Moon and green Alomiath
The Road So Far!
It all began at Jessaf Hold, in the protectorate of Madellon Weyr, for Moon – a young girl of 14 Turns, dreaming of becoming a green rider.
Moon was born the daughter of a modest cotholder at Jessaf Hold, working alongside her widowed father to work their allotted land, and help bring up her 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, Moon didn't even present herself as a hopeful. Yet it was Moon that Kistrith singled out among all those young people. She almost didn't accept Search – anxious not to abandon her father. But he insisted, revealing that his late wife, Moon's mother, had always dreamed of being a dragonrider – and gifting Moon with her blue feather pendant as a lucky charm.
As a candidate, Moon was assigned a bunkmate – Jopha, a mischievous young Weyrbred girl prone to getting herself into trouble, who would soon become her closest friend in the Weyr. She also got to know many of her fellow candidates, including the Weyrbred twins Leover and Leoguy; Zielaph, the nephew of a Madellon bronze rider; and Arina, a level-headed young woman from Jessaf who'd stood at the previous Hatching.
But she also made an enemy – Thippia, a foul-mouthed girl from the Seacraft – who took a firm disliking to Moon! Backed up by her crony Berrin, Thippia became the thorn in Moon's side throughout the sevendays of candidacy.
Hatching Day
The dragons' hum woke Jopha and Moon on 102.03.17. Following a brief run-in with Thippia, 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 Moon left, Jopha – whose Impression robe was sadly overlarge for her petite frame – recruited Moon's help in getting it adjusted by her nemesis Shookana in the mending room.
The one-armed green rider and the thieving queen
Immediately on leaving the candidate barracks, Moon 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 Moon to find it. Despite Moon's best efforts, though, she didn't manage to complete and return the jewellery set before the Hatching.
Respecting her elders
In the Weyr's kitchen gardens, Moon encountered R'hren, a former Weyrleader of Madellon, now peacefully retired to potter among his beloved plants. R'hren asked Moon to help him track down the ingredients for a warming salve to help his elderly bronze, Staamath, with his arthritic forepaws. Moon 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, Moon offered it to old S'rius, who was equally appreciative of the gift. And while Kisha, the blind old green rider Moon encountered in the infirmary, would have nothing to do with one of R'hren's concoctions, she too grew to approve of Moon – especially after she solved all three of her fiendish riddles!
A Masterful order
In the dining hall, Moon met her 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, Moon 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.
A rising problem
Moon 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. Moon'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 Moon with the opportunity to show off her 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 Moon 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 Moon expressed an interested in looking up some Weyr records, Tarshe offered her the loan of a glowbasket – on the proviso that she return it afterwards. Which – mindful of not offending such an important personage of the Weyr – Moon did!
Weyrbrat by name...
A run-in with a Weyrbrat – Terzon, whom Thippia had paid to cause Moon trouble – resulted in an unfortunate public incident. All too aware of being shaken down, Moon gave the kid a shove – in front of a number of witnesses – doing nothing for her reputation!
A blue lady
Coming across T'gala, Pern's only female blue rider, bathing her Heppeth in the lake, Moon offered her assistance – which T'gala gladly accepted. Getting some first-hand advice about what it took for T'gala to Impress a blue dragon was an opportunity Moon didn't want to pass up.
Friend request
Knowing of Jopha's chequered history with Shookana, mistress of the Weyr's mending room, Moon approached the task of having her robe adjusted with considerable caution. Realising that falsehood would be the wrong approach, Moon went to Shookana with the truth – and a gift of popcorn. And while Moon doubted if Shookana and Jopha will ever be friends, the restoration of her Hatching robe to a suitable length did a great deal for her self-confidence!
A breath of foul air
Early in the day, Moon found out about a secret way into the Hatching Ground via storeroom that might allow her 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, she crawled into a confusing maze of passages. The route she chose turned out to be thick with choking toxic fumes from Madellon's volcanic foundation, and Moon soon found herself struggling for breath.
Undeterred, Moon pushed through the discomfort, and emerged shortly onto the Hatching Sands. But she wasn't quiet enough. Shimpath, dozing only very lightly, awoke, and she and Muzzanth chased Moon from the Sands!
The Hatching
When it came to the Hatching, Moon had to wait for every other dragonet to Hatch and choose a rider before the rough-textured cloudy white egg Hatched to reveal the vivid grassy-green hatchling who would choose her, naming herself Alomiath.
A friend in me
And Moon wasn't the only lucky one. To her delight, Jopha also Impressed, becoming the rider of a big emerald-green hatchling, Deimoth.
Whatever happened to Thippia?
Sadly, there was at least one fly in the numbweed. Thippia Impressed a very vocal mint-green hatchling, making them Moon and Alomiath's new classmates. (On the bright side, at least Berrin didn't Impress!)
After the Hatching
"Alomiath" by Emily Holland
The Weyrlingmaster was the first to congratulate Moon on her Impression, but it was N'jol, delighted that his most humble candidate had Impressed, who stepped in to help with the immediate matter of Alomiath's first meal. That was Moon's first opportunity to speak to Jopha, too, and they introduced each other, with considerable delight, to their respective dragonets, Alomiath and Deimoth.
It wasn't long before Alomiath's personality started to become evident. The little grass-green dragonet, small for her colour, made up for her size with a fierce, aggressive personality – and very evident teeth!
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 sister
Another friend Moon made along the way – a young Weyrbred candidate, Brithie, whom Moon had encountered in a sudden crisis of confidence directly before the Hatching – hailed Moon at the barracks – crediting her with her successful Impression of a tiny bottle-green dragonet, Epatanth!
Meeting the Weyrleader
As Moon and Jopha wiped the worst of the blood and sand from their tired new dragonets, the Weyrleader, T'gat, came to inspect both girls' dragonets and to ask after their names. Moon was proud to introduce Alomiath to the Weyrleader – and to give him her full new name: Moon, rider of green Alomiath!
Following their audience with the Weyrleader, and the application of oily rags to relieve Alomiath's and Deimoth's newborn itchiness, Moon and Jopha headed into the girls' 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
Moon and Jopha soon went their separate ways to find family and friends. Many of the riders and Weyrfolk Moon had helped during the day greeted her with warm congratulations as she hunted through the throng – but, at last, she found her family.
Moon's father almost couldn't believe his daughter'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 Moon and Alomiath.
The rest of the evening passed in a blur for Moon, 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, Moon was flagged down by a Weyrbrat, Emry, bringing the message that Weyrwoman Second Tarshe wanted to see her in the Archives.
Setting the record straight
Tarshe, tasked by the Weyrwoman with converting candidate documentation into weyrling records, went through Moon's background with her – including much of what she had got up to on the morning of the Hatching – for good and ill. She offered Moon some advice about paying attention to her new classmates and surroundings, lest she fall foul of the Weyrlingmaster's penchant for snap quizzes, advised her to report to Master Isnan before returning to the barracks to get her injuries checked again, and made some observations on Alomiath.
A close encounter
On her way back to the barracks (by way of the infirmary, as ordered by Tarshe), Moon 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 Moon would later realise was firestone, who called her by name – and gave her a curious wooden box.
"The Watchful Queen" by Chris S. Baily
Back at the barracks, Moon decided, on balance, not to tell the Weyrlingmaster about the stranger.
Returning at last to Alomiath – billeted between Jopha's Deimoth and a pale green dragonet – Moon was too tired to examine the strange wooden box very closely, and put it in her clothes' chest for later examination. But even as she went to sleep – a dragonrider at last, her green beside her – Moon 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?
Moon and Alomiath's story will continue in Dragonchoice: Weyrling, coming soon!
Moon'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
Alomiath and I complement each other!
Achievement Unlocked:
THE PATH LESS TRAVELLED
I pre-Impressed Alomiath by touching her egg before the Hatching!
Achievement Unlocked:
SUGAR AND SPICE
I've been a very nice person (so far)!
Achievement Unlocked:
PLEASE STATE THE NATURE OF THE MEDICAL EMERGENCY
I returned to the infirmary!
Achievement Unlocked:
EBONY AND IVORY
Alomiath and I agreed on something very important!
Achievement Unlocked:
BUM NOTE
Alomiath and I disagreed on something quite important!