What about Natti?
Bonded at Tripaldi Weyr
"You'll get the chance to win that money when we're down there," Tand insisted, "come on now!" Tanner slipped into his clothing, and remembered that they'd all be wearing plain robes anyway, down there.
The queen looked very protective, sweeping her golden head over the eggs and hissing at anyone who came near.
"How are we supposed to get to the eggs, if she's --" Natti asked, but the first of the eggs hatched just then, and everyone's attention was rivited to it. It was a brown, who looked distressed because his mother wouldn't allow anyone near.
Then a blue and a green hatched, then another blue. Both the males impressed before the green did. Another green came out of her shell, and impressed right away, teasing the candidates with her presence. A bronze and a green hatched next, and the green chose her life mate.
The bronze on the other hand rested as the other eggs hatched. A brown hatched, and the hatchling headed off to the boys without even acknowledging his superior brother. As the brown searched among the boys, he chose Tand and Tanner to look at. But before he could do anything more than glance between the pair, the bronze got into a bunch, and sprang at them all. He almost knocked Tand over, with the force!
You can't have him! I won't let you be bonded to a mere brown! You are mine!
"It's okay Nralith, he wasn't going to take me away from you, I wouldn't have let him." Tand announced, with a smile.
The brown made an angry noise and looked to Tanner with his eyes filling with love. "I knew you were looking for me, Kirth. Why didn't you just pick me?" Asked Tanner.
Because with those robes you look alike... I do not like those. I like you to look like you and him to look like him!
"We look nothing alike!"
You do to me, oh! Oh! I see, your hair is like a golden queen, and his is the color of a brown! Well, that is silly. Why is your hair not like my skin!? And why is his like that? Who is that you are waving to?
"That is our sister Natti... There aren't too many eggs left, though, I don't know if she'll bond today."
She will bond later, bespoke Nralith to his brown brother Kirth, who told Tanner.
She'll be disappointed now, then. Tanner thought to himself.
And it was true, on the sands were empty shells and nothing more. But then -- a queen egg seemed to have hatched below the sand's cover, and ... Natti did not impress her.
"You can help your brothers with their dragonets, though," insisted the weyrling trainer. "They'll need it. And you'll bond later. I think, you were searched for a reason, weren't you!"
With that as her sole consolation, Natti went into the kitchens to help with everyone's dragonets, not just her brothers'. She knew how to cut meat and how to serve it up, and... She did so with a sheen of tears brimming in her eyes, but whenever she saw her brothers she smiled.
They were lovely, these big healthy hatchlings! And a bronze! Who could have known! Well, of course Tand thought he knew but he made all that talk up.
Tanner snickered, "like Kirth does already?"
"Like Kirth does," Natti nodded, "Already. Yes."
The bronze monster Nralith huffed, and turned his head away, as if that would stop them from talking about him. I do not think they appreciate how long it takes for a bronze like me to mature, Tand.
"I think they're right," Tand announced, and the bronze stood to his full height -- almost braining himself on their den's ceiling. He was truly too big for the den already.
What are you talking about?! I am still growing!
As if I'm done growing? Spoke his brother Kirth. Just follow me between next time, and I'll show you what to do.
As if! I do not follow browns anywhere!
You followed me to the candidates... You followed me into the air... You're just slow!
"Now that's not nice," Tanner chided his brown. "But Nralith, why not just this once, follow him and see what happens. A good leader knows when to give someone else a job, right?"
Tand grinned widely. His brother was learning quickly, just like he had to, that the only way to tame the bronze's huge ego, was to placate it by assumption. The pair of dragons left the ledge, flew over the lake, and disappeared teleporting away. They came back a few moments later, both lighter, and both quite happy about it.
