N'ori and green Rutath

The Road So Far!

It all began at Jessaf Hold, in the protectorate of Madellon Weyr, for Nobori – a young man of 16 Turns, dreaming of becoming a dragonrider.

Nobori was born to unusual privilege – a grandson of Winstone, Lord of mighty Jessaf Hold. Nobori 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, Nobori 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 Nobori becoming a candidate – while conceding that he could spare a younger grandchild. And with Winstone's admonition that he Impress a bronze – or a brown at the very least – ringing in his ears, Nobori left to begin his candidacy at Madellon Weyr.

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

Hatching Day

The dragons' hum woke Soburn and Nobori 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 Nobori 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, Nobori 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 Nobori to find it. The quest took Nobori all over Madellon, from kitchens to lake to infirmary – but in the end he succeeded in reuniting the Weyrwoman's jewellery set, to general acclaim.

Respecting his elders

In the Weyr's kitchen gardens, Nobori encountered R'hren, a former Weyrleader of Madellon, now peacefully retired to potter among his beloved plants. R'hren asked Nobori to help him track down the ingredients for a warming salve to help his elderly bronze, Staamath, with his arthritic forepaws. Nobori 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, Nobori offered it to old S'rius, who was equally appreciative of the gift. And while Kisha, the blind old green rider Nobori encountered in the infirmary, would have nothing to do with one of R'hren's concoctions, she too grew to approve of Nobori – especially after he solved all three of her fiendish riddles!

Southern comfort

Nobori 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 Nobori 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 Nobori some intelligence on the Southern seven, his advice was somewhat garbled! Nonetheless, Nobori unravelled Archidath's confusing suggestions and got the right packages to the right dragons – without being growled at!

A rising problem

Nobori 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. Nobori'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 Nobori 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 Nobori 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 Nobori 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 – Nobori did!

A blue lady

Coming across T'gala, Pern's only female blue rider, bathing her Heppeth in the lake, Nobori offered his assistance – which T'gala gladly accepted.

Friend request

Conscious of Soburn's bashfulness, Nobori 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 Nobori that he wasn't interested in Soburn – or any other men, for that matter. But Nobori'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!

Hair today

Mindful of the Weyrlingmaster's orders to be smart for the Hatching, Nobori visited Madellon's resident barber – green rider Z'fell – for a trim. Very conscious of his dignity, Nobori ensured he came away with a cut he actually liked.

The Hatching

When it came to the Hatching, Nobori didn't have to wait at all for his date with destiny. The grey-splashed beige egg that Hatched first produced a dark teal-green hatchling who spared no time in choosing Nobori, naming herself Rutath.

A friend in me

And Nobori 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?

Sadly, there was at least one fly in the numbweed. Rielat Impressed an impressively proportioned indigo-blue hatchling, making them Nobori and Rutath's new classmates. (On the bright side, at least Kestor didn't Impress!)

After the Hatching

"Rutath" by Chris S. Baily

The Weyrlingmaster was the first to congratulate Nobori on his Impression, but it was Garlan, delighted that her risky choice of Winstone's grandson had Impressed, who stepped in to help with the immediate matter of Rutath's first meal. That was Nobori's first opportunity to speak to Soburn, too, and they introduced each other, with considerable delight, to their respective dragonets, Rutath and Aeranth. Soburn also told Nobori that his new name was to be – perhaps unsurprisingly – S'burn.

It wasn't long before Rutath'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 brother

Another friend Nobori made along the way – a young Holdbred candidate, Nichen, whom Nobori had encountered in a hopelessly dishevelled state directly before the Hatching – hailed Nobori at the barracks – crediting him with his successful Impression of a moon-blue dragonet, Yooth!

Meeting the Weyrleader

As Nobori 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. Nobori was proud to introduce Rutath to the Weyrleader. And after a brief conference with Rutath, Nobori gave the Weyrleader his own new name: N'ori, rider of green Rutath!

Following their audience with the Weyrleader, and the application of oily rags to relieve Rutath's and Aeranth's newborn itchiness, N'ori 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

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

Lord Winstone, N'ori's grandfather, was in a state of high dudgeon about his grandson's Impression of a green. A tense scene ensued, with the Weyrleaders obliged to step in to defend N'ori from his grandfather's fury – but the damage was already done.

The rest of the evening passed in a blur for N'ori, 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, N'ori 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 N'ori'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 N'ori 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 Rutath.

A close encounter

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

Returning at last to Rutath – billeted between S'burn's Aeranth and a mucky-looking brown dragonet – N'ori 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 green beside him – N'ori 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 Nobori's Impression here. N'ori and Rutath's story will continue in Dragonchoice: Weyrling, coming soon!

N'ori'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

Rutath 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

Rutath and I agreed on something very important!

Achievement Unlocked:
IN TUNE

Rutath and I agreed on something quite important!