"T'vari, T'vari!" The voice entered his hearing at almost the same instant that his dragon rumbled in his mind. Thread falls!
    The voice belonged to Saynea, who burst into his weyr to exclaim in a breathless sentence: "Thread is falling over the Weyr, weyrlingmaster says Serianth is grown now and you must fight thread, and I'm going to become a candidate for sure, the Searchriders confirmed it!"
    "That's great Saynea!" T'vari kissed her lightly before hurrying to get his riding gear.
   We will fly thread together today my rider! Serianth exclaimed, full of excitement.
    "That we will, come on!" T'vari climbed onto his Light Blue's neck and took off for the Weyrbowl to get firestone.
    "Wait!" Saynea called, I want to come too!"
    "Safer if you stay here!" T'vari called back. Knowing her, she would want to ride on Serianth with her, to get a feel for what it was like to ride a dragon, but he couldn't let her do that, way too dangerous.
    Dangerous, yet you did that once, if I recall how you came to the weyr correctly.
    "That was different!" T'vari replied. "Saynea is brave, sometimes foolishly so. I hope she makes it as a candidate." The last was to himself, he sometimes worried about that. Now, he had little time for worries, he must be ready to fight thread with his Light Blue Serianth as he had dreamed of for so long!
    S'yn smiled at him and handed him a sack of firestone.
    "I told you we'd by flying thread together!" He laughed. T'vari gave Serianth some firestone to chew, and slung the rest of it over his neck for later.
    Soon, the Wings of Ryslen Weyr rose to fight the deadly thread that fell over the weyr. T'vari was elated. He was used to wonders of riding his own dragon now, but riding Serianth while searing thread was another thing entirely. He was elated. This was life, this was adventure! As the clumps of thread fell, his Light Blue destroyed them, smaller than the browns and bronzes, but much more agile. He felt on top of the world. He was T'vari of Ryslen Weyr, dragonrider of Light Blue Serianth!
    His elation was cut short when he felt a painful burn on his arm as unexpected thread streaked it. Before he could cry out, Serianth had gone between, and the thread froze and fell away in the utter coldness. The pain did not. As Serianth reappeared in the sky again, T'vari grimaced, but continued feeding Serianth the firestone. Maybe he wasn't on top of the world afterall. But he was still caught up in the adrenaline rush, and threadscore or no threadscore, he and Serianth fought on.
    As the fall ended, and the tired wings descended to the Weyrbowl, T'vari felt that something was not right, and it wasn't his throbbing threadscored arm.
    They've found something. Serianth commented, and he sounded worried. Someone. Serianth corrected himself after a time.
    "What is it?" Serianth circled to land in the weyrbowl near a circle of humans and dragons. One of them saw him, and waved him over.
    "T'vari.." The man began, but the rest was lost on T'vari's ears. In the middle of the people, he saw the limp form of Saynea. His Saynea, only she looked different. She had a nasty threadscore down the left side of her body, and she looked pale. She was dead.
    "What happened?" He demanded, unable to take his eyes off of her, yet wanted to look away.
    "She was out in the weyrbowl." Someone said, a woman, one of the weyrfolk. 'We tried to tell her to stay under cover, but she wanted to see the fall, and ignored us. She stood on a ledge, watching you, and didn't see the thread the dragons had miss fall on her, until it was too late! That alone would not have killed her, but it startled her, and in her pain she..fell..from the ledge..." T'vari felt empty inside, staring at her. His lover, his childhood friend from home. Never would she impress or ride a dragon as she so longed to do. He should never have allowed her to stay at the Weyr, he should have sent her back to the Seahold where she would be safe, and still alive.
    She wouldn't have gone if you tried to send her back. It's not your fault. Serianth's "voice" was filled with grief a reflection of T'vari's own. The day that had seemed so wonderful before wasn't so wonderful anymore. The life at the Weyr that had seemed so wonderful before, wasn't so wonderful anymore. He turned away, but he could still see her limp form before him.
    He was T'vari of Ryslen Weyr, dragonrider of Light Blue Serianth, and today, his first time fighting thread, he had a rude awakening to life at the Weyr.