Ania and Selanth

This is Ania and Selanth's story. (©SunBlind)
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A girl walked along the beach gathering seaweed and other edibles from the shore. Her brown hair was sunbleached from spending so much time outside in the sun and seaspray. Her name was Ania, and she lived in one of Pern's Seaholds. The sound of ariving dragons made her look up in awe. Dragonriders did not come here often unless they were fighting Thread, and then she didn't get to see them, locked safely away in her stone hold.

Picking up the last few shelled creatures on the shore, she rushed back to the hold to see what was going on. Before she could even get close to the dragons, her mother motioned for her to come over. "They'll be staying for supper now, dear. And we all know you make the best fish around here, so off to the kitchen with you to work your wonders."

"Shards," Ania thought. She could see the dragons, but she wanted to get just a little closer. Especially to that blue one that was looking so kindly at her. Anyway, she headed off to the kitchen, her brown eyes dancing with excitement. Quickly she went to work at the fish, cleaning then seasoning them before wrapping them the fresh leaves to baked on the warm embers. That was how she kept all those flavours in her fish.

While everything was cooking, she slipped out to take a peek at the dragonriders in her hold. There were three of them. She wondered which one rode that nice blue. Then a crash from the kitchen forced her to rush back to prevent a disaster. One of the drudges had managed to knock a whole bowl of flour over herself. Ania laughed at the white as a ghost cook, and helped to get some of it off.

Finally dinner was served. Unfortunately Ania was so busy serving, she didn't get much of a chance to hear what the riders were talking about. Though at one point she heard one mention something about freckles, and she had the most freckles around! She wondered what he was saying about her. He was the handsomest of the three after all.

One of the rider's firelizards followed her to the kitchen where she fed him some left over meat until he just vanished before her eyes. The rider must have called the brown one back. Too bad, she wasn't in the mood for dishes. It was one thing to make a mess, another to clean it up........

Then the lizard appeared before her with a cheep. "Hungry?", Ania asked.

"If you feed him any more he'll get so fat he won't be able to fly anymore." Ania looked up surprised at the rider in the doorway, the handsome one. She couldn't think of anything to say. "Yes, you must be the one my blue has been bugging me about all dinner. He thinks you would make a good candidate on the Sands. Would you like to come?"

Just then her mother walked in, "Yes she would, dear," and she winked at her daughter as she looked the dragonrider over. "Besides, from the way the three of you ate, you more than need her around the Weyr to feed you. I'm sure your dragons don't eat as much." Ania blushed at her mothers words to the rider.

"Well," he asked. Ania jumped up eagerly, and after some goodbyes, she was soon aboard the great blue, soaring above her old home.

It wasn't long before Ania could see Azov Weyr far beneath her.

Stats:
Name: Selanth
Rider: Ania
Color: Green (female)
Parents: Gold Alyth x Bronze Manath
Weyr: Azov Weyr (Agency closed)
October 1999