AVANTI TAREADA
Avanti herself strides up to you when you don't get the hint and leave of your own accord.
"What do you want?" She spits, and you get the idea that she was busy with something before you interrupted her, though you see nothing important sitting around.
"I, uh, I only wanted to see the Candidates."
"Sure," she says. "I'll bet you want to look through my personal belongings like my books and papers, too. Don't even think about it. My private life is mine."
You mutter something about that not being a very open attitude like other potential candidates.
She turns on you, with a fierce glow in her eyes.
"I have always wanted to ride dragons, and I've always needed to fight Thread. Do you see this scar?"
She exposed her upper right arm, and there is a long, twisting white rope of scarring over it.
"I got that as a child. Because my Hold wasn't paying enough tithing to the local Weyr. Can you believe how stupid they were? I was only eight when Thread fell, this Pass. I hate it with such a passion sometimes I wonder if I couldn't just learn to breathe fire myself."
You wonder if she doesn't realize she could, with her words and her fierce tone! But sensibly you stop yourself from mentioning this.
"Look, I am sorry for the intrusion," you say instead, "but I do have records to keep. Is there anything you will share with me, so I can write it down in the ledger?"
She pauses for a moment, rolling the sleeve of her tunic back down.
"I'm hoping to ride a Blue or Brown dragon," she says, almost cold. "I know that most women Impress Greens, but... I can't possibly ride Gold. I respect the fighting dragons. If they had been properly respected by my lord Holder, I'd never have had this scar."
She breathes in a deep lungfull of her unusually scented weyr air.
"You don't like my incense, do you?" She asks, with the hint of a smile.
"No, I can't say I do."
"I used to work in a mine. When I was just old enough, when the scarring had healed up on my arm, my parents had gotten work in the mines near our Hold. The smell of the melting ores burned out my nose. I'm afraid that these are the only things I can smell any more. And oranges, and cloves. Can you believe it?"
From her unhappy look, you just nod.
"Well, I suppose that since I've shared all that I'll go ahead and tell you the rest... I'm 17 turns old, I got out of the mine just last year because, well, my baby didn't really like the smell either."
"You've got a baby?" You say, shocked.
"Why, yes, a lot of girls have them, you know... It happens. She's fostered and I doubt that I'll ever get the chance to really see her grow up." She looks almost sad, her dark green eyes seem to think about her life. "Her name is Vaulina. Perhaps she'll be searched like I was."
Your hand keeps writing these things down, and you urge her to continue.
"I was Searched just a few sevendays ago, but I guess I moved in pretty solid, huh?" She looks around her dark, crowded room. "I suppose that this stuff can be given away, or stored... But it's really all I have. My parents have my other siblings to take care of. I have five sisters and three brothers."
"Eight siblings!" You exclaim, and she gives you a crooked eyebrow in response.
"Yes, most of the Hold born and drudges I know have more than I do. And many miscarriages. But I've not had that problem..." She looks down, and remembers her baby.
"Perhaps she will be Searched," you encourage her, "if you were, I mean, it's always possible that she will be as well. The dragons always choose."
At that, her sharp face brightens a bit. "I hope you're right. Well, I do need to get back to doing my exersizes. I'm learning to read and write. I have to practice. I don't like not having those skills. It means I would have to rely on Harpers like you to move messages to people I know. And before you ask, NO, my parents and siblings Can't read. But I'll send a Harper to the Hold who knows what he's doing. Maybe it'll be you."
You smile and bow, and she even extends her hands in a better greeting, as you leave.
Age 17 turns
About 5'5" tall
Has fair skin, dirt brown hair that is scraggly and badly cut
She wears denim pants, a long sleeved tunic in dull red, and a black wherhide vest, and heavy miners boots
She has two small hair beads which keeps her long hair from her face, and a necklace made of an exotic dark material found in the Mines
She has a slight addiction to the smokes she smells, even though she can't smell...
So unlike the mines. When the wind threatened to topple her from the narrow ledge she stood upon, she decided it was about time to get back inside, and maybe find some tea or klah for her chilled fingers to hold.
The brown hair she enjoyed whipping in that wind up there became tangled in it and angrily she pushed it behind her ears, trying to fight with it was impossible. When she became a dragon rider, she thought, she might just cut it off entirely rather than trying to keep it at its current messy length.
Xaviea Weyr was new, and Avanti was new to it, but she had put herself in soundly with the other candidates and young riders. Any chance she got to help wash a dragon or shovel weyrling dung would be great, compared to the work she had done before! At least, it was near a dragon.
Her hard work began to pay off, when she discovered that she was of invaluable use to a weyr... Her mining skills saved one young weyrling dragon from landing on a ledge which was not as sturdy as the rider thought it was, and she called out just in time! Testing the ledge later revealed a long, weak fissure running through that area. It could be used as something else, the weyr-miner told her. She could be useful in many ways... And she finally started smiling about herself again.
But it was a small clutch after all, and who could tell with such things? Avanti had no idea how it would turn out. Her heart fluttered -- almost the way it did when she thought of her young daughter. Would she Impress? Or would she walk away dejected...
A boy impressed almost before anyone realized the eggs were opening! Then, two blues came out and impressed as well. Then...
She was very unhappy with the way the green had been left almost regurgitated out onto the sands. The green shook her head and sand went everywhere, then she walked unsteadily to her mother. But the larger green nudged her daughter, who turned to see Avanti.
What is that thing down here, where my wings can't reach? It feels... funny. It almost hurts, I think... What is it? Why is it like this?
"Milath, you silly girl, that is only your stomach!" Avanti cried, laughing while others continued their vigilant watching of the eggs. Milath was in fact utterly ravenous! She ate three plates of meat before Avanti decided to stop her.
I was not pudgy! I was... Pleasantly Plump!
"You were a chubbo! But you're all... svelt now."
Svelt? Is that like ... um, what DOES that mean?
"Nothing my love, just fly. We've thread to char!"