EstoneiWeyr

[book]

Let's tell a story, hm?

One day not long ago, a green dragon went swimming in the lake while her rider took a much needed nap. The green was happily splashing and playing all alone in the nice cool water when her tail brushed against something that was colder and harder than it should be. Curious, the dragon stuck her head under the water to investigate. To her surprise, she found three very large, rock-like eggs half-buried in the lake's bottom. Well, being a motherly dragon for a green, she simply could not leave the poor little dears buried in the cold mud. And Queens took good care of their clutch, didn't they? So one by one, the little green dragon wrapped her claws carefully around the eggs. One by one, she flew low with her heavy egg to the nice, warm Hatching Sands. One by one, the three eggs were transported from the lake to the hot sands.

Once all three rock-like eggs were together again, the green became worried. People would be unkind to them, because they were not like dragon eggs. So the green dug three holes in a triangular formation in a corner of the Hatching Sands. After all, no one really looked in the corners, right? So into the holes went the rocky eggs and the green buried them. She hummed happily, cooing to the eggs and curling around their mostly-buried forms. A few candlemarks later, she felt her rider stirring and the green crept back to her weyr. Each day, the green would sneak off to the sands to check on her odd eggs. And each day, they got a bit harder until it seemed like they were as hard as mature dragon eggs were. And one day... Her rider followed her to the sands and saw the eggs.

Aniseth had thought Zyra was sleeping and so flew from their weyr's ledge straight to the hatching sands. The green nosed some of the sand off her charges, leaving them half-buried as she wrapped her small form around the trio. Zyra, however, was not sleeping as she had noticed her dragon's strange behavior for a while now. And since Aniseth would not discuss her strange behavior, Zyra had decided that she had to trick her green. And now Zyra rolled out of bed, still fully clothed, and slipped on her boots. She caught a glimpse of Aniseth heading towards the sands.... Very strange. Greens had no place on the sands unless there was a hatching, usually... And there was no hatching today.

So Zyra trotted out of their weyr, down the corridors, and out into the warm sunshine of midafternoon. Across the bowl she went, turning into the Hatching Sands in time to see Aniseth curled up happily around her charges. Zyra could see the top curve of one, noted the typical rock-like texture, the color, the size, and went pale. From fear, anger, anxiety... It really was hard to tell. Aniseth heard her stepping onto the sands and stopped humming her happy song to her eggs. She turned her head, saw her rider, and her eyes started whirling quickly with yellows and oranges. From fear, anger, anxiety... Zyra seemed unable to move for a moment, and neither did Aniseth. And then, Zyra shrieked.

"Are those really...?!?!" She yelled, unable to be completely coherent through her constricted throat. Yes. Yes, they are. Zyra swayed visibly, eyes still locked in a horrified, angry glare at the rock-like eggs. "Those.... those! WHY are they HERE!?! WHAT are you doing with THEM!?" Aniseth curled more protectively about them, unable to fully reach around the eggs to properly shield them with her body. They were cold and without their mother at the lake. I found them and now I am their mother. Aniseth sounded worried but slightly prideful, too, turning her head to coo to her eggs.

They had been lost, but now they had a mother and she would not lose them. Everyone needed a mother, right? Aniseth had had a mother and many siblings, too. But these had only each other and so few... But she would protect them and teach them and guide them right! Aniseth was their mother, shard it all! The green turned her head back to Zyra, who now seemed to be shaking. Surely there wasn't anything wrong with giving them a mother? They need a mother. I had one and you have one but these had none until I found them. So I will be their mother instead. Seemingly pleased by this, Aniseth arched her neck a little more, her eyes whirling more swiftly. Zyra collapsed.

[vashtanerada]

What a bewildering place Estonei Weyr was. From the moment that Dan arrived, he had been… well, nearly overwhelmed. So many people and dragons – it was not as overcrowded as the Hold was, but perhaps that was only because the terrible aliens had decimated the population so badly. This was a place for survivors – and if Dan knew one thing about himself for certain, he knew that he was a survivor. This could be his new home. It would have to be. He didn’t have any good choices left.

Not that it was all sunshine and roses. The weyrfolk seemed strangely mistrusting of anyone from the Hold now – something about the last Hatching, was all that Dan could get out of anyone. The few people he’d asked about it didn’t seem to want to talk, or were surprised that he didn’t know already. Something about a bronze and a brown Impressing females, and then a fight on the sands… He didn’t know, and it didn’t matter. He was a Candidate now, and he had no interested in returning to the Hold anyway. Still, he felt like he needed some quiet, some time to think to himself and process everything that had happened in the past few sevendays. The hatching sands seemed like as good a place for that as any; there didn’t seem to be any formal taboo declaring it off-limits, but there was no reason for anyone to go there with no clutch on the sands.

Except that someone had gone there anyway. A scarred, three-legged green dragon and her rider were already on the sands when Dan arrived, just in time to hear the woman apparently yelling at her dragon.

Dan had no idea that the half-buried eggs on the sands were at all strange. Well, how would he know? He was new to the weyr, and he hadn’t been there for the last Hatching. He’d never seen a dragon clutch before, or even a firelizard clutch. The only thing strange about it to him was that it was being guarded by a green. He had thought that green dragons were infertile… although green firelizards could lay small clutches, so it didn’t seem completely impossible. The eggs looked oddly rocky and lumpy, too – maybe they were wher eggs, and the green was just watching over them due to Estonei’s lack of a wher population.

Point was, Dan wasn’t about to leap to any conclusions. The thought that the eggs might be… abominations… well, it didn’t even occur to him. Why in the world would any dragon in their right mind foster abomination eggs? It didn’t make any sense at all.

“Are they hers?” he asked bluntly, stepping closer towards the pair without fear. Maybe he was putting his ignorance of dragons on display, outing himself as a Holder. But better to be up-front about his lack of knowledge. Anyway, nothing about Pern was certain anymore. If women could ride bronze and aliens could fall from the sky to eat men and dragons, a green dragon taking after her firelizard cousins was tame by comparison.

[book]

Aniseth seemed nonplussed to see her rider sitting on the sands, arms wrapped around herself for support. Really, was it that big of a deal? So they weren't dragon or wher or firelizard eggs... But surely even the aliens must have mothers. Maybe these would be thankful to have her as a mother. The green trilled lightly at the thought, wrapping her tail gently about one of the eggs. Zyra stared, also nonplussed, at the behavior of her dragon... Greens are not mothers. And they are especially not mothers to those... monsters! "How... Wha-?" She seemed unable to form a proper sentence, so many questions and thoughts were running through her mind.

At a sudden noise behind her, Zyra turned, halfway on her knees by now, to do... Well, what could she do? Her eyes narrowed as she took in the sight of a somewhat feminine boy--obviously he must be a candidate or weyrbrat--intruding on the sands. And then he spoke, much to her surprise. Zyra paled again as she struggled back onto her feet, nerves already fraying with the audacity of Aniseth to harbor those.... After a moment of opening her mouth, closing it, swallowing, and then opening it again, Zyra managed to speak at only a slightly higher and louder tone than usual. "THOSE things are certainly not hers. Although she apparently thinks they are." The last part was directed at Aniseth, who primly shuffled her wings and glanced away.

They were hers, in the dragon's mind, in a way that Aniseth hardly understood. The green nosed the top of one, uncurling slightly in order to turn each of the large eggs carefully. This was what mothers did for their young, right? They made sure they were nice and warm on all sides. Aniseth swept some sand back around the eggs with her tail before settling back down. Zyra continued to stare at her dragon, speechless, the boy beside her forgotten. This is not right, Aniseth! You remember what they did to you, to us, to our wing, to Pern! The green looked up from the eggs, a soft, subdued wail echoing from her throat. But Zyramine, they NEED a mother! I will not let them hurt anyone!