Bright (1/2)

Writers: Aaron, Avery
Date Posted: 23rd December 2017

Characters: Brennault, A'vel
Description: Brennault meets Tsogath!
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 9 of Turn 9

Brennault

It was Brennault's first time to formally make the acquaintance of a
dragon, and he was bouncing about like a child at Turn's End as he and
A'vel made their way out to meet her after his tour of the lower
caverns.

He hoped very much that she would like him. It seemed the kind of
thing that would be an honor, to have the approval of a creature so
noble. Beasts of all kinds tended to see past the kinds of façades
that could fool other men, and dragons in particular were far more
intelligent than the average beast.

Even though he hadn't been an actual Harper in almost a Turn now,
A'vel still had a well-trained voice, and it wasn't showing any signs
of strain even after he'd spent a candlemark walking Brennault around
the Lower Caverns and the inside of the Weyr. Now they headed to one
of the tunnels leading outside of the Caverns, one that would bring
them out on the side with the weyrlake.

"How much of the weyrbowl did you see when you got here?" he asked.

"Not much more than you could see crossing from the open end to the
place where they put me down to sleep," said Brennault. It's a mighty
big place, but I'm used to crossing big distances on foot." He smiled.
"About how far do we have to go from here?"

"Well, where do you wanna see first?" A'vel asked as they emerged into
the sunlight. "That way's the weyrlake and the herdbeasts, and off to
the other side is the weyrling barracks and the candidate ones. Though
I guess those might not be of interest."

"Weyrlings and Candidates, eh?" Brennault peered off that direction.
He had never thought much about riding a dragon. It was a big
commitment. A lot of need to be in a particular place at a particular
time. But at the same time... Freedom to fly. That must really be
something. "How do you get them to let you do that?" he wondered.

"To do what?" A'vel asked, unsure of where Brennault's mind had jumped to.

"Get a dragon, of course," said Brennault cheerfully, as though this
were obvious.

"Oh. Well, it depends," A'vel said. He reached back for what he'd
learned in weyrlinghood about Searches and Standing so he could
explain it to Brennault, unconsciously falling into the rhythmic
speech cadence he'd learned for teaching as an apprentice Harper as he
spoke.

"The way people usually think about becoming a Candidate is via
Search. If you're located at a Hold or Hall - or a runner on a trail
along the way between those -" he added to be inclusive of his
audience, "-then you might be surprised by a dragon one day who has
come on Search. The dragon takes a look at you and to see if you have
the potential to Impress. No one knows quite what they're looking for,
but some dragons can just tell what will make good riders. Then their
rider tells you and you accept the Search and come to the Weyr."

A'vel took a breath, then continued. "That's what happened to me. But
if you're weyrbred, you can just ask the Weyrwoman to Stand and if she
says yes then you can. I hear some folk will have a Searchdragon look
at them anyway just to confirm if they have potential, but they have
the right to Stand without it."

Brennault nodded along to the cadence, listening as A'vel explained
just how Searching worked. He knew sometimes dragons came and took
people back to the weyr, but he had never actually seen it happen.

"Can't just walk in and sign up, eh?" he asked. "Can Tsogath do a Search?"

"We got tested in weyrlinghood, it was actually very interesting. She
didn't stand out with her picks, though L'pin said we could retest in
a few months, said sometimes it takes a bit for them to tell," A'vel
said. "So she could take a look, but you might want to confirm with
someone else's dragon. Why, are you interested in Standing, or just
curious?"

"Call it somewhere in between those two," said Brennault. "I like the
life on the trail," he went on. "But. I bet there about nothing in the
world that could beat flying." He looked up into the sky.

"Trouble of it is that whole Thread business," he mused. "Don't
suppose they'd take kindly to me wanting to carry letters for a living
after taking one of their little draggies. It'd be something I'd have
to really think about, but... Being here and all, it does have me
thinking on it now."

"Let's go meet your girl." Brennault smiled. "Even if she thinks I'd
be rubbish at it, at least I'll have gotten to meet a dragon out of
it."

"If you Impress now, you'll have to fly Fall and fight. That's just
the way of things with Thread existing. But I know before the Pass,
and presumably again after the Pass, dragonriders had to have other
jobs to support themselves. Message-running could be one of them. I've
taken some packages and passengers for marks. It's a good way of
earning some," A'vel said.

"Just the way of things," agreed Brennault. "But it's encouraging to
know I could still do what I love. Maybe even do it better than
before." He could go further and carry more. Not only packages but
passengers. He did not know exactly how the dragons' going between
worked, but if he could go anywhere...

All that it would take in return would be putting himself at risk of
death every time Thread fell. It was a noble pursuit, but it was one
that for him would take some real soul-searching to decide whether he
could nobly pursue it.

Last updated on the January 1st 2018

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Bright (1/2)