Elegon had always somewhat resented his older brother. The two year difference between them shouldn't have made much conflict, but it did. Egall was, in Elegon's opinion, a complete and utter failure. Two years? It was as if Egall had been born a decade later than his brother. He was immature, boorish, uneducated, and worse, he expected everything to fall into his hands when their parents retired or split up their holdings. Elegon knew that it was a bad idea to give Egall a big chunk of responsibility, but he also knew that his elder brother was the family favorite. Speaking out against him would only mean the rest of his family would blame him for being jealous or spiteful.

He was, jealous and spiteful were things that he'd always known. But Elegon was smarter, stronger, taller and more handsome; and more importantly Elegon knew how to do math, spell properly (if a little messy) and take care of business of the Hold without merely resorting to asking someone else to do it.

His next sibling, Leega, she was just as bad too. If that girl had ever done a moment's work in her life, no one knew it. But she was fabulously pretty, and had held out marrying because there were half a dozen suitors that would compete for her hand and believe they'd gotten the best deal on Pern for it. Elegon privately wondered whether Leega was waiting to see what kind of servants and extended households they had, in order to choose the one which would allow her to get away with the most irresponsibility.

Elegon had looked for a wife, but he honestly wondered whether there was one smart girl among any of the families that his father tried hooking him into. He'd actually been attracted to one girl's handmaid, more than the Lady herself. Plus they kept trying to pawn him off on older girls, rather than those his own age. Starting when he was only thirteen, they'd invite whoever had an unmarried girl around, and hope that sparks would fly - or at least, that her parents would think highly of them.

And for the most part, their family was highly thought of, indeed they had a good Holding and exceptional crops, guilds bought their goods and they paid their dragon tithes on time. They had a good group of very handsome children, though only Elegon had the exotic white-silver hair that his mother's family was known for. He cringed at the thought that their Hold would eventually fall into his elder brother's hands.

On his own, Elegon would have enjoyed going to a Crafthall and learning to do something important, like building ships or casting ironworks. But he knew better than to think he was strong enough for either of those things - he was healthy but not musclebound, and when it came down to it, those things couldn't keep his attention very long anyway.

He liked puzzles and word games, poetry and satire. He cursed his own shaky hand because he concentrated too hard on getting the words onto wherhide 'just right' and they never quite did. His enjoyment of maps and structural codes kept him busy for hours at a time, he knew and understood plenty about plumbing, weight distribution, landscaping and the like. He could sketch adequately well, but again his sloppy and uncertain handwriting meant he could only label things half-heartedly.

Physically though he was fit indeed, and one thing that he did enjoy doing with his brother instead of without, was sparring with mock swords, clubs and shields, and generally seeing who was faster on their feet. He could easily challenge others to duels, at least with the mock weaponry - he didn't want to draw anyone's blood, he stayed away from swords for that reason. Better, he would say as he helped his defeated sparring partner from the ground, to keep your blood inside you and help your family by staying alive.

One might get the impression of Elegon that he was aloof and arrogant, which he was to a degree, but on any extended examiniation of his personality those things paled before the basic facts: he was very smart, he was extremely handsome, and he did understand the way things worked at the Hold well enough to have taken the duties of a Lord Holder even at the age of sixteen.

But one might also get the impression that he was fearless, and that he was not. And with good reason, a regular visit from his father's favorite 'old friend' Belku brought his blood to a cold halt in his veins. Ever since he was a young child, Belku brought the smell of too much wine and ill-cleaned clothing into their home. He also brought with him abusive remarks, taunts, and eventually sexual abuse that went on for many years - and Elegon knew his mother had a sense of it, for her daughters would stay away from the boorish man entirely during his visits. Since they were not making themselves easily available, he went for the next prettiest thing.

Elegon didn't raise a fuss on his seventeenth birthday, but he was absolutely relieved and thankful that hours after Belku had arrived, so had a troupe of Search riders. They would keep both Belku's attention as well as his own.

With Threadfall pretty much done, dragon riders would become a little less necessary during the upcoming Interval. And as always, everyone hoped that this would be the last Pass - but no one really trusted that it would be. So tithing continued, and searches brought good young people to impress their dragons.

Belku practically exploded when the rider called him out on his behavior, right in front of everyone! "You shan't be needing to fondle your friend's son, any longer, I would avoid it anyway - eventually he'll have a dragon to back him up, and they can be very defensive." The woman rider met Elegon's almond-shaped green eyes, and gave a tiny smirk. He knew perfectly well that a dragon would never harm a human, but it sure didn't seem that Belku did.

Elegon was set up with his possessions, a trunk and several other bags and assorted luggage, appropriate to a Holder of his stature, and they were sent on ahead to the Weyr which would become his home. Dragonhope was cold, but it was beautiful. It actually seemed to bring out the vanity in him: look at the way his hair mirrors the snows? Girls at the Weyr, he thought of them frequently once arrived, were far more interesting than those at the Hold, and were able to keep up with him!

Why he couldn't have been sent to a Weyr earlier in his life, he sighed as he researched dragon health information, he was irked not at the lateness of his Search, but at the way the world itself worked. If he became a rider, he'd be able to fight Thread ... maybe, it was dwindling to nothing by now, and that almost disappointed him... But if he did ride, he could also travel, Search, see the world and all its wonders!

And if he did ride, his enjoyment of those girls at the Weyr would increase tenfold. He chuckled at himself, hours spent helping to clean dragon weyrs, dragons, whatever needed cleaning (it was drudgery, but it was also good honest work, work which helped build his muscularity as well as his education of the weyr's layout) were also hours he spent chatting with candidates about the lives of a dragon rider.

They would laughingly place each other on made-up dragons: what if Elegon rode a green! Well then, he responded, he'd just have to make sure that whoever paired up with her during her heat would be a strong willed blue-riding woman. There were plenty of those around Dragonhope, he noted - and even a few on browns and more exotic colors! That pleased him, this place held its riders in esteem but also wasn't afraid to take on unusual people or dragons. There weren't many, but even the Weyrleaders' daughter Opal rode a dragon which reflected her name - a white which was small and lovely and quite good at Searching so he'd heard.

He gave half a thought to courting Opal, after all she was quite pretty, tall, elegant and humorous. Sharp witted as her mother, Kira the Weyrwoman, Opal was his senior by a few years, but she never seemed to worry about things like that. She did hang out with the recordskeepers Ilina and Aniz - both of whom would put his own writing skills to shame easily.

What if he rode blue? A nice blue, he thought while scraping flitter dung from the floor under a light-hanging, would be fun. Though he'd heard they were flitter-like themselves, silly and light-headed. If he could ride one that paid close attention, who knew what was possible?

And what about a sturdy brown? Oh there's a thought, but he knew many brown riders were burly, strongly stoic people - even the women. Perhaps especially the women. Was he strong enough to keep up with them? Maybe, but browns were a tremendous responsibility around here. They were often called upon for construction and diplomatic work. The diplomacy he knew he could handle. The construction, oooh, there was a thought, eh? He knew plenty about how to construct a building, a bridge, whatever. He tucked that away, his heart often fluttered a bit when he thought of any given dragon hatchling coming to him - but maybe one that suited his abilities would know him from the shell!

He continued his work, his studies, his annoying writing tasks. He learned in a year, what it took some a decade to figure out - the skills he'd need around a Weyr were already ingrained and flowing within him. Even if he didn't Impress some day, he would probably help run the Weyr as a steward or the male equivalent of the 'head woman'. Of course he wanted other people to write things down for him - there were plenty of scribes here, even ones much younger than he was, that could write much more cleanly. He freely admitted it, joking with one of the thirteen-turn-old apprentices that he'd almost want to buy time to have the brats transcribe his lousy writing for his studies!

It was when they finally got along into learning star charts, fighting formations, and wing flight works, that Elegon dared wish for a bronze to come to him some day. Seeing the Weyrleader and his massive bronze, heading up a spectacular wing filled with all the strongest fighters of the Weyr... Could he lead? He knew that he had it in him to be a solid wing man, he memorized the patterns and played with the 'toys' that simulated wing formations even after hours. But could he lead a wing? The tests that the Weyrling masters gave showed promise, as in many things, he was able to think quickly enough... he was quite good at correcting mistakes, not in a bad way like some would do (he wouldn't point and laugh, when someone demonstrated a flawed wing formation). Elegon was careful with his wording, showing where one wing-man might dive and another rise at the same time, crashing into each other.

It was even because of him, that the Weyrling master's assistants devised further tests for everyone, ones that showed just exactly that ability. It was one thing to just parrot-out what moves each wing was meant to represent, but another entirely to show which things could go wrong, and how best - and how quickly - to correct them. Elegon's three-dimensional, spacial perception was excellent just like when he'd been looking over blueprints and construction tasks. He could take a flat paper and interpret where each dragon should be height-wise, long before others saw what he did.

Proudly he went to the top of the class, remaining steady in the knowledge that if he hoped too hard for one rank of a dragon to come to him, he would be horribly disappointed if it didn't happen that way.

Green or Bronze, Brown or Blue, he thought, he would make the best of any dragon that chose him. It would be an honor.

It was some time later though, that Elegon was requested to come to Aneris weyr? Intriguing, such a storied weyr still going strong! Here, he could put his skills to use and be able to learn more about the beautiful dragons that kept his world safe!

***

The hatching was miserably hot, but Elegon and the candidates had more than just the grains of burning sands lodged in their sandals to think about. The eggs - two more than even yesterday's touching? - were shaking and ready to burst. Shortly, one did! A nice brown, handsome and healthy looking.

The brown hatchling shook himself off and unfurled his damp wings. He was a good sized hatchling and after getting his bearings immediately began to move toward the circle of candidates. The girls stood away from him preferring to keep their attention on the golden egg, but he wasn't interested in them anyway. He marched his way straight to the dark complected, silver-haired Elegon .

"Kalveruth," he questioned. "That's your name? Of course, you should know your own name," he assured the brown hatchling. The pair continued their silent conversation as they headed out to where A'tok was waiting to help them with their first feedings.

***

Though he'd been first to Impress, Kalveruth wanted to watch others as they took to the air as Weyrlings. It turned out, that was more or less because he wanted to critique their work, rather than because he was hesitant. E'gon got a brain full of commentary on each of his siblings. She's too slow, those wing beats will have her fall... see, just like that. Oh he's doing okay. But look at the other blue, it's like he doesn't even know where all his limbs are!

"Oh and you'll do perfectly your first time?" E'gon said, and the brown at his side gave an angry huff, but said nothing more. They did just fine, not perfect, but then... who was?

***

E'gon decided that he would petition for a spot in the construction wing, aiding in tasks like rescuing people from collapsed hillsides or burnt buildings. It was a short discussion - S'vax, the Weyrleader's son and a Master smith himself, knew a good thing when he saw it. Having E'gon and Kalveruth on their wing would be very good indeed. He could see structural weaknesses in a new way from overhead, E'gon's mind worked quickly when presented with that sort of puzzle of how to remove a block of building without crushing the people below it.

He also determined that it was for the best, that he get some of the younger scribes to detail his work by dictation. E'gon's 'toy castles' were where he shined, not with words on a page. He collaborated with a number of the artisans and scribes in the Weyr, after a time, to make sure that his ideas for those structures - bridges, keeps, Guildhalls, even mines and decorative buildings - were written down in ways that anyone could understand.

Would they get to build any of them? Maybe some day... Perhaps!

Brown Kalveruth - E'gon
Size: 33.5m
Personality: Clever
Sociability: Extrovertive
Traits: Opinionated
Likes: Being in charge
Dislikes: Being told what to do
Mating: A gentleman
Other: N/A

Status: Lord, House Born child
Age: 18
Gender: male
Siblings: 6
Born: second
Legitimacy: born to a married couple
Childhood Health: perfectly healthy
Adult Height: an average-height person
Adult Build: strong
Skin Tone: dark brown
Hair Color: brilliantly silver
Hair Style: fluffy
Hair Length: to waist
Eye Color: forest green
Literacy Level: can read with some difficulty and have poor penmanship
Politeness Level: they're occasionally polite, but often slip up
Focus: they carefully attend to details
Their looks are considered spectacular by most
They are neither truly giving or selfish