Subsections:
Cheran was born to a Jaellor, a former Journeyrank Woodcrafter, and Killea, a cotholder's daughter, in a cothold somewhere in between the main hold of South Boll and Hold Gar. He has four siblings- three elder brothers and a sister, Ellia, who lived with thei r parents and their Aunt Rya, who was a widow of many Turns.
Cheran, or 'Ran, as he was dubbed by his sister fairly early on, is a small lad, and always was. He and his sister took after their mother rather than Jaellor, who was a large man, and wh o passes those genes on to his three elder children. Because of this, he and Ell spent a great deal more of their time together, playing and getting into trouble.
The area around their cothold had a small stream, and 'Ran was fond of climbing the t rees there. One day, he was up one of the trees and saw a dragon flying overhead on sweeps. Leaning back from his position to watch, he promptly fell off and into the stream. This distressed his family no end, but it was a sign of his fascination with dragonkind.
Since they were not all that much help around the hold compared to their siblings, it was determined that, should they so choose, both Ell and Ran would be sent off to crafts. Ellia's inclinations became obvious when one of the wanderin g Harpers paused in the cothold for a few days to take shelter from Threadfall, and stayed on to check that the children knew their Songs properly. While Ell does not have a strong voice, it is light and sweet, and the Harper said that when she was old e nough, she ought to make the journey to Fort Hold and apply for Apprenticeship at Harper Hall.
Ran was a different matter. While he took to carving readily, he was determined that he would be a dragonrider, or, failing that, at least live in a Weyr . Jaellor hoped that his son would follow him into the Woodcraft, and Ell insisisted that her brother should go there. However, despite his gift for carving and generally making things with his hands, Ran would not accept this as a course of action.
Ellia travelled to Fort Hold at about the age of fourteen to try for her apprenticeship. While she was waiting to find out, she spent some time in the Weyr, befriending some of the riders and staff there. When she got her notification, one of those f riends, M'kem, rider of brown Tleneth, brought the message to her family. Cheran was awed.
Nearly a Turn after that, Ran appeared at Harper Hall. Without his sister's mitigating influences, he became nearly impossible to deal with at home. After making a royal pest of himself, he travelled up to the Weyr to ask the Weyrwoman there for permission to work for his keep.
In the middle of this conversation, he was Searched right out of the Living Cavern by R'lain and Bronze Thoth of Ista Weyr. Overawed by all this, he came to Ista, and befriended various of the Candidates there. One, a former Woodcrafter, taught 'Ran about wood stains. The other was a Bitran messenger named Aoine, who rapidly became 'Ran's best friend. While at Ista, Ran fin ished a carving of Tleneth and nearly finished one of the Queen whose Clutch he was standing for, Isadith.
Ran and Aoine Stood together on the Sands, holding hands to keep each other calm. Both were left on the Sands. Ran returned to Fort, and Aoi ne to Bitra.
For the next somewhat uneventful Turn, Ran worked for his keep at Fort and accumulated a large family of Firelizards. The first, Aeon, was hatched at Bitra, and reminded him so of his friend that he tried to name her something that sou nded as close to Aoine as possible. Also in this little zoo was a feline named Ghost, who got into at least as much trouble as his owner.
Cheran watched the Senior Queen of Fort be flown by Zyanth, making his rider, F'ren, the Weyrleader. Zyanth h ad been Ellia's first friend among the dragons, and he was happy to give her this news.
F'ren approached Cheran and another resident, Shayna, one day, and asked them if they would Stand. His basic reaction to this was to sit down in shock and say, "Again?" Being Searched once was more than he figured would ever happen, and twice was an impossibility. Yet it had happened.
Cheran lived until the Hatching in a bit of a daze, perpetually hoping that Aoine would be Searched again. It didn't hap pen, but she did appear for the Hatching, and watched from the Galleries as he Stood, this time being a secure and knowledgable presence (which amazed him) for two other Candidates- Rhyana and Kershala.
Rhyana Impressed a brown, Kessith, leaving Ran watching the Sands to see what else might happen. This is what happened:
After surviving an intermittently tumultuous weyrling perios, 'Ran, now
known as Ch'ran, and Shanth were brought into the Dawnguard wing by the
then-wingleader, T'quinn. A few incoherencies of personal life
also ensued,
with the admission (induced by a few dragons) that he was in love with the
Bitran, Aoine. However, this made life incredibly confusing for a while,
and rather intermittently frustrating.
Nothing much happened for a few turns. 'Ran pursued his friendships with
assorted people in the weyr, as well as a few places outside the weyr -
retaining at least passing acquaintance with Aislinn, who Stood with him
at Ista, Kershala, who later Impressed brown at Igen, and striking up a
rather convoluted friendship with Kethran, one of Benden Weyr's Assistant
Stewards.
Another class of weyrlings appeared, and while 'Ran hoped Aoine would be
among them, she was not Searched. He went on with his life, cheerfully,
and proceeded to strike up good friendships with a few of the weyrlings,
particularly Kimber, lifemate to green Kerinth, and Misharn, a fellow
bluerider, to Dasanth.
Mish asked 'Ran to be her mentor as a rider, which startled him immensely,
as he is moderately well known for being frightfully eccentric; his skills
as a rider are not as much interesting conversation as the brown
firelizard on his head.
Shanth won Kerinth's first flight, which also startled 'Ran. After a
rather uneasy time of confusion, he asked her to become his weyrmate, and
they have settled in reasonably comfortably, even through the
chaos lately in Fort, also known as "As the Weyr Turns."
Ch'ran has also changed wings - not by his own volition! Rhyana, in her
utter lunacy, decided to make him Wingsecond of Firefall. This is a job
that he does surprisingly well at, actually, much to his own surprise if
not to hers.
Furthermore, in a long tradition of doing particularly interesting bits of
gibbering, Ch'ran has found a new subject: impending fatherhood. Indeed,
Kimber, his weyrmate, is expecting, and the subject has reduced him to
mildly vaguely utter inanity on more than one amusing occasion.
Ch'ran's description:
You meet the gaze of a young man, whose humor is edged and strengthened by
a firm dose of seriousness. His sandy-red-brown hair is bleached to be a
red-tinged blond by the sun, and is constantly falling into his face,
being not quite long enough to get pulled back into a runnertail. His
bright grey eyes are frequently full of mirth and the joy of life, though
behind them is the edge of something harsher. His enthusiasm is endless,
and constantly spills over into anything he is doing, and his smile is
more likely than not to be a grin.
He is wearing his carefully stiched riding leathers, made of supple
wherhide and lined with fur. He seems a little bit lost in them, and
perhaps a bit uncomfortable with the percieved formality of the leathers.
Set on the shoulder is the neat loop of a wingsecond's knot, in the brown
and black of Fort weyr with a thin line of blue woven through it. This
contains the gleaming red stone particular to Firefall wing.
Seated on Ch'ran's head is a very solemn brown firelizard. (See +detail)
This
does not seem to faze the youth in the slightest, and likely amuses him
immensely, though it is hard to tell what is so funny to those dancing
grey
eyes.
Though he does not even quite reach one and three-quarters meters in
height,
he has lost the edges of boyishness, and seems perhaps an edge shy of
eighteen.
Shanth's
description:
Shanth is a young blue dragon. His body is tightly muscled, in excellent
shape, and slender beneath his grey-toned hide. He is the color of a noon
with
clouds, a blue coated with smoke, with the occasional darker or lighter
tones.
The swirls of grey are contrasted sharply by rippling rings of indigo that
mark his wings, whorls of blue that mark his sails like the ripples of a
pebble thrown into some high mountain lake.
Settled over his neck and shoulders are carefully stiched riding straps
of
grey-dyed leather, that nearly blend into the smoky blue of his hide. Near
his
neckridges, the straps are stiched with black leather in a herringbone
pattern, with the v-shaped designs pointing downwards. In between Shanth's
neckridges, some carefully made straps are attached to the broader bands,
so
set that riders can be held safely to the dragon.
I won't inflict the firelizards or the cat on the
web.
Return
to the games page. 
The
Snowcapped Mountains Egg rocks
back and forth among its surrounding neighbors, making little headway
against the sand ridges that hold it in place. The rocking motions
increase in intensity, until the egg tilts up on one end, then falls back
onto the sands with a crunch that splits the shell into two disjointed
halves, releasing a Smokey-Grey Blue Hatchling onto the
sands.
Cheran's jaw drops. "Faranth," he says more or less to the
blue.
Smokey-Grey Blue Hatchling snorts disgustedly as he lands snout
first in the sand. Sitting up he begins a wiggling shake that begins at
the tip of his snout and works all the way back to his whiping tail.
Shards and sand go
flying in ever direction.
Kershala chuckles to
Cheran. "Not quite," she murmurs. "She was a gold."
F'ren chuckles as
he sees the antics of the blue. "That's going to be one
fiesty dragon."
Kershala grins as shards of shell go flying in all directions. She
ducks a
little to dodge one that whips near her head.
Cheran snaps
out of it with a sort of giggle. "Whr?" He laughs suddenly.
"Right,
Shala...." He watches the hatchling.
Kershala grins and nudges Cheran.
"Keep calm, Ran."
Smokey-Grey Blue Hatchling looks up at the huge
bronze and gold looming above him and lets out a cheerful bugle. Seeing a
clutchmate dart past, he turns to see what could possibly be so
interesting. Oooh. White things. With a bound and a leap with wings
spread, he promptly lands snout first in the sand once again.
Cheran
grins at Kershala. "I'm *plenty* calm," he says a little defensively,
grinning. He watches the eggs and the hatchlings move about, nervously
again, but with his energy returning. "Ooh," he says again.
F'ren
laughs as he watches the new hatchling.
Cheran smiles to the blue.
"Clumsy, you'll be better," he says softly.
Rialeth croons softly to
the clumsy little blue. Her tone is soothing and
encouraging.
Shayna
chuckles as she overhears Cheran, and then quickly returns her
attention
to the smokey blue. She impatiently brushes back a strand of hair that has
escaped her tie and is dangling over one eye.
Kershala grins to
Cheran, but doesn't move her eyes from the blue.
Smokey-Grey Blue
Hatchling picks himself back up, completely undaunted.
Looking out at the
white things, he spies a short one that demands his further investigation.
Awkwardly ambling forward, slightly more cautious, he progresses straight
away across the sands till he stops directly before
Cheran. Whirling eyes
look straight up into bright grey eyes nearly covered by messy
hair.
Kershala gasps and can't help cheering as the blue stops in
front of Cheran.
She claps her hands over her mouth, grinning
broadly.
Cheran's jaw drops again. "Hello...." He says softly, and
then bouces into the
air. "He's SHANTH!" He shouts.
Go to Ch'ran's
player's page.