Name: Aramil (A'mil)

Gender: Male, he/him

Age/DOB: 14 at Search / born on Alskyr to a Pernese mother and local Paniyan father; note that his mother and he were cut off from his father's side about 6 years ago

Origin: Caledrus Hold, Currently Paniya/Alskyr

Family: Estranged and unmarried, mother is a Harper (or at least was a Harper while on Pern years ago, now just a records-keeper and singer), father a trader married to a different woman; has a half-brother 7 years older that is legitimate on his father's side

Other: said brother Ramari 'forced the issue' when their father had this affair, publicly denouncing that they were related, though the boy tells it another way, "why does Aramil have red hair freckles, we're all tan?" It was very likely more to cover when their father went back to his wife...

Height: very short, hardly 4'6" Build: slender and lithe, more muscular than a person of his size might typically get

Hair: thick and curly shoulder-length red

Eyes: very pale blue, the same as his mother's

Appearance: peaches and cream, quite light but doesn't burn in sunlight, only gets more freckled. This is a feature that his half-brother does not share in any way, and what they used to disown the boy before he might inherit any of the trade caravan they ran

Standing At: Dawn Watch Weyr

Dragon: Bronze Praemonituth

Created/Updated: 8.11.26/9.11.26

Events and History: as above, Aramil was born out of wedlock to a man who effectively lived a double life. Traveling around Paniya and making numerous overseas trips to other islands on Alskyr for his trade routes, Ramodo made the mistake of taking his first son along on one circuit, and met up with his little brother for basically the first and last time. Aramil understands the complexity of having such a thing happen, but doesn't much care for the poor way that his father snubbed the woman who had been doing his accounting and book-keeping in addition to her own historical documentation all along. His mother was not really distraught, carried herself with grace, but Aramil knows she is still hurting from the betrayal - though she told Aramil she knew she was 'the other woman' in his life, Ramodo gave no indication that he would be so unkind.

They had to make do with savings and before long she'd enrolled her son in more advanced studies. It was while they were attending a reading of some local historian's findings about dragons and their riders, one of those riders pulled Aramil aside briefly. It was perhaps the first time that the youth was looked right in the eye by a rider, not judging him, not mocking him, but instead seriously giving Aramil the once over.

"Saw you at that gather," the rider commented, "you killed it in the toss-ball game, you didn't get hit even once?"

Aramil looked away, blushing a little, "yeah, you know." He indicated himself, "small, hard to hit."

Oddly that brought a shake of the rider's head. "No, no, you aren't just 'small', you're ... quick, the way you dodged. You might not notice it, but I definitely did. And that one time you grabbed the ball right out of the air and smacked it back?"

Aramil had to struggle to even remember that, but yes, it was something he'd been known to do in those games. When you're getting three or four soaking wet fiber balls chucked at you, even in a big group of kids, someone's going to get soaked. Thinking on it, "I... don't even know the last time I got wet during one of those games..."

"See?" The rider finally took him outside, where there was a blue dragon standing patiently, allowing a number of locals to gawk. Meli and his blue Usth proved quite popular but they gave the rider and boy a bit of room when the dragon actually rose from his half-curl on the ground.

"He's... huge," Aramil said, breathless.

"Yeah, I've noticed a lot of the dragons from his home seem pretty large, more to love, eh?"

That seemed to poke a hole in Aramil's mood, and Meli immediately regretted it. So he chatted the boy up, and finally got him close enough to the blue dragon's head that Usth had the chance to give him a big long sniff or two.

When Aramil's mother Aanii came out with the others attending the lecture, to see her son being gently nudged by the dragon's nose - and he was laughing about it, almost fell over but stayed upright, that was his gift, he sure was hard to topple... Aanii arrived with her head tilted, and Aramil couldn't quite decide how to say his words. Meli did so for him.

"He's been Searched, he has good qualities, Usth says he'll do well to stand somewhere. If you're able to approve, we can do that... as soon as 'now'?"

It wasn't that day, nor the day after. But Aramil was prepared and packed, said the few good-byes he needed to, mostly the children that he still helped tutor. His mother was so proud, happy for him, and she knew there were things on his mind that he'd have to deal with on his own. He would be tiny, it was probably ... her side of the family that did that too, she tucked a small book that was tied shut with a note on it into his hands, made sure he put it into his jacket snugly. "Read it only when you're away," she said, hugged him, and watched her child climb onto the paw of this massive dragon...

**

Aramil penned a letter back to his mother, thanking her for the information she'd finally shared. Rumors of riders, other worlds that she had seen with her own eyes in transit - she was one of the few that didn't need to be 'brainwashed' by the Lord Holder when they arrived from Pern. Her steady mind was echoed in her son's. But also her own mother's stature, tiny and petite, her grandmother's apparently was also barely to the shoulder of all her friends.

But what struck Aramil most was that he knew now that the dragons bonding their partners? Though they would certainly grow huge quickly, they all looked up to these young men and women on sands around multiple worlds. Kids younger than he had done so, size didn't matter to a hatchling. Only a pure mind, a strong heart.

And Aramil definitely had those things!

***

(Some from hatching by Nomi)

He hadn't been prepared for the way that all these people showed up, clumped into rooms for teaching about the dragons, and he was also slightly shaken by the way that it was, in fact, on another planet: Pern. It wasn't quite the same as his mother intimated, however. Something was a little strange here and there. More electronics and gadgets, and the sense that this hatching was taking place quite a lot longer after his family's leaving the world than Aanii knew.

He was attentive to the short classes they had time for, it was less than a month ("a few sevendays"?) after his arrival that the dragons began their deep humming song to announce the hatchlings to the world.

The queen on her sands was proud, a little tired, and watched the candidates with shining faceted eyes.

He wasn't sure why, but that first egg with a purple dragon in it couldn't have been 'normal' for Pern, could it? Aramil knew that the Paniyan dragons came that color but those ones up in that 'weyr' off the coast, and some that remained down in the quarry below Alabaster's tower? Those didn't really... Nor did they come with two pairs of wings, like the second much larger to hatch? While a very pretty pearl colored hatchling appeared next, it didn't impress until well after Aramil left.

That was because... A large egg shattered into large chunks and the olive-bronze dragonet within took their time sweeping all the pieces off themselves before facing the candidates and the assembled Weyr.

Well this is a fine gathering He thought, and then cocked his head as though looking at something no-one else can see, Oh, Oh dear… I am very sorry in advance, Sister

As he went to stand up, he tripped over his own paws and stumbled straight into the very smallest egg, cracking it open as he flopped onto the hatchling within.

Sorry again Collieth, He bespoke.

That’s okay, The green said, lifting her head a little, I think I needed the help.

Do you need anything else?

I can do it myself Praemonituth.

Have it your way then. It didn’t take the bronze long to find the one he wanted, shoving in between two taller, older boys to find the youth Aramil. There you are Aramil. They can’t hide you from me.

He was stunned, even if this was an unusual location and a lot of amazing dragons, he... HE had impressed the bronze? Large and in charge?

Of course I impressed you, you were the only one I saw from the moment I knew I needed to emerge.

They would remain on hand for a while, long enough for the dragonet to become strong and walk without stumbling again. Not too long, not as long as some might, for they were being taken back to Paniya with some of those local riders - and another who'd bonded at the clutch was with them.

A'mil was officially renamed when he arrived back at Caledrus Hold, and he would train at Alabaster's quarry with those other 'old world' riders and dragons.

Praemonituth certainly attracted an amount of attention from the Lord Holder, and not just because he was 'very pretty and interesting markings' ... but because the man could somehow detect the presence of more than just a clever mind.

"You did know that he could do this?" Engel asked, of A'mil when they had a moment to themselves up in the tower. The dragon was popular, but wasn't nearly as big as some of the others that had come from different eras or locations, and that had put a touch of a dent in his pride at times. "Seeing potential futures?"

"Potential? No, according to him," A'mil said, "and... according to how often he's been right, the future. I wasn't aware there was another future."

He didn't notice, perhaps because he was still more than a head shorter than the Lord Holder, the smirk that crossed Engel's face.

"Well," that white-haired man said, straightening up and cracking his back a little to stretch, "as long as it keeps him appraised of issues before they come up."

Oh there it was - A'mil knew that the last time he'd seen something through the dragon's eyes, it was that incident with the fruit cart at the gather outside Caledrus. The rider chewed his lip, and nodded slowly while watching the bronze continue to strut on the quarry ledge below them. "Yeahhhhh, I'll have to keep that in mind too. I know there is a weird... feeling, when he's seeing things? And sometimes when he sleeps."

"You're a records-keeper, I'm sure that you have a way of noting these things when they happen," Engel said, not in warning, but in earnest. "I'd like to see the track record in action."

Dragon

Lineage

Mates and Descendants