M'sey and green Roriduth

The Road So Far!

It all began at the Healer Hall at Blue Shale Hold, in the protectorate of Madellon Weyr, for Merseyam – a young man of 16 Turns, dreaming of becoming a green rider.

Merseyam was born the son of two Master Healers at the Southern Healerhall, Blue Shale Hold. He was treating minor injuries even before he was formally apprenticed to the Craft. But frustration with the drudgery of the long apprenticeship made Merseyam 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. Merseyam was assigned to treat the minor condition. But P'lian's Sparth – despite his colour, a budding Search-sensitive dragon – insisted that Merseyam was a likely sort for candidacy. And a sevenday later, Merseyam arrived at Madellon Weyr, joining the candidate pool for senior queen Shimpath's first clutch by her new mate Muzzanth.

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

Hatching Day

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

Southern comfort

Merseyam 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 Merseyam 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 Merseyam some intelligence on the Southern seven, his advice was somewhat garbled! Nonetheless, Merseyam 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, Merseyam 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, Merseyam 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. Merseyam 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 Merseyam a certain confidence in his own prospects!

A rising problem

Merseyam 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. Merseyam'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 Merseyam 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 Merseyam to find for his warming salve.

Weyrbrat by name...

A run-in with a Weyrbrat – Terzon, whom Rielat had paid to cause Merseyam trouble – resulted in an unfortunate public incident. All too aware of being shaken down, Merseyam gave the kid a shove – in front of a number of witnesses – doing nothing for his reputation!

A blue lady

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

Friend request

Conscious of Soburn's bashfulness, Merseyam 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 Merseyam that he wasn't interested in Soburn – or any other men, for that matter. But Merseyam'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, Merseyam visited Madellon's resident barber – green rider Z'fell – for a trim. Very conscious of his dignity, Merseyam ensured he came away with a cut he actually liked.

The Hatching

When it came to the Hatching, Merseyam had to wait a little while before the spotted green and cream egg Hatched to reveal the vivid sea-green dragonet who would choose him, naming herself Roriduth.

But Roriduth was nearly beaten to Merseyam by another dragonet – a slender olive-green hatchling who seemed torn between Merseyam and Soburn. Sensing that she wasn't the best match for him, Merseyam stepped aside to give his friend precedence – resulting in Soburn's Impression of the little green, 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 Merseyam and Roriduth's new classmates. (On the bright side, at least Kestor didn't Impress!)

After the Hatching

"Roriduth" by Emily Holland

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

It wasn't long before Roriduth's personality started to become evident. The sea-green dragonet – ambiguously coloured at first glance, but unequivocally female when asked – proved to have a particularly playful and fun-loving outlook on life.

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

Meeting the Weyrleader

As Merseyam 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. Merseyam was proud to introduce Roriduth to the Weyrleader. And after a brief conference with Roriduth, Merseyam gave the Weyrleader his own new name: M'sey, rider of green Roriduth!

Following their audience with the Weyrleader, and the application of oily rags to relieve Roriduth's and Aeranth's newborn itchiness, M'sey 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

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

M'sey's father, a loud man in normal times, was positively bellowing with pleasure at M'sey's Impression – albeit with a certain disappointment that his son wouldn't be continuing in the Healercraft. And he embarrassed both his son, and his long-suffering wife, still further when the Weyrleaders came to drink a toast to M'sey and Roriduth – remarking, very loudly, on the parentage of Valonna's soon-to-arrive first baby!

The rest of the evening passed in a blur for M'sey, 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, M'sey 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 M'sey'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 M'sey 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 Roriduth.

A close encounter

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

Returning at last to Roriduth – billeted between S'burn's Aeranth and a bright bronze dragonet – M'sey 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 – M'sey 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?

M'sey and Roriduth's story will continue in Dragonchoice: Weyrling, coming soon!

M'sey'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

Roriduth and I complement each other!

Achievement Unlocked:
SUGAR AND SPICE

I've been a very nice person (so far)!

Achievement Unlocked:
EBONY AND IVORY

Roriduth and I agreed on something very important!

Achievement Unlocked:
BUM NOTE

Roriduth and I disagreed on something quite important!