Name: Daverin
Gender/Age: Female / 23
Location: Alabaster
Rank/Craft: Journeywoman Smithcraft (tinker), Apprentice Starcrafter, Apprentice Beastcrafter, Candidate
Relatives/Family: family deceased, Girlfriend Brinna, Lover Kalkin
Dragon: Green Askabeth from Talor Cliff Weyr
Skills: with or without Aivas, she will develop the computer chip. She is unnaturally intelligent, simply put she was also experimented upon by Kalkin's former Master healer, but much earlier in her life and with less personal attachment. She makes things with her hands, loves to look at motion, and loves animals that can talk back to her. Many animals apparently do. She is planning on breeding smart fire lizards, if possible. She throws herself into any situation usually before she's ready for it, but always manages to keep her head above water before drowning.
Emotional/Mental Description: a bit unbalanced, quick tempered but easily talked down as well. Passionate about certain subjects and completely inattentive to others. Has a flawless eiditic memory, and is usually present when Engell must make decisions. She is trustworthy and solid as a friend, rarely forgives a grudge however. She is compassionate and willing to take on other people's pain, if need be, witness her love for Kalkin that might save him but kill her. Willing to give all that up for Brinna. She likes being watched.
History: born in the Hold, to a dragon rider father and crafter mother. When Thread began falling her father left the hold and disappeared somewhere north. Her mother kept up her duties as a weaver until Daverin was 15 years old, and then was killed in the line of fire on an attempt on one of the Lord Holders. Suddenly without a family but too old to really need fostering, Daverin came to the Hold with the intent to make herself useful. Most of the craft Masters had seen her work and admired it, but at the same time didn't much want such a young girl running around their feet out doing them. She was made a Journeywoman quickly, for that reason. Just to keep her out of their hair. She and others have been involved with Engell's plans but she more closely since he at one point considered asking her to marry him. Though she's barely older than his son, she greatly resembles in spirit his dead wife. However, rather than finding him as a husband, Daverin met Brinna and realized suddenly that she wasn't as steadfastly "straight" as she had been before. After an incident involving yet another plot against Engell, Daverin met up with Kalkin for the first time, and fell madly in bed with him, rather to the distress of everyone else around them, except Rami. Daverin is trying to heal Kalkin, but it remains to be seen how she will do this if she Impresses.
Notes and Special Information: Daverin is considered the glue that holds Alabaster together, often binding people in unexpected ways. She knows practically everyone, on some level, and has been known to throw parties where all those unexpected people show up.
Pets/Hobbies/Posessions: she has a stream of pets go in and out of her weyr, though most of them don't stay for any length of time, she likes to let them go after tending wounds or trauma.
Davern wasn't sure what to make of the tall guy, but she thought very much that Kalkin would like him.
Well, in that way, yes. He'd love him. Tall and slender.
Daverin snorted out some klah from her nose when the tall handsome man looked at her with those beautiful blue eyes (everyone around here has blue eyes, Daverin thought, why can't I?) and said, "Jeremoth says you'd make a great rider."
"He what? Who's Jere-- Oh!" Daverin quipped off a few choice words when the klah dribbled ungracefully down her shirt. "Where! When? When did we meet? I mean--"
Shard just watched the skinny-necked girl do little circles around herself. She was rather comical to watch, but he sensed the grace and the intelligence from her immediately, like Jeremoth had. He waited for her to calm down.
"Your Lord Holder gave me leave to organize the Protectorate around people who could stand the best chance of defeating Thread. I believe his causes are ... in line with ours." Shard smirked. He'd done heavy-arm work for the Lord Holder, long before being Searched himself. Of course he knew what kind of operation Alabaster was!
"But... Well. I suppose I have to tell Brinna that I'm off... Unless she can come too?"
"She is welcome, but I don't think she's right for Talor Cliff's sands. Not yet anyway."
Dejectedly, Daverin slumped. Then, she smiled her cockeyed grin, and laughed. "But at least this means I'll have something new to do! Great!"
***
"A white! Can't believe the hatching started with a white..." Daverin muttered to herself. "Amazing..."
She watched the rest, but then didn't need to watch for very long! A blue and a green both strode up to Daverin and the other young woman beside her. The blue looked over Daverin and she was half-sure that he would choose her, but instead, she found herself gazing at the green!
But the pair of dragons tumble down into a tangle of limbs, and she and Vanni must help the two dragons out. As Daverin looks at Vanni, and Vanni at the Alabaster weyrling, they grin.
Unasked, they both shout out the names of their dragons, "Askabeth!" Daverin has to say!
***
They left the sands and Daverin began to explain things to the green.
"That is a hallway leading to the barracks," she said, "and this guy is Nootal the cook, he's got our meat waiting! Look, you'll love this!"
Daverin helped feed her dragon but it seemed that Askabeth was able to handle most of it.
More! That is very good! I like how you remember things, my friend!
"I remember everything," Daverin admitted. "So I think it will be easy for me to learn how to fight thread with you, my little green love."
I will do my best to remember too... Nootal is giving more meat to that dragon and not us!
"Because you've eaten enough, Askabeth! You have to slow down a bit. Chew it!"
I know, I know...
Read more about their new life on Ash'r's page!
***
"She's so little, still!" Daverin said to the dragonhealer. "Will she be like this long? I mean, everyone keeps saying that she'll be grown up like a green, but what does that really mean?"
The remarkably patient dragonhealer led Daverin and Askabeth (though the dragon was cramped in the room) into a weyr with several charts and tapestries on the walls, each indicating anatomy, structure, flight patterns and most importantly, size comparisons.
"This is a normal Green, at a weyrling age. About a year old. Here is an adult. You see?"
"I see, but..."
Are you disappointed in me? I will not be a big strong brown?
"I had no idea what to expect, Askabeth, I'm not disappointed. I was just concerned!"
The dragonhealer seemed to have heard what the green dragon had said to her rider, which intrigued Daverin.
"So you hear all dragons?" She asked, and he nodded once.
"It gives me a much better understanding of their health. It's not just hearing when they speak, I can feel them when they're near. Like this one," he rubbed Askabeth's side, "she's itchy and hungry again."
"As always!" Daverin laughed.
Daverin, what is that?
"What's what?" The young rider asked her dragon. She felt a mental tug, like reins leading her into a direction.
What is that? There, on the sand? A little mound.
"It's a mound," Daverin repeated, with her half-assed smile spread across her mouth. But then she looked harder. "It's... a nest! It's a fire lizard nest!"
She dismounted from Askabeth and sloshed through the low tide all the way to the shore area where the pebble strewn sand was mixed by the tides. Just past the wet part of the sand, lay a largish mound of sand. It was not fresh, to say the least, but it seemed to have had some activity recently!
As if something had gone out of the mound, rather than digging it up!
Something had hatched! Daverin reached down and sure enough, most of the eggs had hatched already! There sure had been a lot of them, though. The shells were simply everywhere once she got through sifting through them.
She sat on her butt, and Askabeth did likewise, several meters away. The dragon tilted her green head and asked, why are you sad?
Because there are no more eggs left, they've all hatched, I think.
But I think you should look harder. I ... I feel something!
Daverin looked down, and then dug a little more. Down in the cooler packed sand, well below the other eggs and the pebbly sand which had been dumped atop them, there was something... Just beyond her reach.
"By Faranth's eggs, this little flitter buried her clutch deep!" Daverin felt something smooth, down there in the chilled sand. It wasn't even close to the warmth of the upper eggs, she wondered how it had gotten itself so deep! But Daverin took it out: it was hardened, that was sure. But how? Well, that wasn't as important as the fact that it was moving!
Suddenly Daverin lept up and ran to Askabeth's side. "Look Beth, it's hatching! It's hatching! Could you find a fish -- quickly!?" She begged the dragon but Askabeth had already provided: a squirming fish was produced from under the dragon's forepaw. "Oh, thank you Askabeth, you're the best!"
Thank you my rider! What do you think will happen now?
"We'll have to wait and see! Oh, this is exciting!" Daverin tore her hazel green eyes off the pale egg, to look at Askabeth's which were whirling many pleased shades of blue, sea and teal. "But not nearly as exciting as your hatching, my love!"
Then, the egg snapped open! It was almost like a nut shell, so hard that the flit inside had to really push and fight his way out! Both wings exploded out of the shell, quickly, followed by the tail furling out, and then finally the neck and head.
But Daverin -- as well as Askabeth -- stood looking at the small flit in awe: this was a white flitter! All pure white, a chalky whit like, well, like its shell!
"Quick, the fish!" Daverin reminded herself, and ripped off a part of the fish which Askabeth had caught. She fed the flitter, and then felt a little ping of both ravenous hunger and relief from the tiny creature!
What will you call him? Oh, he is adorable! Do you think we will fly together? He will definitely help us learn, will he not?
"Of course he will," Daverin said, in a cooing voice, as the small fire lizard settled down and gulped back another tiny piece of fish meat. "And his name is Chalky, he's that color, you remember when we play with the thread ropes covered in paint and chalk?"
I remember because you never forget! Chalky, he may sit on my shoulder like you do, if he likes.
"Oh, I think he'll be good on my shoulder, Askabeth, I fit right on yours, and he fits on mine!"
***
"You weren't sliding any strange potions in her food, were you Kalkin?" Daverin asked of her tall and very much elder lover. "I mean, look at how huge she got! It's almost overnight, too!"
Kalkin chuckled but said, "not me. Sixth would not stand a chance with her at this size, why would I ever do that to him?"
"When do I get to meet this mysterious Sixth, Kalkin?" Daverin asked, "I mean, you never ride him anywhere!"
"I do not ride him because I am terrified of heights, my dear," Kalkin admitted with a smile, and offered Daverin a boost up to the shoulder of her now-fully-grown green Askabeth. "And please remember to tell her that I must not be spoken--"
"Spoken to, I know, I know..." Daverin hiked up to the crook of the dragon's neck, and Askabeth gazed down at the healer below.
He is so strange inside, Daverin. But he would still make a decent enough rider.
It would be the only decent thing about him, Askabeth! Daverin giggled and Kalkin could only wonder why.
Daverin whistled and Chalky came to her shoulder, and nestled within the short strands of hair near her neck. They took off from the cothold where Sixth apparently was asleep near, and left Kalkin to his more mature companion Raanatani once more. No jealousy existed between the younger and older woman, in fact Daverin had almost been Fostered by the woman when her mother died some years back. As Askabeth climbed higher into the sky, they finally went between and appeared over Alabaster Weyrhold.
"This is home, Askabeth!" Daverin cried loudly. "It's so good to be back!" She and the green did a wide circle of the weyrhold grounds, and finally settled down near the edge of the weyr-pit.
When Daverin entered the riders' central rooms, there were a number of others she knew well from her crafting days. They greeted her cheerily, but with a strange sense about them.
Finally, a black-haired bronze rider from Dawnlight Hold's crafthall came forward. "We've been talking it over, and we decided that the Uplift wing is getting kind of full."
Daverin pouted. "But... That's the wing I was supposed to be joining... What am I supposed to do now, fly solo?"
She was about to turn around and head back to her weyr to sulk in private, but N'ate stopped her. That and Chalky decided that biting his human's ear was in order made her turn and swat at the white flit.
"No, no, now that we're all here," N'ate indicated the others who included a brown riding woman named Bethany, Shim'a of blue Dioath, and many others, "we made up our minds to leave the wing, and form our own. You'd make a perfect addition, with Ash'r as well."
Daverin looked at her blue riding counter part, and they looked back to N'ate.
"It's going to be called the Screw Loose Wing," N'ate said, and everyone there began to chuckle. "No, I'm serious! What are we all? We're all tinkers and engineers. We all know how to make things and how to put stuff together--"
"And take it apart," Ash'r butted in, "don't forget that!"
"I can't," N'ate said, "you just won't let me. So are you in?"
Ash'r immediately raised his hand in a salute, and Daverin shortly followed. "Screw Loose it is!" He cried, and Daverin laughed with them all the rest of the night!
