Veera

Storm Warning!
Veera sighed. It was too hot to be comfortable. And this in the storm season of the Southern Continent. She hoped it would cool down at least for tonight's party. It was her sister's birthday party, the little brad would turn 14 and she was 'a real lady' in her mother's eyes.

Veera herself was 20 and the second child of 6, she had 2 brothers: Sardain (23) and Livinston (15) and 3 sisters: Salma (18), Linia (15) and Mavia (14). Sardain was everything you could expect from an oldest son and an older brother, he was fair and strict and was handsome and charming enough to have found a wife soon. Salma was the prettiest of them all and was also married, to the town harper, who was probably the most exotic man in this seahold. Livinston and Linia were twins and Mavi was her mother's pride and joy. Veera however was too boyish to find a husband any time soon. She rather went along with the boats to fish then stay on shore and do what she considered stupid girlish things. She was big and square, with short black hair and icy blue eyes. She enjoyed rough seas and was known to be as strong as any man. As rewarding as it was too her to be considered as being one of the guys, her mother hated it, maybe that was even why she had started in the first place, although no, she remembered building ships from twigs and leaves when she was only 6.

The night got hold of the skies too soon. Veera was forced into a totally awkward dress in the ugliest colour green ever made. She hated it. She fled as soon as possible, which meant right after dinner, to the harbour and walked along the shoreline with her feet in the water. The sea could always calm her down. After a nice stroll she looked at the sea and said: "Goodbye, fair Lady, I promise to return to you in the morning.'
She did, the seahold's 3 ships sailed out the next morning and Veera was on the third, 'The Shipfish', of course everyone knew now that they were actually dolphins, but still the name had a nice sound to it. After they left the bay the 3 ships split up and went fishing. 'The Shipfish' went south and found an excellent to fish, calm waters and almost no wind. Veera turned to look at the skies and saw the bluest skies she had ever encountered on this side of the ocean. It felt wrong. Terribly wrong.
Not much later a squall raged over the ocean and they were right in it's path. Normally they would have ridden the storm out, 'The Shipfish' was a medium sized vessel that could support a crew of 12, with sea-anchors they would have made it. But a net got caught on a piece of debris in the water, it held them tied to the floor so the ship couldn't rise with the waves. Each wave pulled harder on the ship, rocking it violently. While Veera and the others desperately tried cutting the net's lines.
"Shards! The lines are too slippery to be cut!" Veera yelled, trying to sound over the wind.
"It's our only chance! If the squall gets the ship lined up bad she'll sink and take us with her." Sardain replied.
As usual, the squall seamed to listen in on the conversations. The next wave she finally rocked 'The Shipfish' into the worst position thinkable, dead in the waves, they'd capsize in the next attack. But Veera didn't even get to see that, because she was thrown overboard when her safety link broke.
Veera scolded herself about her imprudence when she fell overboard. She tried to grasp a tiny piece of the ship's hull, but everything was too slippery.

~***~

Total Darkness....

~***~

Awakening
Veera's head hurt. Bad. She dared opening her eyes, It seemed to be night, there was a strange light around her though. She blinked her eyes, trying to get everything in focus. How could there be a sun when the sky was dark blue? She struggled to get up, immediately growling at the feeling of pain and nausea taking control of her mind.
"Easy, I'll bring you some water." a voice said somewhere to her right.
"Who, who are you." Veera managed to say with a very soar throat.
"I'm Zaera. Amenth spotted you in the water and informed me you were alive."
Faint as she may be from laying in the water in the burning sun Veera didn't miss the th at the end of that name, she was rescued by a dragonrider.
"Why is it day and night at the same time?" she asked.
"hmm, it's very much day, the blue you see is Amenth sheltering you from the sun." She laughed "Amenth, move a bit out of the way so she can see it's day."
the sky moved away and a head appeared, a big blue head with whirly eyes, snorting, not frightening, more like asking her if she was ok.
"She'll be fine now, Amenth, good you spotted her." She turned to Veera "He has really good eyes, You weren't far from drowning." She looked concerned and asked "Will you be ok now?"
Suddenly Veera remembered how she had gotten in the water, before it all was more like a dream, she hadn't needed a reason for being in the water. She tried to get up in a rush of panic, only to be pushed back down by Zaera.
"Wait a minute, Girl! You won't leave my care until a healer has seen you!"
"But I have to see my brother! he could still be out there!"
"I can see your point. But! first the healer, Ameth can take us there in no time, once you've dried up at least."

Veera had to admit they were fast, only 30 minutes later she stood in her own hold and could ask her mother about news. The rest of the crew had been in luck. The winds had changed and had chased the squall off. They had searched for hours to find her, but she had been caught in tidal currents, ending up half a continent further where Ameth had spotted her. Clutching some wrecked wood that had kept her floating.
The relief was enormous to find her brother and friends safe at home. Suddenly thought Zaera emerged beside her and asked if she could speak her in private. Veera, grateful for being saved, would have done anything to repay her, so they went inside the hold and found an empty room.
"You see, we were out there on a search for Beach Shards Weyr. We were flying over the ocean to take a dip before we would return back when Ameth said he had spotted a candidate. I didn't believe him at first, I said only shipwrecked people got here and they were mostly dead. To my surprise he said that you were still alive, hanging on to life. That's what I need to know now, would you consider being a candidate?"
Veera overwhelmed by this flood of words went silent and thought, she thought deep and long, knowing what she said now would have a great impact on her life, all she had known until today had been the seahold and fishing. Dragons were a step in the dark, the Unknown. But then, hadn't she conquered the Unknown this past 2 days?
"I will be a candidate." she replied and smiled.

~***~

The Hatching
Veera keeping a close watch of the hatching sands was first to enter when she heard the commotion of the Green and her rider. She had been out watching the stars and counting the days. She knew the clutch could hatch any time now. So she was there first when the eggs did hatch. She ran in and saw a little dark green dragonet. The green lifted her head towards Veera and jumped! She was trapped with the green looking into her eyes.
After the first moments of the bond she softly tried pushing the green off.
"Wanna teach me how to swim? It looks great."
That made Veera laugh, she had done enough swimming.
"Silqueth..."
But the dragonet wouldn't budge. She sat there. She was getting pretty hungry and Veera could feel it, but the dragonet kept saying to her:
"Now why were you late if you knew we would hatch? I'll just sit here until you tell me."
Veera could spot the Weyrwoman and rider of Serth laughing. No help would come from there.
"Well, um, no-one told me I could be right on this one?" Veera tried.
"Ok, let's go eat." The happy green jumped off and almost pulled Veera with her to the tables. "You made me wait so long I'm even more hungry than possible."

Flight
Veera dove under the waves and felt the dark form of Silqueth below her more than she actually saw the dragoness. Two red lights appeared as the dragoness opened her eyes and looked at Veera.
"Enjoying your swim?" Veera asked.
"The water is nice and warm." A soft voice replied, "I'm getting sleepy..."
"Just don't drown." Veera winked.
A huge splash and both Veera and Silqueth were floating on the water in stead of swimming below the surface.
"I won't drown. Neither did you." Silqueth said.
"It doesn't hurt to be careful."
"It doesn't hurt to celebrate life either."
Veera leapt from Silqueth's back to get back into the warm water. She lazily floated beside the big bulk of her dragon.
"Speaking of which. I've given up my name for a flight as soon as the mating tables open up."
Veera lost her balance and swallowed more than enough water before she was able to call out: "What!?"
 

Silqueth

~***~

Veera impressed at Beach Shards Weyr.
Lantessama Isle