History

Ai'an, once Aidan, has been around Fort for but a short time. However, in that time he has had a number of exciting adventures. This page will attempt to keep up with all those adventures. Warning…it's been a long road so far…and it's likely to get longer as he continues to remain at Fort!

Backstory:

The son of two BeastCrafters, Aidan was born in Keroon Hold. The oldest of five children, his family never had much. He was never satisfied with his family's small lot, and made his displeasure known early on. Never really getting along with his parents or his siblings, when he turned sixteen, he decided that he'd had enough of his family's inauspicious life and low future goals. So he packed up and went to Fort Weyr.

Why Fort?

Because that's where the dart hit the map when he threw it.

He spent his time at Fort doing odd jobs to get by. He was moderately successful, but he never managed to make more than he needed to survive. When he was eighteen, a cart overturned in Fort's central bowl, trapping a child underneath it. The runner it was attached to was poorly-trained, and a dragon's bugle startled it.

While dragons could not approach, for fearing that it would frighten the runner more, there seemed to be no other way to get the the cart off the child. Aidan actually lifted the cart off of the child while people cleared boxes away so someone could get to the little boy that was trapped underneath. S'dan was actually the one who rescued the child.

Once things had calmed down, one of the guards approached Aidan and asked him to accompany him to the guard station, assuring the young man he was in no trouble. He agreed, and followed, wondering what had happened. Turns out the guards were impressed by his show of strength and wanted to test him out. Much armwrestling and other tests of strength occurred…and before the night was over, Aidan became Fort Weyr's new guard.

Way Down, Back Up:

Aidan did his duty well, and without complaint. It seemed like that was all the footloose former BeastCrafter needed was a way to help out. He was happy as a guard, it seemed; nothing made it past him. He proved that he was not simply the big lunk that his size and manner of speech might have one believe. Aidan was an intelligent young man. And he'd get a chance to prove that.

One day, near the entrance to some tunnels — tunnels that until recently, had been guarded — signs of a struggle were found. Aidan, S'dan (whom he discovered was the weyrmate of Fort's then-Junior Weyrwoman), L'ton, and B'ky went into the tunnels and heard a voice calling for help. Partially due to Aidan's quick thinking and attention to detail, the voice was located. It turned out to be the Weyrwoman Kessa, kidnapped and nearly killed by the leader of the Renegades.

A raid was organized, though Aidan couldn't be there. He was only a trainee, and it was feared that he would be injured if the Renegades were to attack in the tunnels. However, he and a few other guards were assigned to watch the Renegades that were captured, not the least of which was a young man named Tyrnal. Tyrnal had agreed to do recompensation work at Fort, so he was allowed out of his cell during the daytime.

Aidan was about to get another surprise, too. After breaking up an argument over a glass vase, Aidan and Ma'kai (who congratulated him on the handling of the dispute) witnessed Isa and Caluprith making a rather…sudden landing in the central bowl. Caluprith almost immediately locked gazes with Aidan, and it didn't take long before the large blond guard was whisked off to the Candidates' barracks. He'd been chosen to stand for the newest clutch.

Rising Anticipation:

When he got to the barracks, he found that his sometimes-charge, Tyrnal, had also been Searched! This was of course a source of some bad feelings in the candidate barracks. Fortunately, that was the kind of environment in which Aidan could work. He sort of took charge of the barracks in a way; where he had been guarding others from Tyrnal, now he began to guard Tyrnal from others. And from himself. Generally, he kept the atmosphere in the barracks as calm as he could.

Egg-touchings let the candidates get to know the eggs. One of the eggs — one that looked like it was spattered with either red paint or blood — he disliked. And he wasn't the only one. None of the candidates really liked it, to be sure, and Aidan feared what kind of dragon would hatch from that particular egg. With the hatching drawing ever closer, Aidan was anxious for the day to arrive. Even if he didn't Impress, he wanted to watch the dragons hatch.

After a pie-making incident in the kitchen that turned into a pie-THROWING incident, Aidan and Tyrnal spoke in the game room. The conversation turned to the incident with finding Kessa, and Tyrnal unwisely said he thought everyone — Kessa included — should just 'get over it'. Aidan didn't get angry with him, however he was very disappointed with the other candidate, and ended their conversation.

Changes All 'Round:

Apparently Tyrnal told Br'yn, his adopted 'father', about the conversation. Because Br'yn came to the barracks to speak to Aidan about it. Through the conversation, Aidan learned that Tyrnal had not quite meant it as he'd said it. He'd meant that one needed to get past the incident, to move on, because it wasn't good to dwell on one's past. Which was indeed true. Being that Aidan was really Tyrnal's only friend in the barracks, Br'yn was worried about Tyrnal being lonely. Aidan assured Br'yn that he understood, and promised that he would apologize to Tyrnal.

His chance came one evening in the kitchen. Aidan saw something of a crowd assembled, and peeked in to see what was going on. What he found was Sabrina, coloring people's hair. He was talked into getting some coloring done himself, and the upshot of it was that he ended up with red at the tips of his hair. It actually didn't look too bad. He and Sabrina spoke a bit, and he mentioned that he might be requiring her services again, if he got the opportunity to return. He might want to go strawberry blond.

Of course, he made sure nobody heard him admit it.

Survival At Its Finest:

One morning, a couple of days after that, Ma'kai's bronze Garanth woke the candidates with a loud bugle. In short order, they were all instructed to pack one of the bags that Ma'kai had brought, and hustled out into the woods outside Fort for survival training. Aidan was glad that he'd had some knowledge of this kind of thing, and managed to catch fish one night for their dinner.

One night, he brought back to camp a small animal that he'd trapped in a snare he'd made. Its purpose was twofold; feed the group and teach them how to field dress an animal. However, a pack of canines — probably escaped from Fort and the surrounding areas and went wild — picked up the scent of blood and attacked the camp. Aidan took the worst of it, because he was the one with the blood all over him…and because of the crimson coloration of his hair.

Despite the harrowing experience however, everyone made it through all right. Aidan received some nasty gashes on his arms and legs, and some minor paw-scratches on his face, but nothing too serious. A few of the other candidates were also attacked, and a few fell into the holes they'd dug for commodes…but apart from that, no one else was seriously hurt.

Of Dragons and Men:

Aidan recovered, as did the rest of the candidates who were injured in the survival camp. And not long after that, they were to stand for Choth's clutch…the eggs that they had been to touch a couple times. The day of the hatching came, and the candidates were hustled into their robes, since Choth's clutch didn't want to wait for the candidates to arrive to start hatching. Luckily, they were all on time.

The eleven eggs began to move on the sands. The egg with the red, yellow, and green stripes (OOCly known as the Fightin' Fo Ya Rights Egg) was the fifth one to hatch, and a dark bronze seemed to erupt from the shell, bugling triumphantly at being freed from its shell. The bronze helped a couple of his clutchsiblings on their ways; only then did he search for a lifemate.

The chivalrous bronze found Aidan.

For a split instant, the sounds of rushing water, like waves on the ocean, strong and resolute enough to change shorelines over time, entered Aidan's mind. Jaharith, for that was the bronze's name, spoke. Now, Jaharith said, the former guard was his Ai'an. And with that, Ai'an and Jaharith entered weyrlinghood together.