Search Means Freedom

Writers: Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 28th April 2017

Characters: Etiaren, Otaren, E'sra, G'brien, Etiza
Description: Search comes to Echo Ridge minor hold.
Location: Sunstone Seahold
Date: month 11, day 20 of Turn 8

"They're coming! They're coming!" shouted Otaren as he ran into the
main hall of Echo Ridge Hold.

"Who's coming?" his father Etiaren asked sternly. He hated when his
youngest boy yelled and tracked in dirt, and here he was doing both.

"There's dragons overhead. Landing," the boy said. The nine-turn-old
boy was panting. He'd run as fast as he could to tell his family. He
knew his dad always wanted to know and he always wanted to impress his
dad.

Etiaren frowned. He didn't like dragons landing. They usually only
wanted one thing. He turned and pointed at a passing guard. "You.
Round all the women up. Get them into the store rooms, the laundry,
the ladies chambers."

The guard nodded and ran off to do as he was bid.

"Go to the ladies' chamber. Find your sister and stay with her," he
ordered his son.

Once the boy ran off, Etiaren squared his shoulders and walked out the
front doors, ready to confront the dragonriders who thought they could
bring chaos to his holding.

"Play it cool. Let me do the talking." E'sra told the younger rider
with him, who was shadowing E'sra in the hopes of becoming a
Searchrider one day. Behind E'sra his blue dragon waited patiently,
and next to him, a green dragon.

As the door to the main building opened, E'sra adopted an easy going
smile, although he had to admit he was a little nervous. He had grown
up at Echo Ridge, the nephew of Etiaren, but he hadn't been back to
the small, out of the way holding ever since he'd Impressed Phileanth
six Turns ago.

"Uncle Etiaren," he greeted, giving the Lord a respectful bow. Beside
him G'brien hurried to mimic the Searchrider. As a weyrbred

dragonrider, G'brien hadn't understood E'sra's hesitance when they had
been assigned this area to Search.

"Bluerider," Etiaren said. "How are you and your dragon?" He excluded
G'brien from consideration.

"Phileanth is well." E'sra said, completing the traditional small
talk. He turned and gestured to his left, "This is G'brien and his
dragon Abayath. We are here on Search from River Bluff Weyr."

Etiaren stopped to consider how he could block them from entering. The
previous Holder had been a cruel man to his family, but he'd accorded
respect to dragonriders. After he'd died off, Etiaren, his cousin, had
been the closest male relative alive. And so he'd inherited a Hold in
poor straits and needing more people.

Now, he didn't hate dragonriders. but he thought they should fly
Thread, and not ever come to Holds. Echo Ridge needed every hand it
had, after their bad times. All riders did was come steal the children
away. Steal them to Impress and leave the farms and mines untended.

"We don't have enough people for you to take some," Etiaren told the
bluerider.

E'sra looked his Uncle straight in the eye for a moment. There was no
blood relation between them, E'sra had been taken in by his parents at
a young age, but he'd been raised right along side his siblings as if
he were a part of the family.

"It is custom for Searchriders to be allowed to visit with the people,
no matter how small or large the population." Refusing to allow Search
was by no means a light thing to do. G'brien's eyes nervously darted
between E'sra and Etiaren, he'd never heard someone refuse before,
could they even do that?

Etiaren narrowed his eyes at the boy. He was just a bluerider. How
dare he defy his uncle and continue pushing his way in to Search.
Couldn't he see it was unwanted? Didn't he know that the hold needed
its people or else they'd starve? Had he really been so tainted by
the ways of the Weyr?

"Fine," he said after a long moment. "We'll have to call the men in
from the field. Why don't you wait here while we get them?"

"No women? I hope the ladies of the Hold aren't feeling poorly." E'sar
commented, knowing very well the females were being kept hidden from
them but without a gold on the Sands, E'sar couldn't very well press
the issue.

"We had a case of chills two sevendays ago. Several are still feeling
poorly," Etiaren said calmly. It wasn't even entirely an untruth.

A guard had scurried off to go retrieve the people from the fields.

"Our poor timing then," E'sra said, even though he didn't believe his
uncle's story for a second. "Please send my regards to my aunt and cousins."

"I will." Once Etiaren was sure the guard were doing what he wanted, and
was pretty sure that the women had had time to hide, he gestured at the
two riders to follow him. "Come on in for some water."

**Water? That's what we're offered?** E'sra thought as he motioned for
G'brien to follow.

}:Would you like me to do a little flaming display? I just had
firestone yesterday, I still have a little gas left.:{ Phileanth piped
in with amusement.

**You're a bag of gas, for sure. No flaming.**

}:Not even a little belch of smoke?:{ Phileanth whined.

**No.** E'sra thought back with a serious tone, although secretly he
found Phileanth's request a bit humorous.

}:Fine.:{ Phileanth huffed, and E'sra could have sworn he saw a few
tendrils of smoke curl up from the dragon's closed mouth.

Etiaren had taken a look at the two dragons and then turned to lead
the dragonriders into the hold's building. As he walked, he lectured,
"You'll see it's not too different from when you left, though things
have improved slightly after the prior lord left. We're still
recovering from mismanagement, you see."

A few turns and they were at the private dining room that doubled as a
conference room. Etiaren took a seat and gestured at the dragonriders
to do the same. A drudge popped his head in. "Get us water. And some
cold juice, if you can find any," he added.

**If you can find any?** E'sra repeated mentally. Were things so bad
that even juice was hard to come by? The bluerider motioned G'brien to
sit and then took the chair beside him.

"How do the crops fair? I hear it has been dry this season." He made
polite conversation with his uncle while they waited.

"Very dry. The only real rain we've had was brought in by the
hurricane," Etiaren said with a scowl at the thought. "The crops are
smaller than usual and we had to try a second planting of the heartier
winter items."

The drudge scuttled back in carrying water and juice which was still
somewhat warm. He bobbed his head apologetically at the dragonriders.
"This was what was in the kitchen," he said.

E'sra could tell by the lack of condensation on the cup that the juice
would be lukewarm at best. Determined to continue the visit on a
cordial note, the bluerider took a cup of the water and sipped lightly
from it.

**The sooner we finish Search here, the better.** He thought.

~*~

None of the boys that had been presented to them had shown an inkling
of potential as a future dragonrider, Phileanth had nearly yawned in
one of their faces while he was looking over them.

"Thank you for your hospitality uncle," E'sra said as he and G'brien
prepared to leave. "I hope your fields prosper."

"Thank you. I hope you find better luck on your search elsewhere,"
Etiaren said stiffly. He turned and began walking back down the path
towards the hold's doors.

Etiza had seen the guards rounding up the women and had managed to
evade being sent to the ladies' chambers by virtue of hiding in the
linen closet. When she'd heard voices pass by on the way to the
meeting area, she'd slipped out and skulked towards the laundry area
at back and hidden herself under cover of the steaming tubs. Once she
heard the sounds of people going back into the hold, she'd made her
way out the back door to the gardens and then ran around the side,
hiding there until she could slip into the fields.

Now, she saw the holder walking away and took her chance. She dashed
towards the blue and green dragons. If she could talk to the riders
before they left...

}:A girl approaches.:{ Phileanth told E'sra, causing the bluerider to turn.

"Ma'am?" He was surprised to see her since he knew that Etiaren had
hidden away all the women.

Etiza looked up at the two riders with her best pleading expression.
She only had one chance at this, she knew that they wouldn't come back
if they hadn't found anyone of note here. So she _had_ to convince
them to take her now. And convince them quickly, before a guard - or
her father - came to see why the great beasts lingered.

"Bluerider, please. Take me with you," Etiza begged.

Her hair was covered under a rag from the laundry and she had dust on
her face, but Etiza was still a striking girl. Unfortunately, she
still resembled her father.

E'sra took in the girl's familiar face and felt a moment's hesitation.
His Uncle had purposefully hidden the women away, taking one of them
would be seen as a personal insult, but...

}:She has the qualities of a Candidate. She belongs to the Weyr.:{
Phileanth insisted, feeling his rider's inner debate.

"Quickly then," E'sra said, grabbing the girl's hand and tugging her
toward Phil, who was crouched and ready.

G'brien's eyebrows had nearly disappeared into his hairline at this.
"But E'sra, I thought -"

"Get on your dragon, G'brien." E'sra ordered, to which the young
greenrider shrugged his shoulders and complied.

Etiza let herself be pulled along by E'sra towards his dragon. Thanks
to her impulsivity, she had nothing with her, nothing to carry to
remember the hold and nothing she might need. She hoped she didn't
have to bring anything to the Weyr.

She retained the presence of mind to nod to the blue dragon. "Hello
there," she said softly.

Phileanth sniffed at the hem of the young woman's skirt as she passed
by. E'sra helped the girl up onto his dragon and began strapping her
in, "My name is E'sra, by the way, this is Phileanth."

"Hi, Philneath," she said, not quite getting it right. She gripped
onto the straps. "Hi E'sra. Are we kind of related?"

"Kind of," E'sra said into her ear. "Etiaren is my uncle, but I was
adopted by my parents."

"Close enough," she decided. "Thank you for taking a chance on me like
this. I know father will be furious, but I don't want to be married to
some old man, I just want to be free!"

E'sra smiled, "Well, now you are."

Last updated on the June 10th 2017

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Search Means Freedom