Lamad's Story
Lamad was almost with another day’s hard work and wiped the sweat from his
brow, a few strands of his dark brown hair wiping across his face, carried by a soft wind.
"These men aren’t masters," he thought to himself, "They’re slave drivers." He had
finished most of his work early today and instead of giving him the day off they gave him
even more. He heard a sound that he had never heard before and saw a large group of
dragon riders over head. He craned his neck to see them better. One was larger then the
others, a blue, and the rest were greens. "Search Riders." he thought to himself as he
scooped up more runner beast dung. "Looking for candidates." Oh what he wanted to be
was a candidate. Being a candidate had its downfalls and pitfalls to, but he couldn’t think
of any. Like when he wanted to be a Runner beast handlers apprentice all he could think
about was the fact that he would have a roof over his head and a few runners to care for.
Not that wasn’t all true, but man this that dung smelled! He picked up another shovel full
of the stuff and dumped it into a nearly over flowing wheel barrow. He walked to the back
of the stable at Lemos and dumped out this load. That was his last stall. Now for the fun
stuff. He put his supplies away and went to go see his runner, Black Mist, or Misty, as he called her.
Blacky nikered as Lamad came to his stall door. "Hey girl, you ready for a ride?" the
runner pawed the ground as if to say yes and Lamad laughed softy. "I’m sure you do lady."
he put Blacky's bridle on, not bothering for a saddle and lead her out to a trail where the
runners trained for racing. Come on Black, let’s see what you can do. He warmed her up
first then they started to canter, gaining momentum. They soon started to gallop for the
sheer joy of it. When they had gone around the track once Lamad pulled her with some
difficulty into a trot and then to a walk. They walked around and he noticed a young
woman perched on the fence, watching him with interest.
"Hi!" she called out to him. "I’m Katra*, what’s your name?"
"Lamad." he answered.
The girl paused, as if she was listening to something or some one. "Hi, Lamad, how old
are you."
"15." he answered. Blacky was fighting for rein and took a step forward but a slight
pressure on the bit made her back up again and stop fidgeting.
"Well, Lamad, that was some pretty impressive riding. Is that runner owned by the
stables?"
"Oh," Lamad thought, "It’s Black Mist that she is after. Well she can’t have him." Anyway, he
was not the hold’s, he has his.
"No miss, Blacky Mist is mine, I got her real cheap at a sale, the owner wanted him dead, he
throw his daughter and she was paralyzed, but she shoudn’t have been riding him. She was
to young and inexperienced."
The girl is listening intently to what Lamad is saying.
"Well Lamad, I don’t blame the
horse and I don’t want to buy him."
Lamad let out a slow breath, "Good," he thought. That whole bit about the girl was just to
scare her away, he loved Blacky and didn’t want anyone to sell her at any price.
"I guess you really don’t know who I am or why I am here." Katra said. Lamad shook his
head.
"I’m a search rider for Mooncreast weyr and my dragon, She’s a green, thought that you would
make a good candidate. She has already talked to the blue rider and he says that you might
make a good candidate."
Lamad’s jaw must have dropped three feet. Him? Candidate material?
"Don’t look so surprised. Candidates are all sorts of people, runner handlers included." Lamad still couldn’t believe it and said.
"Is this some kind of really bad joke?" she still shook her head.
"Nope. If you want to see my dragon I can arrange it, though she might scare your runner,
Black Mist is it? You see, I was born at a hold with a large population of runners and know how
they can get around dragons."
Lamad dismounted. "Well Blacky’s first home was a weyr, Igen weyr, and he should be able
to be around dragons." Then Lamad thought of something, "If I come with you to
the weyr can Black Mist come too?"
She laughed. "Of course. Dragons don’t mind having runners in there weyrs, most
anyway. We actually have a few that are on the ground floor with stalls built into them.
Neat huh?"
"All right," Lamad said slowly. "I’ll go with you." she smiled and rose from the fence
where she was sitting. "All right, how soon can you be ready to go?"
He paused to think. "About an hour I think, I need to get Blacky’s stuff ready too."
She laughs. "All the others wanted us to give them at least a day. Especially the girls." she
laughs again. "You have till this time tomorrow, then you and Black Mist can ride to the weyr.
We can take all your stuff with us dragon back. I know for a fact that runners don’t like to
be carried in slings with the dragons holding it in there claws, and it’s not too safe."
Lamad sadly agrees. He had never been riding a dragon back before and had wondered
what it was like. But he may soon have a chance. He was a candidate!
Wanna see how Lamad does? Well too bad the eggs havn't hatched yet!
*note, Katra was invented by me. She is not a search rider for Mooncreast weyr, I just used her in this story to make it more believable and fun to read.
Email: twin_firestone@hotmail.com
