Not Like Here

Writers: Iluva, Steel
Date Posted: 7th August 2026

Characters: Kuhaji, Koserlen
Description: Two Candidates have a talk
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 3, day 2 of Turn 13
Notes: Weather - 85° storm
Mentioned: Ç'pier, Iskara (not by name), Cosani (not by name), Saedyna (not by name), Gilbek, Jossenth,

Koserlen was melting. Nothing new there. It had been one long constant melt since his arrival last turn, the cold mountains left far behind. Coupled with the humidity of the storm outside, it was almost too much that day. He lay down on his cot after his chores were done and shut his eyes, melting into the support. What he would do for all things cool right now.

When Axel came toddling over and saw him there, he knew just what to do. He scarpered, disappearing beneath the rows of bunks and snarling. Koserlen was still there when he returned, thankfully. The bronze flit leapt up beside him, cocked his head to one side, then crawled over his stomach and chest to drop a very large and very dead spinner on his face.

Koserlen’s eyes flew open. “Ah! Axel--"

Kuhaji looked up from his own bunk, blinked at the outcry and then swore at the sight of the thing. He sat up.

“... At least it's dead.” He offered up, though after a moment longer, he nodded toward the basket for trash. “Put it in there.”

The spinner lay not too far from said waste basket.

It had been batted away with such force that one of its legs had dislodged and tumbled away into the dark under Kuhaji's bed.

Koserlen shook his head vigorously and sat up, too. Axel glared. The flit seemed to chitter both reproach and encouragement that Koserlen tried to meet by stroking his neck, his other hand brushing a few times along the lashes over the lingering splintering sensation of something coming right for his eye.

“Yeah, good thing, too.” He agreed with Kuhaji. “Axel.” For good measure he both pointed and sent the image of the basket to the firelizard. “Put it there.”

Axel snorted and didn't so much as flick a wing.

“Thank you. That was very thoughtful.” Koserlen got up and chucked the thing in the basket. They didn't have spinners that large in the mountains, and that might have been the only part aside from the wintertime and the quiet that he really missed. He sank back onto his cot, done with lying down for now. Still, his mouth tugged its way into a smile. “He brought me a tunnelsnake once,” he said to the other candidate, “but it wasn’t quite dead. I had to beat it with my shoe. Then clean the shoe.”

Kuhaji grimaced. “I've had to deal with tunnelsnakes.” He responded. “A good shovel works, when you've got one.” He shrugged one shoulder. “You just gotta be careful not to get bit.”

He watched both firelizard and owner for a long moment, then refocused on the _now_. “Where'd you get him? I've never seen so many firelizards in one place since I got here.”

“Oh, his egg came from a trader that came through our Hall a few turns back,” Koserlen answered easily. “I was a little surprised it actually hatched, to tell you the truth. There aren’t that many flits in Garnet Valley.” He pulled his firelizard out of his fit and up into his lap. Axel grumbled a little, squirming. “Not like here-- the beaches are teeming. People are always finding nests, so almost everyone has them.”

“Huh.” Kuhaji responded, and considered again. “You have that right. They're pretty much everywhere.” He tried to remember if he knew anyone else with one. No one came to mind, and he huffed. “Maybe I'll find one.”

Another pause.

“You're Koserlen, right?”

“I am,” Koserlen confirmed, studying the other candidate with a bit of curiosity now. “And what about you?”

“Kuhaji.” The other Candidate offered up, after another moment of eying him. He didn’t offer a hand to shake, though he stayed sitting upright now. No sense in letting his guard down around a stranger.

“... Some tunnelsnakes are venomous. I don't know about spinners though.”

“Neither do I. Though I'd rather not find out which ones if it means having them dropped on my head,” Koserlen said dryly, a wide smile for his firelizard first, then the other candidate. He sat back more comfortably on his cot, propping his pillow under an arm. “Well, Kuhaji, if you're looking for a firelizard, be extra careful about buying one. Get a good look at the egg first. A brownrider was selling rocks painted to look like eggs a while back and was fleecing people left and right.”

Kuhaji couldn't help but snort. “I'm not an idiot. I know how to identify _rocks_.” He responded. “... Besides. You said they're everywhere. If I want one, I'll just find it.”

“Yeah, but that's because most people ride dragons and can go up and down the coast.” Koserlen shrugged.

“If I Impress, so would I.” Kuhaji pointed out.

“True. It's just something I thought you should be aware of. But it's also possible that brownrider just found some naive holders and enjoyed taking advantage.”

Axel eventually decided to settle on his shoulder, bringing another layer of heat against his already damp neck. Untangling blond hair from the flit's talons and pushing it back, Koserlen momentarily debated whether to mention that that particular swindling brownrider had also stabbed another person not so long ago, but technically Ç'pier did work in the Wings and presumably hadn't stabbed any of them. He'd share that tidbit another time.

“In the meantime, if you want one sooner, _most_ riders are friendly,” he added. Really friendly, if you compared them to Hallfolk. “If you helped wash their dragon, they'd probably take you.”

Kuhaji scowled, for a moment. “I'm not allowed to punch anyone.” He responded. “Gilbek _said_.” Though if the situation truly warranted it… maybe he'd get excused.

He paused, then added, “There are _so_ many dragons here.” And people.

“Gilbek?” Koserlen blinked, intrigued. “Where are you from?”

Kuhaji's eyes narrowed. “... Why?” He wanted to know.

Koserlen's brows rose slightly, though his green-eyed gaze didn't waver. “Just curious,” he said. “You're new here, so I don't think it's a ridiculous question.”

Kuhaji lifted a hand and scrubbed it over his face before he responded. “... White Hollow, last.” He said finally. “You?”

“Ah.” A long pause followed, wherein Koserlen's brows crested like a wave and then fell back slowly into a calm, neutral expression. “Well, no wonder you accepted the Search, then.” He gave a half-shake of his head. He didn't know much about the people there, what they liked or were like, but news about what some had done told him he wasn't missing out. “I'm from the Minercrafthall,” he answered after another breath of silence, repeating, “Garnet Valley.”

“I think we were there once.” Kuhaji said, after a silence of his own, brows drawing together in a frown as he thought back. “At least… it might have been close. Garnet Valley has… gems.” And Seelana had wanted something pretty.

“With Gilbek?” Koserlen wondered if perhaps they shared a relation. “What sort of work brought you that far inland?”

“No.” Kuhaji responded, uncommunicatively, and regarded the closest wall, light-coloured eyes half lidded as he thought.

Finally, he relented, though his next words came slower, more reluctantly. “I was with Seelana. Gilbek was… later.”

Koserlen fiddled with the end of Axel's tail. Gently running his fingers along its sides, its tiny serrated-teeth ridges. From this angle the look on Kuhaji's face was a pensive veil. Suddenly he seemed to have slipped to a place he both missed and did not want to fall back into. If nothing else about what Kuhaji was saying, Koserlen understood that much. “Garnet Valley's alright as far as Holds go, I suppose,” he said with the same casual ease as before. “Although, the only place I’d ever lived before was the MinerHall, and I didn't realize how much I wanted out until I got here.”

“Pern is… big.” Kuhaji allowed, still quiet. “At least…. Dolphin Cove Protectorate is.” He shrugged one shoulder in a half hearted gesture. “They show us maps in class, but it's _different_, seeing it on a drawing than walking a road. Besides, half the time we--” He stopped abruptly, cutting himself off.

Koserlen told himself it was the storm that had red heat seeping across his face, not the sudden clip in Kuhaji’s voice. Like he almost gave away something he hadn’t meant to.

“.... Anyway.” Kuhaji diverted, after another pause. “There's… a lot out there. And you get used to it. Sort of.” One hand clenched slowly into a fist, and he looked down at it.

“Holdlife is… different, too. No dragons, for one.”

“Yeah. Not like here at all.” Koserlen gave another flash of a wide, toothy smile. “No eggs, either.”

He hadn’t entirely entertained the idea of his own Impression for a while. In a few months he’d be too old to Stand. One more hatching, maybe two if Jossenth flew in time. One more until he had to reckon with a life that might not include a dragon at all.

“It seems almost crazy when you first get here and see them and hear so many of them, almost like you've been transported into a big noisy ballad, but you get used to them, too.” Koserlen chuckled lightly. “It's still hard not to stare. Have you helped wash any yet?”

“There are _so_ many dragons.” Kuhaji agreed. “... I'd never really seen one up close. Not until Search.”

Another pause, a deliberate consideration, and then he added, “Dragons in the sky… before, it didn’t mean good things. And then they just… didn’t come to White Hollow.” He shrugged again, then shook his head as if dislodging the point. “... Anyway. There's a lot of dragons. And… no. I haven't. Not yet.”

Koserlen was quiet for a moment himself. “Them in the sky doesn't mean good things _now_,” he admitted more seriously. He slid from his cot with an over-heated sigh. He desperately needed water or he was going to die, and the morbid thoughts of his cousin percolating under the surface weren't exactly helping.

Squawking, Axel jumped to the floor with a little glide. One stubby leg lifted, listening, then he was scurrying under the bunk after something. Koserlen's mouth twisted. “But there'll be lots of practice up close, because they usually enlist us to help with baths. Plus, with the egg touching and the hatching… well, you just don't know.” There was still something both ridiculous and entirely delightful about that thought. “I'll be back.”

Last updated on the August 11th 2026

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