Candidate at Falas Weyr
He is a sturdy young man, at 17 turns now, living in Blackstone weyr. His practicing with swords and staves is openly encouraged around this locale, and his trainers see promise in the green-eyed man. He is very physically balanced, with a good sense of direction and strong hands to hold weapons. If he has a failing it is that he lets his hair grow long and slip into his eyes while he works.
Belanu is a silent, somewhat sullen type. Because his older siblings both impressed long before he has even been Searched, he feels it necessary to remind everyone that he doesn't need a dragon to perform any duties around the weyr.
But no one seriously believes him of course. He's not quite desperate for a dragon to ride, but he knows he is growing to be older than a candidate ought to be.
His education has been more well-rounded than just in physical training. He is very good at geography and map reading, though his ability with star charts is a little lacking. Surprisingly he is a very polite youth around Holders and Lords, and very few people really would consider him a "peer". He has no proper craft training, but he is adept with metals, enjoying an afternoon in the smithy shop to watch knives or swords be hammered out. He also is quite good at choosing woods to make pole arms from.
When Belanu was only around 10 turns was when his sister Impressed, and 12 when his brother became B'olo. Now that they have the freedom to fly the skies on their dragons, Belanu has doubled his efforts to learn flight patterns and drills. Even though he was not Searched at Blackstone, the training master allowed him to sit in on classes. Just in case.
Having two siblings as riders only serves to reinforce that thought.
Their search rider was a woman upon a green named Aphorath. Serzona demanded with a grin on her face that the youth of the Weyr be brought out to be sniffed over. Within moments, the call went out, flitters were dispatched, and dozens of young boys and girls came bolting out of their classes, dens and hallways.
Belanu was all sweaty from practice. But that would only mean there would be a sheen of gloss to his skin, and like his brother B'olo he always looked good no matter his state of dress-undress-or-otherwise. He at least did not take all that time in the mornings to primp and preen.
He looked fine without it. Smirking to himself, Belanu stood near the other older boys, some of whom also had blisters on their hands from their weapons practice.
"We've already chosen a girl from Dawnlight Hold," Serzona announced. "So I'm really only looking for one more candidate." Many of those present slumped a bit. Belanu did no such thing. He thrust his shoulders back, and stood at attention the way the training master would require.
Green Aphorath continued to walk, nudging at a child's hair and sniffing at another's chin. But none of the others really seemed to strike her fancy. She passed by Belanu the same way, going all the way to the end of the line before Serzona had her mental conference with the dragoness.
Belanu's fingers gripped behind his back. He was actually relaxing, there was something charming about the green. She kept looking at him. Well, he hoped that was her looking at him. It might have been the boy beside him. Or perhaps the girl behind.
No, no. Belanu gulped and blinked. The sun was getting in their eyes by the time the dragoness and her rider finished their conferring. She walked toward the middle of the group, and waved her hands. "Well, you can all pretty much break up. I'm afraid there are no potential candidates for our sands here right now. I'm sorry to disappoint you all."
There were sighs and groans, and sobs. Belanu did none of those, but he did relax his stance. Blinking and biting his lip a bit, though, he turned and went back to the weaponsmithy halls.
Pounding the metal with a hammer in one hand and tongs in the other, Belanu stood under the watchful eye of the master smith. He had extra strength at the moment. Pent up anger? Sorrow? The Smith wasn't too sure which, but it lent to a quick piece of work. He had to call out twice to get Belanu to cease.
"It's thin enough. Come to the bucket, and cool it now." The Smith instructed, and Belanu carefully held the sword-to-be over the water, then plunged it down. It hissed and sparked, snapping with heat suddenly cooling. When he took it out, there were beautiful water marks on the blade.
"That's going to be a nice blade," said a woman, behind the pair. They both jumped, but Belanu recognized her as the search rider.
"Hail, rider," he said, placing the blade onto the anvil and the tongs with it. "What brings you here? Did you need a blade?"
She smiled and shook her head. "No, no. We just wanted to see how you took disappointment. And it seems that it leads to a burst of productivity," she grinned at the Smithy. "So now that you're done or almost done with that," she nodded, "if you'd like to clean up and gather your things, you're searched for Falas' clutches. Unless you hope I move on to the next Hold and look there?"
Surprise danced over Belanu's tan face, his thin eyebrows moving up. Then he regained his poise, and smiled. He must smell atrocious by now, he thought as he walked casually beside the Search rider. "Of course I'll go. It's about time I found the proper sands to stand upon!"
He wandered behind some of the other candidates, to try watching those mysterious hatchlings a little more, when a pretty lighter blue dragonet came to him.
Trying to hide?
"No, Chalinth," Belanu said. He hugged the dragon and felt his heart rush. You're better than any other dragon on these sands! I'd never hide from you!
"What? I like to do it because you make your little purring sound," Bel'u laughed. "Not because it makes my fingers numb with scraping your hide!"
Chalinth put his head down and seemed to sigh, but if he was dissapointed in the response, he didn't say it.
"You're doing well, considering your fall..." Bel'u said, "I think that the dragon healers will let you out flying again soon."
I do not want to fly. I will fall again!
"It was just one mistake, you'd been doing great before then."
I could have hurt you! I was only lucky that I fell on my wing, and not on you!
"Even if you had fallen on me, you're still not so big that you'd kill me, my friend. Don't worry about it!"
Sighing again, the blue dragon forgot why he felt so odd at the thought of flight...
When the time finally came, Bel'u and his blue were expected to return to the Protectorate. He had a very sound idea of where to go, and how long it would take to get there. Oddly enough, Chalinth never had a bit of trouble teleporting.
That trend continued as they arrived over the new Kshau Protectorate isle on Alskyr. The weyr - he'd have to get used to calling it a Caer instead - was nested on top of a huge island which appeared to be an extinct volcano. Chalinth wanted to land, but Bel'u had other ideas.
"Take us over the island, though. I want to see the place we're meant to protect, Chal."
As you wish. It is very pretty here. And warm! I had not noticed it, but down by the ground it is very warm indeed... A wash of pleased emotion came from the dragon, and Bel'u relished it.
They completed their tour and Bel'u had mostly memorized the outline of the nearby Paniya, the northern spur of it created a large seawater bay around the Kshau isle and Bel'u thought it was a very keen place to live.
And, he would be going home on a dragon ranked higher than both B'olo and Bali!
