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    A high pitched cry wrenched through the night air. It reberverated off of the walls of the hold, down the corridor, and into the room of a sleeping girl. Jalani groaned and opened an eye to peer at the wall of her bedchamber. How late was it?
    The wailing did not stop. Moaning loudly, Jalani threw off her warm blankets and sat up. She cringed as her bare feet touched the cold floor, but she stood, snatched a glow and lit it and started tiredly down the corridor of Cold Rocks Hold. Why it must be a candlemark past midnight!  Jalani entered a smaller bedchamber where the wailing was coming from. Little Elene, her toddler half sister,  lay on her bed crying loudly.
    "Shhhhhhh, shhhh." Jalani coaxed the child, laying a hand on her forehead. No fever at least. Perhaps a bad dream, or else something frightened her. At three turns, the girl was too old to just wail like that as the infants did. Arahmeria, Elene's roommate of six turns, sat on her own bed with tears streaming down her face.
    "Oh dear oh dear." Jalani patted Elene's hair and her loud crowing ceased,  though she still sniffled loudly. "What happened?"
    "The-the, flitter was, was acting crazy and Elene got scared." Arahmeria sniffled, wiping tears from her face with her blanket. The girl meant the flit that she had impressed, Green Daisien, who was flying around in circle above them.
    "Dear dear." Jalani comforted them both. "Firelizards can get scared easily, especially greens. I'm sure its nothing to worry about, whenever the...source of thread is mentioned, all firelizards go crazy." Jenali refrained from saying "red star" for those words indeed send most flits into hysteria. She did wonder why the firelizard had been upset. Arahmeria climbed onto the bed with them, and Jalani did her best to calm both down. She had always had a knack with children, ever since her own mother abandoned her to a foster mother, and then was abandoned again at fourteen turns by that foster mother. Now, at seventeen turns, she was acting as foster mother to her young siblings, with the help of her friend Nenei.  "Shhhhhhh." She repeated lullingly. Finally, she stood, Elene asleep and Arameria near to it, and retired to receive what sleep she could for the remainder of the night.

    Morning came onto Cold Rocks Hold, located in the mountains of the southern continent near the Twin Weyr. The holderfolk woke, some grudgingly leaving the comfort of their beds, some hurriedly, and began the routine of the day. There were fields to be tended, rocks to be cleaned of greenery so that the dragons could land, work to be done in the kitchens and the sculleries.
    As the people were going about their daily business, in the sky above them a cold burst of between revealed a large blue dragon and rider. The blue  spiraled to land and his rider vaulted from his neck to greet the Lord Holder with an important message.  Soon all the people of the Hold had a new job to go about, preparation for the Threadfall that would occur that day.

    Many candelmarks later, a loud bugle in the sky overhead signified the dragons had come to fight the thread. Jalani was leaning on a fence post, surveying the fields of her hold. Here food was grown for the hold and for tithe. It was a little against holder tradition to have huge fields of greenery like this and a nuisance for dragonriders who had to protect them, but they had been planted before the Pass began, and were a vital part of the hold. Sometimes Jalani loved to just stare at the sea of wheat and grain, it was soothing and comforting. As she did this now, she failed to notice the air around her getting darker, or the sense of foreboding that now filled it. She didn't notice the someone frantic way in which the holders moved around until another of Jalani's siblings, her younger half brother Cwen, came running up to her.
    "We gotta go inside the hold Jalani!" He said.
    "Oh we do?" She replied, plucking the young boy up. "Says who?"
    "Say's the dragonmen Jalani." It was then that Jalani looked up at the sky, just in time to see feel the telltale burst of cold air and see the dragons pop out of between. Thread!  Jalani hurried to the interior safety of the hold, carrying the Cwen with her. She instinctively sought out the other children that had fallen into her care, Arah, Elene, Mrorne...
    Down the hall she went, and into Elene's bedchamber. Elene and Mrorne were there, but where was Arameria?
    "Where is Arah?" Jalani asked, but the children did not answer.
    "Threadsa coming." Mrorne, a boy of four turns exclaimed excitedly. Elene did not seem so happy about it. Every time thread fell over the hold the child got scared. Where was Arah?
    "It'll all right Elene. The dragonriders will come and take care of thread, its all right. All of you, stay here, Jalani's got to go out to get something, I'll be right back."  Jalani left the children, hoping they wouldn't do anything stupid, to find Arah. Oh, Arah was always a bold and audacious child, which only increased Jalani's worry.
    Everywhere people were hurrying about, but Jalani saw no trace of the wild-eyed six-turn-old.  "Arah!" She called, peering down all the corridors of the hold. Fear mounded up in the back of her mind as she realized where Arahmeria might be. Foolishly brave child!
    As Jalani reluctantly started towards the now closed gateway of the hold, she ran into Mero, a good looking young man that was her age.
    "Jalani!" He said warmly. "How are you this afternoon? It's a pity thread chose to fall now, it was a rather lovely day." Jalani sighed. One of her vices was that she was a rather flirtatious girl, even her dress now had a rather low neckline, and she had made efforts to encourage Mero, but not now! She had to find Arahmeria.
    "Have you seen Arah?" She asked hopefully.
    "No."
    "That child." Jalani muttered and took up her search through the hold.

    Above the hold, the wings of dragons fought thread voraciously. Soaring, darting, flaming, and winking between when scored they flew. A'sal rode a Blue, and after an hour of this his small blue Heaveneth  was tired. A'sal and Heaveneth spiraled down to land in the hold to rest and fetch more firestone. When they had landed, A'sal jumped from his Blue's neck and strode towards the hold gate, but stopped as his dragon spoke to him.
    There is potential here.
  He sensed a candidate? Here? Now? A'sal looked around, but saw no one. Heaveneth  saw no one either, but repeated that he sensed potential. Casting his eyes about again, they fell on a small figure huddled almost hidden next to the scant shelter of a rock. A'sal  approached it, and saw that it was a child, a girl of perhaps seven turns. Probably a holder child caught outside. He touched her gently, and she looked up. She had been crying, scared out of her wits most likely.
  Heaveneth  informed A'sal that this child was the source of his feelings. She was way to young of coarse, but perhaps in a few turns...
    "Where's Jalani?" The girl asked, wiping away tears with the back of her hand. "Who are you?"
    "I'm A'sal, a dragonrider." He told her. "How did a child like you get stuck outside of the hold? Come on, I'll take you inside to safety."
    "Where's Jalani?" The girl repeated, but she followed him.  They found that the gate was open, what irresponsible holders if they left it wide open. The girl followed him across it, but suddenly stopped, eyes wide.
    "Jalani!" She exclaimed, turning around to go back out again. Then louder. "Jalani!"
    "No!" A'sal said, but the girl had taken off running now. Who was this Jalani? A'sal' followed her and soon he could hear now what had caused the girl to run. Somewhere ahead he could hear a woman's voice calling out, "Arah! Arah, come here!"
  This is crazy. A'sal  thought. Out here chasing after this child and whoever the Jalani woman is under threadfall.  But he followed closely at the girls heels, trying to get her to stop and come back into the safety of the hold.
    "Jalani!" The girl said again, this time with a cry of delight as she threw her arms around a woman who must be Jalani. She was young, perhaps seventeen or eighteen turns. She was pretty, in a somewhat revealing lavender dress that had a rather low neckline. She was tall, almost as tall as he, with short cropped reddish hair and greenish eyes.
    "Arahmeria child, what in Faranth were you doing out here during thread?" Jalani took on a scolding look, but seeing the girls tears, softened it with a smile. "And who is this?" She asked, looking at the dragonrider before her with interest.
    "I am A'sal of Blue Heaveneth." He told her.  "I found your little Arah there huddled under a rock and scared out of her wits. "
    "Did you?" Jalani asked, scooping the child up with surprising strength and starting back towards the hold. A'sal walked with her.
    "That girl  would make a good candidate." He told her. She smiled at him.
    "Really? Imagine that Arah!"
    "I wanna dragon!" The girl replied innocently, previous fear gone. Heaveneth  told A'sal something, and A'sal looked at Jalani.
    "My dragon tells me that so would you." He told her. "You could become a candidate at Firestone Weyr, there is a clutch on the sands now. "
    Jalani nearly dropped the child she was holding. "A candidate!" She exclaimed. "Oh, but the children..." All of her siblings, left for her to care for. If she went to the weyr, who would care for them? Shards, she loved children, but now they seemed an annoyance.
    "Well, Arah here could become a candidate herself, in a few turns. She can come with you. " A'sal said. He hoped she would come to the weyr, they needed a candidate like her. Brave enough to go out into Thread after a child!
    "Perhaps Nenei can take care of them." Jalani said. "And they'll be so excited for me, their sissy, a dragonrider!" Jalani smiled at the thought.
    "Let's go to the weyr!" Arah chimed in. There was no arguing with the child's logic.  Nenei could take care of them. How proud of her they would all be!