Who would have thought (Ember)

[Rowana]

You're doing it again, Merridan sighed in exasperation. Am I? Chaoth spoke in a half distracted manner. After a pause, his voice returned to humming sweetly in Mer's head. Yes, Chaoth, the girl repeated slowly. You're humming again. Apologies, Chaoth crooned softly. Though he sincerely sounded sorry, he was also in far too good of a mood to take Mer too seriously.

Merridan, meanwhile, was trying to focus on fixing one of the dragon's straps. She was finding it increasingly difficult to work with Chaoth constantly humming in her ear. Not to mention Vikky tugging her hard work apart every time she made progress. The fire lizard meant well, but her vision of what straps were supposed to look like was far from accurate.

The whole scene took place outside near Burimyu's waterfall. Merridan was tired of sitting inside and being out here gave her time to think. Just a few months ago Chaoth had won Jingth's Flight and ever since then he'd been going all funny at the idea of fathering eggs. Now, with Jingth's eggs already in the sand, Mer decided her brown was definitely turning into a mother hen. It was probably only out of respect for the queen that he didn't spend more time with the clutch.

Just think, Mer leaned back thoughtfully. Under different circumstances, I might be Weyrleader now. She wasn't sure if the idea frightened her or excited her. Sure, she had ambitions and Chaoth had chased Jingth before, but actually catching her was a whole different matter. Maybe you would be a good one, Chaoth suggested passively. Mer shrugged, allowing herself a small smile. Yeah, or I might get us all killed. Good thing Buri is run be a counsel. We won't have to find out.

[Ember]

You are restless, Nuoth observed in her quiet manner. Usually Nephele didn't mind her green's observations since she often used them to start discussions of her porblems. This time, though, she snapped back angrily, Of course I bloody am. My apologies, the green responded quickly, quietly retreating. A sigh and Nephele reached through the bond to reassure the dragon that she'd done nothing wrong. She'd snapped because the problem was always the same. Too little to do, too many nerves. Sure, she was studying dragonhealing but she couldn't do that all day.

Her favourite people weren't around either. She adored E'rro and Sel'n in her own way and she liked Meira and Riaren well enough when she saw them but it just wasn't the same without Erilena and K'sel. Her mindmates were amazing but, despite her loner nature, she found she missed the company of people close to her that weren't attached to her mind. Judging by her own actions at the Gather, she supposed the saying that "absence makes the heart grow fonder" was quite true. With another sigh she looked up from her careful placement of her feet to notice where she was and that there was actually someone nearby.

Merridan and Chaoth, huh? Nephele decided to approach the pair, starting with, "It's a shame we have a council here. A female Weyrleader would have been interesting." She kept her tone friendly and a smile on her face. She'd never interacted with Merridan much but she had a vague memory of jumping onto the Sands after her to defend the eggs they'd go on to later Impress. Funny how the world worked. That her classmates' dragons would end up siring a clutch together - oh man, was that weird concept from a human perspective - and they'd be stuck in some random hidden weyr for a Turn and probably more all because they'd defended some eggs...it was all very odd when thought of that way.

[Rowana]

Merridan looked with a friendly smile. She knew Nephele, Chaoth had even chased her dragon a few times. It was a pity, really, that they didn't interact more. Now was a good a time as any, Mer supposed. She couldn't help a smirk and a chuckle at the other girls comment though. Could she read minds? "That's one way of looking at it," she agreed with a shrug. "Personally, I think its just as well." It wasn't so much that she didn't want to do it. Mer loved challenges, and she wasn't afraid of being a leader. It was more that she didn't think she had the experience necessary to be Weyrleader, especially with the mess they were all in. She was only twenty turns, after all, and hadn't even been a rider for four.

Vikky took advantage of the distraction to give the straps in Mer's lap a good tug. They needed to be apart! That way they could be free to flap around. Mer cursed and swatted her, but too late. A large chunk of leather broke off in the fire lizard's mouth. "Vikky, you little pest!" Mer scowled at the creature, though Vikky only bounced with delight. See how helpful she was? She'd fixed it! Mer rolled her eyes and surveyed the damage. "My fault," she mused. "I should have know she'd try something." Turning back to Nephele, she continued. "What about you? You guys must be busy with Searches."

[Ember]

Nephele didn't comment on it but she thought it was interesting that Merridan agreed with her own thoughts, at least partially. She knew the brownrider to be capable enough. Prior to being on the Legatus wing, her fellow classmate had been the better fighter. Nephele stil lwasn't sure if she would best the other woman in a fight. She'd grown in that area but she'd also grown in other, less common ways. The problem with Merridan being Weyrleader would have been her level of experience, no doubt.

"We'll never get to find out," the greenrider commented wistfully. Perhaps not in the situation they were in but a female at the top really would have been interesting to Nephele. The greenrider watched as Merridan's firelizard ruined her hard work and she grinned. "The little pests do love to get into trouble, don't they?" Unbeknownst to the brownrider and her companions, one of Nephele's firelizards was actually with her. She was well hidden in the girl's hair and simply observing. Her bronze was curiously absent having been sent on a small errand.

Nephele blinked in surprise at the brownrider's question and then smiled. She hadn't thought Merridan would pay attention to the fact that she was a searchrider. "Yeah, it's not so easy finding people anymore. Can't go too close to major Holds most of the time and can't force them either, or we're no better than the northern weyrs." There was a slight bitterness in her voice. She hadn't been force searched but she hadn't had a choice in going to Benden Weyr either.

[Rowana]

Merridan scowled after Vikky as she danced away. The straps weren't badly damaged, but she'd have to look for more leather to fix the piece her fire lizard had stolen. It was a pity Auran wasn't here, since the blue could usually keep the hyper green under control. "That they do," she agreed, managing a fond smile. Vikky might be annoying at times, but she did keep life fun, even with all the rest of what was happening. "Though I think Auran's too stubborn to do anything quite as silly as Vikky." Nephele had several fire lizards, Mer recalled, though it didn't look like many were with her today. Maybe she aught to ask for some tricks for keeping Vikky occupied one of these days.

Mer set her work aside so she could talk easier. The Search process was interesting to hear about, especially given they had to keep secret while they did it. Mer had been Searched while on a visit to Selenitas, so she'd never seen a true Search first hand. Mer nodded as Nephele explained the difficulties. "I wish I could help," she pondered with a sigh. "It'd be better than sitting around here. But Chaoth too big to hide and he's not that interested in people." Browns weren't the best Search dragons she knew, but if he wasn't so big, it would have been nice to at least try. "Will we have enough for the eggs?" she asked, suddenly concerned. Jingth had laid ten eggs this time, larger than Mer expected and she hadn't gotten a chance to count how many Candidates had been found.

[Ember]

Nephele giggled quietly. "Considering the bad example my oldest firelizard sets, I'm surprised my youngest two are usually so well behaved. Especially since Charming is Sweetheart's daddy." It was interesting to think that her oldest firelizard was also her oldest mindmate. She'd Impressed the brown before Nuoth had broken shell. The greenrider eyed the straps Merridan had been working on with interest. "Fixing straps?" She asked politely. Maintaining what they had was very important. Getting new stuff wasn't so easy.

The greenrider smiled as Merridan vocalized her desire to help. Unfortunately, the brownrider was right. There was very little, if anything, she could do to help out with Searches. Browns weren't known so much for their strong empathy for finding possible candidates. "I appreciate the thought," Nephele said sincerely. As for the number of candidates...The greenrider sighed. "It'll be tight. Very tight. All we can really do about that is try our hardest and hope that they dragonets take to the ones we find."

Nephele didn't want to see any babies between because she'd failed to collect enough candidates to give them a proper choice. So she'd work herself to death if she had to in order to find more candidates not only capable of Impressing but willing to come to some secret Weyr. That was one of the biggest barriers. Why let some sketchy Weyr search them when they could simply wait for a Selenitas rider to find them? Selenitas was plagued by war and the Wastelander's but it was still safer than Burimyu. They faced extinction if they were found out. It was certain death, more or less.

[Rowana]

Merridan nodded, glowering at the bits of leather. "Yeah," she confirmed Nephele's question. "It's not so easy to just get new ones these days." Supplies were limited, so Mer liked to make as much use out of what she had as possible. The Candidate problem weighed even heavier on people's mind. Without enough Candidates, odds were that some of Jingth and Chaoth's children would not survive. Mer couldn't let herself think like that, not when the Searchers were trying so hard and the Candidates they had were brave for coming.

"If anyone can choose well, it's Nuoth," Mer assured her with a wry smile. Chaoth was fond of his green sister and Mer had always thought Nephele was a terrific rider. Heck, after her time in Legatus Wing, Mer was fairly sure Nephele had learned more than her share of skills too. These days it might almost be better to have a small fast green, than a large, obvious brown. Not that Mer would trade Chaoth for even a gold, but sitting around most of the time did make her antsy. "Who else is helping?" Mer tried to recall the list of greens and blues who might be good at Searching. Maybe Futh, though M'kai was fairly busy teaching the Candidates they did have.

[Ember]

"Infirmary rumour says there might be another tithe raid soon," Nephele mused aloud. Granted, there weren't many in the infirmary to gossip with and one of them was a Councilman. "Not sure how true that is, E'rro being one of the Healers aside. I'm hoping we do. All that stuff should be ours anyways." Guilty feelings from her? Certainly not. Even if they did terrify the guards and the drivers...she didn't particularly care. They'd get over it. Not like they could direct their anger at them anyways, since they didn't know much about Burimyu.

The compliment to her dragon was met with a swelling of pride for the green's sake and she straightened just a little bit more. Nuoth was, according to Nephele, an amazing dragon and she deserved the recognition of others. She faded out for a moment before smiling and saying, "Nuoth thanks you for your compliment." As for anyone else Searching...well, she knew she wasn't the only one but she wasn't entirely sure how many others might be going out and looking. They didn't really have a system or anything for it.

Nephele simply went out and found the people then turned them over to M'kai. Thinking of M'kai..."I know M'kai occasionally finds someone but that's about all I know of any other Searchers," she finally told Merridan with a faint shrug. She probably could find out if she asked E'rro about who else goes out of the weyr. As a Councilman he'd undoubtedly know. In the end though it just didn't matter much to her.