.gravity always wins

[Sketchy]

Dacien had forgotten one very important fact while scouring the tree for fruit: gravity always wins. When he'd tumbled off the branch and landed, he'd first been elated: he was in one piece! Then taking inventory, finally, he'd felt the pain shoot up his ankle, a dull throb suddenly intruding on his good day. "Shards," he muttered under his breath as he bit into the fruit, holding it in his mouth as he checked his ankle. Already it was swelling.

The limping journey (filled with jeers and commentary from those around him) back into the weyr's infirmary was long and exhausting. Leaning against a wall Dacien took a breath. He was sucking on the pit of his devoured fruit, wiping the juice from his chin guiltily as his ankle was looked over.

Much to his dismay, he did need it wrapped. Well. That was going to put a hold on his day, that was for sure. Standing outside the infirmary, Dacien sighed, pushing his hair back from his eyes. What was he supposed to do now?

[Jenth]

A dark shadow cast over head, a dragon coming in to land. It was one of the smaller dragons, a Barred ladened with what looked like a delivery for the infirmary. The moment the Barred caught sight of the boy staring, she stared back with eyes the swirled a menacing yellow. At first her rider didn't even notice, some extra hands coming out to store away the bundles. Finally the Rider took off her helmet and shook off her jacket, it might be winter but it was still too hot for the thick hide. winter and between could not even be compared...

Suddenly the rider too looked in the candidates direction, even so far to approach him. He looked about the same age as her. "Valkiryth says you are silly to hurt yourself when hatching isn't far off. No hatchling would want a weak rider.... but i wouldn't listen to her. She's just all hot air and flame." Holding out her hand she introduced herself. "My name is Zukah, and you are?"

[Sketchy]

Giving a crooked grin, Dacien let his hazel eyes sweep over first the rider, then the dragon behind her. He flushed- a little from embarrassment, a little from the heat. "Oh, I know. But I just had to climb that tree, you know. Had to be done." He shifted his weight from foot to foot, wincing as he put a little too much on his newly injured ankle.

"And I'm sure if I find a dragon, he'll understand." Again a quick smile, a little hopeful, a little smug. He wasn't sure what dragonets looked for in a newly bonded, but he was hoping he would finally find one that was looking for him. Dacien ran a hand through his hair and glanced over the dragon, admiring her for a second. Even doing just plain old daily things, dragons were majestic.

[Jenth]

"Or she. It happens." Zukah added. It wasn't rare for pairs to impress opposite sex dragons, for or against their sexuality prefference. She herself didn't know how she would feel if she impressed a male dragon, but Valkyrith was the only dragon for her.

As it should be. And this silly boy wont impress if he cant even stand!

Hush! Candidates came in all sorts, even clumsy. She herself once nearly fell into this category, being overly cautious and preferred to take things slow. Some went so far as to bully her, calling her a dim glow...

"No one will know who your lifemate will be till it happens. Till then its only guesses, but till then you should be trying to be at your best. Hurt yourself enough and you'll be held back from the hatching. Nayarath's hatchlings are the most vicious..."

Hey!

Turning to face her dragon she yelled back to her silent dismay. "And you picked a fight with a bronze and the two of you smashed Tyrth's egg open!"

[Sketchy]

Blinking at the sudden volume increase, Dacien took a step back, stumbling a little as he caught his footing. "Well, you know. Dragonets are pretty clumsy too. They're just harder to hurt, unlike us fragile humans." He thought for a second- "Male or female, it'd be my bonded, which is the important part."

The very thought made him feel all warm and glowy on the inside, like pure joy bubbling up. He gave another admiring glance over the dragon, ending at her faceted eyes before he turned his attention back to the rider. "Either way, I think my dragon would understand. If it's going to pick me, it's going to know that I'm a little impulsive."

[Jenth]

"Oh dear! I'm so sorry!!!" Noting that the boy had nearly fallen. She hadn't seen the cause, just knew it was her fault. It was always her fault... But he seemed open minded, it was a good sign. Either way, once impression happened there was no going back and any previous cares would disappear. Valkyrith herself drew closer, daring so much as to bring her head within reaching distance of her glowing yellow eyes.

You're going to scare him like that!

If he's scared he doesn't deserve to be a rider

Maybe Valkyrith's interest in the boy were signs that she might make a good Search dragon. They would have to investigate that later. "As I said, don't mind her. She likes to intimidate...but i think she likes you. Its hard to tell sometimes..."

[Sketchy]

Catching himself, Dacien laughed it off. "No problem. She's not scary. She's too gorgeous to be scary," he added with a grin, meeting the dragon's gaze. He'd been intimidated by dragons at one point in his life, but now that fear was mostly gone. Dragons were fun and interesting and exciting, everything that Dacien wanted his life to be. And he was working on it.

"She just likes to go around scaring all the candidates, eh?" His voice was joking as he turned to smile at Zukah. He adjusted the make shift "crutch" he was leaning on. "That's good. They should be used to dragons." He thought a healthy appreciation of a grown dragon was something every candidate should have.

[Jenth]

"Oh, Valkyrith is just vicious for a dragon. It shows in her eyes, always yellow and red which mean anger or caution. The only ones I think that comes close is Brown Aresth and a clutching Nayarath." Dragons weren't known for being moody for no particular reason, but the barreds and charcoals seemed to be bred with some fierce tempers. You learn to live with it and ignore it, its normally over little things anyway.

He has good tastes It seemed she had become bored since she was failing to get much response out of the silly candidate, wings buffering the human pair as she left to return to her Weyr.

"Wow! If you can stand up to Val then there's no way you can't Impress!" Zukah was growing excited. It normally took a brave person, even a Rider, to confront the barred head on.

[Sketchy]

"Dragons aren't vicious, in my experience." He grinned. "But they sure do have personalities, I'll give them that." Dacien liked to think he had wonderful tastes but his brother would disagree heavily with that. His brother was also much too serious, though.

It was hard to rile Dacien, that was for sure. He knew at least some of the tricks dragons liked to get up to.

"Here's to hoping," he agreed. The thought of a dragon still made him bubbly and joyful. This could be it! This could be the time! Then he'd be a weyrling, which, while a lot of work, it'd be worth it. It had to be worth it.

[Jenth]

Well, he hadn't seen the barred in a bad mood but it for now he passed. He also looked a lot happier, having passed what seemed to be a test. It made her happy, when to start all she had done was try to give some advice and introduce herself.

"So do you need any help? Looks like you have trouble getting around." Zukah was tall for a girl, and fairly strong since becoming a rider. As if to reassure him a small tan fire lizard popped out of thin air to give chirps of encouragement. He was still young, Zukah taking a few calls to get him to come to her. Apparently his name was Lord.

[Sketchy]

"No, I think I'm fine. But thanks for offering." The fire lizard startled him and Dacien eyed it with a bit of caution. Sometimes it was hard to tell just what the firelizards intended to do. They weren't always the most friendly creatures, even though he knew they generally were.

"I brought this on myself, I'll deal with it." He grinned. "Not to mention, if I lean all over you, people may think I'm taking advantage of you. And we wouldn't want to ruin anyone's reputation." Not that his could really be ruined, per se. He already had one of sorts.