Kshau Protectorate Bonders Eizo and Naoto Sakamura

Den of Eizo and Naoto Sakamura

Eizo on the left in Purple, and his brother Naoto on the right in Brown, are both born and raised Blackstone Weyr Brats to the core. The Sakamura clan fits well in any situation where navigation and information transfer is involved. Both brothers have been entrusted with tasks such as delivering communiques and helping folks get around the Weyr or Caer (they have lived long enough to have been in both), and enjoy the feeling of being in charge.

Eizo is the slightly younger at 16 years old, Naoto is 18. Eizo however is a more aggressive boy, and has excelled in everything he's attempted. He is quite good at math and plotting navigation points, and has a great technical skill in drawing three-dimensional images plotted out on paper.

Naoto is a more relaxed but still quite intelligent young man, with experience with people more than paperwork. He has a more artistic flair, so his dreamy sketches of dragons in flight or people he has been watching are put up on the Den walls right along side Eizo's complex wing-distribution mapping. Their parents are quite proud of both boys.

When Alskyr became the new home of Blackstone, they were among the first to begin exploring their new home. They had never been too far away from Blackstone save to one or two other dragon-sites, so their experience with islands, coastlines, and tropical temperatures was limited.

But they relish every moment they have been there. However, it seems likely that they will both head back to the old world to bond to a dragon - they had been searched when Naoto was 13 and Eizo barely 11. They both stood on Blackstone's sands more than once, but were never quite serious about having a local dragon be their bond. Perhaps the hatchlings knew that.

"To say the boy has a flair for remembering faces would be... shall we say an understatement?" The Caer administrator leaned back in his chair, and wished he didn't have to do all this work to run a weyr which wasn't really running any more. But the search rider across from him had come in from Seiryuu in the hopes of getting some worthy candidates for their first clutch, and H'lis intended to send the Sakamura boys. "Naoto knows almost every person in the weyr, if not by name than by sight or by locale. I've seen him run messages from newcomers to people he'd barely met. It impressed me, it should give him a strong advantage on dragonback."

"I tend to agree," Ar'wen said. He looked at the records of the boys habits in Blackstone, and noticed that both of them had good marks in reading and writing, that was always a bonus. The way either boy would be able to focus on a locale or a star position in flight would be more important.

"But you don't want to lose them back to our weyr when they've bonded, do you?" H'lis finally asked, and Ar'wen shrugged and tried to look noncomittal. But the weyrleader was right, Seiryuu was a very new weyr, and they had precious few riders to begin with.

"Sir, I think they will do what they will do."

"They aren't meant to fight against the old menace of thread," The pale-haired man asserted. He heard something vaguely like a sneeze somewhere past the walls of his office, but didn't let the sound distract him from extolling the Sakamura clan's virtues.

***

"They're talking about you and your brain again." Eizo said. "How good you are running stuff around the weyr."

"Well the last thing I want to be doing all my life is giving guided tours of this place..." Naoto groaned. "I like looking at people, not dragging them around behind me..."

His brother laughed a little, and they finally crawled away from the closet space which backed up to H'lis' office. The dust had crept into Eizo's nose and he'd sneezed on the way out, but there was nothing they could do about that. They weren't going to get in trouble. Besides, if there was a search rider talking about them, perhaps they ought to start packing!

Naoto headed to their family den, where their parents weren't hanging out this time of day. So in silence, they both began selecting items to take with them. It never occurred to either boy that they'd have to actually be asked BY the search rider to attend the hatching, and perhaps their actions might have been a bit premature.

But they both really knew better. Seiryuu was new, Blackstone was overcrowded with people and old-world dragons which didn't quite fit in on their new planet.

"What do you think we'd be doing on a dragon, anyway?" Naoto asked his brother, as they folded shirts. "I mean, on our own dragonS."

"You'll be out there on the currier wing, of course." Eizo said, gritting his teeth onto the collar of a cotton shirt. "I mean, that's what you're best at. Or even search riding yourself. You always get people right when you see them and put their faces on your drawing paper."

Naoto grinned. It was true, he had a knack for getting a personality down on paper even before the piece was finished. "I am a people person," he chuckled. "But what about you?"

"I'm hoping that maybe I could fly fighting for a while..." Eizo said, and that actually surprised Naoto. "What? I want to know what it's like to risk my neck for the weyr. I can plot lines and remember how to calculate a starrise for a chart, but Naoto, where's the thrill in that?"

"I guess..." Naoto said. They were not in any way 'twins', Naoto helped his mother care for his little brother even from a very young age. And apparently it bothered him that Eizo wanted to fly out and endanger himself. He might get hurt.

"You think I'm gonna go out and get myself killed," Eizo said, after the silence from his brother. "I'm not. Come on! I mean, if we both bond, you're going to do what you do, and I'll do what I do. And then, we'll both come back here and retire..."

"I think my skills would be best here to begin with," Naoto said, quietly.

"You want to stay?" Eizo said, dropping a pair of socks. "No way!"

"I didn't say that, I said I think I ought to BE here, if I'm bonded. I don't really want to fight thread, or ants, or anything. I think just... riding... would be fine for me. You're right, though, I think the currier wing would have me."

"You're so blasted humble," Eizo muttered. "Here you are all older than me and wanting nothin' more than just to have a dragon and shuffle notes back and forth to people who're more important than you."

"I did NOT say that!" Naoto rose, and finally his brother grinned. When Naoto finally got the gumption up to stand up for himself, he did so with flair. "I could be a search rider, and that's just every bit as important as flying against ants or plants or whatever falls from the sky this week. Just because I don't want to throw my life away going up against that stuff doesn't mean I want to be a useless rider!"

Eizo waited for the bluster to go out of Naoto's face before he said, "I know you're wanting that. Just as much as I want to fight. Don't you think I'd be able to lead a wing?"

Naoto snorted, "not on the green you'll be getting."

Eizo threw his overstuffed satchel at his older brother, and they spent the next few minutes laughing and tussling. It got their anxieties out in the open, this Search. A lot of younger people in the Weyr-turned-Caer were wondering how they would make the transition to their new life, if their dragons -- like most old-world ones -- failed to teleport, or couldn't spit fire.

But they knew better -- the dragons did what they would do. They performed properly according to the needs of the Caer. If they needed another dragon who could flame, there would be one on the way. If a teleporter, how rare these days, was needed, then surely Naoto could bond one who would come through the long distance jump between worlds intact.

If he bonded one with a nose for people, like he had a head for them, perhaps that would be better even than a flame throwing one that Eizo needed. Dragons on the old world needed their human bonds! The ones here on Alskyr didn't. It was that simple. If there were people to be brought, Naoto wanted to do that. And of course, if Eizo wanted to throw himself into fighting menaces, that was his job. He certainly had the fight in him.

But that would all hinge on H'lis and the search rider Ar'wen coming to their den to announce them. If that didn't happen, then... They were packing for nothing!

Of course, the knock came on their family den's door. Eizo was finished packing first, an economical choice of leggings and shirts and a jacket, some socks... Anything else he might need he'd get where they were going. He sprinted to the den's door, and opened it with a look that said he was trying to look surprised.

H'lis didn't fall for it, but obviously Ar'wen did. The search rider held out his hand and introduced himself, and Eizo called for Naoto to come out. When both brothers were there, Ar'wen announced, "I'd like it if you would come to the courtyard and allow my dragon to sniff you over. If that's not a bother?"

"None at all sir!" Eizo said, almost saluting. H'lis widened his eyes and made a little motion behind Ar'wen's vision that asked him to tone it down a little. "Come on, big bro," Eizo said, and Naoto smirked at H'lis as they left the den.

Before the weyrleder left, he leaned into the Sakamura den, and saw the boys' room. Of course there were two ready-packed bags resting near the arched doorway...

***

Camoth did not even have to get close to the pair of boys, before he apparently told Ar'wen his decision. But for the sake of appearances, and Naoto noticed this right off, he did seem to insist that the dragon do a cursory sniffing and examination. The dragon raised his head and bugled a little, and then went back to his curled sunbathing.

"Well that's that," Ar'wen said, "you two pass. H'lis has told me that your folks will be happy to get rid of you."

"They would not!" Naoto exclaimed, and then calmed. Why was it that he rarely saw silly jokes like that coming?! "We need to wait for them to come back from their guild travel. If that's possible?"

"Or," Eizo suggested with a gleam in his sun-yellow eye, "maybe we could go find them and tell them?"

At that, Camoth picked his head up and snorted, something to his rider's bemusement. "Well, he likes the idea of being left to rot in the sun like a wherry carcass, but if you want to, we could tour a bit of the countryside and find them. I've never seen Paniya's guilds."

"Then let me show you where to fly..." Naoto and Eizo both chimed in.

The sands were hot, for such an early hatching time. Eizo had gotten up first, of course, his brother wanted to take a little more time. But there was no time!

Several eggs, including a beautiful bronze, hatched at the start of the morning. Then, a grouping of brown, green and two blues broke shell and started running rampant. The green took charge - what a strong girl she'd be!

But then, when Damian, the Lord Holder's son from Dawnlight, bonded the brown in a no-nonsense way too, the blues had little choice but to scamper off and find their partners too. That brown would be a trouble maker, Naoto decided - he wondered how he'd chosen such a sedate and rather calculating bond like Damian for his own?

He didn't have any more time to think about that, eventually the pair of blues stopped rolling around and found themselves at the feet of the brothers. The lighter colored one looked up at Naoto. I'm hungry, Naoto.

"I would think so, Clith, with all that playing," Naoto said, sure that the name was resounding in his head.

His brother discovered that the panting dark blue before him was trying to execute a clever bow, as he said, I am Karnoth, rider mine, and like my brother, I too am hungry.

"Then let's get you fed, my friend!" Eizo said, and they led each dragon away from the sands. Their blues were going to be wound up for their next round of play soon enough - maybe they'd have time to rest somewhere between...

Naoto? Do you ever wish I was a bronze?

"How could you ask such a thing, Clith?" Naoto said, looking up from his work sorting firestone.

Sometimes you look at them and I wonder. That is all.

"Well I don't, you have nothing to worry about. You're perfect for me."

Like his darker brother Karnoth, the medium shaded Clith rested easier when they knew their position in the world. It didn't seem like Lindsey had this problem with her pale blue Skieroth, though.

I do not want to be a pest, Karnoth grumbled. But we are not her bond. She is ... too much for us!

"Then what are you worried about? You and Clith are such worry warts..." Eizo said. "Blues are fantastically better than bronzes. I don't belong running a weyr. You don't want that kind of responsibility do you, Naoto?" Asked Eizo of his brother, who shook his head and laughed.

"No, I think sticking to our work here and impressing the girls when we get back will do just fine." Naoto said, standing and putting his hands on the warm hide of his dragon. "Besides if you were bronze, I'd have to work way too hard to clean your hide, wouldn't I?"

"Can this day get any worse?" Naoto groaned. The moment they entered the skies over Paniya, it was raining a gigantic downpour - tropical rain but chilled none the less at their altitude. There was a tremendous bolt of lightning, and both riders and dragons nearly jumped out of their skin.

I see the landing, we should go quickly. Lindsey and Skieroth have already descended. Do you see them? Said Clith.

I will follow her if I can, but this wind is so hard! Karnoth admitted. Skieroth's much better at this sort of flying than I am...

They did finally make it down to the Protectorate's Isle, where the muddy landing area filled quickly with visitors and attendants to help the young riders off their dragons, and an older blue helped the foursome (yes, they'd all but forgotten the brown in transit with them, since he was not always able to have the same fun as the blues) to their new homes.

"It's so good to be home," Eizo breathed, slapping his chest - water went everywhere.

I will enjoy our new home once it is dry and warm!

"Me too," Naoto laughed.