Note: Once again, astrokath, you have managed to smooth out a chapter for me.
Chapter Two
When Tarie went back outside, she saw that the dragons had already assembled in wing formation. Bag in hand, she walked over to the wingleader's bronze but hesitated as she saw three other Candidates already mounted on the dragon's shoulders.
"Need any help getting on Corelth?" asked a male voice. She turned to see the bronze's rider standing near her, and shook her head.
"Um, where's the rider who Searched me? I think I'd rather ride with her, so your dragon won't get worn out too much," she told him, more awkwardly than she'd planned.
"Four Candidates wearing my Corelth out?" he asked with a laugh. "He could carry three more along with you. But all right, lass; do you know the rider's name?"
"Her name's... Gisellaine, she said."
"Oh, Gisellaine and Zedorianth--they're the third-last to the right," he said, pointing them out. He remounted nimbly despite the other three Candidates, a sort of hop-skip from his dragon's forearm, saying to the bronze, "Corelth, could you tell the others we're about..."
The last part of his sentence faded as Tarie walked away.
"Hello, Tarie," Gisellaine said as Tarie neared her and Zedorianth. "I think we've only gotten three Candidates here--they're with S'ramol, right?"
"I don't know the other riders," Tarie said in feeble explanation--which Gisellaine took in the completely wrong way.
"Ah, you're shy?" she asked, tugging the bag out of Tarie's hand and tying it neatly onto her dragon's harness. "Don't worry about that, shyness doesn't matter even if you're standing for a queen egg--"
"No, it's not that!" she interrupted. "I just don't know anyone else from the Weyr."
"Oh," Gisellaine stopped. "Well then, you need help getting on? Zedorianth, dear, d'you mind?"
Zedorianth gave a rumble and lowered her neck, then held out her forearm like a step. Tarie was rather hesitant to mount, wondering if the soles of her shoes would be too rough for the green's gleaming hide.
Gisellaine, in a sudden movement, jumped onto her green's forearm and then onto her shoulders (it was almost identical to how Corelth's rider had mounted) and held out her hand. "Don't worry, Zedorianth's seen much worse than a Candidate's shoes. It's not going to hurt her at all. Be quick about it, though; Zedorianth said we're going to take off soon."
"How did you know I was--"
"She told me."
When Tarie reached up and took her hand in a secure grip, then placed a foot on Zedorianth's forearm, she was surprised to see how effortlessly the slender woman pulled her up; the greenrider was much stronger than she looked.
"Do you want to use the safety straps?" she asked. Tarie nodded, more to hasten the experience of riding a dragon than anything else, and ignored the part of her mind that rebelled at being treated like a child as Gisellaine strapped her in. "You might want to hold on for when we go between," she added.
A few minutes after everyone had mounted and everything was secure, Tarie saw the wingleader raise an arm, then drop it after a moment. The Search dragons leaped up as one, raising a dust cloud as Tarie's breath was literally taken away from the wind pressure. As they climbed higher into the air, she risked a look down, and was both terrified and delighted at the sight she beheld.
Not only were they gaining altitude at a very fast pace, making Tarie feel like she was somehow falling up into the sky (the thought gave her nausea) it was exhilarating to see the entire layout of the Hold from this high up. The figures of the holders had become small moving dots in the Hold, which looked almost like a detailed, colored map that only a master would be able to produce.
"Tarie..." Gisellaine called over the wind, and despite their close proximity Tarie still strained to hear her. "...hold... we're going..."
Hold? Weren't they going to the Weyr? she wondered. Then she realized.
Between.
In a burst of panic, she clutched Gisellaine's waist and screwed her eyes shut as freezing darkness swallowed them.
