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Writers: Devin, Eimi
Date Posted: 30th June 2008

Characters: L'rew, Cosani
Description: L'rew gets help scrubbing his dragon from Cosani, and both are full of questions
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 10, day 13 of Turn 4

Cosani

She stopped at the edge of the Weyrlake and set her hands on her hips.
"So, they said I'm supposed to help you wash your dragon."

L'rew looked the girl up and down. Was he supposed to know this person?
"Who said that?"

"The Assistant Headwoman."

He certainly hadn't asked for help from the Headwoman. L'rew was more than capable of taking care of his own. But he remembered he had been assigned to help random dragonriders sometimes before. "So what, are you a candidate then?"

"Yeah," she answered.

He looked at her closely and decided with certainty that he had never seen her before, which could only be a good thing. At least she wasn't part of that last bunch. "You're new here?"

"Uh-huh. I'm from ... a minor hold," she said. "Were you born at the Weyr, or were you Searched?"

"I was Searched from a minor holding." It sounded so much better than 'cothold'. Well, maybe she wouldn't be as bad as some of those Hold and Weyrbred snobs. "Have you ever washed a dragon before?"

"I washed a green. Your dragon is ... a little bigger." She looked up at the brown. How did riders wash such huge animals all the time? How did someone wash a full grown _gold_?

"Well, washing a brown is like washing a green. It just takes a longer is all." He cocked his head and blew the hair out of his eyes as he waited for her to either come into the water or change her mind.

"I figured that." She waded into the lake, the water warm against her skin. It felt indecent ... no _free_ ... to be wearing shorts. Grandda hardly ever let her wear anything but a dress or skirt. **Well, he'll never tell _me_ what to wear again. Or what to do!**

The weyrling held a brush out for her to take. "So do you have a name?"

"Cosani." She took the brush. "And you?"

"L'rew. And this is Chairoth." He waded a little further into the water and nodded towards the brown's neck. "You start there. I'll start back towards his wing."

"Alright." She moved toward the dragon's head. Was she supposed to start with the muzzle? How could she get the dragon to bend down so she could reach? Well ... the dragon couldn't talk to her, but that didn't mean she couldn't talk to him. Cosani looked up into the large eyes of the young brown. "Could you bend down, so I can reach?"

The brown obliged her by dipping his head until his chin rested on the top of the water. His rider watched her out of the corner of his eye as he began scrubbing at the dragon's hide. She was from a small hold just like him. Did she find Weyr life as foreign as he did? Or was she finding it a smooth transition? Did the kids tease her? Did they act snobbish towards her? Had it just been him? He wanted to ask, but part of him was afraid she'd turn out to be just like them.

Cosani scrubbed the brown hide. She couldn't wait to get a dragon of her own. But ... what if she wasn't good enough? What if she was really nothing more than a bastard girl, only fit to be a drudge? She shook her head. No! She was going to show them. She was going to show them _all_ ! She was going to Impress and become a dragonrider.
Whatever else Grandda said about them they _were_ brave, and she could be just as brave as any of them.

He used the excuse of dipping his brush into the water to work up more lather to look at her again. What kind of hold had she come from? Was it in the back of /between/ like his had been? Or had she been from one of those rich minor holdings? She didn't seem like a spoiled kid like some of the holder girls were. They thought they were better than everyone, especially someone who still smelled of ovines and whose skin was tanned from turns in the sun. Those girls hated getting dirty. She didn't seem to mind putting in a bit of work. That was a hopeful sign.
"You need some more sweetsand?" he asked, holding out the bag.

"Not yet." She glanced over at him before going back to scrubbing. He was older, but looked close to her age. And he was from a small hold, too. Maybe she could ask him what weyr life was really like. She'd seen some of the things she'd heard about; things that made her blush, and things that made her feel ill. But it didn't seem quite as bad as people said it was. This boy -- young man -- would have a good perspective. Or maybe he wouldn't want to waste his time explaining things to her.

She didn't seem to talk much. That was a relief, he thought. There was nothing worse than making awkward conversation. And yet he really did want to talk to her. Shards, when was the last time L'rew had actually _talked_ to someone? No one here really understood. Maybe this girl wouldn't either, but she came from a minor hold. She was new. She hadn't seemed to have been spoiled by the Weyr and the other candidates.
Sometimes it just got so sharding lonely... L'rew set his jaw and began scrubbing harder, as if he could banish that thought with the force of his strokes. Admiting that he wasn't perfectly happy in this place felt like admiting failure, and that was something he just couldn't stomach. Was she happy here? If she was, he wanted to know her secret. And if she wasn't... he just wanted someone who could understand.

L'rew cleared his throat. "You know, you can scrub harder. You won't hurt him."

"Ok." She leaned into the brush. Maybe she should ask him what it was like to Impress. Or how he'd Impressed. Candidate classes had been very vague about that: 'the dragons know' and other such useless phrases. There had to be some reasonable way she could increase her chances.

"So... I heard there was a gold Flight," he prompted, hoping she would just start talking and that all the answers to all the questions he had would just come spilling out. He could hope at least.

"Yes. They told us there'll be eggs on the sands soon." She hesitated a moment before asking, "How many times did you Stand before you Impressed?"

"Just once. I was lucky, I guess." He began scrubbing at the hide a little closer to where she was, hoping that his proximity might encourage her to keep the conversation going.

"Oh. Does that happen a lot? Impressing the first time?"

He shrugged a shoulder. "I guess. It happened to me. It doesn't happen to everyone." He had been rather pleased to see some of the snobbier candidates had failed to Impress while he had succeeded. Some who had been standing for turns even.

She grabbed another handful of sweetsand. "Is there anything special you did? Anything that made the dragon -- that made him want you?"

"No. I kept asking if I could do anything but everyone just said that the dragons would know. And Chairoth did. He just knew I was meant for him." He smiled a little when he thought of that moment when that tiny brown had found him, looking up at him and telling him that he was the one. L'rew would never forget that moment. For the first time in a long time, he felt as though the world made sense.

Cosani frowned. _Everyone_ said that, and it didn't help at all. "So it's all just chance?"

"I suppose so. Maybe I was just lucky he chose me."

}:You were not lucky,:{ his dragon snorted. }:You were always meant to be mine.:{ L'rew thought about that a moment. "Chairoth seems to think it's just a matter of destiny. If its your destiny to Impress this Hatching, you will."

She sighed. Luck, chance, destiny. Nobody could give a straight answer. "Then what's the use of Candidate classes? Aside from telling you the basics of weyrlife, it's all a bunch of -- of -- _crackdust_!"
she said, daring to use a curse word.

The brownrider smiled a little. "Yeah. Pretty much. Seems pretty pointless, doesn't it."

"What are you smiling for? You've already _got_ your dragon." She turned back to the brown hide in front of her.

The smile quickly disappeared from his face. "Yeah, well that doesn't mean that I don't remember what a shardning waste of time those stupid classes were." And half of weyrling classes too, for that matter. "I had to sit through them too you know."

"Whatever," she muttered. What was she going to do if she failed?

"It's not like _I_ made the sharding system," he grumbled, wading furthing back into the water to put some distance between them. She was proving to be rather disagreeable and he would rather not admit just how disappointed he was to find that she was turning out to be just another self-absorbed candidate.

"I just wish ... I wish there was _something_ I could do to improve my chances."

"Yeah, well, there isn't," he replied, concentrating on scrubbing brown hide. "If there were, don't you think people like Birigundi would have Impressed by now?"

"I suppose." So her life was left completely up to chance. The thought made her stomach twist.

Last updated on the July 3rd 2008

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