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It'd been more than sixth months since Roni had found herself standing alone on the stand long after the last egg had hatched. Alone on the sands and surprisingly relieved to be so. She wasn't ready. She wasn't sure she'd ever be ready. Dragons were, well they were dragons. And she was Roni. For all the time she'd spent at the Weyr, that hadn't changed. They were still big. She was still small. And she was still sure, somewhere in the back of the mind, that something as big as a dragon would inevitably, if not maliciously, hurt something as small as her.

Sometimes she thought about going home. Often. Every day in fact. But her brother said she had to stay, at least until he'd finished his work at the Weyr. And Fell didn't want her to leave. And she was, well, her. She was hardly going to go against one of them, let alone the both of them. Which meant staying. Lurking really. Doing her chores and ducking away from people whenever possible. Staying near her brother, when she was allowed. It was easy, then, to pretend to be home again.

Of course, if she'd managed to keep mostly to herself, recreating the isolation of her home life, the same was not to be said of her brother. Who seemed to be, against all expectation, blooming in the Weyr. Roni was outside now because he had a girl in the workshop, and had sent his tagalong little sister away. 'Go outside,' he'd said, 'Get some sunshine.'

So Roni was outside, looking very small and very unhappy as she stared up at the cloudy sky. She wasn't anywhere in particular, just crossing through the bowl, trying to give humans and dragons alike a wide berth. Above her, her green firelizard Stain flew in tight circles, churring hopefully and generally trying to distract her owner into a better mood.

Eep!

That was a noise. Not a 'cheer up' noise from a circling firelizard. No, this was a different noise. A bigger noise. A dragon noise. Having lived at the Weyr for the past six months, Ronasha was starting to recognize such noises, despite her best efforts to avoid anything larger than say, a particularly undersized toddler. Roni jumped, making a noise herself that was as far from a dragon's curious croon as possible. Instead, it was a sharp, helpless little yelp, as she whirled to face the source of the noise.

Immediately, she fell into a bow, a jerky, but respectful motion, not unlike the gesture she'd used when greeting the Queen before entering the hatching sands. "I. I'm sorry," she said. Her voice was a soft, whispering thing. It carried, but not very impressively. "I didn't mean to. To bother you. I'll go somewhere. Somewhere else. Sorry."

Stain, for her part, was not quite so formal or frightened as her owner. She gave a greeting chirp, before landing on Roni's shoulder. She knew approaching a dragon without permission would get her into trouble. So she didn't. At least, not while Roni was watching.

Roni obediently froze in place, her eyes still wide, her muscles tensed against the urge of flight. She could do this. Really. She could. She wasn't supposed to be scared of everything anymore. Fell had told her. Her brother had told her, though in different words. If she was going to live in the Weyr, she had to act like someone who lived in the Weyr. Which meant not constantly wanting to hide under rocks.

She really wished she could hide under a rock. Maybe a really big one.

And she was probably supposed to be talking, wasn't she?

"Sorry. Ma'am. And, umm, ma'am," she shuffled forward a few steps, doing her best to play the part of the good Weyr resident. "She's umm, that is," she lifted her gaze to the dragon, though she didn't dare look the green directly in the face, "You're really pretty. Thank you. For. Well. Seeing me?"

Stain chirped back at the dragon, her greeting doubling in enthusiasm when the blue arrived. But, for the time being, she stayed put, looking as if she'd rather like to leave her perch, wings opening and closing, but not quite willing to make that leap.

"I don't know. About that. I'm not, very, very seeable, mostly." Wait. Had she just talked back to a dragon? Roni's eyes grew wide and her hands flew up to cover her mouth.

This was enough like 'permission' to send Stain from her shoulder, the green landing a few short feet from the dragon, and chirping quietly. She didn't quite want to draw Roni's attention to her after all, in case that sudden movement had not been an invitation to fly off and be friendly.

"Sor--" No. She'd been told not to apologize. Unfortunately, she wasn't very good at saying anything else. A swallow. "I just meant. That is. It's just that there are other people. Important ones. For a dragon to notice. I'm just me."

Oh, the rider had introduced them hadn't she. "Ronasha. That is. Roni. It's a pleasure to meet you. Ma'ams."

"Only--" Roni swallowed. She was about to contradict the dragonrider, which was about the least intelligent thing she could think to do. But, this was, well, important. In that she wasn't. Important, that is. She wasn't important at all. "Only, maybe. Maybe dragonriders. Maybe important. Maybe doesn't count. I think. Babies are maybe. Maybe candidates. Maybe dragonriders. Maybe important."

Wow. Listen to her. Chattering up a storm. Maybe she was getting used to this whole 'weyr life' thing. But probably not. Probably she was just feeling a little irritated at her brother, and that irritation was giving her an unexpected boost in confidence. It wasn't often, after all, that Roni dared be anything so controversial as irritated. It was rather exhilarating.

Stain was only too happy to have company. Loyalty meant that she spent a lot of time on Roni's shoulder, even when she'd rather be exploring. Her eyes whirled a cheerful green, and she crooned in happy response.