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Sarabande
Partners in Crime
Sarabande looks around.
Nobody is here to see her. Good. She closes in on her goal. Step by step
she moves as quietly as she can, getting closer. She bites her lip in
the effort of being silent...closer, closer, she's almost
there....Shards! She hears footsteps! quickly she runs to a nearby
passageway and hides in the dark. A questioning chirp startles her.
"No menuet, I haven't gotten there yet, we have to be quiet now"
 Menuet, the Black
firelizard
The voices of 2 women get louder and Sarabande recognises her own
mother's voice.
"Have you seen Sarabande?" asks her mother
"Hmmm, I think I saw her running around here somewhere." answers the
second, she sounded like the headwoman.
"I swear that child gives me gray hair! I can just feel her being
mischievous somewhere."
"Hannia, aren't you exaggerating?"
"No! A mother feels these things....It is almost like she is here"
The voices wander of and the room is left to Sarabande. Pfew, almost
caught! She dashes to the bowl of sweets and takes out a handful. She
runs back to the passageway and sneaks back to her room. Menuet starts
to nudge her for food and almost shokes on the sweets. She only got the
little firelizard a week ago for her 13th birthday. It was a surprise to
everyone when the little guy turned out to be a black. The best birthday
present however, she got from her dad, Rider of Brown Haleth, he
promised her she would be a candidate in the next hatching.
She combs her long black hair and straightens her dress. There! Now
she doesn't look like she's been wandering through the halls anymore.
Trying to look innocent, she goes out and watches the weyrlings train...
"Almost" she whispers...
After weeks of waiting, there finally is a new clutch on the sand.
Sarabande, like the other candidates is often taken to the clutch and
made familiar with how they look and feel, but probably also for the
mother dragon to get to know the candidates.
On the second of those trips Sarabande notices a rather awkward boy
about her own age. He just stood in front of this one egg...not even
touching it. The now full grown Menuet lands on her shoulder and tilts
his head in a perfect imitaion of his owner.
"What are you doing?" she asks the boy.
"I don't want to disturb the dragon..."
"There is little to disturb now, plus sometimes I've heared you can
feel them move in the shell! But I don't know if that is true."
"Won't I do anything wrong? What if I fall over it?"
"You won't! I'm Sarabande, what's your name?"
"Alani."
"That's enough time for today boys and girls! Let's go eat!" the
rider in charge exclaimed.
~***~
Sarabande entered the hatching grounds along with the others. She had
been there many times before, but never, she knew would it be the same
as this day...She hesitated for a moment, what if she didn't impress?
Quickly she shook her head and looked confidently at the others,
carefully smiling at Alani. He didn't notice her, of course, it was his
first hatching and you could just see him think.
The eggs started rocking and everyone's attention was drawn to the
little green to emerge first. She went to Nema, Sarabande knew her and
was happy she had impressed this time. Of course, that meant one less
female dragon for her....Menuet pulled her hair, and made her look at
this silly blue who bumped into Alani. He was so happy!
The brown found his rider easy, hmmm, he wasn't all brown, he had
bronze wings....this clutch was surely turning out to be special. The
next hatchling was bright, a white she thought, the sun
glinstering....no, it was silver! The next was a white and a female, she
looked at it and hoped, but this one wasn't her partner.
Only 2 eggs left....she was feeling tense, one of those had to be a
female, right?
The bigger one cracked and 2, how could this be? 2 mottled blue
dragons emerged, to her consternation, one of it definatly had a female
look to it....but the twins found their riders and left the sands.
The last egg rocked....and gently the shells dropped away, almost
like leaves in a summer breeze she thought, wich was stupid, because
those sheels were heavy. She laughed at her silly thoughts. But then
Menuet flew at the egg and helped remove the shell. The green seemed to
bounce and looked up at Sarabande:
"Hehe! Tricked you! Together, Sarabande,
we'll be having fun soon! You and Ryuath!"
Sarabande smiled and said:
"Ryuath, hm? Well, I'm glad that you fit my personality..."
All the fear was gone now, only hunger remained, and the feeling of
future joy. In her mind she projected images of flying and daring
stunts, of chases and tricks....
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