A Sad Night [PLOT]

[FaizahPandora]

IC Date: Dec. 28th, 2012
IC Time: 11:48 p.m.

Black, blacker, blackest...

They came out from the cold of between and into another type of cold. A snow storm was rageing, so thick that she couldn't see where they were going. She could tell, from basic shapes, that they were near a mountain.

Cavarath led her, somehow able to see through the white out blizzard that was obviously happening. Soon, the wind no longer hit her, and the snow stopped pelting her in the face. Cavarath had landed, and she slid off the dragon's back with little of her usual grace.

Once on the ground, she stepped a few feet away from her dragon before collapsing into the warm sands. Compared to the cold outside, the sands might as well have been made from magma, they were so hot. But it felt good to Tisnare...

Cavarath had began to lay her eggs...

I am done, mine. You are sure my eggs will be safe here...?

Tisnare must have drifted off. Some time must have passed, for Cavarath was apparently done laying her eggs. She opened her eyes, a little startled to find herself not in her familiar Hatching Sands. She started a moment, scrambling to her feet, and then stopped. People were entering the sands, at the same time that three strange dragons landed above them.

Cavarath snarled, curling her injured body around the treasures that were her eggs. Tisnare, ignoring the humans she had spotted, looked up at the dragons above them. One was obviously a white, but it was massive. Easily the size of the equall large bronze crouched near it. Last was a green, or she thought it was a green. It had strange rosettes of gold adorning it's bright green hide...

"Who are you!" A voice called out.

Tisnare jumped. She hadn't been expecting a yelling match, but she turned her head back to the people. Slowly she began inching her way back towards Cavarath. "My name is Tisnare, rider of gold Cavarath, of Ista Weyr. Is this Rocky?" She called back.

A red haired woman stepped forward, along with the man. The other woman, a blond who shared similiar facial features with the red head, remained where she was. She kept shooting glances up at the strange green gold mix. Tisnare pointed her attention back to the redhead.

"I'm Faizah Pandora, Weyrwoman of Rocky and rider of white Surth. This is Kain Tatsuya, Weyrleader of Rocky and rider of bronze Gorth. Yes, you are at Rocky Weyr. But I have to ask what you're doing here..." The redhead, Faizah, explained.

Tisnare sighed in relief. She had heard little of Rocky, other than it was where defective dragons went when they were found they couldn't fight Thread on Pern. Or dragons that were feared, like the Chimeras that were cropping up. That must be what the green gold mix was... A Chimera...

Tisnare began to tell Faizah the whole dreadful story. The mating flight, the Thread scores and betweening to the wrong place. The strange bronze, blue and green riders, and the weyrling they kept hidden. She told Faizah and Kain about their plans to keep Cavarath's eggs, and how they had used what little they had left of their strength to come here, where they had heard the eggs would be safe.

Faizah nodded when Tisnare was done. "The eggs will be safe here. I promise." She said, knowing there wasn't much more she can do. Kain was at a loss for words...

Cavarath, feeling her strength continuing to wane, looked up at the green gold Chimera. She called out to the dragon, begging. Care for my eggs as if they were yours. Please...

The green gold Chimera, Isath, nodded before climbing down from the ledge and curling around the eggs as Cavarath moved aside. Tisnare climbed upon her gold dragon for the last time. She smiled down at Faizah and Kain, then closed her eyes.

Let's rest now, mine...[/color] They heard Cavarath as she spread her wings and took to the skies. She disappeared into the blizzard. A moment later roars were heard across the Weyr. Surth, Gorth and Isath joined them.

Cavarath and Tisnare had been lost between...

[shadowreine]

This, Tiffanie thought, was the worst weather imaginable. The weyrling had ended up stuck by it, too...she had ducked into the Candidate barracks when it started, and wasn't about to step out in it.

Cioeth, who was back by the weyrling barracks, kept sending tendrils of irritation. Most of it was aimed at the storm, not her rider. Dragons were not as bothered by cold as humans...but Cioeth didn't want to go out in *this* if she didn't have to.

A moment later, raw emotions from her dragon struck her. The image of a gold going Between. A gold dead? There were not many golds...and...

Tiffanie abruptly ran for it, for the hatching grounds. Cioeth, leaving the barracks to move across the bowl, knew something was happening there, and it might be important. She did not know, and she did not want to guess.

Actually, she wished she had thought to dive for the Sands earlier, for nowhere was warmer. But as she came inside, she saw Isath curled around a clutch of eggs. And Isath had emphatically not flown recently...

Strange, dead gold, and now mysterious eggs. Tiffanie stopped in the doorway, regarding them. The Weyrwoman and her sister were there, and the weyrleader...

They certainly didn't need a chimera weyrling there, but she couldn't help but stare at the eggs.

[Blood]

At the first moment the dragons began to roar, Alexandra was up and moving well before her mind had registered that the loud noise assaulting her ears was not the sound of gun and mortar fire and that she was not, in fact, living in a war zone any more. She had not been living long within the weyr, and it was sometimes hard to remember that she was living in a place of relative safety, after so many years being deployed to various hot-spots.

She didn't know much about dragons yet, but something had to have gone wrong for that many of them to be bellowing about it. Keero flicked out of the nullspace she'd been told was called between, the little blue creeling, his eyes the colours she'd learned meant upset. He landed on her shoulder just after she pulled her greatcoat over her clothing. "What's wrong Keero?" The blue gave her an image of a great golden dragon, flying into the storm and then disappearing. Odd. That doesn't look like of the yellow ones that I've seen so far Alex was still getting the hang of the whole colour-rank thing, and tended to think of them in terms of their actual hide colour, rather than the name of their colour rank.

Keero disappeared from her shoulder as she made a quick dash across the bowl to the hatching grounds. Born and raised in the Australian heat, even that short an exposure to the cold of the Rocky Mountian winter, was enough to have her shivering. Her blue firelizard friend reappeared as soon as she was in the warmth of the sands, the little male scolding her for going out in the cold.

A small frown crossed Alexandra's face as she looked about the hatching grounds. There was the Weyrwoman and her big white dragon, the Weyrleader and his big red dragon, a 'bronze' rank, and over there was that odd green and gold dragon, curled around... eggs? Why were their eggs? By Alexandra's understanding of the gossip about the weyr, the green and gold, Isath, hadn't mated any time recently, and dragons couldn't produce a clutch without mating. So why was there a clutch?

Alex continued to look back and forth between the Isath and the eggs, with occasional glances over to the Weyrwoman and Weyrleader. What was going on here to have Keero so distressed?

[Stormy]

Reya had, thankfully, been spared from the rather horrid weather that was raging outside. She was inside, reading a book as her recently bonded white wher Reyask slumbered. Reyask...Reya glared over the top of her book at the sprawled white form of the wher. Damn wher was so docile it was practically a puppy...

Her thoughts were interrupted, though, as the brilliant white hide of the sleeping wher started to dull to gray, the whirling eyes opening with a haunting keen. She had seen enough riders who went between for the last time to know exactly what that meant. But who had gone between? As far as she knew, none of the riders of Rocky were dying, let alone injured or really even sick! Dropping her book, she scrambled to her feet and sprinted out of the door, looking for the source.

Reyask scrambled to her feet, running after her and falling behind. She knew her rider was confused, scared, worried, and gave her the image of the gold-no-more. It eased most of her fear and worry, but she was even more confused. Rocky didn't have many golds, and that was definitely not one of them.

She skidded to a stop right behind Tiffanie, nealy colliding with the rider of the chimera. "If you're gonna stand in a doorway," she growled, "at least have the courtesy to stand off to the side so people don't crash into you." Then she ducked around Tiffanie, pausing at the sight of the eggs on the Sands. Those eggs did not belong, as no dragon, Isath especially, had flown so recently as to have just lain eggs. They must have something to do with the betweened dragon...Remembering her own advice, she stepped off to the side of the door, not wanting to have people plow into her.

Till appeared a couple moments later, eyes whirling with anxiety and tinged with the gray of mourning. He chirped anxiously at Reya, giving her an image of the same gold Reyask had. Then the brown landed on her, clawing his way up onto her shoulders, wrapping his tail protectively around her neck, hiding himself in her hair. Reya was confused about the odd, protective behaviour the brown was portraying, but she only reached a hand up, found his head in her hair, and stroked him soothingly.

[fisynlavanna]

Blanche could hear the roar of the dragons, something was definitely going on. Her knowledge of dragons was still minute but to hear that many at one time was a rarity indeed. The green at her side lifted her head and opened her eyes, revealing the gray of mourning. Blanche frowned softly as she felt her own muscles tighten slightly then turn cold; a dragon had died. "Show me, Listhiath." The the green showed Blanche images of a gold going what they called "between". We go, mine? Blanche looked to her companion and gently rubbed her eye ridges "Yes, we go. We may be of some help." The green stretched out its wings and waited for Blanche's go ahead, We go, but maybe they not like us, mine. We different, strange. Blanche shook her head, "If that's the case then we can always go somewhere else."
With that said, Listhiath took off into the sky, right into the snow storm. The green took her time, all she could see was white on all sides. This dangerous Listhiath said anxiously. "I know, but we can make it," Blanche replied from the ground as she ran in the direction of the hatching grounds. And make it they did.
Listhiath landed nearby the hatching grounds, where the group of dragons and people stood. Blanche got there not long after her green and started for the group but stopped in her tracks, visions of the gold and its rider flooding her head. Mine sees things again?What Listhiath do, now? Blanche did not reply to her green, but instead passed out on the spot; the last vision being of the eggs the green and gold chimera now protected.

[Wolfy]

Kyrinth cared not for what was going on. Usually he was, but he had been strutting ever since he won that Flight. It was as if he had finally passed some final test to prove that he was a true Dragon, true to his lineage and world and Weyr. He was like a peacock, strutting to show off his plumage of colorful feathers.

Lyrah however, did not agree with his newfound philosophy. Mostly because she had seen a dying Gold just appear over the Sands and begin to lay her Clutch.

"By the Fist Egg," she gasped, bringing the Brown's attention to her. What-? Oh! Lyrah, I will bring you there! Come on![/color] he nearly yelled as he found what it was that had affected her so deeply.

Lyrah jumped onto the Browns back as he launched himself out of the weyr where they had been dozing- or at least where he had been dozing and where she had been watching the sky and the Weyr. Circling tightly, relying on his Rider's superior sight, he landed in the sands just in time to hear the Gold beg the Green-Gold to watch her eggs before she surendered to never-ending night between. Throwing back his head, he howled in forlorn sorrow.

---

Marith howled in the agony of a dragon dying.

"Marith! Love! Dearheart! What happened! What's going on!" the Candidatemaster yelled. One moment, the pair had been happily sleeping, ignoring the world at large in preference to their own dreams. The next, the motherly Green was howling as if the world was ending.


Gone! Between! she keened, letting flow the images that was causing her such mortal agony. A Gold, injured and weak. A Clutch laid but moments before. Rider and Dragon disappearing forever.

The images shocked the man. Not in many years had a dragon and Rider committed suicide in such a way. In fact, he could not truly remember the last time it had happened.

Bring me there, sweet! bring me to the Grounds! he virtually begged as he pulled himself into the harness he had not been able to get off due to the fact that she had rolled onto her back and fallen asleep.

Moments later, he was running across the hot Sands to join the Weyrleader and Weyrwoman where they stood near the semi-abandonned Clutch. "What happened?" he exclaimed.

[FaizahPandora]

Faizah looked around as som eof the Weyr residents started showing up at the Sands. Kain moved towards the door, hurrying over. Faizah glanced and noticed a weyrling had fainted. She sighed, wondering where to start. It wasn't often that the white rider was taken off guard, but this was one of those few.

Faizah noticed J'kent enter the Sands. He was running towards her, shouting. "What happened?"

Faizah shook her head. "Wait, J'kent. Just wait. Help me look over these eggs real quick..." Faizah asked him quietly. She didn't want to upset the others. She quickly glanced around to see who was all there.

Herself and Kain, that was obvious. Surth and Gorth kept watch above. Nakia and Isath were guarding the clutch. Good. Isath was an attentive mother. Then there was the new doctor, Alexandra. She was standing in the doorway, glancing around. In front of her was Tiffanie, and then Faizah noticed the green/blue Cioeth on one of the ledges above her head. Reya and her brown flit were next to Alex, her white wher in the doorway. Blanche, of one of Isath's green daughters, was the one that had fainted. And her green had also taken a ledge with the other dragons. There was J'kent coming towards her, and Marith was there as well. And last was Kyrinth and Lyrah appearing from the snow storm...

Faizah led the way over to the eggs, making sure they were okay. As she got closer to Isath, Faizah gasped. She couldn't believe her eyes. While the clutch was small, only about eleven eggs, she clearly saw two gold hued eggs near Isath's foreclaws.

"How...?" Faizah whispered to herself.

[fisynlavanna]

Slowly, Blanche came to. Faintly she saw someone kneeling over her, she would have thanked him but...Instinct kicked in...

Mine, why running...where going? asked the green from above. But Blanche did not answer her. She was preoccupied with getting away from all this. She'd seen enough, felt enough, shown her defect. Yes, that was what it was, a defect.

However, she looked back momentarily, seeing the face of the man who had tried to help her in her time of need. However, it was the siloquette of another that caught her attention. But she shoved the thought aside and turned her attentions back to running and hiding.

Listhiath took her leave of the other dragons and flew after Hers. Her eyes swirling yellow. Not good...Not good

[shadowreine]

"Two queens in one clutch?" Tiffanie let out a breath. She knew from the Pernese weyrlings that the ultimate dream of any little girl on Pern was to bond a gold dragon.

Of course, it was the highest status a woman could hold on that world, to lead a Weyr. But, of course, no mere gold could be anywhere near as beautiful and special as her Cioeth.

But there would be two more gold dragons, and nine other dragons to add to Rocky's wings. She hoped some of them would grow into handsome males...and eyed her dragon, whom she knew to be the source of that thought.

Cioeth was starting to realize that males were...interesting...in full force these days. She wondered how long it would be before the chimera female rose for the first time...and whether she would clutch.