Vertia stretched her arms above her head as she walked down the stairs of the small cothold where she was currently living. She always thought of it as "currently" because she certainly didn't intend on staying there forever. Only dire circumstances had driven her to move here in the first place. The constant bickering with her foster parents had finally reached a climax, and they had asked her to leave. Luckily she'd quickly found an older lady who offered room and board in exchange for chores. It wasn't the best situation in the world, but it was better than being holdless.

She sighed as she sat down to a bit of cold lunch. It was already a couple of candlemarks past the midday meal, which was exactly how she liked waking up. Her three firelizards appeared suddenly above her screeching their own hunger.

"You three," she scolded them in a harsh whisper. "You know you're not supposed to be in here! Yirah hates you guys! Do you want us to get kicked out? Go," she ordered shooing them away. "I'll bring you something to eat as soon as I'm done."

The three flits cheeped their annoyance at having to wait but disappeared just as the older woman came into the room. "Vertia, did I just hear those firelizards? I better not have. You and I had a deal," the old woman croaked as she shook her finger at Vertia.

"Yes, ma'am, I know," Vertia agreed readily. "I promise you that they will not disturb you," she continued with a smile before quickly finishing her meal. "Thank you for the meal," she added as she grabbed a few meat rolls and bolted outside. It was her day off, and she wasn't about to waste it inside.

As soon as she was clear of the house, a green, blue, and brown face immediately appeared before her. "Okay, I have some snacks for you," she told her little friends as she left the road and sat down on the ground under a tree. "Here's one for Ati," she said giving the green a meat roll. "One for Sulnn, and one for Sielt," she added giving the blue and brown flits meat rolls in turn.

The three firelizards quickly gobbled down the treats before begging for more. "I'm sorry," Vertia apologized as she rubbed Ati's eyeridges. "That's all I have for now. If you want anything else, you'll have to go hunting for it," she finished. The three chirped at her before disappearing to go find more food elsewhere.

Vertia sighed to herself once her friends were gone. There had always been plenty of food for them when she had been living with her foster parents, but that had been one of the only blessings of living there recently, which is why she had left. Things hadn't always been so rough between her and her foster parents. She was still grateful to them even now for taking her in and raising her when they had been convinced that they wouldn't be able to have any other children besides their one son. In fact, up until the time when she had seven turns, things had been wonderful. They had treated her like their own daughter, and she and her foster brother had gotten along splendidly. All of that had changed though.

Shortly after the summer of her seventh turn, Vertia's foster mother had miraculously given birth to a daughter. Two turns later, another daughter had been born. With two daughters of her own suddenly, Vertia's foster mother began to ignore and neglect her. If new clothes were bought, they were bought for the younger daughters while Vertia made do with patched clothing. Vertia had tried not to mind at first, but eventually she'd grown to resent her foster parents for their ill treatment of her. This had brought on arguments with them, which had eventually led to her leaving their house.

Vertia sighed again. The only one who had never changed was her foster brother Lidon. He'd continued to treat her as he always had and even did his best to take her part on occasion against his parents. It had gotten him into trouble more often than not, and even now, he kept in contact with her despite his parents' protests. She dearly missed him, but now, was not the time for such thoughts.

Vertia picked herself up from off the ground and began to wander towards the beaches. Since she had an entire day to hersef, which only came once every couple of sevendays, she was determined to enjoy herself. She walked along the water while she played tag with the tide. After a while she finally laid down in the sand to bask in the heat of the day. There was no need to worry about her skin burning. It never did. She stared up at the sky wondering what life might eventually bring her.

Vertia's eyes snapped open as she heard a commotion coming from the hold. She must have dozed off. She sat up quickly to find her three firelizard friends all nestled around her, looking very content, and she smiled down at them. They must have found food somewhere. Her attention was once again drawn back to the hold as more noises reached her.

She quickly stood up and checked the position of the sun. It seemed like she had only been asleep for half a candlemark or so. That was good. It meant she still had plenty of time to go back to her room to get her instruments before this evening. With that thought in mind and with a growing curiosity concerning the commotion in the hold, she headed off back the way she had come.

It was immediately clear as soon as she could see the hold exactly what was going on. Dragonriders had come to visit! That was certainly something of note for such a small hold, but it didn't have anything to do with her. So, she skirted the edge of the hold, avoiding the jumble of people in the middle of the square and went the back way to the cothold she shared.

Vertia quickly reached her room and began to go over her star charts. With as clear as it was today, tonight would be perfect for star gazing. She spent the better part of a candlemark figuring out which constellations would be out that evening before heading downstairs for her evening meal. She ate quickly and made sure to grab a bit of food for her friends as well before heading back up the stairs to deliver it.

Once Ati, Sulnn, and Sielt were all satisfied, Vertia gathered her star charts and her telescope, put them in a bag, and headed out of the cothold. The sun was just setting, but she knew it would take her at least a candlemark to get up the cliff where she usually did her star gazing. So, she threw the bag over her shoulder and headed back towards the beach.

The walk along the beach was pleasant and went quickly until she reached the rocky area that marked the bottom of the cliffs. Then she had to slow way down. Even though she had been this way many times, it was still better to be cautious rather than misstep and break an ankle. The rocky beach gave way to solid rock as she began to climb the path that led up to the top of the cliff.

Once Vertia had reached the top, she laid down on the solid rock and tried to catch her breath. Even though she was in good shape and had done this a few time already, it still wasn't an easy climb. Her three flits chittered their happiness to her at her success. "Yeah, easy for you guys to say," she commented with a roll of her eyes once she could talk again. "You can fly," she ended as she began to set up her telescope and charts. She sun was completely below the horizon now, so she could get started immediately.

Vertia spent the next three candlemarks charting the stars and looking for her favorite constellations. She had always loved the stars, and as she'd grown older, her love for them had only deepened. To her, they held an entire expanse of mysteries waiting to be discovered. The endless possibilities fascinated her, and she desperately wished to properly study star smithing one day. That was her real goal. For now, though, she had to keep a roof over her head.

A distant peal of thunder shook her out of her thoughts, and she turned to look behind her towards the sea. A storm was rolling in. As quickly as she could manage, Vertia gathered her things, put them back in her bag, and flung it over her shoulder. A storm was bad news. It would make the rocks even more slippery than normal and it would block out the full moon that was her guide. She had to get off the cliff now.

Vertia made her way down the cliff as quickly as she could without killing herself, but even so, it had begun raining by the time she was three quarters of the way down. The last quarter of the path seemed to take an eternity to get through, and by the end of it, Vertia was completely soaked. Both of her hands were also scraped up from having slipped several times on the wet rocks.

With the cliff face and the clouds blocking out any useful light, Vertia had to slow to a crawl once she'd reached the bottom of the cliff. Only the flashes of lightning provided her with any kind of light at all. Meanwhile, her flits, picking up on her own growing distress, clung to various parts of her clothing and hair making it even more difficult to navigate the rocky beach. She was almost to the smoother part of the beach when she finally slipped on one of the rocks. Her feet and legs went left while the rest of her went right. She was aware of a searing pain in her right ankle and another flash of lightning before everything went black.

Vertia groaned loudly as she cracked open an eye. Everything hurt, but her right ankle and her head hurt the most. She opened the other eye and did her best to sit up, but the world began to spin in her vision. She closed her eyes again and did her best not to vomit or move in any way.

"It's best if you just lie still for now, dear," a woman's voice told her as she heard footsteps coming towards her.

Vertia opened her eyes once more to see a woman standing before her holding a bowl of what she assumed was medicine. Obviously, this was the healer. "Where am I," she asked, not sure if her voice would work or not.

"You're at Sedona Weyr," the woman replied setting the bowl on a table next to the bed. "The Searchriders brought you here when they found you on the beach after your brown fire-lizard came and got them. You're really lucky. Without your little friend's help, you may not have made it."

"Searchriders," Vertia asked in confusion. "You mean the dragonriders that were at the hold that day were Searchriders?"

"Yes, they were. They were out on Search for our latest clutch, and since you'll be here for a while, you might as well stay for the Hatching. Maybe you'll even be able to become a candidate, but the Searchriders will take care of that. I'm sure they'll want to talk to you later, but for now, you need lots of rest. So, here," she said picking up a cup and ladling the medicine that was in the bowl into it, "drink up."

Vertia coughed as she did her best to choke down the bitter herbal mixture, but as it ran down her throat, she could feel herself relaxing. "Thank you," she mumbled before the woman could leave the room. She didn't hear a reply, but that may have been because she was already beginning to drift off. Her last conscious thought was of the impending meeting with the Searchriders and whether or not she would actually be able to become a candidate.

Vertia Impressed Blue Moeth!



Name: Moeth
Species: Pernese Dragon
Gender: Male
Color: Blue
Size: 27' long
Parents: Green Emeraldth x Brown-Ruby Mikuth
Abilities: Telepathy, Teleportation, Assisted Firebreath
Personality: Mellow
Sociability: Dependant on his rider
Intelligence: Genius
Mating: Likes greens
Threadfighting: Cautious
Other: N/A
Bond: Vertia



Vertia is a candidate at Sedona Weyr.
Vertia's firelizards were adopted at Dark Moon Weyrhold.