Hello Little One

Writers: Anika, Avery
Date Posted: 16th March 2015

Characters: Corran, Geiran
Description: Corran's firelizard egg hatches.
Location: Amber Hills Hold
Date: month 11, day 10 of Turn 7
Notes: Mentioned: Gautrek, K'ran (indirectly), Geirlene

Corran was sitting on a bench in the garden. Mostly he was reading,
but on occasion he turned his attention to a funny-shaped bundle next
to him. He was hoping today would be the day the firelizard egg
hatched, and that it wouldn't crack open when he was on shift and out
of the barracks. Hopefully the warm sun would encourage it.

Running past the bench at almost full speed and then skidding to a halt
only to back track when he saw Corran, a young boy with strawberry blond
hair and a dirty face offered the guard a toothy grin. "Hey, Corran!
Watcha doin'?"

"Watching this firelizard egg," the guard said, gesturing at the bundle.
"You can take a look."

The boy's green eyes grew wide. "Really? A firelizard egg? Can I?"
Having lived at a seahold, Geiran, like all the other children his

age, had of coursed dreamed of finding the elusive firelizard egg
clutch. "Where'd ya get it?"

"My brother brought it over from the Weyr. A gold there clutched."

"Wow! Uncle Gautrek was talkin' about getting one. Can you tell what color
it'll be?"

"It's not shimmery so it's not a gold. Other then that there's no real way
of knowing."

"Hmmm," the boy studied the egg closely getting down very close to it and
scrutinizing it from every angle. "I think it will be bronze. Isn't your
brother a bronze dragon rider? It would make sense for you to have a bronze
fire lizard," Geiran finally decided, using typical nine-turn-old boy
logic. "So when will it hatch?"

"I don't know, but I'm hoping today. It's very hard to the touch," Corran
said.

"Today?! Whatcha gonna feed it if it hatches out here?" Geiran's voice was
full of concern. "How you know if it's close to hatchin'? Ya don't want
it ta fly away on ya. I hear their powerful hungry when they hatch."

"I figure when it starts to shake I can take it inside. Got some jerky if
I can't make it to the kitchen."

"Oh, okay," the boy said with a relieved sigh. Geiran sat down on the
grass and watched the egg in silence for a short time. "I've not been in
any trouble in my Harpers classes or at home," the boy informed him.
"Well, Geirlene sometimes gets onta me fer trackin' dirt or runnin' in the
cot but that's more just cause she's a big sister, ya know?"

Corran nodded. "Good to hear. Making any friends your own age?"

"Yeah, one or two. Not the boys I was hanging out with, but there's a
couple others that I get on okay with," the boy replied with a shrug.

"That's good to hear," Corran said with sincerity. He wouldn't have wanted
to get the boy in trouble. "Anything else interesting going on?"

"Geirlene turned sixteen. We went on a picnic," the boy answered. "I
wanted to get her a puppy, but Uncle Gautrek says that will take more
consideration. Why do grown-ups have to think about things so much?"

"Because small things are a lot of work," Corran said. Absently he
wondered about boys and puppies, and if...

Fortunately, a little pip-pip sound from the basket interrupted.

Geiran jumped up excitedly. "What was that? Is it hatching? Should I
run for some meat?"

"I think it is. Would you mind?" Corran asked the boy, fumbling to
pull out the jerky.

Moving before the guard had even finished speaking, Geiran ran as fast as
his legs would carry him and luckily encountered one of the friendliest of
the cooks when he reached the kitchens who was quick to accommodate his
request without a lot of questions. He hurried back, his pace slowed
somewhat by the large bowl of scraps he carried. He arrived back out of
breath, worried that he'd missed the event.

There were some pretty definite cracks on the egg's shell, but nothing had
happened yet. Corran was watching it intently, but he spared a smile for
Geiran. "It doesn't want to come out."

"Are ya supposed ta do anythin' special?" the boy asked, eyes fixed on
the growing striations on the mottled shell, wondering if a little tap
would be a bad thing.

"I don't think I'm supposed to crack it..." For all his maturity, the
guard felt like he was about Geiran's age right now.

Finally one of the cracks split apart, and a dark little nose pushed
out, followed by the rest of the head. At this point it was apparent
it was a little brown, who squawked in indignation as he couldn't get
his shoulders out.

Corran quickly handed it a piece of meat. "Hi there, little one."

"He's through, he's through!" The boy said in excitement using every
bit of self control to stay relatively still so as not to scare the
tiny firelizard. "Ain't he supposed ta be outta the shell, before he
starts eatin'?" he asked quizzically as he watched the firelizard
gobble the meat, still not completely free of the shell.

"Hey!" In his eagerness to grab the meat, the little brown had bitten
straight into Corran's finger. The guard grimaced and pulled his hand
back, used his other hand to push the meat into the flit's mouth.
"Chew on this, not me," he chided.

Once the brown was distracted, he started pulling at the cracked bits
of shell. "I don't want to hurt you, but you're not doing a very good
job at getting out of there."

"Don't think he cares much except fer the next bite a meat," Geiran
observed. "He seems right hungery fer sure! Yer finger okay?"

"Pretty sure." It stung, but there were more important things.

It must have looked silly to outsiders, the little brown's head
sticking out of a mostly intact shell. In his hunger for the meat, the
little brown twisted around, his motion cracking the shell more.
Corran hit on a new strategy, holding a piece of meat above the
brown's head and to the side. The wiggling caused the shell to tip and
pieces to break off, revealing part of a wing and the feet.

"Hey, he's almost got it," the boy exclaimed. "Wow! Look at him!
Oh, wow, Corran, look at him, look at his wings."

"He's so little," Corran said as the brown struggled free. He gave him
another piece of meat and stroked the soft skin. "Little and soft.
It's hard to imagine they're related to the dragons, isn't it?"

"Yeah, dragons are great big and he's so itty bitty. Are they all
that tiny?" The boy was itching to feel how soft the hide was for
himself, but he'd heard that only the person Impressing the firelizard
should touch it. Maybe Corran would let him touch it once the flit
was bigger. "Whatcha gonna name him?"

Corran shifted on the bench and tried coaxing the freed baby onto his
lap by dangling meat in front of it. Then it was balancing between

feeding the little flit and making sure he was stroking it
reassuringly.

"I don't know. I'm bad at naming. I could name him for his color...or
for a personality trait. Not that he seems to have one besides nippy."

"Yeah, ya could could call him Nippy...or Snapper," the boy offered,
thinking of how he'd caught Corran's finger, reminding the boy of the
snapping spiderclaws in the seahold where he'd lived before. "Brownie
seems kinda boring. Dirt and mud are brown and so's klah but those
don't make good names. So are some of the ale's and spirits made at
the Hall." The boy shook his head, none of that really sounded
helpful. "Course you're a guard so ya could also give him a guard
kinda name. Like what's that called sen..sent..sentary?"

"Sentry?" Corran asked. "Or there's Warden or Watcher."

"Yeah, those are all good names and they go with what you do. You
help keep people safe and catch bad guys and make sure folks follow
the laws too," the boy added, his tone showing how much he idolized
the guard. "Is there a word that means all that?"

"A single word? I dunno. Warden or Guardian seems most likely. I bet a
Harper would know." But there wasn't one right here.

The boy shrugged. He supposed it was hard to sum up all the good that
Corran did in one word, even for a Harper. "Hey he's slowed down on
eating. He sorta looks sleepy now."

The little brown was indeed curling up and rumbling slightly under his
hand. Corran fet him the last scrap of meat. "I like Warden," he said
to Geiran. "Thanks for helping me get the meat."

"Sure thing. I'm happy to help you and Warden anytime," the boy
stated with a grin.

Last updated on the March 17th 2015

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Hello Little One