Jaran stroked his green fire lizard idly as he watched three other weyrbrats talking. The tallest one was bragging to the other two about how he was going to Impress a bronze from the queen's clutch. Jaran rolled his eyes; the queen hadn't even flown yet. He didn't think the dragons would search someone like that anyway.
Of course, he didn't think he would get searched either. But then, Jaran supposed he didn't really care. The other weyrbrats had been born in the weyr. One or both of their parents were dragonriders, so they were expected to be the same. Jaran had simply shown up a few turns ago. No one knew where he came from or who his parents were, so he was fostered to one of the women in the lower caverns.
Cers perched on his shoulder as he got up, walking past the three weyrbrats. The leader sneered down at him. Jaran was not exactly tall, so lots of people tended to look down on him. This weyrbrat was no different.
"What are you doing here, Jaran?" The boy sneered at him.
"Walking." Jaran answered shortly. Cers hissed at the boy from his shoulder.
The boy glared at the green flit. "Better keep that thing under control. It's liable to get hurt."
Jaran didn't like the look the older boy was giving his fire lizard. "Get away from her, you bastard." He glared angrily.
The boy just smirked, and arrogantly said, "Well, I'm not the bastard here, now am I?"
Jaran's eyes widened. Without thinking, his fist caught the other boy in the jaw. The weyrbrat was about to retaliate when a brownrider stepped between them, eyes flashing angrily.
"What's going on here!?" He asked angrily.
"He punched me!" The other boy said indignantly.
Jaran shot back an answer. "He called me a-"
"Alright, Alright. There's enough of that." The brownrider interrupted them. "Nylor, go change the glows in the lower caverns."
Nylor glared at the man, but left silently. Then the brownrider turned to Jaran. Jaran stood there, silently waiting for his punishment.
"Jaran, go feed the dragons in the abandoned caverns, they need to be fed." The brownrider stated.
Jaran's heart sank. The abandoned dragons? He shuddered, he hated down there. It gave him the creeps. But, it appeared he had no choice in the matter, so he just sighed and walked away.
Cers yawned from her perch on his shoulder, and Jaran scratched her head idly as he walked to the abandoned caverns.

Jaran blinked as his eyes slowly grew used to the dim light. Several different shapes were curled about, faceted eyes whirling dully as they looked up at him. Among the different dragons, Jaran saw two golds, a bronze, and a gold-white, among others. He shook his head. Why would anyone want to abandon a gold? He couldn't fathom how anyone could ever abandon a dragon at all.
He paused as he noticed that one dragon wasn't eating. He blinked, walking over to the forlorn brown. The brown looked up as Jaran approached, but didn't touch his food.
"Hey, what's wrong? Why aren't you eating?" Jaran asked.
What's it matter? No one wants me, Narveth, anyway. Not even An'ik! The brown dragon creeled sadly, laying its head back down.
"C'mon, that's not true! One bad experience shouldn't ruin your entire life! There are lots of better people out there than your old rider. People who'd surely appreciate you better. But you're not gonna find them sitting around down here."
The brown dragon didn't look at him, but did start to eat the food Jaran offered him. Jaran smiled. Well, he supposed that was a start.

Jaran stood blinking again as his eyes had to adjust to the bright daylight after being in the dark caverns for so long. It wasn't long before Nylor found him.
"Hey!" Jaran looked up, dreading what was coming. "Where've you been all this time. We need to talk."
Jaran gulped nervously. "Well, see, I had to feed the abandoned dragons. And I just got out of there, so I'll see you later!"
Jaran was not that lucky. Nylor grabbed the back of his tunic and pulled him back. "The abandoned dragons?" He sneered. "Why bother? They might as well let them die. They're probably weaklings anyway, if even their riders didn't want them."
Jaran glared at Nylor in anger. Before he knew what was happening, he was on top of Nylor, again trying to smash his fist in the other boy's face.
Unfortunately, Jaran was not so lucky this time. He ended up with a black eye and a nasty bruise on his forehead before a dragonrider managed to break them up. Predictably, Jaran ended up going on a second trip into the abandoned caverns.