Quinn

Quinn looked up when he felt the surge of air and the fear of his herds. There were dragons flying over the beasthold again. They should now better! Sure, they needed them, but they also needed the meat and wool of the herd beasts. Scaring them half to death wasn't good for them.

Quinn only is 24 turns of age, but he knows every move of his beasts like the back of his hand. He is small compared to most men, but people who had thought him an easy win, had soon found out they were wrong. His arms and legs are muscled and there is a twinkle in his brown eyes, daring people to try him. His blond, almost white hair is kept close to his scalp. He doesn't seek the company of other humans much, except the other herders when there are felines around. His Craft is everything to him. 

He led his beast further along some plains in the relative cool of the Southern Continent Dawn. They needed to be somewhere shady with enough grass by noon when it would be too hot for hiking far. These were usually the times when he wanted a canine, or even a firelizard to help him herd. The cattle were still nervous from the dragons and left the trail at any chance they got. He didn't have time to loose as he wanted to get to a summer gather in the nearby Hold to sell of some of his older animals for meat and buy new males, because he had lost 2 prime animals when they ran from dragons, right of a cliff edge. He mumbled some curses and managed to get a female back in line, right before she would have been caught in the fast currents of the river. He couldn't afford to lose anymore of his herd.
When he arrived at the Hold, without anymore losses, he first stabled his animals and made sure they were secure and well cared for. The Gather would be held tomorrow, so he had to go and secure a spot today and hope it would be a good one. He had been cheated before, some of these holders weren't all honest in their ways, some were however and he had heard good things about this one. He managed to get a spot close enough to the stables and a good visible one too.
He spent the night among his animals in the stable. Guarding more than sleeping. Thinking more than guarding. He seemed to think a lot lately, of better times when he and his sister had herded together. He would never forgive himself for letting her go after that runaway alone. But he had been busy with a birth, he couldn't be missed. If he had gone, maybe he would have stood a chance against the feline. He knew he shouldn't think like that, he would have been killed too, but at least Synea would have still been alive...He went on for hours like this, thinking, feeling guilty until he finally fell asleep.
The next day he took 10 beasts to the Gather he hoped to sell. They were all well fed and healthy, but well in their life. He hoped to find a cook that wouldn't mind having them slaughtered on his own expense, he would get them at a good enough price. Quinn didn't need to wait long for the first possible buyers, but they turned out to be holders, wanting to get breeding stock themselves. The second customer came around noon, and was what Quinn needed, a cook. After a large session of haggling and looking angry, they got to an agreement that made both of them happy. Now that he had some marks on him he could check out the breeding stock. He struggled through, what seemed to him, huge masses of people to get to the other side were he had spotted some interesting material. He got there and saw that there were still a good dozen left. He would only need to buy 2 males and 3 females, so he would have some marks left to get some decent cooked food and wine tonight. He got the sellers attention and they made a deal, with less haggling and shouting this time, because both of them were herders and knew what there stock was worth.
He was leading his new animals to the stables when suddenly a blue dragon flew over from behind him. Quinn felt the anxiety, but was too late and not accustomed enough to the young herd beast to keep them in his control. They fled, knocking over and stepping on everything that crossed their path. Quinn ran after his animals, but they were struggling to keep alive and a lot faster then him, if he didn't get them cornered, he could lose them.
Suddenly a green dragon emerged right in front of the running cattle forcing them to turn to the stable area. After the rider had driven them into a, conveniently, empty pasture, the dragon landed and her rider got off. She waited patiently for him to reach her, out of breath of course from the long run. She looked at him and started:
"I'm sorry for your inconvenience, but P'mir and his Siyeth are still young, they didn't now about the gather and didn't avoid it like the rest of us."
Quinn, having expected anything but this, stood speechless and on top of all, this green dragon kept on swaying her head right in front of them. Then she looked back at her rider and made a funny noise. Her rider looked at her and then turned to him.
"Say, Phaysath just tells me you would do great on a hatching. That's why we were out here by the way. Would you consider being a candidate?"
Quinn caught his breath and thought of it... It would mean leaving his cattle, but it would also mean, bonding with a dragon, flying...just to be on the safe side he said
"I might, but I won't sell my herd, or add it to the Weyr's supplies before I have impressed."

~***~

HATCHING
Quinn awoke to with the sweet melodic sounds of the dragons humming. At first he thought he was still dreaming. But then a voice called out
"Everyone up that is standing for the green’s clutch! Zironath’s clutch is hatching."
Excited Quinn jumped out of bed. He had been waiting so long and learned so much in the time he had been here. His rule about not adding his herd to the Weyr's supplies had long been broken and he hadn't regretted it yet.
When Quinn reached the hatching sands, the candidates saw three dragons had already hatched. A brown and green made their way to a chosen, but the blue got cought up with another egg that hatched another blue. Both dragons were caught in each others wings, making it impossible for them to move and impress. Quinn had to help. This was no different from delivering a new lamb that was turned wrong, though helping these dragon was easier.
'One of these is mine' went through Quinn's head as he was touching the big pile of blue limbs.
At last the dragons were seperated adn Quinn was standing next to one of them and tried to get closer. But the blue pulled away and switched places with his brother.
The other blue had 2 oozing lines on his side. He had dealt with cattle, but these cuts were weird. First of all the green of the ... erm blood? and it didn't run, it was thick and sticky.
"It hurts! Ampeth hurt me!" the blue whimpered as Quinn touched one of the cuts.
"Not on purpose, Tueth. You two just wanted to hatch in the same spot at the same time. That’s impossible."
Quinn looked around. Wasn't anyone going to help them?
"What's happened here?" a man asked.
"Two cuts when we were unhooking them." Quinn said, slightly worried.
"Nothing to be worried about, I'll just put on some numbweed and he'll be fine."
The numbweed had just started to work it's magic when Tueth suddenly realised something:
"Quinn, I'm very hungry, I could eat an entire runningbeast!"

TUETH

~***~

WEYRLING
"I'm hungry!" Tueth called out.
"Again?"
"I'm a growing dragon! Of course I am."
Quinn sighed, "Ok we'll go by the feeding pen again, but if you keep up like this much longer my stock will be wiped out. You eat all of them!"
"They're tasty!" Tueth called out, "It's very good stock."
"Yeah yeah, quit with the flattery and eat so we can get rid of this churning feeling in our bellies... If you stay like this long I'll be round as a barrel because you have me eating that much more."
"You're skinny, you could use more flesh."
"No, I could use more muscle, not fat, fat makes me heavy and then you won't be able to get off the ground with me on you."
"I'm strong!"
"Of course you are, but still I'd like to be sure."
"You're so light I could easily carry 3 of you." Tueth boasted.
"Now that I'd like to see."
"Wanna give it a try?" Tueth winked.
"Not for all the marks on pern."
"You're no fun at all."

~***~

ADULT
"You remember you never being fun?" Tueth asked.
"You've made sure I don't forget how un-fun I am, Tueth. You know that. I can't live a day without you reminding."
"Well now you have a chance to prove me wrong."
"I have? What do you want me to do now? Go for a wild ride between mountain tops while flying upside down? Or maybe teleport inches from the ground? Or wait! run naked through the snow!"
"Not one of those, though i have to remember that snow one, it might be fun for afterwards."
"What is it?"
"I want to fly."
"Plenty of females around." Quinn added, "I don't know why that would make me fun. In fact you've participated in a few flights already."
"Just like that. I'd never say you were un-fun again."
"I doubt that'd be true, but to even go a year without it would be worth it."
"Great! I've already registered us!"
"Then why did I need to ok it."
"Just a chance to prove how fun you can be... like I said. Let's go!"
"Can't this wait a few days?"
"Noooo!"
Quinn sighed as his dragon pushed him to his weyr to get the necessary clothes and backpack to travel offworld, all the while reminding him to be quicker.

~***~

Quinn impressed at Isla Weyr.

Lantessama Isle