T'bin and bronze Katzoth
The Road So Far!
It all began at Jessaf Hold, in the protectorate of Madellon Weyr, for Tobin – a young man of 17 Turns, dreaming of becoming a bronze rider.
Tobin 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, Tobin didn't even present himself as a hopeful. Yet it was Tobin 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, Tobin's mother, had always dreamed of being a dragonrider – and gifting Tobin with her blue feather pendant as a lucky charm.
As a candidate, Tobin 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 Tobin! Backed up by his crony Kestor, Rielat became the thorn in Tobin's side throughout the sevendays of candidacy.
Hatching Day
The dragons' hum woke Soburn and Tobin 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 Tobin 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, Tobin 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 Tobin to find it. Despite Tobin's best efforts, though, he didn't manage to complete and return the jewellery set before the Hatching.
A Masterful order
In the dining hall, Tobin met his 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, Tobin 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. Tobin even shared the largesse with Zielaph, who then introduced him to Fr'ton – who, having Impressed a bronze in spite of his less than boundless promise, gave Tobin a certain confidence in his own prospects!
A rising problem
Tobin 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. Tobin'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 Tobin 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 him to find – although Tobin had an alternative use in mind for it...
A shining example
Coming upon Santinoth – Madellon's biggest bronze – being bathed in the lake, Tobin 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?
With friends like these...
But handling Soburn's long-distance crush required a delicacy that Tobin sadly didn't possess. Revealing too much to H'nar – and then failing to treat Soburn's bruised feelings with any sort of care – destroyed Tobin pining friend's confidence. Having already failed to Impress once, and now crushed by the rejection of a rider who would certainly be his Wingleader should he ever Impress, Soburn decided to rule himself out of candidacy entirely.
The Hatching

When it came to the Hatching, Tobin didn't have to wait too long for his date with destiny. The black-freckled grey egg Hatched out a deep classic-bronze dragonet who told Tobin his name was Katzoth.
Whatever happened to Rielat?
For Rielat, getting on Tobin's bad side proved to be an exceptionally poor choice. Tobin dosed Rielat's clean underfurs with hotfruit before the Hatching, and for once, the admonition to always put on clean underpants turned out to have very negative consequences. It took a little while for the hotfruit to take effect, but by the time the candidates reached the Hatching Sands, Rielat was in considerable distress. Unable to bear the burning sensation in his nether regions, he fled the Hatching Sands – squandering his chance at Impression!
After the Hatching

"Katzoth" by Chris S. Baily
The Weyrlingmaster was the first to congratulate Tobin 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 Katzoth's first meal. That was the first moment Tobin had truly grasped that Soburn wasn't going to be a weyrling alongside him – a truth that hit hard. In Soburn's absence, Chiliam – the highborn lad from Kellad, who'd Impressed a dusty-brown dragonet, Destrath, and who now styled himself Ch'liam – was a welcome friendly face.
It wasn't long before Katzoth's personality started to become evident. The energetic bronze dragonet, the classic shade of his colour, was unusually forceful even for his colour – promising to be a handful for his rider!
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 Tobin made along the way – a young Holdbred candidate, Nichen, whom Tobin had encountered in a hopelessly dishevelled state directly before the Hatching – hailed Tobin at the barracks – crediting him with his successful Impression of a moon-blue dragonet, Yooth!
Meeting the Weyrleader
As Tobin and Ch'liam 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. Tobin was proud to introduce Katzoth to the Weyrleader. And after a brief conference with Katzoth, Tobin gave the Weyrleader his own new name: T'bin, rider of bronze Katzoth!
Following their audience with the Weyrleader, and the application of oily rags to relieve Katzoth's and Destrath's newborn itchiness, T'bin and Ch'liam 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
T'bin and Ch'liam soon went their separate ways to find family and friends. Many of the riders and Weyrfolk T'bin had helped during the day greeted him with warm congratulations as he hunted through the throng – but, at last, he found his family.
T'bin'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 T'bin and Katzoth.
The rest of the evening passed in a blur for T'bin, 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, T'bin 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 T'bin'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 T'bin 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 Katzoth.
A close encounter
On his way back to the barracks , T'bin 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 T'bin 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, T'bin decided, on balance, not to tell the Weyrlingmaster about the stranger.
Returning at last to Katzoth – billeted between Ch'liam's Destrath and a bright bronze dragonet – T'bin 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 – T'bin 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 Tobin's Impression here. T'bin and Katzoth's story will continue in Dragonchoice: Weyrling, coming soon!
T'bin'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
Katzoth and I complement each other!

Achievement Unlocked:
EBONY AND IVORY
Katzoth and I agreed on something very important!

Achievement Unlocked:
IN TUNE
Katzoth and I agreed on something quite important!