Nothing came from his mouth but a bit of a grunt, when the dragon took off.
"Never been on a dragon before, boy?" Yelled the rider, who had all his gear properly on him, helmet and gloves and such... Vaughn found himself unprepared for the wind, and the chill.
"No! This is great!" He lied, terrified.
"Just hang on, and don't panic. We're going to the weyr now."
"Now?! We just got into the air!"
"That's what between is for, harper!"
Vaughn bit his lip and hoped that he didn't do anything stupid. Not now.
He didn't. They went between, and Vaughn suddenly found the darkness and still quiet of the non-place to be blissful. When they came out it was to a brightly sunny weyr bowl. Seasparkul.
Vaughn again thought about making a song about it. Only this time, he was slightly closer to doing it.
But it was a strange noise which drew him away from one young drudge. "The eggs," he said, and she giggled.
"They cannot wait, I can. Perhaps you'll come back to me a rider!" She said, with a broad grin.
Vaughn bolted from her quarters and headed down to get his white candidates robe on. He was surely in time, though there were others just arriving. The junior Weyrwoman Mystica stood with her mate M'cel and greeted people as they arrived. She was so nervous she was wringing her hands.
Everyone held their breath, for the first egg was wobbling strongly. Then, a medium-brown colored snout came out from the shell fragments. He shook his head and then raised hungry, red whirling eyes at everyone.
Ah, there you are! Sing to me, V'hn, and feed me!
V'hn laughed and hugged the dragon, but had to ask him mentally, what is your name, my dragon? You came first, just like I did! I was first on the candidates list for your clutch!
Then my clutchmates did a good job and allowed me to pick first. My name is Leorth. Feed me.
"Oh, Leorth!" V'hn cried, feeling a chord of love louder and deeper than any pitch of music he'd ever heard, from this bond.
"Leorth is growing quickly," V'hn admitted. "I suppose that we'll be out of the weyrling area soon enough. That'll mean you'll have to get a new sucker to let you hang out with him."
The weyrbrat laughed, and kept sweeping. The straw and reeds covering the dragon's couch always would need changing, but the worst jobs were long over: by the time Leorth could fly, he'd already started going between to get rid of his wastes. The boy had to agree, this had been a cruise.
No longer... V'hn walked out to the ledge where his weyrling Leorth rested. Even at rest, the brown dragon looked like he was aware of everything around him. The dragon let off a sound, which the weyrbrat stood in awe of.
V'hn began to sing an eerie wordless song. The dragon hummed along with him, and finally the child nearby had to wave and jump for attention.
"What is that? What is it you're singing?"
"It is for a hatching," V'hn said, smiling. "When we fly a queen we'll be singing this when the eggs hatch!"
"You're showing off to the wrong female," V'hn said, "she's totally not into me."
Who cares about you? I'm trying because she's beautiful, stylish and lovely.
"Lovely and beautiful mean the same thing, dim bulb."
I know. The more ways to call her pretty the better!
V'hn rolled his eyes. "Then I suppose I need to start writing songs about how my new weyrmate might feel about me? I mean, Leorth, she *hates* men."
And you've been known to hate women. What's your problem?
V'hn slumped against the den's wall, and began writing a dirge for his funeral. Because if that green was flown by his brown... she'd surely kill him.
