Author's Note.
I do not own the Dragonriders of Pern franchise or anything recognisable.
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Kuyaran lounged in the common room, idly oiling Dancer, her Queen firelizard. Sunspyre had been putting girls to green for a good hundred turns now, they found it was better for the running of the Weyr and a good half of their greenriders were women. There wasn't a need for all this fuss over Queen candidates though, it was obvious who would impress them, at least in her eyes. It had to be. One would be hers and the other Sirena's, with Revina maybe impressing a green.
Kuyaran had dreamt of being a dragonrider like her father since before she could remember. It was the one thing she wanted most in life. She would fly and prove her name and worth.
She was first put on the sands at fifteen, and failed to impress any of the little greens (or the blue she half-heartedly tried for). Since then, she had failed to impress at any of the following seven Hatchlings and had begun to despair and try for blue and even brown dragons.
Then Nareth laid her twin Queens, as people were starting to call the two Queen eggs.
It had to be fate. One for her, one for Sirena. And, if the rumours were true, a queer funny looking one, but people didn't count that one. A lot of people thought it was a dud.
The door flung open. Kuyaran barely glanced, expecting it to be Sirena and the new candidates back – so soon – and then had to double take when it wasn't.
The candidate master, D'vran, was stood in the doorway. He was an older man, grey haired and grizzled with thread score, and a green rider to boot. Normally that made sense, as the girls were standing for greens, though Kuyaran did bristle at being ordered around by one in such a low ranking as a green rider. She had thought they would bring in someone else for the Queen candidates, but no.
He wasn't alone though, and it wasn't him Kuyaran was looking at.
Behind him was a girl, maybe about her age, clad in a green tunic and trews that suited her very well and showed off her muscular figure very nicely. Two bronze firelizards were twined about her neck.
She was the most stunningly beautiful girl Kuyaran had ever seen.
Kuyaran slithered to her feet. "Good afternoon candidate master."
"Good afternoon Kuyaran. Is Sirena around?"
"No, she's showing the other new girls around."
"Ah right. This is Dorasa, one of our new girls."
The other girl stepped around into the room, glancing around with glittering emerald eyes. She had long red hair, a deeper and more vibrant colour than Revina's, bound back in an intricate looking braid. A wicked looking silver dagger hung at her hip.
"Dorasa, this is Kuyaran, one of our other candidates."
"Nice to meet you," said Dorasa in a soft, musical voice.
"I, uh, uh, I…" Way to sound good Kuyaran. "Nice to meet you too." There! Good!
"You'll be staying here, so I'll leave you to get settled in and Kuyaran can show you around."
"Thank you sir."
Dorasa had only brought a lightweight trunk with her, which she hauled easily into the common room. "So where do I set up?"
"Most of the chambers are empty at the moment, just pick one. You'll probably get a roommate when more girls start arriving."
Dorasa took the fourth one from the end, dragging her trunk in and placing it at the end of one bed. "How long have you been here?"
"All my life. I'm weyrbred. My father's a bronze rider."
"Must be nice."
"It is. How about yours?"
"My parents are dead."
"Oh."
"They died when I was young."
"I'm sorry."
"Killed by the warlord who wanted to kill us."
"Oh."
Wow.
"You, um, you want to see around the Weyr?"
Dorasa smiled sweetly, lighting up her face just right. "Can Yariel come?"
"Yariel?"
"My brother."
Oh.
Beauty must run in their family or something. Yariel was younger than Dorasa by maybe a couple of years, but already as tall as her, with a similarly muscular build and the same sparkling emerald eyes that she had, though he had a mop of messy raven black hair as opposed to her red. He wore a large broadsword where she wore her dagger. He too had two firelizards, a Queen which was wrapped around his neck and a brown perched on his shoulder.
The two of them followed her intently around the Weyr. Annoyingly, many of the riders they passed took notice of Dorasa, stopping to stare or breathe out sharply. After the second one Yariel took her hand, after the fourth he pulled her closer, and finally after the eighth he seemed to break, stopping to glare at Weyrling bronze rider L'tron after he whistled appreciatingly at her and resting his hand on his sword. "Don't look at her like that! She is a person, not a slab of meat!"
"Yariel," Dorasa murmured.
"Oh, come on," whined L'tron, who had always been a bit of a prick to be honest. "If you're not doing that, I will." He raised his eyebrows at Dorasa. "You want some fun darlin?"
It was the wrong thing to say.
100%
Yariel punched him in the face.
Kuyaran couldn't even said he hadn't deserved it.
Both boys were dragged off to their respective masters. Dorasa sighed. "I'm sorry. We get that a lot. It really rubs Yariel up the wrong way."
"I… gather." Kuyaran could hardly blame people though. The girl was remarkably beautiful. "You probably should be careful. Some riders can get rowdy, especially during or after a mating flight. It's against Weyr code for them to force themselves on a woman, but it happens."
Dorasa fingered her knife thoughtfully. "Thanks for the warning."
Kuyaran got the feeling that was her way of saying she could look after herself.
They finished up the tour in more of a sombre mood. Dorasa lingered to look out over the bay. "Is it safe to swim in?"
"The lake's safer unless you're a strong swimmer, the currents can be pretty harsh in the bay."
Dorasa smiled dreamily and nodded.
Yariel met them back at the candidate barracks, taking up a position at Dorasa's side as though it was some sort of instinct.
"What did R'ton say?" Kuyaran asked.
"Something about him deserving it but me not using my fists to solve problems." He scowled. "It's always worked just fine before."
Dorasa petted the head of one of her bronzes. "No matter. We knew it would be different here."
He grunted a reply. Dorasa took his hand. "Come on. There are places here we can swim; I haven't swum in ages! Kuyaran, do you swim?"
She shook her head. "I can, but I don't."
"Fair enough. We'll see you later."
Kuyaran watched them go with a soft smile.
Perhaps not all these new candidates were going to be useless objects or annoyances.