August 16, 2004
A visit to Fort Hold results in another candidate for Siramyth and Arisvath's clutch - Avery.

Previous Next

** Arisvath is visible in the sky a long time before he actually lands, if one happened to look. He circles downwards slowly, finally backswinging into a relatively graceful landing upon the rough ground of the courtyard. R'hyn unbuckles himself, leaning forward to rub one of Arisvath's neckridges with his free hand, before shifting to dismount.

** Avery is standing with a knot of students, most of them youngish and arguing back and forth about some obscure topic of legality of contracts in hold and weyr. For his part, Avery keeps the debate going with careful goading of the participants, smiling as they reach higher levels of passion in their arguments. When the bronze comes in, the conversation lulls slightly, and the students look between eachother uncertainly. They've heard of the eggs on the sands.

Arisvath crouches low, allowing you to swing your leg over his neckridges, and climb nimbly towards the ground, with the help of his straps.

R'hyn, once safely upon the ground, gives Arisvath another soft rub on the forelimb, and takes a few steps forward towards the great hold doors. The knot of students attracts his attention, the rider turning his head to listen to them with a brief smile - though he doesn't specifically throw in an opinion. Instead, bobbing his head in a quick gesture, he says, "Weyr's duties to your Hold. Is Lord Tiare about, this morning?"

The students look mutely at eachother, leaving Avery to offer, "He's not out calling on some other Hold, there's a few too many sycophants round about; I suppose he's inside somewhere." The trader offers a slight, cocky smirk to the weyrleader.

R'hyn nods his head in a slow gesture of thanks, glancing back at the door. "I don't suppose someone could show me to where he is more likely to be found? I have only a passing familiarity with your Hold." He runs his fingers through his hair, little though there is of it, adding, "If it's not too much trouble."

"Well, it's not -our- Hold," Avery corrects, striding forward with an easy smile. "Nerissa there's from Crom, and Alix is from High Reaches, and Ghinny is from... I dunno, someplace out east." Coming up beside R'hyn, he explains, "We're just students. But. I'm not above giving directions."

The light grows wan as the spring day gives way to evening. There's an uncommon feel of humidity in the air - clammy and chilly, leaving wisps of fog lingering here and there. The spring air is cool, still brisk but no longer icy. (55F, 13C)

R'hyn turns slightly pink, as enlightenment comes, and again, he bobs his head forward. "Oh, of course. I apologise! But-- if it's not too much of a bother? I wouldn't want to take you away from your studies."

"Hah, I spend all day trying to find something to take me away from my studies, you'll do just fine," Avery tells the man, and leads the way up the steps and through the mammoth doors. "What brings you to our temporary home, weyrleader?"

R'hyn looks amused, as he hastily follows Avery into the Hold. "I'm quite pleased to be good for something," he remarks, easily. "Ah - search quotas. The Hold is generous in allowing us to search, and has a good reputation for providing successful candidates. I was hoping to convince him to let us take a few more, if we stumbled upon them."

Avery leads the way deeper inside. "Ah, pulling people away from hearth and home, wreaking economic havoc on the industry of Fort Hold," he agrees. "We've been known to skip over Holds when there's a Search going on nearby, you know, since we know they won't be ready to buy."

Avery heads up the short steps into the Main Hall.

You head up the short flight of steps and through the heavy, bronze doors to the Main Hall.

"That's not a very cheerful way to put it!" says R'hyn, though not without a smile of his own, his hands digging into the pockets of his jacket. "You're a trader, then," he surmises, adding, "Weyrs need new blood, too - and most are happy to come."

"Well of course they are, you're pulling them away from hearth and home, letting them escape their chores, their promised husbands, and their taxes and duties," Avery responds with a smile. "Who wouldn't leap at that?"

"And potentially throwing them into a life where they have to risk death and injury every couple of days, a kind of freedom and a hopeless cage all at the same time?" R'hyn shakes his head, admitting, "I won't deny that I wouldn't change accepting search for the world, but I'm not sure people really understand what they're getting into."

"People never understand what they're getting into, that's why we have loans, mortgages, and contracts," Avery tells the man cheerily. He pokes his head through a wide pair of doors, finds nothing, and moves on. "Besides, it's a numbers game. You get what, nearly one hundred candidates, and perhaps twenty of them impress?" He waves a finger at R'hyn. "Not to mention, candidates from outside don't impress as often as those from within. So yeah, there's some risk involved, but it's not -that- much risk for getting out of the day-to-day for a couple months."

R'hyn keeps up with - or really, just behind - Avery at an easy trot, laughing at the young man's words. "Usually it's more like a little over double the candidates to eggs. So, this time, we're looking at just over sixty candidates, depending on how many we find. You think people agree primarily to get out of their current lives?" He shakes his head. "How... limited."

Avery leads the way around the corner. "As a rule, people are cheap, petty, and unable to see beyond the four walls of their rooms," he shrugs. "I mean, there are harper songs and such about heroic sacrifice and everything, but... I mean, that's more so late at night some kitchen hand can imagine her lover is larger-than-life rather than the guy who shovels manure in the stables."

"You're very jaded, aren't you?" R'hyn takes his right hand out of his pocket to scratch at the stubble on his chin, head shaking. "I won't say there's not a grain of truth, there, but-- What about you? If I offered you search, would you take it to get out of the studies you've already admitted you like getting out of, and for that reason alone?"

"No, I'd take it because when my caravan shows up next week I'd have a damned good reason to beg off going," Avery responds with a smile. "And I'm not jaded, I'm just a trader."

R'hyn laughs, at this, coming to a halt. "You want to avoid your studies, but you don't want to continue being a trader - what do you want?" Head tilting to the side, he adds, "That's a normal thing for traders, is it? I've not met many, I admit."

"Oh, no, I want to be a trader," Avery declares with confidence. "I just don't want to be the caravan's bookkeeper, which is why they sent me here to study, and why they're coming to get me." He gestures grandly. "I shall travel the world for the rest of my years, trapped inside a stuffy little wagon adding columns of numbers. You can see why I am leaping at the opportunity."

R'hyn groans cheerfully, nodding again. "I take your point. Well." He looks hesitant for a moment, then plows in, "Arisvath likes you. So. I guess that hypothetical offer can be a real one, if you like."

Avery is craning his head around a doorjamb to see if the Lord Holder might be on the other side. His shoulders tense slightly at R'hyn's offer, but he turns back and says, blithely, "I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you said."

"The offer," says R'hyn, lamely, turning a little pink. "Um. Search. If you want."

"By the time that clutch hatches, my family's going to be halfway to Benden," Avery points out with a helpless shake of his head.

R'hyn shrugs easily. "Up to you. I'm sure we could give you a lift there, post-hatching. If, of course, you hadn't Impressed."

Avery half smirks. "You don't do much negotiation, do you?" he asks. "See, here's the problem. You can't tell when a caravan will be where, and so it's doubtful you could get me directly to them without an -egregious- amount of effort." The trader pauses significant. "Therefore, I'd have to wait -here- until they came -back-, which is nearly a -year-. An entire year, sir, where I'd be unable to have myself be locked up in that aforementioned stuffy little wagon." Another pause. "It would be a tragedy. You understand?" The young man watches R'hyn with a little hope.

"Not my strong point," agrees R'hyn, cheerfully enough. "Though at least I don't use my fists." He tilts his head to the side again, listening. "Ah. Mm. Yes. A desperate tragedy. A turn is a long time - or very short, really, by some perspectives."

"I think a turn would be just enough time to puzzle out what to do with oneself," Avery says with a young man's confidence. "Unfortunately, it's a turn that I don't have. I've got a week before the caravan arrives, and then my options are reduced directly to one."

R'hyn nods, his hand drawn back into his pocket. "Then come to the Weyr, and give yourself that turn. I'd say it's your best chance."

"Well, when you put it like that," Avery smiles, and runs a hand through his hair. "Should I get my things?"

R'hyn laughs easily, nodding his head. "You do that, and I'll try and find Lord Tiare - or someone, just to let them know you're going, since you're not actually Fortian after all. Meet you in the courtyard?"

Dragon> Nhiameth senses that Arisvath sounds amused, and notes, quietly, << We're bringing another in. I didn't mean to find him, but he was there. >>

"I'll send a note to old Grigor," Avery says, bobbing his head. "Luckily the Hall will let you resume studies when you return from standing. Rather nice of them, don't you think?"

Dragon> Arisvath senses that Nhiameth is attentive <>

"Even better," says R'hyn, nodding quietly. "Yes - rather. Flexible of them, to say the least. All right, go pack."

Dragon> Nhiameth senses that Arisvath allows, cheerfully, << Go and sleep, if you wish. We'll settle him in ourselves. >>

"Well, 'pack' is a bit excessive," Avery laughs as he skips backwards, towards the courtyard.

Dragon> Arisvath senses that Nhiameth is happy to hear that and her tones reflect that << Ahh thank you, and B'myr says to thank your rider for sending T'an to help us. >>

R'hyn lifts an eyebrow, but says nothing, and walks a little more sedately towards the courtyard.

You head out the bronze doors and down the short steps into the courtyard.

Dragon> Nhiameth senses that Arisvath's thoughts, wordless, project a sincere wish that Nhiameth and her rider sleep well. He adds, << He's quite welcome, of course! >>

Avery comes up the road from Harper Hall with a bag slung over his shoulder and a satisfied jaunt to his step. The kid proceeds directly up to the weyrleader and dragon, and gives the two of them a smart nod.

R'hyn waits beside Arisvath, leaning up against the bronze with his jacket pulled tightly around him. He straightens, and smiles, while Arisvath crouches. "All ready? Ever ridden a dragon before? I'll go up first, and help you if you need it."

Avery climbs up behind R'hyn. "I've had occasion to, yeah," he allows. "A few of your guys have been very flexible when it comes to ferrying me back and forth."

"Ah," says R'hyn, hastily setting up the straps for a passenger, before buckling himself in. "Good to hear. It's not far, anyway."

"Well, on a dragon everything's about the same distance on the back of a dragon," Avery laughs. "One of these days we're going to lease a couple from you guys and revolutionize the shipping industry."

"True enough," says R'hyn, as Arisvath pushes off from the ground. "Ah, you wish. Maybe once the Interval begins, though..."

"Well, it's a simple matter of cost and benefit," Avery shouts over the wind. "If it turns out we can feed a dragon and a rider on what profit margin you can make over conventional shipping, there's no reason why we can't make it happen."

** Arisvath disappears into the frigid void of Between...

Between

Black...

Blacker...

Blackest...

The cold void of Between fills every sensation until there is nothing but infinite darkness.

** With a blast of cold air, Arisvath emerges from Between!

R'hyn opens his mouth to say something, but doesn't get the chance until they emerge from Between. He laughs. "I won't say it's impossible - though you'd need a rider willing to give up traditional weyr life. Most won't. Still, maybe, one day."

You drop down toward the bowl.

** Regallan comes out of the tunnel from the hot springs.

** Asarene heads into the Hatching grounds.

"All we need to do is give them a better offer," Avery laughs. "No doubt we'll start off with the blues and greens, much as we'd like to nab the browns and bronzes."

R'hyn shakes his head, as he unstraps, ready to dismount. "At the moment, we need all the riders we have. But. Yes."

Arisvath crouches low, allowing you to swing your leg over his neckridges, and climb nimbly towards the ground, with the help of his straps.

Avery swings over Arisvath's neckridges, climbing to the ground.

Avery hops down after R'hyn. "Well, theoretically speaking," he allows with a smirk. He shoulders his bag again, and looks left and right around the bowl. "So where do I go?"

R'hyn grins in amusement. "But you won't stop dreaming," he remarks, as he indicates the barracks with a tilt of his head. "Just... make yourself at home, really. You'll be on the chore rosters by tomorrow; today, you can just take some time to get used to the place. No questions or anything?"

"Well I know where the kitchens are, and I understand the unfortunate rules regarding the opposite sex," Avery tells R'hyn, dipping his head to the side in thought. "Is there anything else I need to know?"

R'hyn smirks - and blushes - at the same time, but nods. "No fighting, no drinking-- generally, just behave yourself. B'myr's in charge, T'an is helping out. Ask them, if you've a problem."

"No -drinking-?" Avery nearly shouts, and looks at R'hyn, mouth agape. "Well, this may not be as easy as I thought. B'myr and T'an -- what do these charming men look like?"

R'hyn flushes darker, now, and takes a few steps back. "Um. They're greenriders. You'll have to-- ask someone else what they look like; I've got to go. They'll show up, I promise."

Previous Next