Cheni is within grasp of 17 turns and indeed she loves to grasp at life, shake it in her teeth and spit it out. She is passionate, strong willed, some might say, obstinate, and fiercely loyal to her friends, family and anything else that she deems her own. Cheni is the middle daughter in a family of two older brothers, a younger brother and her baby sister. (All NPC).

Her father and mother worked odd jobs around a thriving minor hold near South Boll. Her mother has spent most of her turns raising her family and fostering children, including a few children from Fort Weyr. When she wasn't busy with the children, she worked in the kitchens and the dining area.

Cheni wandered aimlessly as a young teen from job to job in the Hold, doing each task well but not overly motivated in the domestic chores that seemed to be her lot in life. She would learn ways to do her tasks efficiently and quickly, and she never received a complaint from a supervisor concerning shoddy work. Most noted her definite lack of enthusiasm over the mundane tasks that must be done to keep a Hold running. However, when Cheni was given opportunity to listen in to the management of the Hold, the inner workings of the senior journeyman, herdbeasters, archivists, the head cooks and all the senior craftsman, and she came alive. Her eyes sparkled with intelligence as she listens silently, making note of what is effective and what does not work. She would pay attention to how humour would cajole the stablehands to work more heartedly over their mucking and a stern look could quell the most rebellious tuber peeler. All these things she stored within her.

She began to suggest new ways of doing tasks, different approaches to organizing drudges and workers and most of her suggestions were met with snorts of derision by those over her and whispers from her mother to "remember her place". She began to resent her life and when a certain assistant housekeeper took credit for the successful implementation of a new laundry rotation that she had slaved over for several sevendays, Cheni began to resent her life, restlessness causing her to spend longer hours by herself in her off days. Her mother tsked and grew suspicious that there was a young lad in her daughter's life but Cheni, in actuality, would rather sit on a cliff and stare out to sea than deal with those she felt were beneath her intelligence within the Hold.

Cheni's taste of the outside world began shortly before her seventeenth turn when her older brother, Jearan, made a bargain with her. He would supply her with a mark if she would spend at least two nights a sevenday for a month, to help him sneak out of the Hold and down to the netorious "Lava Lounge". He had found a lady love there and found another love, the ale of the lounge. Cheni was his 'front' and she was supposedly picking night herbs and a multitude of other excuses, all under the watchful eye of her loving and doting older brother. Upon reaching the Gather beach of Southern Boll, Jearan would disappear into the Jungles and Cheni would wait .. and wait some more. As she did this, she began to meet riders from around Pern and began to hunger for something outside of Braddle Hold. She talked her way into being a personal assistant and travel companion for the Lord Holder of Braddle and her adventures began.



One day, as she was waiting on the beach, collecting shells and sorting them for a project for a turnday gift for her mother, Riders from Telgari swooped upon the sand and invited the girl to stand as a Candidate for Gold Mirrath and Bronze Indrath's clutch. She had met many of them a sevenday earlier when they discovered her on the same beach and coaxed her to join them at the lounge. Without too much thought, she agreed to stand, and found herself at Telgar in the late summer, early fall. The Lord Holder of Braddle agreed she could stand only upon her sworn word that she would return upon her failure to impress.

Culture shock would be too mild a term to describe what met this Southern Boll girl as she learned to open her heart and mind to new ideas and to let old prejudices drop. She made friends, Shawnah, Elauren and young Pwert, just to name a few. Cheni relished keeping old enemies at bay, especially Makran, from Bitra, who she considered insolent and sexist. Others remained a puzzle, Ryklin and Bianca, for example. After several months of waiting, chores, more waiting and more chores, she and her fellow candidates were escorted out onto the sands of Telgar. The eggs began to rock, then crack and in a whirlwind of sound and color, Cheni found herself lost in the eyes of her beloved lifemate, Irenyath.

This page is not fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended. The world of Pern is copyrighted to Anne McCaffrey (C)1967. The Dragonriders of Pern is a registered trademark.

This background set is based on original artwork by Copyright © Jonathan Earl Bowser Used with Permission