Disclaimer: I don't own Pern; I own only the original elements in this story.
UnimpressedEveryone dreamed of being Searched by dragonriders. Seril of Fort Hold was no exception. But unlike others, who either outgrew their dreams or had them shattered, his came true.
"The dragons have chosen you," his friend Volira said, brown eyes sad, while he stared in disbelief at the rider who smiled down at him.
"Luliath has spoken," the rider –Sh'tin– said. Seril's eyes moved to the other rider, standing beside Sh'tin. B'ral nodded to him, also smiling. Then Seril looked up –way up– at green Luliath and blue Vyrth. They also seemed to be smiling. Finally Seril turned to Volira. She looked sad at first, but quickly tried to hide it in a dazzling smile.
"Go on, dragon boy," she said brightly. "I, for one, won't miss you in the least." But that wasn't true, and they both knew it. Truthfully, aside from Seril's parents and baby brother, she was one of the few who would miss him. A rustle and a croon made Seril turn. The watch-wher crawled out of its den, shivering in its brown hide to be so near the dragons. Seril sighed and patted Serisk's ugly head. He took a deep breath, squared his shoulders and looked back at the dragonriders. Decisively, he nodded.
000
Four days later, Seril's mind was once again in an uproar as he and the other fifty-odd Candidates waited to be told they could finally look in to their dragons' eyes.
"Go," the Weyrling master said. He ushered them out onto the hot sands. Seril, hanging nervously near the back, saw those ahead of him flinch as the heat of the Hatching Grounds hit them. He also winced as he stepped onto the scalding sands, but nearly forgot all discomfort as he gazed upon the rocking eggs and the great golden queen behind them. Suddenly a crack sounded and his heart leapt into his mouth as he saw a small brown creature fall onto the sands. Frozen, he watched as a boy helped the dragonet to its feet and hugged it, calling one name over and over again: Teirth. His Teirth.
A second later, it seemed, the Hatching was all over. The remains of shells littered the ground, and the last pairs of dragons and dragonriders walked off the Hatching Sands of Fort Weyr. Seril looked around in confusion. No more dragonets. Others like himself were also standing there, bewildered. They had had the chance to prove themselves dragonriders and they had failed. Seril turned, numb, and returned to the Candidates' rooms. He didn't know where else to go.
000
The next day, after a sleepless night, non-rider Seril wandered about, looking for Sh'tin or B'ral, the green- and bluerider who had Searched him. He found them down by the lake, relaxing with their dragons. Luliath raised her green head and looked at him, eyes whirling sleepily, nudged blue Vyrth, who also looked st Seril, and then the two dragons lay down their heads and closed their bright eyes. Unable to make anything of this gesture, Seril continued until he stood beside Sh'tin and B'ral, who looked at him.
"I'm not a dragonrider," Seril said. His voice held no emotion. "I never will be." They looked at him sympathetically, but their expressions changed to ones that reflected astonishment at his next words.
"And I don't want to be one."
000
Two hours later, Seril was sliding down Luliath's shoulder, a bag in his arms. "Thank you!" he called up to Sh'tin. The greenrider saluted him. The green waited until he was a safe distance away before she launched herself upwards into the sky. She lifted high into the air, circled one, twice, and vanished between. Seril smiled at his parents as they came running out of the hold, his young brother asleep in his mother's arms. They grabbed him, trying to get the story out of him.
He didn't Impress? But why did he come back when there might soon be a second clutch? But Seril disentangled himself as his eyes met the disbelieving gaze of Volira. She came forward hesitantly, as if unsure it was really him, perhaps wondering how much he had changed.
"I wasn't chosen," he said when she was near. He didn't notice his parents surreptitiously stepping back away from the two teenagers. "I chose instead."
"I'm glad," Volira said breathlessly.
"I'm just as glad," he whispered. Abruptly he grabbed her and kissed her soundly, spinning her around. When he finally set her down he was aware of cheers from his friends and family, and the fanfare of the watch-wher.
His eyes glittered as he held Volira by the waist with one arm and stroked Serisk's ugly, exuberant head with the other hand. "If you'll pardon the pun," he said, "I am most wonderfully… un-Impressed."