Searching for What, Exactly?

Writers: Sia, Heather
Date Posted: 7th March 2024

Characters: M'yvak, E'kirim
Description: M'yvak's Pesrath finds Ekirim very interesting.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 4, day 23 of Turn 11
Notes: Mentor Approved

M'yvak

E'kirim

M'yvak couldn't help his sigh of disappointment as Pesreth spiraled in slow, lazy circles down to the Dragonsfall Weyrbowl. A whole day spent on Search and not a single person had caught Pesreth's attention. After that green dragonet had died a few Hatchings back on the Sands, from lack of a suitable Candidate, the Searchriders at Dragonsfall had all been working extremely hard to make sure a wide variety of Candidates were being recruited for the Weyr.

He felt like a failure.

}:We'll find someone another day.:{ Pesreth consoled his rider.

"Yeah, I guess," M'yvak said, although the Searchrider tokens he carried in his pocket felt extra heavy.

Ekirim hadn't gotten used to the dragons yet. He was used to sometimes seeing them overhead, or one or two parked at Amber Hills after Threadfall. The sheer number of them at the Weyr was staggering, and so he raised his eyes to the sky when yet another shadow passed overhead. The blue landed close enough that the gust of displaced air from his wings ruffled his hair and shirt. The papers he was carrying were similarly disrupted, flying off in all directions as a helpful breeze cut across the plateau. Ekirim cursed and dove to grab the ones that landed nearest to him.

The flutter of paper caught M'yvak's attention, and he winced as he quickly deduced what had happened.

"Sorry about that," he called to Ekirim as he dashed across the weyrbowl and grabbed a couple of runaway papers.

"That's okay!" Ekirim called back. He darted in the opposite direction and scooped up the last. No worse for the wear, if a little crumpled and definitely out of order now. He tried to smooth them out as he walked back to take the rest of the papers. "I should have grabbed an envelope. I'm not used to dragons just _descending_ at any point. I just moved here from Amber Hills."

"Oh yeah, you'll definitely want a portfolio. Dragons dart in and out of here all the time." M'yvak said as he brought the papers he'd collected over. "Just in from Amber Hills, huh? That's beautiful territory. What brought you to Dragonsfall?"

"Yeah, for some reason I didn't expect the swooping to be that common." Ekirim said with a grin. "My older siblings were Searched a while back. My sister is still a candidate but my brother Impressed a while back. K'aur? Mom wanted to come to the Weyr to keep the family together."

"Oh, that's fantastic, and of course I know K'aur and his brown Remiath."

Pesreth's large, slate blue head swiveled around to fully regard Ekirim. His nostrils flared a little as he took a large inhale and then huffed the air back out. Papers went flying again.

"Oh, shard it!" M'yvak winced, immediately diving at papers once again. "Pesreth!" he scolded. "I'm sorry about that. I don't know what's gotten into him."

Ekirim yelped in surprise and stood stock-still as Pesreth stared at him. "What do I do?" He asked, trying very hard to quell the rising panic. "Should I back away? Would that spook him?"

"Dragons don't spook," M'yvak said in amusement.

}:By the Egg, M'yvak. I think you've done it. I think you've found a Candidate.:{ Pesreth made a strange sound, like the grinding of teeth, as he considered the young man in front of him.

Ekirim's eyes widened at _that_ and slowly started backing away. "I'll take your word for it. I got a healthy respect for critters larger than me, and I can respect those teeth from over here."

"Oh," M'yvak laughed, putting a hand on Pesreth's snout and shoving it away from the other man. "Don't mind him, that's just the noise when he likes something. He's done that ever since he was little.... Oh, and I don't mean, when he likes something to eat - well, he does sort of do it then, too."

**Oh, shells, I'm bad at this... Maybe _that's_ why I never bring any Candidates back...**

"What I mean to say is, Pesreth thinks you have potential as a Candidate... Er, oh, I guess I don't even know your name. Did I introduce myself?" He stuck out his hand, but then realized that the potential Candidate's hands were full holding the papers from earlier. "I'm M'yvak and this is Pesrath."

Ekirim shuffled his papers into one arm to shake his hand. "I'm Ekirim, sir. And he can think whatever he wants as long as it's not how much I resemble a noontime snack." He paused for a moment, glancing back at the big blue head. "What d'you mean, candidate? Like 'go stand next to the eggs and see what they do', candidate?"

M'yvak nodded his head enthusiastically. "Yeah, just like that! You could join in on the Candidate classes and you'd report to the Headwoman... That is, if you want to be a Candidate. Pesreth says you have the potential, and after what happened _before_," he shuddered. "Just know he's not saying it lightly."

"So Pesreth snuffling like that means he thinks I can go fight Thread?" Ekirim asked, amused. The confusion didn't really leave his face, though. He never thought that all those harper lessons he ignored would have come in handy. "Wait, what happened before?"

"Well, I mean, he also makes that sound when he sees a green he likes so... Don't read too far into it," M'yvak said with a blush and a laugh - both of which quickly died at the Ekirim's next question. "Oh, a couple of hatchings ago, one of Chioneth's dragonets died on the sands. It was chalked up to a lack of suitable Candidates. Ever since then, we've tried to have an abundance of Candidates for the clutches to choose from."

Ekirim looked back at at M'yvak for a moment, considering the comment and the blush and filing it away for later. M'yvak was handsome enough. He could work with that. "That's rough." He said, though he didn't have the context to fully understand, "Can I take the token now and give it to the Headwoman or whoever later? The Weyr is nice and all, but I don't know about having one of my own. Up until a few months ago, I sort of expected I'd just be a farmhand."

M'yvak tried to hide his crestfallen feelings over Ekirim not wanting to immediately become a Candidate. He gave what he hoped was a supportive, cheerful smile. "Oh, sure. Um, the choice is yours, of course." He lifted the flap on the leather pouch attached to his belt and pulled out a searchrider's token. "Just take this and uh, hey, even if you never use it... It's a neat souvenir of your time at the Weyr."

Ekirim took the token and held it between this thumb and index finger, inspecting the design. "Yeah! And I'll be able to give my siblings a hard time with it, too. I bet K'aur's going to hate this." He grinned, though not entirely unaware of M'yvak's disappointment. "It's not a hard no." He said, "But there's a lot to think about. No matter how neat they are, dragons seem like a really big commitment, even if you don't figure in flying Threadfall. Not everyone can be a hero, y'know?"

Pesrath huffed loudly through his nostrils, causing the ends of Ekirim's papers to flutter. He did _not_ appreciate being called a "big commitment" in that context. "They _are_ a big commitment, sort of like committing to breathe," M'yvak replied, getting that dreamy look in his eyes that a dragonrider often gets when reminiscing on the other half of their being. He snapped back to attention. "But hey, I get it. Dragonriding isn't everyone's dream."

Ekirim clutched the papers close to his chest to stop them from being lost to the winds again. "I don't mean it in a bad way, big guy." He said at Pesrath, still not quite understanding. But it was better than interacting directly with whatever was happening to M'yvak's face. "But breathing is a big commitment, you know. I wouldn't give someone a runner without knowing if they can take care of it."

The blue's head came down, _very_ close to Ekirim, one great whirling eye studying the potential Candidate.

"Oh, allow me to translate," M'yvak said around a chuckle. "Pesrath says a dragon would never choose someone if they weren't already certain they could take care of it. Dragons don't make such mistakes, apparently."

Ekirim stared back, eyes wide. "Sure they don't." He said mildly. "Let's just say I don't have that much faith in me, huh? I'll think about it, though. Maybe I'll change my mind when there's a clutch of eggs."

M'yvak shoved on Pesrath's head to get the blue to make some space. "Of course. It was nice meeting you, Ekirim."

**Get out of here, lizard-breath. You're scaring off the potential Candidate.**

}:Mmhmm.:{ Pesrath backed away a few paces before launching, sending spiraling downdrafts as his wings carried him upward towards the weyrrim.

Last updated on the April 24th 2024

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Searching for What, Exactly?