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T'ony didn't go home to the Smithcraft Hall for three years after Impressing. It had taken two of them just to learn to fly, and after that there had been a thousand other things to do. Ista hadn't had a proper forge, so he'd had to make one. After that he'd helped Aeris with repairing the delivery shafts, and then one of the storage caves had flooded and then Coureth had risen and that had been a very powerful distraction all by itself...
There was never a shortage of things to do in the Weyr, and he was needed. That was almost as intoxicating as Impression had been. So when L'eon had mentioned that the Smithcraft Hall was having a gathering for Mastersmith Stark's birthing day, it had taken him a few minutes to understand the hint. A dragonrider for a son was something to be proud of. Everyone else that had family made regular trips to see them.
It had only taken an hour in the gather crowd for T'ony to realize his mistake. People he'd known when he'd been a child smiled politely until they saw who it was. Servants dipped and called him "brown rider" instead of his name. The only one who'd hugged him had been Jarvis, and the headman only had a few moments before he'd been called back to his duties.
His father had only a few words to say to him. "You are a brown rider of Ista, and no longer of this Hall."
When Athony became T'ony, he hadn't really thought of what it meant. There'd been only his dragon's golden-brown hide under his hand and the soft voice in his head promising that he'd never have to be alone ever again. Everything would be okay, now that he had Rinnamoth and Rinnamoth had him. It had been heady. Amazing.
It had been a total lie.