Logs:Keeping an Eye On Things
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| RL Date: 12 August, 2011 |
| Who: Quinlys |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Vignette |
| What: Introducing Quinlys... and Olveraeth |
| When: Day 22, Month 6, Turn 26 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Iolene/Mentions, Kh'ry/Mentions |
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| The pressures was daunting. Even before she'd officially put her name in to Giorda, Quinlys could feel the eyes on her. It hadn't been this way, four turns ago, when she'd Stood for Iovniath's last clutch: she'd only been sixteen, then, and most people had dismissed her as too young for the queen. Now she was twenty, and for all that she still worked on the cleaning crews, she'd somehow ended up with a reputation: smart, sensible, organised, weyrbred. It seemed as though most people considered those important qualities in a goldrider. Even Giorda had seemed pleased, telling her, "It's good to get some sensible young people like you in with them, Quin. Frankly, I'm not convinced the Weyrleaders had the right idea with all those exiles, but who am I to argue, right?" Privately, Quinlys couldn't blame the Headwoman, though her public front was as sensible as ever: she tried to make friends among them, tried to be helpful, tried to share her experience as one who had Stood before, and watched plenty of hatchings from the galleries. It was hard not to feel a little bit superior, though - and hard not to wonder, just quietly, if people were right, and that by the end of hatching day, she'd be a goldrider. Being left on the Sands the first time still hurt; it hurt worse, now, when some people had to wonder why, if she knew so much, she wasn't a rider already. Quinlys didn't have an answer for that, not beyond the stock-standard response: "My dragon just hadn't hatched yet." But perhaps that was because a very particular dragon was intended for her; Teris had gotten Iskiveth, of course, but Quinlys-- perhaps there was another queen for Quinlys. Thus, she did her best to hide her anxieties and her excitements, those last days, and pulled her weight, gave advice, enjoyed the experience as much as she could. After all, she reasoned. Even if that queen isn't mine, there's no reason why one of the others couldn't be. She was one of the first to walk onto the Sands, when they were called, her head held high. Even familiarity didn't make it a less awesome experience: she could feel her heart racing with excitement as she took her place with the other candidates, eyes narrowed in upon the collection of mottled shells. She'd barely gotten settled into the experience when the blue hatched - the very first. Her gaze swept past him as she tried to keep track of what was going on, but to be honest, she didn't pay him much heed until he was suddenly in front of her, lunging towards her middle. « Quinlys! » he said, in a somewhat peculiar voice, yet one that reached straight to her heart. « Here you are. Just like I knew you would be. Is there food? Please - can there be food? » To be honest, gold did not cross her mind, not even for a second, as she wrapped her arms around him, tears spilling onto his starlit blue hide. "Olveraeth," she whispered. And then: "Of course there can be. Come on - I'll show you." He took most of her attention, of course: enough that she was only vaguely aware of the others that joined them, one pair after another. It wasn't until later that she was actually conscious of Iolene and her queen, Kh'ry and his bronze-- all those exiles, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. More than half the clutch. It worried her, in that small part of her mind that wasn't still utterly entranced by Olveraeth's gleeful excitement, his starscape of a mind. Perhaps it was silly for her to worry; perhaps this would be the good thing the weyrleaders seemed to think it would be. But as she smoothed a hand over recently-oiled blue hide, watching her little dragon sleep, she couldn't help but doubt it. Well then. She'd just have to keep an eye on things, wouldn't she? She and Olveraeth. |
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