"Hey! Wake up!"

He felt someone nudge him and muttered some rather unkind words into his pillow. Oh... how nice, some drudge had brought him a pillow. They'd never done that before. Then again, he hadn't fallen asleep in the Dining Hall of Avella in a long time. Maybe they were just being nice to him, after that awful bluerider was yelling at him last night.

He felt nudged again and muttered something to the effect that he'd be off their breakfast table in a few minutes, just give him a little bit longer to sleep. The nudging continued and he reached a hand out from under him to slap at them. This, apparently, was the last straw.

When he found himself pushed from the bed to the floor he was made well aware that he wasn't in the Dining Hall of Avella Hold as he'd thought. Instead, he'd been curled up on the end of a short cot. The floor wasn't very comfortable, so he quickly got to his feet.

"What the..."

"Finally," said a woman, crossing her arms in front of her. She was middle-aged, and her graying hair was tied up in a tight bun on top of her head. She had the look of someone who was used to being everywhere all the time... must be the Headwoman. But Avella's Headwoman Koritti didn't look anything like...

The reality dawned on him, and his string of curse words bounced off the walls of his new weyr loud enough to make his head pound. How late had he slept? For all he knew it could've been early morning, late afternoon, or midnight the next night! How late had he and K'swaren stayed up?

"If you're to be a Candidate here, there'll be none of that foul language," the woman said, and he promptly received a slap upside the back of the head. She watched him cringe, then dropped a robe onto the end of the bed. "Now, if you'd been listening you'd know that Celinath's eggs are Hatching! She's not going to wait all day for you, that white has more to do than wait on your slow behind."

Apparently she'd been well informed about Anajou's background. Not only did Avellans not take kindly to dragonriders, the dislike was usually mutual. He ducked his head, still rubbing at the back of it where she'd thwapped him. He grabbed at the white robe, taking off his shirt with the other hand at the same time. "What's so special about a white Hatching?" he asked as he slid the robe over his head. He wasn't about to take his pants off in front of this old bat without something covering him.

"Whites are rare, boy," she said as she scooped his shirt off the floor where he'd dropped it. She idly wondered why she'd agreed to go and get the Avellan kid when there were nine other perfectly wonderful Candidates to choose from. But no, she's insisted that it would've been horror to send any of the poor Aden lower caverns women to go get this young man. Seeing as how an Asura rider had Searched the lad, it was only fitting that the visiting Asura Headwoman go whip him into shape.

"Maybe if you're lucky you'll be honored enough to Impress one of her and Etatoth's little dears. But if you don't hurry up you're not going to Impress anything at all!" and she gave him a good push out the door of the weyr. He hardly even got a chance to look around, but as far as he could tell his weyr wasn't decorated at all. There had been a bed, a dresser, and a table- and that was it. If he had to live there permanently it was going to need some sprucing up!

The old woman had given him a shove and he found himself sprinting across the Bowl along behind about nine other Candidates, all heading towards one place. It caught him off guard to hear a chirping above him. He looked up to see a familiar blue hide.

"Great timing, Oppie," he muttered under his breath, waving the blue flit off. He'd gotten Oppie from a friend who'd bought it off a dragonrider from Dawn Sisters Weyr about a Turn ago. The flit only came around when he was hungry, wanted to play, or wanted to be an annoyance. Jou supposed that's how all pets were.

"Go on, go watch from somewhere else," he said, cooing after the flit. As much of a nuisance as Oppie was, he did care for the flit- cared enough not to let him follow him onto the Sands only to get eaten by a large white dragon who wasn't happy with some annoying blue flit getting near her eggs.

And there they were. As he and the other Candidates entered the Grounds, they came to a stop where they were told to. He received a few curious looks- he had, after all, arrived sometime the night before... or had it been morning by then? Regardless, he was a new face.

And he was out of shape! He felt himself winded, and doubled over to lean on his knees for a moment to catch his breath. This would not do... He immediately straightened back up, taking a deep breath. The heat of this place! Avella seemed like High Reaches in comparison!

He looked out, black eyes wandering over the nine eggs. The white dragon was big for being the runt of all dragonkind. Idly, he wondered how large the queens were. He'd never seen one before, one had never come to Avella Hold during his lifetime. He'd seen the occasional bronze or brown, and quite a few blue or green, however. She must've been angry to let go of her babies... Celinath didn't look very happy, in his opinion.

He hated to admit it, but for one of the rare times of Anajou's life... he was so nervous he was shaking.