Entrance to the Hatching Grounds... -- Hatching Sands

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Date Posted: 11:27:57 03/16/02 Sat
Author: Kaiya
Subject: Entrance to the Hatching Grounds...

The seventeen Turn old girl enters the Hatching Grounds, pointed chin held high, not even flinching as the heat strikes her callused feet through her thin sandals. A small smile plays about the corners of her lips, but her eyes hint at a great sorrow. Those somber eyes were fixated on the clutch of lightly mottled eggs, and the eggs lure her forward. Her slow progress forward came to an abrupt halt as she caught sight of something she had not excepted: The Queen egg, still unhatched. Somewhere deep within her Kaiya felt the tattered remains of her dreams of being a dragonrider begin to piece themselves together again, and her mind skips back to the day, not very long ago, when those dreams had been shattered.
Dear Kaiya,
Your sister Sol has caught the plague. Please come. We are staying near Fort Weyr. She might die. That cryptic note from an anonymous fire-lizard had been what had led to the inevitable crushing of her dreams. She could not, in consciousness, abandon her sister, no matter what it cost her. Resolutely she had let go of the elusive dream that had sustained her throughout childhood, and that finally appeared about to become reality, and left the Weyr to seek out her sister. On her way out, she had bumped into the rider who had Searched her out, and, after listening to her woes, announced that he would personally transport her to Fort Weyr. Even though she had never even learned his name, or his dragon�s, Kaiya was eternally grateful to the kind man, for without his assistance, she might have never reached Sol in time.
Kaiya was brought suddenly back to reality by the fact her eyes had grown increasingly heated and moist. After roughly drying them on the sleeve of her Impression robe, her mind was enveloped once more by the memories.
After much inquiring about Fort Weyr, she found her sister staying in a remote cothold near Fort Hold. The first thing she had done after querying if her sister was there, and getting an affirmative, was to demand to be able to see her. She had been lead directly to a tiny room, not much more than a closet, really, and it was there that she saw Sol, lying prone on one of the few articles of furniture, the bed. Afterwards she almost wished she hadn�t requested to see Sol, for the change wrought in the girl was heartrending. The vibrant, animated girl had wasted away to a shadow of her former self. All of her inexhaustible energy was gone, and only the shell of Kaiya�s sister was left. Sol lay, deathly still; her chest moving so shallowly it seemed she was not breathing at all. After a moment of paralyses invoked by shock, Kaiya was kneeling beside her sister, grasping one of Sol�s limp, frail hands in her strong ones, almost crushing the limb in her desperation to pour life into Sol once more. Ever since she had received word of her sister�s illness, Kai had never really been able to believe that her seemingly invulnerable sister was truly in danger, but in that instant kneeling by the cot in some stranger�s hold, the truth washed across her like an ice-cold wave: Her sister was in great peril. But then, as she clung to her sister, something odd happened- Namely, Sol�s eyes fluttered open, and met Kaiya�s squarely. Although the once brilliant hazel eyes were sunken deeply in their sockets and their color had faded to a placid mud-brown, but they did not waver in their gaze, and the fact that Sol was awake at all heartened Kai greatly. �You came!� The barely audible whisper did so much to lift her spirits that Kaiya really did believe her sister would live. For a moment.
***
Days slowly trickled by, and it seemed that Sol was regaining some of her former vigor. But the day came when the last of Kai�s hopes were stolen away from her. It had happened in the same dim cubby where she found Sol that first day. Behind the closed door of the miniscule room, the two girls deep in conversation, minds soaring on the winds of imagination. The current topic of their drifting attention was dragons: The magnificent guardians of their planet. But suddenly Sol said something that instantly broke her reverie. �Kai?� Making sure she had her sister�s attention, Sol hurriedly said, �Will you someday try to Impress again? You left Benden�s hatching because of me, and I know how much you wanted to Impress. Do it for me, please, Kai, �cause I won�t have a chance to stand on the Hatching Grounds.� Slightly bewildered, Kai nodded and agreed, but before Kaiya had a chance to puzzle out the cryptic end to her sister�s speech, Sol gave a halting little sigh, and left Kai alone in the room. Later Kaiya wondered how she had known that instant that her sister had died, for all was the same in the tiny space- Sol was still sprawled on the bed, eyes closed as they had been when they were talking about dragons, and throughout Sol�s �speech�- and yet everything had changed.
Kaiya wrenched herself out of those unwelcome memories, hastily flicking the tears that hastened to overflow her eyes away. With her mind firmly planted in the present, she strode across the Sands, joining the knot of Candidates. To any that looks her way, she simply smiles and nods a greeting, but remains silent. Her eyes are locked on the eggs, for in one of the little ovoids the fulfillment of her promise to Sol, and her own dreams might lie. Flashing grin to those who were already walking off the Sands with a dragon, she settles down to wait.

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