New Candidates

Writers: Emma, Jane
Date Posted: 13th March 2008

Characters: Rondera, Grehga
Description: Two new Candidates meet for the first time.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 8, day 27 of Turn 4

The slightly-built nut-brown girl bounced into the room where the Candidate class was to be held. She was early, as she had planned, and she was happy enough that she was in the right place at the right time that she had no qualms when she found the room empty. The rest would come along in their own time. Light-brown eyes surveyed the room before she trotted over to study one of the wall charts.

The twelve Turn old healer apprentice couldn't help but smile as she peered at the large hide showing dragon bone and muscle structure. A Candidate! Her!

"Your first time too?" Rondera sounded a little nervous. But she had turned twelve, and born here at Dolphin Cove and that gave her the right to stand if she wanted to, once she was of age.

Grehga surveyed the newcomer. "Yes. I asked the Weyrwoman," she said, a little smug about having done so. "Because I was already here."

"Oh," Rondera said. "I was born here."

"Really? Is your father a dragonrider?"

"My Da's a Wingsecond."

"Mine's a journeyman dolphineer," Grehga said, a little disappointed that she had nothing better to offer. "But my father's a master dolphineer. They're all dolphineers - except me." That was better.
She was different from her family - and proud of it.

"Wow! I haven't chosen a craft yet. D'you like healing?"

Grehga gave the question some thought. "Yes. Mostly. It's a bit slow, though, but I suppose that can't be helped."

"Da said I should look at weaving, like my Aunt."

"_Weaving_?" Grehga thought that sounded even slower than healing. "I can see why you'd want to be a dragonrider instead."

"My Da said," and Rondera was aware she probably did sound childish, all the 'Da this' and 'Da that' . "Da said I might not Impress at all and I'd need a craft."

Grehga's rather solemn features lit with a smile. "My grandfather said I'd better do something because with my smart mouth nobody with any sense would marry me and I wouldn't be interested in anybody with no sense."

"I think my Grandda would probably say the same," Rondera smiled. "He did ask me what I wanted to do last time he visited."

"And you told him you wanted to be a _weaver_?"

"I told him maybe I'd be like my Aunt, and I think he thought that." Her Aunt Akessa hadn't impressed, that was all she'd meant, K'sedel and K'deren had just taken it a bit too literally.

"What is your aunt like, then?"

"She's nice, I like her. And she's working to being a Master Weaver one day."

"I have a nice grandmother," Grehga offered. "But she says she's happy to be a journeywoman. My grandfather says she's just lazy."

"Is your grandmother a Dolphineer too?"

"Yes, all my family but me. Oh, not my aunty. She's working here in the lower caverns." Grehga leaned forward and lowered her voice, "They sent her here to keep an eye on me."

"Sometimes I feel like the riders from my Da's wing are watching me too," Rondera's tone was conspiratorial. "I mean there are so many of them around, and they all know who my Da is."

"If we're old enough to be dragonriders," Grehga said firmly, "then we're old enough not to need all this supervision."

"I wish my Da knew that," but since his weyrmate had gone, who could blame him for being a little over protective at times.

"I could tell him, if you like," Grehga offered brightly. It was worth trying the idea out on somebody else's parent before trying it on her grandfather.

"Don't do that!"

"Why not?" Grehga looked quite disappointed when a crowd of people came through the open door of the classroom. She lowered her voice and said to her new acquaintance, "You can tell me later."

Last updated on the March 19th 2008

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