Athan wasn't supposed to have a room to himself. But there hadn't been any Dragon Days since the last hatching, when Leona Impressed. Until now, Naxen seemed to have forgotten him.
Athan had liked Leona, but he also liked alone. He could bring Sannah to visit, as often as she wanted. If they were willing to break the rules a little, she could even spend the night in the spare bunk, like they had for so many turns. The rest of the time, he didn't have to fill the air with words or worrying about breaking some strange rule he'd never known existed. Athan liked the silence. It was familiar and comforting.
And it was nice having somewhere he didn't have to try to be a good candidate. Being a good candidate had a lot of rules, some of which didn't make much sense to him.
But that was all about to change.
Naxen had finally remembered Athan didn't have a roommate and had decided it was time to fix that. She'd told Athan their name, but he didn't remember. The weyr had a lot of names and they tended to blend together in Athan's head.
Athan hadn't had much to prepare, for this new roommates arrival. He didn't have many things and what he did have, he kept safely tucked away in the little trunk besides his bed, the one he'd bought from the pirates that was too thick for the tunnelsnakes to chew through.
He hoped whoever it was was nice.