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Impressed at Dawn Sisters Weyr
It didn't take much for anyone to realize that this young man was on a mission. His stare at the skies, the set of his jaw, made everyone well aware that he had something at stake here. And time was of the essence.
But time, fortunately, was what it turned out he had. Not in abundance, but he thought all was lost when he reached Dawn Sisters weyr (not a little worse for wear as well). For the call had gone up already that the gold's clutch which his beloved Alhann would be standing at was hatching!
He gasped and threw his arms around himself, standing in the corridor of the hatching grounds. But ... people looked not just disappointed, but rather peeved as well. He heard words to the effect that this had happened no fewer than twice before this, and the gold just didn't have the sense in her head to know exactly when her eggs were going to hatch!
Chiris gulped back a cry of joy. He'd found Alhann -- standing with a disappointed look on her face on the sands, then... She turned. Their embrace marked a strange passage for Chiris. He knew that she was the only woman he could ever love. She'd been so afraid to leave the sands lest she not impress, but -- she also had to be told about his father's plot to gain her family's land.
"But that's all mostly irrelevant now," Alhann pointed out, walking Chiris to Alora, the weyrwoman of Dawn Sisters. "Because if I impress I won't be going back there... Possibly ever." She looked at Alora and glanced softly back at Chiris. "Here he is," she said, "I guess you couldn't find him because he was on a boat."
"You might have missed the hatching entirely," Alora warned. "You could have stayed put, young man. You've caused your lovely girl a lot of excitement and undue stress worrying about where you were."
Chiris tried to speak, but nothing came out.
"Because you wherry, when I told Alora about you, she sent a search rider out for you. But you weren't at the Hold."
Chiris rolled his eyes, but then he looked at Alora. "Does this mean... That I'm to stand as well?"
"It does," she replied with a smile.
***
It was only two nights later when the hatching actually DID happen. The joy and the tears and laughter and the hungry, hungry hatchlings -- everything was so amazing.
But most amazing of all, was that the first egg to hatch, the very first egg that Chiris had ever even seen hatch, was a bronze.
And that bronze impressed him! Nabendith was a fine, sturdy and eager bronze. Eager especially for the meat and the oils and the scratching!
And the sleep!
Alhann laughed quietly as their dragonets snoozed, and the pride in both their eyes could be seen from across the weyr.
You do not compare me to them, do you? Would you rather I be a blue?
"No, Nab, it's nothing like that. You're so much more than I ever expected to have in my life. If it weren't for you, I don't know if Alhann and Nilayith would --"
Of course she would love you! Even if you were scrubbing the floors of the weyr, or cooking meals, or fishing -- say, I like fish. Could we go fish in the lake now?
Such a short memory, even for a bronze... Ch'ris laughed to himself. "Of course, you can fish. I would like to get down and take a bath, though. All this riding has gotten me smelly. And you wouldn't want me to smell around my lady love, now would you?"
I think you smell great. You smell like me!
Ch'ris said nothing, and laughed all the way to the bathing chambers.
Then we're up, Ch'ris bespoke. The others in the wing got the message just a moment later, as the bronze relayed the information. They knew where to go, it was just a matter of moments before the whole wing was up and flying.
Alhann and her green came into the weyr, tired already. They had clearly been out on their sweep riding winging over the hard winds of the mountains, and would be in no condition to fight thread. That suited Ch'ris fine. He wanted his love, and her beautiful dragon, to remain as safe as they could be.
Given that they were dragon and rider, that went only so far. But he could hope that their new wing, the offer from the Protectorate, would be the best option for both pairs. With Alhann in the Valley wing, and Ch'ris in the Stone Fury, they would make the perfect pair... When Nilayith flew her first mating flight, Nabendith was planning on being there.
They concentrated on their work, as they went through the air and then between, to the high peaks where the Thread already fell in wave upon wave of silvery death...
