Darkness enveloped Aden Weyr that night with a disorienting blanket of sea fog. Weyrwoman Bretta rolled over in her spacious bed and felt the empty spot next to her as her lifemate, the Senior Queen, experienced the same sort of discomfort. The gold rose off her couch and paced noisily as Bretta rolled out of bed and threw something decent on. She rounded the corner to discover her queen glowing a brilliant gold and pacing angrily. Rider near, the queen put her foreleg out and the Weyrwoman hopped nimbly onto the glowing back. The dragon ran out to the sunning ledge and let out bugle as she hastily flew down to the herdbeast pens. The Weyrwoman jumped off Anissimoth’s back just as the gold touched the ground and cornered a frightened herdbeast.

Pushing her black hair out of her eyes, Bretta screamed, both mentally and physically, at her queen. “Blood the shardin’ beast! Blood it!” She fought the gold’s strong will and felt herself being drawn to the warm meat of the now bloodless beast. She screamed again and Anissimoth bugled in defiance. “Blood only! Blood only!”

By this time, a small group of six riders had assembled along with four bronze and two brown dragons. They watched as the glowing dragon blooded her third beast and took to the skies. The males had practiced, so each thought they were ready for the queen’s tricks. As this happened, the other female dragons of the Weyr went /Between/ to another place.

Bretta found herself to be the center of the group of males and was drawn into her queen’s flight and fought her way of the circle of male riders around her. They reluctantly let her wander to her place and felt themselves wrapped up in their own lifemate’s emotions.

With a roar, four bronzes and two large browns chased the queen, who was spiraling higher and higher into the fog. She almost disappeared, seen only as a glowing, streaking spot in the sky. The males chased with eager expressions, they too had been waiting for this moment. The queen dipped into plain sight and the males flew on straight over her and realized they weren’t chasing her only after she came up behind a bronze straggler and bugled in his ear before disappearing /Between/ to the bronze’s disappointment. The bronze seemed to lose the grasp of the air under his wings and fell towards the ground as his rider, A’tor, who ran out from the group of males screaming “Brynth!” and headed towards his bronze who bugled and caught himself before he landed, not too gracefully.

Popping back out from /Between/ the queen seemed to smirk and decided to use the night fog to her advantage. The remaining bronzes and browns still after her stopped in mid air and looked for the glowing hide of the queen. They spotted her and turned as a group as she soared up higher once again. A brown that was leading the pack, wisely dropped to the back, as the dipping and soaring began to take effect. The other remaining brown, Lilioth, dropped from the chase without a second thought as his rider, Lo’pez, silently thanked his brown for trying and thought of his love back at home.

The remaining brown and three bronzes flew on steadily, tracing the dipping path the queen laid out for them. The last brown shot ahead of the pack and used his last energy to catch up to the queen. She seemed to merely smile and stepped aside as the brown streak miscalculated and went right past her. He didn’t drop out of the race though, he just turned himself and flew straight back at the queen who had assumed he’d gone home and had continued her now straight flight path. She screamed as the bronzes behind her shot forward and as she saw the brown heading towards her, but kept straight and just as the brown was about to tackle her, she blinked out /Between/ again and the leading bronze smashed into the springing brown and the two clawed at each other in midair before tangling and falling back to the ground, where the two riders, G’ed of brown Lorenth and J’zin of Bronze Notioth yelled out to their falling companions.

Stopping to watch the falling bronze and brown, the queen hovered in midair and the two remaining bronzes both shot forward to claim their prize. The larger one clawed at the other bronze and used his wing tips to smash into the other bronzes wing, throwing the smaller off balance and stopping his flight forward. The larger bronze came up behind the queen and bugled in triumph as he wrapped his wings around the stunned queen. Anissimoth came back to reality and screamed defiance at her bronze captor. She somehow managed to roll onto her belly and spread her wings once again, successfully shaking the bronze off her back. The bronze’s rider, back on Pern, looked at the distant Bretta with longing, and went back to fighting with his bronze.

The smaller bronze watched the gold and bronze pair and made his way into the thick of it. He wrapped his tail around the gold’s and she clawed him off. The larger bronze saw this as an opening and once again latched onto the queen. This time, she did not escape, but struggled with all her might as the larger bronze wrapped his tail around her and held onto her firmly. His rider, I’tak, made his way over to the Weyrwoman and picked her up in his arms. Slowly, as their dragon descended, the pair descended the stairs to her weyr, where the pair would stay together as Weyrwoman and Weyrleader.