O'san and brown Xeroneth
The Road So Far!
It all began at Jessaf Hold, in the protectorate of Madellon Weyr, for Osante – a young man of 18 Turns, dreaming of becoming a green rider.
Osante was born to unusual privilege – a grandson of Winstone, Lord of mighty Jessaf Hold. Osante 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, Osante 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 Osante becoming a candidate – displeased that such a opportunity would ruin his plans for Osante's betrothal to a niece of Lord Orfen's. But he grudgingly accepted that, as Osante 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, Osante left to begin his candidacy at Madellon Weyr.
As a candidate, Osante 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 Osante! Backed up by his crony Kestor, Rielat became the thorn in Osante's side throughout the sevendays of candidacy.
Hatching Day
The dragons' hum woke Soburn and Osante 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 Osante 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, Osante 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 Osante to find it. Despite Osante's best efforts, though, he didn't manage to complete and return the jewellery set before the Hatching.
Respecting his elders
In the Weyr's kitchen gardens, Osante encountered R'hren, a former Weyrleader of Madellon, now peacefully retired to potter among his beloved plants. R'hren asked Osante to help him track down the ingredients for a warming salve to help his elderly bronze, Staamath, with his arthritic forepaws. Osante 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, Osante offered it to old S'rius, who was equally appreciative of the gift. And while Kisha, the blind old green rider Osante encountered in the infirmary, would have nothing to do with one of R'hren's concoctions, she too grew to approve of Osante – especially after he solved all three of her fiendish riddles!
Southern comfort
Osante 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 Osante 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 Osante some intelligence on the Southern seven, his advice was somewhat garbled! Nonetheless, Osante unravelled Archidath's confusing suggestions and got the right packages to the right dragons – without being growled at!
A rising problem
Osante 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. And while Osante did manage to get G'tron excluded from the flight – not to mention another blue rider, G'pellas, who was needed in the Harper ensemble – he still ultimately failed to reconcile the star-crossed green riding lovers!
Harping on
Osante perhaps overestimated his own competence when it came to a disastrous spell on the Harper dais in the dining hall. Accompanying Weyr Singer Carleah – badly – on the tambourine, he was lucky not to be booed off the stage!
Kitchen diplomacy
Madellon's kitchens – the heart of the Weyr, and domain of Headwoman Crauva – provided Osante with the opportunity to show off his work ethic before the Hatching. A round of chores duly pleased Crauva, albeit cut short, literally, by the slip of a knife that sent Osante to the infirmary with a slice to be stitched up. And the kitchen was also the source of the hotfruit R'hren had sent Osante to find for his warming salve.
Weyrbrat by name...
A run-in with a Weyrbrat – Terzon, whom Rielat had paid to cause Osante trouble – resulted in an unfortunate public incident. All too aware of being shaken down, Osante gave the kid a shove – in front of a number of witnesses – doing nothing for his reputation!
A shining example
Coming upon Santinoth – Madellon's biggest bronze – being bathed in the lake, Osante 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?
Friend request
Conscious of Soburn's bashfulness, Osante 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 Osante that he wasn't interested in Soburn – or any other men, for that matter. But Osante'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!
The Hatching
When it came to the Hatching, Osante had an excruciatingly long wait before the moonlike grey egg Hatched to reveal the warm milky-klah brown dragonet who would choose him, naming himself Xeroneth.
A friend in me
And Osante 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 Osante and Xeroneth's new classmates. (On the bright side, at least Kestor didn't Impress!)
After the Hatching
"Xeroneth" by Chris S. Baily
The Weyrlingmaster was the first to congratulate Osante 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 Xeroneth's first meal. That was Osante's first opportunity to speak to Soburn, too, and they introduced each other, with considerable delight, to their respective dragonets, Xeroneth and Aeranth. Soburn also told Osante that his new name was to be – perhaps unsurprisingly – S'burn.
It wasn't long before Xeroneth's personality started to become evident. The little klah-coloured brown proved to be exceptionally friendly and forward from the very beginning, wanting nothing more than to introduce himself to everyone he met.
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 Osante made along the way – a young Holdbred candidate, Nichen, whom Osante had encountered in a hopelessly dishevelled state directly before the Hatching – hailed Osante at the barracks – crediting him with his successful Impression of a moon-blue dragonet, Yooth!
Meeting the Weyrleader
As Osante 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. Osante was proud to introduce Xeroneth to the Weyrleader. And after a brief conference with Xeroneth, Osante gave the Weyrleader his own new name: O'san, rider of brown Xeroneth!
Following their audience with the Weyrleader, and the application of oily rags to relieve Xeroneth's and Aeranth's newborn itchiness, O'san 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
O'san and S'burn soon went their separate ways to find family and friends. Many of the riders and Weyrfolk O'san 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, O'san's grandfather, was grudgingly satisfied with Xeroneth's colour, if clearly disappointed that his grandson hadn't managed to Impress a bronze – a criticism that the Weyrleaders were quick to cut short in their toast to O'san and Xeroneth.
The rest of the evening passed in a blur for O'san, 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, O'san 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 O'san'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 O'san 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 Xeroneth.
A close encounter
On his way back to the barracks (by way of the infirmary, as ordered by Tarshe), O'san 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 O'san 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, O'san decided, on balance, not to tell the Weyrlingmaster about the stranger.
Returning at last to Xeroneth – billeted between S'burn's Aeranth and a mucky-looking brown dragonet – O'san 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 brown beside him – O'san 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?
O'san and Xeroneth's story will continue in Dragonchoice: Weyrling, coming soon!
O'san'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
Xeroneth and I complement each other!
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
Xeroneth and I agreed on something very important!
Achievement Unlocked:
IN TUNE
Xeroneth and I agreed on something quite important!