Noa and M'rix entered the Weyrbowl, which was already quite filled with people. Unsurprising, as fire lizards had brought news that the latest tithe caravan had just arrived from Sedona Hold, and weyrfolk were already congregating to unload its supplies. Normally, such an occasion would not require the presence of the Weyrwoman and Weyrleader, but a gold fire lizard had appeared in front of Noa with a message for her. It seemed Lord Tuan had decided to accompany the caravan and was waiting outside to meet with her and the Weyrleader.
Curious to see what this was about, Noa had Yuneth call M'rix through his bronze and then followed the strange gold outside. It flew at a leisurely pace, allowing the goldrider and bronzerider both to keep up with her, and once inside the Weyrbowl, it was not hard to spot the group of Holders. The little queen flew straight to them, though she did not land on the shoulder of either the Lord Holder or his wife, as Noa would have expected. Instead, the gold chittered and wrapped herself around the neck and shoulders of a young girl in the group, seventeen at the oldest.
The resemblance between this girl and the Lord Holder's wife was obvious; they looked enough alike that they could not be anything but mother and daughter. Both were tall and slender and conventionally pretty women, with extremely pale coloring, blonde-haired and blue-eyed. Noa was still wondering what had made Lord Tuan bring his wife and daughter with him to the Weyr. The man was an annoyance at the best of times, but an unfortunately necessary one.
While other weyrfolk started unloading the tithe supplies, Noa addressed the Lord Holder. "Welcome to Sedona. What has brought you today, Lord Tuan?"
Tuan did not waste time informing them. "I've come across what will surely be a marvelous idea, Weyrwoman," the man told her with a smug grin. "My daughter, Taline, wishes to Impress a dragon." He gestured at the girl, who looked up at the mention of her name, but otherwise devoted all her attention to the fire lizard in her arms. "It's unfortunate she could not be here the last time there was a queen egg on your sands. I've heard the gold that hatched left for another Weyr with her rider. It surely will not be long before one of your golds lays another queen egg, however. It would certainly be advantageous to have another link between Hold and Weyr, not to mention a goldrider who will actually stick around."
M'rix sputtered at that, but Noa shot the Weyrleader a look before he could speak up, warning their dragons to keep him quiet. Not that Noa was any more happy with the Lord's idea. She could at least be polite about it, though. "I'm afraid there are several problems with that, Lord Tuan. For one thing, it's necessary for candidates to be searched by proper searchriders, else we'd be overrun by candidates who have no chance of Impressing a dragon. Even weyrbred candidates are presented to the searchdragons before standing. Besides that, the junior queen Jhajerth has not even risen yet, much less clutched, and there's no guaruntee there'll be a queen egg. There is a pregnant green, however..." Technically Syroeth was a green-gold, but the less Tuan knew about that, the better.
Tuan hadn't noticed her pause; he was too busy being affronted at the idea of his daughter impressing from a green's clutch. "There'd be no gold from that! Are you implying my daughter would Impress a common green?"
Beside her, M'rix growled. "We need all the greens we can get. There's no shame in Impressing any dragon."
Noa shot him another look. The man needed to learn to control his temper. They couldn't afford to get on Tuan's bad side. Taline herself seemed quite content to have her father argue for her; she stayed out of the conversation entirely. Noa noted one of the searchriders, S'ren, walking towards them as Tuan replied.
"She'll stand as long as she has to until there's a queen egg. Unless you can find a way to feed a hundred or more dragons without our tithes," he said haughtily. "One Weyr's fighting wings are as good as another's. We survived well enough for the two turns of Threadfall before we helped found your Weyr. Can you do the same?"
As much as Noa wanted to hit the man, he was right. Tuan could send his tithes to another Weyr in exchange for protection, but the other Holds they protected could not afford to feed the Weyr's population if they lost Sedona Hold. "Err, excuse me, Weyrleaders?"
S'ren was not-too-subtly trying to get their attention. His blue dragon, Hagieth, lingered in the background, seeming particularly interested in Tuan's silent daughter, though she did not seem to share the blue's interest, by the way she backed away warily from the dragon.
"What is it, S'ren?" M'rix asked him testily.
"I just wanted to point out, Hagieth really likes the girl. And he's always been a particularly sensitive searchdragon." The bluerider nodded towards his dragon.
Tuan seemed pleased, though he was the only one.

It didn't take long for the weyrfolk to get Taline settled into the Weyr. Later the same day, the new candidate was shown the room in the candidates' quarters that she would be sharing with another girl. Helena had lived in Sedona since the start, it seemed, and she wasn't pleased at having a roommate. Taline wasn't happy about it either; she'd always had her own room at the Hold and wasn't looking forward to sharing, especially with someone as unpleasant as Helena.
The girl was dressed in plain, unfeminine clothes--simple pants and a shirt that was a little too big for her. Her thick, blonde hair was pulled back in a messy braid, and her hazel brown eyes were staring at Taline with suspicion. "Hello, I'm--" Taline started, holding out her hand, but the other girl interrupted her before she could continue.
"I know who you are. Lord Tuan's daughter, of course." Her tone implied that everyone else would know that too, and Taline felt her stomach constrict.
"I'm Helena," she continued with a sigh. "Look, stay out of my stuff and no trespassing on my side of the room, alright?"
Taline scoffed. It wasn't as though there was a line drawn down the center of the room. It was barely big enough for the two of them, anyway. There was only the two beds, a small table in the center, and spaces for their trunks.
"I'm serious," Helena insisted. "Stay out of my way." She shot one last glare at Taline and launched herself out of the room, off to who knew where.

Taline was slow to settle into life in the Weyr, but settle she did. Her fire lizards, Morette, Burniby, and Aella, seemed reluctant to spend much time in her quarters, so the trio spent much of their time exploring the Weyr. Taline couldn't blame them. The room was cramped at best, and Helena seemed to get irrationally angry at her whenever she found Taline inside it, nevermind that it was as much her room as Helena's. She found other places to spend her time, such as the library. She also spent a lot of her time with her fire lizards; she hadn't managed to make other friends among the candidates, so she ended up exploring the Weyr with them most of the time.
The dragons still baffled her. She wasn't quite so nervous of them anymore since they didn't crowd her as that blue had at first, but she was startled by the sheer variety of colors at the Weyr. The teaching ballads only ever seemed to mention five colors, so where did the others come from? Even so, they may have seemed strange, but it was just one more thing to get used to in Sedona Weyr. Once she got used to seeing them, both the dragons and their riders seemed normal enough, even kind, if still wary around her. Everyone seemed to know who she was, and it was the first time her family being who they were had actually worked against her.
She remained an outcast among the other candidates, but she did everything she was told and tried to please the various temporary Candidatemasters as much as she had her parents. She was still expected to stand for the green's (or was it a green-gold?) clutch in addition to a queen's, even if she didn't expect to Impress at it, and she found herself not really minding. Helena was a different matter.

It was late one night when Taline walked into the room she shared with Helena. As always, she was accompanied by her trio of fire lizards, with Morette holding court on her shoulder as usual. Helena was already inside, getting ready for bed, and she rolled her eyes at the sight of Taline's gold pet. Taline had already discovered it was best to just ignore her roommate, but she had scarcely stepped foot into the room when she tripped over something on the ground. She squealed and landed on Helena's bed while Morette shrieked and flew off, landing at the foot of her own bed. She realized it had been the long tail of a creature she'd tripped over when the tail's owner dashed out from underneath Helena's bed as soon as she'd fallen onto it.
Helena gave an unladylike snort as she fell, but then scowled when she saw the creature that had been the cause of it. "Darby, you know you're supposed to stay under the bed when she's here," she scolded it.
At first Taline thought it was a cat of some sort, but no. The ears and tail were both far too long for a feline, and the dark teal tufts on its back were not matted fur but the feathers of fully-fledged wings. She stared at the creature, which was hissing at Morette while the gold flitter hissed back at it, and Helena stared at her. "W-what is it? Some sort of new creature from Southern's jungles or something?"
"Or something," Helena replied dryly. "It's called a rukel. His name is Darby, and he is usually silent and stays out of the way." She added a half-hearted glare at the rukel. Taline reached out hesitantly to stroke Darby's fur, and though the thick fur bristled at the touch, the rukel made no move to stop her. Helena was still staring at her.
"He's actually kind of cute," Taline admitted. "Look, I don't mind you having a pet. I have three, after all," she glanced at her bed, where her brown and green had joined Morette. "I assume that's why you didn't want me staying in our room?"
The other girl gave a shrug. "Yeah, whatever."
They went back to ignoring each other after that, and though she rarely saw signs of Darby again, Taline avoided their room less, and the occasions when the roommates did meet were much less strained.

There was still no clutch on the sands, much less a clutch Taline hoped to actually Impress from. Taline was surprised to be called to the Weyrwoman's office one day. She had the feeling the Weyrwoman had been keeping tabs on her since she became a candidate, but she had neither seen nor talked to Noa since her father's departure. She wondered what she wanted with her now.
She found Helena already there, looking inordinately pleased about something. She sat down in the chair provided for her. "You wanted to see me, Weyrwoman?" Why was Helena there? Had her roommate complained about her?
Noa gestured at the girl. "Helena here has requested a transfer to become a candidate at another Weyr, which I and her parents have granted. The reason you are here is this; I believe you should go with her." Taline's surprise was clear on her face. "Unlike Sedona, Shintaru Weyrhold actually has gold eggs on their sands. Four of them, in fact, at last count. They're holding a Frenzy there."
Reluctantly, Taline raised her hand to ask a question. "Err, what's a Frenzy?"
Helena cackled gleefully. "Oh, I'll tell you later. I want to explain the concept of dragon orgies to her, Noa."
Taline's face went quite pink. "W-What?"
Noa gave an exasperated look at Helena but assented to let her explain it. "Let's just say Shintaru has no shortage of eggs requiring candidates. You'll Impress much faster there than waiting for a queen egg here--if you'll Impress at all, that is. There is one thing, however," Noa continued. "Shintaru Weyrhold is in the future...quite a long time in the future. Sedona Weyr has some ties with a couple Eleventh Pass Weyrs, thanks to our time travel experiments to get our own weyrlings into the wings faster. We will, of course, send someone to bring you back here should you not Impress," Noa told a stunned Taline. "If you do Impress, of course, there's no real reason for you to return to Sedona Weyr; you'll be free to transfer to any modern Weyr you want."
"Oh. Of-of course." Taline said at last. "I'll do my best, Weyrwoman Noa." And she would, even if it was just an attempt for Noa to get rid of her.

While a part of Taline was disappointed that the trip to Shintaru was ultimately a failure, a part of her was also glad. Sedona Weyr had been difficult enough for her to get used to, but it at least was close to her home, not to mention in the same Pass! Shintaru Weyrhold was much different, though. Helena took it in stride, but Taline found herself quickly and consistently left behind.
She and Helena were both given a lift on dragonback to Sedona. Taline had spent a considerable amount of time at Shintaru, and she expected things would not be quite the same when she returned home, but quite a lot had happened since she'd left! It seemed she and her roommate had been away longer than either of them had expected. Quite a few clutches had hatched since their leaving (several of them containing queen eggs, to her father's frustration) and Taline noted there was a new Weyrleader. As well as quite a few new...and uncommon...dragons around.
But it was fine, Taline decided. Her father was a traditional, old-fashioned man, distrusting anything he didn't know or understand, but she had learned a lot about dragons since she had become a candidate. Even the biggest, scariest-looking dragons didn't frighten her anymore.
Unfortunately, when she arrived, Sedona was once again lulled into a period between clutches, which meant she didn't have much to do except spend all her time with Morette and her other fire lizards...once again. It was like she was back home.
She was relieved when Noa called her up again to talk to her. Aneris Weyr had a clutch from a visiting queen, she told Taline, and while they were not certain, it looked likely that Eyith had laid a queen egg. With nothing to do at Sedona, Taline agreed to travel again. She wouldn't be surprised if Helena tagged along as well, either. At least it was closer than Shintaru had been.