Therbre and Yoshi
Therbre is Bree's sister, who was picked up from the past on Pern at Eden's Gate to attend Ryslen's hatchings. Her father is R'iel and mother is Reen.
Yoshi is Bree's niece, daughter of the only-there-to-observe Aubree, middle sister of the trio. Her father is L'ren, blue riding navigator for Blackstone.
While Therbre is barely older than Yoshi now, she ought to be nearly 15 or 20 years older according to reason. Yoshi wasn't even born yet, when Therbre was picked up, time travel is rather noodle-baking. But to this pair of young women? They "get it". Easily.
They have also come to be close, as close as sisters, really. Both with a bit of rebel in them, but with a strong love of learning, Yoshi is meant to take over Navigation duties if she can, and at the time Therbre was working in Eden's Gate, she had been a teacher.
The flight of Bree's dragon Usodorith was spectacular to say the least. The two young women were stunned, and wide awake for the whole thing. Who was that other dragon? The brown? And why - Therbre wondered aloud, and was shortly echoed by her pale niece - did Bree mentally shout out when he arrived? There was so much distress coming from their sister/aunt that both girls wanted to go to their den and see about comforting her. However, there was no response at the door when the flight was over. Either Bree and Adlari had gone to sleep, or wanted no company, or just weren't in.
That left the pair to wander about, somewhat aimlessly.
It turned aimed pretty quickly, as the handsome riders of Ryslen began to rouse. They would walk with their strutting gait here and there. Almost as though they too had experienced the flight at dawn, and had been energized by it's glory.
Yoshi nudged her aunt, and indicated with a subtle turn of the head to a brown rider whose gear was hanging nearby. He had strong muscles, and wasn't wearing a shirt.
Therbre gave her niece one of those glances, they shared a bit of empathic power and agreed that if they bonded their dragons would surely want his as a mate... Wouldn't they!
Eventually someone caught up with the pair. "Are you to stand?" He asked, and both nodded in unison. "Good, well, classes are going to start shortly. It's so chaotic this morning. I swear. That flight just knocked everyone for a loop." He drifted down the hall, and indicated that the girls follow him.
"Grew up around dragons," Yoshi said, simply, "do I have to attend?"
"Of course you do," Therbre said, "it's impolite to leave me all alone."
"It's impolite to leave you where you can't see the riders," Yoshi chided, correctly, "But you're right, it's impolite for me to duck out. I can help you cheat."
They linked arms, and walked into the classroom.
***
Because both Therbre and Yoshi were highly telepathic, they could tell something was wrong when they woke in the dead of night - some weeks after Usodorith had flown. She had not yet clutched, but would probably do so in the near future. But it wasn't Uso that was demanding their attention.
It was the other dragon, the brown. Utainth.
You must find him, he is not well right now. Utainth spoke with a bit of pain. It was clear that his wounds had healed in the weeks since the flight, but he bore narrow scars that ran painfully even through his own mind. They could both feel his wing sail, shoulder and neck crest that had been scratched or bitten by Bevometh in their battle for Usodorith.
Why would we want to help you? He's not our friend, Yoshi sent back. The brown's voice carried through the Nexus - they could not identify where or when he was.
Because he wanted to help build something that might fall now, because he has no true heirs. His son will not aid him, and his Zekiran daughters refuse him as well.
We're not going to help either, Therbre said. I don't like him at all. I met him once. Before he bonded to you.
That seemed to make both Yoshi and Utainth a bit shocked. It's true, She continued. He was running around with Shard and them, but he hadn't bonded. And I did not like how he looked at me. I was quite young.
He was not looking at you in 'that way'. He values your ability to speak with me, and your sisters, as you do.
I know that, Therbre replied. But that doesn't make me like him.
Yoshi remained silent, mentally. She was curious, what was it about this E'tan guy that no one liked? She tried to go back to sleep, but in their shared den, Therbre and Yoshi both knew they would never be able to sleep until they got to the bottom of this.
"We can't tell Aunt Bree," Yoshi said, "I mean, she'd freak."
"I hear you," Therbre said. "So," as they pulled on something more than sleep clothes and robes, "we're going to find him. He's here, in Ryslen?"
He is, in the highest crevasse. I have left him there because I cannot come any farther down to the bowl. I will be chased off.
"good," Therbre muttered. She looked at her niece. The gold-haired girl had convinced her to at least head out and see, just in case he was wounded or something. They knew better than to think he'd just up and leave, if they asked him to, though.
Up into the heights of Ryslen's bowl they went. It was a twisty-turny path, and they had to backtrack several times. Finally, before dawn, they located the slender blond man. He was pale, but that was normal for him. He seemed a bit haggard, more so than one might think of a rider.
"Utainth told us you'd be here," Yoshi said, "and here you are. Now, the question is why?" She put her hands on her shapely hips.
"Because I must bring something forward, someone. There will be disaster, otherwise." He breathed with difficulty, and it was then that Therbre noticed he had a faint trickle of blood coming from his shoulder. His clothing had soaked but they were dark, and it was hard to tell.
"I've done enough time travel," Therbre said, "what do you mean bring someone forward? And why should it be our problem if something in the future is amiss?"
"Because it's my fault," he groaned, "I allowed this to happen and I didn't think it would be so hard to convince people to come with me. I need strong telepaths like yourselves. Your sister would be ideal, but she obviously has refused."
The girls stared at him, but finally Therbre reached down and felt his shoulder. It was burning hot.
"We've got to get you to the infirmary," she said.
"I -" E'tan said, but Yoshi had already gotten to his other side and lifted his thin arm over her shoulders.
"It's a long walk. Tell us more," Yoshi suggested.
So he did.
***
E'tan spoke carefully and finally had to revert to telepathic speech. His breathing was too labored, and he'd been losing blood for who knew how long. He'd been shot, apparently, by his son. His wildly insane, older-appearing-than-E'tan, deviant son.
Renaud - Julian - he had many names. E'tan had met several of them on his Nexus journeys. They had somehow gotten ahold of dragons or hydra or something in between, evil things. Dark things. They hated each other - the Julians never seemed to get along with anyone, least of all themselves. That was probably for the best, Yoshi determined. Because if Julian or Renaud or Jon or whatever his name was in this dimension got himself organized they would be able to kill everything in sight without even lifting a finger.
On their way down to the infirmary, Ryslen began to wake. But finally, in the healer's rooms, they knew that they'd done the right thing. Not that they would enjoy going with the man, he gave off a powerful aura of ... something unpleasant. Power? It was a dark power, strong. Desire? Surely. But not a terrible sexual urge, just the way that E'tan appeared to want everything in his reach. He was apparently used to getting what he wished for. And Bree was only one small gap in an otherwise strong wall of connections.
"So now he's got another, waiting at Firestone Weyr. I fear that this one will be the death of us all." E'tan remarked, but Therbre tried to shush him with her grey eyes wide.
"It's all right," Yoshi said, "He's keeping them from listening in. They're not even aware we're here any more," she said of the healer and her two assistants. They went about their business as though this nook of the infirmary with the injured E'tan and his rescuers just didn't exist. They'd patched his wound, which was quite deep, and put him in a kind of soft brace.
"We've got to ..." He started to say, but Yoshi pushed him back down onto the cot.
"We have to bond dragons, E'tan, that comes first. And you have to admit that if we don't have a dragon, we can't help you at all. We'd be just accessories."
Therbre gave a look to E'tan that said she knew her niece was right, and she didn't much like that thought. "We can stay here indefinitely, until our dragons - if we pair up - mature. And only then will we go anywhere."
E'tan nodded, his grey-blue eyes turning away. He was a handsome man, once he was cleaned up from his hassles of late. He'd wanted to bring Usodorith forward in time to have her clutch somewhere he called "his" sands. He didn't describe where they could be, whether they were on the old world Pern, or somewhere among the stars. It seemed almost as though he meant they'd be hatching in the Nexus itself, which was crazy. Things only went through the Nexus. They didn't reside there unless they were dead.
"His one dragon," E'tan said, knowing that their thoughts were dwelling on such things, "hatched normally. But he ran it through time back and forth, so badly - it is merely flesh at his command. He's quite powerful at manipulating it now."
"'It'?" Yoshi said, with a bit of bile in her throat.
"It. The dragon's dead. Its spirit left it decades before I met them. I only knew it'd happened because when we were leaving that ... place," he said with distaste, apparently Julian's one home was not somewhere he wanted to be, "his dragon's spirit confronted us to tell us what had happened. If it wasn't for that one, we'd never know."
"Why don't you get T'shen and them to help?" Yoshi asked.
"Who's T'shen?" Therbre asked quietly and her niece provided an image and idea of the nexus traveler/speaker to the dead that had bonded a fine Dawn Sisters blue.
"You'd left Dawnlight for Eden's Gate by then," Yoshi commented, and turned back to E'tan for his reply.
"Because he claims to be busy with his own research. His father is dead but has communicated with him frequently through the Nexus. It happens." E'tan tried to shrug, and put himself into pain that both girls felt.
"Stop moving," Therbre said. "And take some of this," she handed him a drink that had been mixed up for him. It contained some kind of relaxant, and pain killers galore. He didn't want to touch it.
"We'll ... keep guard," Yoshi said. His worries were strong enough that the girls knew that he didn't want to be found out. He was normally able to walk through a place unseen, sleeping where he would, collecting whatever he wished. But that depended on him being in full capacity, which he certainly wouldn't be under this drug.
"I am placing a lot of trust in you," he pointed out, reaching for the mug with his good arm. "You know that what I've told you is true. If you have doubts, perhaps you should ask Kalkin or Vanya or Istvan about him. They've all encountered different versions of him. But I don't think they knew he had a dragon."
Therbre waited until E'tan had taken the whole drink, and took the mug from his hands. Almost immediately, he relaxed visibly, and the girls became alert. It was hard work, keeping people from seeing them. Normally they only extended their telepathy to each other, family members, or other telepaths. But...
E'tan was well used to just slopping through anyone's brain without consideration. He'd have to be told not to do that, if he wanted to be trusted in general, the girls decided.
***
Yoshi decided that rather than splitting the day, and run distracted through their classes, they could just stay put and learn a bit about their abilities. They made up some excuse about needing the experience in the Infirmary, and had the healer send a note to the fledge instructor about them remaining there that day. She believed it, the healer, so they got to remain in the large clean-smelling rooms near E'tan to watch over him. Fortunately there were no great disasters while he slept, no batches of riders coming in from fighting.
"So I don't have to play in Thread if I don't want to," Therbre commented absently, as she and Yoshi cleaned glass vials. "I mean, we're going to be off with him for a bit, but that's not where my life goes. No way."
"I agree," Yoshi said, "and yes, whatever happened to you that you didn't come with us to Alskyr, I don't know. But I'm glad that you're here now."
They had a warm telepathic moment of bonding, and went back to washing tools. Finally, around early afternoon, E'tan woke feeling a bit better than before. His short blond hair was mussy, and he wanted to preen a bit, but that would be difficult. Yoshi ran her hand through it for him, and appraised him in a rather more mature way than Therbre expected of her.
"You look fine. You could look like a wherry shat you out, and you'd still be able to make people think you look fine, E'tan, what is your problem anyway?"
"I am still just a man," he said with a grin on his narrow lips. Therbre laughed, but they stifled a bit when the others in the infirmary began to turn to look at what was funny.
"Is there somewhere safe you can go, to wait and heal?" Therbre asked.
"The most likely place would have to be the Healing Den, or perhaps I could head back to the Protectorate Isle." He said.
Yoshi got a strange look on her face, "no, you don't want to do that, at least not in the modern times!" She said. "I mean, didn't you hear about the curse?"
E'tan blinked. "Curse."
"Yes," Yoshi said, "Falas was built there after we left for Alskyr, several passes later. And they just left it, dead with a curse. You can't go back there. It's not safe at all."
"Oh. Well." E'tan said, not too pleased with having been one-upped by a girl who knew more about the Protectorate's haunts than he did. But then again, that was why he wanted her to come along...
"Let's head back to the heights, and Utainth should pick you up." Therbre suggested. "You can walk, can't you?"
"Better than I could yesterday, thank you," E'tan said. He was clearly unused to being in someone's debt at all. "I will keep my guard up, and send something if I think there's danger on the way." He sat up, and they helped him begin to walk out of the infirmary.
"How? You can't just be popping in and out like you did at the flight," Yoshi said.
E'tan sent a thought through the Nexus. It took both girls by surprise, that his powerful mind reached out just like that, almost like reaching across a dinner table to get the salt. Then, abruptly, an egg appeared in his hand.
".... How did you do that?" Yoshi asked.
"I've got contacts," E'tan said. Whether he was lying or just trying to impress the girls was not obvious. But what was obvious was that this was a flitter egg, and there was another on the way. When both warm shaking eggs were handed off to the girls, E'tan said, "they will be able to home in on me, I brought them here to you. Like dragons, they're able to move through the Nexus into all kinds of interesting trouble."
"I know - My mother hates the things," Yoshi said, laughing, "But I love them. She says they always get the dragons confused."
"Hardly," E'tan said. "Especially these. They will know. Just think on me, and I'll reach out for them. If you need me. And I will be able to summon them myself, should the need arise."
"Sharing flitters," Therbre said with a shake of her head, as they reached the heights, "what next? People bonding more than one dragon?"
Yoshi remained silent on that one too... After all, she knew Hector and Vayelle and their six dragons were somewhere at Ryslen right now, waiting for a unique flight opportunity...
***
The eggs broke open just when Utainth left with his rider. He was there only long enough for E'tan to reach the dragon's narrow neck, and swing his leg over. Then they simply vanished to the Nexus. The girls had brought some bits of food on their way, knowing that the eggs were about to burst.
First a blue broke his shell, which Yoshi had taken. Then, a green. They chirped and happily ate, but were also rather more observant and patient, calmer than any flitter that either girl had known before.
"I wonder where they came from?" Yoshi asked.
"They are Starburst flitters," Therbre said, "I've seen those before, people with them came through Eden's Gate once or twice."
"Well so you do know something more than I do about the old world after all..."
"Just because I'm not thrown around in space and time, that's why..."
They laughed, and hoped that they did not have to use their little flitters - Nagel the blue, and Rowena the green - any time soon.
