It should come as no surprise that Alabaster's sands are white. Gleaming, shining white. The sands are actually dragged in from the nearby seahold, where the north-west bay is filled with the beautiful white stuff. The Sands are sheltered by a curved overhang, but have a wide crescent-shaped opening along the whole north wall. The heating ducts which warm all the dragon couches along the weyrs below start here: keeping the sands hot at all times, with or without a clutch on them.
The location of the sands is higher than the rest of the weyrs, more of a feature of space concerns than anything else, since the Weyr itself is dug from a pit, instead of a natural feature of the landscape. It is a half-moon shape, and hollowed out nearly spherical inside, with a slight depression for the sand and eggs. Many many layers of stone seating have been carved out, though when seen from certain angles, the interior of the Sands looks perfectly smooth.
The area is lit very brightly by the north facing opening, and accepts lighting such as glow baskets very well in the evening and night hours. The illumination power of glows has been put to use as well as the innovative and careful construction of the upper gallery of the Sands: the ceiling is actually remarkably thin, with a small causeway over it, into which glows may be tossed. There is a space about the size of a man or two, below the actual surface of the ground, with several grated holes so that people don't accidentally walk onto this engineering marvel. When needed, the glows are scattered over the dome of the sands, causing a nearly flawless white glow to permiate the whole Sands. For this reason, many people hope for night-hatchings! If it weren't always so hot in this room, it would be used more often for a romantic rendezvous point.
Gold Diamoth and Brown Lilioth
18 Eggs with at least 1 Gold
SPECIAL RULES APPLY
Read the FLIGHT!
When the clutch is laid, announcements to all Weyrs and Holds will go out, and Search Riders will be sent to every cothold and crafthall, weyr and Hold in the area.
Alabaster has certain rules for standing on their Sands, and upon looking at the nearby ante-room that holds the candidate's white robes and spare sandals for the hot sands, there is also a book labeled "Rules for Candidacy". A second book reads "Current Candidate Listing" while another indicates "Clutch Records".
Pick one up?
For more information, you must join the Kshau Protectorate Cyberpets club in Yahoo Clubs. This clutch closed, the hatching has occurred, and everything is done.
Thanks go out to all the people out there who have made Alabaster's stay on Pern enjoyable.
It's a darn shame that one of them is NOT Anne McCaffrey.
