Islands of Pern

Green Rider Alionna

Name: Alionna
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Rank/Craft: Green Rider
Residence: Ithaca Weyr

Description: Alionna is tall and loves her clothes tight and revealing, yet they reveal an acute lack of fashion sense and a scar-covered wiry frame rather than a womanly figure. The greenrider's body is slim and well-trained with nary an extra ounce of fat to it, even though she can beat almost anyone in an eating contest. She is neither cute nor pretty - if she ever was, eight Turns of fighting Thread took care of that. A particularly nasty scar is running over the right side of her scalp from front to back. Alionna keeps her remaining hair cropped to fingernail length, allowing only a few bangs of dirty blonde to fall frivolously over her left eyebrow. She tends to smirk rather than smile, usually accompanied by a spiteful gleam in her steel blue eyes reminiscent of a tunnelsnake ready to strike.

Personality: Those who know Alionna only superficially may think her nerves and heart are forged out of the same steel as her sinewy muscles. 'Romantic' or 'gentle' usually aren't attributes used to describe her; 'tough' and 'intimidating' would be more likely choices. It doesn't happen often that the greenrider shows signs of nervousness or compassion, and her mere presence can have an unsettling and daunting effect - particularly on children, drudges and the riders of males chasing after Mitrellath. Mating flights are but a fun exercise; Alionna isn't keen on acquiring a weyrmate and has long settled into the idea of never bearing children.

Alionna is a Thread warrior through and through, quick to disregard people she labels as 'weak' and always ready to top off someone's failure with a sarcastic barb. She can be as harsh and unforgiving to herself as she is to others. Her foremost goal in life is to flame as much Thread out of Pern's skies as possible, and she does so with a strong sense of duty. She trains hard to keep herself and Mitrellath in top condition, and she has little respect for people who don't work as hard as she does to reach their goals in life - or worse, who haven't even decided yet what they want to do with their lives.

Background: Born in Turn 11 of the Present Pass as the oldest daughter of a journeyman smith at Telgar, Alionna saw little of her father during her first Turns of life. Whenever he took a break from journeying, he was more occupied with her mother, and soon Alionna was older sister to two younger brothers. By the time she was six, her mother spent more time than usual in childbed, having difficulty bearing her fourth child. Both mother and child survived, however it soon became apparent that the little girl had suffered during the long labor and would always lack behind other kids her age. It took all of her mother's attention to bring the simpleminded child through her first Turns of life, leaving a frustrated Alionna in want of her mother's loving care while babysitting her younger brothers. By the time her father stopped journeying and settled down with the family, the meanwhile 11-Turn-old girl had developed a vicious hatred towards her younger sister and had gotten into more mischief, dares and fistfights than many of the boys at the Hall taken together.

When Alionna was 12, her father took a position at Crom and moved the whole family. Alionna was fascinated by the weaponry aspect of her father's smithcraft as well as Crom's mines and the fact that some of Pern's criminals were held captive inside. Often, she would 'borrow' a dagger or short sword from the workshop and sneak away from home for a peek at the guardsmen practicing fighting techniques or even the rare glimpse of a prisoner being brought in. As the Turns went on, she became more daring, openly hanging out around the guards' barracks and declaring that she could handle a sword just as well as they could and one day she would become Pern's most fearsome bounty hunter. Amused as they were about a teen girl trying to intimidate them, some of the guards saw the potential in her aggressive stance and started teaching her in their spare time. Alionna learned well and quickly. While her parents weren't too happy with the rebellious teenager, they were relieved to find that professional fight training with the guards seemed to channel some of Alionna's aggressiveness away from bullying her simpleminded sister.

Shortly after Alionna turned 16, a dragonman on Search picked her out to stand on the Sands of High Reaches Weyr. It only took a moment of thought for the young woman to switch her mind from 'born to be bounty hunter' to 'born to be Threadfighter'. Under the eyes of her apprehensive parents and eight envious siblings and foster-siblings, a confident Alionna Impressed green Mitrellath in Turn 27 of the Present Pass. Relieved to be able to leave family life behind for good, she threw herself into weyrling training with fierce determination. Alionna soon developed a reputation among her peers for being just as vicious to those unlucky ones prone to slow down the group exercises as the Crom mines' old watch-whers were to prisoners trying to steal away.

From the moment they were allowed to fly with the fighting Wings, Alionna and Mitrellath proved to be fearless and skilled Thread warriors, adept at escaping major scorings and near death during Threadfall, but quickly accumulating a number of battle scars bearing testament to their daring maneuvers. Still attached to the idea of being a bounty hunter as well, the greenrider also often volunteered to transport exiled criminals to remote places, such as the Western Continent and Eastern Ring Islands. When new settlements on the moderate western half of the Western Continent were established, Alionna was among one of the first from High Reaches to volunteer to protect them, fully expecting that those new Holds and Halls would require protection from more than just Thread.

Dragon's Name: Mitrellath ('Mitri')
Color: Green
Age: 9
Age of Rider at Impression: 16

Description: From the first ungainly days of her life, Mitrellath has grown into being so perfectly proportioned and average-sized for a green that she is often called upon when a measure for exactly one dragonlength is needed. Her hide is a lush moss-green in color - with lighter patches and scratches indicating the accumulated scars of eight Turns of battling Thread. It typically gradually changes to a bright grass-green about a sevenday before her mating flights, giving observant males a fair warning ahead of time.

Personality: Much to her rider's apparent annoyance, Mitrellath is a very compassionate dragon with a high affinity for children and pets. She loves to play nanny and often relaxes in a spot where the Weyr's youngsters can crawl all over her. Whenever her rider's actions or comments hurt someone, Mitrellath is fast to pick up on it and acts as her rider's conscience, often stopping Alionna from doing or saying things she might later regret. The green even managed to talk her rider into a truce with her spurned sister, much to the family's surprise and delight.

Last Updated: 9/17/2004