Take Your Chances on the Sands

Writers: Shawna, Halyonix
Date Posted: 1st April 2026

Characters: H'stre, N'kevyn
Description: N'kevyn and H'stre gossip about the candidates and the upcoming hatching
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 13, day 17 of Turn 12
Notes: Mentioned: Aydhan, Q'vettan, Aydhara, N'kadja, T'thalin, D'ltero

N'kevyn

N'kevyn had been relieved of his Sands-watching duties and was enjoying the opportunity for a properly hot meal this evening- even if the wet warm weather made that less appealing than it could have been. "Mind if I join you?" He didn't actually wait for a response before thudding into a seat a few spaces down from H'stre.

"By all means," H'stre answered with a humored twinkle in her eyes. "Finally tasting freedom?"

"Briefly," N'kevyn said. "I have at least an hour before either my wife wants something fetched or my daughter senses I'm not busy and wants to go sit on the Sands. It's funny how I'm somehow less boring to hang out with when it gets her in proximity to dragon eggs," N'kevyn joked, after taking a quick scan to make sure Aydhara wasn't in the room, waiting to pounce.

"Eager to Impress, is she?" H'stre asked. His grin was big, the kind that was reminiscent of how they had all been eager to Impress when they were bright-eyed young Candidates. "She's...how old? Eighteen, nineteen?"

"Eighteen," N'kevyn sighed, "I don't remember ever being that intense about anything. I'm sure I was never that young," he joked. "She doesn't know that the waiting is the easy part of her life."

"Now, I don't have any kids to speak from experience, but from what I hear and see, they are always so eager to grow up because it looks far more fun than being a kid," H'stre said. "And then, we all grow up and we want to go back to being a kid because of all of the responsibility!"

"Oh, you're missing out, kids are a lot of fun. First there's all the worrying they're going to choke on something, then all the worrying they're going to wander off a ledge, then the worrying they won't Impress and the worrying they will. And after all that, they roll their eyes dramatically at you and call you ridiculous," nonetheless, N'kevyn sounded fond.

H'stre laughed appreciatively. "Maybe one day. I'm sure there's a weyrbrat or two back at Igen that bears my blood but I've never been properly informed. So many one day I'll get to experience all of that worry firsthand." He was chuckling still as he said it. "Remind me, how long have you and your lady been together? Her gold fancies Avicath often?" If it appeared as though H'stre was looking for an opportunity, it was offset by the jovial grin tugging at his mouth.

"Oh, we've been together more than twenty Turns now. I've been smitten since I was fifteen- probably earlier, honestly, but it took a few Turns and a bronze dragon before I could convince her," he was smiling fondly, and absent-mindedly rubbing his thumb against the worn gold wedding ring he wore. "Tym falls for Avi's charm more often than Aydhan likes to admit," N'kevyn said smugly, "hopefully not next time, a little variety would be good for the Weyr, but often enough."

The Weyrsecond had taken a bit of his food and was nodding his head along as N'kevyn spoke. "Can't argue with abundance though. Forty eggs, wow! Our Weyrlingmasters are going to have their hands full with this class. Glad that's not my job this round. I'd be a terrible influence on the youngsters. I'll be happily stuck doing whatever paperwork Q'vettan wants to give me."

"Well, Tym and Avi both like to make an impression. At least the older class is fairly small to balance it out," there was a little smugness in N'kevyn's tone. At the comment about paperwork, N'kevyn snorted, "Ah yes. Our Weyrleader has always been a fan of proper paperwork."

H'stre laughed loudly. "You have no idea," he said. "When he was at Igen, his favorite thing to do was to take these letters -- like, the news ones that get circulated around by harpers -- and then go through the wording of it, practically _dissecting_ why a particular word was used here and not another word, and then we'd hear about it the next morning because he would express some extreme displeasure over the words used. 'They should have worded that better!' He considered that _fun_! Fun!" H'stre began chuckling uncontrollably at the memory. "Trust me, the Printer Halls in the North did _not_ find it nearly as fun."

Blandly, N'kevyn said, "Nothing in my experiences with Q'vettan has led me to believe he knows the meaning of the word 'fun', so that does not surprise me in the slightest. I'm surprised you followed the man. You must have felt the job was worth it."

The Weyrsecond shrugged one shoulder nonchalantly. "Sometimes you need a bit of novelty, change of pace. Sometimes the promise of that outweighs the person offering it." H'stre wasn't one to stay idle. If he did, it tended to be a bad thing. He made very bad decisions. Maybe that's also why he had followed Q'vettan -- because he knew that the other bronzerider would give him enough of a challenge, enough of a change, to keep that idleness away. "So, any marks you want to wager on the Candidates? Who do you think has the best chance?"

"Oh, I put my marks on Aydhara, of course. A little blue for my darling youngest child for certain. She spends so much time lurking on the Sands it's got to have an effect," N'kevyn said confidently.

H'stre laughed. "I'll take that bias. Oh, if only that were confirmed! We'd have the Candidates hanging around the eggs every day. If the queen allowed it. My mark is on that quiet one who hangs out with Daltero. Kheheral, I think? He's got a steady head. I bet he gets a bronze." Privately, H'stre was glad to see N'kevyn embracing the possibility of his girl on a blue. There were still some hidebound riders who were quick to complain about the dragons' decisions, as though they could change it now that it had happened.

"Avicath liked the holdless boy, the confident one. He had a proper level of appreciation for the round egg he's decided is 'junior'." N'kevyn chuckled, "Last time it was just a big blue. Tym and Avi like an audience, so they don't mind the candidates being underfoot. Hopefully it doesn't set an uncomfortable precedence for Imbeth."

"No upsetting the senior queen. Or any of them, let's be clear," H'stre answered with a chuckle. "That Holdless boy, which one? I think we have a few of them that came over from Dragonsfall, didn't we?"

"Oh, I've been mildly upsetting Tymborikath since the day she hatched," N'kevyn joked. "She expects it by now." Frowning, he said, "Do we? I only know the one," he paused for a moment, trying to remember the name, "Akadja. He cornered me one day at Dragonsfall with questions about Impressing bronze. I like a bold candidate."

"There's another. The harper one. Tathalin, I think? Quiet kid, eager. I don't think he wanted to be Holdless but who honestly does?"

"Well, hopefully he has some good luck on the Sands, if he's looking for a different life," N'kevyn said cheerily. "It's interesting that two of them transferred over- I wonder if Dragonsfall was trying to get rid of some after what happened with them Impressing half a clutch."

H'stre chuckled. "I bet the Weyrlingmasters over there are having clutches of kittens with that trouble. I don't envy them a bit and I will not be offering to take any extra off their hands. That was their decision to make." If the words seemed judgmental, the tone H'stre used was not. He rapped his knuckles on the table as he rose. "Speaking of decisions, I've got a few that need making before drills tomorrow. Good to see you, N'kevyn. Let's play cards again some night soon?"

"I'll set something up just as soon as I'm freed from the egg-watching sentence," N'kevyn promised. "Have a good day."

Last updated on the May 1st 2026

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