[Search] [Stats] [hatchling] [weyrling] [adult] [Firestone Weyr]

    A wind rose across the landscape of Pern. It fluttered across the landscape around the mighty Firestone Weyr, brushing over ramparts and rippling the surface of the weyr lake. It rushed across the weyrbowl and hatching sands, now vacant of eggs, and rose upward to tickle a you girl's cheek.
    Arahmaria laughed happily from her place on the high wall of the Weyr, arms outstretched for balance. Jalani would be furious if she was seen, but Arah didn't care. To be up there, high and important, was wonderful. She could see all of the weyr. It was early yet, the sun's first rays spanning over the horizon, and few were about. The wind blew again,  causing her to totter unsteadily. It was a high and narrow wall she walked on. Jalani, and her weyrling  Blue Nantahalth would be furious. That dragon mirrored his rider perfectly in some things.
    Arah struggled to regain her balance, but her foot slipped and her flailing arms couldn't catch her. With a shriek, she fell.


    "Arah! Arah, you shouldn't be out running around!" Jalani's voice floated into Arah's hearing. Honestly, her half sister was too protective. She was full thirteen turns, and could well look after herself even if she was injured.
    Which she was, whether she liked it or not. Many turns ago, only a while after Jalani had first impressed, she had fallen from one of the high walls. Since then she had lived the life of a cripple, her dreams of becoming a candidate and impressing a dragon just like Jalani, gone. She was constantly looked after, never allowed to do anything! But she could walk, she could run, if slower than most, she could do anything everyone else could do if they just let her try!
    Jalani's slim figure came into Arah's view, her red hair now grown out to her shoulders. Nantahalth would be nearby too, looking out for her. With a clatter of beaded braids, Arah hurried from her hiding place and went deeper into the weyr. She could not hide her limp as she ran, but she tried.
    "Come on Jerad, stay close to the wagons, we have business to take care of." A man's voice  entered  her hearing.
    "But father, I want to see the dragons! They seem nice. They are greeting me!"
    "Jerad, stop making up nonsense, and please don't cause trouble!"
    "But they are, I'm not making it up!"
    Arah crept down the hallway where the sound was coming from. She heard the creaks and rattles of what must be wagon wheels as father scolded son. A wagon train! She had never seen one of those before, not up close!
    The hallway opened into a large corridor leading from an entrance gate. There was indeed a train of runner-drawn wagons and people. The boy, Jerad, walked alongside his father in the front wagon. He had dark skin, hair and eyes, and looked to be about Arah's age. He was looking around at the weyr with the same wonder in which Arah looked upon the wagons.
    "Welcome, welcome." Arah recognized the voice of a the weyrleader, who greeted the father. "You're Galad, here to shelter from the coming threadfall, I presume. Come, follow me with your wagons, we can find a place to house them safely until the Fall is over." He began to walk as he spoke, calling out orders to some passing dragonriders as he headed towards the Weyrbowl.
    A sudden burst of cold was the only warning Arah had. With a flash of green, her firelizard Daisen perched happily on her shoulder.
    "Hello beautiful one." Arah whispered, stroking the flit gently. She was a sweat tempered creature, unlike some firelizards that could be playful and annoying, but she did come and go as she pleased.
    The boy, Jerad, had seen this creature appear out of nowhere, and was now openly staring at Arah. She laughed at his expression, and waved for him to come. He looked up at his father, then back at her.
    "I'm going into the wagon." He told him, and climbed in through the front. Soon, he jumped out of the back and ran to her.
    "Hello." Arah said. The boy looked suddenly shy, though he had been eager to leave the wagon train. "I heard your father call you Jerad, I'm Arah." Arah went on, used to this.
    "Hi." He said weakly, still staring at Daisen. "What..is..that? Did it just, appear?"
    Arah laughed. "It's a firelizard, a sort of, mini-dragon. Her name's Daisen."
    "Can I touch her?"
    "If you want." Timidly the boy reached out to touch the green flit. He patted her head, and she allowed him. More confident, the boy stroked down her back. Daisen squawked and fluttered her wings, but held her place. Jerad drew his hand back sharply.
    "It's okay." Arah told him. "She won't hurt you, she's just fussy sometimes."
    "She doesn't talk like the dragons do."
    "Well, no, she's a firelizard. Some people say that dragons were engineered from firelizards."
     "Those great creatures, engineered from those little things?"
    "Yeah, I don't believe it either." Arah laughed. "Will your father miss you?" Jerad looked back at the wagon train.
    "I doubt it, not for a while. He'll be mad, I can just imagine; 'Jerad's run off again! When I find him there's gonna be trouble!'"
    Arah laughed. "Sounds like Jalani! 'Arah, Arah where are you? You shouldn't be running around!'"
    Jerad laughed. "Is Jalani a dragonrider?"
    "Yeah. She rides a blue, pretty good for a girl, but he's just as protective as she is."
    "Blue Nantahalth?"
    "Yeah, how did you know?"
    "He was asking about you."
    "Asking?" Arah stopped, recalling what she had overheard Jerad say earlier, about the dragons greeting him. She gasped.
    "What?"
    "You're Hear Any Dragon!" She exclaimed. "You can hear all the dragons!"
    "Yeah...I guess." Jerad looked shy again.
    "Wow, that's really rare you know. Don't let the dragonriders know, they'll pluck you out of your wagon train and throw you on the sands whether you like it or not."
    "You mean, I could impress?"
    "If they find out you can talk to dragons, they won't let you not!"
    "Wow." Jerad said. "Do you ride a dragon?"
    "Not yet. I'll probably become a candidate some time soon though. The searchriders said I'd make a good candidate a long time ago." That wasn't exaclty true, since she couldn't become a candidate, but no point telling him that. "Hey, you didn't tell Nantahalth where I was did you?"
    "Um..well he asked..and.."
    "It's okay, but they'll be coming, so we have to hurry! Follow me, I can take you to see the sands. There's a white dragon's clutch there now, that's a really rare color."
    "The sands?" Jerad asked, but he ran after her. "Are we supposed to go there?"
    "Hmm. Not technically." She shouted back, a light flashing in her strangely boyish brown eyes. "But Dessy won't care, she's usually asleep!"
    "Dessy?" Jerad muttered to himself, hoping she didn't mean the Destoneth that his mind found who was anything but asleep. It was fine adventure though, something he had always loved, so he followed this strange girl.
    They ducked through hallways and corridors, turning so many times that Jerad began to marvel at the girls ability to find her way. He was used to wide open spaces, all these corridors looked the same to him.
    As he thought this, he nearly plowed into Arah, who had stopped in front of him. She was leaning against a wall and clutching her leg.
    "What's wrong?" He asked.
    "Nothing." The girl replied quickly. "Nothing at all. Come on, we're almost there!" And she resumed her breathless pace again, with a slight limp. They turned a few more corridors before he tumbled out into the sunlight behind Arah. She was staring upward, and Jerad slowly followed her eyes upward, to stare right into the face of a white dragon.
    Compared to other dragons, she was small, as all whites were, but compared to two children, she was big enough.
    "Hmm, guess she's not asleep." Arah muttered.
    Stay away from my eggs, human child! Destoneth exclaimed in his mind. Dragons were normally friendly towards humans, and wouldn't knowingly harm one, but this was a very broody mother dragon, and Arah had lead them on a route that brought them very close to her eggs. He could see them,  little mottled ones, not ten feet away.
  Wait Destoneth, stop! We didn't mean to come so close! See, we're going away now. He said back shakily. "Come on, Arah!" He grabbed at the sleeve of her yellow dress, but she wouldn't be moved.
    "Easy Dessy." She said. "You remember me, I'm a candidate! I just want to see..."
  No candidate is worthy of my babies! "Dessy" said angrily.
    "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the nest this morning." Arah muttered. She slid around the snakelike head and crept closer, towards the eggs.
    "One of these will hatch my dragon!" She said excitedly. Destoneth turned her head towards the girl and glared. She was a beautiful creature, but right now Jerad feared her. "Arah!" He exclaimed. "Let's go!"
    Suddenly Destoneth raised her head towards the sky and bulged. Thread! She cried. He could hear many other dragons crying the same thing.
Thread falls!
We fly!
Thread falls over the weyr!
The wings rise!
    Worn out by all these cries in his mind, Jerad tottered and fell. Destoneth ignored them and began moving her eggs. Arah jumped out of the way and ran to Jerad.
    'You okay?" She asked.
    "Yeah." He replied, standing up. "My father, I must get to him or he'll be worried about me. You can come with me. You've shown me the sands, I bet you've never seen the inside of a wagon."
    "That I haven't. Come on!" They squeezed back into the corridor, and Arah showed them the way to where the wagons would be staying, safe from threadfall.
    "There's my father Galad." Jerad pointed out the man Arah had seen earlier.
    "Who's he talking too?" Arah asked, scrutinizing the hunched over, hooded man he was conversing with. "He looks spooky."
    "That's Embleg. Strange looking, isn't he. He joined up with the train only a few sevendays ago, acts really suspicious. Keeps to himself mostly. Father, father, I'm here!" He waved to catch Galad's attention, and Jerad and Arah approached.
    "Hi son, glad you decided to show up again. Who's this?"
    "That's Arah, she lives at the weyr. She's a candidate!"
    "A candidate! That's a high honor isn't it?" Galad smiled at her. Arah liked this man, and smiled weakly.
    "Yeah." She said vaguely. A candidate was indeed a high honor. If only she really could be a candidate. Stupid leg, stupid fall!
    "Son, thread's falling, stay close to the wagons. Run along and show your friend around, if you want."
    Jerad smiled and beckoned Arah to follow him. They clambered up into his wagon and stepped inside.
    "This." He said, sweeping his arms about the room, "Is where we live. See, there's my father's bunk, and my mother's, and mine." He sat down on it. "It's cramped, but we only sleep in here, and store some of our goods in here. We mostly spend our time outside. 'Cept during threadfall of course. Makes traveling harder, threadfall. Always have to find shelter. This is the first time we've taken up in a Weyr though."
    "What do you do when it rains?" Arah asked, examining all the cloth and fancy ornaments that adorned the shelves. They had an odd collection of things.
    "If it's not raining too hard, we keep going. We're a pretty hardy people. If not, we can hole up inside these wagons for short amount of time, just like we do at night."
    "It must be a wonderful life." Arah said. "Just imagine, to travel across Pern, see all sorts of new faces and places and travel wherever you please! Must be loads more interesting than living in the stuffy lower caverns of a Weyr under the tutelage of a strict older sister all day."
    "But you learn to like a place, then you have to leave it." Jerad protested. "You get to live with dragons!  With thread, a Weyr would be full of adventure. And you're a candidate, soon you'll be riding your own dragon! And fighting thread! It'd be loads of adventure!"
    "Yeah, right, I'm a candidate." Arah admitted, biting her lip. If only. "Still, it'd be neat to live your life. We oughta switch." She laughed, so did Jerad.
    "Come on to this wagon, I wanna show you the stuff in there. Bet you'd love it." Arah followed her friend out of the back of the wagon, and into another, more secure wagon.
    "Wow." She said, staring at the shelves lined with gold and silver jewelry, silk, and all sorts of valuable things. "How do you accumulate such things?"
    "Lords and ladies will trade them if they are desperate enough for supplies. ." Jerad laughed, leaning against the wall. "And we can trade them again, for a handsome price. That's why this wagon only has one entrance, and it locks from the outside. Don't shut that door."
    "I won't." Arah laughed, gawking at all the beautiful things. Her eyes fell on a set of beads.
    "Those would look wonderful in my hair." She said, examining one of her multitude of  beaded braids.
    "I'll trade you that firelizard for them." Jerad replied, the merchant in him coming out.
    "Daisen? No way. She's bonded to me, I've impressed her just like you would a dragon, I can't just give her up. Besides, Daisen's my pet. I could find you a firelizard egg though. There's bound to be lots of them around."
    Jerad laughed. "I hear they are annoying creatures anyhow. Hmm. I don't think they'll miss a couple beads, just for friendships sake." He took out a handful and began to string them in her hair. "But, you have to promise me that whenever you impress your dragon, you'll come find me and take me for a ride. I'll be somewhere on the Southern Continent. Your dragon can find me."
    "Oh..." But he had already given them too her. He would be long gone by the time he learned that she wasn't a candidate anyway. "Deal." She said, biting her lip. "Hey!" She spotted a chess board lying in one corner. "Do you play?"
    "I'm undefeated." Jerad replied.
    "We'll see about that."

    With a snarl, Embleg sheathed the dagger. He wiped the blood spots off his hands with a piece of cloth and flung it to the ground, disregarding it, and what he had just done. The scream was enough to distract, and now he had to run for it. His goal was close now, he could smell it. Ducking behind wagons, Embleg avoided the crowd that was gathering to locate the source of the scream and sought out the wagon he was looking for.
    There! It was secure, with only one door that locked from the outside. No one was paying attention to it now. With a satisfied sigh, he climbed up into the carraige...and saw two children inside the wagon!  One he recognized, that Galad's little brat, the other was a strangely dressed girl, with one of those flit creatures on her shoulder.
    That complicated things, but Embleg thought quickly. They would surely tell if he let them go, and much as taking then with him would hinder him, he had no choice. He slammed the door shut, locking them in.
    Hitching up the beasts was a moments work, and soon the wagon was off. It was a direct route, down the large tunnel they had entered through and out the gates. During threadfall, the dragon's would be busily fighting thread and would have no time to hinder a wagon. They wouldn't suspect anything  until it was too late. 

    The door slammed shut as Arah and Jerad stared at the hunched man who had climbed the front.
    They looked at each other. "He had blood on his hands." Jerad whispered.
    "The scream?" Arah asked, fearfully. They were jerked off their feet as the wagon began to move, jerkily and hastily. Daisen disappeared between.
    "Oh no!" Jerad cried. "I knew it I knew it I knew it! He's going to steal the wagon! That no good dirty..."
    "Jerad!" Arah exclaimed. "He's going to steal it, but where can he go with it, during threadfall? Not unless he means to bring us out... "  She stopped.
    "No." Jerad breathed, struggling to his feet, only to be thrown down again by another jerky motion. Arah knew she wouldn't be able to gain her footing and didn't even try. Already her bad leg throbbed.
    "We've got to get help!" Jerad said. "The walls of the wagon are thick, yell!" So they yelled. They screamed and shouted. Embleg yelled at them to be quiet or else, but they paid him no mind. He was in flight and couldn't afford to stop now to discipline them, and if he did stop, it would give the wagon train time to rescue them.
    The wagon picked up speed. Their cries seemed to no avail, everyone was worried about the girl who had screamed, probably because Embleg had attacked her to cause a distraction. If they had been thinking straight, they could have thought to have Jerad call the dragons, but as it was they were panicked. The wagon went faster and faster, and the sound of the beast's hooves changed, became more muffled and didn't sound like they were running on stone anymore.
    "We must be outside of the Weyr now!" Jerad gasped. "What can we do?"
    "I'll tell you what you can do!" Emblegs voice grated from behind the locked door. "You can keep you're little mouths shut and make this escape easy."
    "We won't help you!" Arah cried out. "You villain!"
    The door opened slowly. "Yes, I am a villain." The man replied. "A mean and scary one, who will keep naughty children like you quiet! Thread falls overhead you know, and the dragons sometimes miss it. If you're naughty, I'll cast you out where the dragons don't fly it and leave you to be burned."
    "The dragons!" Arah exclaimed. "Jerad! Call Nantahalth!"
    "Oh no you don't." Embleg came into the room, glaring at Jerad. "I suspected something about this boy from the very first time I laid eyes on him. He can talk to dragons can he? Well, I can't allow that!" He picked up a lacquered cane from one of the shelves and whacked the boy smartly with it, once, twice.
    "Jerad!" Arah screamed as he fell,  unconscious. With a cry, the girl lunged for Embleg, but with her crippled leg, she wasn't very strong. He fended her off easily, causing her to fall painfully to the ground. Searing pain shot through her leg. She knew she couldn't get back up, but tried anyway.
    Embleg laughed and shut the door again, locking them in. Gasping, Arah sank to the floor. She could feel the wagon wheels spinning and bumping beneath her, knew she was speeding away from home, but it was beyond her to get up. What would Jalani be doing now? Would she think to search for her outside of the Weyr?
    She crawled over to where her companion lay. Please, let him be just asleep, not dead. She thought as she examined him. She had only known him for a short while, but she could tell he was a kindred spirit, an adventurer like her. He was breathing. He didn't seem badly hurt, just out. She tried to wake him up, but to no avail. There was nothing she could do, to get up, to stop Embleg, to help her companion. Adventures were supposed to be fun and full of action, not like this. She felt so helpless. All she could do was sit and wait. Maybe Jerad would wake up soon. Maybe Daisen would come back, and she could send the flit for help. Maybe Jerad had managed to contact Nantahalth, and Jalani was on her way. Or maybe thread would strike the wagon, or Embleg would decide to kill them, or get throw them out of the wagon to go faster. She sat for endless seconds, thinking, worrying, waiting.

    At long last, Jerad moaned and began to move. Quickly Arah hushed him. They couldn't let Embleg hear him waking up and come again.
    "Shhhh," She said, glancing at the door.
    "Oh, my head." Jerad moaned, opening his eyes. "Ar-Arah?"
    "I'm here. Shhh, we can't let him hear you, he'll come again. You've got to call the dragons!"
    "Call.." His voice was foggy. "I...don't think I can. Not right now. My head...spinning. I'm sorry."
    "They probably wouldn't come. They have to fight thread." Arah sighed. Jalani might, but fighting thread was pretty important to her too.
    "They'd come after you, you're a candidate! They can't loose a candidate!" Jerad sat up. "They have to have noticed we're gone by now, Nantahalth was looking for you. They'd put two and two together, that you and  Embleg are gone with the wagon, and they'll come after you."
    "Jerad..." Such hope painted his face. She sighed. Unless he could call the dragons, help wouldn't come. Jalani would just think she was hiding again. She had disappeared for longer than this before. And Jalani was the only one who would really worry about the crippled weyrbrat girl who got into too much trouble for her own good. "Jerad..." She said again, rushing on. "I'm not a candidate. I may have been able to be one once, but that was a long time ago. I'm crippled, I hurt my leg in a fall, so I can't be a candidate."
    Jerad looked at her. "I've seen you walk and run, how can you be crippled?"
    "I can't get up right now." Arah replied bitterly. "I can run and I can walk, but not very far. Perhaps you didn't notice my limp? Jalani is always telling me I shouldn't overdue it, and she is right. Today I strained myself too much."
    "So I guess there's no hope of the dragons coming for us."
    "Unless you can call them." Jerad just looked at her. She hated to see such coldness on her friend's face.
    "I'm sorry! I just, got caught up I guess. I wanted to be a candidate so bad, but Jalani won't let me. I've been told I can't so long, I just wanted to pretend to someone that I could." He said nothing. Arah starred at the floor. Would he hate her now? It certainly seemed that he did.
    "So now how are we going to get out of here?" He said after a time. "The dragons aren't coming, you can't even get up, we are locked in here anyway."
    "If you would just call the dragons!"
    "I told you, I can't call the dragons! I've tried! If you would just get up!"
    "Fine then!" Arah took a firm grip on a nearby shelf and struggled to lift herself. She fell once, but determination outshone the pain and she managed to stand. "Why can't you call them? It's not like that humpback could just knock the ability out of you!"
    There was a searing whistle. The wagon shook as a strand of thread streaked by and crashed into the ground. The beasts reared up and Embleg swore. Arah screeched as the wagon toppled sideways, knocking them off of their feet. The impact took Arah's breath, but it also caused the lock door to fly open.
   "Jerad!" She gasped. Her companion heard her and rushed towards the exit. She struggled to get her up, and he grabbed her hand and pulled her along. The scrambled through the open door and half fell onto the group. Embleg was trying to calm the frightened animals and didn't see them.
    "Come on." Jerad said. "Can you run or walk? You have to come on!"
    "I'm coming." Arah muttered, hobbling along behind him as he tried to run. She could smell the burning ground and wood where thread had hit. She could run if she didn't put too much weight in the wrong place. But where would they go? Jerad had better call the dragons soon! She could see thing wings in the sky, magnificent, fighting thread, but they didn't see the tiny overturned wagon on the ground.
    "Oh no you don't!" A voice behind her sent chills down Arah's spine. She twisted her neck to see Embleg running wildly after them. At the slow rate they were going, all because of her, he would catch them in no time. Soon he was close enough to grab Arah, but instead he reached for Jerad, the one who was the real danger, the boy who could talk to dragons.
    "Don't call the dragons!" He ordered, drawing a blood-stained knife. Arah gasped, and Embleg knocked her aside with a motion from his free hand. She fell hard. Again. How many times had she fallen today? She had to do something! There was a mad gleam in Embleg's eye as he drew the knife closer to Jerad, who stood, paralyzed.
        A stone lay on the ground before her. An average sized stone, nothing special. She grabbed it. Crippled or no, she still had excellent aim, and had beaten many a weyrbrat at Firestone in aim competitions. She struggled to sit up, cupping the rock in her hand. She flung it, and it hit Embleg's hand, causing him to drop the knife. His head turned to her. Run Jerad   She thought desperately. He ran.
    "Think you're brave do you, you crippled little weyrbrat?" Embleg growled, bending down to get the knife. Arah grabbed another stone and aimed for his forehead. A miss.
    "Arah!" Jerad called, stopping.
    "Call the dragons Jerad!" Arah screamed, grabbing another stone. Embleg started towards Jerad, but Arah threw the stone. It hit his ear.
    "They're coming!" Jerad exclaimed as he dodged Embleg.
    "They're coming!" Immense relief swept through Arah, even before Nantahalth appeared from between. He was threadscored, but not badly. Other dragons came too,  a brown and two greens.
    "Arahmaria!" Jalani exclaimed. "What in Farranth were you doing? No, don't even answer, just come on. I suppose you can't get up now. I'll just have to help you." She rushed from the back of Nantahalth and over to her sister. But Arah defied her help. It was painstaking, but she got to her feet herself.
    Meanwhile, Jerad was swept up by the brownrider, and the two greens were chasing Embleg.
   "Nooo!" He exclaimed, rushing toward the ruins of the wagon. "I've worked so hard for this, you can't take it away from me!"  He tripped as he rushed toward the wagon. The green dragon simply plucked him up with her claws, gently, but firmly. Her rider then attempted to haul him up to the dragons neck. He allowed her to do so, still yelling about how it wasn't fair. As soon as she released him and the dragon began to spiral higher, however, the old hunchback jumped from the neck of the dragon with a final yell.
    "Suicide!" Jalani exclaimed, shuddering.  "I don't understand it. He would have been punished, but why kill himself that way?"
    Arah shuddered too. The man's sanity must have finally snapped. Who else would steal something from a Weyr and drive it out into thread, but one surely insane?
    "Let's get you back to the weyr." Jalani lifted Arah to Nantahalth's neck.


     Arah and Jerad sat on a bench, facing Jalani and Galad.
    "You could have been killed!" Galad exclaimed. "And you weren't to go in that wagon anyway, children like you! You knew that!"
   "We had no idea of what would happen!" Jerad protested. "How was I to know that lunatic was going to do what he did?"
    "Arahmaria, you know better than to wonder around like that! You're not able, you'll wear yourself out. You did wear yourself out! Hopefully you learned from that little experience, and won't do so again."
   "You want me to never have fun, to stay caged up in my room all of the time?" Arah asked angrily, matching her elder stare for stare. She was sick of it. She had just helped defeat a madman, and her sister still didn't believe she could do anything!
    "You aren't able!" Jalani replied again.
    "She is able!" Jerad cut in. Arah blinked. She didn't think Jerad particularly cared very much about her after learning she was a liar and a cripple. "If not for her, we never would have escaped, and I might be dead!"
    Everyone turned to look at the boy, but he didn't waver. "She was able to run, if not fast, when she needed too, ever after she had strained all day. And she saved my life! She wasn't able to stand, but she threw rocks and made Embleg drop his weapon. I think she could be a candidate easy, and I think she'd be a good candidate! If the searchriders thought so when she was young, there's no need to change it now! She could ride a dragon easy."
    Arah stared at him, a smile blooming on her face. He smiled back, and winked. "The dragons say she should be a candidate." He went on. "Why are you holding her back?"
    "Jalani, please?" Arah said, standing. She could stand, and without any trouble. "I could escape a lunatic, I think I can ride a dragon! I'm old enough to be a candidate, it's time I was given a chance!" She stood ready to defy her guardian. She would have her place as a candidate, and no one was going to stop her! She had a bargain to keep with Jerad.
    Surprisingly, Jalani did not protest. "All right Arah." She said with a slight smile. "You have your chance."
    "Thank you." Arah smiled at Jerad. She would take her chance and prove to them all what she was capable of!