Don't burn your hands...

[starshine]

"So, you grew up in a hold your entire life?" Her silver eyes scanned Tre's tanned face. Kess was fascinated by someone who hadn't known about dragons and the weyr for so long. She leaned back against the rough stone wall. The sands were warming through her boots.

Her mind was full of questions, interesting considering Kess wasn't usually one to speak much. "Whats it like out there in Pern?" She had never been far beyond the Weyr, since it was in hiding she wasn't permitted very many places. Her voice was light and held a slight laugh beneath it, the curiosity showing in her face.

She was certain that the boy must be confused with everything he
saw as well. The weyr was a strange place sometimes, even for someone who had been there for all of her 16 turns. It was in her nature to be helpful and comforting. Her face was always pleasant and accommodating. "If you have any questions or if you need anything, you're welcome to ask me." She gave him a reassuring smile

[wonder123]

Trevan stepped out from behind her, his eyes sweeping over the cavern. The Sand had shocked him at first - he wasn't sure why he was getting so hot until Kess had made a comment about why the sand needed to be heated to warm the eggs. There wasn't a single thing out of her mouth that didn't sound strange.

"Yeah. You grew up here?" Repeating the question back at her, the curiousity there but more restrained. He was on his guard in this new place. Kess seemed an easy enough person to talk to. Funny how, back at Southern, Anessa was the only girl he ever really conversed with. Here, the entire Weyr was brimming over with girls. Just another difference between his new life and old.

What was it like in Southern? Should he start with how small his home was? How there wasn't single person in the Hold that didn't know what hunger felt like at one time or another? How Thread had destroyed the crops before Harvest, or when bandits had robbed them the day after he turned 12? From his day and a half here, he could already see that this wasn't what life was like in the Weyr.

"I spend most of the time in the smithy. It's really the only thing I didn't mess up. What did you do here, before you were a Candidate?" Trevan took a couple of steps more inside, adjusting to the heat on his boots.

[starshine]

"Yeah, this is all I've ever known." She glanced at him again, watching as he thought of how to answer her question. She could tell he wasn't sure what to say. She pushed the hot sand around with her foot. The boots were doing well to protect her feet, but the thin sandals that were warn by the candidates when they impressed would offer little support.

"...What did you do here, before you were a Candidate?" She shook her head, and looked up at him again. He was taller then her by much. "Oh, before I became an candidate I was a weyrbrat." She smiled. It didn't mean she was a brat, but that she was just a child. "I stayed with the creche mothers." She knew that none of it would really make sense to him. "I studied with the Harper, learning letter writing and things."

She stood from the wall and took a few steps out onto the sand. "Aliath flew not long ago, pretty soon we wont really be able to come in here." She smiled at the thought of the pending clutch.

[wonder123]

Trevan had never actually been taught his letters. There wasn't much use, or time, for it when he was a child. Toress wasn't exactly a scholar either. Who else would trouble to take the time our of their own survival to show him?

"So, what do we do until then?" Just stand around, waiting? Would they be allowed to see the eggs? How big were they? "What happens during a Hatching?" Now that she offered the information, Tre found the questions coming faster and faster. There was too much information to process, he had to focus on that instead of how angry he was at the Riders in general.

He was in a small hollow of the cavern now, when something caught his eye. "I thought you said there weren't eggs in here yet, Kess?" He kneeled down, adjusting so his knees wouldn't hit the sand.



A small egg laid in a small mound of heated sand. Was this Kess' idea of playing a joke on him?

[starshine]

Kess was getting ready to answer his questions when the surprise in his voice caught her off guard. "I thought you said there weren't eggs in here yet, Kess?" She strode over to him to get a better look. "There shouldn't be... oh!" Her eyes fell to the small egg before them. She leaned over, her hands resting on her knees.

"I think its a firelizard egg!" She had seen a few of them. Firelizards were fascinating, miniature versions of the large dragons they were all after to impress. "How exciting!" She beamed over at him.

[wonder123]

A firelizard? There was yet another word Trevan had never heard before. He stood up, taking turns looking down cluelessly at the little egg and back to Kess. She seemed completely oblivious to anything though, so he took her excitement as genuine. Supposing that this was something to be excited about.

"I'm sorry. Firelizard?" It sounded like a menace. Surely she couldn't be jumping up and down to something that could be the cousin of a tunnelsnake, right?

[LyricalBlue]

((Hopefully you've got some jerky in your pockets ;p))

The egg had been rocking slightly just before the pair of Candidates had noticed it. Much smaller than a dragon's egg, this fit rather neatly when held in between two hands. A long crack began to form and ran jagged down the side of the milky shell. It took several long minutes of rocking before a chip appeared in the side.

A blinking, red whirling eye appeared through the chip, then disappeared back into the shell. After several more minutes, the top half of the shell shattered and a hatchling's plaintive cries cut through the anticipation heavy silence. He was a strong, sturdy brown, nearly black with the wetness from the egg.

He unruffled wet, crinkled wings and cried again. He was hungry! The little brown firelizard looked at these strange large beings around him. Why wasn't their food! he vented his frustration with demanding little cries.

[starshine]

Kesstriel looked at the boy. "Its a firelizard..." She dug into the pocket of her tunic and produced a small scrap of jerky. She offered it to Tre. "Here give him this." She grinned. How exciting for him. "They are similar to the big dragons in many ways."

It was interesting, Tre not knowing the things she'd known since she was a weyrbrat.

[wonder123]

As if in answer to his question, the egg started rocking! Instinctively Tre took a step back and held out a protective arm to move Kess back too. He was cursing himself for not thinking to carry a weapon, even his knife. Did he turn into a deadglow on his arrival? Just because this was a Weyr, didn't mean it was safe.

They are similar to the big dragons in many ways.

Her words echoed in his mind as his eyes took in the small brown creature. It was smaller than Alimeth's foot, but the firelizard was its complete minititaure, only brown. The jerky was pressed into his empty hand, and he tentatively bent down on level with the small winged creature.

"Here ya go li'l..." Was it a boy or girl? He looked back up to Kess for a second uncertainly, then held out the meat to him. The brown gobbled it up in an instant and croaked for more. Belatedly, Trevan remembed these were the same pants he'd been wearing yesterday during his Search. He'd store several pieces of dried meat in there to snack on while hunting. Of course he'd forgotten about them in the events that followed. Hurriedly, he shoved his hand in his right pocket and produced several more strips. A piece of lint hung onto one, but the firelizard didn't seem to mind.

"What...what now?" His voice was never shaky. Well, until now.

[starshine]

Kess crouched next to the Trevan. She watched as he fed the little firelizard the jerky. She grinned. How cute, his first meal. "What... what now?" His voice trembled in mid air. She glanced over at him.

Her voice held a laugh in it. "Well he needs a name..." Having never seen a firelizard before, the boy was probably scared and confused. "He's healthy looking." She contemplated telling him about the telepathic images, or let him find out for himself. She smiled to herself. How cruel did she want to be? Not that cruel.

[wonder123]

"Right." Trevan may have never known what a firelizard was or how to care for one, but he understood the basic principles of having a pet. You gave it a name, fed it everyday, tried not to lose it. Of course he had never really had the time for a pet, or grown attached to any single living thing besides his sister, and in some way, his uncle to choose to care for it.

Well, it seemed this time he had been chosen for it.

Life, it looked like, was far from through with its little surprises for Tre. Aware that Kess was looking at him, waiting for a name no doubt, he cleared his throat. What did one name firelizards? The candidate wracked his brain, trying to think of something that would help him distuingish this brown fella from what was bound to be several in ther Weyr. His face became serious, "I shall call you Solo." Because you were all alone, and so am I. The fire lizard hatchling either seemed to approve, or at least not mind, as he nudged Trevan's fingers for more meat.

"Fine, fine, take it all!" He told it, grinning despite himself. If he could get it to finish eating, maybe he could see what else it could do.

[starshine]

Kess stood up, and rested her hands on her knees. Her toes sweated in her boots. The sands warmth was wearing on her. "I shall call you Solo." Trevan's voice hit her ears. She glanced down at the tiny brown. The name seemed fitting somehow.

"Well that seems like a fitting name." Her voice held its usual laugh behind it. Her silver eyes wandered from the tiny lizard to her peer.

She looked toward the entrance of the cave. "Hows about we take him outside, let him get a little sun, dry up his wings a bit." She grinned again.

[wonder123]

It was settled then. Now that he had the approval of a Weyr resident, his firelizard had been christened Solo. Trevan wasn't quite sure how to care for such a creature, but as long as he had a name, what did that matter? He was doing well enough learning on the fly, this would just be another lesson on the go. These past few days had been full of them.

"Outside, right. He won't fly away?" What if some other well-intentioned youth fed him? Would Solo abandon him? As if in answer to his anxious thoughts, the brown firelizard hopped happily onto Trevan's outstretched wrist. A walk in the sunlight would be just fine with him.

"Alright then, lead the way." Trevan stood slowly and Solo's wings snapped out as he fought, and found, his balance. "I guess that's why they fly, and aren't carried everywhere. Less jostling." If Trevan had been anyone else, that might have been a joke.

With him, it was simply a new, quite serious, fact to be absorbed.