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In order to eat a good breakfast and deck himself out immaculately (as far as was possible in standard candidate regalia) Antigonos had got up extremely early that morning. With that good solid meal inside him (plus two mugs of klah), however, he was the perfect picture of a bright young man ready to learn. As he approached the candidate master and his dragon, the young harper cemented the image with a bright (maybe slightly roguish) grin, and a sweeping bow.

"Candidatemaster A'air, Templath; a very good morning to you both!" he called as he crossed the final distance between them, allowing his dark eyes to flick briefly to the table and the items which rested upon it. "I trust I find you both well this morning?" he went on, turning his attention back onto the pair fully and pushed his fingers through his hair and offering another smile; this was only his second lesson as a candidate, so he was still working on making sure the blue rider remembered him, and had a positive impression of him. Even if he never Impressed, this man would be a useful ally.

"I've told my flitt to stay in the barracks," he added as an (apparent) afterthought, "but she's still not quite perfect on following instructions, so if she materializes during the lesson and disturbes it I apologize in advance, I assure you I'll send her off again right away if she does." In truth, he was pretty sure she'd stay put but he wanted to bring attention to the fact that he was being a responsible candidate and not lugging his pet along with him when it was inappropriate, he was pretty sure one or two would turn up with a firelizard beside them today.

Winderick pushed his way to the front of the line, far too excited to remember his manners. Today was his first lesson with A'air and Templath. Ever since he was Searched he'd been dying to get up close with a dragon again. Even though he saw them every day, he was too shy to bother them when they were with their riders, knowing they probably had better things to do, so today's lesson was exactly the opportunity he'd been dreaming of. He felt charged up in spite of waking early with hardly any sleep behind him.

When he entered the bowl he was surprised to see Antigonos already talking to Candidatemaster A'air and apparently making a good impression. Jealous that the older candidate made it in before him, he lost most of their conversation however when his eyes turned to the magnificent blue standing before him. As he took Templath in he felt a lump in his throat. Winderick always felt pretty confident in himself, but whenever he looked into those eyes he experienced a presence much larger than himself, not just in a physical sense but internally as well, like looking at the stars. Swallowing his nerves, Winderick squared his shoulders and approached the candidatemaster and his dragon. He stopped beside Gale and gave her his most confident smile, nudging her arm to get her attention. "Morning," he whispered, not wanting to interrupt Antigonos's brown-nosing.

He was dressed in his best outfit and the extra effort he took grooming himself for the occasion showed, but still didn't compare much to the older and wealthier candidates.

Sileny had been here before. The room was familiar, the candidate master and his dragon were familiar. The only things which had changed were the candidates, and even some of them were the same. She found her attention captured by a very tall young man momentarily. Anti-agony or something like that. Names weren't really Sil's strong suit, particularly when it came to people she'd not been introduced to. Not that it mattered, she figured. He'd age out soon if he didn't Impress this time around, it seemed to her. She shared a similar risk, but the prospect wasn't so horrible for her. She could always return to her craft.

She sighed and tossed her head. With her hair pulled back, the action was not particularly fetching or attention-getting, but it wasn't meant to be. It was an impatient gesture. She knew this would be an hours-long discussion of information she'd already heard in the past. Not that she'd had lots of opportunity to put it into practice since the last time she'd heard the lecture. Like her fellow candidates, many of the riders of the Weyr tended to give her a wide berth, which didn't bother her in the least. She didn't need them, or anybody.

. . . why did they all get dressed so neatly? A'air was almost baffled at the downright clean appearance of most of these Candidates as they filled in, his memory serving that he often was covered in mud and dung whenever it was time for lessons - regardless of how early in the day it was. Of course it was because he was usually cleaning pens because of something he'd done or something he had yet to do, but either way those were fond memories.

Focus, A'airmine. You're being spoken to.

The Candidatemaster snapped out of his thoughts as he was approached by a young man - Antigonos, if he wasn't mistaken - and he offered a large grin in response to the greeting. As the boy continued on to speak about his flitter it made the man think about one he'd seen earlier in the day, a lovely silver that seemed to be hissing as it made its rounds somewhere. He wanted to investigate that.

"We're good, thanks. And no worries about your flitter - I personally don't mind the little beasts. Kinda makes me wish I had one of my own sometimes, but what can a guy do about it? Templath takes up all my time. You're welcome to go over and talk to him if you'd like Antigonos, he's pretty fond of Candidates."

A gentle pat on the shoulder was given to the Harper youth as the Candidatemaster turned away to greet the rest of the group, his whole goal to promote a sense of comradeship amongst all of the people before him. Saying their names, giving them casual conversation - he hoped it would all pay off should they Impress. His eye fell on a girl he'd seen before, this was her second or so round in the Candidate lessons, and he gave her a nice smile as well as he raised a hand in greeting.

"Galeia, come up and join us over here. No need to lurk in the back, we might talk about something today you've never heard before - or I might actually need your help. If I recall you've got a sharper memory than I do and I'll need you to catch any mistakes I make."

He would have said more but a young man was soon at her side - Winderwick, Templath told him from a moment or two of guessing, and he moved on to see who else was around. He was going to move back to Templath's side when another voice hailed his ears, and he turned to greet yet another who'd arrived and stood now where Antigonos was.

"Oh, morning Kadayon. The two of us are doing pretty well, thanks for asking. How's your mother, have you spoken to her lately? I bet she's head over heels about you being a Candidate again, hoping to get a dragon."

The man continued to chat, unaware he'd missed another student slipping in. Templath noticed, and his eyes whirled a moment in their color before the dragon decided to give the girl the greeting His had missed.

Hello Sileny. Are you hiding?

The dragon only knew her name because of daily lessons, and from A'air's constant review of who was who.

The pair would wait a few more minutes before beginning, allowing any final stragglers to come in without fear of punishment.

Sil was startled to have been addressed directly by Templath. She hadn't expected the blue to recognize her, and would have been surprised if his rider had known her either. And yet one of them must have, for the dragon had definitely spoken her name. She wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not.

She did know, however, that she could not ignore the dragon's greeting, and so she stepped forward from where she'd been to make a proper greeting to both dragon and rider. Apologies would be necessary, too, she thought. She supposed she would have to make some, even though it was not her usual habit. She wished she knew why his eyes' color had changed briefly. What was he thinking of her?

"Good morning, Templath," she said, inclining her head to the blue once she'd drawn close enough that she wouldn't have to raise her voice. Screeching across the room was unnecessary.

"I'm not hiding. I should have greeted you and A'air when I came in, but you seemed occupied. I hope you'll let your rider know I meant no disrespect."

Tia did her best to look inconspicuous, a little later breaking away from her last chore than she would have liked, she still had flour on her clothing and braid, which, with her height, didn't exactly help her attempt to not stand out.

Neither did her slight frown, still in a bad mood about her argument before with one of the candidates, and she slipped into a seat hastily and inched down trying to look smaller. It was an important lesson, and she was sure she'd get in trouble, which she felt guilty for, even while she thought of some angry excuses to herself as to why she was straggling.

Feeling guilty at making excuses, even without voicing them, wasn't helping her mood either.

After delivering his greeting to Candidatemaster A'air, Winderick headed to the table and immedately took an interest in the tools laid out there. To his disappointment most of the tools were familiar. A few he had seen before but never had the oppertunity to work with until now. He started to reach for one when he remembered the dragon watching over him. Drawing back hesistantly, he bowed his head and greeted the blue, "Good morning, Templath. It's a pleasure to meet you."

He still needed to remind himself to greet dragons whenever he met them. From everything K'la told him on the day he was Searched, dragons should be treated like people. This was still a little weird to him. He would never greet a wher like this.