Impressed at Artaq Weyr
"But made for a green!" yelled a second. They beat feet down the stone hallway, and shortly ran into a dead end. They hadn't remembered the construction going on in Blackstone recently. All the new additions to the Protectorate's wings needed somewhere to roost.
These two needed somewhere to rest their sore behinds, after Paniper got through with them. Insult his potential as a dragonrider would they? They had guts, he had to admit, but they were not very bright.
Then again, he knew he was not very bright either. The 6'6 17 turn old weyr-raised boy was in fact a little slow in the finer points of math and history. But he knew several things by heart.
He was to be a dragon rider.
He was as strong as most men several turns older, and would probably continue to be, through his life.
His methods might be crude, but they got the point across. Paniper sighed and dusted off his hands. The weyrbrats had yet to learn that just because he rarely chose a female bed partner, didn't mean he would make a green dragon's lifemate. Why should he?
He knew better. There were many blue riders, and even quite a few of higher ranks, that he just *knew*.
He always just *knew* many things too.
He was told that he'd make a fine rider. No one ever questioned that. No one but the brats.
The silence he would give them when they mocked him in more public places was more menacing than the growls that he offered when they were alone. The weyr's higher-ups offered him good spots in training classes. He'd learned how to use a staff and a knife and even a crossbow, but his preference for the short staff for combat was clear. He loved the hard metal pipe he used to threaten strays around the weyr. It was never used on anyone -- that he would be in far more trouble if he chose to hurt a person with it was very obvious. But few people realized that fact, of course, upon seeing him hefting it at them.
He protected his weyr with his heart and soul, muscles and grit. And apparently, someone appreciated him for it.
"Heyo," said H'lis, the bronze rider. "Paniper is it?" The tall young man nodded, and looked over the pale-skinned white-haired rider.
"You old or what?" He asked, unabashedly ignoring any convention. H'lis wore not only a wing leader's knot but a badge indicating his place among the weyrleaders. H'lis smirked, then laughed.
"No, not really... But traveling around between times does this to a man." He indicated his mop of white-blond hair. He was lying, but Paniper didn't know that. He nodded.
"What is it you want?" Paniper asked, gruffly. "I have duty in a few candlemarks."
"Yes, I know that. I just wanted to tell you, there is a spot open in a green's clutch at Artaq Weyr."
The thought rolled around in his brain for a moment, and then Paniper nodded, eyes narrowing. "Good. When will it hatch?"
"Soon, but not so soon that you'll need to pack right away. I'll make sure that everything is arranged, and when they need you in Artaq, we'll send you there."
"Will I have duties there too?"
"Once you Impress, you'll have more than enough duties." H'lis reached up to slap Paniper on the back, encountering solid muscle below the man's cloth tunic. H'lis bit his lip as the blue-haired man walked away, smiling like a fool. A strong fool, he thought. Hopefully, just wise enough to learn all the tricks of ... Ah, who was he kidding? H'lis knew that this big brute of a weyrbrat would make an excellent rider. Anyone who'd ever impressed could see it. He just wondered if he wouldn't make a better wing rider than anything else.
Several eggs kept shaking until they opened up, brown and blue. A white broke shell, beautiful skin shining in the glows. Then three more eggs cracked open, green blue and brown. The green impressed quickly, while the brown came walking along near the boys.
Though the dragonet was young, he was strong and dark, and each of the boys thought they were going to be the one for this dragon. His eyes didn't look right at any of them, until they met Paniper's.
Pi'per, you are for me. You alone! I am Griffith, I wish to hear you announce me!
"Griffith," said Pi'per, happily.
There is an itch... on my head...
Pi'per reached out and scratched the hatchling's eye ridge, and that pleased both of them so much!
"You keep thinking that brown's going to out fly my Bronze Egoth here," he said, unaware that the brown was already plotting the bronze's downfall, "you might end up ... getting lost between, or something."
"That would never happen while my dragon is alive," P'iper growled. "Unless yours gave him such bad teleport instructions that he followed Egoth - but he's too smart to do that. Griffith, I mean. Way too smart to follow that lump of lard."
I am very smart. Smart enough to know that when he falls you'll get blamed.
"I know I will," P'iper said as the huffy bronze rider walked away to test his new riding straps - which would break upon use - "but it's worth it, watching him get yelled at."
They were given proper instructions to arrive at the new Blackstone weyr/caer on Paniya, and there they went. Without fail, and certainly without getting lost.
The bronze and his rider had a lot of trouble getting from one place to another without assistance, they learned right before leaving. It left both brown and blue-haired rider with a sort of proud grin on their collective faces. It faded a bit when they learned upon arrival, that the pair had been lost between on their first threat-fighting mission. No dragon really deserved that. Not even one bonded to a jerk.
You are not a jerk after all, Griffith announced as they circled around Blackstone looking for a good landing spot. There wasn't much room, since everyone was still moving stuff around after the big teleport.
"Why thank you," Piper said, "but I might have to prove you wrong if these idiots don't let us land down there..."
