A Joining of Hearts - Nekoka's impression to bronze ExperathIt had been two turns. Over two turns now, since he had arrived at the Weyr. Even after all this time he felt like he didn't quite fit, that people could look at him and see that he was out of place. Other candidates had come and gone in his time and just meshed so well. Instantly clicking into groups with the other candidates. He hadn't been here the longest, there were candidates who knew this would most likely be their last clutch to stand, yet they still kept trying. It would be a failing on his part to leave now, but everyone had their limits. His apprently was right about now. There searchrider had just been wrong. It was okay, everyone made mistakes, they couldn't be expected to get it right every time. The rider had only known him for less than a candlemark, that wasn't really enough time to gauge whether a person was suitable to be a rider or not.
The barked call for attention from the Candidatemaster brought Nekoka's attention right back. The slim teenager focused on his superior and listened to a speech he'd heard twice before. It was all fairly common sense stuff really. The touching was mentioned and his mind drifted back to that day. Some of the eggs had responded, others hadn't. He'd been hopeful the first time, when eggs had reached out and touched his mind. The strong feelings spurring Nekoka on in his belief that he really could be a dragonrider. Now though it just seemed like a polite consideration. The one's that reached out to him did so to everyone, they were just pleasant that way. The group was called to enter the hatching cavern and Nekoka dutifully filed in.
One glance up had his stomach twisting. How did they get so many people to all fit in one place like this? He'd never even imagined spaces this big before. Let alone spaces that only had a single function. It seemed so strange that these places had existed for years, decades, centuries even and he had never even imagined that they could be this big. He'd been told the Weyr was huge, but still this was something that a lad from a farm in the middle of nowhere had to see to believe. So many people all together made him nervous. All the people and dragons that would see him fail to impress, just like they had the last time.
Still, he couldn’t go in feeling this hopeless. Chin up, back straight, look forward. There had been eggs that had responded to him. Maybe one of them was meant for him. Standing among the other candidates know to look to the golden clutchmother, she seemed unimpressed by the whole affair probably having viewed it several times by this point in her life. Then again, it seemed always difficult to know exactly what a dragon was thinking. The choice today would not be hers, it would belong to her children. They were the ones to decide who the future riders would be. He had to trust in those gently shaking eggs and the dragons that lay within them that one of them would find him worthy to spend a lifetime with. When he phrased it like that it felt all the more impossible.
Shifting slightly on the sand the lad looked out across the clutch. Thirty-two eggs. Over twice as many candidates. Nekoka would run the odds in his head, but as his time at the Weyr had proved numbers were not his strong suit. Then again neither were words. Really he didn’t seem to have a strong suit, other than just being physically strong. The dragons humming was punctuated by a load crack and the whole cavern seemed to hold its breath. A shell wobbled slightly, a large crack running down the side. A heartbeat passed, then another, before the side of the egg exploded outwards as a blue wing was extended. With the support of the egg now gone the blue tumbled out, shrieking in surprise as he rolled through the sand. The young dragon flailed around for a moment, kicking up even more sand. By the time he had climbed to his feet the dragon was thoroughly covered in sand. Nekoka felt sorry for the youngster, he didn’t seem at all happy about his predicament. To his right another egg split open and a pale green came stumbling out, rushing past her brother and straight into the female candidates. The green made a beeline for one girl in particular, shoving others out of her way to stare with rainbow eyes at the short brunette. Well, that was decided quickly. Turning his head back to the blue Nekoka noticed another two eggs had let loose their contents whilst the first to hatch blue remained standing in the same spot, slightly slumped in his posture. The dragon sniffed at the sand on his hide before giving it a tentative lick, quickly realising this was not the best plan as sand stuck to his tongue.
The blue was quite a sight, shaking his head, his tongue poking out and stamping his feet. Finally, the blue let out an ear piercing wail that had Nekoka covering his ears. “I’m coming, Fenolath, I’m coming!” A voice from behind him shouted before a freckle-faced youth ran past him, past the other hatchlings and skidded to a halt in front of the unhappy blue. Nekoka watched as the lad knelt down in front of the blue and tried to wipe of the sand, using his white candidate’s robe with no concern for getting it dirty or the heat of the sand. The small blue calmed under the attentive hands of his chosen and the two left the sands together. All Nekoka could do was watch with jealousy as the other candidate- no, as the weyrling, fed his new partner. Glancing around at the feeding tables only caused more jealousy and longing. Already there was a handful of new pairs, human faces looking on adoringly as they fed the young dragons. Shaking his head Nekoka turned back to the unimpressed dragons and the eggs. He couldn’t give up so early. Not even a quarter of the eggs had impressed yet.
Time passed and soon over two thirds of the clutch had impressed. Twenty-six dragons had chosen candidates from the cluster of youths and still Nekoka stood there. So far he had been passed over by twelve greens, eight blues and six browns. None had so much as even sniffed at him. On the sands were two greens, a blue and a bronze. Behind them lay two eggs. Maybe they would be atypicals? Those had to be hatched last and with some help. Maybe his dragon was there. Could he handle the responsibility of an atypical? Wait, for his dragon of course he could. If that dragon thought he was worth it then Nekoka would do whatever they needed of him. No matter their colour or their health, he would always look after his dragon.
A happy trill from behind him and one of the green dragons had impressed. Only five left and yet still so many candidates for them to choose from. One of the eggs at the back bucked suddenly. Maybe it wasn’t an atypical after all. He vaguely remembered that egg from the touching. It had been an absent-minded thing that had been too confusing to keep up with. The egg twisted, dislodging itself from the sand and rolling across the sand. Nekoka watched the roll towards the candidates, noting out of the corner of his eye the blue that had been on the sands impressing to a female candidate at the same time. The bronze that had been on the sands for a while now was inspecting a candidate, drawn up to his full height and studying the lad carefully. He didn’t even see the egg coming. His unhatched sibling barrelled into him and the bronze was caught up in the movement, squawking his displeasure. Kicking out with his feet the bronze bellowed at the egg until it ceased moving. Picking himself up the bronze snorted, swiping at the egg hard enough that a piece flew clear off. A gasp sounded and the dragonet flinched, looking around. Nekoka wasn’t sure if the dragonet would get in trouble for that, but he certainly seemed to think he would.
The bronze sniffed at the gap, making small sounds in his throat. Almost to ask ‘Hello in there? Sorry about that, you are alright, aren’t you?’. What the bronze probably wasn’t expecting was for a head to burst out of the whole and bugle in his face. The bronze stood in shock as his younger brother, also a bronze drew back slightly, before leaning forward and licking the length of his brother’s face. The older bronze jumped back, shaking his head and ruffling his wings. The patchy coloured bronze swung his head around, which was currently the only part of him hatched, and trumpeted again. He didn’t seem angry, if anything the dragon seemed very happy to be making noise. He wiggled around and his egg tipped, rolling over until his head was level with the sand. The bronze continued to wriggle until his egg fell apart around him in shards. Lying on his back the dragon waved his legs at his brother and trumpeted again. The older bronze, drew back, snorted and turned away, flicking his tail at his brother and walking off.
The patchy bronze rumbled in something oddly like laughter, before he flipped himself over and darted off into the male candidates. The older bronze paused in front of Nekoka, the first hatchling to actually take notice of him. The dragon stared at him for a long time, faceted eyes staring into his, but there was no colour change and Nekoka was left feeling more disappointed than ever before then the dragon gave a dismissive sniff and turned away. He heard laughter behind him and turned to see the patchy coloured bronze and another young lad. The youngster appeared to be trying to climb the boy, poking his face at the other candidate’s face and neck. Clearly the lad was ticklish and he soon tumbled over, hatchling going with him. Well, they’d make a sweet couple at least. Nekoka looked away to see that the older bronze had impressed too and was leading his rather young rider away. The new weyrling, with a curly mop of hair looked up at Nekoka and held eye contact for a long while before the hatchling nudged at his hand to get his attention back.
That left just the green and the remaining egg, which still had yet to move. The green hadn’t strayed far from the female candidates and Nekoka was almost certain that her rider was amongst them. There was still the last egg. Plus going home wouldn’t be so bad. He’d get to see everyone again. It had been a long time and he couldn’t really keep in contact, what with having still not managing to master writing. Besides he wouldn’t even be able to send them anything, they lived pretty far out after all. He couldn’t get a rider to go all that way for him. Still it’d be nice to go home.
The force of the voice hit Nekoka with the weight of a herdbeast. Wait, no, that was actual weight. Nekoka fell forward almost immediately when whatever it was collided with his back, slamming him face first into the sand. Nekoka gasped for air and he honestly wasn’t sure what had caused it, whether it was the being face down in sand, the after effect of the tackle, the heavy weigh on his back, the loud voice in his head or the storm of thoughts that had come crashing into his head, drowning out his own. The voice just kept going, jumping from one thought to another. Nekoka managed to prop himself up and instantly there was a face crowding his own.
The hatchling was stood with his back feet on the lad’s back, a foreleg either side of his shoulders and his neck curved so that he was regarding his rider upside down. Nekoka didn’t have time to reply, nor react to the rainbow eyes staring into his, before the dragonet licked the length of his face. The dragon spat and sputtered, jumping off of the candidate and shaking his head. Pushing himself up onto his knees Nekoka stared at the patchy bronze as he flit around, trying to lick himself to get the sand of his tongue. All he could do was stare at the toddling dragon, until the bronze head swung around to him again. The dragon darted forward, rearing up and thudding his forefeet down on Nekoka’s shoulder, shoving his gaping maw into his face. The mouth withdrew and was replaced with eyes less than an inch from his own.
The dragon jumped away and bound several feet before skidding to a stop and looking back. The dragon jumped up and down impatiently. Nekoka didn’t know how to respond, climbing awkwardly to his feet and walking towards the bronze. Experath pushed his head up under the lad’s hand so that they were walking side by side with Nekoka’s hand on his forehead. Nekoka looked around and saw that the green had now impressed too. He’d been right, her chosen had been among the female candidates. They reached the feeding tables and Nekoka obediently fed the bronze, watching him as the bronze looked around and comment on everything he saw. His mind seemed slow to catch up. Could this really be happening? Had he really impressed? Was this just some kind of mistake? Why had this bright and talkative dragon chosen him?
All the questions and noise from the dragon’s mind went quiet in that moment. Nekoka wasn’t sure how to answer. With all the questions and tangents gone quiet he could feel the love radiating from the bronze hatchling and the way the two of them were forever linked together. He could never be without Experath again. He loved the bronze, the loud thoughts and crowding mess that would have been a nightmare from anyone else was bizarrely comforting. He wasn’t so bothered by the crowd outside his head when he almost had one sounding inside. He marvelled at how Experath could be thinking so many things at one time. How could such a young mind possibly keep track of it all?
It didn’t even feel strange to have Experath answer his question before he’d even put it into words. Of course Experath would be fast enough to know what he was thinking. A shriek from the sands had him whipping his head around, eyes settling on a little black hatchling wandering around alone. Ah, so that last egg had been an atypical. The little guy looked healthy, despite the obvious at least. The small black made his way to the male candidates and he saw the boy from earlier step forward, the one that Experath had been playing with either.
Nekoka looked back at Experath, away from the black being picked up by his new bonded.
“You knew he was going to impress you clutchmate?” Was that something that dragons did? Could all dragons with all others or was it only between clutchmates?
Not for Experath. He liked the quiet too much for the rambunctious bronze and him to go well together, but with Oskitoth he’d be perfect. The dragon looked pointedly at his rider. Nekoka felt a tightness in his chest as Experath cut right to the heart of the matter. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t matched up to what he thought a rider should be, it mattered that he was what Experath needed his rider to be. With a full stomach Experath lumbered over to Nekoka, pushed at the kneeling teenager and forcing himself up into the lad’s arms. Nekoka held the dragon as he leaned into him, he could feel Experath getting sleepier as hunger vanished and the excitement and energy he’d used caught up with him.
All Nekoka could do was hold the sleeping dragon. He held the patchy coloured bronze as though at any moment a gust of wind might pick up and blow the precious creature away from him. He’d never let Experath go. They were together now. It’d always be the two of them. He’d never be alone again.
(WC = 3048 = 12 posts)
Reply
