Candidacy Page for Cathair Fionabhainn
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FULL MOON
"Umbrea Nexis, Aurea Vivit!" Greyelle exclaimed and the dark of the night was lifted. A thousand dragonflies seemed to surround her dark body and hair, while her transparent eyes were illuminated by a deep green light from within. Greyelle was one of the Night People, the Noxians. They dwelled in the shadows and had mystical powers. At her young age, Greyelle already possessed the knowledge of the ancients and had lived several lives.
Noxians were said to be able to teleport, read minds and perform other magic by casting spells. They were said to be evil and kill humans that came too close to them. No-one on the small planet of Erizon had ever seen them, but everyone knew they were real.
Not all of this was true however. Noxians were highly intelligent humanoids with black skins and dark fragile wings on their back, they had white transparent eyes, that sometimes reflected all colours of the spectrum. Their wings shielded their bodies and cloaked them. During the day they looked like normal humans and lived normal lives. At night they became Noxians. Black as they were in their Noxian form, they adored the light and lifted the dark wherever possible. They could read minds, but almost never did it, because they valued privacy.
Greyelle was on her way to the Full Moon Gathering, a weekly tradition when the elders recited the story of the Journey to Erizon. There was no sound in the forests of Erizon, at night all animal life slept. There were no nocturnal animals, unless the Noxians summoned them. The animals still remembered the early years when the Noxians had lived with them during the day. Greyelle could feel the sad thoughts of the animals when they noticed a Noxian passed them in their sleep. In those days they hadn't been called Noxians, they had been the Xinaith, the Enlightened Ones.
Greyelle felt the presence of the other Xinaith, only 200 of them nowadays and picked up the thoughts of the 2 elders reciting the story.

And so, in the days before Erizon,
When all Xinaith lived on Werekian
Our Elders:
Densi, Jurea and Seleni
noticed the calm of Erizon.
They teleported here with 5 others:
Wavern, Gerondyl, Lio, Predia and Xenet.
Life was good for the first 8 Xinaith on Erizon.
They multiplied to 1500 in 200 years
All this time carefully taking care of the planet.
when the humans finally came.
The Elders approached them and asked for a gather.
But the humans looked down on Them,
seeing they weren't wearing clothes,
only dressed in their wings.
When they saw Their humble shelters
in the friendly forests.
They laughed and called them savages.
Then, The Elders showed their gifts.
They looked interested when they teleported,
slightly concerned when they read their minds.
but when The Elders casted a simple Spell
The humans got scared and ran
away from us and chose to forget us.
But no human could forget the Gifts.
And thus the Xinaith became the Noxians. 

At the end of the story all Xinaith sang one silent sad tone, weaving it to a sad melody as they asked Erizon how she was holding on. A soft red light emerged and swayed softly. 5 more Xinaith had to go to balance the planet again. The 2 elders usually picked the ones who would leave. They had a free choice to where they were sent and, if they decided to leave together, could start another community. But Xinaith didn't really need to be with more then one to make a child, nor did they have to die. There were a lot of planets out there to be inhabited.
Greyelle sighed. She felt she would be leaving the planet the next full moon. Somehow she always had strong premonitions about how her life would go. She didn't quite believe in destiny and fate, but she knew some things were woven into the fabric of time. She knew the humans would continue having children, therefore, others would have to leave. She was considered ready. But she didn't want to leave. If only she could stop the humans somehow.
The beginnings of a daring plan entered her mind. She quickly suppressed it. She couldn't reveal herself as a Noxian in her human form! There would be a witch-hunt! Then she smiled, if she would go in her nightly form however....
When the full moon had left the sky and the sun started dawning, most Xinaith left to their houses. Greyelle however was stopped by one of the elders.
"I've seen your thoughts my dear. They are loud and daring, full of youth's spirit. A lot of Xinaith have tried, but none have succeeded. Mostly they only managed to frighten the humans even more."
"How is it that I don't know this?"
"All memory was wiped away to keep our people a secret."
He vanished and Greyelle was left alone. She would have to hurry back to get home in time. Her 'parents' were already at home.

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DAYLIGHT
Greyelle flew into her window and changed into her day self. She was a young female with brown hair and green eyes. She was rather small and slender. She stretched her arms, getting into character. Although they could pick how they looked, a daytime body never fitted as well as her real self. As on all colonized planets she was required to attend school until her 21st year. By that time she would be found fit to go on on her own way in a trade of her choosing. Greyelle was still very motivated in school. She had heard it would become boring after the 6th time. She wouldn't know. She had been one of the last 3 Xinaith to be born. At that time only 100 humans inhabited the planet. It was considered a low-resource planet. But then the humans had found the metal that made Erizon special. In 20 years the population of humans had been multiplied by 10000. Countless ships had arrived to drop tools and humans to strip Erizon dry. Little did the humans know that the metal Erizon produced was a way of survival. The planet needed it to maintain her path in the solar system. In the long run, maybe in another 200 years, all life would be impossible on Erizon.
Greyelle dressed herself in long light green trousers and a white blouse. She combed her now rather short brown hair and grabbed her backpack. They had a fieldtrip today, to one of the mining sites. It would be the perfect opportunity for her to work on her plan.
She had to run to get to school on time. Erizon workdays started early on the day when the light was still dim and ended when the light was at it's highest around the noon, 6 hours later. They would take the hover-plain to the mine, a huge spherelike craft with 3 rows of seats and a desk in front, no time was wasted. In the hover-plain they were taught about the basics of mining and why Erizon's Ore was so important. Greyelle couldn't care less. In stead she took out a piece of paper and wrote a note to her best human friend, a girl called Nadine.
"Boring!" Greyelle started.
"Wanna here a story about the Noxians? I got a real bloody one..." Nadine wrote back.
"Nah, that stuff's for kids, I don't believe in them..."
"There could be other life here...But if there was, I doubt they'd be as violent as said in the fairy tails."
"Really? Explain."
"If you were as powerful as these Noxians are supposed to be, would you let your home be taken over? I sure as hell wouldn't."
"True, what would you do if you saw one?"
"Talk to it of course, ask it if it's real."
"You wouldn't even be scared a little bit?"
"No, not me."
Hope lit up in Greyelle's mind, maybe the times had changed. Of course, she shouldn't appear flying with fireballs shooting from her eyes, not that she could do that. She would have to appear totally harmless.
The fieldtrip was indeed very boring, with visits to dumpsites and a special museum for the schools. They didn't get to see any of the real mining, probably because it was all automized. There was nothing fun at seeing a robot drill into a defenceless planet...That was Greyelle's point of view.
Back outside the mining complex, waiting for the hover-plain to return, Greyelle turned to the sun and felt the irritating nothingness of the beams on her skin. In her Xinaith body, the sun would almost recharge her, making her capable of far more than she could ever do now. She had never felt the sun on her real skin, and knew she was probably better off than some of the others. But still she yearned to feel the sun.

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NIGHT TIME PLANS
A new full moon was hanging above Erizon. And Greyelle was on her way to Full Moon Gathering once again. Her last she thought pessimistic. She was somewhat sad about leaving Erizon, but also angry towards the humans....but more even, she was scared, scared of all this commotion inside her, scared of all the anger. She had never felt like this before. So determined to fight.
She was the only one who would leave this week. And that was for the best, she didn't know what she was going to do after her plan, hopefully she wouldn't have to leave. If the humans listened they might just leave Erizon to them. She sighed, who was she kidding! She would have to leave anyway. She would just teleport and see where she got. First she had to warn the elder though, he would have to know when she started, just in case her plan failed.
"I talked to the humans, elder, none are afraid of the Noxians, all think that alien life should be treated with respect. Maybe things have changed."
"We will see, humans don't like to see their worst nightmares come true. Even if they brag about not believing them. What date have you picked?"
"Tomorrow, high noon."
"Go now, may Erizon be with you." The elder closed his eyes and teleported.
Suddenly the clearing was deserted, she was alone. She sat down and watched the moon set and the stars fade. Would she fade out of the memory of her human friends when she didn't return like the stars faded in the morning sky? Maybe that was for the best. They probably would never connect her to the myths around the Noxians. When the sun started to show Greyelle held her breath and closed her eyes. Desperately wanting to know how the sun felt, but scared of the possible consequences. 

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FEELING THE SUN
The feeling was almost indescribable. Greyelle felt the lines of every shadow on her skin and had a sensation like all particles in her body widened somehow. If you would have asked her that moment if she could tell you the exact physical combination of sunlight, she would have done it. It changed her, more then she'd ever know, she could have never gone back after this.
After 3 hours of sunlight, Greyelle was charged like never before. She decided she could teleport to the forests around her home town and then enter the main square walking. She would pose the least thread to the humans like that. She stood there silently and counted the minutes for the bells too sound the end of the day. The day world was as much known to her as the night world.
The bell sounded. The first people emerged and walked meters before they noticed her. She raised her hands to make them see she was unarmed. By this time all humans were outside, the day was quieter than graveyard at midnight. But that was just the outside world. The inner world was loud, shouting sounded, some frightened, some not sure what to do. Greyelle opened her mouth and started to sing, long notes, reforming the air, showing them what they were doing to Erizon. But the anxiety turned into panic and rage. The shouting got harder and harder until her head couldn't take it anymore.
She was going to die.

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THE PRESENCE
But in all the commotion, all the hatred and anxiety nearly killing her, one solid voice kept her standing.
"Don't die! I need you!" soft and gentile and yet powerful enough to overpower all the others.
"Who are you?"
She reached towards the presence. Flashes reached her, eggs, sand, wings and a sunset that never ended. A great peace came over her, enough for her to focus and teleport out, back to the clearing.
The images kept swirling in her head, she couldn't ban them. Especially the eternal sunset, an eternal sunset meant a planet that wasn't rotating....with one half being in constant daylight. However hard she tried, she would, from now on, never be happy with moonlight again.
"There are many worlds with eternal sunsets, my dear, but only one with the one that has called you."
She turned quickly and saw the elder approach her.
"They all died didn't they? All the others who tried to change things!"
"Not all, but we weren't able to save them all, some were more vulnerable."
She refused to let him come any closer.
"How could you let me go, knowing about the others!" She wiped away the tears from frustration, anger and a deep need for company and turned her head down.
"You nearly killed me."
"It was your decision to go. We would have been able to help you, but you left before we could organise. Nothing ever goes away completely. The others are out there. Not all as Xinaith, and we won't recognise those when we see them, but they aren't gone."
The elder turned away, then he turned one last time and showed her what she needed. Her first direction to the unhatched creature.
"There are creatures like your presence on this planet the humans call Pern, remember it's location. Dragonriders are pretty tolerant, most have seen weirder and more powerful life forms than we are. They will help you."

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TRAVELLING SPACE: PERN
The elder had said Pern and shown her how to get here, so now she was...but this wasn't were the voice came from. She sensed it, she was closer to it, yes, but not on the same planet. There were endless worlds, a large part of those could have sentient life on them. She couldn't check all of them. And how would she ever get to them? She needed directions to get on another planet. She sat down and sighed...she would have to find out if the people that lived here, humans none the less, knew about other worlds with dragons. She didn't feel at all like talking to humans again any time soon. Her last experience had been enough. Maybe the dragons knew.
She reached out mentally and touched the brain of a queen.
"Who is here with me?" Drisalath asked.
Greyelle instantly knew all about the dragon, even things Drisalath had forgotten.
"I am Greyelle and I search for this presence."
She showed Drisalath.
"It sounds vaguely familiar, but I cannot take you there, the humans have maps."
The thought about talking to humans distressed Greyelle so much she almost lost contact.
"I know of one who needs some distraction..." Drisalath began
"Isn't there another way?" Greyelle begged.
"Not likely, not the way you travel..." The queen said.
"He is out now, sleeping...his flit was quite disturbed earlier. He didn't impress any of my children you see, he wasn't meant for them."
Drisalath showed her the place.
Greyelle travelled there and saw the boy was indeed sleeping. She stood there for a while, not knowing what to do. She bowed down and concentrated, she was about to gain access to his dream when suddenly the brown flit she had overlooked in her anxiety chirped. The damned creature woke him up. Hastily she backed away and prayed to everything that seemed important for him not too scream. He was pretty close too screaming too. There was probably no-one around to hear him, but still. Maybe his flit would go between and alert others.
It took quite some time for him to decide what to do....he stared at her for a full 10 minutes before he opened his mouth again. She braced herself.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I am Greyelle." she said.
"And....eh....what are you doing here?"
"I have come to talk to you, Drisalath said you would help me."
"You know Drisalath? She spoke to you? The one queen who has never ever spoke to another human being besides her rider before? That Drisalath?"
Saying the dragon's name seemed like sheer genius...she hadn't known it would have that great an effect on him. She relaxed a bit and was rewarded by a quick look in the boys mind. His mind broadcasted loud and clear on all ranges how much he wanted a dragon.
"Yes, that would be her."
"What does she think I can do?"
"Get the star maps to show me the way to Alskyr."
"But that would mean stealing them from the Weyrleader!" It wasn't something he would do for everyone, but she sensed he liked the idea already.
"Why do you want to go to Alskyr in the first place? If I remember correctly, everything you have there can be found here as well."
"Not everything, not the one who calls me." Greyelle became sad as she thought about the presence, she was running out of time.
"Ah, and who is calling you?"
"not yet who in fact....the dragon hasn't hatched yet, but it wants me."
"And how would you explain an unborn dragon talking to you?"
"The same way I explain Drisalath speaking to me...they can and they do."  She focused her mind back on the present.
"So, will you help me get the maps?"
"I might be able to get them for you. But how are you going to get to Alskyr once you have the maps?"
She almost cried out in relief. He would help her and he didn't seem to be like any other human on Erizon. He was very open and besides his initial staring hadn't said a word about her looks.
"I'll get there, don't worry about that." Greyelle got up. "You just get me those maps." And walked off in the forest...
"I'll be here again, same time tomorrow!" She heard him shout from the clearing. Didn't matter, she could find him anywhere.
She focused her mind on the dragon "Now Drisalath, help him. Is there anything I might be able to do for you?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, you can take him with you."
"Why would he want to come with me? He's better off here, he'll probably impress a dragon the next clutch, the way his brain shouts anyway. I'm surprised no dragon has talked to him before."
"Oh, they have, but he just thought he was dreaming."
"I just can't, not just take him...."
"I understand." The dragon put her head down again and fell asleep.

Greyelle waited patiently on the clearing. Meditating and regaining some strength for a large interstellar teleport. Finally, about 3 hours in her second day on Pern she went to sleep.
She woke up from the sun shining on her face. She sat down for a while and enjoyed the feeling before she got up and hid in the trees again.
He came a lot sooner than he'd said. But she had expected it. He fell asleep...she wondered how someone could just sleep like that. She climbed down and waited for him to release the sack. Then she took it.
That dratted firelizard woke him up again! How could she keep forgetting he had one? She started running for the trees.
"What are you doing? Shouldn't you at least thank me?" Yan yelled, this was what she had wanted to avoid. She stopped running and turned round. She stood silently while he yelled at her.
"You know it's not nice to leave me here! I did a very risky thing and could have been caught! And then leave me while I sleep?! I don't think so!"
She grew desperate. He would keep yelling and she would be unable to go without remembering. Every word would resonate in her, like the other words still did. She started crying.
"What kind of weird creature are you anyway?"
That was about the last she could take, he had seemed so nice and hadn't commented on her appearance.
Then, silence. He had stopped.
"Well, it's not something to cry about....I just think you should have thanked me."
"Why would you want to have anything else to do with me? As you said, your part in this was over and everything turned out ok, I made sure of that."
"Maybe, but I want to come with. No buts, I want to go to Alskyr and there's no stopping me. So, how where you planning on getting to another planet without a dragon?"
She knew he was going to come...Drisalath had known too. Maybe he would do good at the hatching aswell. The little unborn had said it was with many others yet still alone.
"Like this.", she said and took him by the shoulders as they teleported.   

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TRAVELLING SPACE: ALSKYR
They arrived at Alskyr midair, flying above a small island at dusk. Greyelle carefully winged down and let Yan go.
"I've landed us on a deserted island. You can go back if you want. But you have to decide now." She had to try one last time, but she didn't really want him to go.
"Oh no, I'm coming!"
"Good, because this isn't the right place." Greyelle said, they were close, but not close enough. "Now you can ask for other dragon worlds."
"Letting me do all the dirty work...I see, k, point me to the nearest human and I'll ask."
"The nearest human will be here in exact 8 minutes and 15 seconds."
"How do you know that?"
"Don't know, I just do, just trust me on this."
"You sound really familiar, are you sure there isn't still a part of Drisalath in you?"
She was heading for the trees when he took her arm. To her surprise he started running. She was so shocked she couldn't escape. What was he doing! Then she saw the young man walking towards them...
"Hey! Wait a sec, we need you!" Yan shouted
"I can't help you, I don't know where I am exactly either." The man replied, Greyelle held her breath and tried to hide behind Yan. She didn't want to be seen. He would hurt her.
"We need to find a planet with dragons on it."
"Well, Alskyr has dragons in the Caers."
"We know, but we are looking for a planet with an eternal sunset apparently." She felt Yan looking at her. He didn't understand. She just couldn't be all social like he apparently could. She felt alone and even more miserable. To confuse herself she looked up at the two little flitters, terribly aware of what the man called Bryan was thinking of her. She wasn't Death.
"I can't think of one right now, but they might know more in the Caers. A lot of offworlders pass through there. They might know about your sunset world. But you won't get their soon, the nearest Caer is miles away!"
"Oh, we'll get there."
"Greyelle, do you know where you should go?" Greyelle had subconsciously followed the conversation and  knew exactly where to go, but it took her a while to nod. To her disgust she heard Bryan ask if there was any room for him. So he didn't know what he was thinking of her. Suddenly she realised he wouldn't leave them. No, he would go on to Danach with them. She nearly collapsed, but could only nod when Yan looked at her.
She took their hands before she could change her mind and teleport to an uninhabited world. Not that she could. But she could put them down in an area near the Caer heavily shielded by trees. No-one would see her.
"What do we do now?" Bryan asked.
"We talk." Yan said.
"And you think that will just work? What's your name by the way?"
"I'm Yan. If you know how to go about it, we will be talking soon enough."
"I think we better let Greyelle stay here."
That was fine by her. Some time alone would do her good. Watch the birds and play with Juno, she didn't need to enter a Caer filled with people who could judge her.
"Greyelle, is everything ok?"
"I'm fine, don't worry about me." she said knowing very well he could see it wasn't.
"Come on, I can see it isn't ok!"
"I'll be fine once I have rested, now go."
Yan left her, looking back a bit worried and urging Juno to not leave her side. How sweet. She assured the little firelizard that everything was ok and that he was free to play with his new friends. She would call him when Yan was back.

When they came back, Greyelle saw that they had been successful. She didn't want to waste time by asking about it and just picked the information she needed right out of Yan's memory. She hoped he wouldn't mind. She felt a feeling of surprise and then knowing. He had found out something, but she didn't know what. the contact hadn't been long enough for her to know, nor for him to have found out much. She saw him looking around a bit dazzled. She too, their hands and teleported.

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TRAVELLING SPACE: DANACH
"We are here!" Greyelle exclaimed, nearly dropping the two lads in mid air.
"Are you sure?" Yan asked.
"Yes, but we have little time."
"Fine with me, why won't you fly us in closer?"
"Because that is unsafe." That wasn't the reason of course. She could have warped them in right beside the egg that called her, but she wouldn't. She would get there the others did. The thing was that she didn't dare. She hesitated. She looked up and saw the sunset....how pretty it was on this planet. Everything looked golden in it's light. As he had done before, the youngest of the trio, Yan took the lead and snapped her out of the lure of the sun.
"Well, you better give us directions, because I don't know where we might be."
"Maybe five minutes to the North."
"K, let's go!" In his youthly enthusiasm he took her arm and pulled her with him. Bryan following slightly behind as he tried to stop and examine some of the plantlife. Yan turned and saw Bryan lagging.
"Come on! You'll have plenty of time to do that, but only once to attend a Raug Hatching!!"
The boy made sense.
"I'm coming."

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That's all for Now