Impressed at White River Weyr
But don't tell him he snores.
If on another instance one was to go near that same weyr during the evening, it would be alive with glowbaskets and candles, oil lamps and even a torch here and there.
Because when it's dark outside, Raphael wants it bright inside so he can work.
The stargazing 18 turn old brother of Ixtapa cannot help but stare at the sky. A haunting dream plays in his head every night.
A dream rather like the ones which the exotic T'shen claims to know. One which Keenae swears is true. Raphael sees the dead, between where the dragons dwell.
He prefers to call them spirits, yet others claim they are merely dream wisps... Imaginary friends that he has had since childhood. Yet he can still recite songs of Harpers long dead, and he knows the stars and their direction without even opening a scroll.
The device he holds is a measurement tool, one he and his brother devised with the aid of the smithcrafters and indeed with their blessing. For the crafters of Dawnlight, Alabaster and other halls excell when their talents are pushed to their limits.
"Then don't worry, it's coming off ... Now!" Bayat, the red-headed healer at Blackstone Weyr grunted with effort as she pulled the plaster cast off of Raph's leg. With as much relief on the young man's face as bemusement on the healer's, they rested.
Raphael's face turned a brilliant red when he realized certain... parts... were exposed from below his tunic while this cast-removal operation was going on. He hastily nudged his legs together, and pushed the tunic back down.
"Raphael, your leg is healed, I think." Bayat said, moving her expert hands down his thigh. The accident which had caused the break was still somewhat fresh in Raph's mind, and it stung more with embarrassment than with the pain he endured while being dragged into the infirmary.
The party had lasted a little too long, for some of its members, and he'd stumbled out the edge of the weyr's lower ledge. Drink mug in hand still, yelling at the tops of his lungs, Raphael insisted that he be allowed to write his name on the ceiling of the weyr -- if they were going to be picking him up like that... Not that he could have even spelled his own name being as drunk as he was...
Bayat watched him, half her age and twice as brash. But he was smart, and somewhat spooky when he put his mind to it. All that talk about dead folk sent a shudder through the healer. So she sent him on his way -- with his trousers this time. Since that last time, and since this little ... incident... with the cast removal... Bayat snickered to herself as the handsome if intense lad escaped her grasp yet again.
"Professional interest..." She muttered to herself, and got back to mixing herbs.
***
I'x caught up with his brother in the glass crafter's area. "Don't drop that," he suggested to Raph, and then backed up when his pink-and-black haired sibling practically glared him between.
"If you would stop sneaking up on me like that, I'd probably never drop anything again. Fool." Raphael said, but continued to polish the round lens. He set it into a metal frame and then snugged it down with a tool. "You can see close up, or far away..." Raphael said, holding the lens to the light, "and you can even burn holes in things if you hold it in the sun..."
"Yes yes," I'x said, "are you coming with me or what?"
"Or what, my brother. I have work to do tonight. The charts say that Thread is falling but I say it isn't."
"Then we'll have to see whose instincts are right," I'x indicated his brown dragon Tshoth, "since he thinks it's soon if not now."
"Well, I do think it IS falling," Raphael said, rising from the work bench and gathering his gear, "but I just don't think it's falling where they SAY it will. I think they're off by about forty miles. South west. Leading edge won't reach mainland but the drift might, with the winds tonight."
I'x stood and nodded. Blinking a couple times, to add effect, he nodded again. "You might be right after all."
"Stop talking to the dragon, you know that's not fair, I'x." Raph looked without anger at his elder dragonriding brother. "Where would I be going with you if I were to say yes to whatever ploy you've got going tonight?"
"To see the stars, of course..." I'x said. "But Tshoth won't be carrying both of us."
"He's only half grown, anyway," Raphael commented, knowing that the pair would be in tremendous trouble if anyone found out they had started going between so much sooner than their clutchmates. Talor Cliff's weyrling master wouldn't be as forgiving if they got the dragon hurt trying to fly with two men on his back, either. "Then who's taking us anywhere?"
"Speaking of me, which you should be at any time," T'shen grinned from around a corner, "I shall be your guide through the skies tonight. Since the Sky's Limit wing is newly forming I'm here on business rather than pleasure."
"You're always about both, T'shen," I'x and Raphael both reminded their slightly elder companion. Though the blue dragon he rode was by no means going to be as large as I'x's brown, he was more than large enough to take the trio on a fine ride into the air.
Where they saw the truth about this Threadfall they'd been worried about: It was falling all right, somewhere much farther north of the Weyr and any land than need be worried about. They were lucky -- all Pern was lucky, this night.
Even luckier, however, was that when they landed, deep in the night, there was a representitive of White River Weyr visiting Blackstone. The two riders and their starcrafter companion descended on Cirsa.
"What brings you here?" Asked T'shen, and the woman turned with tired eyes. "Oh, I am sorry, my lady, you're here on Search. Of course."
"Word travels fast," the green rider said. "And White River's a very new weyr. We've hardly the time to find enough candidates..." Her weary eyes brightened when they saw Raphael. "But this one would do just fine... Could you possibly throw him on the pile with the others, and let me sleep now?"
Laughing, the riders almost did just that! Fighting his normal instinct to smack at both of them, Raphael appraised the other candidates waiting to head off, and then pushed past his brother and friend, to gather his work clothes and gear. He'd have a good place in any wing, if only he made the right dragon happy!
"That's it... Keep going south..." he said, almost as if he could prod the Thread into leaving of its own accord.
It was two sevendays later when the call went up for the candidates to come to the hatching sands. They'd been brought only a couple times before, hesitating because the great queen was not happy with how the eggs were covered or displayed. Her wont was to have the candidates remain wherever they were -- so long as it was AWAY from the eggs!
Yet she allowed them some room this day. Raphael met up with Norris, one of the Harpers from Blackstone. He didn't much trust the darker skinned man -- the way things in his ... aura ... didn't match up with what he said... Perhaps. Well, nothing much mattered now. Now, was the hatching!
A bronze climbed from his egg with drama and dignity, and everyone was applauding! Then moments later a beautiful blue came from his shell and impressed a girl nearby. Then, the third egg opened. An average sized egg for an average sized brown! The dragon within stepped from the egg but then proceeded to stomp down on the egg shell lest it get in his way!
He finally decided to look over the candidates, and glanced over all of them at least once. A good trait, Raphael decided.
When the dragon stumbled back toward Raphael, he was quite pleased. Welcome, mine. My name is Viviarth.
"Viviarth!" Said Raphael, now R'aph, "what a fine thing! Did you know that you walked due north when you came from the egg?"
I did. I think I know what north is. What about "up"?
Laughing, R'aph showed the dragonet, and also about food, sleep and scratching!
He truly appreciated the lengths that people would go to train both a craft and ride a dragon. His brother had done it, now, R'aph would do it better.
We will do it perfectly, won't we? Asked Viviarth. My wings are strong and they are wider than my brothers...
"You're going to fly the farthest and the best..." R'aph said, looking at the sky. "Because some day, you and I are going to fly all the way to the stars..."
Ooooh!
The determination in his mind matched the great brown's mighty wingspan and bellow.
R'aph laughed, but it was half nervous. The dragon was likely to do just what he said, only... No one had been there, and he could only imagine what might lay at the Thread's source. It could be anything. And R'aph wasn't looking forward to explaining to Viviarth that he mustn't actually TRY to between to the great planet.
"Viviarth, you and I are needed at the Weyr, though. And our wing can't fly without us, right?"
Sky's Limit will need me! The brown proudly proclaimed.
"That's the spirit," R'aph said, relieved.
And when we go to the Red Star, they'll be right behind us!
R'aph sighed... It was going to be a very long day indeed...
