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Roni had been sacking firestone. She'd been doing so diligently, but with excessive care, which made her slower than the other candidates. She kept glancing around to see if she was doing it the same as the others. She didn't want to get it wrong and cause some dragon to choke. That'd be just like her. She was quite involved in that process when Fell arrived. It was clear that she was happy to see him, her smile took up half her face. But before she could react, he'd already grabbed her.

Meep! Meep, meep, meep! Roni kicked, yelped, realized she might hurt Fell, stopped kicking, yelped, and began to giggle. "Don't drop me! I. Don't." Giggle! "Drop me." The nerves were there, but she trusted Fell. Fell wouldn't hurt her. And he'd come to find her. Because he was nice and he liked her and that was great. "I was doing firestone." Meep! "I'm supposed to do firestone!"

If Roni noticed that Fell put her down rather abruptly, she was tactful enough not to say anything. And, as Roni was far from the Senior Queen Rider of Tact Weyr, one could assume she probably hadn't noticed. She settled with one more tiny squeak startled into stumbling a bit before settling back into place. Glancing back toward the firestone sacks, she looked as if she might protest again.

But then Fell said the word 'Flit' and all her objections suddenly felt weak and silly. Surely it was important to go flit hunting. Because the little eggs needed looking after. Everyone said the wild flits, the greens especially, were bad at it. So if they found them, they'd be doing a good thing, right?

"But--" she attempted, nonetheless. Another anxious glance at the chore she'd left behind. She nibbled at her lip and gave a little huffing sigh which did little to disguise her growing excitement. "I guess. A lot of people had firestone. No one's doing flits. Looking for them. So. Someone should? Us?"

And then, just as quickly as she'd given in, anxiety struck and Roni, who'd been doing a surprisingly good job of looking Fell in the face without her usual shy posture, began staring back at her feet. "But. I haven't done it. Hunted them. I might do it wrong. Mess up. You might do better, without me. With someone else. Who knows how."

Roni allowed herself to be pulled, scampering beside Fell with anxious little double steps. There was some eagerness there too, buried beneath the worry. Having a firelizard was like having a tiny, not terrifying dragon. That was an idea she could certainly warm to. Beyond that, she liked being with Fell better than sacking firestone. It wasn't the chore she hated, but the other candidates, clustered and talking and being strangers. She was pretty sure they hated her already.

But Fell didn't. He'd said so!

And now. Now she had to climb to the ledges. And she wanted very much to do so, because then Fell would be happy and approve of her and smile and that would be good. And there would be eggs, which they would share, and she'd tell her brother, and he'd tell Dad. And--

Wait. Ledge.

Right. She could do this. Without even bothering to make a suggestion to Fell, Roni pulled away from him, and rushed to the wall beneath the nearest ledge. She immediately proceeded to attempt to scamper upward, making it all of a foot above the ground before losing her grip on the sheerer rocks above and falling on her butt.

From her new prone position, she stared up at Fell, her lower lip protruding dangerously. "I don't-- I don't-- I can't. They're too steep. I'm sorry."

The tears threatening in Roni's eyes retreated under Fell's reassurances, and she even managed a small, hopeful smile when he ruffled her hair. She was still a little sore, both in pride and in body, but mostly she was just relieved that Fell hadn't laughed at her. Or worse still gotten angry. Climbing was apparently harder than she'd thought. Lots of things were. She was learning that.

At the suggestion that she climb up on Fell's shoulders, she looked more than a little dubious. Sure he'd promised not to drop her, but. But. But. "Umm." She eyed him, not even sure how to proceed. She'd never ridden on someone's shoulders before! It seemed like a dangerous way to get around. "Well. Yes. I guess. That'd be better? If I could see. The low ledges, at least. Right?"

And, as with the wall, having decided, she rushed to comply. Sometimes it was dangerous to spend too much time thinking about things. She managed to get settled on Fell's shoulders with only a minimum of kicking and possible injury, but she seemed unsure of how to hold on, grabbing nervously at his hair, realizing that was a bad idea, and knotting her fingers together instead. She just knew she was going to fall!

Roni did her best to hold still, falling into a frozen sort of motionlessness at odds with her usual frantic and confused energy. She didn't want to fall, and this new position felt a lot less stable then the earlier, over the shoulder arrangement. Still, other than a few nervous little squeaks, she managed not to object, and she kept her hands away from poor Fell's hair.

Leaning carefully, carefully over the lip of the ledge, she peered around at the abundance of rock and rock like objects. Her reach wasn't great but she had a pretty good view of things and though she didn't want to she managed to lean a bit to peek around some of the larger outcroppings.

And there, just there, something bright caught her eye. An incongruous flash of purple among the gray and brown. "Egg!" She clapped her hands in glee as she spotted it, forgetting her fear and wiggling excitedly in her precarious seat. Poor Fell was probably learning exactly how angular and bony little Roni was. There wasn't much cushion to her. That much was clear.

"There's one! An egg. I see it! I see one!" Leaning forward in a frantic attempt to grab it she immediately realized how far beyond her fingertips it was. "I can't. It's too far. I can see it but it's too far! Fell, what do I do?"

Now, no one could say that Roni didn't adore Fell. Indeed, it would be a cruel person that implied she wasn't trying very hard to impress him. But even Roni, with all her anxiety and desire to please, was not going to stand up on Fell's shoulders and jump. She would die. Plain and simple. She knew it to be true.

Luckily, though she was only just able to peak over the ledge and had extremely limit reach, she could peak, and she did have reach. She managed to get her hand around a (hopefully) well anchored rock, and pulling with all her might squirm her way up onto the ledge, pushing back against poor Fell for leverage. It was not easy, and she certainly wasn't quick about it, though she was at least supporting much of her own weight.

When she finally made it all the way up onto the ledge, she collapsed there, laying on her back and gasping while she attempted to regain her strength. Fell might just have the time to recover before she noticed, as it took her awhile to regain her feet.

"I. I see it. It's purple. I'm going to get it. For you." She very much wanted a firelizard of her own but Fell was the priority here, no question. "I... Oh! There's two! There's two, Fell! I'll get them. That's okay? They won't break will they?"

Standing on the ledge made her nervous, walking more so. It seemed best not to think about getting back down. Roni was pretty sure that she'd die in the attempt. It wasn't that she didn't trust Fell to catch her. She just trusted herself to mess up even more. This had been a bad idea, and she was perfectly willing to regret it now that it was to late to turn back.

On the other hand, firelizard eggs! Two of them. One a greenish blue and the other a brighter purple, so bright she'd been able to spot it from atop Fell's shoulders. Taking little shuffling steps, she made her way over to the two eggs, peaking around for more without success. Still, two was a lot more than she'd expected to find. Certainly more than she'd expected to fine while sacking firestone. Fell sure had a way of making days more interesting. She'd even gotten to see the hatching sands with him! Now if she could only avoid dying, today would be a good day.

"I'm getting them." She called down, as she carefully, oh so slowly, gently, nervously, nail bitingly picked up the two eggs, cradling their shells in her tiny hands and holding them against her chest. Kneeling down at the edge of the ledge, she peeked down at Fell. "Here. I brought them. I was careful. So careful. They're warm. Pretty."

With some fear born reluctance, she extended her arm over the side, so that Fell could take the eggs from her. "We did it!"