Sarabande

Partners in Crime
Sarabande looks around. Nobody is here to see her. Good. She closes in on her goal. Step by step she moves as quietly as she can, getting closer. She bites her lip in the effort of being silent...closer, closer, she's almost there....Shards! She hears footsteps! quickly she runs to a nearby passageway and hides in the dark. A questioning chirp startles her.
"No menuet, I haven't gotten there yet, we have to be quiet now"

Menuet, the Black firelizard

The voices of 2 women get louder and Sarabande recognises her own mother's voice.
"Have you seen Sarabande?" asks her mother
"Hmmm, I think I saw her running around here somewhere." answers the second, she sounded like the headwoman.
"I swear that child gives me gray hair! I can just feel her being mischievous somewhere."
"Hannia, aren't you exaggerating?"
"No! A mother feels these things....It is almost like she is here"
The voices wander of and the room is left to Sarabande. Pfew, almost caught! She dashes to the bowl of sweets and takes out a handful. She runs back to the passageway and sneaks back to her room. Menuet starts to nudge her for food and almost shokes on the sweets. She only got the little firelizard a week ago for her 13th birthday. It was a surprise to everyone when the little guy turned out to be a black. The best birthday present however, she got from her dad, Rider of Brown Haleth, he promised her she would be a candidate in the next hatching.
She combs her long black hair and straightens her dress. There! Now she doesn't look like she's been wandering through the halls anymore. Trying to look innocent, she goes out and watches the weyrlings train... "Almost" she whispers...

After weeks of waiting, there finally is a new clutch on the sand. Sarabande, like the other candidates is often taken to the clutch and made familiar with how they look and feel, but probably also for the mother dragon to get to know the candidates.
On the second of those trips Sarabande notices a rather awkward boy about her own age. He just stood in front of this one egg...not even touching it. The now full grown Menuet lands on her shoulder and tilts his head in a perfect imitaion of his owner.

"What are you doing?" she asks the boy.
"I don't want to disturb the dragon..."
"There is little to disturb now, plus sometimes I've heared you can feel them move in the shell! But I don't know if that is true."
"Won't I do anything wrong? What if I fall over it?"
"You won't! I'm Sarabande, what's your name?"
"Alani."
"That's enough time for today boys and girls! Let's go eat!" the rider in charge exclaimed.

~***~

Sarabande entered the hatching grounds along with the others. She had been there many times before, but never, she knew would it be the same as this day...She hesitated for a moment, what if she didn't impress? Quickly she shook her head and looked confidently at the others, carefully smiling at Alani. He didn't notice her, of course, it was his first hatching and you could just see him think.
The eggs started rocking and everyone's attention was drawn to the little green to emerge first. She went to Nema, Sarabande knew her and was happy she had impressed this time. Of course, that meant one less female dragon for her....Menuet pulled her hair, and made her look at this silly blue who bumped into Alani. He was so happy!
The brown found his rider easy, hmmm, he wasn't all brown, he had bronze wings....this clutch was surely turning out to be special. The next hatchling was bright, a white she thought, the sun glinstering....no, it was silver! The next was a white and a female, she looked at it and hoped, but this one wasn't her partner.
Only 2 eggs left....she was feeling tense, one of those had to be a female, right?
The bigger one cracked and 2, how could this be? 2 mottled blue dragons emerged, to her consternation, one of it definatly had a female look to it....but the twins found their riders and left the sands.
The last egg rocked....and gently the shells dropped away, almost like leaves in a summer breeze she thought, wich was stupid, because those sheels were heavy. She laughed at her silly thoughts. But then Menuet flew at the egg and helped remove the shell. The green seemed to bounce and looked up at Sarabande:
"Hehe! Tricked you! Together, Sarabande, we'll be having fun soon! You and Ryuath!"
Sarabande smiled and said:
"Ryuath, hm? Well, I'm glad that you fit my personality..."
All the fear was gone now, only hunger remained, and the feeling of future joy. In her mind she projected images of flying and daring stunts, of chases and tricks....

RYUATH

Adult
At 17 years of age Sarabande had grown quite a bit from the weyrbrat she'd been. Lately heads had started turning when she passed by and the young woman didn't quite know how to handle the attention. The maturing green dragon that was her bond didn't help much either. Soon Ryuath would be ready to fly. And what would happen then? Sarabande hadn't given much thought to love. There was so much to do, such interesting things to try out and discover. Yet at the same time she didn't feel ready at all for these feelings she'd heard the other adult riders talk about. Could it really be alright to just lay with another rider because their dragons were mating? Would they see each other afterwards? Wouldn't that be awkward?
Exactly how had it been for her mother? What had she felt every time a green or gold rose to the skies? Had she been jealous? Or scared that Her father's brown would give chase? Or could she accept that part of the relationship with her father.
"I bet the had an arrangement made." Ryuath interrupted.
"Arrangement?"
"Haven't you noticed that not all riders go to the rising female's den? In fact there's even dragons out there without riders that've been participating. There's been quite a liberation going on."
"Is there?"
"I'm not going to force you against your will you know. It's a rider's choice that helps decide the final outcome. Who knows you might find someone to match your taste."
"What? Someone's who's adventurous, kind and under-standing will magically appear to make me feel at ease?"
"You won't know until you try. Isn't that a great adventure?"
"Sounds like risky business to me."

~***~

Sarabande impressed at Beach Shards Weyr.
Lantessama Isle