The Booths
Scattered around the edge of the Bowl are a number of booths selling things. Most of the booths are in two clusters, one down by the lake and one by the Bowl entrance to the Lower Caverns. Every traditional Craft is represented in these booths, and several of the newer Crafts as well.

The ones down by the lake were less interested in selling craft items than in selling heat and specialty items: especially ice skates. There were a number of trails and patches of ice that had been cleared on the lake and skaters were in abundance. Some of the booths on the shores were enclosed and charged 1t Marks for 10 minutes inside. Others contained hot beverages and hot snacks, roasted nuts, bubbly pies, and so on.

Activities
There are a number of activities going on, despite the frigid winter weather: ice skating (including races) down by the lake; card, board, and dice games; music and dancing. Along the southern edge of the Bowl, dragons were carrying sleds and daredevils up the side of the Bowl and the humans - mostly children and young adults - would toboggan down the steep slope.

Food
All sorts of food could be found around the Bowl and in the Lower Caverns. Fresh fruit and veggies had been brought in from the southern Weyrs and Holds for the occasion. The main Feast was taking place in the Great Hall, which is where the weyrlings are brought to first after settling their dragons.

Once all the Weyrlings are assembled, they will be paraded across the Weyrleaders' dias and officially welcomed to the Weyr: given their new weyrling shoulder knots and, for the boys, asked what they are choosing for their honorary rider names. After the introductions, they are allowed to mingle indoors or out as they choose; they can even go to their barracks to be with their dragons, if they want. For this one night, they are not required to adhere to the curfew that will be enforced for the rest of their weyrlinghood.

Artemis had gotten Jadziath settled shortly after they had finished with everything else. She loved her new bonded, but had a feeling that things were going to be rather interesting later on. After all, she had barely managed to convince the little creature that sleep was more important than viewing the festivities. For some reason, she wanted to see what a gather was, and why her bonded deemed it important. Besides, should she not be there when her rider got her new shoulder knot?

Lucky for the new weyrling, her dragon was too exhausted to actually put up a good argument before she passed out on her little couch and allowed Artemis the chance to go get some more food. Something she was happy to do. Although, she paused with the rest of the weyrlings so that she could obtain her new shoulder knot. Once that was done, she hurried over to get food, feeling rather hungry. Although, that didn't completely stop her from half heartedly seeking out Derrick with her eyes, wishing he had impressed anything but a green. Although, she did wonder if that meant he was bisexual or something... as she already had proof he liked girls.

Kerso
After bathing, Kerso dressed in his finest Gather wear and stepped out...only to step back inside hurriedly. It was too sharding cold out for his Gather clothes. Muttering, he found a heavy coat and pulled it on before heading toward the Great Hall. Of course, once there, it was too hot for the coat, but there was a pile of them near the doors, so he left his there, too.

That was when he realized, for all the dreams he'd had of being a dragonrider, he'd never once thought about whether he'd change his name. It was already short enough that he didn't really need to change it; really, the only way he could shorten it would be K'so. He decided that's what it would be; people could stop calling him "curse" that way, at least.

Even though he and Qancith were the last to get to the barracks, he wasn't the last weyrling to arrive in the Great Hall. This surprised him, all things considered. Once the others arrived, they would be called up to receive their shoulder knots and be recognized as weyrlings. He suddenly wondered if his family was there to watch the Hatching; he'd never considered it...he hoped they weren't, he'd never hear the end of it from his siblings.

Since they were to be called up in order of their Impression, K'so was going to have a long wait, so he got himself a plate of food and carafe of one of the local wines, a fruity blush, what would otherwise be white but for the addition of raspberries while he waited.

Apollo had been debating on how exactly he was going to shorten his name without it sounding absolutely retarded... he was rather unsuccessful in the venture. Lucky for him, he had some time to tuck in his bronze before heading off, with only the little beast's suggestion of A'lo. He had to admit, it was better than A'o or Ap'lo or some other idea. Although, the lad was half tempted to see if he could try going with just using Apollo instead of an honorary... after all, his grandfather had done so! However, that had been met with his bronze asking him why he would not want an honorary if that was something that was meant to be a good thing. And then asking if he was ashamed to have bonded.

Regardless, he headed out to the gather and waited in order, when it was finally his turn to go up, he happily headed up and accepted the new shoulder knot before choosing to go with his dragon's idea. A'lo would be his new name, although he still wasn't certain he liked it.... Hopefully K'so didn't spend too much time teasing him about that, not that he couldn't turn it around and point out that HE was the one with the bronze and K'so was stuck with a 'lowly blue' as his friend once put it.

After a rather extensive argument with Mccoreth about how comfortable the dragon couch in their bunk was, Kat had given in and piled some spare blankets and a couple pillows on for the Brown to arrange as he desired. Deeming it 'suitable enough', he'd shifted a couple pillows, curled up and was asleep within minutes. Yawning herself, Kat made her way to the baths and washed up, feeling far more refreshed though there was a certain drowzy feeling in the back of her mind she guessed was Mccoreth's presence in her head. She wasn't quite sure what she wanted to wear but selected a nice gather dress and scurried off toward the Great Hall as quickly as she could since it was a bit too cold for the dress she'd chosen.

Inside it was far warmer and she was quite happy to scan the room quickly, smiling and waving at her parents when she spied them. Like Kerso, she was a later impression so took a moment to grab a plate of food, nothing too much since she still wasn't feeling 100% but at least she was confident she would keep down whatever she did eat. I'm almost disappointed you didn't impress a Green, you know. A voice spoke up behind her and she turned to see V'tor smirking at her. "Maybe you ought to have impressed the Green. I'm too headstrong for those flighty ninnies." She countered, blushing a bit and shooting a glance at anyone nearby to see if they had seen when V'tor leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

That you are, Kat. But not all Greens are flighty ninnies. You should be nicer to the poor things. He teased, waving as he made his way to sit with some of his fellow dragonriders while the new Weyrlings waited to recieve their shoulder knots. Kat nibbled thoughtfully on her food as she watched the Bluerider and felt a small pang of dismay that Mccoreth was Brown and not Green but pushed it aside. Just because they both had male dragons didn't mean they couldn't have some sort of relationship (something they had talked about but never acted on, though the temptation to do so had been rather strong). But her crush on V'tor would have to wait. She had impressed and Mccoreth was the only male she needed to be worrying about for the next couple turns.

Silvara was sitting near the main doors waiting for A'dam to come inside. She had some of the Headache tea ready and waiting for him since he had to keep his HAD gift open during the hatching. So this was their pattern for almost every hatching they had ever been to. Her own HAD gift was not always active so she was not as useful for ensuring Hatch-ling safety as he was, but she could help him deal with the after effects so he could enjoy the feast afterword’s.

She was excited about how well it had gone as well as fascinated by the fact that one young woman had gotten a brown. She was glad though that the young woman's Hatchling was the right size for his color. Not that she minded Warrel's small size but it would be easier on the other to have her dragon not as unique.

Other thoughts drifted around in her head like the fact that it seemed that all of the Healing Masters as well as the MasterHealer were there and she had a meeting with them at some point this evening had her nervous. There was also Val, who she had seen off and on again since arriving at the Weyr helping with the hatching. Silv had managed not to get too close to her own relief since she was unnerved that her crush on the woman had not slackened as she hoped it would when she was at Aurora. It was a little frustrating to say the least since she knew the other female had left a long line of broken hearted males in her wake all ready. It was clear to Silv that Val was straight. Now if only she could get her hormones and heart to listen.

A'dam was quite glad when he'd spotted Silvara a little after the hatching. He'd had a suspicion she might be there but until he'd seen her he hadn't know for sure. At any rate, he knew she'd have some of her tea meant to relieve headaches ready for him. He really ought to ask her sometime if she'd teach him to brew it himself in all honesty. But then they wouldn't have this little post-hatching ritual of him tracking her down to get his tea. Today though, he was half tempted to ask Dranith to tell Warrelith to have Silvara meet him outside where he could just get the tea and not have to go inside where all the lights and people were. Too much sound too soon meant his headache would get worse before it got better and it was already bad enough he was also tempted to have Warrelith tell Silvara he was sorry but he wasn't feeling up to tea tonight and he just wanted to pass out and not wake up until morning.

But Erin had already found him, Selisa was clinging to him and he really did want to just enjoy the post-hatching gather with his family. So with that decided, he smiled down at Selisa and took her hand in one of his and held the other out to Erin. "Let's go to the Gather shall we? I've got to find a friend first. I need something to get rid of this headache." He explained, knowing Erin would understand since she'd seen him suffer through a headache once...at least until they'd gotten drunk and he'd all but forgotten about the pain in his head. He spotted her only a moment after they entered the hall and he made a motion with the hand that was holding Erin's. "There she is." He told her, guiding them toward Silvara and releasing both girls (Selisa with slightly more difficulty than Erin) to accept the tea from her. "Silvara, I think I love you right now." He told her (knowing full well she would know he didn't mean a word of it) and leaning in to give her a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you." He whispered before indicating the three people with him. "I don't think you've ever met Erin, Greenrider formerly of Fort Weyr; now living at Snowy Hold. This is Saelit and Selisa, orphans from that big fire in Southern." He said, leaving out the fact that Erin was living with him and that the children were theirs by way of adoption. He was sort of waiting to see if Silvara would figure things out on her own, especially considering she had to have seen him holding Erin and Selisa's hands. "Erin, kids, this is Silvara, we've been friends since I impressed Dranith. It's sort of a tradition that she makes me a special tea to deal with headaches after every hatching we're both at." He'd spent almost as much time during his weyrling training pestering Silvara for said tea as he did tending his growing dragon. At least until he'd better learned to shield but still be able to hear Dranith, which had been a problem his first few weeks. If he shilded, he cut Dranith out too and upset the young Blue, if he didn't, he heard too much and ended up in the infirmary. It had also made flights very interesting until they'd worked things out too.

Artemis/A'lo's Family

As anyone would expect, Lord Tethys, his wife and the remainder of their children had shown up at the weyr. They were there to support the twins and the man couldn't feel more proud of them both when they impressed. In fact, he was quite pleased to see that his boy had bonded to a bronze, not that he had had any doubt in his mind on THAT happening. Regardless, the Ruathan lord holder had found a seat with his family, sitting next to his wife and watching for when his children would be able to join them.

Metis had brought his future bride with him to the weyr, knowing she wanted to see a hatching for herself, although he ended up leaving her at the table with his parents while he, Rhea and Jason headed off to get some food. The three siblings were quite eagerly discussing various things... mostly their youngest siblings bonding to dragons and the upcoming wedding that would be taking place for Metis. Naturally, they also discussed the idea of Jason trying to sketch everything they could for Annabeth, seeing as their sister at Southern Boll was pregnant and unable to attend the hatching right then. In fact, the woman had chosen to stay home and rest her tired ankles.

Silvara smiled when she saw A’dam heading her way with Erin and the two little. She had seen him and Erin together while at Snowy and had figured that they were now a pair. With that and how the little’s were acting she assumed that they had formed a family unit. Truthfully she was very happy for him as she saw him as a brother. At his words and kiss she just laughed shaking her head slightly.

“You do realize you say that every time? As well as saying one of these days you will get me to teach you how to make this tea and yet you never actually manage to find your way to the infirmary to get it from me.”

She looked to Erin, Saelit and Selisa as they were introduced and nodded to each. Her thoughts drifting back to when he impressed and all the problems he had, had with his gift. At that time she was only just made a journey-woman healer and still working out how best to teach other’s the skills she had mastered. She was glad though that he had been such a quick study for his and his dragon’s sakes.

“You forgot to mention that I had to dose you with tea most of the time YOU were a Weyrling! Thankfully not to many with the HAD gift pop up or I would be a-feared of running out of tea.”

Erin/Selisa/Saelit

Erin smiled at her mate's greeting to the other woman, knowing that he likely wasn't feeling good after all the commotion that would be going on with the dragons. Course, she also knew that her own dragon was keeping quiet to make things easier for the man. When it was time for them to be introduced, she gave him an odd look as he introduced them as who they were, but didn't mention their relationship to him. However, the woman figured he had a reason behind that and chose to shrug it off. It was a happy occasion and she was not about to start nit picking at something silly like that. Instead she smiled warmly at Silvara, "It's nice to meet you, Silvara," she greeted with ease.

Selisa had been happy to walk around holding A'dam's hand, and when he released her to go greet Silv, the little girl watched. At least until she was introduced, for she didn't really care overall. As far as she was concerned, the new lady was just another friend! So Selisa grinned and moved over to the woman, "Hi Auntie Silvara!" she grinned, deciding quickly what her opinion was.

Saelit, for his part, was not quite as impressed with everything. He had seen the peck on the cheek, heard the words, and noticed that the man didn't introduce them in relation to himself. With all of that in mind, and the fact that he was barely allowing himself to trust either of his adoptive parents, he glowered at A'dam. Of course, he was doing so for Erin's sake, since he had decided to not care if they called him their son or not. Of course, as his sister did her usual greeting, the boy did little more than a grunt at the woman, showing his displeasure over the whole ordeal...

A'dam
At Silvara's words, A'dam merely gave her a smile and a wink. "And I mean it every time too. Not that my manly charm works on you." Here he paused a moment and held up a finger, waggling it at her in a mock scolding gesture. "And don't you even think of trying to use your womanly wiles on Erin. She's spoken for. I won't have you messing around with my family." He teased, though in part because he had noted Saelit's glare at him and remembered a bit late the boy's reaction to hearing the rumor about him and H'lee. Despite the entire thing being false, it had not improved Saelit's opinion of A'dam any and the last thing he needed was for the boy to go getting the wrong idea again. Hence the teasing.

"As for the tea, it would be a shame to ruin our after hatching ritual. Though you do know you could always come visit me and show me that recipe. Why do I always have to come to you?" He questioned, taking a sip of the tea and giving a small sigh at the taste. Not the best tasting stuff around (at least when compared to a bit of wine), he would admit, but it got the job done and right then it was the most welcome taste in the world. He noted the somewhat distant look in the woman's eye and couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking or, at least until she spoke up again and he smiled. It had been his hours spent in the infirmary that had allowed them to form such a close friendship.

"Almost daily if I remember correctly. And you had to have Warrelith help shield me during flights. Those had worried me the most. I'd gotten caught up in flight lust before because I couldn't shield well enough. I had no idea what it might do to Dranith once I impressed." Luckily, nothing bad had happened and, though he had never said it out loud, he knew he owed Silvara a lot. Some day he might even figure out a way to repay her.

The bluerider had to admit he was surprised how quickly Selisa had taken to Silvara. H'lee too now that he thought about it, but decided not to comment, instead smiling as she moved forward to hug the healer. It was Saelit he was more worried about and he gave the boy a frown when his response was just to grunt. "That's not very polite Saelit. You can at least say hello." He scolded, mildly tempted to tell the boy to mind his manners or he could spend the gather in their quarters. But he doubted Erin would approve of the threat and merely left it at that. One of these days he was going to have to sit down and have another talk with Saelit, see if he couldn't break down some of that stubbornness that was keeping him so distant from them and preventing them from feeling like a real family.


K'then
Hatchings were a lot of work but this one seemed to have gone a lot smoother than the rest. There'd only been a couple of injuries and even those were minor compared to some he'd seen in the past. K'then reflected on this as they got the hatchling dragons settled and their riders decided if they were going to attend the gather or not. All of them at least needed to put in an appearance for their families and to receive their shoulder knots, a fact he had to remind one youngster of as the lad complained about wanting to go to sleep.

Once all the weyrlings were set and his job was done for the time being, he headed to his own temporary accommodations to get cleaned up and change out of his healer clothes and into some nicer stuff for the feast. He half considered just heading back to the Academy to help keep an eye on their current batch of weyrlings since he had no one besides people he saw most every day to visit with. At least until he remembered the siblings from Ruatha were on the sands and both had impressed. That meant his Uncle Tehtys and Aunt Pria would be there, likely accompanied by at least one or two of his cousins. If nothing else, it gave them time to catch up.

Without any further hesitations, the bronzeirder headed down to the gather and began searching the crowds for familiar faces. He found three of them over by the food. Since they hadn't spotted him yet, he smirked to himself and crept up to them, sliding in behind Jason and leaning on his cousin even as he flashed a smile at Rhea and Metis. "I wondered if you three would be here. Not causing trouble I hope, Jason? Rhea, you're looking as pretty as ever. And you Metis, I hear there's a wedding coming up I haven't been invited to yet." Of course, he knew full well that it was an open invitation. Anyone that had any desire to go was welcome at the wedding. And he'd planned on showing up regardless. But it was too easy not to tease at least a little bit.

Metis and Rhea both tried their hardest not to say anything until after K'then had spoken. And both of them chuckled as Jason jumped a little, whipping around and looking at his cousin. "Kythen!" Jason greeted his cousin with a grin, "And only as much as is necessary."

Metis and Rhea both chuckled at their brother's words. "It's good to see you, Kythen, and you know full well that you are invited to the wedding. But I'll be sure to remember to get Tracy to make out a personal one just for you," the man teased his cousin with a grin.

Rhea could only grin at he man before walking over and giving him a big hug. "And you clean up rather well yourself, little cousin. How have you been?" she asked, pulling away and stepping back to watch her cousin curiously.

K'then was pleased that they were able to slip into that easy camaraderie that they had shared as youngsters. He'd almost been worried they wouldn't remember him or something of the sort. The last time they'd spoken at any great length had been before he'd impressed. He sent letters to his aunt and uncle over the years but hadn't really found time to visit. And he wasn't sure how much news his father shared on the rare occasions he visited Ruatha. "Well I'm glad to hear one of us has grown up a little bit. And I, of course, mean me." He teased Jason, resisting the urge to stick his tongue out at him and instead turning to the others as they spoke.

"It has been far too long Metis. But you know how life can be. I'm a Master Healer now, though. I don't know if word of that ever reached you guys or not." He replied easily, smiling at the offer of a personal invitation. "It would be an honor to have a personal invitation, cousin. Let's a man know he's wanted." He winked at the Lord Heir and paused when Baroleth interrupted his thoughts. Am I invited too? The big Bronze questioned, amusement clear in his tone. "Better have her make that invitation out to Barolth too. He says he wants to be invited as well." He added, forgetting for a moment that they might not have heard he had impressed, despite the length of time he had been a rider for.

"Busy." Was his response to Rhea's question and he shook his head. "Between taking care of Baroleth, finishing my Healer training and helping train the new Weyrlings up at the Academy I rarely have time to even sit down and think some days." Which wasn't entirely true but he kept himself well occupied with his tasks as both a Master Healer and Assistant Weyrling Master, not to mention spending time with Baroleth and occasionally visiting his father or trips into Benden Weyr.

Jason was rather pleased to see his cousin, having missed him over the turns. In his opinion, life just wasn't the same without the odd visit to Benden Hold in order to see Kythen. What was more, was that it was strange to meet up with him again right after their youngest siblings had impressed. A part of him wondered what their cousin was doing at the hold, although he couldn't stop the grin and chuckle at Ky's teasing. "So long as you haven't forgotten how to cause a decent amount of trouble when necessary," he winked at his cousin, chuckling.

Metis nodded before chuckling lightly. He would certainly have to introduce his bride to the younger man. Of which case, a second later the woman walked over, having noticed her husband-to-be was talking with someone new. She was curious. Of course, she got there just in time to see Metis and his siblings giving the new man a rather curious look. "Baroleth?" Metis asked before feeling her arms wrap around his right arm. He glanced down at her and smiled, "Ky, I'd like you to meet my fiancee Tracy. Tracy, this is our cousin Kythen," he introduced before looking at his cousin expectantly. CLEARLY he wanted an explination about the dragon name.

Rhea chuckled at his response to her question before frowning. "You impressed?" Her mind was stuck at THAT particular detail of things, after all her cousin had clearly neglected to inform them!

Silvara Smiled down at Selisa and the endearment the child had just given her. She shifted her stance to crouch slightly and give the girl a hug. She then looked to the young man Saelit and tilted her head before speaking to both of the young one’s.

“Well considering I think of A’dam as a brother being your aunt would make perfect sense. Also Saelit don’t be so hard on A’dam, He may be the biggest flirt on Pern but he does love Erin deeply. Considering I could feel that through my shields across the room I think it’s a good sign that all will be well in your new family. Although if you need to talk to some one different you can always find me… well maybe… don’t know what the Master Healers have planed for me tonight so I might end up assigned some where strange and remote or worse still some place full of people like the academy.”

She was unaware how true her last words were going to prove to be. She then returned to a more normal standing position though still lightly touching Selisa’s shoulder as she stood there smiling over at Erin. She was glad that some one had finally caught A’dam and tamed him a little. He would always be a flirt but he meant no harm in it. She did laugh at A’dam’s words about her trying to seduce Erin and shook her head.

“A’dam… that is about as likely to happen as me growing wings and a tail and turning into a dragon. You know I never go after those who are already in a relationship. It’s just not proper. That and I still don’t feel ready for having some one that close in my life beyond Warrelith.”