Welcome to Gaia! ::

The past two days had been amazing. Eiran and Laeonaith had spent their time in the sun, eating and sleeping and exploring and getting to know one another better. The baker's apprentice turned dragonrider was still mildly in shock over the magnitude of everything that had happened, most especially his own impression to Laeonaith. Beautiful, silly, perfect Laeonaith. The two of them would probably have been happy staying near the caves and lazing about for quite some time, but today was supposed to be a big day. It had been determined that the new hatchlings were strong enough now to survive the trip back to the weyr, and Eiran and Laeonaith had been informed that their ride would be there to pick them up at some point during the day, early enough that they would make it home in time for the delayed hatching feast.

The thought of returning to the weyr had Eiran feeling nervous. He was a bronzerider now, and while spending time with Laeonaith here at the caves was one thing, returning to the weyr and facing all those people would be daunting indeed. He swallowed, rubbing some oil on Laeonaith's neck. They had been grooming for the past couple of hours, though they had both been lazy about it, which was why it was taking so long. But they had reached the point where Laeonaith's hide gleamed almost as brightly as the sun.

The little dragon crowed. It had become clear over the past couple of days that Laeonaith had an affinity for bright, eye-catching things. Especially things that shone in the sun.

"Yes," Eiran agreed, wiping his hands on his trousers. "We are a pretty great pair." He grinned at His, enjoying the satisfied feeling that had eased it's way deep into his soul. He had never realized how lacking his life had been, until Laeonaith had come. "Look, that must be our ride." Eiran said, pointing to a flying figure in the distance. The dragon was in front of the sun, so there was no way to identify it, or even determine what color it was.

Eiran almost choked when he saw the dragon descend. It was a gold! How had he managed to rate a ride from a gold? Weren't they busy being important? One glace at Laeonaith, who was wriggling with pleasure at the sight, answered his question. His dragon was important, which made Eiran important by default. Calm, complacent Eiran who's only life goal had been to decorate lovely cakes. It was a disconcerting concept.

Laeonaith had no such reservations. As soon as the gold landed and called out to him, he was bouncing his way over to her, his rider following behind him. He called back to Suunath, recognizing that mind tone from when he had been in the shell. He had missed it after he had been stolen. He crowed triumphantly to Suunath as he came up to her. The words tumbled out one on top of the other, making it a little difficult to understand the excited youngster. He preened under Suunath's praise, turning in circles so she could admire him and then, briefly, becoming distracted by his own tail.

"Hello" Eiran said to Kindra, unsure of how he was supposed to address her or what proper protocol dictated. "I'm, um, I'm Eiran. Thats Laeonaith." He found a grin fighting it's way onto his face as he told Kindra the name of his dragon. She would at least understand the fierce pride and love that still overwhelmed him. It was as if merely looking at His prance around and then, on accident, bite his own tail, gave him courage. "Thank you for coming to get us. It's really an honor." The grin wouldn't be suppressed. Eiran beamed at Kindra.

Having apparently run himself dizzy, Laeonaith sat down in front of Suunath, for the moment seeming content. Laeonaith seemed genuinely interested in the fate of his clutchmates. Had he been on the sands, he probably would have been nosing and prodding the eggs until they had all hatched.

"I'm glad I was here too." Eirah agreed with Kindra. "I'm not... I wasn't a candidate, though. He just called to me, so I came." He looked at the goldrider uncertainly, since he knew the preference was probably towards candidates who had been trained in the traditions and rules of dragon riding. He had no such background to boast of. "I hadn't thought about my name yet," Eiran added with a suprised little laugh. "I've been so busy trying to... well, to adjust to all of this. Maybe I will see what Laeonaith thinks I should change it to, once we've settled in."

Laeonaith announced decidedly. The little bronze was clearly eager to find out exactly what "home" entailed for him. He knew that as long as Eiran was with him, everything would be fine. But he was terribly curious, since he knew that the caves were not where he was meant to be. Laeonaith was only vaguely aware of what had happened to him and why it had happened. He knew his egg had been stolen, along with several others. He knew he had hatched far away from his clutchmates. But he also knew that he had found His, and the detailed politics of rebellion versus revolution were not things that his young mind found terribly interesting.

"He seems okay." Eiran responded to the goldrider, glad for her comments which he found reassuring. "He was kinda flaky this morning, so we had a good bath and one of the other riders had brought some oil along. So I think it's better now." He glanced at the gleaming mother and son pair, smiling. "I hope I'm not too behind everyone else about caring for him and learning things."

The little dragon crowed, capering around Suunath excitedly.

Eiran in the meantime was nodding at Kindra. "Yes, I've never been on dragon-back before." He said, flushing a little. "I have to admit, I'm kind of nervous. There isn't anyone left to say goodbye to, I'll see them all at the Weyr. But yes, we should go." He took a deep, bracing breath. "The sooner the better, right?" He gave Kindra a slightly wavering grin.