Miamar is slightly taller and just barely older than his sister Nadeen, and she is also the shyer of the pair. She tends to hide behind her huge mop of curly hair, while Miamar often is found staring at people for no good reason until they notice him -- at which point he looks away.
They are not an entirely odd pair of 16 year olds, their parents made sure they had adequate harper lessons and they know their ballads and histories. They also are both well versed in the star charts of their parents den.
Immersed at an early age to the beauty of the skies, the twins have always had a great love of the stars. It is their shared secret that they wish to travel among those stars.
If they can do so on dragon back, so much the better! But practicality shaped their lives as young teens, so they also know a bit here and there about wood craft, metal working, smithy, assembling devices, and glasscraft. All those things needed for a good starcrafter.
Both of them are Apprentice star-chart makers, and if it were up to their teachers they would be Journeymen already, but tradition prevents them from simply promoting the pair out of hand.
"Pfah, you think you do. You think you want it but I know better..." Nadeen threw a pillow at her twin brother from across their shared den room. "I just don't talk about it all the time."
Miamar leaned back on the wall at the head of his bed, and hugged the pillow she'd thrown to his body. "Why not?" He asked. His sister blushed almost as red as their hair.
"I ... just don't. That's all."
"But Nadeen, babies are very important. They're like... Dragon eggs. They're precious."
"I know that." She said, flatly.
"But then why not talk about having them? I mean, I sure want to make mom and dad happy -- the older we get the more they talk about grand children, have you noticed that?" He said, oblivious to Nadeen's distant and slightly displeased look.
"Yes." She said, again quite flatly. "I have noticed it. And I notice you talking about it more and more too. You've found a girlfriend, I guess."
"What, is there something wrong with that?" Miamar was about ready to toss the pillow back at her, but then stopped. "What is wrong, Nade? And don't you dare say 'nothing'."
Nadeen sat heavily on the side of her rush-filled bed, and stared at the stone floor. Her bare toes picked at a bit of dust which had been accumulating since they rarely cleaned their room out properly. "I don't... I don't know what's wrong. I --" She took in a breath, shaking. "I just worry."
Miamar slipped from his own bed over to hers, and pushed the pillow at Nadeen, leaning his chin on her shoulder. "About what, Nade?"
She gulped, and closed her eyes. "About dying in childbirth. Like aunt Meina did." She rose, before Miamar could respond, and turned with tears in her eyes. "Ever since she died, all I see is -- is this horrid image in my head. They wouldn't let anyone in, not us kids remember? And so when she's in there screaming and wailing, and then she --" Nadeen's face turned very sour, "she choked out some awful curses... And then just stopped..." She sighed, "All I see is this image of auntie all red and twisted and in pain... And I hate it. I want children so much, Miamar. So. Much."
The young man leaned back, and watched his sister fume and stomp back and forth. When she got like this, while rare, she was very nearly impossible to tame down until she was good and ready. That was something their parents had never understood nor conquered. They'd badger her with questions and commands until she ran crying from the room. Then, of course, it became his job to calm her down and settle the issues.
This issue, though... He wasn't sure what to make of it.
"There are healers who make it their job to keep women safe," Miamar pointed out. "So if you do have a child, Nade, I'll make sure there's a good one with you. Just in case. You know, you're healthy. There's nothing wrong with you."
"There was nothing wrong with Auntie either!" She bellowed.
"There was too! She drank herself into that state, to begin with." Miamar muttered. He knew that his sister had loved Meina far more than he. He'd usually spied the woman practically dousing herself in wine or ale at every family function.
Now however was probably not the best time to point that out to his sister. Instead, he stood and put his strong, warm hands on her shouders. "Nade, you're going to have beautiful children. And you'll be around always, for them."
She gasped a sobbing breath, and finally nodded to him. "Okay... you ... you win. I'm so sorry. I am such a dimmer."
"You're the only one who ever says that, Nade. I wish you'd stop. You're brilliant and it's okay to worry about yourself, especially... With that in your head."
"You just won't have to go through it yourself, 'big brother', so it's all academic to you!" She elbowed him gently, and they finally managed to stop talking and get to sleep.
***
Groggily, Nadeen woke to the sound of someone banging on all the Dens down the hall. "Search riders! Morning Star Weyr! New Weyr! Searching!" They called out, and Nadeen hastily shook her brother's shoulder hard enough to wake him.
"There are search riders! Come on!" She breathed. He crawled out of bed at about twice his usual pace -- still too slow for Nadeen's taste. She dragged at him while pulling on her own tunic and pants. "You are SO slow! They'll be passed by before we even get to the courtyard!"
"If they know what's good for them," Miamar grunted as he jumped into his leggings, "they'll stick around just long enough to take me away from you and your rushing everywhere..."
They took off at a good clip down to the inner courtyard, where a blue dragon stood elegantly watching the goings on. He seemed disinterested in all the other young kids that had been so far paraded before him. But then the two red-headed teens came barrelling down the hall into the light of the yard...
Those. They will work for Raynath's clutch. Perfectly.
"Really?" Said the rider S'ron to Aith, looking them over. "Well good. That's very good. Now we just have a few more stops to make." He beckoned the pair over, and for sure now, with the sound sniffing that the blue did on their persons, told them that they had been searched.
"You'll have a little time to pack and gather your things. If you don't impress, you can stay or come back here, either way you should be ready to remain at Morning Star for a while. We'll be off to pick out some other lucky candidates, but we'll come back by the end of the week to gather you up."
Stunned, Nadeen and Miamar glanced around at the other jealous looking teens and kids. "That's -- " said Miamar, "That's great! Mom and dad will be thrilled!"
They always are, commented the dragon, surprisingly right into his mind.
As the twins went up to their den again, to tell their parents this news and to begin packing, Miamar realized something new that would probably distress his sister to no end.
That the more times a rider teleports, the less likely she is to have children... But he said nothing. There would be time for her to learn that. Sometime after she enjoyed the thrill of bonding, hopefully.
