The first thing he saw when his head broke from his shell was spiky and brown. He looked down and saw a pair of dark brown eyes. The spiky-haired boy held out a peice of meat, which the newly-hatched fire lizard gulped down.
The boy smiled. "Hey now, not so fast! You'll choke. Here." He began to break the meat up into smaller peices. The fire lizard watched all of this with whirling eyes.
"What shall I call you, then?" The flit cocked his head, then gulped down another peice of meat. The boy laughed. "How about...Aeccestane?"
The fire lizard stared at the boy. How could he ever remember that? The boy took his silence as acceptance. "Alright, Aeccestane it is."
The fire lizard finally decided to ignore him and finished it's meal. It soon fell fast asleep in the boy's arms.


The boy, Telem, grinned at the fire lizard asleep in his arms. He could hardly believe his luck! Somehow, the flit egg he had...borrowed from a man at the Gather had turned out to be a Marble! Obviously it was from the Falas Genetic Program Center, or FGPC.
He hadn't actually meant for the egg to hatch. He had just planned on selling it off at the Gather. But when he realized the egg was already hatching, he just grabbed some meat when no one was looking, and watched as his fire lizard hatched.
A silver-blue dragon gazed at him from where it was laying down, enjoying the sun. She turned to her rider, who was looking through some jewelry at a nearby stand. They were both enjoying the Gather, and the day off from searching.
The boy was heading off, the flit asleep in his arms.
The woman turned to her dragon, sighing. "Zalaeith, do we have to be searching today? I was rather enjoying the day off."
She listened as her dragon responded, then nodded. "Alright then. Who is it?"
Telem stopped as someone shouted to him from behind. He turned to see the silver-blue staring at him, and it's rider walking up to him.
He guiltily tried to hide Aeccestane from view, but the woman never even noticed the marble. "Can I help you, Dragonrider?"
The woman nodded. "My Zalaeith has taken an interest in you." She said, motioning towards the silver-blue. "I'm Valecaea, and that's my dragon, Zalaeith. We're searchriders from Abri Weyr."
"I'm Telem." He eyed her nervously, he still didn't know why she had wanted to talk to him.
She smiled. "Zalaeith says you should stand for Uasth's clutch."
Telem's jaw dropped. "Me? Stand? There must be a mistake! I can't be a dragonrider!"
Do we really have to go through this speech with every candidate we find? It gets rather old after a while.
Valecaea fought back a laugh. Relax, Zalaeith. This should be the last one we search for a while.
"No mistake." She said aloud. "Will you stand?"
"What are you, crazy? Of course I will!"


Hey, don't look at me. How was I supposed to know the clutch would hatch before we got back?
Valecaea glance at her dragon. "It's not your fault, Zalaeith." She turned to Telem. "Sorry. Apparently the clutch has just hatched."
Telem was devastated. After he had actually gotten searched, him! The clutch had hatched before he could even get there.
Valecaea listened as her dragon said something to her, then nodded. "If you want, we could take you to Sidra Weyr. There's a clutch there." She smiled. "I don't think this one will hatch so quickly. Perhaps you would want to stand for Brown Plobynth's clutch?"
Telem frowned. "Wait a minute, brown? I thought Browns were males!"
Valecaea shrugged. "I don't really know that much about it. But if we're going, we should rest first. Going between times can be exhausting for some people."
Telem stopped. "Between times? We're going between times?"
"Yes, didn't you know? Plobynth's clutch is in the First Pass, the year 65, to be exact."
Telem jumped at the opportunity. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"