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It was another hot day in Ghenza, and Jadamirei was working out in the fields. Her skin was growing ruddy and tough from the daily sun, her once-soft hands covered in callouses from the hard work. (The young Rider wished daily she'd remembered her gloves, but they had been left behind in Telgar, probably sitting on Tethis' floor by now.) The new location for her was a culture shock, and the fact that she was anything but spoiled for the first time in her life was as startling as it was refreshing. She was burning (not yet tanning) and she was always sore, but with Geminith at her side, her life was wonderful.

The last sevenday she had been working the fields instead of the kitchens. It was most of the reason that she was burnt and tired. At her side, her Geminith pranced like a small runnerbeast, crooning and babbling to the others. It bothered some, amused others. Jada had been removing parasites from plants, on hands and knees in the dirt. Her long hair, once her pride, was unruly and shortened. One couldn't take care of a mass of hair, a young dragon, and keep up with their duties. Some might, but she couldn't. Others who had Impressed from Geminith's clutch were working the fields as well. Some of them (mostly the Ghenzans) she couldn't understand how they could see their duties with their noses in the air around others, who had come from high Reaches. She alone was from Telgar, and so far no one had figured it out yet.

Caught up in her own thoughts, the sight of the webcrawler caught her by surprise. As it crawled over her bare hand, the young Harper gave a shriek, causing Geminith to give a cry of her own.

The voice of a dragon not her own mildly startled Jada, who was flailing around similarly to a wherry, no longer on hands and knees. It didn't stop her flailing, but it did stop her startled little whimpers. (Most unbecoming of a Harper. Very girly, on the other hand.) Geminith keened in worry. "It was a bug." the girl answered when she was finally certain that the insectoid danger was no longer around her. What could she say? Bugs were one of Jadamirei's great fears, and she was shaking as she reached out to pat Geminith, who was pressed to her legs.

Blue eyes focused on a brown dragonet who had come up to them, alert and as ready as any other dragon to combat a danger. Dith, Geminith supplied the name to Jada helpfully. His is F'al. Gemi didn't like her girl being so afraid of the crawly little thing. Frankly, she didn't see the issue, but anything that displeased the young woman displeased the young gold; her eyes were whirling a yellow-orange color and her head was swinging from side to side as she scanned the ground for any sign of that which had caused the affront.

"Thank you for coming to my rescue, Dith." the girl looked down in the direction of the deep chocolate dragonet, oddly comforted to have garnered the reaction. Her skin was still crawling at the thought of the insect touching her, and what if it had gotten in her... she shuddered, slapping at her clothing again. Gross gross gross!

It was very brave of you! Geminith chirped up, not wanting to be outdone in gratitude. After all, she hadn't known what to do! Terribly brave of the other dragon, Geminith decided winsomely. Only to be expected, though, of one of my clutchmates. Frankly, the dragonet sounded as proud as if she'd hatched him herself.

Nothing too terrible indeed, just a silly girl being overdramatic. "Well then, Mother Wherry, if it comes back I'll be sure to let you know." Jada kept her face very straight, trying not to laugh. And then she shuddered, swearing that she could feel the crawling of eight little legs somewhere on her body. (She couldn't, but...) She bent down, scratching at Geminith's left eye ridge as the gold butted at her legs lightly.

The arrival of another figure had Jada looking up. Oddly, it wasn't far looking up. That was a relief. The other- she assumed this was F'al- was an inch or two taller than she was. "Good afternoon." she said back. How silly of her.

Good afternoon! Geminith was vibrating at her side, tail swishing side to side behind her large body. It was a... what kind of bug had it been? Her Jadamirei hadn't told her! Why was Jadamirei keeping these things from her? Anxiousness whirled in the mind of the young gold and she pressed harder against her chosen.

Geminith's alarm had Jada soothing her, her other hand dropping to the leathery hide, stroking over the other eyeridge. "It was a spinner... webcrawler..." she sounded uncertain of the proper term. "One of the gross ones with eight legs." The last part of the young woman's sentence came out rather flat and sheepish. She bent down, shoulder-length curls falling to hide her face as she pressed her lips to the top of the dragonets head. Geminith's eye facets were whirling an odd mix of orange-tinted blue. "Dith is a lovely dragon." she complimented the other rider. "And so brave too!"

Geminith's mind-voice was gleeful, and she looked up at Jadamirei with finally happy eyes. I will let Dith be the brave one, because that is what boys do. But I think I should be the lovely one. That is what girls do!

Such a funny noise her brother had made! Geminith gave a warble of her own after his, rearing up and wings flaring out as she tried to keep her balance. I sound like a wherry too, right Dith? (It was apparently very important that she had her 'big brother's' approval. Even if she was trying to sound like a wherry.)

"Sorry I startled you." Jada's face was red, but it was kind of hard to tell through her sunburn. "I have a thing about bugs." Not many people in Ghenza did, the people of this 'Weyr' being accustomed to things like that in their daily life. "At least it wasn't a tunnel snake, or I would have been riding Gemi a lot sooner than I'm supposed to." her laugh was brief, and she wasn't ashamed as she might be for making herself a target of a joke. After all, it was (probably) truth.

The gold was still warbling, even as she fell over onto her side. How embarrassing! Geminith sprang to her feet again as quickly as she could move the bulk she wasn't quite accustomed to. With a noise from her draconic throat that was probably similar to a human clearing their throat, she went back on her haunches again. Dith's is from the place you were from, wasn't he, Jadamirei? A change of topic was a great idea.

For Gemi.

We don't need to make a living at all. The little girl sounded confused as the eyed her even smaller brother. We're already alive. Sojeth took care of that.

Jada was about to grin, when the other human answered the question. No, F'al said, and his face had went as cold as ice. Under her sunburn, her face went pale; she wasn't able to get a clamp on her emotions before Geminith felt the chill of worry that raced up her spine. Faceted eyes went completely red, and the gold whirled around in a circle, trying to pinpoint what was making her girl so upset. The wail of worry she gave was an audible keen, even as she almost knocked the girl over.

For a moment it was hard to separate Geminith's concern over her own thoughts of 'what if, what if?' Somehow, with trouble, she managed, and soothed the visibly concerned dragonet. Her cry had attracted some attention, and people were looking in the direction. That High Reaches girl, they were probably thinking, and her troublesome, traitorous dragon.

The problem is, she wasn't that High Reaches girl. "Shhh." she told Geminith, and pressed her face to the soft hide. Well shards; she hadn't wanted to lie, and now she really, frankly, couldn't.

Why are you so worried, my Jadamirei? Is it because you can't go home? What did he mean when he said you weren't from the same place?

Shhhh. Jada told the dragon again, and ignored everything else for a minute except for her bonded, until the worry was gone from her eyes. Dragons, she remembered, could go between at this age when concerned or confused. It was why Weyrlings didn't have intercourse, and why they had so many other strict rules and stipulations.

Jada really needed to stop alarming Gemi so much. Everything alarmed the happy little dragonet, especially unhappiness.

Finally, she looked up at F'al; most everyone else had decided to go back to work, leaving the heap of emotional girl to handle themselves. "My name is Jadamirei." she said finally, running her hand over Geminith's eyeridges. "And I came here to observe Ghenza and send notes back on their culture. I came in a little behind the rest of you, and I was going to leave when you did. Thins obviously didn't go as planned."

She hadn't been standing with the rest of the 'Candidates' who had been allowed, taking her notes from among the crowd instead. Still, it seemed dragons did have a mind of their own. Things hadn't gone as planned, and with the presence of Geminith's mind in her own, she couldn't bring herself to grudge that fact.

Where are you from, Jadamirei? Geminith's voice echoed Dith's softly, voice low. You've never said. And it was true, Geminith thought. Had her Jadamirei ever said that she was from High reaches? Everyone had said she was from the outside, and that part had never been refuted by the dark-haired girl.

If they found out that Jadamirei was from... the place she was from... the Ghenzans would surely react badly. There was no doubt in her mind about that. It was enough of a mess in the first place that she had Impressed one of their dragonets, worse that it had been one of their golds. What if they kicked her and Gemi out of the Weyr? She couldn't support a dragon, and she might lose Gemi, and... She'd want to die, and she might not have the means to (aside from possible starvation or Threadfall.) Would they kick them out?

You're being overdramatic. The voice of her lifepartner in her head was overly sharp, and Geminith seemed as surprised about it as Jada herself was. In a softer voice, the dragonet continued. I'm always going to be with you. I chose you, not any one of them. If you hadn't been here, I wouldn't be here. It was as simple as that, to the mind of a dragon. You are my choice, and we will protect each other.

It was really that simple?

Jadamirei swallowed and looked up at the boy standing over her and his brown dragon and tilted her chin up as defiantly as though he were the one who would be dragging her to the Ghenzan border and tossing her out. "I'm from Telgar Weyr. And my presence here wasn't sanctioned by Weyrwoman Malkai."

Her chin wavered. It was a start on a backbone though.

Telgar? Geminith's head tilted and the curiosity in her stance was palpable. What was Telgar? Where was Telgar? Would F'al be angry at her chosen? Would the Weyrwoman make angry faces? (Geminith didn't like angry faces. Nalina made them a lot.)

"No one hoped to gain anything other than knowledge, as far as I am aware." that was complete truth, and the girl knelt back down to the dirt, visibly eyeing it. There was suspicion in that gaze, as though the eight-legged monster would be waving at her menacingly from wherever she intended to return working. "As far as I was told by M- my friend," Shells forbid she drag M'dor into this, "We were just curious about the people. What differences fifty turns of solitude might have made in them as a culture, and a society."

Apparently it had made them all hypochondriac workaholics.

"Telgar is-" the girl started to answer Dith, and Gemi's curious noise that followed his question, but F'al started talking, and Jada decided to listen to what High Reaches thought Telgar Weyr was like. What is sad, Jada reflected as she listened to F'al, is that everything he said is true- even if his tone leaves something to be desired. "Well." she said finally, slowly, after he finished. "I've never been to High Reaches, so I can't say if I'd rather live here, there or anywhere other than where Geminith is." that was good. Politically worded. "But I can't deny anything F'al said as an outsider standpoint. They do view golds as better than other dragons, or some of them do." Some just viewed golds as bloated baby machines, but she didn't think that was wise to share with her partner just yet.

No we're not. Geminith sounded affronted. We're just bigger.

Much bigger.

Valuable... Geminiths 'voice' trailed off, and she gave the other dragonet and the two humans a look of horror. Jadamirei could feel a wave of shock and indignation roll off the dragonet, before- Breeding stock?! What am I, a wherry or a dragon? it was the first time Jadamirei had heard or felt her dragonet angry- and then she connected that it wasn't just anger.

It was fear.

Geminith didn't want to be a dragon considered only for making babies. She might be 'different' from other dragons in that she was bigger, and couldn't chew firestone, and would have different responsibilities as she got older; but she wanted to be recognized for being her, and she wanted she and her Rider respected or degraded for their skills and flaws, not for the color of her hide and expectations. Now, Geminith might not be thinking in quite these terms yet, as she was still too young to understand the full concepts behind her feelings, but the dragonet was onto a good start. (What might have amused Jadamirei, if she'd been able to detect all of her partner's thoughts, is that in none of the things Gemi thought about, did she think about flights, or what it might take to make those eggs she was expected to hatch at some point.)

Jada reached up to stroke a hand over Geminith's hide, sending her soothing thoughts like she used to send Allegretto when she got ruffled. "If Geminith gets anywhere near her mother's size, Telgar won't have room for her." her tone was mild. "I never saw the Weyrs for the Junior golds- well, Malkai is Senior now- but the Weyrs I did see were a little on the tight side, and they still had to double up sometimes." She gave a wry smile.

I can double up, I'm not picky. Ruffled feathers were soothing slowly, as the gold dragon was distracted by watching the young woman work with the plants.