He had just finished his chores, and had left the hold before he could be assigned any more. He had found this tiny, secluded cove a while ago, and had come to it often. But in the time since his last visit, a Fire Lizard queen had clutched her eggs in the sand. The seventeen-turn-old had come back often since then, hoping to Impress one or two of them. On that particular afternoon, he was about to leave to go back to the hold when he heard fire lizards humming behind him. He raced back to the clutch, to see the first egg hatch, a bronze. He was disappointed that he couldn't Impress it, but went to his bag for the small amount of meat he had brought with him. He grabbed a small, blue-green egg that was rocking back and forth, and when a green fire lizard hatched from it, he quickly fed it and named it Mena. He hadn't expected to Impress another, but a small, greyish egg had rolled away from the main clutch and practically into his lap. He watched cracks appearing in the shell, and finally, a small, silver fire lizard broke out of the egg. Alekes gasped, he had never even heard of a silver fire lizard, so quickly fed the rare male and named him Veri.
A dark grey blur flew over his head. Alekes looked over at the silver fire lizard that had landed on a low tree branch beside him.
Veri chirped, then turned his head to look at something behind Alekes's head. Alekes turned, and held out his arm for his other fire lizard.
Alekes lived with his mother in the nearby hold. His father had been a dragonrider, but he had died about a turn after Alekes had been born.
Alekes brushed his bangs out of his dark, brown eyes. He had fairly short, black hair. He was tall and thin, like his father had been before he died. Alekes had wanted to be a dragonrider like his father, but his mother had disapproved.
He was heading home, when he saw the telltale sign of thread on the horizon. His eyes widened, he couldn't believe he had forgotten about threadfall! And he wasn't close enough to the hold to get there before it came. He decided to backtrack the way he had come, and try to find a cave that he could wait out the thread in. He ran, soon passing the cove where he had impressed his fire lizards, but he knew there were no caves around there, so kept running. Fortunately, he found a shallow cave. He watched as the deadly silver threads poured down in clumps outside. After what seemd like days, the thread finally stopped, allowing Alekes to find his way home.
He had been following the small trail for at least half and hour, and still couldn't find anything he recognized. He hadn't thought he had gone that far away from the hold, he should have recognized something by now. He was starting to panic, before he saw something large and blue land in a clearing to the side. His hopes rose, a dragonrider!
He raced to where he had seen the blue, and saw it and the rider. He sighed with relief, and was about to walk up to them, when he heard something behind him.
He turned around, and was faced with a pair of large, jeweled eyes set in a brown face. He stumbled back from the dragon and tripped over a rock, resulting in him being sprawled on the ground looking at the amused faces of the two dragonriders and they're dragons. The brown rumbled a laugh, while his rider helped Alekes up.
"Sorry about that, what are you doing out here?" He asked.
Alekes answered. "I was heading back home, when I was caught in thread and got lost."
The blue dragon lowered his head, studying Alekes. He would make a good dragonrider.
Alekes gasped. "Me? A dragonrider?"
The rider shrugged. "Well, apparently Falaath thinks so."
The brown rider cut in. "There's currently a clutch at Opal Moon Weyr. If you want to, your welcome to be a candidate there."