Chosen [Tag: M'tu]

[Z]

(At a Far Cothold)

Ranojj roared as mightily as he could and then flipped his adoptive father over his shoulder. His guardian landed well, flipped over and caught Ranojj by the mane. A dagger was underneath the boy's throat before he knew it.

Growling in defeat, he tapped the man's arm twice to acknowledge the man's hold and then stood up and faced his guardian when the man stood and began to calmly teach.

"That was better Ranojj but you should have begun to take backward steps as I was going over your shoulder. Also, you let go too late allowing me to land closer to your self. Shall we try......."

The word 'again' never left the man's lips before both of them were looking skyward. The man shielded his eyes. Ranojj could see just fine. The dragon he saw that had produced the sudden shade over them was even now making it's way closer to the ground. Ranojj backed away and wondered at their arrival very much. His adoptive father stood his ground and kept an amiable, welcome smile upon his face for the rider when he landed. To what honor brought the pair here, no one knew except them.

[Whim]

M'tu did not enjoy Searching. He did, however, enjoy getting to do work with just himself and Rith, without needing to worry about the rest of his wing's incompetence, so M'tu was in as good a mood as any as the blue pair appeared above one of the many small cotholds the wing was checking today and spiraled slowly down.

M'tu slid off Rith's side when they landed, patted Rith, dusted himself off, and only then deigned to look at the old man and young boy that were outside. "Senior queen Mareth laid her clutch of fifteen recently, and the Weyr is Searching. Are there any children between fourteen and twenty four turns here? If so, call them out." He reached up, patting Rith's head. "Rith is a skilled Search dragon, and will find any with the capacity to Impress."

The speech was familiar, repeated several times in the last sevenday, and more in the years since M'tu and Rith had bonded. M'tu's particular version was short, to the point, and generally delivered in a tone ranging from bored to annoyed; this particular day, it was apathetic. Why they'd gotten stuck with the tiny cotholds that were unlikely to contain one kid of candidate age, much less a decent number of actual candidates, M'tu didn't know or care; it annoyed him either way. He and Rith had a record to maintain. It did, however, mean that they didn't have to deal with the rest of the Wing's foolishness, which was appeasing.

[Z]

Ranojj's adoptive father, did not seem surprised to the liger-tailed boy though he certainly was. This dragon rider was on search?! What an amazing turn of events!

"I am Bopekk. There are five in that age range. If you'll excuse me a moment please..." Ranojj's adoptive father cupped his hand over his mouth and emitted a low bird-chirping sound. Ranojj knew the meaning of it well. It was a call to gather. And it produced immediate results.

Bopekk's four natural sons melted out of the woodwork it seemed and came in from all directions to stand next to Ranojj a step behind their father. Kozarinna, also appeared from the cot and stood behind the five boys. Her four human ones and Ranojj, the youngest.

"Here they are." Bopekk commented carefully as he took a step away and angled his body to view the rider, the dragon and his family at the same time. "My firstborn will not be Searched." He added and was given a nod of agreement from his oldest son, his heir.

[Whim]

Five? Well that was more than M'tu had expected. Still, he wasn't impressed as the kids appeared in the area; showing off never impressed him. Even if they had managed to appear out of nowhere. He glanced over the family; human parent, human parent, human kid, kid, kid, kid, and... tailed kid?

Well that was odd. M'tu imagined that had led to an interesting conversation between the parents. His own tail curled and uncurled before Rith nudged him to not say anything. Offending the holders wasn't a good idea, even if he could probably get away with it, and Rith sensed something.

"Your firstborn can back off, then," M'tu answered. "And Rith won't look at him."

M'tu waited until a kid separated himself from the group before dropping his hand from Rith's head. Rith only needed two steps to approach the kids, swinging his head to look them over one at a time, then backed off and relayed his impressions to M'tu.

M'tu blinked, paused, and turned to Rith. Three? Really?

They are good ones. Rith nudged M'tu's shoulder with his head, nearly pushing M'tu over, then carefully lay down, spreading his wings to absorb the heat. They will need time to pack.

M'tu shook his head and turned back to the kids. "You," he pointed at the youngest human, "can shoo. You three," he gestured at the remaining two humans and the Tailed, "Rith thinks might be able to Impress."

I did not say might.

They'll get arrogant enough just from that.

"So, go pack. You'll need clothes you can work in, and whatever trinkets you want to keep with you. We won't have time to come back so if you forget something, you'll just have to live without it."

[Z]

Ranojj watched as his oldest adoptive brother, Bozar stepped out of line and went to stand next to his father. Even if he was found worthy in a search he would not be going anywhere and neither did he want to. Everyone in the family knew his stand and it was for the best too, especially since he was the heir. He had to stay. It was good that he wanted to.

Ranojj though was different. Sure he was made to feel like one of the family but not knowing why he had been alone at four turns old or who his birth family was, left him restless. If chosen for the opportunity to go to the weyr he would take it. He did hope that if he was chosen he would not be the only one. But the possibility of any of them having what it took was highly unlikely.

When the rider told Ekko, the youngest human son and closest to him in age, to in effect 'get lost', Sanderon's head lifted and his eyes narrowed. No one talked to his brother that way. It didn't matter who this person was, he...


What?!

Ranojj's eyes widened again and one eyebrow rose in quiet surprise. On the outside he was very calm and collected. On the inside he was completely shocked. He tried to analyze this sudden new reality and realized that his father and mother would be losing three of their workers and sons. Could the cothold still do well enough without them?

Zarbo and Kkoz, his older adoptive brothers were clearly pleased with the turn of events. Kkoz, the eighteen turn old, came between Zarbo (16) and Ranojj (14), placed his arms across both of their shoulders and nodded acceptance for them to M'tu and his blue Rith.

Seeing the gesture from his next eldest boy, their father also nodded and called out to the rider, "They will be ready to go in five minutes."

With that said and a hardly inaudible sound quickly given to them by their father, they knew that 'bug out' was the command given. No time to reminisces.

Heeding the call, each boy, including Ranojj hurried past Ekko, the one not chosen. Each gave Ekko's shoulder a comforting squeeze as they passed.

Four and a half minutes later, Ranojj, Kkoz and Zarbo came out of the cothold. Their mother gave each a small handsack of something. What was inside them they would not know until they opened them on the other end of their journey. Kkoz and Zarbo bowed their heads to her with deep respect. Smiles shown in their eyes. Ranojj bowed his head too but could not help himself. Stepping forward he also gave her a hug. His tail tip whipping with emotion.

As he and his brothers bowed their heads to the rest of the family, and approach the rider again five minutes had elapsed. They were right on time. Across each of their shoulders were their bows and quivers. On their belts were their daggers. Their left wrists and forearms held their arrow guards. Their boot daggers were secured and hidden well. Leather wraps protected their shins. A small bedroll was also attached to their backs. In it were a second set of clothes, an extra blanket and one item each held dear. For Ranojj it was a wooden multi- reed wooden wind pipe. They were in full traveling-hunter mode.

As they stood in front of the rider again, M'tu might see a drastic change beyond their quick turnaround. Clinging to Ranojj's shoulder was a golden form that stared right back calmly, regally. Yes, Ranojj had a golden firelizard. Her name was Dawn.

As the eldest of the group, Kkoz spoke to M'tu respectfully. His voice was low and calm. "Thank you for this honor Sir. We are ready."