LESSONS R1 L1

[dragon]

It was time for the next batch of Candidates to start the next batch of lessons. Time to start all over again. Maybe, hopefully this group would be a tad better behaved than the last one. Emoyan made sure the chairs were set out, and his table properly laden. Not only with papers meticulously copied for the new students, but also with a platter of warm, soft cookies. It would help a lot to get the youth of the Weyr started off on the right foot. Teach them, but also get them looking forward to lessons!

Taking his seat near, but not behind, the loaded table, Emoyan took care to coax Skink into his hand, and then hand her promptly to his brown flitter. Rascal took hold of the mandyr, and didn't let go of her despite the barrage of indignant screams that resulted.

Tricked! Tricked!! Skink was fuming, hissing and spitting as she flailed in the brown's grasp. It only took her a few moments to calm down and glare miserably at Emoyan, however. It wasn't the first time she'd ended up in the flitter's grasp, and already knew it was useless to fight. Just wait.... just waiiiiiiit. She'd plot revenge, and execute it once she was free!!!

Meantime, Emoyan completely ignored her. He would put her away, but he needed her for the lesson. Later on, she would be an excellent example and warning to the Candidates about mandyrs. For now, however, all there was to do was wait and see which ones bothered to show up for their first lesson toward becoming one of the protectors of Pern, and of the South.

[bookworm]

Imaskel sauntered into the room. The surprise on his face was visible when he took in the empty classroom. Since when was he on time to lessons? It was just beginner's luck. He would likely be tardy to the next lesson. He nodded a cool greeting to the Candidate Master. "Hey," he greeted the man breezily. No sir, no Master Emoyan. Just hey.

Despite the fact that the room was empty, he chose a seat at the back. Imaskel slumped into it, sprawling across the small space of the chair. He hoped the other candidates would get here soon. He wanted to scope them all out. Maybe there would be a cute boy or girl he could pass notes to during class.

His attention was soon taken by the green mandyr in the Candidate Master's hand. She didn't seem very happy. Imaskel chuckled. He liked mandyrs. They seemed like amusing creatures, and he thought he could get into a lot of mischief if he managed to Impress one.

[dragon]

Emoyan sighed ... it was getting past time, and the candidates weren't showing. Again. Except one, who seemed a rather impertinent little snot. Not just in the things he said, but in the things he didn't say, and the things he did. Emoyan pointed at a nearer seat. "Your place is over here." He instructed, deciding that for now he would forego any lectures on proper protocol when addressing people of rank. That was part of the lesson after all.

((BUMP FOR CANDIDATES))

[Avu]

He really didn’t know why he was here. At all.

Well, except for the fact that he was too lazy to get a move-on to Blossom, really, and he hadn’t wanted to advertise himself as Weyrfolk because that implied an actual tie to the Weyr. Which Vix didn’t want or need or even consider, really. It was just a temporary stop and the title of ‘Candidate’ made it easier, but that was just about all. Still, he’d taken to stuffing his knots in his pocket to prevent any curious looks or people babbling at him about OhmyFaranth you’re just going to LOVE the Hatching because he was more than certain he wouldn’t.

The mock-Candidate had, however, found doing nothing relatively pleasant. It was so incredibly easy to get a Drudge to sign off for chores and then just completely ditch, especially after he’d found an unused cabinet at the back of the kitchens, and had found it was really much to his liking to curl up there, lean against the slightly dusty backboard, one arm draped across a shelf, and just people-watch through the crack of the door, or start to dismantle or put things back together. It helped that he kept abnormally late (or early, really) hours, and could lie very, very well (“What do you mean, you didn’t see me? I was sweeping the whole time, and it’s not my fault if you were too focused on mashed tubers!”).

However, a Drudge who clearly thought she was doing him a favor had excused him from ‘chores’ in order to attend Candidate Lessons, so, bemused and kind of curious, Vix had ‘trotted along like a good little Candidate(!)’ to go see what was up.

He slipped into the room, giving a sideways twitch of his head to get sweeping bangs out of his eyes, and – promptly wished he were not there, for there was only one other idiot in the room, as well as the man who was probably Candidatemaster and his little…pet worms. One of them was a firelizard (Vix didn’t really approve of firelizards but they were okay)…and the other was an outright worm. And Vix had absolutely no tolerance for the worms. Dark eyes narrowed on Skink for a moment before they flicked towards the Candidatemaster-person-thing.

“With all due respect,” and he spoke softly, the undertone of ‘not that you deserve any’ barely lurking beneath the quietness, “I don’t think having distractions would serve well in a…learning environment. It’s terribly difficult not to be distracted by…such an…interesting…worm, as I’m sure you know.” His gaze lingered, for a moment, on the plate of cookies; confusion flickered through Vix’s gaze, but it vanished after a second. It irked him unduly when he was confused, and that only served as a spur for whatever temper might be drawn out of him. Why would they need cookies?

Vix chose to remain standing, for time being. The slight indent of a previously split lip, the dark shadow of a bruise still on his cheekbone – it was better to be able to duck and run, quickly.

[rii]

Idly rubbing at the corner of one eye, Kostya came inside and out of reflex stopped behind the body directly in front of him. Were they forming a line..? A side-long glance at Imaskel in the back said otherwise. Pale blue's switched back to the person, Vix, standing in front of him. The angle of view let Kostya's line of sight graze curiously over the bruised cheekbone. The words coming out of the boy's mouth – directed at Emoyan – that dripped with sarcasm and attitude made Kostya's brow raise along with a brief twitch of a smirk on his lips. Suddenly, he wasn't so curious about the bruise. One phrase from the kid explained it well enough.

And now.. lingering? Kostya body swayed, smoothly in a dance-like motion as he tried to determine what possibly could be keeping Vix anchored near teacher. It couldn't be the riveting conversation. The firelizard and salamandyr were the topic, but so common around the weyr that you couldn't kick a stone without hitting one of the blasted creatures. Nuisances. The cookies perhaps? Oh that was rich. Kostya couldn't help but let the smile stretch out more fully on his lips.

Stepping forward, Kostya nearly brushed Vix as he plucked a cookie off of the plate. He pushed it into Vix's chest while the fingers of his other hand pressed into the kid's lower back to forcefully lead Vix away from Emoyan and toward the seats. He lightly pushed Vix at one of the chairs, planning to sit down right next to the kid. Marsayis wasn't here, after all, and Kostya did so ever hate being bored. Someone needed to entertain him, and the bruised, pretty faced boy would do well enough.

[Rei]

Darmori stumbled into class rubbing his eyes. His gold mandyr perched as dainty as could be on his shoulder. With a trill she greeted the class and nuzzled her head under her bonded’s jaw. Harmony was massive in comparison to most of her kin. Easily the size of a green firelizard now, she was the biggest mandyr in the weyr. Skink was regarded with a placid green gaze but not spoken to. The ex drudge peered curiously at the other mandyr and then examined his other classmates before shrugging and taking a seat in the back, away from everyone. Once he was seated however Harmony jumped off his shoulder to waddle across the desk and chirp. Cookie? Please? She asked hers privately with a sweet longing tone that she knew got her whatever she wanted.

Chuckling Darmori got up and patted her head before getting up and procuring a cookie. Breaking it in half he dropped one half in front of her while he nibbled on his section and waited for something to happen. Dipping her head Harmony took a happy bite and chewed as she regarded the other humans in the room. None where hers. But they all seemed nice enough sorts. All except that firelizard. Her eyes bled momentarily to red and she gave a soft hiss before taking another bite of her cookie. There much better. Darmori’s thoughts where vastly different. To be honest all his classmates looked intimidating. Great. Just perfect. His hand reached out to stroke the large gold mandyr as he waited for class to begin.

[jesscaar]

Kayla wandered into the classroom, there seemed to be a few other people there already - she wasn't late, was she? She mumbled brief apologies to the teacher, even though she was sure she was on time - well she had enough time between finishing chores and getting to class. She scanned the room quickly - there were only 4 other candidates present, so plenty of seats were still available - and she took a seat somewhere in the middle of the room. Everyone else seemed to have cookies, so Kayla grabbed one quickly as she passed the teacher's desk on the way to her chair.

She wasn't too sure how many more people were to be expected - she hadn't really had a proper look at the class lists, just enough to know she was in this group. She glanced around the room again, taking a quick bite of the cookie. Great, she was the only girl. This was going to be fun - especially if they were the sarcastic, know-it-alls she really detested. Holding the cookie between her teeth, Kayla untied the leather cord holding her hair back during chores, and brushed the long brown waves through with her fingers. She retied the cord around her wrist, took another bite of her cookie and leaned back in her chair, waiting for the lesson to begin.

[bookworm]

Imaskel slumped in his seat, frowning. Where was everyone? He needed people! This was going to be too boring if it was just the Candidate Master talking at him. When Emoyan told him to move up, the frown deepened into a scowl. "I didn't know we had assigned seats," he said primly, walking to the front of the room. He took a cookie from the plate before slouching dramatically into a chair in the front row.

Finally, another candidate arrived. A rather pretty boy, although that split lip did rather mar his looks. Imaskel wasn't sure whether to be impressed or annoyed at the boy's words. Impressed, since he was so wonderfully talking back to the Candidate Master; but annoyed, since the "worm" was such an interesting distraction and Imaskel didn't see any reason to have it taken away. "Well someone forgot to eat their cheerful flakes this morning," Imaskel said dryly. He watched as another candidate came in and pushed the first one around; well, that was that taken care of.

He perked up when a third boy entered, this one with a gold wormy on his shoulder. She chirped what had to be a greeting and Imaskel resisted the urge to wave. He watched, fascinated, as the gold took a dainty bite of the cookie. His attention moved only when another candidate walked in. Finally, a girl! She wasn't really his type--too bony--but he took a second look when she let her hair down. He flashed her an appreciative grin, but didn't say anything, since the lesson would probably begin soon.


***

Jaetif walked into the room and looked over the gathered candidates. This was a whole new bunch. He wondered if he was going to be the only "veteran" candidate here. He felt a twinge of worry when he thought of that, but then he caught a whiff of the freshly baked cookies and smiled. Nothing like some baked goods to put his heart at ease.

"Good day, Candidate Master," he said politely before taking a cookie. It was difficult to take just one, but of course, there had to be enough for everyone. He chose an empty seat and sat down, his back straight, his eyes focused attentively forward. He had likely heard all of this information before, but maybe he would pick up something new.

[dragon]

So much for wishing for a nicer batch of candidates. It seemed that every rotation, the young folk got worse and worse, so far as their attitudes went. They had no idea how good they had it, right now, and if they did, they wouldn't act the way they did. Emoyan carefully did not react to the sarcastic bites sent his way, instead only leveling his gaze on the lads as an answer. It did not escape his attention, however, that one of the candidates this time around already had a 'mandyr. And a Gold one at that. Wonderful. Just wonderful. That poor lad was going to need some extra guidance in the next turn or so.

Emoyan waited until they were all seated - funny how the back of the room was so popular, despite how he'd moved all the chairs forward to try and forestall that. "Just as a note I hope each of you remember - the room fills from the front to the back, not the other way around. So please come to the front of the room. I do not like having to raise my voice if I do not have to. I don't bite." He assured them, calmly. Emoyan had dealt with enough impertinent twerps to know that rising to the baiting only made them worse for the handling.

"Feel free to eat as many of the cookies as you like, I had them made expressly for you. Just don't make yourselves sick on them." He offered, with a small smile. "As for the mandyr - and I can see one of you already has one - it's part of the lesson. So pay attention."

Skink glared daggers at the gold thing that so blithely ambled into HER territory, and across HER desk, to eat HER cookies. But she wisely held her tongue - for now. After all, she couldn't do anything so long as Rascal was hanging onto her other than scream obscenities. And Skink had already figured out that that didn't bother people as much as she wished it would.

"I am Candidate Master Emoyan, and if any of you have any questions about anything here in the Weyr, feel free to bring them to me. Or concerns, for that matter. My office door is never locked." He gestured briefly at the door that led to his office, where he could usually be found. "Today we are going to go over some basic information that you need to know to get on decently in a Weyr. We are going to cover a range of topics from the Leadership, what is expected of you as a candidate, typical events, and to things like salamandyrs." Emoyan indicated the squirming green thing that was Skink.

"Normally I have papers here that cover all relevant information for you, but it has come to my attention that a great many candidates I get cannot read. So I didn't bother this time. If you would like one of these sheets, let me know after class and I'll get you one. It is recommended, if you can read, to have one until you get all pertinent data memorized. To begin with, we will start with Weyr Leadership. The Sr Weyrwoman is Keagen, of Gold Millieth. She will be the Se Weyrwoman until either she dies, or her dragon does, either one. She is the ultimate authority within the Weyr, and is to be spoken to with utmost respect by anyone - doesn't matter who you are or who you think you are. Always address her as Sr Weyrwoman Keagen. It is generally considered good manners to offer respects to her dragon, whether the dragon is present or not. The dragon will know, this is the nature of the dragon-rider bond. The same goes for the Weyrleader. This rank shifts frequently, usually about once a turn. Right now the Weyrleader is S'rei of Bronze Salenth. Again, always address him by rank and name, and pay respects to the dragon too. These are the two most important people within the Weyr, they work hard to make sure everything goes the way it should. You cannot imagine the extent of their jobs, nor the stress of it. Do not ever mock them. The same goes for the jr pair, Savitri of Gold Hepaticath and Ka'rys of Bronze Ciceroth. The same general rules are applied to all persons of rank. Whether the headwoman, the headcook, any of the masters, and even Wingleaders. It is generally a good idea for you to use titles for the wingriders as well, it might keep you from getting stabbed. Some of them don't mind you not using it ... but some take mighty offense if you don't. You don't want to find out which is which the hard way."

"As Candidates, you are the lowest ranked individuals in the Weyr. You do what you are told, when you are told to do it. Pretty much regardless who told you to do it. Of course, take into consideration the order. Comon sense and morals are always to be used. Don't go around murdering people just because someone told you to, for instance. But if you are told to take the silage out to the cattle, you better do it. Doesn't matter how much you don't like the smell. The only time when you are not the lowest ranked is during a hatching. At which time you are among the most important people around. After all, a hatchling can't live if you're not there to impress to. Chores are to be tended to, on time, and to your best ability. Half-assed work is not passable, and will be punished. Good work, conversely, will be rewarded. These chores are not assigned just to annoy you, there is good reason behind it. They are to build integrity and endurance in your self. To get you ready for the labor intensive period that will be weyrling hood. Taking care of a baby dragon is not easy. If you think mucking out behind the milch beasts is bad, just wait until you muck out behind your baby dragon. Also, it is to give you an understanding of what goes into keeping a place like a Weyr running, thus instilling better behavior in Riders. Riders can't do what they need to do without the support of the weyrfolk doing all this work. Respect the weyrfolk and the work they do, they're there for a reason, and a Weyr can't function without them. Classes are posted, and you are expected to be on time. Lagging like what was done today will not be acceptable. To impress you must graduate your candidate lessons. If you do not attend lessons, you will not be allowed on the sands come Hatching Day. Coming in late to a lesson does not count as attending lessons. Today will be overlooked, but in the future, make all haste to be on time."

"In the Weyr, you will see things that you would not see in a Hold, or a craft hall for that matter. Dragons and their ilk play havoc with the normal methods of people, and it shows. A dragon is bonded to its rider by more than the mind and thoughts. Also by emotions and hormonal drives. It will not be unusual for you to see people running about chasing each other and leaping off ledges. Sometimes without a stitch on. Just stay out of their way and you won't get hurt. Interfere, and they may well kill you. All without knowing they've done it. When they are in the thrall, they think they are dragons, wrapped up in a mating flight. Just leave them alone and you'll be alright. The same goes for salamandyr owners." He shot a pointed look at the lad with the golden beast. "Salamandyrs, if anything, have a more powerful hold on their owners than dragons do. Which, as a Candidate, can play havoc with your life. It is strongly recommended that Candidates not impress salamandyrs if it can at all be helped. If you do, you will have to attend mandatory lessons specifically about how to handle a mandyr and its mating drive. For, if you have a mandyr, and then you impress a dragon - if you end up caught up in a mandyr run while your dragon is immature ... and this is inevitable ... you could well permanently scar your dragon, if not drive them insane. If you do get a mandyr before your dragon is mature, Wingrider K'lir of Green Baoth will get you the lessons you need on how to handle it safely. He is the foremost authority on salamandyrs. For such little critters, they have a massive impact." When Skink started screaming about the indignities of the situation - and the unbecoming topic - Emoyan picked up a cookie and shoved it at her. Suddenly finding the edge of a cookie bigger than she was crammed in her maw effectively shut her up. Especially since Rascal was still hanging onto her. "Any questions?"

[Requiem]

First semi-new tidbit of information for the afternoon: doors did not make the best medium for eavesdropping. She wasn't, of course, being shifty, she informed the ladle in her front apron pocket confidentially. Merely didn't want to interrupt. So please quit scolding? Thank you.

Which brought her quite nicely to her second not quite so new lesson of the day: look before rushing into a room. She hadn't expected the first row of desks to be so close. Or so hard when your thighs hit them and you went whump and flipped over onto your back in a flare of skirt and kicking leg. The giggling began as soon as she caught her breath, Ximera sprawling as best as she was able out on the floor. Whoops!

From there her hand shot straight up, waving a bit as she finally got her laughter under control. "Mr Candidatemaster Emoyan Sir! I didn't hear a thing! Well, other than something about the mandyr thingies and being all polite to the Weyrleaders and if someone says hop to shout 'where?!' all motivated-like, but it's really hard to hear through the door, Sir." Legs coiled beneath her and she sprung up into an upright sitting position, shaking out her head and checking to make sure her friend was still okay in his pocket. No scratches. "So sorry to be late, really really sorry, but my friend refused to spend one more minute in the kitchens and they'd locked him in the drawer...I know, it's a travesty! Terrible people. Anyway, I simply had to rescue him, you must understand, and I'm ever so sorry."

Before the man could so much as blink, however, Ximera's head snapped around as she spotted Kayla, and the girl squealed. No, it wasn't the high-pitched shatter glass and cause ears to bleed equivalent, but it was still most definitely a squeal. "Kayla? Is that you? Oh, it is, it is!" Which immediately resulted in the girl hopping up and skipping over to join the other girl who had worked around the weyr with her for so long. "They kicked me out of the kitchens. Did you hear?" Then, realizing she was still in class, Ximera turned to Emoyan wide-eyed, clamping both of her hands over her mouth.

[Avu]

One eyebrow danced upwards despite Vix’s intentions of keeping a blank face. The man didn’t look like he was about to answer – but anyway Vix didn’t have time to know if that was true or not, because he was blocking the door. Kostya earned a flicker of a startled glance before he found a cookie pressed against his breastbone and Vix automatically caught the thing, uttering a pointed, “Uh – ” Ugh. The protest was cut off as another Candidate (with a gold worm this time) entered, and Vix held his tongue, allowing the random kid to lead him towards a desk.

He sat down, stretching his legs out, before he deposited the cookie on the edge of his desk, gaze flicking up towards Kostya. “Allergic.” The word was brief, and Vix used one finger to push the cookie halfway off the desk before he crossed his arms loosely across his abdomen. No point in pushing it off; that too fussy and spoiled and bratty even for Vix. He actually wasn’t allergic, but he didn’t care enough not to lie; it was easy and slipped off his tongue almost thoughtlessly.

The invitation to the front of the room went disregarded smoothly; Vix’s gaze had fallen idly upon Rascal, now. Firelizards, he liked just fine. Vix wouldn’t even mind having one, even if he wouldn’t ever admit it (nobody would want him permanently anyway unless they were stupid, and stupid firelizards weren’t much use). They did things. Brought you things, stole you things, listened to what you said – or at least, from what he’d heard, they did – they went between, and they weren’t obnoxiously loud and rude like the worms were.

As Emoyan started the lecture, though, Vix felt his interest fade instantly. His was a short attention span, and Vix had always been a learn-by-touch type of person. Take things apart, examine the parts, fit them back together; a puzzle, with pieces he could pick up and turn sideways and feel. Having someone talk to (though ‘at’ would be a more apt description) him and expect him to remember…it didn’t stick, and Vix didn’t even bother trying. He blinked at Emoyan absently. Even the mention of worms (Salamandyrs, now, but ‘worms’ was such a better word for them) didn’t raise him from the mindless thought of once this is over…

He jumped visibly, silently, at Ximera’s spectacular entrance, before he murmured, half to himself, “What’s wrong with people…?” Because clearly they liked to babble. A lot. Vix’s nose wrinkled in an expression of quiet annoyance before he twitched his foot impatiently. Ugh.

[jesscaar]

Kayla wasn't really paying too much attention to her surroundings, so she didn't notice Imaskel smile at her, or the fact that the lesson had started until the Candidate Master was halfway through his lecture. So she missed the part about getting sheets she could read over later, which would have been useful as, like most teens, lectures go in one ear and out the other. She started paying a bit more attention when she realised she'd missed something - it all sounded fairly obvious; don't interfere, do as you're told (within reason), respect your superiors and basically all Candidates are worthless until Hatching. It was common sense to her, but it was surprising how many people just didn't understand common courtesy.

She was just about to mentally switch off again when the door suddenly burst open and a girl came tumbling into the room. Quite spectacular, really. Then the laughing began - and not just from the sprawled out girl on the floor, Kayla just couldn't help it. Especially when she recognised her as one of her good friends from pre-Candidatedom - in fact, it only escalated her laughter when Ximera started waving like a mad man in effort to calm herself down. She started to get her laughter under control. Sort of. It was more stifled by the hand she put in front of her mouth. That had to be one of Ximera's classic excuses for being late - rescuing inanimate objects from storage. It was a kitchen utensil by the sounds of it.

Ximera had finally noticed Kayla's presence, and Kayla beckoned for her to sit next to her. As Ximera joined her at the desk, she greeted her with enthusiasm - perhaps not as much as her friend's enthusiasm (no one could ever match that). "Ximera!! It's been aaages! We need to catch up!" She stopped momentarily as she, too, remembered the other people in the room. Whispering behind her hand, Kayla continued, "It really doesn't surprise me that you got kicked out of the kitchen to be honest - not the way you go around rescuing the cutlery; speaking of which, who's your new friend?" She glanced down at Ximera's apron pocket; a shiny handle was poking out. She looked around the room once more, everyone seemed to be in a sort of stunned silence. Maybe the discussion could wait.

[dragon]

Emoyan managed to remain seated through the sudden uproar that came tearing into his classroom, even if it did make him think his heart had stopped for a moment. Thanks to being a rider and unexpected things happening all the time ... he must be getting sedentary for it to have affected him at all! For a moment he frowned, before frowning even deeper, concern etching his features.

Someone was locking people in drawers? How were they managing that, anyway? He had never seen a drawer large enough to lock someone in. Unless her 'friend' was a small animal ... but even that he couldn't figure. Animals didn't belong in a drawer. "Dare I ask what your friend might be?" He asked, suspecting he might have to go talk to the cooks.

[Requiem]

Huge smile behind the cupped hands. No, not at the most unfortunate situation of most of her friends, those sturdy pots and pans included, but at Kayla's joyful greeting. Not that Ximera had ever expected otherwise, no, but it was still wonderful to have a friend greet you so enthusiastically in the mornings. (Particularly when everyone else was giving her those peculiar you're a bit touched in the head, aren't you? looks.) Keeping her hands before her mouth, as if that wouldn't make it obvious as she sat on Kayla's desk and leaned toward her that she was whispering right back, Ximera confided, "Oh, Laddy's not new. He just gets ever so lonesome without me there to talk to him." Laddy. The ladle.

Ximera turned wide eyes on Emoyan. Uh oh. She knew where this was going. All the adult types just didn't seem to understand that the spoons and forks were people, too. Or...well, not technically, but they did have feelings, and being shut away all day to gather dust - or ignored and simply used for their various functions without a kind word - was not at all very nice to them. How would the cooks like to be worked without so much as a word of encouragement? (Nevermind that this happened rather frequently. Still, she knew they didn't like it. And yet people responded like she was mad. Tch.)

Glancing at Kayla, the girl withdrew the ladle from her pocket, a dinged up thing that probably should be seeing retirement soon. And frankly already had - they just hadn't gotten around to being rid of it just yet. Okay, so Ximera actually knew on some level that the cutlery wasn't alive. She wasn't stupid. But it was one of the memories she and her father had made together, playing pretend in the kitchens...X'rx, too. The girl didn't want to give that up. So people could look at her strangely if they wanted, but the ladle was a friend, particularly when no one else was interested in talking to her. The young girl screwed up her face into a defiant little expression. "You can't make me take him back."

[raii]

Bumbling into the room, Eselda flushed brightly. "I'm so sorry!" She said, bowing profusely to the candidate master. Was that the proper way to greet people? "Master Emoyan, I'm really sorry!" That was his name, yes? She rubbed her eyes. The small girl wasn't used to the big Weyr. Yes, she could get from one place to another, but it usually involved meandering aimlessly until she reached her destination. It was so hard to learn a new place!

It was loud and noisy, unlike she had expected. Eselda glanced around, almost doe-eyed at this unfamiliar environment. They seemed to be a chatty, cheerful bunch from what she saw and heard. They would get along just fine! Bowing again to Emoyan, she walked over to the girl Emoyan greeted. "Hello, I'm Eselda," she said to Ximera and Kayla. "These are Loli and Renn." She gestured to the two fire lizards on each shoulder.

Loli, the pale green, crooned a sweet greeting to the two girls. They would make fine friends for hers, and she approved greatly. Renn gave a more subtle nod, his jaws pulled back in what appeared to be the fire lizard equivalent of a smile. With a flourish, Renn landed before the two girls, spreading his wings and chirping loudly and excitedly about something not even Loli could discern. Eselda twisted her black curls with an apologetic look on her face.