Th'deus and bronze Sirawith

The Road So Far!

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

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

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

Hatching Day

The dragons' hum woke Soburn and Thaddeus 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 Thaddeus 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, Thaddeus 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 Thaddeus to find it. Despite Thaddeus's best efforts, though, he didn't manage to complete and return the jewellery set before the Hatching.

Respecting his elders

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

A rising problem

Thaddeus 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. Thaddeus'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.

Kitchen diplomacy

Madellon's kitchens – the heart of the Weyr, and domain of Headwoman Crauva – provided Thaddeus 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 Thaddeus 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 Thaddeus 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 – Thaddeus did!

Weyrbrat by name...

A run-in with a Weyrbrat – Terzon, whom Rielat had paid to cause Thaddeus trouble – resulted in an unfortunate public incident. All too aware of being shaken down, Thaddeus 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, Thaddeus 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 Thaddeus hadn't reckoned on H'nar's incorruptible nature. H'nar rejected the money with outrage, and word of Thaddeus'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, Thaddeus 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, Thaddeus 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 Thaddeus that he wasn't interested in Soburn – or any other men, for that matter. But Thaddeus'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!

The Hatching

When it came to the Hatching, Thaddeus had an excruciatingly long wait before the large greeny-grey egg Hatched to reveal the pale greeny-bronze dragonet who would choose him, naming himself Sirawith.

A friend in me

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

"Sirawith" by Chris S. Baily

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

It wasn't long before Sirawith's personality started to become evident. The pale bronze dragonet – the largest of the clutch, and the image of his father Muzzanth – proved to be a particular intelligent and perceptive character even minutes out of the egg.

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 Thaddeus 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. Thaddeus was proud to introduce Sirawith to the Weyrleader. And after a brief conference with Sirawith, Thaddeus gave the Weyrleader his own new name: Th'deus, rider of bronze Sirawith!

Following their audience with the Weyrleader, and the application of oily rags to relieve Sirawith's and Aeranth's newborn itchiness, Th'deus 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

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

Th'deus'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 Th'deus and Sirawith.

The rest of the evening passed in a blur for Th'deus, 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, Th'deus 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 Th'deus'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 Th'deus 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 Sirawith.

A close encounter

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

Returning at last to Sirawith – billeted between S'burn's Aeranth and a mucky-looking brown dragonet – Th'deus 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 bronze beside him – Th'deus 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 Thaddeus's Impression here. Th'deus and Sirawith's story will continue in Dragonchoice: Weyrling, coming soon!

Th'deus'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

Sirawith and I complement each other!

Achievement Unlocked:
EBONY AND IVORY

Sirawith and I agreed on something very important!

Achievement Unlocked:
IN TUNE

Sirawith and I agreed on something quite important!