A Hazy Day

[Journye]

Hunter sighed as he leaned against the door frame of the out door of the stable, looking at the clouds that were slowly rolling in. He wiped his sweaty brow with the tail edge of his shirt "Well maybe the clouds will cool things off a bit," he mutter to himself, scowling. He turned to look back inside the stable where things were finally quiet after a long couple of days with the birthing of the new foals of this years stock. He sighed once again and shook his head before taking out a rolled up piece of parchment from the upper pocket of his shirt.

He mumbled to himself as he stepped deeper into the cooler shadows of the barn, going over a list that was written on the parchemt. He paused at a stall and looked in at the runner beast and her foal inside, smiling as the little gray tried to stand on wobbly new legs. He chuckled and moved on, checking in each stall as he went until he reached the second set of doors at the far end of the barn. He finished checking off his list then put it back into his pocket. He squinted his ice green eyes as he stepped into the hazy daylith, a bit bright from the dark interior of the stables.

He stretched and started walking up the hill to the main building of the small hold he lived at with his family, his mother, father and three older siblings. He was the apprentice of the stable master and greatly enjoyed his work with the runner beasts. His skin was darkly tanned from working out in the fields with the animals and his build was athletic. The sunlight spilling out from behind the clouds shone off of the red, almost crimson, highlights in his reddish brown hair. He unbuttoned his shirt to let the cool breeze blowing cool him off a bit as he paused on the path to the main building to tak a brief rest.

[bleedtearsofshame]

Compared to the freezing nothingness of Between, the heat of the Southern sun was nearly unbearable for the green and her rider who appeared below the clouds.

Aren't you glad that you left your riding leathers at the Weyr? came Sayurith's cheerful voice into A'dis' mind.

The greenrider's teeth haltered their chattering, and instantly, he could feel his brow become damp with sweat. Going from one extreme to the other was nothing short of a nuisance, but it was necessary. "Very glad," he called to his lifemate, his fingers tightening their hold upon his riding straps as Sayurith turned sharply on her wingtip.

They were above a small hold known throughout the area for their runner beasts, and thus, A'dis had been sent by the Weyrwoman on a dual mission. He was supposed to use Sayurith's seeking ability to discover those youngsters who would make strong additions to the Weyr: candidates for the future clutch. The second aspect of his journey was to appraise the hold's runner beasts. If they were of decent stock, then he was to report back. The Weyrwoman planned on acquiring more animals for the Weyr, with or without the Hold's consent.

Look, they see us! came Sayurith's excited bugle into A'dis' mind.

The dark haired man, used to his lifemate's exuberance, merely gave an affectionate smile. "How could anyone miss you, love?" he asked fondly as his eyes scanned the ground below them. Sure enough, he could hear shouts from below, small figures pointed upwards towards the dragon who spiraled down to meet them.

It took only mere moments for the green to choose a landing space, far enough from the stables to keep from terrifying the runner beasts, and yet close enough to the main Hold to allow her to sense most of the people who passed by.

A'dis removed his riding helmet, the one aspect of his leathers that he had chosen to wear, attaching it to his riding straps to allow his hands to be free. His fingers reached up to untangle the sweaty strands of his dark hair, giving the people of Hold time to recover from their surprise.

No matter how many Holds he visited, he would never get used to the fear and wonder that glittered in the eyes of crafters and Holds folk who were seeing a dragon for the first time. It was the same here, mouths slack and lips parted in idiotic expressions of shock, wide eyes flickering from dragon to rider and back again, as if trying to convince themselves that they were dreaming.

Having granted the Holds folk a few minutes to recover their emotions, A'dis swung his leg over Sayurith's back and dismounted.

"Greetings," he called out, speaking to all until the Hold's leader revealed himself. "I am A'dis, lifemate to green Sayurith and rider of Araelen Weyr. We come on search. I request to meet with all of your young men and women between the ages of twelve and twenty two turns."

[Journye]

Hunter briefly felt a cooler breeze and frowned a bit as he looked around, but shrugged it off as he continued his way to the hold. He froze not five steps later when he saw the green dragon land not that far from him in an area they mostly used for when the caravans came by. He quickly shook himself and stepped into the crowd. He looked the dragon over slowly. trying the remember if that color was supposed to be male or female, shards it had been so long since the dragons were around. He looked at the rider and he had another bit of a shock. He shook his head quickly and glanced around, spotting his sisters and brother.

He moved over to join them just as the dragonman introduced himself and made his request. He arched an eyebrow and stepped forward with one of his older sisters, she had just turned twenty one, the other two were already older then what the man asked for. He glanced at his sister who shrugged.

He looked the man over carefully, a small smile forming on his lips for a moment in appreciation of the man's looks before he shook his head. He cleared his throat and stepped forward "Welcome to our small hold rider A'dis and his Green Sayurith," he said respectfully since he seemed to be the only one to have gained function of his tongue so far. "Search? Could you explain what that means A'dis?" he asked as confused as the rest of the crowd. "I mean we know it has something to do with the dragons, but what does it require?"

He gave the man a perplexed look for a moment before turning his attention to the green, a low whistle slipped between his lips at the way her hide sparkled in the weak sunlight that filtered through the clouds. He looked her over slowly, much like he would have looked over a runner beast. He nodded to himself as he noticed the suppleness of her muscle and sinews. He inclined his head politely to the green, knowing they were much smarter then a runner beast and he didn't want her to think him rude for staring, well he'd rather stare at her rider anyway.

He turned his attention back toward A'dis as he and the rest of the hold's people waited his explanation

[bleedtearsofshame]

A'dis frowned in spite of himself. He knew that dragons had gone extinct, mere legends to entertain and enthrall by Harpers on gather evenings... But not to remember what Search was? How could such knowledge have fallen out of memory? It was appalling, it was offensive... But it would change.

It was a good thing that Sitareh was not here to listen to this lad. Her face would have flushed with anger and the Weyrwoman would make absolutely sure that no one from this little Hold EVER forgot the meaning of Search again.

A slight smile, more of a smirk really, flittered at the edges of A'dis' lips as he turned his vivid green eyes towards the young man who had been self-appointed to the role of spokesman.

"It is quite simple," the greenrider said smoothly. "At Araelen Weyr, our queen is expected to rise in a matter of sevendays. After a flight comes a clutch. Eggs on the sands means that we need to bring in candidates, young men and women who were deemed suitable to become dragonriders. They will have the chance to impress a dragon, a lifemate, of their very own."

Sayurith was eying the boy who spoke up. He's staring at me! she said to A'dis, though her words weren't quite a complaint. Just a startled realization.

Ignore him, love, the man told her silently. None have ever seen a dragon before, let alone a beauty such as yourself. All are staring. Just ignore them and try to seek out the candidates.

Aloud, A'dis was saying something completely different. "Not everyone can become a candidate. Dragons can sense those who have the potential to join the ranks of Riders. Sayurith here is very good at Searching for candidates. Thus, we have come here. Any one whom is Searched is formally invited to return with me to Araelen where they will be given to opportunity to Stand for the hatching."

The young men and women had been carefully stepped forward to form a ragged line, their eyes poorly concealing their nervousness and their hope. Sayurith followed A'dis' advice to ignore the staring boy, deciding to start at the end of the line. She swung her wedge-shaped head towards the trembling girl who started the line, her curiosity forming a snort of disgust as she felt the girl's terror.

The green moved on, peering intently at each girl and boy, sniffing at their clothing and nudging them gently with the tip of her nose, staring at them with one large, whirling eye. Twice, she found youngsters who she thought had a very small amount of that spark of ability, the essence of what it took to Impress. But none had yet truly caught her attention, none truly had that fire burning within.

Then, Sayurith's attention came turned to Hunter.

[Journye]

Hunter nodded slowly at the man's explaination before speaking, having seen him frown, "I apologize if I offended, but we don't get many harpers stopping by here." He shifted, a bit uncomfortable with the fact that everyone was letting him do the speaking. He sighed to himself and watched the dragon began to look at all those that had stepped forward.

"May we offer you anything A'dis?" he asked, not wanting it to be known that this small hold had not been polite to the dragonriders, he sensed that it would be unwise to do such a thing. He looked up as sensed that the dragon was looking at him and he held his breath for a moment. He was a bit afraid, but his curiosity was stronger. He was almost mesmerized by the whirling eyes of the green and he stood his ground, truly wondering if he had what it took to be a dragon rider then another thought hit him, what if this dragon could sense his preference in love interests.

He felt his cheeks growing warm, but he took a deep breath to calm himself and crossed his arms and looked back toward A'dis "Is there anything else that you would like here besides candidates? We also have a fine herd of runner beasts many of the other holds come here to either buy or have their mares bred with our finest stallions," he said, his voice colored with the pride he felt in his hold's runner beasts.