Caufar Weyr

[Fiesta]

Two queens and their riders dead in a span of four months. One, the former Weyrwoman Seramid. The other, upstart Junior Queen Megrienne and her Belarth, dead in a freak flamethrower accident. Most are content to let it stand as an accident, but there are some who whisper words of conspiracy; after all, Megrienne sought to have I'vrae of bronze Voltureth and Araceli with her golden Alorioth removed from their positions as Leaders of Caufar Weyr. While she inevitably failed in her attempt, her claims of ignorance against the two were enough to draw the eyes of all the Weyrs of Pern to Caufar, causing them to scrutinize the Weyr intensely.

These rumors are just that; rumors. There was not enough left of the faulty flamethrower to adequately determine just why it exploded, killing not only Megrienne, but one of Caufar's candidates who was nearby to assist the Queenrider in her pre-'Fall checklist. Megrienne's death served no purpose to better anyone... and had quite the opposite effect that anyone who wanted to kill her would have hoped for. The Junior queen trade scheduled for Caufar's Anodelle and her Sylfaeth and Fort's Gervaine and Heralith once both pairs had graduated was called off, and Caufar's request for a temporary junior queen has been denied, leaving the Weyr with only two queens: one not even graduated from weyrlinghood, and the second, its Senior, not even four turns of age.

But all hope is not lost. On the very same day that Megrienne died, sending Belarth into the cold, dark embrace of between, the now Weyr-bound Alorioth took to the hatching sands. While Caufar's Wings battled Thread over Darksea Hold, the Senior Queen laid a clutch of thirty eggs. Not the largest clutch in Caufar's history, of course, but a healthy number nonetheless.

Among that number, distanced slightly from its future brothers and sisters, lay a glowing queen egg on a pedestal of sand.

Now the weyrfolk wait with bated breath. The queen egg is not the seasoned adult they need, but it speaks of a future, of hope for Caufar Weyr in these trying times. The twenty-nine eggs that sit beside it hold the fate of twenty-nine candidates securely in their unhatched claws; will you be one of them? Could you, perhaps, even be the one person that golden beauty will be looking for?

Only one way to find out.

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[Caufar Weyr]

I'vrae was not the ideal Weyrleader in the eyes of many. He was too young, too inexperienced, too much not the stolid, Thread-broken, older leader that Caufar needed. The green bronzerider handled his duties as best he could, and as the end of his term drew nigh, a good number of people were willing to acknowledge that he had the makings of a fine Leader.

In about ten Turns or so.

The seasoned riders had stopped complaining, content that Alorioth herself would help remedy the problem sooner rather than later. She would rise again, of course, and it was almost unanimously decided that any bronze related to the Senior Queen that stood a good chance of winning ought to sit out the next flight. The Weyr needed the fresh blood, after all, and both of Alorioth's first mates had been closely related. Though she seemed to show no discernable pattern in choosing which male won her flight, both had been bronze kin to her, and the hope was that, by eliminating those choices for her, Caufar's Senior might choose a less closely related--and older--bronze to catch her.

Alorioth, however, was apparently not content to play by the rules set for her, and her third flight brought what looks to be the only true pattern in the queen's taste for mates; incest. Many would like to think that it was simply the fault of the snow, that the dragons could not adequately see where they were going, and that brown Sarhauth catching the gold was but a lucky twist of fate on his part. Sarhauth is, predictably, Alorioth's full brother, but that was the matter of least concern to the residents of Caufar Weyr.

Sarhauth is Clarra's dragon, the first female to Impress brown at Caufar.

The Weyr nearly imploded overnight. A female Weyrleader? Preposterous! Blasphemous! Women had no right to bond to a fighting dragon, never mind attain any sort of rank befitting the higher colors. The news spread like wildfire, gossip taken to the far ends of Pern by flitter and dragon alike, until the entire planet was abuzz. Some, the notoriously free-minded Benden Weyr, for example, were delighted at the change, while staunchly hidebound Igen immediately shunned the southern Weyr for allowing an abomination to even participate in the Senior Queen's flight. No female brownrider was ever looked upon favorably, but at least the rest of them had the common decency to ground their dragons to prevent such a catastrophy!

Clarra herself was less than pleased by this turn of events--she and Araceli have never seen eye to eye, and now she's stuck working with the other woman--and initially, intended to vacate her rank. She hadn't even had time to suggest the idea to anyone else before being buried under a volley of that very same request, order, suggestion, and less than subtly disguised hint. There were myriad reasons; she was a woman, she was too young, Sarhauth was just a brown, she was a woman, the Weyr needed a real leader, she was a woman...

Ever an advocate that women were just as capable as men, Clarra immediately refuted any such call for her to step down as Weyrleader. Sarhauth had won the flight fairly, and if the rest of Pern didn't like it, they could take a long jump between.

Now, a few months later, Caufar is still shellshocked by the event, and has the clutch to prove it happened. Twenty healthy eggs grace the Weyr's hatching grounds, and while the subject of many rumors and bad-mouthing, they are eggs. They will hatch, and they will need candidates to Impress to... if Caufar can overcome the stigma of the clutch being sired by a female-ridden brown. That in and of itself is enough to have some Holds refuse Caufar the right to Search, and even if the Searchdragons are allowed entry, many more potential candidates are outright refusing the honor.

The eggs are only just laid, but already Caufar is feeling the strain of trying to provide for them. They need those candidates, or the entire clutch could be lost to unImpression. Are there any who are willing to face the infamy of being associated with such a stigmatized clutch for the chance to Impress?

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