Seharia's Search

Seharia held her breath as the MasterDragonHealer walked past her to speak to the Junior Apprentice Desar about becoming a Senior Apprentice. The boy was a spoiled brat who couldn't even roll up bandages correctly. What was he doing graduating to a Senior Apprentice? It wasn't fair! She sighed deeply, but knew that there were often Junior Apprentices moving up, and as she was a girl, she was going to have to work three times as hard as every boy there to get half the rank that they did. It just wasn't fair.
No, Seharia reflected, what wasn't fair was to never have a chance at being able to do what you loved, like so many people that lived on cotholds. Even if she would of rather been an Apprentice Harper, she did love what she was doing, and it was better than becoming a kitchen worker, for sure. She looked up just in time to see the Master DragonHealer smile at the young man, and then stand up to adress the class. Of course, the Journeywoman Fessa was overseeing the class, but whenever it came to someone moving up in rank, the Master DragonHealer did that. "Well, I know that you are all very proud of Desar becoming a Senior Apprentice," He said, while Seharia tried not to snort. "But we have someone else who has probably worked harder than he has that will be leaving you all today. Seharia?"
Seharia didn't move for a moment, just stared right back at the Master DragonHealer while several others in the class snickered loudly. "Seharia, did you hear me? You are leaving, and going to the Senior Apprentice Class. Your father would like to have a word with you outside first, of course."
Snickers came from many of the other boys in the class as Seharia stood up to leave. "Her Dad's little girl," One of them whispered, but Seharia silenced him by kicking his shin soundly as she went by, without the Master DragonHealer noticing. Fessa noticed, but she only smiled at Seharia, giving her a private thumbs-up when the young Apprentice walked by.
Seharia came face to face with her father outside the door, the figure that almost never showed up in her entire life. For as long as Seharia could remember, she'd been raised by her mother and her mother only. She had seen her father around two dozen times, and he'd spoken to her about a half a dozen. However, this time, he didn't say anything, just simply handed her a large pot of sand, where two mottled orbs were nestled. There was no mistaking these; they were firelizard eggs, for sure! Seharia caught her breath for just a moment, then was brought back to the present; her father was trying to bribe her emotions, that much was obivious. And in the few moments that it took Seharia to decide whether or not to accept the gift, he had already turned away and disappeared back to the corrider, and she whispered a "thanks" at his disappearing back.


"Where did the other sharding egg go?" Seharia shouted, causing the other two Senior Apprentices whom she shared her room with to groan loudly.
"Faranth, Seharia, it's a sharding rest day. Go back to bed," One of them groaned, which only made Seharia more angry.
"One of my firelizard eggs is gone!" She said, and the boy who had said to shut up before sat bolt up in bed. "What? Gone?" He wiped his eyes sleepily. "You're kidding right?" He asked, the other male Apprentice stirring and heading over to look at the dent in the sand where the second egg had rested last night when they went to bed.
The boy who had last woken up, Iapol, scuffled his feet slightly. "I heard something moving around last night, but I thought that it was one of the drudges, or one of the Apprentices heading to the pots," He muttered. "I'm really, really sorry," Iapol sniffed.
"Don't worry about it, Iapol," Seharia whispered, wrapping her arm around the boy's shoulders comfortingly. "You couldn't of known that the person was going to take the egg, and shells, maybe it wasn't that person that you heard. After all, you would of heard them coming into the room if they came, right?" She smiled encouragingly at him, hoping that her internal anger wasn't showing to the confused young Apprentice.
The young boy sniffed slightly. Faranth, Seharia thought to herself when she suddenly realized how old that he was. He couldn't of been more than twelve Turns of age, and yet he was already a Senior Apprentice? How did he manage that? "Thanks, Seharia," Iapol whispered, and Seharia grinned. Iapol reminded her of her little twin brothers, Ripanor and Pirrom so much that she almost felt it was. They were thirteen Turns old, and Pirrom had already been chosen by one of the Journeyman to specialize in medicines; his quick wit and sharp mind had already proved that he was good enough to hold his own against the others that had been Apprenticed to MasterCraftsmen and other Journeyman or Woman DragonHealers. He was the sharp one in the family, and blessed with brains. However, he wasn't the strongest one, nor was he as handsome as his twin Ripanor. It was funny, Seharia thought, that her twin brothers weren't identical. At least it made them easier to tell apart.
Seharia wrapped her arm tightly about Iapol's shoulders. "It's okay, Iapol, I promise," She whispered. "And anyway, I'm pretty sure which guilty Beginning Apprentice stole it; the only one that I can think of that would even dare to come into my bunk."
"Who?" Iapol asked, amazed that Seharia had figured out the culprit so quickly. "Is it one of your brothers? I heard that they were pretty good at getting into trouble."
Seharia grinned at the young Apprentice. "Yup. I'll bet you a quarter of a mark that it was Ripanor." She smiled evily. "And whether he Impresses the flit or not, I do think that he's going to get a lovely surprise."


True to what Seharia had said, the day that her flit egg hatched out into a brown, Ripanor "found" a little blue on the beach and Impressed it. Seharia had said nothing about the stolen flit before, but she spoke very loudly to Lapol as they walked past the Beginning Apprentice's tables, where Ripanol was sitting. "Well, Lapol, it seems that the culprit has gotten away with the firelizard egg stealing," She said loudly, hearing Ripanol's slight snicker. "I still say that it was Pirrom, he's the only one smart enough to figure out how to do it."
"I agree," Iapol replied in an equally loud voice. Although they were drawing some strange glances, Lapol and Seharia continued with their talk. "I mean, he is, as you said, smart enough to do so, and the only one quiet enough to be able to pull the whole thing off."
"That's not true!" Ripanor said loudly, standing up to face his older sister, newly-hatched firelizard in the crook of his arm. "Pirrom isn't even smart enough to figure out how to Impress a firelizard, let alone steal one!"
"So, then," Seharia said. "Who could of stolen it? It would of had to been someone smart like, say, you." She looked down pointedly at the light blue firelizard that lay nestled in his arms.
Ripanor's face grew extremely red under the other Apprentice's (and a few MasterCraftsmen DragonHealers, as well). "It couldn't off been me, of course. I... I found the egg for the blue along a beach whenever they were hatching... At the last restday," He finished.
Without a word, Seharia's father had come up and grabbed the young man's shoulder. Oblivious to the chuckling Apprentices and the angry MasterCrafstmen DragonHealers, the man led the young boy out of the room and towards the MasterDragonHealer's room.


Seharia and Iapol became fast friends after the firelizard-stealing episode, and were both extremely pleased two Sevendays whenever a Searchdragon, the green Breth, had landed down at the Crafthall and taken away three names- two boys and one girl.
"I'll lay a mark down that one of the boys is you," Seharia said to Iapol. "I mean, think about it. You did have a greenrider for a dad, right?"
Iapol laughed loudly, attracting several strange looks from the other Apprentices. "Seharia, I think that you need to remember something. I had a homosexual father. Don't you think that's kind of strange? I don't really think that the dragons are going to like that! I mean, think about it. It's kind of strange, to say the least."
"Look, Iapol," Seharia chuckled. "The dragons could care less whether your father was a goldrider and your mother a bronzerider, okay? All that the hatchlings know is which Candidate that they want, and I think it's quite possible that one could choose you." She smiled back at him, biting down on a piece of orangefruit.
"Yeah, whatever," Iapol replied, spooning porridge onto his roughly-carved wooden plate. "I'll put up a mark against you that it was you for the one girl, okay?" Seharia nodded through a mouthfull of fruit. "And remember," Iapol cautioned, "The fact that you were Searched and didn't get to go still counts as you being Searched, okay?"
Seharia nodded again, looking up as the MasterDragonHealer pulled aside one of the Junior Apprentices to speak with him. "See, it was Dersat for the boy. Not me. Fork over the mark."
"There's still one left!" Seharia replied defensively. "I mean, come on, you can't really expect him to tell the two people at once who they were, right? I bet that the second one is you."
Iapol laughed. "If you didn't have the money, you shouldn't of made the bet in the first place," Iapol laughed. "Just admit it- I wasn't Searched."
"Iapol, may I speak to you for a moment please?" Someone asked, and the two Apprentices turned around in their seats to see the MasterDragonHealer standing behind them. "I need to speak to you about the Searchdragon that came a few days ago. After I have spoken to him, I need to speak to you, as well, Seharia. Part of it has to do with the Search, and another part with the firelizard that was stolen from you."
Seharia and Iapol grinned at each other as Iapol was led away. Seharia heard him speaking in a very quiet voice to the MasterDragonHealer, then laughed whenever he sat back down. "Told ya so."
"Yeah, well you were Searched, too," He whispered back, jabbing her slightly in the ribs with his elbow. Grinning mischeiviously, Seharia followed the MasterDragonHealer to an unoccupied table a few meters away.
"Well, Seharia, as you've already guessed, Mera and her green Breth Searched you along with Iapol and Dersat. You're free to go, if you wish." He sighed. "Although I will be disappointed about loosing our two best Senior Apprentices, there's a queen egg in the clutch and it would make us all very, very proud. And now to the firelizard egg... As you guessed, your brother Ripanor was guilty of taking the firelizard egg and Impressing it himself. However, he is now combing every beach near Cincanta Weyr in hopes to find you another one." A twinkle entered the DragonHealer's eye. "I think that he's having alot of fun doing that, don't you? Especially with your father breathing down his neck..."
Seharia smiled. "Sir, I hate to be rude, but could I please pack my things? Mera and Breth just landed outside."