Don't Be Suspicious

Writers: Shawna, Sia
Date Posted: 14th November 2025

Characters: Cirina, Aydhara
Description: Aydhara and Cirina "sneak" onto the hatching grounds.
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 13, day 14 of Turn 12
Notes: Mentioned: Panitath, Zarkarth, Jossenth, K'lvin, Viseya, Aydhan, Casmari, R'lor, Kadira, Avicath, C'rin

Aydhara

It had been a little unnerving to just be having lunch on the hatching sands with no real chaperone other than Avicath, who was more furniture than babysitter, but Aydhara had insisted it was fine, and so far, it seemed to be. The bronze hadn’t even been upset when Digger had landed on an egg, if anything, he’d seemed pleased at the attention and the approving trills of the brown.

“So, how did you get away without doing craft studies?” Cirina asked curiously, “Everyone just keeps insisting I should be focusing on my craft until I Impress. It’s the worst.”

"There's always a Weyrlingmaster that strongly encourages it." Aydhara said around a mouthful of sandwich. "I asked the Weyrlingmaster in 'Reaches what was wrong with working in the Lower Caverns. He got real red in the face. People haven't been too bad about it here."

“Weyrlingmasters,” Cirina stressed the plural, “and my parents, and my brother, and my friends,” she sighed. “Everyone tells me to spend more time on my craft while I wait for my dragon, but no one seems to care I don’t want to do it. Can you imagine, wandering around Pern on circuit on foot? No dragon?”

Aydhara made a face. "And why bother going on circuit when you can live at a Weyr? The Lower Caverns never sends you out into the cotholds in the middle of nowhere. I might get to do a patrol at the hold once in a while, but that's just a short walk. Sure, I could probably be a harper or something. I can read. But with the guards I can spar and play with knives."

“I’d love to explore, don’t get me wrong, I just want to go home to my own bed at night. I wouldn’t want to be just… trapped in a Hold during bad weather or Thread,” Cirina’s shudder was a little exaggerated. “You could be a harper, but there’s so many of them at the Weyrs already. I’ll never be good enough to get posted at a Weyr, and I’d hate living somewhere I was good enough to get sent. O’rosin has told horror stories about the little cothold he grew up on.” They probably hadn’t been meant to be horror stories.

“I figured Harpering would make me a better rider, but I didn’t want to actually do it. I thought all the history and geography and all that would be useful for like… Searching or working with weyrlings. Not actual Harpering.” Cirina dramatically flopped onto the sand, though it only lasted a few moments before it got too hot on her bare arms.

"You know they teach all that stuff in weyrling training, yes? Like even the little so-and-sos that were Searched at twenty get that kind of training." Aydhara said and made another face. It was rude that some stupid guy like H'taysh could go out on Search and be expected to represent the Weyr when he hardly knew anything at all.

“Yeah, but not as deep. I think it’s fun to really know the history of places, more than just the basics. But anyway, the point was I didn’t want that to be my whole career, you know. I just thought it would make me a better dragonrider. It hasn’t even made me more interesting to the dragons! They don’t even look at me.” Except for when they did. And rejected her. Cirina was pretending that had never happened.

"Well what does a new baby think of the history of Benden Weyr?" Aydhara asked. "Maybe your dragon will think that's really interesting and you can brag to me about it." She pulled a piece of her sandwich apart and held it out for Slate, who grabbed it quickly and scuttled away. She glanced over at the eggs, then back at Cirina. "Hey, do Dolphin Cove golds let you get this close?"

“My dragon would love history. It’s why they’ll be my dragon. And adventure. And flying.” Sighing, Cirina looked around at how close they were to the eggs, “Not usually. Panitath barely lets us do the egg touching since the poisoning incident, it’s why I risked sneaking onto the sands, for all the good that did me. Jossenth was a little easier going, but she wasn’t around for the poisoning. Your mom’s gold seems… very chill. So is Avicath, for that matter. I thought Loseth was gonna eat me and Zarkarth pushed me away from an egg I was ‘hoarding’.”

"Tymborikath isn't _neglectful_, but she definitely doesn't care as much as the other golds. She loves the attention more than the eggs." Aydhara said, "Though she hasn't had anyone trying to harm them, and Mom doesn't care to try and enforce it." She fed the last of her sandwich to Slate and climbed to her feet. "Come touch some eggs with me. Maybe one of them will get the hint if someone else is telling them."

“I don't think the egg touching does anything,” Cirina said morosely, “I touched Jossenth’s eggs for hours,” an overstatement, but not an extreme one, “and you saw how that worked.” Still she got to her feet, brushing sand off. “Do you have a favorite?”

"Don't tell my Mom that. She'll give you a speech." Aydhara said, rolling her eyes like a dramatic teenager. "It's for us, not the eggs. Like we need that kind of help. Whether or not the dragonets can hear or understand us isn't clear. But! I like this one best." Aydhara led her over to the favorite egg, barely distinguishable from all the other ones except for the slightly different splash of brown freckling. "Big enough for a blue, I think. Not so big that it's a stupid bronze."

“Yeah, but how does it help either of us?” Cirina grumbled. “Oh, it has nice little freckles all around the top there. It’s very pretty. I'll bet that one over there that's kind of short and fat is a bronze.” Cirina was blissfully unaware of the giant eye that opened behind her at the words “fat” and “bronze” in the same sentence. “Digger likes that one, it's not as pointy as the others.” She pointed to where the little brown dozed on a smaller egg.

"Maybe Digger will Impress that one." Aydhara said. "Yeah I'm staying away from any of them that are really big and really small." She knelt down and brushed her hands across the freckles. "Forty is a lot. Surely I have a good chance in this batch, right?"

“Would you really say no to a green if it wanted you?” Cirina asked. “I wouldn’t say no to anything at this point; I’d have taken that giant blue if he’d just given me a chance. I could have made it as a bluerider.”

"You would be an amazing bluerider." Aydhara agreed. "Of course not, because I wouldn't have much choice in it if she made up her mind. I wouldn't be mad at her or anything, like the girls that want gold. But I'll do just about anything to nudge a blue in the right direction."

“I really thought that blue was going to pick me for a moment,” Cirina reached out despite her best intentions, running her fingers over one of the nearby eggs. “It would have been weird- I thought all the girl blue riders liked girls, but it wouldn’t have been bad or anything.”

"I'm not sure if Kadira does." Aydhara answered automatically, because she had this information catalogued and ready at a moment's notice. "I guess it makes sense if it skews a certain way, since everyone assumes that men on greens like other men."

“Maybe. But not all greenriders, so maybe not all blueriders? Do you think something actually changed, or do you think it’s just because people are thinking about it now? Like a few Turns ago I would have just backed away from a blue and let it head over to the boys,” Cirina admitted.

"It probably helped." Aydhara said. "Like when nobody thought girls could Impress green. That was a thing that happened, once upon a time. Now look at how many women there are in the Wings. We even have a woman weyrlingmaster now. I think you'd like her."

“Oh, I’d heard that. That must be nice. You know R’lor suggested a strap on for one of our female blueriders,” Cirina rolled her eyes, “it’d be nice to have a weyrlingmaster who understood women.”

"Eeew. Thank Faranth for Viseya. And K'lvin, I guess. Casmari hasn't tried that on me, if he did suggest it. I can't imagine something I'd like less. Men really can't fathom doing anything without that, can they?" Aydhara asked with a matching eyeroll. "I don't know what you see in them. The only boy I'm interested in is my little blue, and he'll be _perfect_."

“Maybe the boys you were with were doing it wrong? You should give A’radess a go. He’s got those shoulders. And those back muscles.” Cirina sighed dreamily, “I just love climbing him like a tree. I mean, I’m sure girls are fine and all that, I mean, most of us smell better and we’re cleaner, but there are things boys can do without extra equipment.”

"Ew, no way. You've been around Tirraze too long. You're doing it wrong if you need extra equipment." Aydhara couldn't keep the displeasure off her face this time. "I'd tell A'radess you said that, but then he'd start asking all these questions about where your posting is and if he can see you. You need to tone down whatever you're doing to him."

“It’s not my fault Caprina is so captivating. She’s an adventurous and successful young lady, you know. “And A’radess is so… nice. And tall,” she sighed dreamily, “All the boys at Dolphin Cove like boys. There’s something fishy going on there.”

"It's almost like a place where there's more men Impressing than women means the Wings would skew towards men that like men." Aydhara deadpanned. "That's my theory, anyway. Surely the dragons wouldn't pick someone that was staunchly against all the dragonflight stuff, right? Or couldn't handle it, at least. Boys are 'eh', but a mediocre half-candlemark won't hurt."

“That makes sense, but surely the search riders are skewing the numbers just to hurt me,” Cirina said seriously. “I wonder if I could bribe one to find some straight holder boys…” Her mood at least seemed lifted, by the chatter or the eggs, it didn’t really matter.

Last updated on the November 29th 2025

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Don't Be Suspicious