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It was a quiet morning with the Candidatemasters at High Reaches for the hatching. While they'd not been left unattended by any stretch, there was still a certain lull that came over chores while the bosses were away.

Josen, frankly, was enjoying it. A more dutiful man would have perhaps found a new chore to do. Perhaps a dragon to bathe, a hallway to sweep, some cleaning to do...but that all sounded rather dull to him. He'd happily put his nose back to the grindstone once someone of any authority put him to it, however.

But that was a problem for later him! Instead it was a good time for watching the dragons in the Weyrbowl as they mulled about their own tasks. At least someone was keeping busy, right?

Maybe he should have gone to High Reaches. They'd offered him the opportunity! But it all just seemed like things were moving too fast--he'd just become a Candidate, for Faranth's sake! The whirlwind of new activity in Serrekhar's life abruptly slowed to a crawl with so many people gone to witness the Hatching. He finally had some time to breathe... and promptly had a broom shoved in his hand before he was shooed off.

He muttered under his breath as he tried to recall his way through the Weyr... only to soon find himself glowering at a guy who seemed to just be standing around like a slack-jawed deadglow. What was his problem? A glance confirmed it. Dragons. Yeah, dragons were a pretty legitimate reason to stare.

"Why didn't you go with the others?" The question was framed almost like a challenge.

Josen's shoulders stiffened immediately as his little trip down la-la land was interrupted - less out of surprise and more out of defensiveness. Narrowing his eyes and frowning, he looked at the (admittedly much bigger) man who had spoken, crossing his arms and squaring up.

"Why didn't you?" he immediately threw it back into Serrekhar's lap, mostly out of a knee jerk reaction to his tone.

Wh-- Serrekhar's spine went rigid as his own question was shot right back at him, widening his stance ever so slightly. "I asked you first!" Who did this brat think he was, anyway? Was he looking for a fight? He was gonna get smacked down something fierce if he was looking for a fight!

"Yeah, and I asked you second, what of it?" Josen failed to look much bigger no matter how tall he stood. His fingers tightened in the crook of his arm, bunching his sleeves up in his hand.

He already didn't like this guy.

If there was one thing Serrekhar could do, it was loom. He was doing so now, bristling from head to toe as he glared down at his smaller opponent. "It means you don't got any manners!" He snarled, his own hands clenched into fists.

What a jerk!

He could loom all he wanted! Josen wasn't afraid of him! "Like you should be talking manners!" This guy hadn't even introduced himself before snarling questions at him!

That was IT. Serrekhar was about to reel back and smash this guy in his stupid, smug face when a golden streak appeared from Between to harmlessly savage his hair. Reeling back from the assault of scolding squawks and swiping paws, the big man was forced to take several steps back to confront the golden flit.

"I wasn't gonna mess him up too bad!" He complained, but the red-eyed firelizard only scolded him all the more fiercely.

That fist was going to come for his face, and Josen had been ready for it - though he'd had every intention of not letting it actually come for his face. He liked his face!

He'd not been ready for the Firelizard to come out of nowhere, however, and Josen found himself clamping his hands over his hair...as though it had been at risk in the first place!

"Dude, she has you trained," but there was nothing judging in his tone about it.

"C'mon, stop!" He complained, finally taking another step back and holding his palms up beeseechingly. After a long, evaluating moment, the queen delicately landed, dwarfed by his enormous hands. He didn't hesitate to cradle her gently, lifting her up to his face.

"I won't get in trouble, alright?" He promised, and the fierce colors bled from the little queen's eyes to make way for a yellowish-green. She cheeped at him, clearly more concerned now.

Serrekhar had almost completely forgotten he wasn't alone, and the comment made his head whip around. For a moment, he bristled, searching for the derision... and grudgingly relaxed when he found none. "Yeah," He admitted gruffly, sounding a little proud. "She does. She's a good girl."

It was almost funny, watching a man that big get put in his place by such a little thing - though Josen knew from experience that most people recoiled from the threat of harm even from tiny teeth. Firelizards were a predator, after all.

"Don't make her promises you can't keep, man. You practically radiate trouble," there was a certain playfulness in the jab but Josen steeled himself to be hit for it anyways. "It's bad to lie to sweet girls." And everybody else too, but....

Serrekhar drew himself up at once, offended. "I told her I won't, so I won't! I keep my word!" A pause. "I won't get in trouble for now." He amended a touch sheepishly, because... well....

After a moment of dubiously eyeing the other, Serrekhar moved his hand to his shoulder so the queen could nimbly transfer to the more steady perch. "I thought everyone would have been jumpin' at the chance to go Stand." He finally said.

A mischievous half-smile twisted Josen's face now at how easy Serrekhar was to tease. Noted! Finally he dropped his arms from his chest to rest more easily against his sides, allowing his stiff shoulders to relax just a bit.

"I thought about it, but...." Josen took a minute to sort through the circumstances that had brought him to the Weyr in the first place. It hadn't really been about Dragons rather than it had been about...."It's kind of complicated, but I got a reason to let Western have the first shake at me."

Despite himself, Serrekhar found himself leaning in to listen to the explanation. "Fair enough," He allowed, briefly frowning to himself. He'd been scared to go, if he was being honest, but he couldn't just say that.

"I only just got here. I wasn't ready to get whisked off to somewhere completely new without my feet under me." Defensive? Perhaps a touch. The firelizard crooned soothing, rubbing her head delicately against his cheek.

High Reaches would have been closer to home, if Josen had considered it harder. Instead he got to be far away from everything he was familiar with. Something about leaving it so soon would have been leaving himself hanging.

"That's about what it boils down to. It's a lot of consideration to change your whole life once. Doing it again too soon...." It wasn't as tho the babies wouldn't have a healthy selection of High Reaches candidates

He nodded empathetically, relaxing further as he saw the words as an acceptance of his decision. "Yeah! Besides, it's probably better if I learn the ropes and stuff first!" Or so he'd keep telling himself.

The little queen crooned again, meeting Serrekhar's glance with a patient, but expectant sort of look. He visibly seemed to steel himself with a breath before offering her his hand. Once she'd delicately stepped back onto it, he held her out slowly to the other Candidate. "This is Precious." And, his eyes warned, he would absolutely murder Josen if he thought she was anything less than extraordinary.

What wa- oh. Josen looked at the little gold who was being held out to him, offering his own hand for Precious to sniff or whatever it was she'd want to do with it - if anything.

"Are you this big lug's boss?" He asked her gently, still obviously teasing in his choice of words. "I can tell you keep him busy - hide says it is well oiled and looks like she has a decent diet as well," of course, firelizards could tend to themselves on that front, but his trained eye did give tell that she was by no means neglected.

Precious craned her neck to gently sniff the proffered fingers before transferring to his arm with a graceful hop. Serrekhar withdrew his hand to better fold his arms sternly, but his expression was tender as he watched the little queen.

Answering the question with a chirp, Precious paused to study the boy's face for a time... and then rubbed her head against his cheek with friendly acceptance. Yes, this was another good boy!

"She doesn't ask for nothin', but she deserves the world." Serrekhar said proudly. It was hard to hate someone who could clearly see quality when it was staring him in the face!

His shoulders stiffened again as Precious climbed onto his arm, betraying his hands on experience with any firelizard. Josen may have been a touch clinical in his understanding, but it wasn't enough to prepare for a living creature.

That was likely how the candidates who had impressed over at High Reaches that morning felt.

His lips tightened with surprise as Precious rubbed her head against him, before he found himself laughing. "Well it's nice to meet you too, little lady!" Again, Josen offered his fingers, this time to hopefully give some scritches. He'd make no promise to the quality of them.

"I'm sure she doesn't ask because you give her everything she needs already."

Precious seemed to sense that sudden stiffness, peering sharply at Josen before attempting to soothe him with gentle, warbling croons. She wouldn't punish him! He was being a good boy, and so he had nothing to fear from her! Her eyes whirled a happy blue at his laughter, and she contentedly stretched her neck out so his fingers could caress or scritch where they pleased.

"Hope so," He grunted, unexpectedly touched to see Former Jerk treating his girl so pleasantly. As far as he was concerned, Precious lived entirely up to her name. And speaking of names.... "I'm Serrekhar." He said firmly, offering a hand out to shake.

Oh yeah. He was still holding that broom, huh.

"You're just a sweet thing, aren't you?" Josen murmured, content to scritch along Precious's neck as she stretched it out. Frankly, she was far sweeter than a man of Serrekhar's stature (and gruffness) seemed as though he'd nurture.

Josen awkwardly offered his hand under the arm he was using to pet Precious with, taking the larger man's proffered hand. "Josen."

Her croons softened to a constant, steady hum, and she lazily observed the pair of boys through half-lidded, blue eyes.

His grip was strong, but not painful, and Serrekhar kept a careful eye on his most darling firelizard even as she settled contentedly upon her perch. "I don't know any of those guys," He continued, referring to the candidates that had gone, "But d'you think a lot of them won't be coming back?"

Once a dragon wanted you, it seemed fairly obvious to him that a person would drop everything for said dragon.

"Dunno. Never seen a baby dragon up close," Josen admitted. His experience was mostly limited to the blue dragon that had gotten into his face and uprooted his life. The last month or so had all been a lot.

"Do you think the dragons of High Reaches would prefer candidates with loyalty elsewhere?" Or even a lack of it? Certainly a few wouldn't care, but he couldn't see a lot of them getting picked.

Serrekhar unconsciously relaxed a little further at that. "Me neither." He grunted. "Or... well, ever. I heard it's kinda crazy, like... they're all up in your head and stuff." He hadn't had many lessons yet, okay?! It was a little hard for him to grasp. "Precious does that some, I guess. She knows when I'm mad, no question." He grinned, maybe a little sheepishly.... but not too sheepishly.

Loyalty.... "Y'know, I dunno. Do you think they care, if you end up bein' their person? I mean, maybe some of 'em do, but maybe they just expect ya to be fine with jumpin' ship."

Man, maybe this was more complicated than he thought.

"But maybe you can't be their person for a reason like that, I'guess," he was probably someone who had no place to talk about how loyalty could guarantee a certain existence or not. He certainly didn't exist because of loyalty. "Who knows what a dragon is particular about though!" Maybe they really didn't care. Josen didn't know! HE wasn't a baby dragon!

"It'll be something to see tho - I mean, they wouldn't keep us around like this if there weren't chances fairly often, yeah?" It was a lot of resources, after all.

"Huh... Yeah, I mean, guess that's true." If a dragon was looking for someone really loyal, then they probably wouldn't give someone who didn't fit their credentials the time. That made sense.

Serrekhar frowned to himself, nodding. "Not so many of us, for sure.... but I mean, no one really thought Thread," And he paused to give an unconscious shiver, "Would come back, right? So now it's all hands on deck, or else."

Which had been a huge reason that he'd volunteered. If he acted like a big old wherry about it.... well, who was gonna respect a man like that?!

Thread. Yeah, right. That was something.....

Josen frowned. Sure, Thread wasn't something people werent' thinking about now, but he'd admittedly come to the Weyr for very different reasons. Things that were personally complicated but also personally straightforward. A duality of man. Thread had been an afterthought, even if it was part of their weekly lives now, due to chores and the like, but...

"When it's not there trying to kill us, I admittedly don't think about what we're really offering ourselves to," a potential death - a potential, awful death. But was life off of a dragon any more safe for that? Maybe he just wanted something to steady against after the upheval had come.

He grimaced, giving a shake of his head as though to dispel his own thoughts through sheer, physical force. "I mean, everyone's got their reasons. I just--" He'd said no, initially, but then gone tearing after the pair to take him back to Western.

So yeah, he was a little scared! So what?! He argued with himself mentally, huffing out loud. Precious paused to gaze back at her human with a concerned cheep.

"Whatever!" Serrekhar growled to himself, clenching his fists. "We're here and we're gonna get dragons! Maybe!" You know, if they wanted them.

Josen's brows raised slightly as Serrekhar went on some sort of internal journey on his own - complete with some huff in place of dialogue. At least, that was how it looked to him.

The following outburst went from both sides of the arguement so fast, Josen actually laughed from the whiplash of it, leaning onto his broom. "Maybe!" he echoed, obviously teasing but his tone too light to be mocking.

"Just not this time," since they'd chosen to stay behind. Maybe next time. Maybe the one after it.

Serrekhar's brows shot up for a moment at the echoed word, wondering if he needed to give the other a good smack or not.

"Definitely not this time." He muttered. Coming to the Weyr was already crazy enough--but going to a completely different continent and possibly Impressing a dragon there? That was a little too much.

"One day." He settled for with a nod. "You know, when they're closer to home."

Josen grinned back at him, obviously pleased by the response his words had gotten out of Serrekhar for a moment.

"Wonder how long that'll take tho," Josen admittedly didn't know much about the frequency of a rising dragon, nor how those odds changed when there were several in one place that could do so. "It's nice to think of, though. Hard to dream when you don't know the process."

Though he admittedly couldn't help but have an eye for the blues. Especially because of Konukath. Maybe one would have an eye for him too.

How long...? Serrekhar stared blankly for a moment before the realization obviously dawned. "Well, it better not be that long!" He huffed, but realized that yes, there was a very real chance he could be there for Turns and Turns without success. That was a little scary.

After a moment, Serrekhar let out a frustrated sigh. "I gotta go sweep. Not sure if they'll kick me out if I don't, but I ain't gonna find out. You get to come help, since you distracted me in the first place!"

That seemed fair.

"Pffft, I'll be the old man in the stands impressing a dragon if I gotta," though he wasn't actually sure his conviction would last, he was never the less amused by the idea of getting to be the 90 turn old Weyrling. Mostly because he didn't have the fatalist mind needed to add the idea of a poor little baby dragon dying in 30 turns when he passed of old age.

Obviously, because nothing else was going to have any luck at him.

The relaxed and casual stance of the young man dropped quickly, however. "Excuse me? I didn't do anything of the sort! If anything, you distracted me!" from doing what? Well, it wasn't like he'd been particularly up to anything.....