Dobby wasn't a candidate and hadn't been one in some time. He had no particular reason to know who the candidates were. But he liked candidates. They were special people. What they did mattered. Someday, some of them would change Pern.
And even the ones who didn't would still help protect it and that was special too.
Dobby waved to a dark-haired girl in Candidate's knots. She was eating breakfast alone and Dobby didn't have anyone to eat with either today. She'd been at the last hatching, where most of the candidates had worn colorful robes. She'd been in white, but that was okay too. Sometimes there was nothing wrong with the classics.
Dobby didn't like wearing white, but other people did and that was okay.
"Hello. May Dobby sit here?" Dobby asked politely and quickly corrected himself, because he didn't want her to think she had to say yes just because he was a rider now, "Candidate can say no. Dobby won't mind."