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

Nshetanth soared above the treetops, not high enough to break the clouds, but he could see the people of the Weyr crawling around the ground like trundlebugs, and his elation grew. The sun had begun on it's journey towards the opposite horizon, and the young brown was testing the air before darkness fell. They had been flying for approximately a month now, and he was beginning to get the real hang of it. The eddies within the Weyr were the trickiest to figure out, but now he looked back with a dragon's memory and wondered why he'd found it so difficult.

The sky was painted with the brush of the sun: Blue and purple and red and gold. Cotton-wool clouds broke the perfect skyscape, adding a strange two-dimensional feel to the picture. It was always the same around the Weyr. The sun always set the same. Yet every night, Nshetanth watched it if he could. It was his favourite time of day.

His young rider shared his love for the moment when day became night. K'bryn had a sense of the romantic unlike many Weyrbred men he knew, but his Holdbred background lent him many of his ways. he hated the thought of all the one-night-stands so many bronze- and brownriders seemed to indulge in frequently. he enjoyed having relationships - if not friendships - with his women. Not that he had a lot of experience in such matters.

One thing that did trouble him about the whole dragonrider thing was mating flights. These encouraged one-nighters, provided a strong reason for their existence in dragonriders. But Nshetanth was not yet big enough to win any green's flight. He might be big for his age, but adult bronzes, browns, even some blues were still more experienced in such tactics.

The day before, he had joined in his first flight and of course failed miserably, but it had opened both the brown's and his rider's eyes to such possibilities. One day, Nshetanth would most certainly catch a green, mate with her, and K'bryn would find himself in a new and not-altogether-comfortable situation. But there was nothing he could do to help this. And what if the rider was a man? The thought had crossed his mind, but the young rider had heard of methods such as ring-ins if the victor was not bisexual. He admitted he was curious about the whole idea, but he didn't think curious enough to warrant experimentation at this point.

Nshetanth flew through an unexpected slip and dropped a foot or two, throwing K'bryn's mind back to the task at hand with a jolt.

Sorry, the brown said briefly. I wasn't expecting that.

K'bryn smiled and patted his neck reassuringly. There are a lot of things we won't expect, dear one.

I can't wait, Nshetanth said in a rare moment of foresight.

Me neither.