Ranking

Xanvar couldn't help but grow angry as he received letter after letter from his sister, Nerloi, about how wonderful her green dragonet, Jahazath, was.  He'd never been Searched, had never had any dragon show interest in him, and wasn't even going to be a Lord Holder.  His younger brother, Verandan, with his loud mouth and chubby build, was going to be.  Life was definately not fair.

Dearest Xanvar,
I hope that you're having a wonderful time back in that stuffy old Hold while Jahazath and I take our first flight together.  It was wonderful; we soared higher than any of the other Weyrlings, and the Weyrlingmaster got mad because we flew too high.  He says that I'm going to strain Jahazath's muscles.  Jahazath says that she could of flown much more with me on her back and never of been tired.  The Weyrlingmaster is just stupid; he's messed up with other weyrlings, and now he's trying to keep me and Jahazath from being the best.  Ha!

Well, brother, have fun listening to politics and conversations about Verandan becoming the Lord Holder whenever father dies while you sit around and mope because your firelizard egg was a dud!
Love,
Nerloi.

Xanvar scoffed as he walked along.  "Love," his foot!  He and his sister had never gotten along, he not being obsessed about rank and she always caring about popularity and new dresses.  The Hold's politics had never concerned Nerloi, although they should of.  Xanvar actually thought that they were rather interesting, as a matter of fact.  So alot of people thought that he was weird just becuase he liked politics.  So what?

As the red-haired teenager walked along, he spotted several of the drudges batting their eyes at him, and he sighed deeply.  Just because his father hadn't exactly held to his marrige and Xanvar had several half-siblings, it didn't mean that he was going to take any drudge that flirted with him.  They thought that he would be like his father.  Yeah, right.

Verandan was more like his father than he was, Xanvar thought softly.  He'd never really been the one that his father had appreciated, and although he was the eldest boy, Xanvar knew that his father had craved for another boy once it was obvious that Xanvar had his mother's calm temperment.

"LORD HOLDERS CAN'T BE CALM!" His father had bellowed once, and Xanvar had barely been able to get to sleep for his ears ringing so badly.  He knew that a few of the Lord Holders in neighboring Holds wished that he would follow his father, but no such luck.

Still walking across the Hold Proper, Xanvar looked up to see a green dragon gliding in softly, and noted that many of the drudges turned their attention away from him and to the dragon.  His father had been rather strange as far as Searches went ever since Nerloi had been Searched.  Xanvar had always treasured the thought of being taken away from the wretched Hold to a Weyr somewhere, but so far he had no such luck...

But you never knew if you didn't try.  He headed over to line up with the rest of the Holdbrats.

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