Zeddediah is very strong, over 6'2 and 200 pounds of muscle. He is almost the physical opposite of his brother, as well, taking after their mother strongly with light skin, platinum hair and pale blue eyes. Their father jokes that he must have been a bastard child, since he's so dark, but of course this isn't true. His fingers are nimble indeed, and he is less sculpted than his brother since he did not spend quite so much time on the farm lifting and working. He shares his brother's fashion sense, that is to say he looks good in most things.
Zed's favorite parts of Healing are coming up in his training. He loves to mix things and create compounds. He already knows which herbs and tinctures will do what things, but he is eager to learn what else they might do in tandem or mixed.
Zeddediah has had a short series of girlfriends, but none has really caught his eye. He is proud of his appearance and knows that he will be able to get many more women in a weyr to come to his side, but what he wants is the comfort and ease of a woman like Una. He is not jealous of his brother's relationship, but he is eager to have one like it.
Zed was searched of course while he was at Alabaster Weyrhold. Oddly, it was Kalkin's dragon Sixth who did so. The elder Healer had no idea that one of their students was ready to fly thread, but it came as no surprise to Zed himself.
If he Impresses, Zeddediah will shorten his name to Z'ed, of course. He hopes to ride a brown dragon, for their ease of access to nearly everything. The less responsibility to a weyr (as in becoming a weyrleader or Wing leader) the better in his opinion. He will be flying in the Stone Fury wing, in the Protectorate, though he might choose to fly with the Healers in the Touch of Life wing as well.
"I don't know, look for a dragon. They're kind of hard to miss!"
"You're so funny," she said and swished away to tend her younger foster sibs.
Zed watched from his work bench, but soon tired of just staring at the clouds in the sky. He mixed another small batch of a fine powder which when combined with Fellis would render it far more potent. He then labeled it carefully that it was to be used in very small quantities, and only under direct supervision.
Zed then heard the distinct trill of Sixth, and he perked up. Not just because it was a dragon, or that he thought that the long-awaited Talor Cliff search dragon was here, but that Sixth had indeed searched him, and he was quite happy about that.
"Heyo, Sixth," he said, and the little blue gave off a complex series of hoots and trills. "I'm sure you are."
"You can't understand him, Zeddediah," said Raanatani, scowling. "Even I can't understand that messy so-called speech of his."
"That's because you haven't put your mind to it, mother," Zed said, grinning. He patted the blue's nose and gave him a little scratch. "So I've been hearing tell that we're waiting for a rider from Talor now. What's the occasion?"
Zed's foster mother leaned against the tiny blue, who seemed to enjoy the attention. "Well, it looks like a flight has just happened, so we're waiting for the clutch. Once it's down, they'll know how many candidates are needed, and surely they'll stop by here. They know I have the finest Fosterlings in all of the South!"
They laughed, and Zed looked into the sky himself. "There they are, too..." He nodded toward the dragons.
***
Later on, after a hearty meal and songs (as sung by the youngest of the little harpers-in-training at the Cothold) the rider Nora looked about at the gathered Fosterlings. There were more than a dozen teenaged kids, and some slightly older ones caught her attention. Two burly males and one incredibly small girl who seemed more mature than the other teens though she was a lot shorter than they.
"Lady Raanatani," she said, as they milled about in the large main room, "there are a couple here that I'd like to have Mitanth sniff at. If that's all right?"
"Of course it is, dear!" Tani said, holding back her excitement. Every time any search rider came to the Cothold, it was to the thrill that awaited on the sands... Raanatani had managed to get to several of those hatchings, but she couldn't always do so. She dearly hoped that she could have gone to the last Talor hatch, but she was too busy with the newest arrival.
Nora tapped the dark and light shoulders of Zed and Zeb, trying to remember which one was who... Laughing because they were so different and yet so alike! Quietly, she escorted them out, then came back for Una, the tiny artist.
The trio stood outside in the dim twilight, and the blue dragon they came to love began to look them over carefully.
These are all quite good. I cannot see why they were not sniffed out before!
It was only a matter of time, bespoke Sixth, after all, I did search that other one. Are they going soon?
They will go when my rider tells them -- oh, look, they're doing that silly dance. She's told them.
The trio claimed their valuable things, and Mama Tani promised to send anything else they might need along later. For now, they were off to Talor!
"Getting into trouble I expect," Zebediah muttered. "What am I going to do if one of us doesn't impress?" He groaned.
Zeddediah leaned on his dark skinned brother, and said, "that won't happen. We've been Searched by the best. They don't make mistakes."
Those words were about to be proven! For just about when both of them were about to bed down for the night, the dragons below began to hum! The hatching was going to start! They threw on their robes, met up with Una and the other candidates, and hurried down to the sands.
Everything was so different in the sands, at night. Not like they'd all had an extended opportunity to see the eggs: their dam had all but covered them in the fine sands, making it not only hard to figure out how many there were, but also exactly where they were! She snarled fiercely when the candidates came in, but then was obviously taken down a notch by her rider, who calmed her enough to allow the first egg to break and hatch.
A Bronze! What luck! The bronze went and impressed, and then... Four more eggs broke right off. Three of them were greens, and one a brown. The greens impressed one first, then another. Then, the deeply brown hatchling came right up to Zeddediah. He ran up, didn't stop, and barreled right into the man! Laughing, Z'ed listened to the bright mind of the dragonet.
I have found you! I did it! It was a lot easier than mother told us it would be! I am Diazhath! Hello!
"Of course you found me, Diazhath, but you didn't have to knock me over!"
Oh! I was not supposed to do that. Oh I am so sorry... It was ... a hurry I was in. I am so hungry, I must eat! You must help me eat!
"Of course I'll feed you, now come on."
They went off the sands, and waited for the other two.
Z'ed tilted his head quite the way his dragon would, sometimes. "And what do you mean, by 'again'? I have never tried to coerse my way through our training. You need to work harder is all."
The other weyrling rider grimaced and then turned away. Z'ed knew he might be in for a fight.
Do not fight! I just love to fly is all! Why don't you? Your blue is just as healthy as I! He cannot reach the heights yet because you have not let his wings unfurl!
Diazhath bespoke the other rider, much to the surprise of everyone there. He spun at the dark brown.
"You just show off because you're a brown. And the bronzes are the worst!"
"Perhaps you ought to ask one of them how they are training their dragons, then," Z'ed pointed out, as there were two rather intimidating looking Senior Weyrlings in the corridor behind the blue rider.
Z'ed then hoped that his healing skills would not have to be used this afternoon!
They are small and wrinkly and ... pink! Diazhath thought to his rider, of babies. I did not think that human-eggs were like that!
"Is that a hint of disgust in your voice I hear?" Z'ed smirked.
Nooooo, but ... at least they grow up to be decent enough!
Z'ed laughed hard, and guided the dragon over to the Healers' Wing Meeting stones, a small place near Landing. There, he left a message on the strange object that one of the tinkers and several of the miners and other smithies had put together from Alabaster Weyrhold's stuff. It was a simple note leaving device, so far as he knew. Loud as it was, it was effective! The letter-pads made small indentations in a piece of parchment he took from a pile nearby, and when he was finished, Z'ed's note could actually be read:
Delivered male, .8 stone male to cotholders near HighSand. Healthy, check mother soon, only 17 turns. Z'ed/brown Diazhath/18th day, 5th month, 17th turn/3rd Pass
He pulled the paper from the small loud device, and placed it in a small watertight box which other Healers would be allowed to look at. This way, Z'ed's awful penmanship could be read by most of them, at least!
