A gust of wind  swept across the cove, a wind that bore the sense of a coming storm. Tervari took it in subconsciously, looked at the sky and made the calculations in his head for how long they would have until the rain was upon them.
    "Maybe a candlemark." He muttered to himself, throwing the rinds of a fruit into the water. He was out on a fishing boat from Sennet Seahold in the East Rock Territory. Tervari had been born in the Seahold, and loved the water and anything to do with it. His mother often said teasingly that he was amphibious, but then again, she was terrified of water, and Tervari was never sure why she had ended up in a seahold.
    "Bring up the nets!" The captain called, and Teravi helped hall the fishing nets up out of the cove to reveal the day's catch. The nets teamed with silver fish, and the good sized fish would be hauled back to the seahold for food and tithe to the surrounding East Rock Territory.
    As they worked to get the good fish into the buckets and throw the too small ones back overboard, the air seemed to get darker. It wasn't something terribly noticeable at first, but the air gradually grew dark, the sort of dark that it got just before a threadfall. Of coarse, Thread wasn't due for another day!
    Tervari hummed an old ballad as he worked, his salt-water streaked, shoulder length brown hair tied back behind his head. They had to hurry if they were to make it back to land before the storm, but he enjoyed just working and being out among the waves. They were far out into the cove indeed, the shore was just visible.
    Suddenly, there was a chorus of screeching. Teravi's green firelizard Sprisa, along with all of the other firelizards on the fishing boat, took off into the air with loud squawks. They circled the boat and called out urgently.

    Above, one of the wingfigthers had a green firelizard perched on his brown dragon in the Misty Mountains Wing. The firelizard had appeared from between in a fit of hysteria, but had managed to communicate to the other firelizards  and the dragons at Ryslen Weyr that Thread had fallen, and at what coodinates. Now the wings fought thread in the skies above sennet seahold and the nearby cove, so that a vuneriable fishing boat could get off the waters and into the safety of the hold. Now this annoying green flit nattered on again, looking towards the cove below and having the most aweful fit.
    "What is it?" The brownrider asked the flit as his dragon seared a nearby thread. In reply the firelizard winked between, and winked back again, chattering away again.
    She's frightened. His dragon told him. Down in the water, there is someone. A person in the waters of the cove? The brownrider Sy'n looked down for the first time and saw a pinpoint of what could be a person, trying to swim towards land.
    "They wont make it very far." Sy'n muttered as he directed his mount to dive down and rescue the swimmer.

    "Sprisa!" Tervari called out breathlessly as his flit suddenly appeared in the air above him. His legs and arms were numb, and he had swallowed so much saltwater he didn't think he could stay afloat much longer. Each stroke was a painful effort, and he didnt seem to be making much progress, but he had to stay afloat, he had to get to land!
    It was then that he saw the brown dragon come to hover in the air above him, the kindly face of the rider offering a hand to help him. Labouriously Tervari used the last ounces of his strength to work his numb limbs and climb onto the huge dragon's neck behind the rider.
    "Thank you." He croaked, clutching the brown neck as the dragon rose up into the sky.
    "I should get you back to the Weyr!" THe brownrider exclaimed. "You're about to fall off. Shards, how did you get out there in the middle of the cove?"
    "Fell off the boat." Tervari mumbled. "Thread came, and I sent Sprisa for help, and then...the water." Tervari, for once, was sick of water. Right now, he just felt sick.
    "Onaleth and I need to get you back!  Fall's almost over, they can do without one wingfighter."
    "No." Tervari said weakly. "I'm allright, really. I want to see what it's like to fight thread." Even though his limbs were still numb and he was drained of energy, the awe of being on a flaming dragon high in the sky was in Tervari. He had thought water was life, but he had not lived! This was elation! Even his tired body felt the urge to fight Pern's deadly enemy.
    "You'll get your chance soon enough." Sy'n told him. Suddenly there was blackness, utter cold emptiness, and then they were at what must be the Weyr. Lead by Sprisa and Sy'n, he clambered off of the browns neck and into the corridors of the weyr. He was given a warm blanket, and some klah. He still wanted to be out there fighting thread, but perhaps Sy'n was right. Perhaps what he needed was rest. The blanket felt nice. With Sprisa curled up beside him, Tervari fell asleep.

    He woke up to find a crowd of dragonriders around him.
    "Tervari, how are you feeling?" Sy'n asked cheerfully. Tervari stretched and stood.
    "Better." He said. Rest really had been just what he needed. He sneezed. Well, maybe not all of what he needed, but at least he felt normal again. He sneezed again.
    "You did a great thing Tervari. You sent your flit to us to warn us, and because of that we were able to protect your Seahold, and you managed to survive out there in the water for so long." One rider said.
    "Um..thanks." Tervari said, feeling slightly abashed. He needed to get back to the seahold, now that they mentioned it. The only way he could get back easily would be to travel between, which meant he would get to ride dragonback again!
    "So we'd like you to stay here, if you want to. Dragonriders have a place for you here at the weyr."
    Tervari stared. Did he really mean, stay? But the Seahold had been his home. But to become a dragonrider? To actually be bonded with his very own dragon!
    "Yes, we beleive you would make a good rider, whenever the next clutch is laid, we'd like you to stand for it. You don't have to, if you don't want to, but you do need to stay for a little bit to get well anyway." Tervati sneezed again as he nodded. "But you could stand for the clutch, and I truly beleive you will impress, and if not, then you can go back to the Seahold, but I think you will."
    Fishing, swimming, boating, that had been Tervari's life. There was so much he had left undone at the seahold. But recalling that moment of elation, fighting thread on the back of a mighty dragon, Tervari knew his choice. The Seahold could wait.