. And on crawling out onto the Hatching Ground, half suffocated herself, she raised the alarm with the Weyrleader before being overcome by the ordeal, and fainting there on the sand.
Pettra woke in the infirmary, and while the Weyrleader and Weyrlingmaster questioned her sternly about her adventures, the fact that Pettra had certainly saved Thippia's life counted in her favour, despite having disobeyed the order not to go meddling in the tunnels.
The Hatching
When it came to the Hatching, Pettra had an excruciatingly long wait before the green-clouded blue egg Hatched to reveal the dark steel-blue dragonet who would choose her, naming himself Tixjath.
But Tixjath was nearly beaten to Pettra by another dragonet – a big emerald-green hatchling who seemed torn between Pettra and Jopha. Sensing that she wasn't the best match for her, Pettra stepped aside to give Jopha precedence – resulting in her Impression of the green dragonet, Deimoth.
After the Hatching
"Tixjath" by Emily Holland
The Weyrlingmaster was the first to congratulate Pettra on her Impression, but it was P'lian, ecstatic that Sparth's very first Search had yielded an Impression, who stepped in to help with the immediate matter of Tixjath's first meal. That was Pettra's first opportunity to speak to Jopha, too, and they introduced each other, with considerable delight, to their respective dragonets, Tixjath and Deimoth.
It wasn't long before Tixjath's personality started to become evident. The dark blue dragonet, among the smallest of his colour, turned out to be of an endearingly shy and modest character, rather requiring of encouragement.
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 Pettra 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 Pettra's unusual Impression of a blue. T'gat further enquired if Pettra would like to elide her name, as T'gala had done, or not. Pettra took up the opportunity to rename herself, and after a brief conference with Tixjath, Pettra gave the Weyrleader her new name – P'tra, rider of blue Tixjath!
Following their audience with the Weyrleader, and the application of oily rags to relieve Tixjath's and Deimoth's newborn itchiness, P'tra 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
P'tra and Jopha soon went their separate ways to find family and friends. Many of the riders and Weyrfolk P'tra had helped during the day greeted her with warm congratulations as she hunted through the throng – but, at last, she found her family.
P'tra's father, a loud man in normal times, was positively bellowing with pleasure at P'tra's Impression – albeit with a certain disappointment that his daughter wouldn't be continuing in the Healercraft. And he embarrassed both his daughter, and his long-suffering wife, still further when the Weyrleaders came to drink a toast to P'tra and Tixjath – remarking, very loudly, on the parentage of Valonna's soon-to-arrive first baby!
The rest of the evening passed in a blur for P'tra, 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, P'tra 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 P'tra'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 P'tra 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 Tixjath.
A close encounter
On her way back to the barracks (by way of the infirmary, as ordered by Tarshe), P'tra 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 P'tra 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, P'tra decided, on balance, not to tell the Weyrlingmaster about the stranger – though she did give L'stev her new name.
Returning at last to Tixjath – billeted between Jopha's Deimoth and a pale green dragonet – P'tra 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 – P'tra 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 P'tra's new name?
P'tra and Tixjath's story will continue in Dragonchoice: Weyrling, coming soon!
P'tra'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:
ONE STEVE LIMIT
I avoided duplicating a Dragonchoice character's name!
Achievement Unlocked:
OPPOSITES ATTRACT
I make quite a strange match with Tixjath!
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
Tixjath and I agreed on something very important!
Achievement Unlocked:
BUM NOTE
Tixjath and I disagreed on something quite important!