A Threat Unforeseen

[Bamy]

i have transplanted the story so far over to here, should have chapter 2 ready for posting in the new year.

[Bamy]

A Threat Unforeseen



Prologue

We should have seen it coming, the geological record had shown us the effects and we had not seen, not understood. Until it was too late, at least.

In the early twentieth century, geologists had come to realise that there had been several mass extinctions in the geological past. These had proved difficult to explain. Some had theorised that an enormous meteorite had hit the planet, others that massive flood basalt volcanoes had erupted releasing tonnes of greenhouse gasses, ash and dust resulting in a nuclear winter that had destabilised the fragile ecosystems killing plants and animals alike. None of these theories could be proven, but never the less it soon became accepted fact that a combination of the two theories was the cause.

About the same time, astronomers observing the Oort cloud at the edge of the solar system noted that one of the larger ‘comets’ –about the same size as the moon- had been knocked out of its regular orbit. An orbit which would bring it into the solar system and close to the planet earth every 70 million years (which incidentally coincided with the dates of the mass extinctions) into an orbit that would bring it into the system and closer to earth before rounding the sun and heading back out through the Oort cloud every 250 years.

It was predicted that this ‘comets’ orbit would bring it close in towards the earth by about the year 2000 and that as it passed by there would be brilliant showers of shooting stars as debris dragged by the comet from the Oort cloud burned up in the atmosphere.

How could we possibly know that this would prove to be a most deadly of rains?

In the closing years of the twentieth century, biologists deep in the Amazonian jungle discovered a strange, beautiful new life form. Resembling the mythical dragons of old, these creatures were much smaller, about the length of a grown mans forearm and could be impressed to a human as the creatures hatched becoming excellent little companions and friends. There were five different colours to the dragonets (as they were named by the media), the females were gold and green and males were bronze, brown and blue. The bronze and gold dragonets were the larger and more loyal when impressed, the gold dragonets were also more protective of their eggs, laying larger clutches and nurturing them until they hatched, protecting them from any predators that would raid a nest for the tasty yolks. The blue and green dragonets were more numerous but were also smaller and less loyal to their ‘owners’ often going off for days at a time.

The dragonets were soon found to be breeding elsewhere, on beaches around the world in warm and sunny climates. The clutches were enormous. Fifty or more eggs could be found in a single gold’s clutch and the biological community was stumped as to why they were becoming so populous so quickly, when there had been so few of the pretty creatures a scant few years before.

We didn’t see that it was a portent of the coming disaster. That the dragonets were responding to the proximity of the ‘comet’ as it drew increasingly closer to the earth. The world continued on in blissful ignorance.

Then, in 2002, the ‘comet’ now called the Red Star as it could clearly be seen in the night sky as a drop of livid blood red (by far surpassing Mars’s brilliant colour) began its pass close to earth’s orbit. Astronomers predicted the exact timing of when the brilliant showers of shooting stars would fall, as the Oort debris it had pulled with it began to burn up in the atmosphere. What the astronomers had no way of knowing was that these falls would be far, far more deadly or that they would be much longer lasting than was predicted. The astronomers were, infact predicting the exact dates and times that these falls would decimate the worlds population as the thread like organism within the Oort debris dormant in space became ‘live’ from the friction and extreme temperatures of entering the atmosphere.

The first fall was a catastrophic double hit. One of the ‘corridors’ fell over the eastern seaboard of North America, the other scythed through central and southern Europe. The swathes were just over 75 miles wide and hundreds of miles long. Millions died as they went outside to watch the long silvery filaments rain from the skies onto the unsuspecting below. Pandemonium broke out as people saw what the threads did. In horror they saw the deadly threads consume any matter with organic content, including animals and humans. Only glass, stone and metal could repel or was impervious to it. It was quickly discovered that the threads drowned in water and turned into a tough dead shell once it had consumed all organic matter or was unable to consume any.

It was peoples loyal little dragonet friends who showed us how to destroy the voracious organism for as the threads fell, an unusual anomaly in the dragonets anatomy was finally resolved. The dragonets flew at the deadly silvery filaments searing them from the sky with little jets of white-hot flame. It turned out that a second stomach present in the little creatures unusual anatomy secreted special digestive juices which, when combined with phosphine in phosphine bearing rocks produced a gas which on contact with oxygen became these flames. The dragonets resembled their mythical namesakes and now appeared to be ‘breathing’ flames as well in a desperate bid to protect their human allies. Unfortunately, in most cases this was in vain as there were not enough tame and wild dragonets to protect everyone in the corridors where the threads fell.

Panic spread around the world as more and more threads fell. Governments scrambled to protect as many people as possible, erecting huge stone and concrete ‘holds’ built by quarrying into the sides of mountains and large hills as well as enormous concrete sheds. At the same time they were trying to safeguard enough resources to feed the people during this time of crisis by erecting immense glass greenhouses to protect the orchards, croplands, pasturelands and forests. The astronomers desperately attempted to discover how long these falls would last and a small, select and high powered group of biogenetecists started a programme to bioengineer the newly re-named fire lizards into a larger, more biddable and useful form whilst technology endeavoured to cope with the deadly incursions.

After three years of backbreaking, labour intensive work, 32 young dragons hatched out. The 13 golden ‘queens’, 10 bronzes and 9 browns impressed to young men and women from around the world who had military training and backgrounds and were also sensitive to the little fire lizards. By this time, it had been discovered that the thread falls would last for approximately 50 years every time the red star passed as the Oort debris diffused out of the earths orbit.

Two of the dragons and their human partners died while training to do the instantaneous teleportational flit between one point and another. But, 18 months after the first monumentous hatching the 30 now mature dragons flew a threadfall for the first time, searing the airborne menace from the skies in protection of the vulnerable and valuable croplands of Wyoming. The elite band of dragon riders was born.

As time passed this small band of dedicated riders who were almost the only protection the beleaguered people had against the voracious threads were augmented as more of the dragons were created and later born to the beautiful golden queens of the weyr. For while the world’s people were desperately burrowing down into solid rock and thick metal forming holds in cave systems, mountain strongholds and under the immense greenhouses in metal and concrete bunkers, the dragonriders, with the assistance of a multitude of support personnel carved out a mountain. Individual weyrs, open to the air honeycombed the exterior of the mountain providing individual accommodations to the dragons and their human partners while an immense hatching cavern was carved into the mountain’s heart to incubate the eggs laid by the queens. The living accommodations for the support personnel were built into and around the mountain’s base and the river flowing around the western face of the mountain was dammed to provide a swimming lake for the dragons who had to be washed daily.

At first the weyr was supplied by the combined governments of the world and was run as an almost military organisation but as the dragons proliferated and the people of the holds settled to their new way of life new weyrs were set up in each country and were tithed to by the holds of the area directly protected by the weyr. Protection was slowly but eventually established worldwide.

[Bamy]

Chapter 1: Search

Dragon rider soar,

Dragon rider fly,

Search out a candidate

Who will honour my

Hatching little daughter,

A queen of sun-bright gold,

She needs a woman who is strong

And loving, who will mold

Her into a great queen

Who’ll fly high to be the best,

So search her out and now be quick,

For the golden egg won’t rest.



Bzzzz… Bzzzz… Bzzzz…

Alaris sat bolt upright in confusion. It took her a few seconds to recognise that her alarm was going off at which point she swiftly rose from her desk, padded over to her bedside table and turned it off. She looked apprehensively at the tangle of bronze and blue bodies on the pillow, which constituted three of her loyal little fire lizard friends and sighed with relief. They were still fast asleep. It was still much too early in the morning for her friends to be up as they could be and often were very noisy first thing in the morning, especially if they were hungry. All of the last year veterinary students residing on this corridor needed all the sleep they could get, what with the hard day they had put in the day before, inoculating, branding and worming the large cattle herd the veterinary hold had played host to overnight. They were also likely to have put in a late night since they were studying for their final veterinary exams starting next month, much as she had been before falling asleep at her desk. She stretched to get rid of the crick she had gotten in her neck from sleeping in such an awkward position and slowly wandered back over to the desk where her faithful little queen, Aria sat primly waiting for the caress she knew her friend would give her.

“Morning sweetie” greeted Alaris quietly as she stroked her friend’s head knob and scratched her eye ridges. Aria chirped brightly, her eyes whirling slowly, a gentle blue colour that was slightly tinged with the red of hunger and nuzzled her hand.

“ I guess I’d better nip down to the kitchens before the rabble wake up” she said quietly, referring to the still sleeping tangle of fire lizards on her bed. Again, Aria chirped brightly and cocked her head, asking a silent question.

“ No, Aria.” said Alaris as she smiled softly down at her friend “You can’t come with me to the kitchens. You stay here. I won’t take long.”

She rose gracefully from the chair and headed for the door of her small study bedroom. Just as she was about to close the door, she asked Aria to keep an eye on ‘the boys’ “If they wake up before I’m back, make sure they don’t make too much noise. I very much doubt Sarah or Maya would be too happy about being woken up by them shrieking like banshees again.”

Aria chirped at her reassuringly, so she headed off down the dim corridor and down the three long flights of stairs she had to take to get to the kitchens. As she walked she mused, she was very lucky to have so many of the friendly little beasts. Her great-great grandmother had been on the team that had discovered them in the jungles of South America and had been the first to impress a queen flit. It was she who had discovered their abilities to go between from place to place and her grandfather had been a senior member of the select team that had bio engineered the fire lizards larger, more majestic cousins.

Her uncle M’Cal had been a lieutenant in the royal air force until his sensitivity to the fire lizards had been noted. That, combined with his extensive knowledge of air combat formations and manoeuvres had been recognised. He’d been drafted to the programme as a potential candidate and had impressed brown Fellith from the third cutch to hatch from those that were bio engineered. It was him who had given her the eggs from which bronzes Flit and Skitter and blue Atl had hatched. Her older brother T’Mal had gotten two greens Leef and Furr from the same clutch, but they had been fickle friends at best. They disappeared from time to time and a while ago he’d been searched out for one of the American weyrs. He’d done quite well too impressing a blue of the weyr’s senior queen’s clutch but he hadn’t much time to care for the fickle little greens now so they left him periodically to go and explore, returning only now and then for food and attention.

Those three fire lizards had been such good friends to her over the years helping her through her rather lonely childhood. Her parents important jobs had meant that they had had to travel around a lot, sometimes even up to the weyrs. That was where they had been living when M’Cal had suggested to her parents that she and her brother get fire lizards, as they weren’t staying anywhere long enough to make proper friends. She hadn’t minded being alone; she had always made friends with the animals resident at wherever she had been staying. While she had been staying in the same weyr as her uncle, she had had the incredible honour of being spoken to by Fellith. For Alaris knew it was an honour. Even at the age of nine she had known that the dragons rarely, if ever spoke to anyone but their own riders and she still treasured those experiences.

Aria she’d only had for a few years. Smiling at the memory she remembered the day she had been presented with the egg for having received the top grade in the country for biology. She’d always been good with animals, which was why she was studying to become a vet, but it was her ambition to become one of the few who doctored the majestic dragons when they were injured during thread fall. She already did much of the healing required for the fire lizards of the local holds and the little creatures responded well to her, following all her basic commands to them, even though she was not impressed to them.

She was bumped out of her thoughts quite literally as she collided with her best friend Anna at the doors into the kitchens.

“Ooof! Oh sorry Anna, I didn’t see you!” she said to her friend apologetically.

“That was quite evident ‘Larie, don’t worry. You looked like you were away with the faeries to me so I should have warned you I was there anyway.” Anna replied “You off to get food for the rowdy rabble?” she asked using the nickname she had created for Alaris’s bronze and blue fire lizards.

“Oh yeah. Aria’s already up so the rabble’ll be rousing soon enough and you remember the racket they made last time I over-slept.”

“How could I forget? They woke up the whole corridor screeching like banshees and there you were at your desk dead to the world, and their screeching” her friend put in grinning snidely. “Come on, I need to get some meat cubes for Zell too” she added, linking her arm into Alaris’s and walking with her through the double doors into the kitchens.

They wove their way across the main kitchen to the fridge on the back wall where all the meat off-cuts; offal and other edible bits were stored for easy access by the owners to feed the hold’s resident fire lizard population. The kitchens were deserted that early in the morning but there was a delicious smell of baking bread emanating from the industrial sized ovens, indicating that the chefs had just left and making the girls mouths water. They quickly grabbed a bowl each off the stack on the shelf to one side of the fridge left there for just that purpose and filled them to the brim with the food for the fire lizards.

“Oh god that bread smells good.” Said Anna as they walked back across the kitchen back to their rooms.

“It’s making me hungry.” Replied Alaris

“You’re not wrong there. Will you save me a seat at breakfast later?”

“Sure, see you in … ‘bout what … half an hour?”

“Nah. Better make it an hour I need to soak my muscles in a nice hot steaming bath for a while. I can’t believe how much work I did yesterday.”

“Yeah, it was pretty harsh. Now that you mention it, I could do with a nice long soak too. Though how I’m gonna get them flits to behave while I’m in there is beyond me they love sporting around in water.”

Anna groaned, “I’d forgotten about the flits… oh well I’ve only got the one so its not quite as bad is it?… see ya!” she added as they parted to get to their own rooms.

“Later.” Alaris nipped up the stairs to the level her room was on and quietly entered her room. Aria fluttered over to her and perched on her shoulder, and began creeling quietly in her ear at the sight of the meat. Alaris quickly hushed her by grabbing a small handful of meat cubes and popping them into Aria’s mouth to keep her quiet for a few seconds. She placed the purple glazed bowl in the centre of the room. Aria screeched, waking the others as she dived for the bowl that was now out of her reach, the others were not long in following her to the food.

While the fire lizards ate ravenously their eyes a quickly whirling hungry red colour, Alaris went into the small, compact bathroom she shared with Maya, the girl in the next study bedroom and set the small bath running. She brushed her teeth and combed out the tangles from her thick, long, wavy black hair whilst looking at her reflection in the mirror. She was not beautiful in the classical sense but wasn’t all that bad to look at either with hair which curled at the ends, enhancing her large greeny-grey eyes and framing her oval face which had a fresh, creamy complexion.

She pulled her hair into a loose bun, it had been washed the night before when she had had a quick shower after her work had finished so she didn’t want to get it wet again and walked back into her room back over to the desk. She started up her laptop to see if she had any new e-mails and to see what the day’s schedule held in store for her.

“Damn” she cursed. She had totally forgotten about the meeting with her mentor that afternoon and it meant that she would end up in the offices, helping to sort the records updated the day before. Not that it mattered; no one would be doing anything outside this morning with thread due to fall over the area. At least she wasn’t on the ground crew rota this semester, she found it difficult to lug the heavy flame throwers around for hours on end, but she did not enjoy the mandatory sessions in the offices learning how to run an efficient veterinary section which was what she had to do instead. At least there would be the possibility of getting out for a ride on Kai her buckskin Arab mare later; she would need the exercise, having been cooped up in her stall for the last two days to prevent her and the other resident horses mixing with the cattle herds and she would be restless. The cattle had come in from the local holds for the annual cull and inoculation booster and the valuable horses were not to be exposed to any of the possible contagions they may have had.

The fire lizards had finished eating, their bellies slightly distended from eating so much and, as the bath was likely to be almost full, she called them and went back into the bathroom climbing out of her cotton pyjamas as she went. She slipped into the hot, steaming water just as her friends dived in splashing water everywhere. She scolded them but not too harshly, knowing how much they loved warm water and managed to get them all soaped and rinsed while they wriggled in her hands wanting to sport with the others in the soapy water. They were quite loud cheeping, creeling and whistling to each other as they splashed, sported and tangled with each other and Alaris shushed them often and harshly, hoping that the noise they were making would not wake Maya. Finally, when Flit scratched her accidentally on her thigh, she banished them to drip dry on the towel rail while she had a good long soak. She only had one complaint about the bath and that was that it was too short for her to fully stretch out in the hot water. At six feet tall she was simply too tall for it, even the bed she had, comfortable though it was, was a little short and she usually ended up curling into a ball when she actually got to sleep in the bed that is.

Once dry, Alaris clothed herself in a comfortable but practical pair of black jeans and a green cotton tunic top over a cotton shirt and slipped on a pair of socks and Jodhpur boots. Comfortable yet durable, the clothing would be ok if she had to do any work outside and meant that she wouldn’t need to change if she could get out on Kai, yet smart enough to appear in before her mentor. The boots were also much cleaner than the heavy boots she had been wearing the day before and wouldn’t trail dirt halfway up the corridor (always a good way to get on the bad side of the cleaners). She then unbound her hair and re did it in a stylish French plait which would keep her hair looking smart and presentable but out of the way and without making her look like a ten year old. Once she was satisfied with her appearance, she told the fire lizards to find something to do with them selves and headed down to the dining hall with Aria on her shoulder and her other friends following behind her to get to a place where they could get some sun bathing in before thread fall.

On entering the hall she looked around to find Anna and saw the lanky, brunette sitting with a group of people she instantly identified as their group of closest friends, they were sitting huddled round something in intense discussion. Shrugging, Alaris headed over to the buffet table along one side of the rectangular hall to get her usual breakfast of sweet porridge, toast and a large glass of fruit juice before heading over to the table to see what the discussion was about. Sliding into her usual seat she heard bits and snatches of what was being said, noticing as she did that the object being discussed was an article from the morning newspaper.

“…Illiath’s…” “…That’s a good number…” “…Thirty four…” “ …Bound to go…” “…Don’t be stupid. They’ve more than enough…” “…Yes, Rafe I know but not for the queen…”

Her interest piqued at the mention of Illiath the local Weyr’s senior queen, Alaris slipped the newspaper out from the circle whilst starting to eat the smooth, creamy sweetened porridge and read the article which was causing so much discussion. No one noticed it was gone and the information on it was definitely newsworthy:

“Illiath, Senior queen of Hightops Weyr

has laid a fine clutch of 34 eggs. This includes

the third queen egg she has laid as the senior

queen of the Weyr after Lassith and her rider

Eleri stepped down due to serious wing scorings

five years ago which rendered Lassith unable to fly far.

There had been some worry as to the condition

of the eggs after Illiath herself sustained thread

score injuries to her abdomen and landed badly,

jarring her stomach and the eggs within when

landing to receive medical assistance. The eggs

all appear to be unharmed by their jostling and

now lie warming on Hightops hatching ground sands.

Once she had read the article, she realized what the other students were discussing, whether the weyr would search out any possible candidates for the eggs or not, especially for the queen egg.

Cutting in across Maya and Rafe who were still arguing over whether the weyr would search, Alaris put in her own two cents;

“You know Rafe, Hightops may just well go out on search. You remember my uncle M’Cal? Yes? Well he is stationed there and invited me up to the Weyr as a treat for my birthday for the last hatching and you remember they didn’t search that time? Well, there weren’t many left standing and according to him the queens prefer partners who come from outside the weyr any way, so it is highly likely that they will you know.”

“Well I guess it is possible,” Rafe finally admitted a little sullenly.

“That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to tell him, there wasn’t a search last time so they should be doing one this time.” Said Maya exasperatedly. “Is it really true that the queens prefer those from outside the weyr?” She added excitedly.

“Yeah, according to M’Cal at least and Fellith’s a really good search dragon apparently, especially when it comes to the queen candidates.”

“How’d you know that?”

“Fellith told me.” Alaris answered quietly “All eight queen candidates he’s picked out have partnered a queen from one weyr or another, that’s why M’Cal is always in the parties which go on search even with other weyrs, despite Fellith being a brown. It’s usually the blues and greens that can sense talent and pick out the candidates according to my uncle.”

“The dragon spoke to you?” squeaked Maya and Anna loudly, causing the rest of the table to stare at the three girls.

“It was only the once, and anyway there’s no way that I’d be made a candidate, M’Cal:

a) Doesn’t know Fellith has spoken to me,

b) Would have had me on the hatching sands long before now if Fellith had told him I was suitable, and

c) It doesn’t mean anything anyway, he’s only spoken to me the once and it wasn’t a long conversation.”

“B…b…but…but he still spoke to you.” Stammered Anna “That’s more than most dragons do apparently” added Maya “I heard that dragons only spoke to their riders and to other dragons”

“They do speak to others, just very rarely and only to those they want to speak to…”

Alaris’s voice was drowned out by the loud penetrating whine of the thread fall siren. Thread was about to fall directly overhead and the small knot of friends had been so deep in their conversation that they had not noticed the hall filling with people intent on eating breakfast, then quickly leaving to get to their work sections in order to batten down the hold ready for fall.

“Yipes!” Cried Dan another of her friends, “Allie, we’d better get up to the offices before they skin us, we’re late!”

“Shoot! I’m coming! I’m coming Dan, jus’ give me a sec…” cursed Alaris as she quickly rose from her seat and raced to follow her tall, good looking classmate out of the dining hall and upstairs to the offices. Her fire lizards followed dizzily in her wake. She had totally lost track of the time.

“So Dan, what do you think? Do you think the weyr’ll search?” she asked as she caught up with the athletic man.

“I’ dunno really, it’s always possible.” He mused, “Which is a point, do you want to go for a ride this afternoon? I’m sure Kai could do with some exercise, my Whinberry certainly does.”

“Sorry Dan, I’ve got an appointment with Professor Norder this afternoon, I was hoping to get out after that though.”

“Well I could always do some schooling while I wait for you to finish the appointment. It’s not as if I’ve got much else to do and there’s that dressage event the week after the finals over Lakeside way, I thought I’d enter but I’ve just not had time to practice.”

“That’s really nice of you Dan, you’d do really well in any dressage event you entered anyway without any practice, and every one knows that Whin’s the best dressage horse this side of the Hightops.”

“Flatterer.” He replied, grinning as they entered the offices “Right, let’s see what’s to be done and get it over with.” He added as they crossed over to the shelf holding the duty roster.

“Oh joy,” Alaris said sarcastically as she saw what the two of them had to do, “We couldn’t have gotten a worse duty”

“Well at least filing the inoculation records doesn’t require any heavy muscle work, I’m still sore from that squashing that heifer gave me.”

“Ouch, that must have been painful.”

“It was, I’m just sore now though.”

“I’ll give you a massage later if you like.” Alaris offered sympathetically as she started filing the records for the first herd that had been done the day before,

“Naah, its all right really, I’ll live…”

They continued chatting as they diligently filed the records for the herds that had come in the day before. They stopped for a break only when the eerie shriek of the thread fall siren signalled the end of thread fall, at which point the fire lizards relaxed and fell asleep on the sunny window ledge. They were always tense, even a little stressed during a thread fall and since they had had little time to sun them selves before thread fall, Alaris opened the metal shutters to let in some fresh air and to allow them to sun bathe. They had almost finished the filing when one of the secretaries bustled in looking for Alaris.

“Professor Norder asked me to give you a message.” She said, sounding a bit miffed to be given such a lowly job. “You’re to go and see her now, she’s been asked to go up to the weyr later to have a look at a bad case of scoring on a brown dragon. She’s in her office waiting for you.”

“But I’ve still got this to finish.” Complained Alaris before Dan butted in saying “There’s not much left to do Allie, I’ll finish it off. See you down at the stables later?”

“Oh, all right. I’ll see you down at the stables after lunch? We could try going over that set of jumps in that valley now that thread has fallen it wouldn’t take us that long to get there. See you…”

She called to wake her fire lizards, Aria fluttered over and landed on her accustomed perch on Alaris’s shoulder as she headed out the door. She padded down a plain concrete stairwell and turned onto the senior staff and administrative corridor, which was long and dim but richly carpeted and hung with paintings from the times before thread fall and bright tapestries, the other corridors were more plainly decorated than this. The sixth door on the left was the professor’s. She had been a frequent visitor when the kindly woman had first gotten a fire lizard egg, and later when she had impressed her little brown Coo. At the time, Alaris had been her favourite student and, as she also knew a lot more than herself about the care and raising of a young fire lizard had constantly been asking Alaris questions.

Alaris rapped politely on the door and received permission to enter. She opened the door, stepped in and then stopped dead as she took in the scene before her.

The willowy, grey haired professor was sitting at her desk conversing with a tall lanky man wearing the unmistakeable apparel of a dragon rider. As he turned to see who had entered, she was struck by the look of his face. A face tanned by wind and sun surrounded the luminous green, almond shaped eyes that scrutinised her. He had a long tapering nose and a barely healed thread scar across his left cheek from temple to his well-defined jaw line. His sandy brown hair was wind swept and had a few flecks of grey in though the face bore relatively few lines or wrinkles and he seemed to be in his early to mid thirties. In his hands was a folder and another was open on the desk between the two.

“Well don’t just stand there Alaris, come on in and shut the door.” The professor said to the stunned girl. “I’d like to introduce you to an old friend of mine, this is D’Gor, rider of bronze Coranith. D’Gor, this is Alaris Raven, the girl I was telling you about. As you can see from her records, she has a decided way with animals, especially the fire lizards and has also shown preferences to working as a dragon healer. She was actually coming to see me this afternoon to fill in the application form…”

Alaris finally snapped out of her shock, realising that the bronze rider was reading through her academic and personal records.

“Hey! What the hell is he doing with my personal records?” She demanded furiously, causing Aria and her other three fire lizards to hiss at the man angrily. Aria was crouching, tensed as if she were about to spring at him. Even Coo reacted to her outburst by hissing at him. ”They are supposed to be private records you know.”

“Yes, Alaris I do know that but D’Gor is here at my request. See what I mean D’Gor? Even my Coo reacted to her.” She remarked to the amused dragon rider.

“Hmm… yes I did catch that. Alaris, I asked Lynna to keep an eye out for any possible candidates a few years ago, people sensitive to animals, especially the fire lizards. She contacted me a few weeks ago about a possible candidate for Illiath’s coming clutch, but I got quite badly scored before I could follow it up. I’ve only just been released by the weyr doctor to fly for short stretches again, so I thought I’d get Coranith to stretch his wings and bring me down here. Besides, I hate being in the weyr when they are gearing up for a fall.”

“You want me as a candidate?”

“Yes. Your records are impeccable, you’re sensitive to both animals and the fire lizards and you already have dragonriders in your family.”

“Yes, my brother T’Mal is a blue rider at Yellowstone Weyr and my uncle M’Cal is at Hightops”

“Actually, Alaris, M’Cal tipped me off to you a while back. He’s my wing-second and mentioned that Fellith had spoken to you on occasion and that he thought you’d make a good candidate but before now you have been too young. Female candidates must be 18 or over. The fact that Lynna thinks you would be a good candidate as well only confirms his and Fellith’s assessment of you.”

“But what about my studies? I want to be a dragon healer.”

“ If you impress you will still be able to continue your studies at the weyr under the weyr vet, its just that you will have that much less time to study if you impress a dragon. You will have to learn how to care for the young hatchling, prepare food for her until she is old enough to hunt her own and bathe and oil her daily. Not to mention all of the flight training you will receive once the dragon is flighted and able to go between.”

“Oh, I hadn’t really thought of that.”

“Well Alaris, now that I have met you I agree with M’Call’s assessment of you. You would make an excellent candidate…” he broke off as he searched in the right jacket pocket for the paperwork he had brought… just in case “…if you are interested that is?”

“Oh yes, I’m interested, I’d love for the chance to impress one of those kind, beautiful dragons.”

“In that case I shall leave these for you to fill in, subject to the necessary interview- which you just passed- you will be accepted onto the candidate programme, you can return the papers over to one of the search riders tomorrow.”

“So you are going to search then?” Professor Norder chipped in.

“ Yes Lynna, we sent a large batch of our candidates down to one of the southerly weyrs, they were a little low on candidates, most of them impressed so now we are short. The riders should arrive about half nine, just after breakfast.”

“So we get the least disruption, how kind of you D’Gor”

“Well, now that I may have gotten what I came for, I’m in the mood to be accommodating,” said the dragon rider grinning at Alaris as he did so.

“Well, I’ve got to go back now, I’ve a few things I really should get done at the weyr, I may see you around Alaris, Lynna, a brown rider will be coming down for you later” He said rising from his seat to give the stunned girl a slap on the back before rounding the desk to kiss the professor on the cheek. He then swept out of the office leaving the door slightly ajar.

“Well, that was refreshing,” commented Professor Norder once the dragon rider had left. “You may go Alaris, I suspect that you have much to think about and you need to fill those forms in for the morning. Since D’Gor pretty much made it clear you had been accepted onto the candidate programme I see no reason why you need to attend any more lectures or practicals this week. You will need to prepare for the weyr.”

“Uh, thank you professor,” replied Alaris, still slightly stunned by the dragon rider’s offer “I think I will take up the offer, I always treasured the moments when Fellith spoke to me and to have a dragon choose me as a life-mate is an honour and an opportunity that I cannot in all honesty pass up. Mother and father would be so proud to hear this news, I really should call them.”

“You do that Alaris, and get those forms filled in. You have always been one of my favourite pupils, and you helped me with Coo when he was young, I hope you impress for your sake, impression is an amazing experience, once in a lifetime. I am only saddened that I am too old to have had the chance, my little sister did you know, Eve impressed a green when she was 26, Wasth spoke to me on the odd occasion too.”

“Thank you professor, for all you have done for me, I won’t forget you, you know.”

The professor smiled a sad, kind smile before replying, “Go on off with you, you have those forms to fill in”

“Oh crips! I’m supposed to meet Dan at the stables in an hour, we’re supposed to be going for a ride, get the horses exercised. They have been so restless these last few days; I’ve got to go! Goodbye professor!” Alaris quickly rose from her seat and gave her favourite tutor a quick hug before heading for the office door.

“Oh Alaris,” Called the professor before she left the office, “Could you keep the knowledge of the search to yourself until I have made up an announcement for the evening meal?”

“Of course professor, I won’t be back till after then anyway we are going to go for a loooong ride to get the oats out from under the horses feet.”

“Very well, enjoy your ride.” was the reply Alaris heard as she headed down the corridor to get to the stairwell that would lead to her room. She turned her computer on and quickly sent off messages to her parents and brother about the good news before heading to the kitchen to scavenge some lunch. She was able to grab a bowl of tomato soup and a large granary roll fresh out of the oven along with a wedge of Lancashire cheese, which she ate in the dining hall before heading for the stairwell that lead to the stables. She passed by the tack room and headed straight for the loose box that her horse was stabled in to give her a quick grooming before heading back to pick up the saddle, bridle and numnah that she would need to ride Kai. From there it took only moments to saddle her up as the horse was intelligent enough to realise that the less she fussed, the quicker she could be tacked up and the sooner she would be able to get out for a run.

As Alaris lead her outside to the mounting block (not that she needed to use it being so tall) she passed by several of her class mates also getting horses ready to be ridden. They were all discussing the article that they had been looking at this morning and had noticed the bronze dragon on the panel heights. They were speculating on what the dragon’s rider had come to the vet-hold for. Alaris passed by, inwardly smiling to herself about knowing the reason for the presence of the dragon-rider but heeding professor Norder’s injunction and keeping silent save for answering the odd greeting thrown her way as she passed.

Once she had mounted, Kai started to prance about, getting antsy as she smelt the fresh air breezing into the stable block. Alaris rode her out of the concrete block stables and trotted her over to the large rectangular sanded paddock used when exercising and training the horses in an enclosed environment outside the indoor arena. The indoor arena was only used during thread and in wet, rainy weather but was useful to turn animals out in if the stable was being cleaned. This was usually when they could not be released in the paddocks for a stretch of their legs as had been the case for the last several days, what with the cattle herds being in the paddocks in order to prevent cross infection and the spread of any diseases.

She had noticed Dan in the paddock doing some very complicated dressage moves on Whinberry his very talented, elegant and beautiful Anglo Arab stallion. She walked Kai around to the gate opened it using her riding crop, nudged the horse through and then managed to close the gate all whilst staying aboard Kai.

By the time she had completed the manoeuvre Dan had noticed that she was there and had trotted over. Whinberry extended his nose to whuff at Kai who snorted back. They were good friends, having worked together and been stabled next to each other for the last few years and so worked well in the team events that their riders took them to.

“That last manoeuvre looked complicated Dan.” greeted Alaris, “I could never do that, and it would be too much for poor Kai here” she added whilst patting her mount.

“Yeah it is a little complicated, it took ages to train Whin to do it.” replied Dan “So how did the meeting go with Norder?” he added as they slowly circled the paddock side by side in a warm-up lap.

“Oh it wasn’t too bad Dan, I’ll tell you the long and the short of it later. Say, did you notice the Bronze Dragon on the heights earlier? the stables were abuzz with it as I was tacking Kai up.” said Alaris, deftly changing the subject from the forbidden subject to a slightly safer one whilst in the arena where anyone could hear her.

“Yeah, it looked like it was asleep for the most part though I didn’t dare bring Whin out with it there, so I’ve only just brought him out, we can warm up together now.”

“He was probably sunning himself, Dragons have to do that daily apparently as well as be bathed and oiled.”

“Oh, right, I remember that, it was in the course a few years back the very basic aspects of care and healing of dragons. I wonder why the dragon rider was here? Perhaps he came to pick Norder up? I remember hearing that there was a bad scoring up at the Weyr that required her delicate touch. It would certainly be faster than going overland to the Weyr.”

Alaris pushed Kai into an extended trot before answering, “Yes I believe he was here for Professor Norder, she mentioned she was getting a lift…”

After chatting amiably for half an hour whilst putting the horses through their warm up paces in preparation for the cross-country jumping run, they moved into the jumping paddock and started putting their horses over the cavaletti. From there, they progressed onto the higher jumps. Pulling up after another half hour of this they exited the jumping paddock and headed out into the open country. They wended their way through the paddocks and cantered through the plantation of soft and hardwoods further away from the hold before turning up the track that led to the cross-country course in its own little valley. With Dan leading off they galloped along the track, racing each other to get to the valley first. They reached the valley neck and neck and laughing, pulled their mounts to a walk. It was a mark of the horses’ fitness that they were hardly breathing heavily. They had been kept fit all through the cold winter by long rides in the snow and long sessions in the indoor arena late at night or early in the morning when the arena was less crowded.

Now that they were in a more secluded spot Alaris decided to tell Dan what had actually happened in the interview with the professor.

“….and then he asked Professor Norder if it was O.K. for the Weyr to come on search in the morning! I can’t believe it Dan. I mean I will have the chance to impress a green or gold dragon. It’s such a shock, I never expected to be searched out but I have always wanted to work with them, that’s why I chose to become a dragon healer. But to impress……”

“It is a real honour that Allie, your family must be really proud of you.” Replied Dan after quietly listening to Alaris as she had poured out her soul to him, airing her worries and ambitions. “At least you have a supportive family. Mine were horrified that I wanted to work with ‘beasts’, not in computing as most of my family has done.” He added with bitterness in his voice.

“Oh, Dan I am sorry, I shouldn’t have vented off like that, its just Professor Norder swore me to silence but I had to tell someone, you are the most discreet person I know and we are in a secluded spot so are unlikely to be overheard….” She broke off abruptly as Dan started to laugh. “I am doing it again aren’t I?”

“Well that is why you earned the nickname ‘Babble’.”

At this Alaris started to laugh as well remembering the times in her first year at the hold before making friends that she had talked a lot out of sheer nervousness. Later she had had long conversations with her friends. The horses just stood there flicking their ears listening to the humans laugh, wondering if they were mad or not.

After they had calmed down, they mutually decided to go over the course, each critiquing the others performance on the first round. They then increased the size of the jumps to a more professional level before deciding on a course that would test them, their horses and would also be raceable over. They went over this course once carefully working on the pacing of the distance between the jumps before going over if at speed. As it was starting to get late by the end of that run they decided to race the course against each other the finish being the end of the track that turned into the jumping valley in the plantation.

The horses, a little tired from the exertions now, perked up as they sensed their rider’s excitement. They started to jib a little until the signal – Dan dropping his upraised arm – was given. The two horses leapt off from a standstill to a gallop racing for the first jump, a simple arrow of logs which they soared over neck and neck and pounded on to the next the bull-finch. This was cleared with ease, as were the others. The electricity between the two riders and horses was almost palpable as they were still neck and neck coming up to the last fence, a jump over a log barrier into the stream that wended its way through the valley. The stream was blocked up farther down and so the water on the other side was quite deep and wide. As Kai landed she pecked a little as her hooves slipped in a little mud, putting Whinberry and Dan into the lead over the last home stretch. It was only a supreme effort on Kai’s part and the fact that she was taller and had longer legs than her stable-mate that resulted in her winning the race by a hair’s breadth.

As they pulled their tired horses to a walk, they headed them in the direction of the hold and picked up their conversation again.

“You know Dan, with the search in the morning, you have every chance of getting chosen for candidacy too, I mean my flits respond to you really well…. which is a point. Where have they gone?”

“I think I saw them heading that way.” he replied, pointing at a tangent to their present direction, we had better see what they are up to they may get lost” he replied, adding the last bit with a grin to see if he could get a rise out of Alaris. It worked.

“Hey! They have never gotten lost before… Oh you!” she replied in a heated tone until she saw him laughing at her and joined in with him. They headed in the direction the fire lizards had disappeared and shortly heard the excited cheeping of the creatures and the distressed call of a cow. Pushing their horses to a trot they broke into a clearing and saw that the bawling heifer had a severely broken leg and that the flits were flapping about it cheeping in an agitated and excited sort of way. On further inspection of the break they decided that it wouldn’t be worth bringing it back to the hold to be healed, so Dan taking out his boot knife plunged it into the back of the heifer’s neck, killing her instantly.

It took them nearly an hour to skin and dress the carcass and to fashion the hide into suitable saddlebags to carry the meat back to the hold. It would provide a fine meal this meat; most likely it would be carved up and be stewed with a load of the root vegetables that were stored from last autumns harvest. By this point the horses and were too tired to balk at the metallic smell of the meat, though the fire lizards enjoyed feasting off the blood and offal that Alaris set aside for them.

It took them longer to get back to the hold than they had anticipated and it was dark and quite late. After dismounting, they lead their tired mounts back to their stalls and untacked them.

“Allie, I’ll take the meat up to the Kitchen, it needs to be stored before it goes off, would you mind getting Whin’s feed while I do it?”

“Sure Dan, that’s not a problem.” she replied as she hefted the saddle into a more comfortable position on her arm. She picked up the bridle and numnah and headed to the tack room to off-load her gear. She then grabbed the buckets of feed for Kai and Whinberry and headed back to the horses to start grooming them.

By the time Dan got back from the Kitchens she had finished settling her mare and had moved onto Dan’s horse.

“You didn’t need to do that Allie. I was coming back.” He told her as she ducked under Whinberry’s neck and slipped out of the loose box.

“Oh is not a problem Dan, I was glad to do it, Whinberry is really quite a sweetie for a stallion. I’ll leave you to it though, I have to get my tack cleaned and start on that application form. Plus I am starving, I think I’ll stop by the kitchens on the way back to my room to get something to eat, there is always soup in the pot, maybe there will even be leftovers of whatever there was for tea. See ya in the morning.” She replied before heading to the tack room.

Later after cleaning her tack she headed up to the kitchens to see what was on offer in the way of food. There was a choice of a thick meaty stew full of root vegetables or some slices of cold roast beef in a bun with salad. She chose the stew and snaffled a bun at the same time and ate her dinner in her room at her desk whilst checking her e-mails. Once she had eaten, she had a quick shower, changed out of her dirty clothes into something more comfortable and sat at her desk looking thoughtfully at the application form, wondering what to write. It asked some unusual questions, possibly as a test to see if the potential candidate had the right mental outlook on life as well as the usual name/ age/ address etc.

As she sat there Aria fluttered over to the desk from her perch on the bedstead asking for caresses. Alaris obliged, scratching her eye ridges and under her chin. “You did well finding that cow sweetie.” She said softly, “That meat will feed us for a day or two, depending on how it’s used it’s too valuable to have just been left there to die.”

Aria chirped quietly and hummed, enjoying the caresses. The other fire lizards having gorged themselves on the offal were now flat out asleep in a tangle on the padded comfy chair in the corner of the room.

Sighing, Alaris turned back to the application form and completed it. She put it in the envelope that had come with it and put it in a prominent place on her desk. She had a quick glance at the list that had come with the forms, which told her what she needed to take with her to the Weyr, then, yawning she put on her pyjamas and climbed into her bed. Aria fluttered down landing on the bed and curled up in a small ball at the base of her back.

The next morning she rose early, she showered; dressed in similar clothes to those she had worn the day before and headed off to the kitchens to get her little friends their food. Once they had eaten she went down to the stable area to feed and groom Kai and to muck out her loose box.

She headed up to the dining hall for breakfast today deciding to have a croissant apple juice and some toast with strawberry jam. As she was one of the first there she got her meal and chose a table near to the window so that she could see the arrival of the dragon riders. Slowly the room filled with the hold’s residents as all now knew that a search was going to take place after the breakfast had been eaten.

The hall got noisier as it filled, people were speculating as to who would be chosen. At half past nine the air outside was split with the bugles of dragons above the hold. The room was silent for about a second before people started to rush outside to see the dragon riders land on their magnificent beasts. Alaris returned to her room with her fair swirling behind her to pick up the application form that she had filled in the night before. When she got outside she saw that the dragon riders, a blue rider and two green riders were conferring with their dragons. She slowly walked up to the nearest, the blue rider.

“Excuse me sir, I have an application form for the candidacy to give you. Bronze rider D’Gor nominated me as a candidate yesterday.”

“Ah, yes. He did mention it to us, you must be Alaris then.” replied the dragon rider. “I am Da’Vid rider of blue Lelith. If you could just wait here we will give you further instructions with the other potential candidates.”

Alaris stood to one side awaiting the decision of the dragons and their riders as to who would be made candidates.

After what seemed to her to be a long time, the dragon riders walked into the crowd pulling out the candidates and sending them to stand with her. To her delight, Dan as well as another of her classmates Laura, was chosen as well as four from year groups below hers. In all there were seven chosen to stand with her as one of the domestic housekeepers teenage sons was also chosen as a candidate.

Once the selection was completed, the blue rider Da’Vid addressed the crowd. “We have chosen the best candidates for impression from this hold’s young people. We thank you for your patience in the time it took to select them and apologise if it has inconvenienced you in any way. Your candidates will do your hold proud and your hold is to be honoured for having so many candidates to offer. We thank you again for your patience.”

The principle offered his thanks to the dragon riders for choosing the hold as one to be searched, offering them hospitality as he did so. The dragon riders declined the offer, saying that they had already eaten full breakfasts at the Weyr and that they had many places to visit that day. The principle ushered the remaining crowd that were still gawping at the dragons reminding people as he did so that chores wouldn’t wait forever and sick beasts needed healing.

As the crowds dispersed the dragon riders turned to face the remaining candidates. Da’Vid spoke to them, smiling softly in remembrance of his own search and impression. “You have been selected from the crowd because the dragons sense that you are suitable to stand on the hatching grounds and try to impress a dragon. I cannot promise that you will impress, for it is the dragon that ultimately decides. If you so choose to stand on the hatching sands you will need to fill in this form, those of you who are under 18 will also require the signature of at least one parent attesting that you are allowed to stand. You will be collected a week from today at ten o’clock in the morning outside the hold to go up to the Weyr to undergo a preliminary interview with a wing leader or queen rider. Once past that and you have filled in the form and you will move to the candidate barracks of the Weyr with the other candidates until the time of impression. During your time at the Weyr you will learn the basics that all candidates learn before impression as well as working chore sections to assist the regular Weyr personnel. I hope to see you then an

d wish you good luck.” The other dragon riders also bade the candidates’ farewell and good luck before mounting their dragons as the candidates backed away in readiness for the dragons take off. The larger of the two greens that had accompanied the blue dragon Lelith sprang off the ground first swirling dust around the candidates, shortly followed by the other green and Lelith. Once they had attained a height that was considered safe to go between they disappeared, bathing the new candidates in the icy cold air of between.

[Bamy]

S*d it! i will put up as much of chapter 2 as i have done then edit to add the rest when it is finished:

Chapter 2: Impression.



Wobbling Egg,

Shuddering Egg,

On the heated sands.

Cracking Egg,

Crunching Egg,

Dragons humming sounds.

Hatchling living in the egg,

Desperate to get out,

To search for its new life-mate

Standing on the grounds without.

Impression will occur,

To the candidate of choice,

To the sound of dragons humming

And the cry of loving voice.



When the dust had cleared, the candidates looked at each other, slightly bemused.

“They didn’t tell us much did they?” said Laura into the silence, “Only that we are to be picked up next week. It’ll be by car or truck most likely if it is the supply train, the dragon riders are far too important to ferry us around and are likely to have more important things to do.”

“Yeah like search for more candidates.” quipped Tom one of the younger veterinary students.

“How come you are a candidate Alaris? You weren’t picked out by the dragon riders.” Asked Laura in a puzzled tone.


“I was selected yesterday when the bronze rider came down from Hightops for Professor Norder, apparently she nominated me as a candidate. The wing-leader… D’Gor was his name… interviewed me and found me suitable, so here I am.” She replied.

“Oh, so you’ve filled the forms in then? Are they difficult?” asked Ste the teenage son of the domestic manager,

“Yeah, that’s what I handed to the blue rider Da’Vid just before he picked you out. They aren’t difficult to fill in either though there are some odd questions. I’ll bet anything they are to do with psychological profiling.”

“Yeah we saw you.” He replied. “So what do we do now?”

“I guess we go in and tell our tutors what has happened, not that they’ll not know already but it makes it official, and I really need to e-mail my parents with the news they weren’t available yesterday.” She said as she headed for the steel doors that closed the entryway during thread fall. The others followed her chattering about their good fortune.

The candidates separated in the cavernous entrance hall, heading for their respective classes, all except Alaris who headed towards the stables to speak to the stable manager about taking on Kai as a lesson horse for the advanced students. She would not be able to take her to the weyr as horses had turned out to be terrified of the majestic dragons not that she thought there would be any problems in Kai staying on at the stables Madame Valjean had been after Kai as a lesson horse for ages.

* * * * *

Later that evening as she sat in the common room half watching television with her friends whilst looking through the list that had come with the application forms about what she was to take with her, it hit her what a radical change she was making in going up to the weyr. She had always admired the creatures that were all that protected the highly vulnerable crop, pasture and forestlands that were essential to the people’s survival but had never dreamed of being a rider of one of them. Now she was to have the chance and she was unsure of herself as to how she would handle herself if she impressed. She knew it would be for life and that if she impressed a green she would be in danger of serious injury every fall she flew. She was also not keen on the facet of the dragons mating flights with which she would be involved in if she impressed as she had prior knowledge of what that involved, she knew that they could get pretty rough. To put it simply, she was scared, she would be doing something completely new and different and she was not sure the impression would be worth the problems she saw. She kept this to herself however as she did not want to worry Dan or her other friends, she could however tell her brother her worries and realising this decided to e-mail him.

“I’m tired, I’m going to go to bed. See you in the morning guys.” She said as she gracefully rose from the sofa she had been sharing with Anna and Laura.

Calls of “Yeah, see you!” and “Sleep well ‘Larie” followed her from the room.


On returning to her room she sat at her desk turned on the computer and typed out a message to her brother outlining her worries and asking what she should do. Once that was done she had another look through the list of items that she needed to take with her if/when she went to the weyr. It mostly consisted of common sensical items such as sturdy work clothes, undergarments etc. as well as smart clothing for the festivals and gatherings that occurred on weekends that were thread free with clear weather and on the old holidays like the rapidly approaching harvest festival, Christmas and New Year.

She also saw that personal items could be taken such as her laptop and decided to do what packing she could for it tomorrow, she had decided that she was going to go, now that she had gotten her worries off her chest and had thought through her worries and she knew that her brother would tease her for being so worried and would send encouragements but it made her feel better to get her worries out in the open instead of letting them fester.

The next morning she was proved right as she had received a message from her brother which not only completely allayed her fears but made her laugh at the antics that he and his dragon Cretath had been getting up to they had been very close before he had been searched and had impressed and kept in regular contact via letters and e-mail. She skipped through breakfast quickly chatting and laughing with her friends before feeding her fire lizards and starting the selection of the items she needed and/or wanted to take with her.

The week passed quickly for her, she was so busy, preparing her things, sorting out the paperwork for transferring Kai out of her ownership, taking long rides on her and Dan with his Whinberry chatting about what they hoped and just simply enjoying each others company on their horses. She also helped out the other younger candidates with the forms and sorted out where the few belongings she was going to leave behind were going to go that she didn’t realise that the candidates were going to be picked up the next day until the evening before when Ste mentioned that he couldn’t wait for the morning, it was only then that she really started to get excited about going to the weyr and the candidates sat up talking late into the night.

Despite the late night Alaris rose early. She checked her bags yet again to see that she had everything she needed and wanted and had showered and dressed before the fire lizards had woken. She checked her emails and had a look at the news headlines as it was still far too early to go down to breakfast. There wasn’t much to note, a volcano was erupting after a short (10 year) dormancy period in South America and there had been the usual missing persons and murder stories that she tended to ignore.

She then packed the laptop into the special shoulder bag designed for carrying a laptop and its paraphernalia and put it with the others. Clapping her hands to rouse the fire lizards, who stretched and began chittering in growing excitement as they picked up on her own she headed down to the kitchens to get them their breakfasts getting as she did so travel food for them and a packed lunch for herself as it was a long journey to the weyr and would take the best part of the day to get there especially if it was by the supply train that was slow at best and crawled at the worst. Once the fire lizards had eaten their fill, Aria fluttered to her usual perch on Alaris’s shoulder cheeping about how tasty the food had been and projecting some unusual images she had dreamt about that night whilst lovingly rubbing her head up and down her friends cheek.

Alaris headed back to her room to pick up her bags and gave the bare and sterile looking room that had been her home and sanctuary for the last six years, a final sweeping glance to be sure she had left nothing before heading downstairs with her bags. She dumped her bags in the entrance hall with the others belongings and drifted into the dining hall. Getting a full English breakfast for herself she headed over to where her friends were sitting near to the windows in discussion, much as they had been that fateful week before. She had already noted that the other candidates were sitting with their family or best friends, making the best of the time they had left with them. She slid into the chair next to Anna who was stroking her fire lizard slowly and repetitively whilst talking with Dan and said good morning before beginning to eat.

“Did you sleep well last night Alaris?” Asked Maya as she nibbled at a dry piece of toast. She rarely if ever ate anything and was as slim as a rake as a result, something Alaris envied, as she had to work hard to keep her slim figure. “I was up all night with that section on Module 50015. I just can’t get it straight in my head.”

Clearing her mouth before answering Alaris replied. “No I didn’t sleep too badly thanks, try going over the example exam questions I gave you. They should help ‘cos you can look up the information as you are answering them. It has always helped me when I revise if I do that.” Dan also chipped in with the advise to try mind maps, the two girls seemed to be trying to ignore the fact that they were leaving until the last possible moment for which Alaris was grateful as she hated tearful farewells and when she did come to say goodbye she knew she would break down. They had been great friends to her and she would miss them.

All too soon it was time for them to head out to the minibus for the 2 hour drive to the train station and the candidates, their friends and family headed up to the entry hall to pick up their bags on their way to the mini bus.

“I’m really gonna miss you guys.” she whispered as the three girls hugged one another, tears pouring down their faces.

“Don’t forget to email us. You have our addresses and you can always visit us if you impress and when your dragons are flighted.” Anna replied, including Dan in the conversation.

“Oh don’t worry we’ll keep in regular contact” chorused Dan and Alaris.

“If only to tease you.” added Dan sotto voice so only Alaris could hear. She burst into giggles and smiled through he tears while the others demanded what he had said.

Eventually the driver who had completed stowing the luggage in the roof rack herded the candidates into the minibus reminding them that they had to get to the station in good time to catch the train.

They all piled into the spacious bus and it set off with younger children of the resident candidate’s family members and friends running after it along the drive waving them off. Nothing interesting of note happened on the two-hour journey to Preston train station. The scenery changed from protected cultivated land, pastures and forestry to the barren areas that had been thread scarred and back to protected land along the River Ribble. The rough hills gave way to gently rolling fells and the sheltered Ribble Valley where there were lush pasturelands along the riverbanks contained grazing cattle and sheep.

They got to the station with half an hour to spare. Dan took charge collecting the tickets and discovering the platform at which the supply train would stop.
They sat around on the benches chatting amiably. Some were discussing the architecture, which was Victorian. It had held up to the first thread fall and the vaulting roof sheltered numerous pigeons. Ste got a flapjack and a hot chocolate at the magazine shop on the concourse. The others got a drink of some sort at the café next to the platform. Alaris got a cup of steaming hot coffee. She hadn’t had enough at breakfast and craved the caffeine. Dan had also gone to the shop and had gotten a newspaper to read on the train.


The train duly arrived at platform 4 precisely on time and the candidates dragged their belongings onto one of the two carriages at the, storing them in the racks at either end. They found seats near several young people who also appeared to be candidates. Introducing themselves and their hold or town of origin some of the other students started a lively conversation. Ste got out his game boy and began to play dragon rider. Dan buried his head into his newspaper and Alaris got out a book on dragon healing that she had been gifted on her birthday last month. The train smoothly started running and began to pick up speed as it left the almost deserted town. The fire lizards perched on whatever space they could find and composed themselves to sleep in the sunlight. The journey was smooth and they only stopped at the major waypoints where train tracks, roads and major centres could be found. A few people climbed into the carriage some were traders or crafters contracted up to the weyr for a specific purpose and the mostly kept to themselves.

The train headed further and further north into more rugged and hilly country that was scarred bare by thread in the less well-frequented areas. There were also areas protected by greenhouses under which sheep grazed on short spiky grass. When they got to Edinburgh it was early afternoon, a guard entered each of the carriages to explain to the occupants that they would be travelling the rest if the way by range rover, the way was too rough for trains and they would have 2 hours free to shop and stretch their legs whilst the supplies were loaded onto lorries to be transported the rest of the way to the weyr.

He also told them to leave their luggage in the carriages as it would be quite safe, and that it would be shifted onto one of the vans for them. The candidates picked up their hand luggage and trooped off to explore the shops. The younger ones even went off to explore the newly refurbished castle at the top of the mile. It was now a fully thread proofed property that accommodated many of the merchants and wealthy people as well as the city council and magistrates.

Alaris elected to have a look around some of the shops in the shopping centre and sat in the sun at a table outside one of the many street café’s enjoying a pastry and coffee in the late summer sun and drinking in the bustle in the streets as people went about their business. She had enjoyed living at Heysham vet hold but she had found it to be a little bit quiet as she was a very social person most of the time. She had found a very nice woollen jacket, and a hoodie that was just her colour in the shops as well as the latest CD’s of her favourite bands. She planned to listen to them on the last leg up to the weyr, as it would be too rough to read her book without getting a serious migraine.


Alaris was very tired and a little sore from the jostling of the range rover by the time the weyr was in sight. Her fire lizards had curled up in the foot-well in a tangle by her feet early on in the journey and had been impervious to the bumpiness of the road they passed along.


“Its not far now and you’ll be able to soak your bones in a hot bath and a decent meal in your belly” said Brent the driver of the rover she, Dan and two of the contract workers were in. “See, look up ahead.” he added nodding in the direction of the weyr.

It was an impressively beautiful sight. The weyr was at the far end of a U shaped valley where the slopes rose up to a pyramidal peak at the mountains apex. A bronze dragon was sat on this pinnacle and as she watched he stretched his wings blocking the light of the gently setting sun and outlining the wing membrane in fine relief as it blazed through the almost transparent material.

Further down this mountain black holes randomly pocked the surface, some were lit indicating that these holes were in fact individual weyrs where the dragons and their partners lived. These weyrs surrounded a larger entrance at the base of the mountain which Alaris knew to be the hatching cavern where the eggs would be hardening.
Immediately to the left of the cavern were a large cluster of immense stone buildings built snug to the slope face. Alaris knew that the area had been a part of a quarry and that those buildings extended into the mountain itself providing internal access to the individual dragon weyrs. It was towards the largest of these buildings that the range rover was headed whilst the vans with the supplies headed towards a smaller building closer to the road that held the weyr’s stores.


Towards the valley entrance on the valley’s floor was an enormous lake coloured gold by the setting sun around which the road wound. It’s pristine surface was broken by ripples caused by several dragons that were sporting in it. Their riders were diving under their mounts and the dragons were flipping their riders into the air acting like springboards.

Aware that a response was required she politely said “it’s beautiful. Just as I remember it.”

Everyone in the truck new by now that she had been to the weyr before.
When they were further up the valley her attention was caught by a green dragon that was hovering above some large spacious paddocks that contained herds of cattle sheep and pigs that were milling around in a panic causing a thick cloud of dust to rise in a from the parched ground. Suddenly the green folded her wings and dived. The dust was too thick to see exactly what happened but Alaris could guess. The dive was successful for the green appeared again after a few moments a fat bullock clutched in her claws. It was clearly evident that the beast’s neck had been broken. She glided down in the direction of the lake to eat her meal in piece.


By the time this little drama had ended the sun had set below the valley rim and the rover was pulling up to the main building, which was wreathed in shadows. There were lights appearing in all of the windows, in the weyrs and in the small cottages that some of the permanent non-dragon rider residents lived.

[Bamy]

A bit more to add to the story.

There was a woman standing at the entranceway. She was tall, and dressed in working clothes that were lightly dusted with flour. This was the head of the domestic services and her name when she introduced herself to the new candidates was Latonia Valangin

“but you can call me ‘Lattie’, everyone else does. Welcome to Hightops Weyr. If you would pick up your bags and follow me I will show you where you will be staying until the impression."

She lead the candidates into the building through a set of tall, wide bronze doors that gleamed in the light from the windows and hallway. They were led through the large well-lit hallway that was sumptuously decorated with numerous passageways leading off it into the, vaulting main hall where the evening meal was served to the entire weyr. It was an enormous room, about five times the size of the dining hall at the vet hold Alaris noted, in order to house the entire population of the weyr in the evenings. The back wall appeared to have been carved of solid rock. Solid beams of beech wood supported the ceiling and the cream painted walls were hung with bright paintings and wall hangings making the interior bright and friendly. People were sitting in small groups at the trestle tables that stood below the solidly constructed beech wood head table talking in muted voices over cups of coffee and glasses of lager.

There were several entrances to this hall two of which were up a flight of stairs on either side of the head table. It was to the left of these that the head woman led the candidates.


“The dorm rooms are down this hallway. On the left is the girl’s dorm and on the right is the dorm for the boys. Go on, get yourself settled in, and then come downstairs. The evening meal has been served to the weyr already but we knew you were coming so there is plenty for you to eat and I am sure you are hungry after such a long journey, and in such dry weather.”


She swept off then. Alaris suspected that the kindly woman had had many pressing duties but had spent time with the new candidates

a) to get to know their faces,

b) to reassure them and

c) because it was in her nature and that she considered it to be her duty to know and meet every new person to arrive at the weyr.


Alaris followed the other girls as they headed towards the dorm room hefting the bags that were now becoming heavy. She chose a cubicle towards the back of the long low slung room and dropped the bags gratefully onto the bed. The room was reminiscent of the one she lived in at the vet hold; this was only about half the size however. It was certainly plain enough with simple basic furniture including a stack of shelves, a cupboard and a desk. But then again if these cubicles were meant for candidates they would be plain and simple. After all, the candidates stayed there only until they impressed and they were the lowest ranking members of the weyr’s population.


She unpacked a few of her belongings into the cupboard and onto the shelves and set her laptop on the desk. She knew she could leave it out in the cubicle because the door had a key in it which she had noted as she had entered.

She also poured a glass of water from the pitcher that sat on the desk into the tumbler beside it and took a swig to wet her mouth. The last part of the trip had been quite dusty as there had been very little rain recently and she was thirsty. She continued sipping it as she made up the bed with the white cotton sheets and blue woollen blanket that had been provided. Stuffing the now empty bags under the metal-framed bed she decided to freshen up before heading down to eat. It was not hard to find the bathrooms and she was soon splashing her face with cool water from the tap.


As she headed down to the dining hall she admired the murals and prints that were on the walls of this hallway, they were mostly of dragons and their riders, singly, in wings and over scenic backdrops. The colours were fantastic and the murals were a well-wrought vine design that appeared to curl and creep its way along the top of the wall and onto the ceiling on both sides. The leaves were somewhat familiar to her and Alaris rather thought that they were a mix of ivy and grape vine leaves. When she entered she located Dan among a small knot of other candidates. All were eating what looked and smelled to be a roast dinner, which awakened an active feeling of hunger within her so she hurried over to where she vaguely remembered the serving hatch to be. It was a roast complete with plenty of roasted vegetables and an enormous gravy covered Yorkshire pudding. She quickly made her way over to the table at which Dan was sat and set to eating the delicious food with gusto.


It was as they were eating that the weyrling master introduced himself. Parga was a brown rider who had been grounded when a serious thread score injury had badly damaged his entire left side and that of his dragon Terrath. The score marks were still visible on the left side of his face and on his hand. He limped slightly as if walking was painful to him but he was still able to get around without the aid of a cane and he was as Alaris later discovered a fine teacher to those who had newly impressed or were hoping to at the next impression.


“Hello. My name is Parga. I am the weyrling master for Illiath’s clutch.”

He said as he walked up to the candidates.


“Tomorrow you will be interviewed by a wing leader or weyrwoman subject to the outcome of that interview you will formally be accepted as a candidate for the clutch. Whilst you are here awaiting the hatching you will spend your mornings in my company learning about the dragons you hope to impress and about weyr life in general. Any problems you have should be addressed to me as I am nominally in charge of you. You will soon also be assigned chores to do which you will complete in the afternoons. These assignments will be pinned up on that board over there.”

He pointed at a large white board that Alaris had not noticed earlier before continuing.

“The time of your interview will also be posted on this board so it would be wise to check it as you come down for your breakfast. You also have plenty of free time to explore the surrounding area which you can spend as you wish. If you have any questions you may ask anyone, they will be more than happy to assist you however, I hope that you will be comfortable enough to come to me, I am available to you at all times. Enjoy your meal I will meet you tomorrow after your interview. I also suggest that you get a decent nights sleep as tomorrow will be very busy for you.”


With that suggestion he left to speak to another group of candidates farther down the room. Alaris was more than willing to follow it as travelling always left her feeling washed out and exhausted. She bade Dan a good night and headed up the stairs to climb gratefully into the comfortable bed in her cubicle not even noticing that her fire lizards were absent.


* * * * *


She woke the next morning at her usual time and checked her laptop for messages. She sent out a few to her friends back at the vet hold and to her family before climbing out of her pyjamas and dressing in similar clothes to those she had worn to that fateful interview with Professor Norder. She plaited her hair in a neat braid and only then noticed that the fire lizards were missing. She shrugged and headed down to the dining hall whilst sending out a silent mental call to them. Knowing what they were like she rather suspected that they had been exploring the weyr. Flit, Skitter and Atl may also have paid Fellith a visit since they had gotten on well with him when she had last been here. She was the first candidate down for breakfast as it was still quite early and got her breakfast once she had checked the notice board. Her name was not among those that were to have an interview, which confused her though she noticed that she was assigned to work in the dragon infirmary in the afternoon. Someone had obviously taken note that she wished to work in dragon healing and had given her an assignment accordingly.


She was halfway through her breakfast when Aria flew up to her projecting some interesting images that confirmed to Alaris that they had been exploring. Apparently Illiath did not mind fire lizards looking at her eggs for there was an image of them in the hot hatching sands among the images Aria projected which was coloured with the fire lizards awe for eggs of such a size.


She was so engrossed in what Aria was projecting she did not notice her uncle M’Cal walking up to her, still in his flight gear until he was right beside her, Flit, Skitter and Atl fluttering above his head.


“Morning Allie,”

he greeted as he sat down beside her.

“ I had heard that you arrived yesterday. I would have come to see you only I was on sweep early this morning and so had to have an early night.”


“Hello M’Cal. How is Fellith?”


“He’s fine. Want to come and say hi yourself?”


Since Alaris had now finished her meal she accepted and they walked outside into the cool morning air chatting companionably and catching up on events.


“M’Cal,”

Alaris finally asked,

“My name isn’t up on the interview list on the board d’you know why?”


Her uncle chuckled

“I do lass, your interview was with D’Gor the other day. He was very impressed with you actually and you passed with flying colours. The fact that Fellith suggested you counted for a lot too.”


“Oh. I had no idea that that was an assessment interview. I thought I was supposed to be discussing an application to work up at the weyr as a dragon-healing apprentice. D’Gor was in the professor’s office. I he gave me the impression that you had suggested me and he was just checking me out.”


M’Cal chuckled again,

“That was how he wanted it. He likes his little games does D’Gor. And anyway it provided a better assessment than if you had interviewed here. Oh… and it was I who got you assigned to the dragon infirmary. I knew that that was where you wished to work as a career and as you wait for the eggs to harden Tessera and Margit can complete your ordinary training and start you on specialist training for dragon healing I hope you don’t mind?”


Alaris was so surprised that she stumbled on the steps they were headed up to get to the weyr M’Call and Fellith lived in. She regained her balance quickly before saying in a shocked and thankful voice.

“Mind? MIND? Of course I don’t mind. Its brilliant!”

she threw her arms around her uncle and gave him a long hug.

“That is so kind of you uncle, I was worried that if I impressed that I would have to give up my studies. If I can start training before the hatching I will be able to continue it if I don’t impress or take it up later if I do, once the dragon has gotten older and is able to feed and take care of itself more.”


They continued up the steps to the ledge of the weyr where Fellith lay in the bright morning sun, which had just reached his ledge.


“Well yes that was what I thought too when I came up with the idea.”

He said as they walked up to the dozing dragon.

“Fellith,”

He added, slapping the flank of the big brown to wake him

“we have company.”


“I Know. Hello Alaris”

replied the dragon, directing the last comment to the girl.


“Hello Fellith, do you want your eye ridge scratched?”


“Yes, you do good scratches. Your fire lizards do as well”

He added as the four settled down onto his neck ridges and scratched at a small patch of flaking hide.

M’Call noticed this and disappeared into the weyr to get a pot of hide oil, apologising to Fellith about neglecting him as he went.


“You NEVER neglect me”

was the dragon’s instant loving reply.


When M’Call returned he and Alaris started to smear the oil onto the flaky area of hide.


“Time for your bath I think,”

remarked M’Call as he noted other scabby spots on the dragons hide that would soon begin to flake. Since she had no interview this morning she had plenty of time on her hands and spent them with her favourite uncle, tending to Fellith, washing him and oiling him all over. She even experienced the trill of flying as he flew them down to the lake for his bath. The fire lizards enthusiastically assisted, scrubbing the dragon as they did with wet sand from the lake floor to remove all of the scaly patches as often as not splattering the humans in their misplaced zeal to get the dragon clean.

Alaris and M’Call enjoyed themselves and had a very good chat as they worked (with scrubbing brushes rather than the sand that the fire lizards used) and by lunch time were sopping wet and covered in sand and oil while Fellith stood gleaming in the autumn sunshine.


As they walked back up to the main buildings as M’Call was loathe to mar the fine sheen of his dragons hide Alaris commented that she would need a long shower

“to get rid of all this sand and oil, not that that isn’t good for my skin but I doubt the dragon healers…Tessera and Margit did you call them? Would appreciate a new apprentice turning up dirty and dishevelled.”


“Yes we both need to get clean, not that I do this every day. Normally I am just wet and oily and just need to dry off and change my clothes, those fire lizards of yours can sure make a mess!”

he said whistling in admiration afterwards. Then he continued speaking.

“But then they do do very good work, they really got rid of all the patches on Fellith’s back.”


Yeah they do work well when they set their minds to it but the mess they made today is nothing compared with some of the times they got into the kitchen at Ribblesfell Vet hold. You wouldn’t believe the number of times I’ve had to clean up after them. Oh well see you later!”

she added as they got to the door of the main building.


They separated then, M’Call heading up to his weyr to get a shower and Alaris heading up to her dorm to do likewise.


Later Alaris headed over to the ground level buildings on the far side of the valley which M’Call had earlier pointed out to be the dragon infirmary.

As she walked through the enormous entryway, tall enough for even the tallest dragon to stretch its head upwards and not hit it and wide enough to allow three dragons enter abreast of one another she noted the empty couches, some with strange sling like contraptions that she later learnt were slings. To support the wing of a dragon if it had serious score injuries.


There were currently only two dragons housed in this building that was more like an aircraft hangar than a building a blue and a brown. Standing around the brown dragon were four people. One was male and his arm was in a sling and Alaris correctly assumed that he was the dragon’s rider. Of the other three, the tallest answered M’Call’s description of Tessera who was red headed and wore an apron of sorts similar to the one Alaris had seen Professor Norder wear. The other two were blonde and much shorter and dumpier than the tall willowy red head. As Alaris closed in on this group she also realised that they were much younger.


They were discussing how to continue the treatment of the bad scoring that Alaris could see on the poor creatures back, shoulder and right flank. Thankfully the dragon was in no pain as sterile cloths that had been soaked in a fairly recently discovered medicine that Alaris had heard about covered the dreadful injuries. This fluid was derived from a plant that had been discovered in the jungles of the Congo Basin of Africa. The plants juices caused total numbness of anything that touched it and had now been successfully grown in large quantities hydroponically. These juices had been found to provide many uses such as numbing creams fluids and gels as well as a powdered version that could be taken internally to easy the pain of serious internal injuries of illnesses such as migraine. Alaris was glad that a treatment had been discovered that almost immediately relived pain. Thread score was apparently excruciatingly painful and the dragons, brave as they were, were exceedingly quick to react to pain.


It was the dragon that noticed her first and he carefully moved his head to see her better with his slowly whirling blue-green faceted eyes. Only then did the others notice her approach.


“Ah you must be the candidate that I have been assigned.”

Said the woman she had identified as Tessera.

“I am Tessera. Head vet to the weyr.”

She added as she held out her hand.

“I wasn’t given your name…”

she added in a questioning tone of voice.


“My name is Alaris, I’m from Ribblesfell vet hold. I was in my last few months of training when I was searched…”

she was interrupted by Tessera


“Yes, yes, I know all of that, it was just your name they forgot to mention.”

Indicating with the words that they had been negligent in doing so.

“If you could follow me I have a couple of tests that I would like you to complete. I will let you do some proper work tomorrow but I do need to assess your competence at a written level as well as see how far I need to take you to complete your initial training.”

She led Alaris to a small office just off the main area where the dragons were cared for where there were three exam papers that she was asked to complete to the best of her ability. Whilst Tessera and her partner Margit changed the numbing dressings on the injured dragons as well as decide which of the beasts in the small paddock to the side of the building would be butchered to feed the invalid dragons. So Alaris spent a quiet afternoon answering the questions and solving the hypothetical problems on the question papers. It took over 4 hours to answer them all but had been allowed to have several short breaks and so it hadn’t been too bad. Due to her revision methods she had seen some of the questions before and had answered several with the same structure and the time had flown by. Once she had finished she left the papers in Tessera’s office and had been excused to the evening meal.


That evening Alaris spent time with the other candidates. They compared their days and discussed what had happened in their interviews. Alaris had no problems relating to them her interview, intimating that it had been early in the morning not at the vet hold, as she had discovered. The others were slightly jealous of the fact that she had spent the rest of the morning cleaning and oiling a real live dragon and laughed as she described the antics that her fire lizards who were now curled up in balls at her feet had gotten up to. They weren’t jealous of the fact that she had spent the rest of the day doing exams and tests but she knew Dan was slightly disappointed that he had not been assigned to the Infirmary as she had. He was working with the food beasts that were held in the paddocks in readiness for the dragons to feast on or for slaughtering for the people to eat.


The next morning Parga took the acceptable candidates to see the eggs in the hatching grounds. Illiath hovered protectively over them until her rider ordered her to step back, which finally she reluctantly did. The orbs appeared to pulse on the hot ground and Parga allowed the candidates to approach the eggs and to touch them. They were leathery and warm and in various colours. Some had swirly patterns of creams, browns blues and greens. Some had splotches of colours over this swirl pattern, some of which had distinct shapes, though the golden queen egg was the most easily identifiable as it almost seemed to glow a warm golden yellowy colour in the dim light of the hatching cavern. Later Parga introduced them to the anatomy of a dragon. In the afternoon Alaris assisted Margit in changing the numbing dressings and giving the invalid dragons as through a wash and oil as the dragons injuries permitted. The blue also had to be fed and the beasts that had been slaughtered the day before had now been butchered into manageable chunks for the dragon to chew and swallow so Alaris assisted his rider in feeding his life mate. The dragon had been very grateful for the meat and had thanked Alaris for assisting Alex, his rider who had also been injured during the thread fall that had damaged his wing sail and hind leg.

Alaris fell into bed that night happily exhausted and dreamt no dreams.





oh and i really would like as much feedback as possible thanx!.