Though he is only 18 years old, he already knows enough history, world geography and bartering techniques to throw a harper into tears. But he also is very strongly built, and keeps his physical condition in peak form. He loves to spar using a long staff, is less adept with a sword, but likes swinging one around.
Victor is hardly one to believe that any weyr would not have him. He'd been searched as a youth, around age 13, so he knows that his expectations are in line with some kind of reality. No one doubts that he will be able to work a large dragon -- but does he belong on a brown? A bronze? A meek blue would disappoint anyone who knows Victor.
But Victor has also spent time poring over records at Blackstone weyr. The way that dragons grow, their wings and how to heal them, he's devoted a considerable amount of time to learning about the creatures which he would ride.
Perhaps a bit emotionally distant from people, he feels right at home with watch whers and dragon kind. But he has been very careful not to impress one of those large whers. That would damage any chance he would have to ride a full sized dragon.
Nothing will keep him from that goal.
With a tenseness in his jaw, Victor growled and turned away from the window of their small cothold. For their status, the place was much too small. But, it was made bigger seeming by the disappearance of his sister Raine to the rogues at Eden's Gate. How could she do this to them? She'd had the best education their status could afford, and she goes and wastes it living among rabble.
Dinner on the table smelled quite good, but even so, Victor was less inclined to eat tonight. Raine had argued with him before she left, about how Dawnlight was so annoyingly oppressive. He argued that structure was better than uncertainty.
He grumbled to himself at the table, "waste of talent."
His mother Vienna put her fork down and glared at her son. "Yes it is. But she is not coming back, and that is that. I did not make enough for her if she was."
"She should have gone when Vandel left then. She took advantage of our money."
"My money," Vienna snapped. "It won't be yours until you prove you can handle it. And if you're on a dragon you can hardly run a hold."
Disgusted, Victor stood from the table and placed his plate back onto the counter. "If I am on a dragon, you'll be getting more marks than you know what to do with, from my allotment and wages at a weyr. Don't forget that."
Vienna sighed, and nodded slowly. Rather than explode at her son, quite the way he might to her, she stood and put her tanned hand on his shoulder.
"Victor, I... I'm sorry. Raine is ..." She shook her head and rolled her fingers into a fist, "Raine is always the source of trouble for us. For me. Always. Not you."
"We're all on edge, mother. I am sorry too." He said it curtly, but he meant it. "If only Vandel and she would just be like me, eh?"
That finally elicited a laugh from his dour mother. She clung to his hand, and at last they ate in more pleasant silence.
***
When a Firestone Weyr search rider arrived to Dawnlight, it was oddly on a bronze. Impressed by the appearance of such a dramatic entrance, Victor stood tall at the head of the group selected for search. Though he had only stood once at Blackstone weyr, he surely wanted another chance to stand.
B'tal on Neverenth came to the Hold, and the rider dropped to the ground with a dusty cough. The bronze dragon swung his head around and breathed warm dragon-air on the bunch of young men and women.
B'tal strode back and forth, asking names and ages of each member of the group. Finally he arrived to Victor, who announced himself and stood at attention the way he'd seen weyrlings at Blackstone.
The search rider nodded. "Victor, eh? Quite a name for quite a candidate." He slapped the young man on the shoulder, and grinned. "So, pack up. Firestone will be your new home until you impress or until the clutch leaves you behind."
Beaming, and prouder even still than he was before, he thanked the bronze rider, and bolted off to pack.
***
"Oh Victor, what will I do without you around this hold?" Vienna cried, but she was smiling. "You're going to impress such a fine dragon, aren't you?"
"I hope so, mother. But ... Lisanth and Zeith are good strong dragons, gold and bronze. And the bronze, I've heard he's almost as big as his queen!" Victor closed his clothing satchel, and hefted it over his shoulder. "I can only hope their offspring are going to follow suit!"
He got a lift from one of the Blackstone dragons, since Firestone's dragons were all needed that afternoon. When he got to the beautiful new weyr, his smile almost ran off his face!
He was going to continue arguing with Carnage -- or perhaps start a fight with her -- when the call went out. The eggs were hatching! It was quite late at night, though, and the white robes which the candidates were provided did little to wake them up. It only served to make some of them seem as if they were moving in a dream state.
The first egg to hatch was a small one, with a blue inside. Victor sneered at the pair of Weyr brats he'd just lost a Mark to, on that bet. He was certain the gold or the biggest other egg would have hatched first! But, the blue was joined by greens, then others as the eggs got going. When the first bronze broke his shell, he seemed to want to pester his beautiful mother, and bit her tail! The nerve! Then eventually, finally, a medium sized lightish colored Brown hatched, and Victor felt a mind stirring within his own.
The brown was a bit small but he had an attitude worthy of note! Really, Victor, you were correct in believing you belonged upon a dragon such as I!
"Quareth, you're so right... Mother will be proud." Victor looked around and realized that he'd be getting a rider's wage, which he could use to buy more land for his mother, or perhaps even a drudge or two! What is a drudge? Why is land important?
"I'll explain it all to you later, my healthy brown friend," Victor laughed, "but for now, you're making my stomach ache, with your hunger!" As they left, others got out of their way, as well they should!
"That is pretty much it. Or if it has stones and minerals in it, or woodlands."
But... that is all of this world. Isn't it? Why is this little part of it so important when there is all that other land?
Victor didn't want to argue with Quareth. He would be worn down sooner or later, by the dragon's innocent questions. It took a human mind to truly appreciate the difficulty of land moves... A dragon just didn't care.
And perhaps that was best. Victor found himself more occupied with how well the dragon had learned to fly, in a short time he'd become speedy and quick in the air, besting most of his clutch mates easily. He would be out-flown soon by some of the bronzes, but the brown was surely the best dragon in the world.
Smiling to himself, Victor held a purse of his wages for the month, and sealed a letter to his mother. He handed it to the currier, and thanked the stars that it was a rider from the Protectorate, this currier was a dragon rider.
He could trust that this money would go to his mother, and not some pocket lining in the rider's jacket!
Why would they do that? Asked Quareth.
"Because some people can't be trusted," Victor said after the rider left. "But that one can, she's a good woman. And mother knows how much I send to her, the letter is sealed and has the amount."
So can we fly now? I would see more land, before I decide that your troubles are silly.
It had woodlands, streams... His mother had barely noticed the change, but Victor hoped to cheer her up anyway. He visited often, and Quareth even asked if the woman wanted to ride upon his back. She declined, claiming that her work was on the ground, where her feet were.
She is comfortable now, Quareth said. And now you do not have to keep sending her those coin things. I think you should like this place too. Do you?
"I do," Victor said, but he hesitated. He needed a purpose, and Quareth did too.
They volunteered for the guard status at Caer Blackstone. It wasn't a "real" Caer, in that it wasn't a place where people would be bonding very often. But it was their new home, and though it had a lot of the same old people in it, everything seemed fresh and alive now.
Quareth and Victor fit in suitably well but kept their distance from the other Blackstone riders. They discovered that the Dawnlight folk kept to themselves, and Blackstone people did the same. It suited him just fine.
