There were dragons flying over the hold. That was something Laren had not seen in ten turns, ever since she had come to her stepfather's hold high in the mountains of the Northern Continent. Lord Acauhar scoffed at dragons, and their riders. His hold was rocky, and naturally supported little vegetation. He had little to fear from Thread, and less respect for dragonriders.
Ganolas Hold was dismal on the best of days. It wasn't that Lord Acauhar abused his power as Lord Holder; he was fair enough to all his holders, disapproved of sloth and laziness, and the hold was not poor by any means. It wasn't anything that had to do with the holders.
It was simply that everything was gray: The rocky landscape that was kept green-free, not that much effort had to be made to keep them so, was all shades of gray: light gray, dark grey, slate, as well as the mountains that the hold was built into. The sky, also, was usually a dark, stormy grey. All this made the hold look gloomy and unwelcoming.
A small black bundle was huddled against the dark grey walls, nearly lost from sight were it not for its particularly dark coloration. It uncurled to reveal a small, canine-like creature, with silky fur and large ears. The Alskyran aifre yelped happily as it glimpsed Laren approaching, and the girl smiled as she held the pup in her arms.
The aifre had been a birthing day present from a friend who had since left the hold. Acauhar regarded the offworld pet disapprovingly, but he had made no protests to his stepdaughter's keeping the pet. Her half-sisters thought he was adorable.
Laren grinned as she stroke the pup's head, and he whined as he struggled to get out of her arms. She set the aifre back on the ground, and his tail wagged playfully. "Hey, Solace." She said, ruffling the fur on the aifre's neck. "You hungry?"
Solace yipped in reply, and Laren laughed. "Alright then." She looked up, and that was when she first noticed the dragons. Three of them. A large, wildly colored bronze, a duowinged blue, and a green-silver. One of Laren's eyebrow's arched in curiosity. Those were certainly not normal dragons. She wondered what they were doing here.
Laren shook her head, causing her red-brown hair to fall over her face. Her stepfather would not be happy about this.

He wasn't. As the dragonriders approached, he scowled, staring at their dragons. Laren stood behind him with her half-siblings, stealing occasional glances at the dragons. On closer inspection, she realized that the green-silver dragon, which she had originally thought female, was in fact male. The bronze, who she later found out was called a wild bronze, watched with whirling eyes as his rider approached the Lord Holder.
"What is your business here, dragonrider?" Acauhar asked crisply, eyeing the rider with distaste.
"There's a clutch on the sands at Black Dragon Weyr." The bronzerider answered easily. "We've come to look for candidates in your hold."
Acauhar scowled, but agreed to the dragonriders' request. The riders dispersed, wandering through the hold and conversing with the occasional possible candidate. Laren had by now already fed Solace, and the aifre followed behind her as she went about her chores.
Solace yipped in curiousity, and Laren looked up to see one of the dragons, the bronze, looking at her with interest. She returned the dragon's gaze, one eyebrow raised. The bronze rumbled, and he must have said something to his rider, because the head searchrider came over to her.
She nodded to him. "Hello, dragonrider." She regarded him curiously, a bit suspicious of what he wanted with her.
He smiled at her reassuringly. "My name's Ch'ta, my dragon's wild bronze Dwasyaan." He said.
"Laren, my stepfather is Lord Acauhar." She answered with a frown. Solace peeked out from behind her legs and growled at the large dragon, and Laren smiled. "And this is Solace." She laughed.
Ch'ta smiled and glanced at his dragon. When he turned back to her, he said, "Dwasyaan says he thinks you should come with us."
Laren blinked in surprise, taken aback. "To stand for the clutch?"
Ch'ta rolled his eyes. "Of course, to stand for the clutch! What did you think?" He laughed.
Laren frowned, but she felt her ears grow hot, and hoped the searchrider didn't notice. She glanced at her stepfather, who was scowling as he watched the searchrider, and nodded her head. "Definitely." She said, scooping Solace up in her arms. She glimpsed her stepfather looking at her inquiringly, but she ignored him as she followed the dragonrider, content that he had no power over her now. She was going to be a dragonrider!

The first clutch of Black Dragon Weyr was hatching, but Laren thought it could have waited a few more hours. "Why the clutch has to hatch so late..." She grumbled to herself as she pulled on the white candidacy robe. Calling to Solace, she rushed out of the room to the hatching sands.
Most of the spectators had already arrived by the time the candidates trailed onto the sands. Laren brushed her red-brown bangs out of her eyes as she watched the first egg hatch into a fanged, horned blue dragonet, hissing furiously.
After searching through the uneasy ring of candidates, he walked calmly to one of the male candidates, and they left.
Laren had sat down to wait out the hatching, and was idly clutching a handful of sand, and let it fall through her fingers back to the ground, her mind a million dragonlengths away.
Hey! A voice yelped, causing Laren to look up. Or rather, down. Down here!
She looked down to see a vaguely annoyed-looking green hatchling shaking sand from her muzzle.
"Oh!" Laren said sheepishly. "I'm sorry!"
What was that for, Laren? The dragon asked, still shaking sand from her head, causing Laren to chuckle.
"I didn't mean to...I didn't know you were there, Iranth, honest!" She insisted.
Iranth's eyes still whirled a bit with red, but they soon turned to the blue-green of contentment. All right, I forgive you...Just don't do it again, okay?
"Of course." Laren smiled as she lead her dragon away.