Catching a glimmer of movement out of the corner of her eye, Noa tilted her head ever so slightly towards the narrow, high window of her studio, her brush paused in midstroke. There it was again!
The emerald flash of a green dragon tail confirmed the young woman's suspicions, and she straightened, placing her brush down. With a final reluctant glance at the half-finished painting-she felt guilty about leaving it unfinished, just when she was starting to get into her craft-she stood up and walked over to the window for another glimpse of the dragon.
Noa's studio was located high up in the Paintercraft Hall, so she had a good, unobstructed view of the dragon wheeling in the air as the ground below it cleared so it could land. Its bright, verdant color denoted it as a green female. She was smaller than the bronzes and browns that Noa had occasionally seen flying over the Hall on their sweeps. Noa had not seen any other greens to compare this one to, but she'd say the dragon fell right in the middling range for greens-Small for a dragon, but still much bigger than a horse. The dragon's emerald hide glinted in the bright sunlight, and even at this distance, Noa could see her rainbow eyes glowing as she dived to the ground.
Noa watched the dragon wistfully until it fell out of sight in the courtyard far below. No doubt even now some of the younger apprentices were rushing out to meet it excitedly, hoping to be searched. A faint tinge of jealousy was beaten back as Noa descended the stone steps to the great entrance of the Hall. She had no time for a dragon, anyway, what with her craft-especially after so recently walking the tables as a Mastercrafter! And as a Master-even a very junior one-she decided she'd better go and make sure the apprentices didn't waste too much of their time trying to impress the searchdragon.
A cool breeze blew through Noa's pink-blond hair as she stepped outside and caused her heavy skirts to billow about her legs. She held her hair back away from her face with one hand as she approached the dragonrider.
The rider was a young woman, pretty and friendly looking, who greeted her warmly, "Welcome, Painter! Are these your apprentices, by any chance?" The dragonrider asked with a smile and nodded respectfully at the Masterpainter after noticing her rank.
The reaction from the gathered apprentices was quite different. "Aww, can't we stay just a little bit longer?" "I wanted to see it flame!" "What if I miss my chance to be Searched?"
Noa sighed in mock-exasperation at the last speaker and ruffled the young boy's hair playfully. "You're not even old enough to stand yet, Tillan." She pointed out.
"Only eleven more months!" Tillan chirped hopefully.
The rider stifled a giggle behind her hand, then extended it to Noa. "My name's Hayley, and this is my dragon, Forith. And actually, we are on search..."
The apprentices gathered around them perked up hopefully. Noa was pointedly ignoring them, however, as she answered the rider. "I presume, in that case, you'll want to see the rest of the eligibles, then?" She asked, and after casting a stare at the crowd around them, added, "Though I don't believe there's many that aren't already here..."
The assembled hopefuls looked sheepish, but not one of them looked truly sorry. Some of them had made their way undetected towards the dragon, and now were staring at the green in awe; one of them had even reached up to scratch the dragon's eyeridge as it was lowered toward her.
Hayley cocked her head toward her dragon questioningly. Noa didn't notice an exchange taking place between rider and dragon, but she reasoned it must have happened, because Hayley nodded her head after scanning the assembled apprentices. "Well, Forith says it'll be a few more turns before most of you will have a chance to Impress," She said to assorted groans of disappointment. "However," This time she pointed towards two of the older apprentices who both showed promise of walking the tables soon. "She says that you two might be able to Impress. Of course, you'll probably want to talk it over with your families, so I'll be here until evening, and you can tell me your answer then." The two chosen apprentices looked shocked at their fortune, and walked off shortly afterwards, both deep in thought.
Then Hayley cocked her head again; this time Noa noticed a peculiar, far away look in the woman's eyes as she conversed silently with her dragon. Once Forith had finished talking, Hayley frowned, her brow crinkling. "What is it?" Noa asked.
Glancing at the apprentices, still hanging around the green dragon, the rider gently pulled Noa over to one side. "You're a Master, I believe?" She asked.
Noa nodded affirmatively. "Yes. But what's that got to do with anything?" She asked, now extremely curious about what the dragon had said to her rider.
Hayley ignored the question. "You're still pretty young." she pointed out, sounding slightly surprised.
Noa crossed her arms. "Twenty-one. I just walked the tables last Turnover." She said, with a hint of pride in her voice at her accomplishments.
"How much do you think you would be missed, if you were to, say, leave?" The rider asked evasively.
Noa's eyes widened, though she was careful to keep her face blank from the excitement growing inside her, just in case she was wrong about what was coming. "I-I think they could get along without me." Her face was suddenly clouded by sadness as she realized she'd be leaving her family behind, perhaps for a very long time. Specifically, she thought of her mother.
"Of course you don't have to accept the Search if you don't want to." Hayley replied hastily, taking the woman's sadness the wrong way. "It's entirely up to you, but Forith said she wanted you to stand for the clutch, she seemed rather insistent on it, in fact."
Noa blinked, but the rider's words had caught the attention of the apprentices still standing outside. Their eyes widened enviously as they all added their comments at once. "Miss Noa is going to stand for a dragon clutch?" "No, shellhead, she's going to stay here. She doesn't want to Impress a dragon, anyway." "I wouldn't be too sure about that." "She's so lucky." "I wish it was me."
"Hey! Miss Noa! Are you going to accept!?"
Noa blinked, taken aback at the question shouted to her. She was indecisive. She had a good career here for the future, not to mention family, and her life was stable. But then again, stable meant boredom, and she was aching for some excitement, like life in a Weyr. And as well, she discovered she wasn't all that different from the young apprentices watching her avidly now for her reply. A giddy feeling erupted in her stomach at the thought of locking eyes with a dragon of her very own.
With a somewhat shaky, but growing wider, smile, she turned to the dragonrider and gave her reply. "Yes, I'd love to stand for the dragon's clutch."
A cheer erupted among the apprentices, while Hayley only nodded in reply. She smiled. "Alright then. I'll be here this evening to pick you up." She reminded her, walking back to her dragon as the children ran back into the Hall, shouting, "Miss Noa's going to become a dragonrider!"
Noa shook her head wonderingly at the younger apprentices' energy. Hayley stood beside Forith, idly scratching the green's eyeridge as the dragon thrummed contentedly deep in her throat. It was a strangely soothing sound to Noa. "You know, of course, that it doesn't gauruntee that you'll end up with a dragon. There's always some that are left standing after the eggs break."
Noa nodded. "I know. I'm willing to take the risk, though." She said with a smile, which the greenrider returned.

That evening, Noa carried a large pack containing all her clothing and painting utensils that she could take with her, and she enlisted the help of some of the apprentices to get it onto the dragon's back. The other two who had been searched had both decided not to go; the young man's parents wouldn't allow it, and the girl chose her craft over the chance of Impressing a dragon. So Noa was the only passenger on Forith when they left to go back to the Weyr.
"Now, Bremek Weyr is still brand new, so you'll have to excuse any mess. Anyway, there's a queen clutch on the sands, as well as a green's, so plenty of eggs. In fact, I don't believe we've found many other suitable candidates yet, so you'll probably be one of the first." Hayley was telling her a bit about Bremek as they prepared to take off. "And we don't keep queen candidates seperate, so you could even Impress a queen." The greenrider added with a wink at Noa.
The green Forith snorted a reply to her rider's comment, making Hayley laugh. "Of course, I wouldn't want anything other than Forith here, so don't get too excited about the idea of a gold. There's bound to be plenty of girls for the gold to choose from; and don't you dare suggest that greens are inferior, either!"
Noa smiled. "I would say nothing of the sort." She hadn't really thought about it, but she found that she didn't really mind what she Impressed. The personality inside was far more important to her than the color of the hide.
Forith reared up, flapping her large wings to create lift, and Noa had to clutch to what part of the riding straps she could reach as the dragon took off. "Just hold on to me! It'll be a lot easier!" Hayley shouted back to her over the wind suddenly rushing past them.
Noa did so, and found that it was a lot easier. She didn't have time to dwell on it, however, because then they went between.