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After waking at an unusual hour and failing to get back to sleep in spite of trying, Lukah finally decided to make the best of his insomnia. Lukask would not wake for a few hours yet, he certainly would not appreciate being woken before dusk, so with nothing better to do Lukah dressed and headed into the weyr, looking for something to do with this abundance of spare time. Skybreaker glided above him in a wide zigzig pattern, to and fro and to and fro, well out of reach of the curious weyrbrats.

Maybe the lack of physical exercise was getting to him. Back when he traveled with the caravan he would walk for miles and miles each night so that when day broke he passed out the second he closed his eyes. He missed having the life sucked out of him through the soles of his feet. He missed the constant dull ache in his legs.

Most of all Lukah missed his friends, the traders and the wherhandlers of the caravan which departed Benden only yesterday. Ultimately, maybe that was the cause of his insomnia. Leaving his friends of the past few turns for a sedentary life at Benden turned out to be a more difficult decision than he counted on even with Zhac to keep him company, though he kept his mixed feelings largely to himself. The only person he really knew here was Zhac and he hadn't even seen him for five turns! Deep down he knew it was the best decision he could have made. He had been thinking of settling down for a long time, taking a vacation from the toils of travel, yet now he wondered if he could ever truly settle anywhere.

He tried to shake himself out of these black thoughts. Everything would feel better when he saw Zhac later in the evening. Until then he just needed to keep himself busy.

Clunk! Startled out of his thoughts, Lukah looked down just in time to see Sileny's mug roll away after he kicked it. The mug rolled for less than a foot before hitting a bump in the stony floor and coming to rest there, until Lukah picked it up. Just an ordinary mug from the kitchen. He didn't have to wonder long about its origin because the moment he looked up he saw a pair of female eyes staring back at him with quiet intensity. A light came on in Lukah's head. Ah, she was playing with him.

In a few years she would age out of canidacy, making her at least ten years younger. Although she was obviously his junior Lukah felt flattered.

Troubles forgotten for the moment, he walked up to her with the mug in his hand, putting on a coy smile. Women sometimes found it cute when he approached them with a shy look on his face. It coaxed them into trusting him early. Once he had that he could get her to do anything he wanted. Being in a weyr made it even easier. He knew how loose the weyrfolk were in their sexuality. "Excuse me, I think you might have dropped this."

"Absolutely not!" he chuckled. He had a smooth, casual way of talking. Words came to him like music to a harper and he played them just as freely. "Even if I was young enough flying's not for me. I prefer to keep my feet on the ground. My name’s Lukah, I traveled here with the caravan that arrived from Nerat a few days ago. Looks like I’ll be staying a while.”

A long while. He felt a little awkward standing there with a mug in his hand while she gazed at him. He moved it to his other hand to relieve some tension. There was something odd about Sileny. He was not one to make snap judgments about people but his first impression of her was that she was the kind of person who is always sure of herself. He felt like she wanted to pin him down. She would find him full of surprises.

“How long have you been a candidate?” he asked. Even though he started off pretending to be shy now that he had his foot in the door it was clear he hadn’t committed to the act at all.

Well he could tell one small lie. Lying wasn’t normally his thing but when it came to women and age he figured most of them would lie about their age too, if they were as old as him. Besides the only person around here who knew his real age was Zhac. Lukah could trust him to keep quiet. “Uhm… six, seven? Is it twenty or twenty-one that candidates age out? I’ve been on the road for a while so I’ve forgotten some things. I’m twenty-seven.”

He smiled, genuinely befuddled. He truly had forgotten a lot about candidate life, a subject which he knew little about to begin with.

If he explained that walking all over Pern with the caravans added a few turns he might have passed for as young as twenty-five. Lukah actually felt a little proud of his age. When he looked back on the person he was at twenty-five he could hardly believe how naive he had been and even though he occasionally missed his former innocence he couldn’t see himself behaving like a kid anymore. That didn’t mean he took life completely seriously. In fact he probably never would.

“Oh, I’m sure it’s nice. Flying’s just not for me,” he said, worried he’d put her off. He decided to change the subject. “So you must come from a hold then. Are you from Benden? What were you doing before you were Searched?”

Sileny's age was a non-issue. Whether she was nineteen or twenty-one she could clearly make decisions for herself. He shrugged. "I had a lot of reasons. The short story is I was tired of working in the mines, wanted some adventure and the timing seemed right, so I joined the caravan as a wherhandler. I liked it so much I decided to stay on. A better question might be what convinced me to settle down."

"Chirp!" interrupted a sapphire blue firelizard with swirling green eyes looking down on them from a ledge above the two and to the right of Sileny. Lukah smiled fondly and pointed to him. "That's Skybreaker, my messenger flit. Seems he's been spying on us."

He held out his arm as a perch and whistled to coax Skybreaker down. Skybreaker fretted and hesitantly opened his wings. Lukah sent the blue happy thoughts and whistled sweetly. This seemed to convince him, for he swooped down onto Lukah's arm and scurried over to his shoulder, curling his lustrous tail around Lukah's neck. Lukah opened the pouch on his waist and fed Skybreaker a small piece of dried meat. After that the flit seemed to calm down. "He's a little shy around new people."

Lukah scratched Skybreaker's chin and turned to Sileny, meeting her with an enticing smile. "You know, with all the traveling I do, it's been a long time since a lovely young lady took such interest in me. I'm flattered."

"None as lovely as you," Lukah cooed. His smile seemed to say 'I know it's a corny line, but if the sound of your laughter is as lovely as your eyes I don't mind being a fool.'

He continued, "I bought Skybreaker from a farmer in Fort Hold who breeds them. He had a whole flock living on his property, quite a sight, and names for all of them. My wher, Lukask, was born at Benden's mine. We worked there for a couple turns but he never really had the temperament for mines. Joining a caravan was the best thing for both of us."