Aukai Oceansoul
Candidate.
The hatching and following feast were over. Rinis had woken up the next day in her familiar barrack room. She was still a candidate. The young woman took a slow deep breath. It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling. The disappointment; knowing she was going to be a candidate until the next clutch was laid. How many times had she felt this before? Enough to know the routine.
She rose and dressed. The same old routine. It only sort of changed when a clutch was due. That wouldn't happen for some time now. Rinis headed out to find what her duties were for the day. Also family. She smiled and nodded automatically to those she knew.
Each time she saw one of the new weyrlings a bit of sadness filled her heart that she wasn't among them. Soon it wouldn't last long. When she had been younger, she'd been depressed for days after a hatching where she was left standing on the sands without a dragon. Now she knew to look forward. There was always next time. She still had almost ten turns to find her dragon. Her brown firelizard Chaek rode cheerfully on her shoulder.