Stop to smell the...something (open)

[ShadowReine]

Truth was, Karisna was very used to being at the Weyr by now. She was accustomed to the chores she had been given...even if today's left her surrounded by the faint miasma of herdbeast dung.

Checking on the beasts, though, was not the worst chore she had ever had to do in her life. Even if it wasn't the best. And now she was free for the rest of the day.

The faint disappointment that had hit her when she had failed to Impress at Jorindath's hatching had faded away. Her dragon had not been there. She had not been compatible with any of the greens or barreds that had hatched.

It just meant she had to wait for Nayarath to rise...because Nayarath would lay more eggs, a larger clutch, and that meant more chances that one of them would find her mind fascinating.

She kept wandering...then tripped over a rock and fell flat on her face. "Oof!"

Immediately, her tan firelizard appeared from Between and started to nag her.

Sigh.

[Sparrow]

Jackie had arrived at Nyocia the night before, but had only had time to grab some dinner and get set up in the Candidate barracks. She hadn’t really met anyone but the CandidateMaster- and she was a terror. So many rules! But could she really keep someone from standing at the clutch? Hopefully not.

Just in case, Jackie was getting her exploring done in the morning, before she was assigned chores. The Weyr was massive, and she had lots to see. Best she got this done while she had plenty of time (not to mention it would be a good excuse if she missed something). Quip was loping along next to her, pausing occasionally to gnaw some grass or inspect a rock or footprint.

“So Quip, I know I’ve already seen plenty of attractive boys here. What about you?” Jackie glanced at the kagen and laughed. Quip scowled at her; she wasn’t happy about suddenly having to abandon her old mate and had no plans at the moment to go looking for a new one.

They stared at each other for a moment, and then Quip turned back and trotted off towards the lake. Jackie jogged after her. “Alright, alright. Don’t bug you about that, I’ve got it.”

Up ahead was something better to look at anyways: a girl... falling. And getting nagged by a fire-lizard about it. Well, Jackie knew about that- though not from a flitter, from Quip. The kagen glared at her again.

"Hey, you alright?" Jackie bent over in front of the fallen, judging from her knots, Candidate and put out a hand to help her up.

[ShadowReine]

Karisna accepted the hand. "I'm fine, although you wouldn't think it to listen to him."

As soon as she was vertical enough, the tan dropped to her shoulder and wrapped part of his tail around her neck...he was not yet fully grown and could not quite do the Flit Necklace thing yet.

A moment later a darker blue appeared and took over the other shoulder. "Umm. Hi, anyway. I don't know you."

White knot. So, a newly searched Candidate, or she would undoubtedly have met her before. The barracks had been depleted by Jorindath's hatching and it would be a while before there was another...but she hoped that the enthusiasm of new people would overcome the faint air of disappointment that had floated around when the only people there had been the rejects of the last clutch.

[Sparrow]

Jackie nodded. She ought to get a fire-lizard or two while she was here, they seemed to be everywhere... maybe she could get them free. Maybe three flitters even. Quip had stopped and hunched over grumpily as she waited for her keeper, and everything about the kagen seemed to darken at the thought of fire-lizards. Maybe only one.

This girl appeared to have two though. What were their names? What was their keeper's?

"Yeah... hi. I'm Jackie, and little miss grumpy on the ground there is Quip." The kagen didn't make any attempt to say hello. "I just got here so... I wouldn't really expect you to know me, I guess. You are?"

[ShadowReine]

"Karisna, and the winged troublemakers are Lightning and Wave."

Neither was full grown, and the two seemed to be about the same age...perhaps two eggs from the same clutch? The tan was bigger than the blue, but in normal proportion for those colors.

"Learning your way around okay?" There was no reason not to be nice...at least not until this girl Impressed and Kari didn't. And even then, she would be nice...it was nobody's fault things had not gone her way at the Hatching.

It was nobody's fault...well, except the dragonets, and they had to live with their choices. If she was flawed, then none would ever choose her.

But perhaps it was simply...her old theory, that the clutch was so heavily skewed towards male dragons. She was not equipped to handle a male.

[Sparrow]

"Mmm, yeah. I haven't gone all that far, mostly I'm just trying to avoid Meagan or whatever her name was." And so far- although it was true she didn’t have a lot of time under her belt- she had been successful. No chores. The Weyr Bowl probably wasn't a good place to hide though, especially when a person had a dragon to keep an eye out for them.

“Maybe you could show me around a little more though? I mean… the Bowl isn’t that hard to find, but I won’t be of any use here if I’m always getting lost in other places.” Jackie had a pretty good memory for directions, but she needed to know where each place was first.

How long had Karisna been at the Weyr? Since there wouldn’t be any real Searches until another queen clutched, it was likely it had at least been since the last one. Who had that been? Jorindath? No matter- Jackie just hoped she would never be left standing at a hatching.

[ShadowReine]

"Meagan's a drudge driver," Karisna admitted. "But she is, at least, fair."

She grins. "I can show you around, sure, and if anyone tries to put us to work, it's actually a reasonable excuse." She reached up to rub Lightning's breast.

"Nayarath is likely to be the next to rise, which means a gold clutch...not that that makes much difference to us unless there's a queen egg. Or another crazy bronze."

Not that Razuth was entirely...crazy. He must have chosen a girl because none of the boys were good enough for him.

[Sparrow]

Drudge driver Jackie could agree with. Fair… she would see. Overly strict and intimidating had been her initial impression of the female Brownrider.

“Also a good point.” Jackie grinned. “Thanks.” Help and good excuses were just what she needed at the moment.

“That’s what I heard,” she agreed. “Although, personally, I wouldn’t really want a queen. A crazy Bronze would be worse though.” At least a girl Impressing a Gold or Violet was normal. Would girls Impressing Bronzes become normal? Whether or not, she would rather not be among the first few.

Not to mention, that would probably lead to queens Impressing men, and then the whole Weyr system would be turned around. The new colors were neat, but Jackie thought that would be going a bit too far on the dragons’ part.

[ShadowReine]

Karisna shrugged. "I'd be happy enough with a green or barred. No reason to seek more than that. And caring too much about color is likely to...I dunno."

Yet, there had been several greens and barreds and only one had so much as looked at her. Maybe she was destined for one of the slightly larger females...the blue ones.

Maybe she wasn't destined for a dragon at all. Not everyone who was Searched Impressed, after all. She would just have to deal with what the dragons chose. "Dunno about a queen. They're a lot of work."

[Sparrow]

"I've been told I'm a shoo in for a Green, but I sure wouldn't mind a Barred. They sure are pretty." She had only seen one since arriving, but she had liked her. But Jackie's mother and friends had all been quite firm on their belief that if she ever became a dragonrider, it would be on a Green. It would be fun to prove them wrong... but then again, it was up the dragons, not her.

"If a queen came at me I think I'd run. I don't want that responsibility." Even that new female sounded like it would be a bit much for her. A non-clutching female was her goal. She would have all the fun of a dragon, without the stress of her dragon winning flights or eggs.

Jackie glanced down at Quip absently. "I think dealing with Quip's pups is more than enough." No eggs for her. "Although I guess it'll probably be a while before she has more." There weren't near as many kagen about in Nyocia- as far as she could tell- as there had been back at home.

[ShadowReine]

"Barreds don't rank much above greens, but they don't choose men as often...there's only one male barred rider," Kari supplies. "I think I'd like a barred, but..."

If she was suited to a barred, why didn't she have one? Why *had* she failed to Impress?

"I don't think I want any more pets either. After getting two firelizard eggs at once..." Her consolation prize...but then, Lightning and Wave often *did* make her feel better. They were just firelizards...and neither of them a color she would see herself with in dragon form, ironically enough.

"And Lightning is one rank below a bronze. He might even fly a queen some day."

[Sparrow]

"Really? I wonder if that's awkward for him at all." Maybe not as bad as being the only female Bronzerider but still... being the only one of anything would probably be hard. Her thoughts turned back to Karisna as she trailed off. "But what?"

Maybe she was just worried about saying she wanted a certain color- she had mentioned that. Jackie didn't see any harm in talking about it though. When neither of them appeared to have any big goals dragon-wise it didn't seem like it would hurt.

"You got those two at the same time?" Jackie wasn't really much of a judge; they did look young, but the Tan was bigger than the Blue and it did throw off her guess a bit. She didn't know a whole lot about fire-lizards. They were everywhere, but not in her family.

"Do Tans ever fly Golds? Or do you think he would get one of the Violets?" Of course Jackie had heard it mentioned by the rider that brought her here that Nayarath would likely by Rising soon, and what might have been a bit of a lament about some Tan or her pickiness or something. But dragons were likely a bit different from fire-lizards.

[ShadowReine]

"Tans can fly golds," Kari noted. "They're a bit smaller than bronzes, but larger than browns...and browns do fly golds. Not often, but they do. More often in firelizards than dragons. The last dragon clutch was a tan-violet pairing."

And a good one, by every account...she'd seen B'can and Inolyn together. They worked together well...of course they would never be the senior pair, violet trumped gold. But they were...she didn't know them, but they had disappeared together after the Hatching feast. Obviously to bed. Maybe she would some day have a partner like that, a bond made out of dragon flight.

"And yes...Lightning and Wave are from the same barred clutch...barred dragons don't clutch, but the firelizards do. And the but was thinking about the last hatching...the only hatchling that even looked at me was one of the greens and she was very dismissive."

[Sparrow]

"Has it happened yet?" As far as Jackie new, plenty of Turns had passed since a Brown had flown a Gold, and she hadn't heard about the Tans catching. She didn't pay attention to a lot of the news coming from Nyocia though- someone Flew, someone caught, Candidates were needed for the clutch... that was all she needed to know. "A Tan catching a Gold, I mean."

A Tan catching a Violet wasn't what she was wondering about; the first time the first Violet flew- Kelth?- a Brown had caught, from what she had heard. Of course Tans could catch Violets, they were bigger. Not to mention it just seemed right to have a pair of the newer colors together. They did, she had been told, make more funny colors though. And Bronzes that Impressed to girls, apparently.

"Really?" The information about Karisna's fire-lizards more or less passed in one ear and out the other, the fact that the other Candidate had stood at a hatching already taking precedence. "That must have been disappointing. I bet you'll have better luck this time around though."

[ShadowReine]

Karisna considered that. "For some reason, the Hatching rather skewed towards male dragons, which might have been why. I don't see myself with a male, really."

She couldn't help but grin. "Certainly not a bronze!" No, she did not envy that girl, the way she was stared at wherever she went. The way some people in the Weyr assumed she was one of those born in the wrong body, somehow meant to be a male. "And no, but I'm betting Apolloth will be the first ...I talked to his rider, and he fancies himself a bronze."

Briefly. B'can did not strike her as...well...anyone she could be friends with. Not really.

[Sparrow]

Jackie laughed. "No, definitely not. I guess I'll cross my fingers that the next hatching makes up for that skew." Extra females hopefully meant extra chances for her to Impress- and Karisna as well.

Apolloth... Apolloth... "Apolloth was the one that won Jorindath's Flight, right?" Yes, sometimes she did pay attention, just not enough to avoid having to think about it first, which she usually preferred not to do. "I suppose that wouldn't do much good for him there."

Winning queens, any queens, seemed like just the thing to give a male dragon an ego boost. She could see the thought process: if I can catch a Violet, I can catch a Gold. She would see, she was at the Weyr now and could actually stay up to date on all of that.

[ShadowReine]

"Right. There aren't that many tans."

Karisna grinned at Jackie. "Well, I'm sure the male dragons are hoping for an entire clutch of greens and barreds."

She still didn't expect better than green. The hatchling that had rejected her was green, and the rest had simply ignored her. As if she was not good enough for any of them. She knew, rationally, that it only meant she didn't have a compatible personality. And she was not supposed to care. Caring about things you had no control over was, after all, too painful to deal with for most people.

So. She would not care. "Not like they'd send me home if I never Impress. Plenty of room at the Weyr."

[Sparrow]

"And maybe a queen thrown in there for the big ones," Jackie added with a laugh. Nyocia had four queens at the moment though... not all fully mature, if she remembered correctly, but four nonetheless. That seemed like a lot.

Jackie shrugged. "You're thinking ahead a lot more than you need to, I think." Considering there were four queens and Karisna looked like she still had plenty of time to Impress, chances were likely in her favor.

By the time either of them had lost their chance to Impress- were that to happen, which she doubted- there would probably be another Weyr. Nyocia alone couldn't protect the whole Southern Continent, or house every dragon.

[ShadowReine]

"I don't think there's going to be another queen, not with four already," Kari mused. "I mean, they kind of...moderate things."

How, she did not know, but female dragons produced the number of eggs that were needed. Fortunately, the barreds weren't fertile...they were, from what she had seen, almost as bad as greens.

She shook her head a little. "It's best to have a plan for everything. I doubt I'll get left, but you never know. I mean..."

Everyone had thought she would Impress...nobody was sure why she had not. Bad luck, it could be. Simply that...simply bad luck.

[Sparrow]

"Yeah... but there still aren't all that many dragons. There were lots of Weyrs before, with lots of dragons... now we've got one, without a lot of them." More queens seemed like a good idea... just not for one Weyr. From what she had heard about Nayarath though, the Gold would likely be more than happy to kick out a few of her fellows and make them get working elsewhere.

Jackie didn't think she would mind to much either- it would certainly ease the workload to have two Weyrs functioning instead of one.

She shrugged. "I guess." That didn't mean she meant to start planning for worst case scenarios, but it did work for some people. If worst came to worst, Jackie did have some useful training... but here she was thinking like Karisna. "A little bad luck is always followed by good luck though, so I don't think you should be too worried. I sure hope I didn't use up my good luck getting here."

It had been a bit of chance, but Jackie viewed herself as a lucky person. She wasn't worried.