When Genny and her cohort arrived at the High Reaches Weyr, she was alert with excitement despite the exhausting day. A short, wiry woman with greying hair was directing arrivals at in the Courtyard where they landed. "Another girl?" She asked warily, hardly even looking in Genny's direction. "Good. That way lass, down the hall you'll see another woman. Her name is Lawana. She'll arrange for proper attire for you." The woman barked.
"That's the Weyrwoman, Moura. She can be a little hard to track down sometimes, but she is fair and competent when she can be found. She sounds a bit stressed about the Hatching." M'tou told her. "Well, I'll see you around." He said in parting, giving Genny a small salute.
Genny walked down the corridor in the direction indicated. A woman, slightly overweight from years of her own good cooking, with short white hair but skin about two decades younger than the Weyrwoman's greeted Genny curtly, shoving a rolled package into her hands. "All you prima donnas vying for our poor queen egg. Settle down, settle down, here's another of you, can anyone point out an open bunk?"
"Can I help you with anything?" Genny volunteered, unfamiliar as she was with her surroundings.
The woman turned and looked at her thoughtfully. "No, no, I really have it under control. But thank you for asking. A nice girl like you, you make sure you steer clear of that one." Lawana said, pointing. "Her name is Allika and she's been bossing people around and making their lives miserable since she was born in this Weyr. She's certain she'll Impress. Here, here's a suitable bunk for you. I'm Lawana. You just let me know if you need anything, and I hope you enjoy your stay at our Weyr."
Genny shuffled over to the open bunk Lawana had pointed out to set down the bundle that had been given to her. In it, she found fresh furs to place on her bunk, a white robe, and matching white slippers.
"I've heard that's what we all wear when the time comes," a small girl near Genny piped up as she saw Genny unfold the garment. "Rather ugly, you know, but at least it's not for long. But I do wonder, what if the little queen likes pink?"
"Hmph, don't you know, all candidates wear white and all white. If you really feel the need to stand out in this robe – I agree with how unsightly it is, have one of the drudges take it in for you," The tall, blonde girl Lawana had pointed out as mean had overheard this conversation and had come to deride the young girl.
"So maybe the queen does like pink, but we won't know until she has Impressed one of us white-clad gals and told us, won't we" Genny said, reaching out to squeeze the younger girl's hand and trying to diffuse the situation.
"And just who do you think you are, anyways? Ack, it doesn't matter, you'll be gone in a sevenday's time." She really was nasty, Genny thought. The unsettling encounter really sucked away Genny's wired energy from earlier. She spread out the furs on her bunk, slipped in and gratefully closed her eyes for the night.
By the second day, Genny had gotten some of her bearings around the cavernous Weyr. She could at least navigate between the courtyard, Candidate bunks, Hatching Sand, and Kitchen/Great Hall, without much difficulty. She was thankful all of her important destinations were located on the ground floor as the space above her seemed immense. She could not get over her fearful reverence each time she swung by the Hatching ground, despite the blue-green whirring of the watchful queen's eyes that she was told expressed approval. Of course, she tried to avoid those times that the self-absorbed Allika spent on the sands caressing the golden egg. Fortunately, the heat of the Sands kept anyone's time on them to discrete intervals.
On the fifth day, Genny awoke to greater commotion than usual. A low hum seemed to permeate the Weyr, with new notes joining the sound and giving it greater nuance every so often. When she stepped out from the Candidates' bunks to the Hatching Arena, she saw numerous people filing in. She took the hearty, practically clad individuals as residents of the Weyr, and she assumed the others, elegantly clad pairs, were the parents of the hopeful Candidates. She scanned the arena but did not yet see her parents. She stepped outside to the caldera-rimmed courtyard. All over, flurries of color marked the arrival and departure of dragons delivering guests. Still more dragons were perched on the rim of the caldera, while others watched from cutouts in the face that she had learned were called weyrs. Each one apparently marked the quarters of a dragonrider. She heard the Weyrwoman's curt voice over all of the bustle "All Candidates to the Hatching Sand. All Candidates to the Hatching Sand!" Genny hurried back inside.
The Sands were more crowded than she had yet seen them, but it was not full by any means. There were an odd baker's dozen eggs beyond the coveted queen egg. The full grown Queen had been joined by a bronze about eighty percent her size who was rubbing her neck reassuringly with his snout. A few dragons poked their heads through the cavernous doors, only for their riders to shoo them back outside. The humming, which Genny realized came from the dragons, had grown louder and more intense.
Motion in the periphery of her vision caught her eye. A first egg rocked, and a crack appeared down its length. A brown snout poked through, and soon a wingtip close by. The crack spread, opened, and out from it flopped a brown, wet creature that stumbled about, its eyes whirring red with hunger. It lurched towards a tall, dark haired boy who raised his arms to shield himself. The dragon began clawing at his robed arms, piercing the skin, until another dark-haired boy, half a head shorter than the first lured the small creature away with a handful of bloody scraps. Slowly, the red eyes whirred rainbow as the Impression took effect. "Crenth?" The boy exclaimed incredulously.
All around, eggs began rocking back and forth. Genny focused her attention on the queen egg. That's the one she was here for, girls only got shots at golds. She was so transfixed her brain was not really in control of her actions; having watched the success and failure of the first Impression, some force compelled her to ready herself by plunging her hand into a nearby bucket of scraps. At last, a sign of motion from the queen egg. Genny tensed in anticipation. Hello, I am Saleneth, and you will be mine! A voice suddenly intruded her thoughts.
Genny looked down to see a small, light green creature nibbling at the scraps in her hand and curling its tail around the girl's leg. It had made the approximately five yard journey between where the rest of the male candidates were throwing around scraps of meat to their newly hatched partners to where the girls awaited the queen. More, more, the voice cried as it thrust its head into Genny's unsoiled other hand. Genny thought she ought to feel disappointed by this turn of events. This was not a queen. It was a green. This is not what is supposed to happen. Except those thoughts were miniscule voices compared to the utter bliss and calm she felt. Also hunger. Genny quickly fetched a full bucket of scraps and brought it back to her little Saleneth. The little green ate with such vigor and yet seemed to still maintain a modicum of decorum.
Just then, all attention in the room shifted momentarily to the queen egg that had until recently captured Genny's full attention. Even Saleneth decided she could pause in her voracious quest. With a decided whoosh, the two halves of the shell fell open and the queen within lurched out. She darted among the female candidates, some of whom recoiled others of whom reached out to try to make contact in an attempt to Impress the little queen. None were as assiduous as the detestable Allika. The little gold dragon swung by the periphery of the female candidates where Genny sat with Saleneth. Hello little one, she smiled at it. Saleneth spread her wings, hey, over here! Me, me, me! She demanded. With what seemed to be an echo of disappointment, the little queen slowly turned her head to circle back to the other girls.
Allika had calculated this very movement and was there to grasp the little queen's head, look her in the eye, and waft food in front of her nostrils. After a few frantic shakes of her head, the queen hungrily accepted the food and her eyes gradually subsided from bright red to the many colors of Impression. It struck Genny that it was an awfully forced method of Impression. You're right, I sense trouble with those two, but none that we need to worry about right now. Have you tried these meat scraps? They're really good! The little green was still, permanently, in Genny's thoughts. Oh, Azirith says you have a feast of your own waiting. I like the sound of that, you need to eat too. Indeed, Candidates and their new partners began filtering out of the Hatching Ground.
Just then a familiar, petite figure came hurtling towards them. "Why you ungrateful little bitch! You wanted so much to get away from us that you jumped at Impressing that thing. It's not even a queen. I know. The gentleman next to me pointed the queen out as that one." Genny's mother was focusing all of the hurt and future loneliness that she felt into that one moment. Saleneth reared onto her hind legs, eyes whirring red. The lesser Hold woman did not mind the infant heed, and when she had encroached close enough into the reach of the little dragon, Saleneth struck with a taloned claw, drawing blood. No, that's my mother. Genny pleaded. She's trying to take you away from me. I won't allow it, Saleneth declared. Just as you are taking me away from her, Genny quickly rebuked her. Suddenly three figures had converged on the scene, the Weyrwoman, Weyrleader, and the hulking mass of the bronze dragon.
"You," the Moura's eyes narrowed briefly at the newly linked pair before she turned to the more pressing matter at hand. "Here, let me tend to your injuries," The Weyrwoman offered, leading Genny's mother away from the scene. The Weyrleader turned his attention toward Genny and Saleneth.
"Please, sir, I didn't do –"
"Hush child, you did everything you were supposed to. Nothing wrong. Now, there is a feast to be had. Since your parents are otherwise indisposed, let me lead you over to the Great Hall."
"Oh, sir, you needn't trouble yourself with me, I know the way," Genny quickly assured him.
"Nonsense, it's no trouble at all, I've got to eat too, you know. Besides, now that you'll be here in the Weyr, you are one of my own, and I really must see you taken care of. I don't know if we have met before, I am T'tor. Such a peculiar tiding, we'll have to keep a close eye and see what becomes of you. A female dragonrider..." T'tor began walking with the girl over to the Great Hall, caressing his chin.
"The Weyr can be a rough place for women, especially those who are not queenriders. I don't think we have had any non-weyrbred women stay with us, especially not for any length of time. I promise, under my watch you are to be treated with the utmost respect."
He turned to Saleneth, "You use your link with Polidarth and Azirith or any other leader of the Weyr if any trouble befalls the two of you, you hear me?" Saleneth's eyes whirred blue in response. "Not that the two of you will need it necessarily. You know, Polidarth tells me there were three boys who already met with her talons on her way to you. Very good, let's eat!"