Welcome to Gaia! ::

Candidate lessons were the new routine for Willim, ever since he arrived at High Reaches Weyr. He'd seen a lot of dragons growing up at Ruatha Hold, but not being weyrbred he didn't know much about them; and if he hoped to Impress at the big Hatching that was coming up, he'd have to learn as much as he could. So usually he paid attention to the lectures that Candidatemaster Gr'del and his assistants conducted at both morning and afternoon lessons, taking notes on his parchment pad for review later. He wanted to be the best Candidate that he could be!

This morning, though, the young man's mind wandered beneath the droning tones of the lecture on the mechanics of dragon flight, and his charcoal stick only doodled on the parchment on the small desk in front of him. When Willim's mind wandered, it typically meandered off in one of two directions: beer, or girls. Today, it was a girl that had his attention. He cast furtive glances over toward the other side of the crowded chamber, where the object of his thoughts was seated. She was cute, not stunningly beautiful, but that didn't matter to Willim. Her brown hair hung like a messy curtain framing her face as she bent over her notes, and as he watched she reached up and tucked her not-quite-long-enough fringe behind her ear. The boy felt his heart skip a beat at that simple action. She was adorable!

Willim was so rapt in the girl that he didn't notice the morning lecture was over until the other Candidates stood up and prepared to leave. Break time before chores! He rose, quickly gathered his notes and pushed his way through the crowd towards where the girl had been sitting. She was still collecting her things; this was the perfect opportunity to talk to her and get to know her.

"Interesting lecture today, wasn't it?" he began as he stopped next to her desk, giving her a warm, friendly (and hopefully not too flirtatious) smile. "Hope I'm not interrupting you or anything. My name's Willim -- what's yours?"

"Shanley." Willim rolled the name over in his mind. It was a nice name for a cute girl. "Pleased to meet you, Shanley," he said with what he felt was a gentlemanly bow, his dark hair falling into his face. Straightening, he pushed it back off his forehead and out of his eyes; he wanted to take her in fully with his gaze. She was sweetly plump, just enough to give her some appealing curves, and her face was just adorable up close. Precious, and definitely someone he wanted to get to know better.

"So, how long have you been a Candidate at the Weyr? I'm… pretty new myself," he admitted with a grin. "I arrived just about when gold Rhianth rose. Still getting used to life here -- it's really different than back home in Ruatha Hold." Shut it, Will, you're babbling, he mentally scolded himself. Had to leave room for Shanley to respond!