Sh'ro
Shiro sighed as he weaved his way through the crowds at
the Gather, staring at some of the stalls. He never stopped at a particular
stall for long, he didn't have any marks, anyway. Perhaps it was time to change
that. He smirked, quickly picking out a tall, stern-looking man with unruly
brown hair.
The man was looking through the stalls, a look of disdain on his
face. Shiro smiled, easy prey. He casually walked towards the man, though he
kept his eyes on the sky. A flash of brilliant ivory appeared, as a white fire
lizard flew down to greet him, chirping happily.
Shiro smiled as he stroked
the white flit. "Okay, Ransack." He said, pointing to the brown-haired man.
"There's our target. Go to it."
The white flit chirped, flying over to the
brown-haired man. He looked up, smiling as the flit chirped, landing neatly on
his shoulder. "Hello there, where's your owner, little one?" The man said,
smiling as he stroked the fire lizard.
Shiro slowly crept up to the man,
distracted by the white flit. He quickly grabbed the man's wallet, making sure
no one was watching, and started to walk away before the man realized what had
happened.
He'd hardly moved, however, when he heard an outraged cry behind
him. He turned to see the man yelling agrily as he chased after him.
Shiro
turned, preparing to run away, when he met a pair of swirling rainbow eyes, set
in an emerald face. The green dragon stood, effectively blocking his
way.
Shiro paled as the angry man came towards him from one direction, and
the dragon's rider came from the other.
Ransack chirped, as she settled onto
his shoulder, crooning happily. "Gee, thanks." He muttered to his white fire
lizard.
The dragonrider stood, arms crossed, her eyes staring sternly at him.
Shiro sighed, turning to the man he'd robbed. He handed the wallet back to the
man, who snatched it out of his hand, glaring at the boy as he growled something
about sharding theives.
"Well, you got your marks back, no lasting harm done,
right? I'll just be leaving now." Shiro said as he nervously inched away from
the dragon. Her rider grabbed onto his tunic before he got very far,
however.
"Hold on, kid." She said to him.
"Yes, you didn't think you'd be
getting off that easily, did you?" The man said, glaring at him.
"Well, I can
hope, can't I?" Shiro retorted.
The dragonrider looked to her dragon, and
spoke up. "Just a moment, Lord Cyril. Why don't you let us take care of him."
She said, motioning to another approaching dragonrider.
Shiro paled. He'd
just tried to rob the Lord Holder? Lord Cyril glared at the young theif. "Don't
go easy on him." He growled as he left.
"We'll take care of him." Shiro
turned to see a second dragonrider standing beside a blue dragon.
Lord Cyril
nodded at the dragonriders and left.
The dragonriders glanced at each other,
then turned to Shiro. He gulped, wondering if there was truth to the rumours of
man-eating dragons. "You're not gonna feed me to your dragons or something, are
you?" He asked as the dragonriders tried not to grin.
Goodness, no! Humans are all bland,
and stringy. Very foul-tasting.
Shiro jumped as he heard the green dragon. Her rider
laughed. "Of course not! Dragons never attack humans." Shiro sighed with relief.
"But that doesn't mean we're letting you leave just yet." She added. Shiro
gulped.
"I'm Killora, rider of green Jurith. And this is K'ral, rider of blue
Binerth." She said, pointing to the man beside her. "We're searchriders from
Tripaldi Weyr. Actually, our dragons have taken an interest in you. They say you
should come with us, back to Tripaldi Weyr."
Shiro blinked, confused. "What?
Why?"
"A green-blue has clutched. They think you should stand for Ecanirith's
clutch." The blue rider said.
Shiro stared at the dragonriders. "What is
this, some sort of joke?" He asked suspiciously.
Dragons don't lie.
The green, Jurith, said, staring
intently at him.
"But, you just did, earlier. About eating humans." Shiro
pointed out.
Jurith blinked. Oh. I did, didn't I?
"Regardless of that, we are serious
about your standing for the clutch." Killora said.
"Well..." Shiro was still
apprehensive.
"Or, we could leave you to Lord Cyril. I'm sure he'd be more
than to deal with you." The blue rider, K'ral, added.
That settled it. "Well
then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
Shiro stared at the
shattered eggs, the newly hatched dragons leaving the sands with their chosens.
But no hatchling stood with Shiro.
He sighed. Even though he'd really had no
intention of Impressing, he'd started to change his mind the longer he'd stayed
at the Weyr.
All of the clutch hatched special in some way, either by color
or talking. By the time the hatchlings had all Impressed, he didn't care what
might come his way, if only he could have Impressed...
Maybe he just wasn't
supposed to Impress, maybe the searchriders had been wrong after all.
As if
reading his mind, the green searchdragon, Jurith, walked in then.
Don't you dare say I
was wrong! I'm a dragon, I'm never wrong! Just because you didn't Impress the
first time, doesn't mean you're not meant to ride a dragon. Just give it time,
Shiro. You'll meet your lifemate, eventually. Who knows, maybe you're destined
for a bronze dragon.
Shiro
snorted. Bronze riders were supposed to be loyal, brave, honest. Bronze dragons
weren't interested in petty theives. Jurith glared at him.
What? You don't believe me? You'll
Impress, mark my words! Besides,
She glanced at him slyly. There is a gold dragon clutching next. Just wait and
see.
Shiro smiled. She was
quite a persistant dragon. He stood up, walking back to the candidate barracks.
"Well, it's not like I've got anywhere else to go." He grinned. | |