The buff colored sides of the slot canyon gave way to banded red sandstone as the path wound deeper into the earth. Beams of sunlight shone in from above, as Bukset's runner moved quietly along the sandy bottom of the canyon, and he stared up at the weird and beautiful shape of the walls. His runner stopped again, and Bukset looked away from the walls to the fork in the path, one going deeper still, the other slanting slightly upwards.
"Which way should we go, Sopra?" He asked his brown, who flit from his shoulder to his saddle horn, peering down path. Bukset was about to ask him to check the lower path when a flight of firelizards burst out from the upper path, and swirled around him, before returning from whence they came. Sopra crooned wistfully, then took flight.
"Go on, make some friends." Bukset chuckled, and dismounted, leading the runner up path.
Char was only peripherally aware that the lower caverns thinned out of bronze- and brownriders, chatting and eating with her friends, although she did wonder aloud at their continued absence as the harpers struck up the dancing music.
"Wilth rose." Fulsa said, as if that explained everything. It took Char a moment, along with a mental image of the queen flirting with her pursuers from Vaeth, before she put two and two together.
"Oh. Oh! You'll get to stand candidate before spring then!" She said to Lybae, who grinned hopefully.
"You've already been tapped?" Keslo asked, as some of the far tables were scooted aside to make room for dancers.
"Yes! They told us a month after Char and Vaeth, they want to see more girls on dragons." Lybae explained as Thelil smiled shyly at her friend's exuberance. "The Search dragons said there are more than twenty of us in the Lower Caverns."
"Shouldn't you have stood for a Queen egg?" Keslo asked, faintly confused.
"They would have, if golds chose womenfolk from the Weyrs more frequently." Fulsa said abruptly, standing. "Dance with me, C'bay. Telly says Mirrth says you are a good dancer." C'bay started to demure, glancing at Char.
"Go~ I'm not alone." Char replied with a laugh. She had gotten a stab of poignant want but had trouble pinpointing the owner, until Fulsa outed C'bay.
"He's a good friend." Keslo noted as they joined the dancers.
"He's like a big brother to most of us." Lybae said, slathering a roll with sourfuit custard. "Even before he Impressed, he was always helping the littler ones out."
"Do... do you know why queens don't choose from the Weyrfolk?" Keslo asked delicately. Lybae shrugged. "Koru is Weyr-bred, but I heard her queen actually chased her out of the stands before she Impressed her properly." She bit into her roll.
"I-I read something, in one of Healer Zandur's tomes that speculated that queens are looking for a very strong willed women, along with having sensitivity." Thelil offered softly. "There was also something in there about greens and blues being unaltered, but I didn't understand all the words in that medical treaty."
"Makes sense." Char said, silently encouraging her. "My Ma was Searched, and she always said it was because she was too stubborn to be ignored whenever she waved at sweepriders."
"But Char, everyone waves at sweepriders." Lybae said with a puzzled look.
"True, but not everyone can convince sweepriding dragons to circle once before continuing on their way." Char explained.
I apologize for my slow posting, things have been a little tumultous of late.
Will try to have more posted by the end of the month.