Deep-set blue-grey eyes regard you with bursting curiosity from this girl's gaunt face. Auburn hair is finely spun and kissed with gold, and the locks fall in tight ringlets down to her hip. While her face could never be deemed beautiful, it certainly can be called cute, what with her thinly arched brows, a discreet nose, and thin lips that can part into a dazzling, if crooked, smile. Energy seems to be bursting out of her slight and wiry 4'11'' frame, complete with the ever present freckles on her pale skin. Slender hands are constantly at work, her long and supple fingers often tapping out a beat to a song. The way that she carries herself is easily put under the 'awkward grace' category, her limbs being made up of elbows and knees that are most definitely /not/ under her control. While the curves of a woman are hard to notice about her person, there's something about her that absolutely screams 'female!' at anyone and everyone.

Many Turns ago...

In Benden Hold, which is far, far away...

Wait! Could that be right? The details concerning Rhia's birth are rather scrambled; her mother claims that she was hatched out of an egg under a rock, her father insists that she was found on the side of the road, and her cousin K'more claims that she's really his blood-cousin. Who is correct?

Actually, K'more is the closest that they came. Journeymen Winemakers Ian and Rhakal had been married for several Turns, with about thirteen other children of their own by the time Rhia came along. Neither one of the parents wanted another child, but because human nature is so fickle, they decided not to send her out for fosterage and just hope that she wouldn't be a little menace to the community. Unfortunately, their hopes were ill-based. A cheerful and curious child, Rhia caused havoc to no end ("But mummy, I didn't /mean/ to set Kalan's hair on fire! It just sort of happened!"), and by the time she was five, both parents had decided not to get too involved with their youngest daughter.

Rhakal's nephew Kalmore, however, had other ideas. He saw a fellow chaos-causer in his new cousin, and promptly began corrupting her mind the minute his own family sent him for fosterage at his aunt's cothold. The two were almost inseperatable for Turns, getting themselves involved into adventures, trouble, pranks, and tuber peelings. It was thanks to Kalmore that she posseses what little knowledge she has today, and he helped encourage her dreams of leaving Benden in pursuit of becoming a Harper. When Rhia was about nine (making Kalmore about thirteen), a local girl joined their game. Lithlyne promptly stole Kalmore's heart and became one of his cousin's best friends, causing more havoc than had ever been possible before.

This happy time soon came to an end, though. Two Turns later, while the three were out on an adventure near Benden Weyr, a blue dragon swooped down upon them, his rider in tow. The news: one of Benden's junior queens had laid a clutch of 25 eggs upon the Sands there. In short, he was on Search. While he was explaining this to the girls, his dragon became rather fond of Kalmore. A little too fond, in fact. So fond, he wouldn't let Kalmore go. Rhia's cousin was officially Searched, leaving Lithlyne to nurse a broken heart and Rhia to retire meekly back to the cothold.

For three sevendays she didn't pine, but she did miss her cousin's presense around the cothold. The pranks kept up in a steady flow, but Lithlyne was a bit more subdued than she had been before. At last, the big day finally arrived. Hurriedly, Rhia and Lithlyne scurried to Benden Weyr, right as the eggs were beginning to rock'n'roll. The fifteenth egg to hatch would reveal a stocky brown, who rushed over to Kalmore. K'more fell to the Sands, saying that he was one with brown Heveth forever.

Another two Turns later (as well as K'more's graduation into being a full wingrider), a Benden queen was back on the Sands again. This time, Lithlyne got herself snagged by K'more himself, forcing Rhia to re-consider her future options. Before the hatching, and with her parent's blessing, she took the road to Fort Hold, intent on making her cousin proud of her. Word came some time later that Lithlyne Impressed to green Ridalyth, becoming L'yne, although the messanger went astray and Rhia never got the word. Rumor has it now that the two are quite happily weyrmated, and expecting their first child sometime soon.

Fort Hold was only a pitstop for Rhia's adventures, however. After one miserable Turn of being a Hold Resident, she met Cartha, a girl who had dreams of being a Harper. Cartha was almost everyone Rhia had left behind at Benden -- she was adventurous, she was fun-loving, and she was friendly. She soon became a Harper Apprentice, and then Rhia decided to break her bonds. She ditched Fort Hold in favor of Harper Hall, and wormed her way in by writing a story about her 'famous' cousin.

Sadly, Cartha was called back to her home shortly after Rhia's acceptance into the craft, and hasn't been heard of since. Life continued, however, and soon the girl was again back to causing more havoc than a lot of people could deal with. In some fluke accident, she was placed in almost every single on of Master Thendar's boring classes, except for Master Kritick's Intro to Brass. Most people actually found it quite humours that she was constantly on tuber duty for numerous pranks, although she quickly gained good friends in Mariah, Coriana, and Raikan.

All things must come to an end, sadly, as did Rhia's career as a Harper. One exceedingly wet day, brown Ruulth of Ista Weyr swooped down into the Harper Courtyard, and snuffled out Rhia for Tajiath's upcoming clutch. Jeretta, Ruulth's rider, was actually able to get the Harper to go along, mostly because she thought that it was going to be a new adventure. Thus another chapter of her life ended.

Candidacy was a bit more than fun, one would find her admitting later. The Candidates were:

Once again, Rhia was up to her old pranks, heavily involved in crime with Sofina, and occasionally with Mara and Phredrik. The sevendays flashed by quickly, with one egg-touching after another, seminars galore, and of course, more tuber duty. Then, the dragons began to rumble loudly one day. All the Candidates were ushered into the Barracks, and told that This Was It. Well, they were actually told to get into 'costume', but it's basically the same thing.

The eggs were all hatching, her friends were all Impressing, and still Rhia was left alone. All alone. Until there was only one egg left: Cirque Du Soleil Egg, her favorite. After putting on a wild display for the rest of the evening, the egg finally cracked open, revealing Egotistical Ringmaster Turtle-Green Hatchling, who immediately found her way over to Rhia. And then, she heard the words that would change her life: >>AHHHHZRAELTH. I AM AHZRAELTH, AND TOGETHER WE CAN RULE THE WORLD!<<

Others to Impress that day were:

Weyrlinghood went rather well for the pair, except for when Ahzraelth kept on insisting to be a show-off. Finally, after a Turn and seven months, the word finally went out: the weyrling class was to graduate. A stunning airshow followed with perfection, and soon the leathers and brand new knots were handed out. Along with Fiora, S'fina, M'ydd, and N'ikos, she was handed the stunning leathers of a Griffon wingrider, wheras poor Kr'lin was alone in the Phoenix crowd.

It was only a few months later that disaster struck. Ahzraelth did exactly the wrong thing: she didn't glow, but the light that was illuminated from her hide was the opposite of light. Darkness is not that. Darkness is only the absense of light. The opposite of light, however, glows by itself: the light fantastic. She was proddy. Rhia felt the affects and took it rather poorly; the drudges were soon covering their ears when she burst into the 'cavern singing 'The Renegade's Staff Has A Knob On The End'. Only days later, her clutchmate Paniliath rose yet again, and after a great kissing fest (Bali, M'ydd, and B'roughs involved), Ahzraelth took to the skies. Chasing her were M'ydd's Seienth (who had won Paniliath), Jeretta's Ruulth, N'ikos' Camenath, and various NPCs. It was Ruulth who she finally claimed as her own in the end.

It was a nice, long while before terrible things happened again. Isabeth's clutch had just hatched, spilling out several dragons who found lifemates in Rhia's friends. One day, while Ahzraelth was busy telling Ph'red's brown Keshith to get a life and get with the program, he said a few very Notnice(tm) things to the large green. In return, the Ultumate Death of the Universe proddied herself, proceeded to rip several things to shreds, and mated with Inigoth just to claim that she had his coconuts.

Uneventful Turns passed, an at the age of twenty-one, Rhia still no purpose or direction to her life. And so, one day, she handed in a notice to B'roughs, explaining that she was going to take a small vacation up to Benden. That vacation dragged for two long Turns as the girl attempted to make sense of Life, the Universe, and Everything, while Ahzraelth debated schemes of taking over Pern. At the age of twenty-three, Rhia returned to Ista, a good deal more sombre. When pressed for questions, she simply said that there had been an accident in Benden that involved a rather pregnant L'yne. For once, she refused to talk about the details, but news through the grapevine came through that L'yne had died in childbirth, K'more was heartbroken, and Rhia had had her first up-close-and-personal experience with death.

It was shortly thereafter that a certain O'ril and brown Bloomth were transferred out of Igen Weyr and put under the Griffon Wing at Ista. For some odd reason, she was given the mission of "tour guide", showing the handsome rider the ropes of the loonie bin. Girlish infatuations had always been lost upon Rhia up until that point in time, and she found herself strangely attracted to O'ril (who was rumored to be a male chaser). Those who knew Rhia the best claimed that it was strictly a rebound thing - or at least, rebound from losing a close family member. As it stood, Rhia seemed to be slightly more animated in his company - especially since the two were able to get off onto their own daredevil adventures. No one was surprised when O'ril and Bloomth moved into the Circus of Horrors with Rhia, and even Ahzraelth had no objections to her space being shared.

What will happen now? Only time will tell...

* Flight was done off camera.

These pages were last updated 12/27/01. If anything is way out of date or you'd like more
information on either myself or my character, please don't hesitate to email me!

Note: The World of Pern (c) and the Dragonriders of Pern (tm) are both registered copyrights
of Anne McCaffery. 1967. Don't mess with 'em!

Due credit extends to Cailia Starr and www.kendercyclopedia.com for the wonderful artwork
and the picture that I dubbed Rhia. Likewise, kudos to all of the Orlando Bloom websites for the wonderful pics of Orlando Bloom (swoon!), the enchantingly dashing O'ril. (Please see O'ril's page for credits; if I left off your name, email me!)