[Statistics] [Candidate] [Hatchling] [Weyrling] [Adult]

Nshetanth. Such a beautiful name. Such a perfect little dragon.

Keebryn - now K'bryn, he reminded himself - looked at the sleeping dragonet and shook his head slowly in disbelief and amazement. What was he doing here? Who's perfect life had he stolen?

Mine, the little brown murmured with a little huffling sound.

"Yours?"

Nshetanth took a waking breath, stretched new limbs and unfinished wings, and yawned hugely. Yes, mine. You stole my life. And I yours, I believe.

K'bryn looked at this perfect creature and smiled stupidly. "Oh," was all he could manage.

The post-hatching feast had finished just candlemarks earlier and the newly-discovered junior weyrlings had been shown their assigned positions in the barracks and told to get some rest. For the dragonets rest had been easy. Hatching was a difficult sort of thing to achieve, one assumed. But the weyrlings - young men and women thrown into an entirely new world - were wide awake.

Some chattered excitedly about the new lifemates, or about how their family would react back home, some simply sat and stared, in awe of this strange being that had chosen them to share a soul.

It was the oddest feeling, K'bryn concluded. All his life, he had felt complete within himself - at least, that was true of what he recalled of how he felt - but now... Now he had Nshetanth and everything was different. Like the world was the same, but he saw it through a shade of something quite different. A shade of brown, he thought with a smile at the sleepy hatchling.

"You awake, then?"

Nshetanth shook his head. No. Only pretending. I'm still asleep, really.

K'bryn grinned. Words seemed so inadequate - not only to describe the feeling of Impression, but... for everything! Words were just not enough! "Are you hungry?"

The little brown considered this seriously, eyes whirling slowly from blue to greenish-yellow. Yes, I believe I am. And my hide feels funny, too. You should make it go away, he proclaimed to his young rider.

"You're itchy," K'bryn nodded. "The Weyrlingmaster gave us some oil for you. It should make the itching go away, okay?"

Nshetanth nodded. Good. Will you get me some more food as well?

K'bryn felt a sudden burst of pride at the thought that this perfect creature was relying on him for its survival. Tears moistened his eyes at the emotions soaring through his veins like fire, and he nodded dumbly.