Silky blond hair falls in cultivated ringlets down to a narrow waist, large emerald eyes peering out beneath curled bangs and delicately arched brows. A small button nose only leads down to thin lips that are oft parted into a wide grin, and on to a rather stubborn chin. Standing only at medium heigth, her lanky form doesn't seem to be altogether organized: elbows and knees seem to take up a lot of space and are constantly being fuddled up with each other. Pale skin isn't exactly stretched over bones, but 'thin' would be the word most would describe her form as. While womanly curves have yet to make themselves known, there's a certain something that screams 'female!' at anyone and everyone.
 

History

Sooner or later, it all begins in a small cothold on the outskirts of Keroon Hold. There resided two married cotholders, Lisame and Esyil, who had four other children of their own. Then, on a very sunny and altogether pleasant day, Esyil gave birth to their fifth and last child, who was promptly dubbed Esme.

Esme's childhood was playful and pleasant, and no one could really find fault with what she did. Yes, she had a slight ego problem, yes, she often cried if she was pushed in the mud, but she wasn't anything like the neighborhood bully. Growing up in the shadow of her older siblings, she was mostly treated as Daddy's Little Girl, the one who never really had to work to get by. Thus, she was overly sheltered from Life in general, and she was quite happy about that.

At the age of nine, some changes were in store. Her two older brothers had gone off on their own by then, and her older sister Yilisa decided that she wanted to follow suit, and promptly joined up with the Healer Hall in the Fort area. Here was Esme's first eye-opening experience; now she was left with only one older sister to do the chores, and so she learned, and loved dearly, to sew. She never went off and joined the Weavers, however, opting instead of stay at home where she was comfortable rather than push off into a new land.

More changes were in store. One evening shortly after Yilisa had left, a messanger arrived to the Hold. He bore the message that her sister had been Searched at Fort Weyr, and would be standing as a Candidate. Esme and her parents were over joyed, but due to an unfortunate sickness, Esme was forced to stay home rather than attend the Hatching, where Yilisa Impressed to green Maeveth.

She remained cheerful, however, and took immense pride in her sister's doings. When she was fifteen (and beginning to eye some of the local 'young men'), her parents pulled her aside for The Talk. Lisame was very firm that she would marry some nice, rich, young man. Esme retorted that she wanted to see a bit of Pern first before she would be tied down. The neogiotations raged on through the night, but her stubbornness finally won. She would be given a Turn or two to see her planet before she would return and marry. Esyil, fearing for her beloved daughter's safety, then sent a discreet word to Yilisa, now Weyrlingmaster of Fort Weyr, that Esme would be staying on with the Weyr for the time being. Thankfully, Yilisa accepted, and soon Esme found herself being carted off to Fort Weyr.

It was certainly an adventure for the young blond; there were so many new people to meet that she was fairly positive that she would remain cheerful for the rest of her life. And then, about three days after her arrival, Senior Weyrwoman Jalis' queen Ceristh took in the air for a Leadership flight. It was Esme's first experience with a proddy dragonrider, and she didn't know what to expect. T'myn's bronze won the day, though, causing M'kal to retire from Weyrleadership and to attempt to nurse his heart-strained Nuadath back to health as Weyrlingmaster. Yilisa, happy to be removed from her position, then found out that she was pregnant by M'kal, and then 'volunteered' to be an assistant Weyrlingmaster.

Search began, and only three days after Ceristh laid her magnificant clutch of 31 eggs, Esme was conversing with some riders, including Yilisa, in the living cavern, when Maeveth demanded to see the girl. Yilisa ended up half dragging Esme out to her green, who in turn took a curious liking to her rider's younger sister. An extremely curious liking, in fact. So curious, it could only mean one thing: Search.

So Esme landed herself up as a Candidate, and well... Things happened.  Nothing really drastic took place (completely unlike the last batch, according to Yilisa), but she gained friends amongst her fellow Candidates. No pranks were pulled, no old aunties were harrassed... For the most part, at least.  And then, the dreaded day finally arrived: The Hatching. She and her fellow Candidates had been nervous for a few days, and finally it was time. With intense curiosity (and nervousness), she watched as two eggs slipt themselves and tiny dragonets found lifemates, and then Forest's Hidden Secrets Egg revealed a very lovely green, Healing Herbs Hatchling. The green did, however, have a plan in mind, and after only a few uncertain minutes, Esme found the words, << Hello, Esme. I am sorry you had to wait for me. I am Sabryth and I won't make you wait again. >>

Weyrlinghood was an exceedingly traumatic experience for Esme. The first few days were a joy - getting to know Sabryth, growing to love her clutchmates, learning to tolerate J'van, the like. And then, the weyrlings had to learned the dread manned flight, a fate that most everyone, including Esme, looked forward to.  Things weren't that pleasant, and the weyrling soon discovered that she had a deep fear of flying. Still, she put on a brave face and struggled through the lesson, but things only got worse. During the betweening lesson, she almost lost everything, although she later admitted that it was kind of fun. On top of it all, M'kal was forced to retire from his position, and Yilisa was booted back into being Weyrlingmaster for Fort.

One fine day, however, S'mon managed to corner her in the living cavern. S'mon himself had just been promoted into the Wingleader of the Seafoam Wing, the newest wing in Fort. Esme was, of course, stunned, never dreaming about the day when she might actually become a full wingrider and not just some insignificant weyrling. She gratefully accepted (under the condition that J'van was most definitely not in that wing), and now carries the title of 'rider' proudly.

Things weren't happy for long. Soon, Sabryth got that glow to her hide that explained to everyone that she, and her rider, were proddy - the first of their clutch to hold that title. Things went downhill after that, as Sabryth delighted in lighting things on fire, and Esme denied that she was acting a bit odd. Then, Esme contracted an illness that left her in enough danger to worry Sabryth out of proddiness, but not for long. Soon, Esme was up and about with minimal effort, and normality picked up again. In a short flight between D'rien's Falnerith, Essjay's Iniath, and a whole bunch of NPC's, Sabryth was finally deflowered by the Monacoan blue.

After a few topsy-turvy Turns in the Seafoam Wing, Esme's worst nightmare came true. J'van's bronze caught Jalis' gold in a Leadership flight, making J'van the new Fort Weyrleader. One of the first orders of business included renaming and re-organizing the outdated wings. Esme soon found herself a member of the new Dawn Wing, amongst friends, but still in a tenative, new environment. Later that Turn, she found herself in a mess when T'ien's blue Feth caught Sabryth. While the two had always been friends, and while Esme couldn't remember all of the details, she quickly learned that she had slept with her long-time buddy, bringing on new waves of hormones, which didn't go away as quickly as Sabryth had predicted. Before she knew it, Esme and T'ien were a "couple" in the broadest sense of the word; they saw each other, they ate dinner together, they watched sunsets, they held hands. It was still enough to spark gossip in the Lower Caverns, especially since T'ien had recently been romantically involved with Yilisa.

Who knows what the future holds...

Name Trivia

The name Esme comes from Terry Pratchett's wonderful Esmerelda "Granny" Weatherwax, a sort-of leader of witches from his popular Discworld novels. When I first logged in, I knew Yilisa from ElseM**, and thus extremely leaned on her shoulder. When comparing descriptions, she noticed how much the two looked alike, and they became sisters, despite weird name differences. It was hard to come up with parental names that fit both characters (I mean, Yilisa and Esme are almost completely different, except for the 's'), but we managed.

Character Trivia

Esme, despite her description, does vaguely resemble Julia Stiles. Honest.

Think that this page needs a lot of work? (I do!) Want to send me a toaster? Send it here !

There is a log! Check out the tale of Esme's Hatching day!
 

 Links!
My Characters
 Fort Weyr's Webpage

*Flight was held off-camera.

Disclaimer: The world of Pern(tm) and the Dragonriders of Pern(r) are both registered copyrights of Anne McCaffery, 1967. Don't mess with it!

A huge thanks goes to B'roughs at DF for puppeting me during the Hatching and then sending me the log!

Due to the horrors of real life, my computer crashed, destryong the log of Sabryth's maiden flight.