An outspoken member of a building team, Thaia enjoys a lot of attention not only because of her looks. She is very smart, and that build is not just plump - it's muscle too. She loves to get into the work that normally only men do, lifting and diging things up, bricklaying and building scaffolding.
Her training is largely in architecture, but her specialty is materials. She can look over a site and decide whether heavy woods or strong stone would be best, over stucco or brick. She knows her stuff, too, having passed her exams for journemanship when she was only 14. Of course, that was two years before they moved from the old world to Alskyr. She had to learn a whole new set of materials - and doze into that project with a zeal that only Wick's children can.
Thaia brushed off Cicero's advances several years before he tried them on her younger sister, though she would never consider him less than a prize. Now, at 23 years old, she might regret having given him the boot. She knows that the older a woman gets the less likely she will fine 'true love' but perhaps... Perhaps a dragon will help her decide what to do with that aspect of her life.
Thaia and Abalone stood together at another weyr's sands, neither impressing, but Thaia did not go to any other hatchings afterward. She wanted to more concentrate on her work, and that has given her the expertise and experience needed to really be respected on her jobs.
Thaia has always wanted a flitter of her own, because she thinks one could help her keep organized or send emergency information to people on a job site. Perhaps she'll run into one sooner or later.
No. She was worried that her current construction job on the west side of Chagga's port would either go unfinished or be done shabbily. Go figure. The girl's mind was in the clouds for half the time she worked, and now that her body was found there, she had her mind on the ground again.
"We're ready to head through the Nexus, so hold on tightly. Don't worry about falling off or breathing. It's fine." The rider stated, and Thaia nodded, behind her Abalone gave a little tug indicating that she too heard him. "It's a longer trip than typically teleporting, though. Just close your eyes if you want. Have you memorized your return point?" He asked - and suddenly both young women were confused. The rider laughed, "just testing you. You'll need to learn, when you bond. You'll come back here, I hope!"
"Not if we'd have to put up with that kind of joke again!" Thaia muttered, and Abalone giggled.
Momentarily, after both the browns had gotten off the isle and into the air, the riders signalled their dragons to fly through the Nexus, toward their destination.
***
The first time that Thaia had ridden a dragon, was years and years before she was aware of how special that event was considered. Her father being a blue rider, she was always keenly intent on how the dragon's wings spread, which muscles moved in what order... This from a four year old. She was always good at engineering and balance.
Wick's blue, Koanth, was young and very pretty. Thaia clung on expertly, even raising her hands in joy when they soared.
She is brave, Koanth commented to Wick. But she will wait for her dragon to come to her. I wonder where that will be.
We'll know someday, Wick responded. Thaia did not know they spoke of her, while she giggled and watched the ground far below. Of course - she was also looking at the contours of the land and how a farm house could be put there - or there - or there...
***
When the duo of browns went through the Nexus, it was both frightening and familiar to the girls. Cicero also knew this feeling - like a lurching fall in a dream, where you'd wake up wondering how you could have survived such a thing.
It was dark, quiet, almost stifling to the girls, Cicero might have felt a little numbness creeping in around the edges, something hot and observant. These things normally went ignored by other riders, those all born from the Old World certainly didn't think much of the Nexus as a location itself. But Thaia almost thought she saw something in the faint static beyond reach... It flickered out of her vision, or perhaps turned it's back, or maybe had never been there. She didn't mention it when they came out of the Nexus anyway.
The bright light over Tripaldi's hidden end brought winces and then a squeal of delight to the young women. The place was large, at least as large as the Kshau isle itself, and filled with dragon kind. Beautiful colors on the dragons, two-toned of almost every description rested by a lake.
"Those are the whiny males," Said the rider, as they passed over the lake and his dragon trumpeted their arrival. "They lost the flights - but most of their riders wanted to see the results, and some of them brought candidates with them when they came back."
"Like you?" Thaia asked, and Abalone nudged her in the ribs.
"No, Noth and I didn't participate here..." He laughed. Axel was the rider's name, they learned as they descended to the ledges for visiting dragons. "The flight was only for duocolored and unusual ones. And no matter how weird he might be," Axel patted the big brown's shoulder and Noth gave off a trill, "he's not really all that different from any other brown." He paused, and then tossed his head, "except that you're mine, yes, Noth."
Axel helped the girls down, and gave a wave to the other brown rider, Baron on Sorinth, to see if he needed any help getting their goods down. Sorinth was gigantic, in Thaia's eyes.
"What kind of dragon do you think we'd bond?" Thaia asked Axel as they dragged their baggage into the temporary barracks. "If we bond, I mean."
"Oh, you'll bond," Axel said, winking. He was not unattractive, big and burly like his dragon - and his skin was just as dark. Abalone looked at the way her sister had taken to this rider, and rolled her eyes walking away. "But it's hard to say," Axel continued as he hefted expertly one bag over his shoulder and took another under his arm. "There are many eggs on the sands and hardly a plain colored sire or dam in sight."
The registration process for the candidates was short - surprising to Cicero. They did not really have to explain where they had come from, at least three dragons from the Kshau protectorate had participated in the flights here for these very females. When they were given their assigned rooms, Cicero to share one with another young man, and the sisters to have their own semi-private digs together, they were then led down to the egg chamber itself.
The 'tour guide' of sorts was a harried worker - he obviously was still working on the interiors of some of the dens. "You know, later on, if you need some help with the barracks, I'd be happy to help," Thaia said.
Abalone thought she was getting way too friendly with all the guys. Muttering to herself, she said, "I hope you bond a male dragon, you flirt. That'd give you something to think about..."
Cicero gave a little chuckle, "that's no way to talk about your sister," he put his arm over her shoulder in that friendly overbearing way he had. She suddenly loved him again.
"Well if I don't, who will?" Abalone laughed. Together, the trio looked over the sets of eggs on the sands. The lovely gold, and two green-mixes guarded their clutches with varying degrees of annoyance at being interrupted.
"I wonder which will have our dragons," Thaia asked no one in particular.
Only time would tell, now that they were at the sands...
NEXT!