Seharia's Candiacy

Seharia let out a great sigh as the green Breth burst from between, over the Weyrbowl at Cincanta Weyr. The trip had been very nerve-wracking for her, although Seharia knew that if she was to be a Candidate, and possibly someday a dragonrider, she was going to have to get used to it. Sighing, she wondered how she could ever get used to that horrible feeling of nothingness, of her hair that was suddenly there, resting against her sweaty neck, and then gone, the sweat seemingly freezing in the cold darkness. "Well," Seharia admitted to Mera, "I don't think that I enjoyed that too much. What about you?"
The greenrider chuckled slightly and turned around to face Seharia in her riding straps. "Well, Seharia, you're going to have to get used to it if you Impress, and Breth feels quite sure that you will. It would be a big bonus to our record on Searching if you Impressed the queen, so if you can find a way to do that it would be most helpful to us." For a moment Seharia thought that Mera was serious, until the greenrider's gentle chuckle made her realize that it had been a joke. "Honestly, girl, the Weyrwoman might notice if I Searched the new goldrider, and might take the Candidates that I Searched more seriously, but there's no record that everyone writes down about who Searches what. Shards, girl, K'allin has Searched his fair share of white and gold riders, along with those that stood until they were too old to Impress!"
Seharia grinned nervously. "Well, hopefully this will be one on your 'record' that did well," She laughed, groaning as her feet hit the ground with an hard landing. "That hurt."
Mera, still laughing, replied, "You shouldn't of jumped off. Now, then, if you'll excuse me and Breth, we have to go and pick up Iapol or whatever the young lad's name was." Mera gave a polite nod, then patted Breth on the neck. "C'm on, Breth girl, let's get back," She whispered, and Seharia backed up away from the flying green. Once Breth was several feet off the ground, she and Mera blinked between.
The young Apprentice sighed, and turned towards the enterance to the Weyrhall. She supposed that was where she should of gone, but before she could make it to the enterance, Tekka appeared over her head, screeching like mad. "Tekka, calm down!" Seharia said, reaching up with one hand to reassure the little firelizard. "Don't worry about it, boy. You're over reacting."
She stroked the brown's head for a few more minutes, then turned back towards the enterance. "Well," She whispered to the brown, "This is my big chance, huh? I might actually be a greenrider, Tekka! A greenrider!"
"I'm surprised that you didn't think of goldrider, brownrider, or bluerider," Someone said, and Seharia whirled around to face the young woman who rode the brown watchdragon. "I'm Rilliana, and my brown is Coruth, if you didn't know. And you should consider the options that I just listed," She joked.
Seharia thought for a moment, then replied, "I guess that I never thought about blue or brownrider because I always thought as females as green and gold riders. No offense, of course," She added hastily. "And goldrider... Gosh, I never even thought of that one because I don't think that I can do it! Shards, I mean, there's got to be plenty of other girls that would be better queenriders than I."
"I hate to be rude, but that's true," Rilliana said. "But there's always a chance. Of course, I'm no Searchrider and Coruth isn't a Searchdragon, but I think that you'll Impress, even if it isn't at this clutch. Shards, girl, you probably won't Impress the gold; there's girls ten times more determined than you that are going to be trying their hearts out. Maybe you ought to try, too. Think about it," She said, turning away.
Seharia breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to the Weyrhall. Now then, if she could just find the headwoman...


"They found a second flit egg!" Iapol said loudly, bursting into Seharia's weyr, just as she'd slipped her sleeping shift on. "Oh, sorry," He muttered, quickly backing out of the weyr until Seharia had changed.
"Iapol!" Seharia said, ruffling the boy's hair. "Don't do that, please! You're lucky that you came in then or you might of seen more than you wanted to. And what do you mean? What flit egg?"
Iapol grinned, thankful that he knew something Seharia didn't. "Your brother, Ripanor, found another clutch on the sands. He's sending an egg over sometime soon! You're going to have a second firelizard!"
Seharia smiled broadly; finally, her returned second flit! However, as Tekka screeched loudly, she was suddenly struck with an idea. "You know, Iapol, Tekka is quite a handful, and you don't have a firelizard yet. You'd like one, wouldn't you?"
A slow smile spread across Iapol's face. "You mean it? Seriously?" At Seharia's nod, his smile seemed to consume his entire face, and the young Candidate knew that she'd done more than just gotten rid of a nuisence. She'd made someone happy, and it was truly the first time that she'd done something like that before.
"Just let me know when it hatches," She said. "We have to find a way to get your flit and Tekka to become 'associated' or whatever word the MasterDragon Healer used to say all the time. If they spend all of their time tormenting each other, then we're not going to be badgered by them!"