Dragon Candidate Jian

Jian's Stats

"Jian! This can't be! The child can't be mine, I don't take--" The dark haired young man began, but he was abruptly cut off by a slap across the face from the fair skinned and light haired young woman standing before him. "Hruin! Of course it's yours, deadglow! Are you saying I would allow just anyone into bed with me!?" Jian sobbed loudly, more tears running down her already tear-streaked cheeks. "Jian...perhaps you can give the child to a drudge or..or..someone after it's born!" Hruin continued, rubbing his reddened cheek. "HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT!?" Jian wailed. "IT'S YOUR CHILD! HOW COULD YOU JUST WANT TO HAND IT OVER TO A DRUDGE!? I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME! I THOUGHT YOU WERE ENOUGH OF A GOOD PERSON TO CARE ABOUT YOUR OWN CHILD!" "Yeah!? By the First Egg, Jian! You're the one to talk! Always horrible to your mother's husband's daughter! Always looking down on dragonriders even though they protect your mangy hide from Threadfall! Why should I give a shardin' wherry's egg about you or your spawn!? You're nothing but a horrible shardin' tunnelsnake, just like your mother!" Hruin roared, stomping off to leave Jian to sob where she stood.

Jian was a pretty girl, second oldest of Lady Emiane's daughters by her first marriage. Jian was fairly tall with fair skin and curly light golden hair....and icy blue eyes. Yet, she had quite the reputation for being a wily creature. She, as did all of Emiane's daughters by her first marriage, took quite after their mother who disliked anyone who didn't dwell on her every whim and looked down on almost anyone who did. All four of them--Emiane and her three daughters--had been rather cruel to Lord Aransi--Emiane's new husband's daughter, Tarrah. However, relief had come for the younger girl as well as her older brother, Temenan--now T'eman--when they were Searched and Impressed dragons.
Emiane and Jian's two sisters still despised dragonriders, and now especially despised Tarrah and T'eman. Jian, however, had been rather wistful in thinking as of late. She wanted some way, any way, to get away from her mother. She now understood why Tarrah and T'eman had disliked Lady Emiane so. Whatever Jian did it was never good enough for her fickle mother. And now, with a child on the way, imagine how she would be disgraced in her mother's eyes...
Jian's tears slowed to a stop and the girl rose from her knees still sobbing slightly and brushed off the skirt of her pretty dress. May that wherry Hruin be caught in Threadfall! Jian thought to herself, clenching her teeth. If she was going to be disgraced in the eyes of her mother, then so be it! Better to tell Emiane now before she found out for herself--which she soon would. No matter how hard Jian tried to hide the fact that she was with child Emiane would notice something sooner or later, such as an enlarging of Jian's usually slim belly. So Jian would get on with the news. She wiped her eyes, then made her way towards her family's quarters....
"Pregnant!? PREGNANT!? AND NOT EVEN MARRIED!?" Lady Emiane screeched so loudly Jian wince, the entirity of Icani Hold was going to end up hearing this if Lady Emiane kept it up! The Lady of the Hold glared at her middle daughter, as did her two other daughters. "And just what do you plan to do with this child once it is born, hm? Keep it?" Lady Emiane hissed. Jian blinked back the tears out of her eyes and took a deep breath. She had already put up with this Hruin, she was not going to take it from her mother as well! "Yes mother, I'm going to keep it. It's my child, and no one will ever take it away from me!" Jian spat. Emiane looked as though she had been slapped. "OUT! OUT! OUT OF THE HOLD! FEND FOR YOURSELF YOU LITTLE WRETCH!" Emiane shrieked, grabbing the poor girl by the back of the neck and dragging her towards the exit of the Hold.
Abruptly Emiane's hand was jerked away from her daughter's neck as the Lord Holder took a firm grip on the woman's wrist with a large, weathered hand and glared. "Once again I am extremely angry with myself for ever marrying a woman like you, Emiane," Lord Aransi whispered ominously. "She is your daughter! Your own child! Your own flesh and blood, and her child is your grandson or granddaughter! And you would send them both out to die!? It is time to right this mistake! From this moment on you are no longer my Lady, Emiane, you and your two remaining daughters, unless they prove themselves to have a soul somewhere in the depths of their being, are no more than drudges!" Emiane fell back, looking incredibly pale. "No...you can't!" Emiane wailed. "You dare question my authority!?" Lord Aransi roared. "Get out of my sight!" Obediently Emiane went, sobbing loudly. Lord Aransi and Jian were left alone.
Jian stared, mouth wide-open, at the Lord Holder. Never before had he gotten so protective over anyone else other than his children! Lord Aransi smiled gently at the gaping girl. "I suppose you're wondering why I acted the way I did? Well, Jian...everyone makes mistakes, and you've proven yourself not to be such a bad person. My blood children are both gone...gone to be dragonriders! And I'm lonely without them, how would you like to be my honorary daughter? I'll see to it you and your child are well taken care of." Jian smiled graciously....the first sincerely gracious smile of her young life. "My eternal thanks, Lord Holder!" "Oh, one more thing..." the Lord Holder began. "Could you come with me, please?"
Lord Aransi led the wondering Jian down the hall to a small room with a lit hearth and a large pot filled with sand over it. "Pick a firelizard egg, if you like. They're quite good with children," Lord Aransi said with a grin. Carefully removed a single egg from the pot. "I'd get that back to your room and into a similar pot over the hearth in there, if I were you," Lord Aransi advised and Jian headed back to her own personal room with a nod.
Nearly thirty-six seven days later a beautiful baby boy was placed in Jian's arms as Benden, the little brown firelizard that had hatched from the egg Lord Aransi had given Jian, hummed merrily on the girl's shoulder. Jian gazed lovingly down at her newborn son and the pain of the child's birth was forgotten. Oh, how happy she was she had refused to give the child to a drudge to care for! "What do you think of Aranmi, Benden? In honor of Lord Aransi, for helping us through?" Jian asked her little brown. Benden chirped happily in agreement, making the once cold girl smile. "Alright, Aranmi it is!" she replied to her brown with a giggle.
A few days later Jian was up and about, helping the other people about the Weyr. She refused to let anyone talk to her about her and Hruin or about how she had had a child when she hadn't been married, but she was always happy to let people comment on her little son. Jian was still bossy, and stubborn, as she had always been. But now the holders knew that she truly had a soul, and they liked her much better. They now knew she could be kind, caring, and gentle. In fact, Jian was shaping up to be a fine young leader for the young women of the Hold. The ordeal with her child and her mother had matured the once snobbish young woman quite a bit.
Jian was outside, setting up the decorations for an upcoming festival when a sky blue dragon spiraled down from the sky to land gracefully on his four feet and folded his leathery wings back along his backridges. Down from the dragon's back climbed a tall, yet rather scrawny, man in flying hides. Lord Aransi went to speak to the rider. Jian leaned against a tree for a few moments, watching the two men talk then saw both look at her at the same time and smile. Then she saw Lord Aransi beckon her over.
Jian moved over towards the Lord Holder and the bluerider, Benden flitting excitedly after her. She hadn't a clue what the bluerider wanted with her, or why her brown flit was so excited. But she was curious as to why and severely wanted to know. "Yes?" Jian asked, once she stood before the Lord Holder and bluerider. Lord Aransi grinned, putting a hand on the bluerider's shoulder, the bluerider grinned. "Jian, this is Searchrider J'keti and Searchdragon Rweneth of Cincanta Weyr they're here on Search..." Lord Aransi said, trailing off. Next J'keti spoke up, still grinning. "Rweneth and I would really like you to come along with us, the new Senior Queen Kiodrath has just clutched...a fine clutch of thirty-one eggs AND two queen eggs! We need candidates, and Rweneth says you'd be great."
Jian went pale. "B-but, I can't leave Aranmi! He's just a baby, only a few days old...I don't want to leave him!" the girl wailed. J'keti shook his head, putting a hand on the girl's arm, his dark eyes dancing. "You don't have to leave him, you can take him with you! We have excellent fostermothers at the Weyr, and you can see him all the time! Just make sure you keep him wrapped up good while we go between...that is, if you're coming," the bluerider said, looking at her quizzically. Blue Rweneth mirrored his rider's reactions. Jian's face faultered, then she bit her lip. To be a dragonrider..she no longer wanted to be at all like her mother, Emiane... To fly! To have a partner for life that would never abandon her! "Yes! I'll go get Aranmi!"
Benden is from Andromeda Weyr.