Neli understood from a young age that her life was unusually blessed with siblings. Her mother and father, both scribes but neither attached too much to the other, both loved their shared children tremendously. And, kept having more.

It was probably because of that, that Neli knew what she wanted to do with herself once she'd become a scribe too. She wanted to track her bloodlines, knowing where everyone was, who they married, who had babies... The lot of geneology. Doodling lines between little perfectly inscribed letters indicating names, it was clear that she had a great talent for this task.

Though she was never considered smashingly good looking, she always was able to pour on the charm and get answers from people that didn't necessarily want to give them. Anyone else might have used this to their advantage, but she simply wanted knowledge - something that her superiors in the guild noted well.

She was however a girl, and they rarely got the same chances around Hold or Hall as boys did. Neli didn't mind, it gave her time to study and learn more. Neli picked up the fine lined art of architecture, though she'd never be more than a dabbler at it, she knew how to read blueprints and plans, maps and the like. Her stunningly perfect handwriting often came in handy for map making, and she was often called into the cartographer's office to help copy maps from one old hide to another new one.

It became hard to drag her out of the records rooms, once she'd passed into her Apprenticeship. She made quick work of any copying job needed, and since she was quite the writer it was impossible for anyone to cheat and have her do their work. It never even occurred to her that someone might want her to, but they did. Thankfully she was never the type who allowed anyone to slack off around her.

Endlessly encouraging, smiling, and eager to see what others could do, she could turn a study group into an actually fun evening of work. Not everyone shared her enthusiasm, but the guild masters certainly enjoyed seeing it. When she was ten, however, one of her instructors fell gravely ill.

None of the students were allowed to visit him, which most of them were saddened by. However this did pose a serious problem: Neli worried herself into a tizzy about it. Was there an illness like she'd read about, heard songs of, in other times? Sickness that swept across whole Holds, even Weyrs weren't safe...

But she was only ten, and thus eventually realized that his sickness was not going to pass through the whole Hall. At the back of her mind, however, there was always a nagging worry. She did get to see his body as they carried the middle-aged man out to the pyre - shrunken, all the wrong colors, apparently covered in self-inflicted scratch wounds from the boil-like pox over his skin. That was an image that would never leave.

It was a kind of revelation, that her research about births would inevitably lead to studying death. But eventually she took this into stride and incorporated it into her further studies. There were riders in her line, not many but enough to have a ballad or two about them. How did they die? Few of old age, that was certain - but they were brave and wonderful people, the riders.

And, she decided, it was far more honorable and worthy to die fighting for the safety of Pern, rather than of a silly fall or worse - a duel or assassination. There had been one of each within two generations of her current family line, and while she could pick over the details with her instructors, her family didn't really want to talk about either one.

Slowly but surely, Neli tucked away information, eventually finishing up a well-padded set of hides about her family's history. Impressed, the guild masters attended to her seniority, though it would still be years before she could be a Journeyman. She was nearly sixteen now, and had grown more confident in her mannerisms toward the Masters as well as other guild leaders - if she was often a little short with the staff.

Many scribes were simply copyists, Neli was not. While most of the transcriptions needed for courts, documentation of trade, and the like were handled by Journeymen, Neli knew she was already much farther than they could hope to be in terms of knowledge as well as skill. She asked questions, sometimes odd ones, of the Masters, who quite frequently had to ask their peers elsewhere for answers.

Who had really led a particular flight over a Hold that was destroyed? When had the gold risen that laid a particular rider's dragon? Such questions were worthy of note, and most of the Masters indulged her - they also relied upon her to track their own lineages now and again.

Eventually she had done enough research to impress another Master - who arrived upon the golden back of a beautiful dragon. Dragons frequented the guild hall, of course, for a variety of reasons. Searches, transporting important people, gathers, sending valuables, or information that couldn't be trusted to a mere flitter or a runner... So Neli had seen a good number of dragons in her apprenticeship, and even knew the differences between some Weyr's distinct appearances. A dragon in the courtyard wasn't a new thing, but it was definitely always a pleasant surprise for the students and staff. The few children around always gathered, and gawked. This was no exception, for the dragon was quite pretty and stately, if a little on the small side.

Plus, Neli had heard that there was a Master coming to visit, and thus expected a dragon, since they were arriving from a reasonable distance.

The brown-skinned young woman who dropped expertly to the ground near the courtyard's entrance at the edge of the Guildhall's cliff smiled widely and offered her hands in a proper greeting. Neli looked up at the dragon, and saw no one else. The dragon was a lovely shade, a bright sunny gold with burnished antiqued shadows.

The woman glanced over a number of the others standing around, and noted the single girl with a round face and a long ponytail - exactly as described to her from her peers' notes.

"Are you Neli?" She asked, and Neli nodded absently.

"Um... Where is the Master?" Neli said, and the woman laughed musically.

"That would be me," she said, "I'm Aniz, and yes, I am a gold-rider. Now, I've heard go-" It was not merely a dragon, it was her dragon?

"You're... a ... gold rider..." Neli said, not even truthfully looking at the other woman. Aniz was only a few years Neli's senior, in her mid-twenties at best, but it was at the dragon that the younger scribe was staring.

"Yes," Aniz said, obviously used to this, more from guild elders than younger folks. "And, I'm here on business, actually - business about you in fact."

"Oh I ... I what?" Neli shook her head, and blinked, trying to tear her eyes away from the great Tripaldi gold that stood before her. "What do you mean?"

"I've heard that you're quite the talented scribe, with good lettering skills, is this true?" Aniz asked, trying to maintain a straight face. Oh how this girl was going to explode sooner or later...

"Yes, I ... Well, yes, my skills are better than adequate, that's what the Masters say."

"Well, you know and I know that when they say that, they really mean you're very impressive." Aniz winked. "Well, that's what my Master told me, and I believed him."

"But... You're a Master... and a rider," Neli trailed off, and Aniz strode into the hall with a steward that apparently knew her from times past. Neli was left outside, along with several other curious Apprentices. They buzzed about it, how the rider had pretty much ignored everyone else and went straight for little tubby Neli. What could it mean?

Exactly what they suspected. Aniz was in conference with the other Masters, she was not only the youngest but one of the few women at the meeting. It came back to Neli later: they'd discussed her progress with the rider over the last few months, because the Weyr she was at concentrated on scribners instead of harpers for their records.

And, it was whispered frequently, they had paper. Not hides, or simple sand pits for demonstrations... They had real printing presses and such too. Dragonhope Weyr, a place she'd hardly heard of before then, but Neli raced into another of the records rooms to do a very quick brushup on where it was, who was there...

"She really is a gold riding Master - Weyr- Scribe," Neli said in a hush. Two others had followed her into the dimly lit room, and chattered at each other about what that meant. As the afternoon wore on, Neli continued to read about Dragonhope - since she was a scribe and they were quite close to that Weyr at least in theory, they had more information than typical for a reasonably distant location such as that.

"No Harpers," Neli grunted, "how odd."

"Hardly any, but we have some," Aniz said, startling the girl, "and that's partially my fault, too. I have to admit I didn't want to cause a rift between the guilds but they did try and stop me from becoming a Master, let alone a rider."

"The Harpers? That's... well, that's terrible, I think." Neli didn't quite know what to think, harpers being denied entrance and rank? But then again, scribners had usually been played as second-rate to them, and she didn't like that at all!

"I've been talking to your Masters, and they agreed with my proposal. I'd like you to come to Dragonhope with me," Aniz said, "and perhaps earn your Journeyman's knots there as my assistant."

Neli stood still for a moment, her eyes glazing over. Now, she'd never been an overly emotional type, but she was still a girl, teenaged at that. Thus, another few moments later, as Aniz glanced around at shelves filled with scrolls and some rare books, Neli started to giggle.

It was a quiet sound at first, a glancing burble. Then, rather suddenly, Neli started tittering like a girl at her sister's wedding - it was a joke, right? But she knew it wasn't a joke, there was a Master Rider - right here beside her, one who wasn't known for being a jokester or cruel. Finally there were tears in her eyes from laughing so hard, Neli wiped them away and tried to breathe, hardly able to sustain herself.

"I take that as an acceptance?" Aniz smirked.

***

The trip to Dragonhope was chilly, for they went overland. Aniz was clearly well-suited to the climate there, she hardly even kept her riding jacket tied shut! But Neli was used to a more sedate and sunny, warm area - and she chittered on the back of the dragon while Aniz pointed out landmarks below.

Neli showed no outright fear of heights, which was good. Plus, she was able to easily recognize different dragon lines, and had pored over maps so often that she herself asked whether one or another mountains was such-and-so named. It felt good, Neli realized, to suddenly be getting a hands-on, real experience about such things, instead of merely reading old musty scrolls!

It had hardly even occurred to her that she could - and probably should have - gone on her Journeyman stint to see the places that she'd read about and written to. But now, the possibility was open to her: if she lived in a Weyr, she'd have very easy access to riders: sweep riders, scouts, transporters, the whole bit in addition to the amazing fighting dragons.

Aniz pointed out early on that her own gold was small, she would be a queen but she was not going to necessarily produce "fighting" dragons like the ones in the main Thread wings. Her cousin rode a beautiful big dragon, against thread. She'd been raised in the Weyr, so she knew all the best places to go and things to see there.

They landed on the lower area's dragonflats, though there was another by the taller more frigid peak, and probably others that she couldn't see from that angle. The port town below was cramped up against the cliffsides, the chill sea air was invigorating and smelled very different than Neli had thought it might. Never having been to the sea, nor up where it was so cold that the very waves often crusted up with ice, she thought it would merely smell 'bad' like a dead fish in the kitchens left too long...

She was shown around the Weyr, from the bottom to the top, and Aniz knew she was taking mental notes on directions and such. "I hear you're also good with maps, and buildings?" Aniz asked, and in reply Neli nodded vigorously.

"This place is just like it was written about - you wrote some passages, didn't you?"

"I did, it's good to know my words were accurate." Aniz said, and as they were passing someone in the wide stone hallway at the time, that person gave off a snorting laugh. "Shut up you!" Aniz chortled.

Apparently it was something of a running joke. Aniz's descriptions were flawless, of course, because she had a perfect memory. Neli didn't have such a thing, nor did she have a little adorable green flitter - Aniz had one named Sage, who greeted her owner with a cheerful chirp. The flit peered at Neli, and gave a little whistling croon.

"You can touch her, she won't bite. I think she's just woken up though." Aniz said. The flit accepted a hesitant scratch, Neli hadn't owned a flitter and didn't give much thought about it, until now. What if she did have one? On noticing it, she saw that the Weyr had a good number of them, but not in huge flocks, and not so rare that they were hard to spot. Most likely, she considered, all the ones inside the halls here belonged to people already. It was cold outside, and she didn't know whether they liked living in snow!

It took a few days for her to really grow comfortable in her new smallish - private - weyr. Her quarters were suitable for a scribe, with plenty of flat surfaces and nooks for scrolls, books and the like. The bed she had wasn't as comfortable as the one she'd slept on for years at the Guild hall, but then she hadn't had a room to herself, ever, either. She'd always lived in a dorm with at least one other person, and now - she enjoyed the fact that she didn't have to listen to someone else's breathing, or snoring, or complaints...

It wasn't hard to make the room feel more like home to her, once she'd unrolled the one thing she really did value - a weaving of her family tree that showed, up until about five years prior, six generations of kin. There were little adeptly woven portraits, along with finely embroidered names below each one. One of the cousins was responsible for having created it, he was quite well-seated in a Hold doing such things for all the Lords and Ladies. Neli put it onto a hook that had clearly supported something similar before it, and gazed at the images until she fell to sleep.

Neli knew that the Weyr had a different schedule to keep, as Thread could fall at day or night regardless of anything other than where the great Red Star was standing in the sky. So, Neli relied upon others for a while to make sure she adjusted.

Aniz escorted her numerous times, but she began to learn names of others - so many crafters were also riders here! She'd never even thought of it, but it worked far more efficiently if the very same people who rode into threadfall and had to deal with tithing directly, also understood how to make leather, work the land, or trade!

As a scribe, she was put to use to transcribe and copy a few somewhat dated records. It wasn't to just give her busy work, these would be remaining in the Weyr, while the old ones would be sent out to another guild for re-recopying, practice, or just to be scrubbed and bleached off for use again. But because she was now in a place with it's own whole new bunch of things to read and understand, putting her in the records room was akin to allowing a child free run of their favorite amusement park or candy shop.

Neli did her work, but as usual she also kept mental and physical notes, things which she would then later study and put information into better order. What she started to see was that this Weyr had always been reasonably small, and also that the bulk of the riders at this time were reasonably young and new. Also, many of those were Hold or Craft born - hardly any came from Weyrs, and ones like Aniz were a rarity indeed, who came from Dragonhope.

So she began to explore other methods of learning here too, listening in on conversations in the dining hall, stopping to gossip - something she hardly ever did before - and just plain asking almost anyone, anything. More often than not she was greeted with a smile and a quick answer, sometimes far more information than she ever wanted to know, and rarely enough, a gruff denial.

"Do you like it here?" Asked Aniz one afternoon, as the riders were coming in from a brief Fall.

"I do," Neli said, chewing on a piece of breadcrust, and looking for her mug of wine which appeared to have wandered away. "I mean, it's so different! But I like it! It's chilly, but that keeps me awake. And, there are so many..." She glanced at a table, where two Brown riders had dropped themselves. "So many men," she giggled.

"Well there were men at the guild hall, too," Aniz laughed.

"But not like these," Neli replied with a giggle. "I mean, my older sister got married before she was my age now, and one of my younger sisters did recently too - nice boys, guild boys. But... just boys."

Aniz leaned back and her flitter played with the beads in her hair, "oh, I know what you mean."

"Sometimes they are a little ... forward," Neli admitted, "I'm not used to getting that kind of attention at the Hall."

"Now imagine if you're a high-born Lady," Aniz whispered and nodded a little toward a candidate who'd arrived recently too, who appeared bewildered and put upon.

"She'll have to lose those airs and attitude before she fits in," Neli said.

"You've got a good eye for people, and you've definitely fit right in," Aniz said. "Oh and here's Opal. Opal, my friend, will you please do the favor of saying to Neli here what you said to me earlier this week?"

Opal, fittingly a white-rider, and daughter of the Weyrleaders - as opposite in looks as you could get from the darker skinned and haired Aniz, obliged. She was grinning, as she looked at Neli.

"I know you haven't had much time in the Weyr, but Aniz tells me you're going to do great," Opal said. "And I know an even better way, and that's to tell you you're Searched. If you want, we can find sands almost immediately, I know of a--"

"You - you search-"

"She searched me, too, only the little minx didn't tell me until later." Aniz rolled her eyes.

"It's all right, you don't have to gear up and go anywhere just yet," Opal assured her. "But several others agree, too, you're good rider material. Great memory, not like hers," she thumbed toward Aniz whose memory was in fact perfect, "good knowledge of the lay of the land, you can read charts already - that's a huge bonus for riders."

"Well some of the Threadfall charts are a little beyond me," Neli started to say, but Opal waved her hands.

"Oh that's the sort of thing that the Starcrafters do, we just need to know where and when - they figure that out. But I'd hardly ask you to go fighting, you've got a great craft already. We value that tremendously."

"So I've noticed..."

***

Neli was eventually settled enough to return to Opal and ask, months later, where there might be sands available to stand at. "I think I'm ready! I've been reading the histories and such, but also the books that your dragon-healer has, they're fascinating but I don't think I'm cut out for healing."

"Few are," Opal admitted. "My sister is, but she's a royal pain."

"I HEARD THAT," came the royal pain's voice from a nearby weyr room. Opal and Neli laughed, and continued on the way to the Weyrling master's office, to find information.

They shortly found some, in the form of a place called Stardust Weyr. To Neli, it sounded wonderful, very exotic. They didn't know all that much about the place, but she'd learn, and she'd be able to send messages too - once Opal handed her an egg.

"Oh a flitter?" Neli said, nervously. "Well, I've never cared for one..."

"It's not hard, they're pretty self sufficient. But you need to be firm and confident, instructing them. I'll give you pointers, I'll take you to the Weyr, after your flit hatches. There's time."

Indeed, there was a little time left - a fortnight to prepare, they needed to make sure that Neli could pass muster in any candidate's classes she would attend. But also, Aniz was running her ragged fetching information and records, putting down the weirdest requests. Tithing records, births, even imports for the livestock that had come in. Healer's records, housing information, all manner of things - and all right at the busiest time for her.

Neli took it in stride, but admitted that she was just dead tired at the end of each day. She hardly had time to eat, so she took her food with her on the jaunts into the deepest parts of the Weyr - fetching the tithe information led her on a chase when someone else's flitter lept away with the papers she needed. She coaxed it back with some of her breadroll, and moved on to the next task.

Finally, she was done for the night and heard the tiniest crunching over the pounding of her heart in her ears. She sat up, looking at the hearth where the little pot of sand sat warm and cozy. It wobbled, and was about to tip, but she caught it just in time. Also just in time, to catch the little brightly blue-green flit that came from it! It had mucky, sand covered egg-goo on it, but very quickly she cleaned it off and groped around for the remains of her dinner that had also been half eaten on the run.

"I've never seen such a lovely color on a flit or a dragon," she said, as the turquoise shaded creature gobbled down its first meal. She was pretty sure it was a male, given that it was mostly blue. So shiny, though, and so warm! She hadn't expected it to be so much like ... well, a kitten without fur!

Within an hour, she was asleep with the flitter curled up on her jacket nearby, she didn't dare risk letting it sleep with her just yet, as she was not going to be waking up easily if she rolled the wrong way.

In the morning, she could hardly move, so exhausted was she. But Neli rose and washed up, greeted her little flitter who had been chirping gently for her to rise. His voice never got above a meek chitter, she couldn't even imagine him letting off a screech like she'd heard others.

"Whisperwing," she said, boldy, "that's your name! Do you like it?" Neli giggled as the flitter nudged her hand for more food, and gave off a purring that was almost louder than his cheeping. Proudly she walked down the hall to her first assignment of the day, and there she ran into Opal.

"Look at him!" Opal said, "oh he's adorable!"

"Whisperwing is his name. He's not a normal blue, where did you get him?"

"Falas Weyr, they've always got some ... interesting things." Opal winked.

"Well I like him, he's so friendly and quiet!"

"Quiet? Well, that explains the name, but don't count on him staying that way," Opal said, "they usually manage to make some kind of noise when they really want to be heard."

One or two others with flitters contributed their stories about how to train them, and Neli decided that she would have to concentrate harder on 'listening' for him - she did feel the tiniest of urges: hungry! new! oohlook! That was the flitter's mind, joining hers. He felt so comfortable! The utter joy of having him resting on her shoulder was almost better than anything else.

In the evening she'd be expected to be packed and ready to leave, She didn't have that much stuff to carry, some supplies for writing, her one formal dress, some other clothing, and personal items. And Whisperwing, but he carried himself quite well. She was surprised that he flew almost out of the egg - dragons after all took months before they had any kind of true strength in their limbs, but then again, Whisperwing was hardly bigger than a mouse! Flying wasn't that hard when you were that little!

Neli stood before the entrance to the courtyard outside, and saw that a couple others were going to be escorted to Stardust Weyr as well. Opal approached, with her riding cap on and with Aniz in tow.

"Good luck to you," Aniz said. "Do you have everything?"

"I think so, if I need anything I suppose I can send for it," Neli nodded.

Aniz nodded deeply, sagely. Opal rolled her eyes, and looked around, she wasn't impatient, but there was a light in her eyes that Neli didn't really see because of the riding goggles. There were a few people there to bid the group farewell, Aniz ticked her tongue and said, "oh I forgot, almost. I'm pretty sure that you'll be wanting this before you leave."

She reached up, scooted Whisperwing out of the way, and tucked the knots of a Journeyman Scribner onto Neli's jacket shoulder.

"Yup, that's better. Now you can go, and come back a rider!" Aniz said, Opal laughed, and Neli just stood there dumbfounded. "What, you didn't think all that stuff I was having you do this whole last week was for fun, did you? I needed to make sure you had everything you needed up here," she tapped her forehead with a strong finger, "before leaving you to stand somewhere. You will be able to help out wherever you go, but I do expect you to come back and continue your work with me and Dragonhope."

"Well ... I hope to ... come back on a dragon!" Neli said, and nearly lept at Aniz to hug her. She wasn't much for such physical action but it certainly was well recieved. Finally Opal asserted they were going to get flying, so Neli tugged on her new riding jacket, over her already-worn one, and followed the woman to her dragon. Whisperwing came along in a fold of the riding coat, curious but not willing to try flying and going between at such a young age to a foreign place!

The trio of riders, with the bigger Brown carrying the collected baggage, and their passengers lifted into the air and quickly reached a good point to go between. Stardust Weyr appeared under the light of a rising sun, amid much different terrain than she'd gotten used to at Dragonhope. But here too, she learned, she would be very well suited to the lifestyle, for crafting and riding were a way of life just like Dragonhope!

***

Even though there was plenty to do and see, Neli managed to stay to the candidates' classes, and filtered out the noisy construction going on everywhere in the Weyr. She worried a little: there were only five candidates? It was true that the clutch on the sands wasn't very big, but ... it was a shame if all those eggs didn't have bonds to hatch to.

She hadn't been at the Weyr all that long, with her two Dragonhope companions, when the hatching was called. Ringing out all across the Weyr were dragons crooning, and even little Whisperwing tried to sing along, very quietly. Neli grabbed her robes, and navigated around the still-busy hammering and chiseling around the halls, until she reached the dark sands. She'd expected the sands to look more like Dragonhope's, light and yellow in color. But they were dark, well that had to be the location then.

A tight knot grew in her throat and stomach. There were twice as many eggs as candidates, but... there was always the chance that whatever dragonets were born didn't want her. She sought the Weyrlingmaster's face among the onlookers, but there were plenty of others in the way. Finally a big bold crack and crunch brought everyone's attention to the blue who'd hatched first. He bumbled his way elegantly to the boys, but before he could do more than sit down in front of one of them, a bright green bolted past and found her bond.

A hush had fallen over the crowd, and the reason was the wobbly little gold dragoness staring lovingly up at Alath, who was obviously trying to coax her into approaching the candidates. She finally did, the tips of her still drying wings dragging lightly across the sand, and she eyed the two females left.She obviously was one for getting straight to the point, because she quickly sat herself in front of Neli.‘Do you want some elaborate introduction, or would you like to simply say my name out loud for these ogling spectators and then feed me?’ she asked daintily.

“I think that was still a bit elaborate, Briaveninth,” Neli gently wiped some of the clinging sand from the little gold’s shoulder. She wanted to stay and watch - to see what happened to the rest, but she settled for finding out later. The other two candidates did impress, all five of them were healthy and strong and hopefully happy. The other eggs... Lay cold and had given up moving, apparently.

Later, after the feast and after having fed Briaveninth (or ninth, that was a good shorter name - if the boys had their human names shortened, long dragon names ought to be too!), Neli went back to the sands.

"What will become of the eggs?" She asked, and the sullen folks left cleaning up the shells didn't say much. She hoped that ... well, it would be almost impossible. They'd all been laid at once, so they should logically hatch close together. Normally Neli wasn't so sentimental, but...

But she'd just impressed a gold. Like Aniz! The excitement gripped her once more, she was a bit dizzy. Maybe that was the wine, but she felt like... hopefully there would be enough candidates for all of her lovely dragon's eggs, when that day came!

***

Status: Guild Born
Age: 17
Gender: female
Siblings: many full and half siblings, their parents were all over the place
Born: in the middle
Legitimacy: born in a single-parent home
Childhood Health: very sturdy
Adult Height: unusually small for their age
Adult Build: pudgy
Skin Tone: tanned
Hair Color: dishwater brown
Hair Style: straight, tied
Hair Length: below hips
Eye Color: rich red-brown
Literacy Level: read and write with expert precision
Politeness Level: they rarely appear hostile to superiors but they're not always polite to everyone else
Focus: they are able to focus easily on the tasks at hand, though their work is only a small fraction of their true obsession
Their looks are not spectacular in any way
They often share with their friends

Values and Goals
Has fun with: their clothing
Has fun with: a quiet Hold
Strong goal: educate themselves beyond their family
Overwhelming fear: being unhealthy

A small weaving is in their posession

Crafting Guild: Scribner - birth and death records, Status: senior apprentice
Other Skill picked up around Guild folk: architecture

Originally From: scrubland community
Location size: well populated
Location climate: stormy

***

Bond: Neli
Name: Briavieninth
Gender: Female
Color: Gold
Size [Adult]: Height-20'9" ; Length-33'5"
Personality: Haughty, confident, and wary, she seeks only the company of her rider, is very analytical, and likes to be in control of all situations.
Abilities: Telepathy, Teleportation, Flight