"Psssst! Joann!" Diann whispered outside her sister's window.
Joann mumbled in her sleep, turned her head away from the window and promptly fell back to sleep. Her mouth dropped open and she started snoring a bit.
"Oh, great. She'll never hear me now!" Diann exclaimed.
Diann stood for a while and thought. She could try to climb the tree next to the hold and tap the window. But somehow that idea wasn't very appealing when wearing a long red dress. She didn't want to rip it. At last she decided she'd try the old throwing pebbles trick.
TAP!
Nothing...
TICK!
Nothing...
TAP! TICK TICK! TOCK!
Suddenly Joann's head appeared through the window.
"Finally!" Diann exclaimed.
"You got locked out again?" Joann asked, her eyes still half closed from sleeping.
"Yes! Let me in, quick!" Diann called in a hoarse voice.
Joann got up, mumbled some curse words under her breath, put on a coat and went down the stairs, through the kitchen and opened the back door into her family's hold. Outside her sister stood waiting, hardly dressed and blushing from running back home. Joann sometimes envied her. How fun he life would be if she went out every night, but she didn't dare to try it.
"Who was it this time?" she asked Diann.
"Robart." Diann said, staring dreaming in the distance. Robart had been a new face in the crowd. A new adventure for her to discover. Diann thought about the evening and was pleased about how things had gone. Not too fast, but not slow either. And the kiss at the end of their short time together had been some sort of a miracle.
Joann sighed. Boys, did her sister ever think about something else? SOmetimes Joann wondered if she was fully normal. The boys in the hold didn't quite make her quiver. The thought of it alone. Joann felt her face grimace. Diann noticed too.
"You should come next time. There really isn't anything to it."
"No? Who will let us in when I'm not here?" Joann asked.
"We'll get back before curfew, I promise." Diann whispered.
Joann was silent. A sign that she was thinking. A good sign, if she really didn't want to go she would have said no by now. Diann smiled in the dark.
"Ok, but when I say go, we go back. k?"
"Sure." Diann said.
"When?"
"Tomorrow."
With that said both girl left for their own room and went to sleep.

_________________________________________________________________

Joann looked at her sister who was picking out clothes. It always took so long for her to get ready. Joann on the other hand had been ready for half an hour. And she had taken her time! Joann swung her legs and watched her feet dangle. She was sitting on a closet in Diann's room.
"Ready?" Joann finally asked Diann.
"More or less..." Diann answered.
Joann sighed, this could only mean one thing: "What do you need?"
"Your red skirt."
Joann got up from the closet and got the skirt out. Her mother had bought it for her and she only wore it for special occasions. She felt Diann was taking advantage of her and she didn't like it one bit. If her skirt got ripped she'd never speak to her sister again.
"I'm ready!" Dianne said and laughed.
Diann knew she looked perfect. Robart would be dazzled. She could barely contain a girlish giggle when she got up. They had talked about so many things yesterday, she felt like she had known him all her life. And he had immediatly agreed to meating her family. Her sister first, he had said.
"How do we get out?" Joann asked, breaking Diann's stream of thought.
"Not so impatient sis, all in good time!"
"But I want to know your plan. I want to know if it will work."
"Nah, if you hear it, you'll say no and we'll have to come up with another and then we won't get out at all. I won't let you chicken out. Not now, I promised Robart I'd bring you along."
Joann sighed again and wondered if she was doing the right thing.
"Don't be so gloomy. Smile!" Diann shouted and dragged her to the kitchen.
Joann looked in the kitchen and wondered what they were doing here. She watched Diann as the girl made her way to the back door.
"Now we walk out."
"We walk out?" Joann asked baffled, how could this ever work?
"Yes, we walk."
Diann pulled her along, waved at the kitchen drudge and out they were. The soft breeze pushed them toward the bigger hold down the road.
"See, walking's good."
"Where are we going?" Joann wanted to know.
"You never stop, do you? We're going to a tavern, nothing fancy, but the people are ok." Diann answered.
Joann decided to shut up and wait, much to Diann's relief. The two sisters walked in silence until the sun started to set.
"Where is this tavern exactly?" Joann asked.
"It isn't far anymore. Remember the path to the lake? Well someone opened a tavern just in front of the lake."
Joann did remember the path to the lake. They had swam there often when they were children. On sunny summer days all the kids in the hold had been there. She also knew the spot was notorious amongst teens for it's make-out spots. Many a girl had lost her flower there... suddenly Joann wondered if Diann had been taken there. How much she wanted to know that, she didn't dare ask it.
"That place's deserted." Joann said.
"There's no-one there who'd hurt us. Have some faith!"
Diann pulled her sister further down the path and onto the new path that would lead them to the tavern. She'd been there almost every night the past year. What she had said was true. The people there wouldn't hurt them. She hadn't really spoken to them, but none looked violent, most of them only wanted to go walking in the bushes in the moonlight. And besides, they'd have Robart to protect them.
They were silent for a few more minutes and then both girl spotted the lights of the tavern. Soon after they could hear music. Maybe there were some harpers present? The notion of harpers calmed Joann down. They always tried keeping things orderly.
"You didn't tell me there were harpers." she said.
"Well, there weren't before." Diann shrugged.
Closer Joann could see the people playing weren't harpers. Boys and girls younger than them were sitting in a big circle singing some strange songs about mushrooms. Clearly a song they had made themselves. The melody wasn't all that bad, but she could clearly hear the notes they missed.
"Hey Robart!" Diann suddenly shouted.
The game was about to begin. Joann swallowed an imaginary lump down her throat and followed her sister into the firy pits of hell, or at least into the smokey tavern. there was no way out. Joann looked outside and sighed. Carpe noctem.
"I saved us a seat!" Robart yelled to drown out the sound of other people talking and singing.
"See, I told you he was great." Diann said to Joann and followed him to a dark booth in the back of the tavern.
The seats were dirty and Joann nearly got nautious at the smell of too many bodies cramped into one spot. She wasn't right for this. Why hadn't she stayed at home and read a book or something? Well, normally she didn't read books, but everything seemed better than this. On top of all, Robart was only talking to Diann so Joann felt a bit neglected and left out. She had hoped Diann would at least get her into the conversation. Joann drifted off into her thoughts...
"Hey, would you like to go outside?" Robart asked her.
"She's fine." Diann answered.
"No, not really, she's kind of green. Come on." he said and dragged Joann out of the booth.
Outside Joann noticed she really was sick.
"Thanks." she said.
"Everything ok?" Diann asked, a bit worried. Apparently her sister had been really sick. She felt a bit guilty, she should have paid more attention to her. Maybe they should go back before they got into trouble...
Joann nodded and started to go back in.
"I think we've had enough tonight, Robart. We're going back." she said.
"The night is still young." Robart said.
"Yeah, but we have to get in before we are missed. I'll be back tomorrow."
"At least let me walk you two home."
Diann thought for a while and thought a man would be handy when her sister fainted or something. She couldn't possibly carry Joann.
"ok."
Diann grabbed Joann's arm and led her to the path.
"We're going back."
"We are?" Joann asked.
"Yeah, Robart is walking us home."
"Good." Joann said, still careful even if she was sick. But then her head was clearing up fast now that she was out of the drumming.

About halfway down the path to the main road they suddenly heard a cry.
"What was that?" Diann asked.
"An animal probably." Robart answered.
"No, it was a girl!" Joann yelled, afraid again.
The thoughts of the girl went parallel at that moment:
Was it a girl? And if so, Am I next? What if she's just hurt? We've got to help her! You would want help to when you dropped down a gorge. What if she was attacked? What if they were next?
Diann and Joann looked at each other. They had no other choice than to go look. It was the right thing to do.
"Robart, come! We have to check it out." Diann said.
"I'm not going into the forest!" the boy said.
"And let us two fragile girls go by ourselves? What kind of man are you?" Diann scolded.
"A living man." he answered and ran off.
"Tsk." Diann shook her head, "He won't be seeing me anymore."
"What if they come after us?" Joann asked.
"Let's hope whoever screamed is just hurt." Diann said and headed into the dark of the forest.
"Wait for me!" Joann said and ran after her sister, nearly spraining an ankle on one of the roots of the trees.
They passed some rocks and more trees before Joann dared speak again.
"Are we still going the right way?" she asked.
"Shhh, I don't know, but I can't listen when you are talking."
Suddenly they felt something breathing in their necks. Something big and warm... They screamed.
"Phaysath Stop it!" a woman shouted, "I can't hear myself think with your breathing and their screaming."
"Who... who..is there?" Diann asked.
"My name is Blizska and I sprained my ankle."
"I haven't seen you before." Diann said. She knew she knew most people in the hold.
"I'm not from around here, I was looking for candidates for Falas Weyr." Blizska answered.
"You're a dragonrider." Joann said.
"Brilliant deduction sis." Diann laughed.
"Can you girls help me back to Phaysath? I'm not sure I can myself."
Joann carefully went into the direction the voice had come from. Soon she found the woman. Diann was close behind her.
"Why were you looking for candidates here?" Diann suddenly asked.
"Someone told me this is where the youth hangs out."
"Not all the youth, and probably not the youth you'd want on a dragon." Diann admitted.
"And what about you two?"
"I dragged my sister along, she didn't like it."
"Only because I nearly passed out and had no-one to talk to." Joann interrupted.
"Well, I hate to break it to you, but you two aren't hopeless cases yet. Phaysath wants to see how you do at the hatching. So... would you like to come?"
Diann and Joann looked at each other again. This certainly was something they hadn't expected. Their thought zoomed from one to another as they compaired pros and cons.
"We'll do it." Diann said.
"Though i think we'd better warn our parents." Joann added.

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STATS  -  SEARCH  -  JOANN's DRAGON  -  DIANN's DRAGON
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Dolls were made at Josie's Dollz
Joann and Dian are Candidates at Isla Weyr

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