The Tarot Weyrlings graduation had filled the young boy with equal amounts of awe and admiration. They had survived their first year and had become fully fledged riders, devoted to protecting Pern and proudly serving in the wings of High Reaches. Dehka had watched the ceremony with shining eyes. Still, he'd had to take a step back to remind himself that not all of the young riders had survived their first Threadfall. That was a risk they all took knowingly.

Would he be ready, he wondered?

He was wandering around the Weyrbowl, his head full of dragons and dreams. N'ori and Meigth both believed, without a doubt, that he and Kahbrohm would Impress. Kahbrohm would--Dehka was certain of that.

If he had to admit something to himself, the most terrifying prospect in his life was that the dragons would find him wanting. All of N'ori's hardwork in raising him would be for naught. And his mother's sacrifice... He gave his curly head of hair a hard shake, tyring to physically dispel those thoughts. He'd never even stood on the sands yet, and surely a lack of confidence would be off-putting to any potential lifemate! And soon, there would be so many of them on the sands... Dehka's thoughts traveled wistfully to the two clutches that would be laid soon.

He'd poured over past clutch records with unfettered eagerness, studying both queens' particular patterns when it came to egg laying. Though some sneered at Rhianth's choice in a brown partner, she had mated twice before with Kronoseth and had over twenty eggs each time. Even during her maiden flight, she'd produced twenty-one eggs! As for Fianth... her maiden clutch had been smaller, true, but every one after that had been over twenty eggs, or close to it! That meant there was a very good chance that there'd be over forty eggs for potential candidates. No doubt people would have heard of the news, and the searchriders would be working overtime to bring in new blood. The more options available to the new hatchlings, the better!

With his mind working overtime, Dehka was hardly paying attention to where he was going... up until the point where he smacked headlong into someone. For a boy who was constantly shoved by his more muscled foster brother, one might think he had better balance. That was not the case. Dehka hit the ground, his palms scraping against the dirt when he instinctively flung them back so he wouldn't go sprawling on his back.

"S-Sorry!" He stuttered out at once, heat immediately rising to his cheeks with utter embarrassment at his actions. He glanced up to awkwardly meet his victim's face--and his eyes went wide with shock.

Dehka had made it a personal goal to try and memorize the riders and dragons of High Reaches, so naturally he'd been hyper-aware of those who had Impressed to the Tarot clutch. So to realize he had run into one of those very riders....

"Y-You're Y'qua!" Dehka practically wheezed, already feeling his mind trying to race and flat line all at once. "Of H-Heimdath!" Oh no. Oh no. Bad enough if he'd run into another candidate or a worker around the Weyr, but a dragonrider? And one of the new graduates at that?!

Dehka wasn't sure if he was wanted to have a meltdown out of sheer excitement or die from shame.