A'nu and green Davallith
The Road So Far!
It all began at Jessaf Hold, in the protectorate of Madellon Weyr, for Anubis – a young man of 18 Turns, dreaming of becoming a green rider.
Anubis was born to unusual privilege – a grandson of Winstone, Lord of mighty Jessaf Hold. Anubis 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, Anubis 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 Anubis becoming a candidate – displeased that such a opportunity would ruin his plans for Anubis's betrothal to a niece of Lord Orfen's. But he grudgingly accepted that, as Anubis had his majority, he had the right to accept Search. And with Winstone's admonition that he Impress a bronze – or a brown at the very least – ringing in his ears, Anubis left to begin his candidacy at Madellon Weyr.
As a candidate, Anubis 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 Anubis! Backed up by his crony Kestor, Rielat became the thorn in Anubis's side throughout the sevendays of candidacy.
Hatching Day
The dragons' hum woke Soburn and Anubis 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 Anubis 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, Anubis was flagged down by M'shen – a green rider with only one arm. But whatever he wanted, Anubis 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, Anubis 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 – Anubis 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 Anubis – but the literal red-handed lie did!
A rising problem
Anubis 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. Anubis'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 Anubis with the opportunity to show off his work ethic before the Hatching. A round of chores duly pleased Crauva.
Eggs and baskets
A visit to the Archives led to a meeting with Tarshe, Madellon's Weyrwoman Second. When Anubis 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 – Anubis did!
Weyrbrat by name...
A run-in with a Weyrbrat – Terzon, whom Rielat had paid to cause Anubis trouble – resulted in an unfortunate public incident. All too aware of being shaken down, Anubis 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, Anubis 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 Anubis hadn't reckoned on H'nar's incorruptible nature. H'nar rejected the money with outrage, and word of Anubis'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, Anubis offered his assistance – which T'gala gladly accepted.
Friend request
Conscious of Soburn's bashfulness, Anubis 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 Anubis that he wasn't interested in Soburn – or any other men, for that matter. But Anubis'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, Anubis visited Madellon's resident barber, Z'fell, for a trim. But he fell foul of the green rider's perverse sense of humour, and came away with a curious cut – short on top, long at the back – that prompted quite a number of odd looks and laughs at his expense!
Wherry bad behaviour
Anubis'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. Anubis chose the former, and the Weyrlingmaster sent him to do penance in the wherry hatchery – though Anubis remained on probation, with one more slip promising to rule him out of standing!
A breath of foul air
Early in the day, Anubis found out about a secret way into the Hatching Ground via storeroom that might allow him 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, he crawled into a confusing maze of passages. The route he chose turned out to be thick with choking toxic fumes from Madellon's volcanic foundation, and Anubis soon found himself struggling for breath.
Undeterred, Anubis pushed through the discomfort, and emerged shortly onto the Hatching Sands. But he wasn't quiet enough. Shimpath, dozing only very lightly, awoke, and she and Muzzanth chased Anubis from the Sands!
The Hatching
When it came to the Hatching, Anubis 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 Anubis, naming herself Davallith.
A friend in me
And Anubis 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 Anubis and Davallith's new classmates. (On the bright side, at least Kestor didn't Impress!)
After the Hatching
"Davallith" by Chris S. Baily
The Weyrlingmaster was the first to congratulate Anubis 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 Davallith's first meal. That was Anubis's first opportunity to speak to Soburn, too, and they introduced each other, with considerable delight, to their respective dragonets, Davallith and Aeranth. Soburn also told Anubis that his new name was to be – perhaps unsurprisingly – S'burn.
It wasn't long before Davallith'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 Anubis made along the way – a young Holdbred candidate, Nichen, whom Anubis had encountered in a hopelessly dishevelled state directly before the Hatching – hailed Anubis at the barracks – crediting him with his successful Impression of a moon-blue dragonet, Yooth!
Meeting the Weyrleader
As Anubis 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. Anubis was proud to introduce Davallith to the Weyrleader. And after a brief conference with Davallith, Anubis gave the Weyrleader his own new name: A'nu, rider of green Davallith!
Following their audience with the Weyrleader, and the application of oily rags to relieve Davallith's and Aeranth's newborn itchiness, A'nu 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
A'nu and S'burn soon went their separate ways to find family and friends. Many of the riders and Weyrfolk A'nu 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, A'nu'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 A'nu from his grandfather's fury – but the damage was already done.
The rest of the evening passed in a blur for A'nu, 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, A'nu 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 A'nu'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 A'nu some advice about paying attention to his new classmates and surroundings, lest he fall foul of the Weyrlingmaster's penchant for snap quizzes, advised him to report to Master Isnan before returning to the barracks to get his injuries checked again, and made some observations on Davallith.
A close encounter
On his way back to the barracks (by way of the infirmary, as ordered by Tarshe), A'nu 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 A'nu 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, A'nu decided, on balance, not to tell the Weyrlingmaster about the stranger.
Returning at last to Davallith – billeted between S'burn's Aeranth and a mucky-looking brown dragonet – A'nu 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 – A'nu 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 Anubis's Impression here. A'nu and Davallith's story will continue in Dragonchoice: Weyrling, coming soon!
A'nu'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
Davallith and I make a very strong match!
Achievement Unlocked:
SNAKES AND SNAILS
I haven't been very nice!
Achievement Unlocked:
PLEASE STATE THE NATURE OF THE MEDICAL EMERGENCY
I returned to the infirmary!
Achievement Unlocked:
EBONY AND IVORY
Davallith and I agreed on something very important!
Achievement Unlocked:
IN TUNE
Davallith and I agreed on something quite important!